Games with great stories.
- Thread starter CastletonSnob
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Yakuza 0 is, at once, a wacky Japanese nightlife simulator and a coming-of-age story that questions the foundations of the modern world through being set in one of the most turbulent parts of Japan's history. Great characters, great direction, and when you need a break from the crime thriller, you can go to a disco and bust a move to a fake Michael Jackson song, then meet Fake Michael Jackson himself in a sidequest.
Honestly, most of the Yakuza games could've made the list, but 0's the perfect gateway game to those ones.
The other game whose story I hold up as one of the best is Mother 3. While it may not be great at telling its story through gameplay, the story itself is expertly written and told through the highly-animated character sprites, and its ideas on personal, social and environmental loss are worth hearing. Even if you can't find a way to play it yourself, there's plenty of LPs on Youtube, so you can find one played by a person who doesn't irritate you.
Honestly, most of the Yakuza games could've made the list, but 0's the perfect gateway game to those ones.
The other game whose story I hold up as one of the best is Mother 3. While it may not be great at telling its story through gameplay, the story itself is expertly written and told through the highly-animated character sprites, and its ideas on personal, social and environmental loss are worth hearing. Even if you can't find a way to play it yourself, there's plenty of LPs on Youtube, so you can find one played by a person who doesn't irritate you.
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Sands of Time. I've already captivated an audience by narrating thar story, as if it was from a fairy tale or a movie or a novel...
Planescape Torment worked.
Most of the Blackwell series (the ending jumps a few sharks), which could qualify as a quantity of stories given how many individual cases you "solve".
System Shock 2, and yes I liked the epilogue.
The whole Homeworld series ? Cataclysm for sure, anyway.
Syberia, for the most of it. I haven't played 3 and haven't entirely completed 4, I've heard 3's story is disappointing.
Trying to remember others, particularly in the realm of RPGs and Adventure games, but... it's indeed not a great medium for stories. Most are either placeholders or terribly pretentious derivative ones. Quite regularly a letdown if taken seriously, which I'd advise against...
Planescape Torment worked.
Most of the Blackwell series (the ending jumps a few sharks), which could qualify as a quantity of stories given how many individual cases you "solve".
System Shock 2, and yes I liked the epilogue.
The whole Homeworld series ? Cataclysm for sure, anyway.
Syberia, for the most of it. I haven't played 3 and haven't entirely completed 4, I've heard 3's story is disappointing.
Trying to remember others, particularly in the realm of RPGs and Adventure games, but... it's indeed not a great medium for stories. Most are either placeholders or terribly pretentious derivative ones. Quite regularly a letdown if taken seriously, which I'd advise against...
A bit of a difficult question as it's hard to say what counts as "story" in a game, since they are interactive. Like I kind of want to include Outer Wilds, but on its own the story isn't really that amazing, it's exploring and piecing it together yourself that makes it so amazing. So my list is kind of limited to games that are story focused in a more traditional sense.
Psychonauts
Undertale
Planescape: Torments (already been mentioned but it bears repeating)
Disco Elysium
Grim Fandango
The Stanley Parable
Mother 3 (also deserves a second mention)
Dragon Age: Origins
Persona 4
Ghost Trick
The World Ends With You
Psychonauts
Undertale
Planescape: Torments (already been mentioned but it bears repeating)
Disco Elysium
Grim Fandango
The Stanley Parable
Mother 3 (also deserves a second mention)
Dragon Age: Origins
Persona 4
Ghost Trick
The World Ends With You
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I don't care what anyone says, I still love the story through the Mass Effect trilogy. Yes, all of it. Even that part.
Persona 4, 5, and Persona 5 Strikers all also have fantastic stories.
Persona 4, 5, and Persona 5 Strikers all also have fantastic stories.
