What's the best story you've seen in a game?

[mαrkαsscoρ]

There's a lot of really good stories in games out there, but what's the best story you've seen out of the games you've played so far? You can mention a series or something too if it's a story that spans multiple games or if it's a story that really relies on it's predecessor to be most effective. Though if you can narrow it down to one game, that's all the more better.

 

[Sheikah_Witch]

Probably Undertale.

It’s a simple fairy tale about a good little human in a cute little world, but it hits you hard like a rock.

It’s the kind of game that makes me want to put a pyjama on and curl up with a cat in my lap while playing it. It’s a feeling so comfy that I get all warm inside just thinking about it.

 

[Ninja]

Final Fantasy X has been my favorite story I've played through by far. Kingdom Hearts would be in the running but I can't help but have a brain aneurysm trying to digest it.

 

[Ten Thousand Needles]

Final Fantasy X has been my favorite story I've played through by far.

My man. FFX is one of my all time favorite games. The story is great. Nearly twenty years after first playing it, I can still discover nuances in the story that I had previously missed. I love that game to death. That said, I refuse to believe that anything post X-2 is canon.

The World Ends With You is another favorite with a fantastic story. The character archetypes might not be terribly original, but the way they're pulled off makes you not care about any cliches. It also helps that the overall concept of the game is just really cool. It was one of the few times where I was almost more motivated to keep playing just to find out what happens next than from the gameplay itself. That's saying a lot because the gameplay in that game is marvelous and some of what I consider the best video games have to offer.

I don't know if it counts as story, but the lore in Dark Souls 1 is excellent. It feels like that game has an entire mythology that rivals real-world mythologies. Hands down my favorite game lore.

 

[Spirit]

I love The Wind Waker's story for so many reasons.

I love that it was brave enough to present us with a world of water and submerge everything we used to know into the depth and in the end wash it all away.

I love that Link is so brave for one so young and his courage alone to save his sister is what saves the say, not something pre-destined.

I love the level of hope at the end. Everything is new. Everything old is gone and anything could be waiting beyond the horizon.

I also love Shadow of the Colossus for giving us a character that inhabits a moral grey area. I like how it's a simple tale of the consequences of one's selfish acts and how expertly emotionally crafted it is.


But my number one has to go to Nier Automata because bloody hell... What an experience.

 

[Shroom]

I think my number one would be Dragon Quest V. I really love a good coming of age story, and it hits in so many ways that make you want to keep going and see your journey through. There are really good plot points, the game does some great story telling through its own gameplay mechanics, and even the subplots are fun mini-adventures. It's got a really lovable cast and has the ability to turn some characters you might hate at first into rather redeemable people.

Lisa the Painful is another really fantastic one. I think the DLC added was sort of unneeded and sloppier in writing compared to the base game, but ignoring that, the game is incredible. It gets compared to Earthbound, which is sort of fair, but it's own different beast. You're in a post-apocalyptic world where there's no women, there are bizarre monsters, the currency is dirty magazines, and everything is in shambles, but it's somehow one of the most interesting worlds I've seen. I think the writing is really to the game's credit, because at one moment, the game will make you feel absolutely awful as if nothing matters, and then immediately follow it up with some joke that is incredible to bring you right back to your spirits in the worst ways possible. This game never got the acclaim that Undertale did, and while I think Undertale is fine, I always thought Lisa the Painful to be the much better game. Maybe it's good that this game didn't blow up for people to sort of "ruin" in a sense, but I highly recommend people check it out.

After that, I recently played through Final Fantasy 7, and man, that was a ride. I don't ever plan to look into the side-games, just on that one as its own singular thing, and I thought it was fantastic. I knew the one major plot thing that I think everyone knows by now, but even that still had a bit of an impact on me. Each side character had a relatively interesting backstory too, and Barret, a guy I went in thinking I wouldn't care for ended up being one of my favorites and a mainstay on my team. I don't think I'll have the opportunity to play the RE:make, nor do I think I want to. I kind of like this insular journey I had, and it had me wanting to know what was going to happen next the entire time.

Majora's Mask is also up there. I don't think I have to sing its praises too much, because it's been done so many times on this site, but it's good. A somber trip down apocalypse-lane, and you feel a weight on your shoulders in the best way. Every joyful event in the story is bittersweet knowing that you'll likely reverse it so you can carry on your journey, but that's sort of life (not literally, but the fleeting feeling of happiness).

I could keep going, but I think the final game I'd like to mention is the original Chibi Robo on Gamecube. It starts out as a sort of wacky experience about being pint-sized in the world of the average home, but it tackles some interesting themes like problems within home life, death, and what it's like from different and rather unique perspectives. It has such a unique air on how it's set-up, and it's fun to be part of this weird adventure. A single house feels like enough for an entire game's location, and it's a shame that I don't think we'll ever get a proper sequel that the series deserves.

