What are some of your favorite video game stories?

So I just finished Steins;Gate Elite for Switch. It's a scifi visual novel about time travel. It originally came out on the Xbox 360 in 2011, but since then it was ported over to other systems, got its own anime, and became very popular. So I guess you can sort of thank Xbox, but not really lol. Anyway, I got around to this "game", and I ended up loving the story and the characters, though it's not perfect. Which got me thinking.. what are your favorite video game stories? I'll start with a few that come to mind:

• The World Ends With You (Nintendo DS) - this one is out there, and can be confusing, but it boils down to this: the main character dies in the beginning, finds himself in this alternate world where he has to win a series of games to get back to real life. This alternate world, mean while, coincides with the real world, but the people in real world can't see it.
• Yakuza 0 (PS4) - the prequel to the Yakuza series, I loved Kiryu and Majima in this game. It's kinda of like their coming of age story. Majima has real depth here and Makoto is one of my favorite characters. The ending is great!
• Final Fantasy 7 - I really love this mostly for the characters, and seeing them battle it out to save the world. The story has a lot of layers to it, and the Remake just made it worse lol.
• Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2 - the story of Snake is one my favorites. So unique and lots of twists and Kojima craziness. Too bad those days are over 😩

So yea, that's a glimpse of a few games whose stories I've enjoyed. How about you, SW? What are some of your favorite video game stories?

• Witcher 3
• Mass Effect Trilogy
• Golden Sun & Lost Age
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
• Metal Gear Solid 4
• Child of Light

Just to name a few more but the one's I listed, I really enjoy the stories of those games.

• Deus Ex 1: Amazing conspiracy theories that even show reality of world today. how JC denton a one man who refuse to work for UNATCO hunted as war criminal but he continue to exposed the conspiracy theories about viruses and stuff. incredible story that no writer ever made again.
• Mafia: A journey of tommy angelo who forced to join mafia but maintain his morals. he is good guy working for bad guys. the writing in this game is what i say an art of writing. the dialouges the characters. its unbeatable still.
• Max Payne: Story of one badass Cop wage war against mafia and criminals for avenging his family murder and also frame for his own family murder and his best friend, running from both cops and criminal. this was one of the best story game when it was released and still is.
• Metro 2033: Excellent story based on Book that how Artyom protect Metro after nuclear war, He even get dark ones nightmare and he destroy dark ones home due to thinking they were threat.
• Half life: Journey of Gordon freeman is very memorable from failed black mesa incident to fight against HECU to invade alien planet xen to save city 17 from combine, told the story without interrupting a single cutscene.

• Super Metroid: Yeah, there is barely any story, and it's a presented through visual cues and a few quick animations. This is how you tell a story in a video game.
• Journey: Same as Metroid.
• Now I'm going to fly in the face of all that and say Planescape: Torment, because it's story is just that good.

Some of my favourite video game stories are:

• Chrono Trigger/Cross
• Final Fantasy III/VII/VIII/X
• Mass Effect Trilogy
• Dragon Quest VIII/IX/XI
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Breath of the Wild

-Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

-Okami

-Metal Gear Solid 3

-Beyond Good and Evil

Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2

KOTOR

Mass Effect 1-3

Metal Gear Solid series

Planescape: Torment

• Silent Hill Shattered Memories
• Spec Ops: The Line
• Max Payne series in general
• Sleeping Dogs
• GTA IV and V
• L..A. Noire
• Alan Wake

You really are a hardcore fan of those franchises. I give you credit for that.

Kiseki series: Overarching narrative ala Avengers, but longer. All of the 9 games take place in the span of a couple of years.

Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger: nuff' said about them.

Persona 3, 4, and 5.

Divinity: OS 1 and 2.

RDR 2 too, I guess

Dragon Quest V

Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals

Final Fantasy VII

Alundra

Shadow of Memories

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Soul Reaver 2

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Clannad

Steins Gate

I don't play games for stories, I play them for fun, sitting there watching cinematics or reading text for the story are boring.

Red Dead 2 and The Last of Us, I guess. Mostly, I don’t care for the stories in games. Game story tropes come off as contrived, forced, and serious in a silly way. In other words, they try to be novels and movies but can’t.

• Knights of the Old Republic has good stories, including SWTOR (it's essentially KOTOR 3).
• Anything based on D and D tends to be good, i.e. Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale, Baldurs Gate, and so on.
• Mass Effect is pretty solid, even ME 3. I sort of liked the ending...
• Dragon Age series is good as well.
• Hell most of Bioware stories are good. Jade Empire too.
• Deus Ex 1 has some of the best writing of any game I've played.

I always enjoyed Suikoden and Ivalice/ogre battle politics.

Play Half life. tell story without having cutscene is an art. and story is excellent.

100%. A very simple premise that had a brilliant (albeit bittersweet) ending.

TLoU.

