The potential of video games as pedagogical tools for achieving curricular learning objectives remains underexplored, particularly regarding their systematic implementation in classroom contexts. Contributing to recent efforts of making game-based learning and its benefits more accessible for application in educational settings as well as better understandable from an empirical standpoint, this article investigates how game-inherent prompt systems can meet or even surpass external instruction by intrinsically motivating and cognitively activating learners. It provides insight into an empirical study conducted with a sample of 106 students in German Literature classes, focusing on cognitive processes when practicing the participants’ competencies of understanding a narrative video game’s literary characters. In a mixed-methods approach, results demonstrated superior literary analysis and reflection performance when learners were scaffolded by game-inherent prompts compared to externally provided instructional tasks. The study provides insight into effects of video games as catalysts for cognitive activation, identifies beneficial ludonarrative structures, and discusses practical implications for integrating game-based learning in formal education settings.