 

[Mido]

Red Dead Redemption stands as one of my favorite standalone stories in gaming, although it wasn't until a second playthrough where appreciation truly began to set in (it was just great to play another western game after G.U.N. again, so I mostly breezed through it the first time). While the setup is simple what with Mr. John Marston having to apprehend his former running mates via "motivation" from the government, the setting is what I think pushes the narrative in a strong direction. The events that take place occur in 1911, so the American West is all but dead, and seeing how various characters either resist or resign themselves to the waves of modernity is interesting and adds much character to the world. This also ties in well to Marston's own story as he also wishes to move on from the past, but ultimately faces challenges that question whether he can truly do so. While the philosophies that tie into the game's themes can be a little too drilled into the players' heads, it's only a minor nitpick in what is otherwise a very strong story.

 

[the8thark]

To The Moon - This is a real tearjerker. It's all story and very little gameplay. Still an amazing game.
Terranigma - An amazing story on planet Earth or is it planet Earth? You are going around this planet saving it from a barren wateland to a great planet and helping it's inhabitants and in the end saving yourself. At the end I did feel a little sad about it all. Great story in a great game.
Dragon Quest XI - Quite a long story with many twists and turns and different perspectives on the same events. Very well done.
Dynasty Warriors 8 - sure it's historical based, but the story is very well explained. The Three Kingdoms peroid is a very complex period in history however the game simplifies it so well so anyone can understand it.

 

[GoronGainz]

Chrono Trigger.
At it's core it's a simple save the world story but the way it's delivered to you through the events of the game, the environments, characters & not to mention how your decisions alter how it ends for a more personalized experience.
Truly one of gaming's all time greats for me. ( And I only played it for the first time a couple of months ago)

 

[Rkaji]

It's a hard choice, if you play a game, then it means that you like it, and for me it's kinda hard to choose a single one, because I have a lot of them which I like. As a guy is almost thirty soon, I've been in this industry for a long time, since the beginning of it, and I totally enjoy sjoveste boom spil games, this is a kind of action that I can never get bored with, and this makes them different for those games which I can't launch for the second time, once I played them once, or saw the game play somewhere else.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

It's a hard choice, if you play a game, than it means that you like it, and for me it's kinda hard to choose a single one, because I have a lot of them which I like.

choose the few that resonated or impressed you the most

 

[The Dashing Darknut]

Probably Celeste. It’s short, but I love the meanings it conveys. I could really relate to Madeline, and I liked the conflict between her and her other self. I love places like the mirror temple or climbing up the mountain, and at times it could hit me hard. Really liked it.

 

[twilitfalchion]

One of the first that comes to mind is the story that spans both Trails in the Sky FC and SC. Yes, it takes two rather lengthy games to come to its conclusion, but I'd rather it take the time for everything to develop than be rushed and feel incomplete. It just keeps building into something much greater than the beginning of FC would ever imply.

I'd also throw in Ghost of Tsushima. No, the plot isn't particularly novel, but the way the game places the primary conflict right in front of the player's perspective and has them follow Jin's journey makes for some hard-hitting moments, especially in the game's final scenes.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

I'm going w/ xenogears for this, it's probably more so the backstory than the actual story during the game, but it's one that stuck w/ me for months after I finished, where I kept going back to the fan wiki page to learn more details, and of course there's the fact that it was meant to be a 6 part series

and I just have to mention metal gear solid 2, which might've been the earliest instance for me of a story blowing my mind

 

[Azure Sage]

I think I need to go with Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA for this. The only thing I didn't enjoy about the story was the way it ended, using the trope "everyone forgets the adventure and its like it never happened in order to solve it" that I hate so much left a bad taste in my mouth. But even then, I'd still call it my favorite story in a game.

Everything about it and the way it unfolded was so supremely interesting. Stranded on a mysterious island with no clear way to leave and a horrific beast guarding its waters, investigating the island leading to the discovery of ancient fates and supposedly extinct beasts, and the way it all links together with the past and present through the lens of Dana Iclucia was really amazing. Dana's storyline in particular is why I'd call it my favorite. I have yet to experience anything as heartbreaking and bitter as her tale, and it made a lasting impression on me as I played through the rest of the Ys series. Her journey has stayed with me since I first played the game and I can say she's easily one of my all-time favorite characters in gaming as a whole. Her story's so good they had to put her name in all caps in the game's title.

Aside from Dana, I just always love a story driven by gameplay and exploration, which Ys VIII accomplishes very well despite being such a linear JRPG. It's the kind of game that makes you feel like you earn all of the knowledge you discover because of the intense and often challenging gameplay, even if your discoveries are laid out for you in hallways. You wanna know what's going on, you gotta fight for it. That, coupled with the very well-written character arcs of your companions and fellow castaways, makes this game such a huge narrative treat.

Definitely the best action RPG I've ever played, and again, my favorite story in a video game even considering I don't like the ending. Dana forever!