Best story

[BarbaricGoose]

You know i've just realised that Naoto is like the best reverse trap ever... Stop perverting my innocence 4Chan! T_T

[sub][sub]Fucking /a/...[/sub][/sub]

Naoto? Reverse trap? /a/? What even are those?

OT: gonna say MGS4. Or Snake Eater. I love 'em both. Can't pick a favorite. They were both tearjerkers, and I love all the characters. MGS4 did turn my eyes into ladies, though. ...cry. It made me cry.

 

[Directionless]

It'd have to be Witcher 2 or Planescape Torment. Witcher 2's story is a masterfully woven political plot, and Planescape torment is the most philosophically deep game i've ever played.

 

[octafish]

Let me answer that question with another...What can change the nature of a man?

PS:T. I don't think there will ever be a better story in a game.

 

[putowtin]

Dragon Age: Origin's has a standard Bioware story/plot, with the same character types:

[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/845/fh4u.png/]
Which, although predictable at times, I love! It's like putting on your favorite sweater, comforting and cozy!

 

[XX Y XY]

Have to give my usual answer for "best" questions. Star Control 2. Mass Effect borrowed a lot from the story of this game... And that's putting it very politely. But Star Control 2 did it first and did it better.

 

[Korolev]

"To the Moon" without a shadow of a doubt. It is absolutely wonderful. It's super cheap, it can be completed in about 4 hours and it has a soundtrack that puts other video game soundtracks to shame. The only problem some might have with it is that they may not consider it a "game" - it's much more akin to a film in which you occasionally solve a puzzle to keep the film going.

But I can honestly say that To the Moon is more moving than the vast majority of films.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

It's hard to say what the best game story is, but I guess I'll list a few games that I really enjoyed the stories:

- The Metal Gear series. You might not like the story but Metal Gear has done something I don't think any game series will every accomplish as it has built a storyline for literally over 25 years with one guy pulling the strings the whole time. How many game series are there that have an ongoing plot (where you kinda have to play all the games to understand it) that have last just over a decade (not 25 years) with the same creative director for the whole time as well? Metal Gear is the Cal Ripken Jr. of video game stories.

- Shadow of the Colossus and ICO as well. Simplistic plots that are really powerful.

- Batman: Arkham City really has a movie quality ending to it with a really great twist as well.

- Bayonetta, yes I'm fucking listing Bayonetta. I just love everything about the game from the gameplay to the story (I just love its mythology and the plot is actually rather decent). It's just great B-movie type stuff with a very heavy helping of cheese that you rarely find in video games. Its epic-ness is very hard to beat as well.

- Bioshock Infinite. Everything makes perfect fucking sense if you were paying attention. It's the Inception of video games.

- The Walking Dead for obvious reasons.

 

[Multi-Hobbyist]

EarthBound had an excellent story. Dragon Age Origins' story was good if you liked ye olde mideval age knight in bloody armor. Mass Effect's OVERALL story was top notch, but if I had to single 1 out, Mass Effect 2 was awesome. The people who complain about Mass3's ending even after the free DLC release I'll never understand. Batman: Arkham Asylum was good stuff and much needed creative originality for comic-kind in this day and age. Silent Hill 2 was .... a constantly fighting conga line of quality storytelling. The first Portal game's story was well rewarded with it's gameplay. And I guess last but not least, The Walking Dead game did a good job of drawing everyone in to see through to the finish.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Persona 4, because of what was previously posted before. Something about its simplicity in scale manages to create such a an impacting and engaging story that very few games can make. You are the chosen one meant to save the world from evil... again? Meh. You and your friends full of their own colorful PERSONAlities and complex issues trying to keep your small town safe by investigating murders?

Other mentions:
DMC3. Yeah sue me, the story is a B-movie action comedy but where a lot of the charm comes from (minus Dante just doing ANYTHING) is the interaction between Dante and Vergil. They have some of the greatest banter in video games period, as brothers their arc is just amazing to follow. F*** I want to go play it again now.

Shadow of the Colossus. Simple story, touching, depressing, and just powerful overall in its presentation.

MGS3. The tale of a man forced by his country to kill the one he's looked up to his entire life. This series' story isn't exactly subtle, but damn the 3rd game tugged on so many heart strings all too perfectly.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

DMC3. Yeah sue me, the story is a B-movie action comedy but where a lot of the charm comes from (minus Dante just doing ANYTHING) is the interaction between Dante and Vergil. They have some of the greatest banter in video games period, as brothers their arc is just amazing to follow. F*** I want to go play it again now.