Bloodborne and Dark Souls 1 does this much much much better than your little Half Life.

it didnot need 2 shitty sequels at all. story was ended. and both of its sequel are bad.

Silent Hill 1,2,3,4

Rule of Rose

Haunting Ground

Parasite Eve

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

FF8

Layers of Fear

Bloodborne

The Evil Within 1,2

Persona 4,5

Deadly Premonition

Dunno, bunch of other stuff.

@ghosts4ever: agree. Warrior Within was a disgrace compared to the first, too much focus on combat, emo Prince. TT was an improvement but lacked Mechner’s involvement and it showed.

KOTOR

Risen 2

Oblivion Elder Scrolls

Fable

Detroit Become Human

RE 2

POTC

@MirkoS77: I think Warrior Within is underrated. While the puzzle-platforming is a downgrade, the combat is an upgrade. And the story is pretty good too, even if it's not on the level of SOT. WW gave me Soul Reaver vibes.

Super Metroid
Psychonauts
Zelda: Ocarina of Time & Wind Waker. Love the connections they have.
Half-Life 1&2
Morrowind

my friend, it seem you like nintendo games that much that you even put them in best story categories when no one play nintendo games for story at all..

Yeah, if they have good stories.

It's been quite a while since I've played WW, but I remember it being the antithesis of what made the original so memorable. It was dark, bleak, the Prince was transformed from a pompous, arrogant, flawed but ultimately likable protagonist into an dislikable emo wannabe bad boy, it was more mechanically focused on combat (which was to its strength but was never really what PoP was about), and as I recall had a god awful death metal soundtrack screeching in the background that had absolutely no place in the universe and wasn't PoP at all.

It also lacked some of the beautiful environments of the original:

It's this type of ethereal nature and beautiful architecture that I found largely absent in SoT's predecessor's that were the hallmark of Mechner's influence and original vision.

The way I see it, Warrior Within was like a precursor to God of War (classic, not remake). Both based on ancient mythology (Persian and Greek), with a similarly "dark" visual style, "emo wannabe bad boy" protagonists, heavy metal music, and an emphasis on combat with some platforming along the way. GOW was clearly influenced by WW. Except God of War was worse in almost every way (besides the DMC/Castlevania-inspired combat), with a way more dislikable protagonist. Yet GOW got loved for it, whereas Warrior Within got hate. I also suspect the movie 300 (related to both Greek and Persian mythology) borrowed some of its visual style and "heavy metal" interpretation of ancient mythology from Warrior Within, yet 300 also got loved for its style.

While I agree the classic "Arabian Nights" style of The Sands of Time was way better than the dark, edgy, heavy metal style that Warrior Within went for, I think the hate is unjustified. It's different, but that doesn't make it "bad" per se. Also, The Prince wasn't really all that "emo" either, and not all that different from the first game, with Yuri Lowenthal voicing him in more-or-less the same way. Despite his appearance, his characterization doesn't strike me as "emo" in the game. I guess it's similar to how people keep calling Cloud from FFVII "emo" even though he doesn't really act "emo" in the actual game, but that's just a projection based on his appearance. Whereas on the flip side, Kratos from classic GOW is one of the most "emo" protagonists in video game history, yet he doesn't "look" emo just because he looks like an older man with hulking steroid muscles.

Either way, this is a story thread. And in that regard, I found the Warrior Within to have a very interesting story, with the whole time-loop shenanigans and eventually facing-off against himself. It reminded me of the earlier Soul Reaver 2, which had a somewhat similar time-loop concept for its story, except I think Soul Reaver 2 handled it better.

SoT's story was about the Prince's and Farrah's relationship, which was perfectly paced and developed, and allowed the Prince's vulnerability to be shown. This is why against all better judgement and flawed character traits he became extremely likable and relatable by the end. It's why I view him as more of a cynical emo in WW, as he didn't have that dynamic to build him which left him largely uninteresting.

@MirkoS77: I think that says more about Farah than it does about the Prince himself. As a character, he hasn't really changed that much since the first game. But what's changed is the lack of Farah by his side. Instead, she got replaced by Kaileena, who is rather bland and a far less interesting character than Farah. The problem with WW is that the side-characters are just bland and uninteresting, but the story is just a one-man show about The Prince trying to survive the Dahakah. Which is a good story in itself, but lacks the charm of SOT, where you had an interesting cast of characters, rather than just a one-man show like WW.

Nobody mentioned Halo 5 which is very disappointing

Favorites:

• Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time
• Prince of Persia 08
• ICO
• Shadow of the Colossus
• Final Fantasy IX
• Chrono Trigger
• Persona 4
• Windwaker
• Knights of the Old Republic
• Odin Sphere

Now none of these I would call great stories but for video games, they were decent and enjoyable.

I never played Prince of Persia 😮Isn't there a rumor about a remake?

Planescape

Mother 3

Killer 7

Silent Hill 2

lol

Remember that wave of people saying Undertale was "best game ever" and "best story ever".

