 A single @-@ player story revolving around three lead protagonists was one of Grand Theft Auto V 's earliest design objectives . Garbut felt that such a radical change to the gameplay 's core structure was a risk , recalling the team 's concern that a departure from Grand Theft Auto 's traditional , single lead character set @-@ up " might backfire " . In early conceptualisations , the game would have told three stories ; each through a different protagonist . Later , a concept that story trajectories would meet throughout the game was developed from the stories of Grand Theft Auto IV . Eventually , the concept evolved into three interconnected stories that intertwined through the game missions . According to Benzies , the team made the multiple @-@ character formula " integral to the structure of the gameplay as well as the narrative " . Houser opined that Grand Theft Auto V is their " strongest plotted game because the characters are so intertwined " and that the " meeting points [ between the character 's stories ] are very exciting " . 