- Devil May Cry 3 & 5
- Bayonetta 2
- Dead Space Remake & Dead Space 2
- Resident Evil 2 & 3 (Remake), RE4R
- Max Payne
- Alan Wake
- Evil Within 2
- Ghost of Tsushima
- God of War 1, God of War 4 & Ragnarok
- Metal Gear Rising
- No More Heroes 1-3
- Parasite Eve
- Nier Automata
- Crysis 2 & 3
- Killer 7
- Silent Hill 1-3
THE RULES
THE GAMES
THE NOTES
THE OTHER STUFF
Basically where I look at other entries and tell you why you're objectively wrong/right
-One game per IP
-The story has to be truly "great" - yes, of course that's a subjective judgement, but the thread says "great," not "good," so, um, that's good? No, fine, let's go with fine.
-Counting expansions as part of an overall package, but not sequels (e.g. ME1 is separate from ME2/3, whereas StarCraft II encompasses all its expansions as one story)
-When I say "story," I'm not just referring to "plot."
-The story has to be in the game itself. So stuff like League of Legends can't make the cut, as all its story is outside the game itself
-I have to have played the game, watching playthroughs doesn't count
-The story has to be truly "great" - yes, of course that's a subjective judgement, but the thread says "great," not "good," so, um, that's good? No, fine, let's go with fine.
-Counting expansions as part of an overall package, but not sequels (e.g. ME1 is separate from ME2/3, whereas StarCraft II encompasses all its expansions as one story)
-When I say "story," I'm not just referring to "plot."
-The story has to be in the game itself. So stuff like League of Legends can't make the cut, as all its story is outside the game itself
-I have to have played the game, watching playthroughs doesn't count
THE GAMES
-Batman: The Telltale Series
-BioShock
-Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (1)
-Command & Conquer 3
-Diablo III (2)
-Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (3)
-Gears 5 (4)
-Halo 2 (5)
-The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (6)
-Mass Effect
-Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (7)
-Sonic Adventure (8)
-StarCraft II
-Warcraft III
-Xenoblade Chronicles
-BioShock
-Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (1)
-Command & Conquer 3
-Diablo III (2)
-Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (3)
-Gears 5 (4)
-Halo 2 (5)
-The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (6)
-Mass Effect
-Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (7)
-Sonic Adventure (8)
-StarCraft II
-Warcraft III
-Xenoblade Chronicles
THE NOTES
1: While the actual plot is fairly simple, I'd gets into "great" territory because of its themes and characters
2: Diablo IV would go here, but I haven't finished the game yet.
3: The Blazing Blade could go here as well. PoR just manages to edge it out, however
4: Again, characters and worldbuiding do the heavy lifting
5: That, or Halo: Reach. You could make a case for either of them being the best Halo game storywise.
6: There's various other contenders, but if ranking LoZ solely on story, OoT is the clear winner out of all the ones I've played
7: MGS1 is a close second and one I have more nostalgia for, but being as objective as possible, I'd say MGS3 is superior.
8: There's really too many games to count, even if I confine this to "great."
2: Diablo IV would go here, but I haven't finished the game yet.
3: The Blazing Blade could go here as well. PoR just manages to edge it out, however
4: Again, characters and worldbuiding do the heavy lifting
5: That, or Halo: Reach. You could make a case for either of them being the best Halo game storywise.
6: There's various other contenders, but if ranking LoZ solely on story, OoT is the clear winner out of all the ones I've played
7: MGS1 is a close second and one I have more nostalgia for, but being as objective as possible, I'd say MGS3 is superior.
8: There's really too many games to count, even if I confine this to "great."
THE OTHER STUFF
Basically where I look at other entries and tell you why you're objectively wrong/right
-Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (nup - story is threadbare, characters are threadbare, worldbuilding is non-existent, etc.)