Glad that shits over. Been so long since I've seen a mention, forgot the name, had to scroll through the Steam library.

Best game ever not with standing, the best story argument is pretty legit tbh. It's not among my favorite, but as far as picks for "best video game story ever", very few would have a good argument against Undertale, because even less would be able to say the playing it part plays a big role in the story being told.

I like the stories where me and 9, or 24, or 99 other players are objectifying capturing a flag or are last man standing - all the while are hunting or being hunted by opposing players.

Those are the gaming stories I like. :)

That part I definitely get, even if it was rarely in the discussion... damn, now I'm remembering how dumb the discussion was around that game.

But yeah, it's a legit argument in its favor. A game story can do much worse and at least this one plays into the medium.

Personally, yeah didn't move the needle. Enjoyed some of the writing, the humor, charming characters and what not, but eh.

Petting dogs as a combat option tho. 10/10

There is, but the original version is still reasonable as it's BC on XBOX ONE and you can still buy it on PC distribution platforms.

did you get to play soul reaver defiance the last one? that one was the best one I think. you play as kain and raziel in that one. you even fight the missing brother of the first 2 games that you never see. the ending was awesome. i don't want to give it away if you missed it. I loved the 2nd one but the save points was so far away. loved chomping there heads off when you use there own weapons against them. I even got a half sleeve of raziel on my arm.

1. Metal Gear Solid 4 - Best.Story.Ever. ; best opening, best cinematics, best final-boss, best and most climatic ending cutscene to a video game ever.

2. Final Fantasy X - my first FF and will always have a special place in my heart. Loved the characters and all.

3. The Last of Us - should have been a one & done masterpiece. Much like Inception or Interstellar; two masterpieces which are two of my favourite movies of all time but I don't want a sequel to either.

4. Bioshock: Infinite - One of the the biggest mind fucks every for me. Literally stared at my screen for 10 mins after credits rolled.

5. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - my first Metal Gear. I was only 8 at the time I don't really understand shit but I got my mind blown for sure. nearly cried when Otacon's sister died :p

15 honourable mentions in random order:

• Dragon Age Origins
• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
• Mass Effect 2
• Final Fantasy VII
• Bioshock
• Death Stranding
• Heavy Rain
• Metal Gear Solid
• Arkham Asylum
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (though this one did disappoint me because of the astronomical hype)
• Arkham City
• Half Life
• Half Life 2

I was planning to move onto Defiance after Soul Reaver 2, but never got around to it. I've got a large backlog of games to play, and Defiance is somewhere on the list. Maybe I'll eventually get around to it one of these days.

Final Fantasy VI

Chrono Trigger

Nier: Automata

Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic II

Metal Gear Solid

Fallout: New Vegas

@SolidGame_basic: Have you played the classic Tomb Raider games before? Prince of Persia is a bit like that, except better in almost every way, including better gameplay, puzzles, controls, story and art.

I would highly recommend Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. It's the greatest puzzle-platformer of all time, IMO.

Never got into the classic Tomb Raider games. I got the first one with my original Playstation back in the day, but didn't get very far. I remember there was a rumor back then where you can unlock naked Lara Croft lmao. Anyway, I hope that they make a Prince of Persia remake. I would definitely be interested to check it out.

@SolidGame_basic: Classic Tomb Raider was an attempt to adapt the 2D Prince of Persia formula into 3D. Classic TR had well-designed puzzles, levels, and platforming, but was let down by issues like slow pacing, tank controls and weak combat. Issues which were eventually resolved by the true 3D POP successor, Sands of Time, which made classic TR obsolete.

More recent games you could compare Prince of Persia to are games that it influenced, e.g Assassin's Creed, Batman Arkham, Uncharted, God of War, Spider-Man, Mirror's Edge, etc. These games have borrowed mechanics from Prince of Persia, e.g. its parkour platforming mechanics and melee combat system. For example, the so-called "Batman Arkham" melee combat system originated from Sands of Time. However, POP's core puzzle-platforming gameplay is still unique. Which is probably more comparable to Portal 2.

The Sands of Time doesn't really need a remake. It's still a great game today. Unless you mean a HD remaster. In which case, there was a HD version for the PS3, and the PC version can already be played in HD.

Sands of Time is on sale for $3 and change on GOG. Can't go wrong at that price lol. I picked it up.

One issue I have is the distinction between good story and good storytelling. Some of my votes are more about one or the other, not necessarily both, and I could probably write a looong list if it's a matter of appreciating storytelling mechanics regardless of whether the story itself is noteworthy (e.g., I didn't love the Pillars of Eternity story, but the game had a thoughtful way of delivering it)

Planescape Torment

TLOU

Detroit Become Human

The Last Guardian

Chrono Trigger

Grim Fandango

the Myst series

Zork graphical games (e.g., Grand Inquisitor and Nemesis)