-Resident Evil (okay, I'll be honest, I don't think story has ever really been RE's field of expertise. There's certainly "good" stories, but I'd struggle to find a truly "great" story. That being said, if I had to pick an RE game for this list, it would probably either be RE2 original (plot), RE2 remake (storytelling), or RE5 (best mix of the two), with honourable mention to Revelations 2)
-Resident Evil (okay, I'll be honest, I don't think story has ever really been RE's field of expertise. There's certainly "good" stories, but I'd struggle to find a truly "great" story. That being said, if I had to pick an RE game for this list, it would probably either be RE2 original (plot), RE2 remake (storytelling), or RE5 (best mix of the two), with honourable mention to Revelations 2)
Well, since you started it...Basically where I look at other entries and tell you why you're objectively wrong/right
Ocarina of Time? Come on. It's a good game for sure, but the story is serviceable at best. It sets the mood well but the characters are pretty flat and have no development, and there isn't much to the plot other than Link killing monsters in dungeons. If you had to nominate a Zelda game for all time great stories it should be Majora's Mask, but even that is pushing it in my opinion.
Bioshock. I have to knock points off of Bioshock, as much as I love it, because it really does fumble in it's ending with Fontaine. A great story needs to stick the landing.
Sonic Adventure. I don't even know where to start with this one. How do you even justify this game as having a good story, let alone a 'great' one?
As for a Zelda game with best story, I am giving it to Twilight Princess.
I'd say SA2 has much better story over SA. Not that I hated SA's story, but the game is chore to get through to enjoy it.
I'd say SA2 has much better story over SA. Not that I hated SA's story, but the game is chore to get through to enjoy it.
It's true that Twilight Princess is much more story focused (or rather cutscene heavy) than previous Zelda games and Midna does get a pretty good story, the best of any of Link's companions, but the intro drags so hard and the plot with the Kakariko kids just isn't that good. As much as I love Zelda, and it may just be my favorite franchise ever, I don't think it belongs anywhere on this list.
Not sure how you could say all of that about OoT, and in the same paragraph praise Majora's Mask, which lacks all the things you describe. I mean, MM is still a good game, but its story isn't strong. Oh sure, it's got a lot of individual self-contained stories (e.g. Kafei), and some other things going for it (the creepiness), but it doesn't have any real throughline. Go to Temple A, go to Temple B, so on - MM is really a bunch of separate stories clumped together.
OoT? Plot is great - you have the twist, you have the upping of stakes, etc. Characters? All of them are memorable, and most of them go through arcs. Link and Zelda's arc is based on the loss of childhood innocence (and Link maturing), Saria is the childhood he has to leave behind, Darunia and Ruto mellow out, etc. These aren't the deepest characters in the world, true, but all of them leave an impression. But more than anything else, OoT excels in theme. OoT is, at the end of the day, a tragedy in the literary sense. Link saves Hyrule, loses everything on a personal level. The entire story is framed around the concept of lost childhood/gaining adulthood, the passage of time and its cruelties, etc. There's entire YouTube videos that go into more detail, but more than anything, OoT excels on this level. It's why I chose it as opposed to, say, Twilight Princess, because while that certainly excels in both plot and character (*cough*Midna*cough*), TP is very much a "what you see is what you get." OoT is far more interested in the underlying themes it explores.
I agree that Fontaine is a bit of a letdown, but that's one component out of many. BioShock has a great world, a great twist, a great atmosphere, etc. It's lacking in the character department (really, the only character of note at all is Andrew Ryan), but in almost everything else it excels.
Um...okay, I could buy someone thinking it was not great, but not even good? Okay.
Plot: It's well handled, you have six stories that intersect that allows things to be fleshed out so you get the whole picture, said picture culminating in you realize what happened thousands of years ago, and why that's relevant to what's happening now.
Characters: I mean, it's Sonic, that's kind of a slam dunk in of itself, but more importantly, you have six playable characters, four of which have character arcs, and of the two remaining, Sonic not having an arc isn't really an issue in this case. Big? Yeah, Big sucks, of course he does, but where else are things lacking?
Worldbuilding: First game to really do proper worldbuilding and give a sense of history. Yes, you can pull a technically and point out how SA's worldbuilding is piggybacking off what was laid out in STH3&K (as in, plot hints in the manual are given full explanation here). By itself, it's nothing special, by the standards of the genre...well, seriously, how many other platformers devote this much time to story elements?
Themes: Core theme of the sins of the past being visited on the present, and dealing with it in said present. Again, not the deepest theme in the world (it's done again in SA2), but it's still there, and indeed, I almost chose SA2 in place of SA1 because of it. That said, in this area, I do think SA1 pulls it off better here, in that it's a more somber story than SA2, and while Shadow's tragedy works well on the personal level, Chaos's tragedy works well on the thematic level.
To be clear, SA1 isn't the best story of all time, but by the standards of the series, and more importantly, the genre? There's a reason why Sonic's one of the few platformers I've remained invested in over the years, and why despite its flaws, Frontiers was a welcome return to form in the story area.
Also, while I'm here, I'm going to give a shoutout to the first two Golden Sun games. Because while neither GS1 nor 2 make the grade by themselves, if they were one game, they absoltely would be. In part because that's how they were originally intended, in part because they make up for the weaknesses in each other - GS1 has a brisk plot, but is light on worldbuilding. GS2 is heavy on worldbuilding, but its plot is a slow burn, and you only really get a clear direction once you reach Lemuria. Put them together though, and you've got an epic on your hands.
Went to Steam to see if they have Mother 3 at the store. Motherless 3 came up instead and I'm sure it isn't what you are referring! That one is a XXX video narrative "game". Where would one find it Mother 3?
Final Fantasy X had my favorite game story to date. Not that others aren't great. Just that this one to this day is still my favorite.
It was only released in Japan on the Game Boy Advance, in 2006 near the end of its life. Being a narrative JRPG with a very large script, by the time Nintendo could have finished a translation, nobody would want to buy it anymore, so they didn't bother. A fan translation came out in 2009, which is held up as the gold standard for fan translations, both for its technical achievements and the quality of the translation itself.
My lawyers have advised me that I cannot tell you where you could obtain the game, other than to purchase a Game Boy Advance and a copy of the game from Amazon or Ebay or the like, and then use other methods that I cannot explain to you (because I don't understand them) to modify the cart to use the fan-translated script; alternatively, if that seems like too much work, you could watch a Let's Play on Youtube, as I suggested. The gameplay itself is fairly basic though inoffensive, so given that the story is the big draw, I can safely recommend an LP.
Well... one of the most economically turbulent parts of Japan's post-WW2 history.
For most turbulent parts of Japan's history, the 'bubble era' wouldn't make the top 500.
That's your opinion. TP was the only Zelda game to keep me fully engaged all the way through, aside from both Hyrule Warriors spin-offs. I've dealt with worse slow openings, so I don't care. The Kakariko kids I barely remember, but it's still not going to deter me from saying Twilight Princess has the best story in the franchise.
That is what I was talking about. Majora's Mask has a bunch of nice little stories, and because of the 3 day schedule the world feels more real and alive than in a lot of other games. Overall it has more and better story than OoT, even if it isn't all main plot. Also Skull Kid is a more interesting villain than Gannondorf.
Except it's all undone by the ending where Link is somehow returned to being a child and 7 years of tragedy are undone for the sake of an unambiguously happy ending.
And it's not a tragedy in a literary sense because the definition of a tragedy is "A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances." What is Link's character flaw? He doesn't have one because he doesn't have a character.
I don't know maybe it works better if you're a Sonic fan, but as someone who isn't the story completely left me cold. I can't even argue you on any of this because the story was so unmemorable to me I can't remember any of the details despite seeing an LP of the game less than 5 years ago. I do remember it being really corny, though.
See I think this is where our disagreements lie. This thread is called "Games with great stories PERIOD" not "Games with great stories relative to their franchise, or genre". It should be a listing of the best stories gaming has to offer without caveat and if that excludes a bunch of genres or franchises because they simply aren't story focused so be it.
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You need to obtain a ROM of the game and patch it with the fan translation found here, then you can play it on an emulator like Visual Boy Advance. This is all perfectly legal as long as you rip the ROM off of a cart you own, as of course you are going to do.