You just want to play it again...


OT: "Best Story" depends on the person and the games they've played. For me, it'd be a toss up between Grandia, Wild ARMs and Persona 4 Golden. All have amazing stories.

 

[Schmeiser]

MGS(whole franchise) was the only game that made me cry, so i'm voting for that. It has huge plotholes and inconsistencies but THE EMOTIONS MAN. The first time i beat psycho mantis in MGS 1 i felt so bad, it's like there are no good guys in MGS just sides and they are all equally bad or good. And the death of The Boss in mgs 3, man that was just impactful

 

[EyeReaper]

hmm... I'll say Blazblue. Good lord is it convoluted, and you'll waste a lot of time thinking about it, but It's still amazing, 10/10, especially for a fighting game. I'm not sure I'd call it perfect though. Hmm, some others up there would be...
Persona 4-ohhh, already said
Devil Survivo- oh, yup, thats taken too
hm.. Aha! I know! A story that really moved me? Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. Good lord that story rocked my socks. It's a shame that no other Pokemon game made so far seems to even try to meet the bar PMD raised.

 

[Eggsnham]

I've always been a huge fan of TES series' in-game history and lore. There is literally enough of it (both official and fan-made) to fill entire textbooks and teach a course on it.

It also doesn't hurt that I really enjoy history and mythology in real life as well.

 

[skywolfblue]

1st place) Portal 1 & 2: Nearly every line will bring a smile to your face. It's not a deep philosophy or a grand epic, but it's a completely exciting, interesting, and whimsical tale. If you have not played these, go out and play them. Now!

I really like Portal and I think it's very funny, but as far as story goes... it's really just some gal jumping through hoops, isn't it? Like literally jumping through hoops. Again, it's very funny and it does the ambience thing formidably, but not much of an arc going on.

I don't think a story needs an impressive arc to be a "good story".

Instead I think it depends more on how much the story makes you care about the characters. I can think of many good stories that were extremely short or without epic plots, but made you feel for the character(s). However I can't think of any truly amazing stories that had epic plot arc, but absolutely poor characterization. If it had really poor characterization, I generally didn't like it too much.

Or at least that's my take on what makes a good story.

Portal does beautiful characterization in spades, GLaDOS, Wheatley, Cave Johnson, and even the turrets.

 

[The Wykydtron]

You know i've just realised that Naoto is like the best reverse trap ever... Stop perverting my innocence 4Chan! T_T

[sub][sub]Fucking /a/...[/sub][/sub]

Naoto? Reverse trap? /a/? What even are those?

OT: gonna say MGS4. Or Snake Eater. I love 'em both. Can't pick a favorite. They were both tearjerkers, and I love all the characters. MGS4 did turn my eyes into ladies, though. ...cry. It made me cry.

Don't look them up. I'm already too far gone into the realm of weird anime Internet lingo but you can still be saved, especially if you don't even know what trap means, that's pretty basic.

Well you can look up Naoto, she's just the best character in Persona 4 but the others should be locked in some Internet vault for only the most brave and/or weird of souls to find. /a/ is a Pandora's Box of the worst kind.

 

[TrevHead]

Metal Gear Rising has the best story, why? Nano machines that's why.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

People keep asking this question. The answer remains the same to this day:

Nothing else even comes close. If you haven't experienced this games' story, boy are you missing out.


Even just the trailer gives me goosebumps at the 2:00 mark.

Yes! Yes! YES! This is the only answer. God, I wish someone would make a next-gen version of Mafia. Just make it look new and shiny and refine some gameplay elements without removing what was already there. It would be so amazing.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

I see Metal Gear Solid 3 has already been said. Good. Fewer heads blown off that way.

Final Fantasy Tactics. The original had probably the worst-translation of that console generation, yet was still beloved by many. Even if Square was ever able to miraculously restore themselves to what they were, we will never see another game like this.

If I went with skywolfblue's assertion that good, engaging characters matter more than an epic or meaningful plot, I'd also say Wild Arms 3. A rather pedestrian Wild West adventure for the most part, unique mainly in the fact that:

Spoiler: Tacos

The prophetic dream visions of the main villain's coming and how to foil him were actually given to you by a different villain with different goals, for the sole purpose of making sure he doesn't interfere with her by terraforming the planet.

However, the 4 playable characters and every single one of the villains (with the exception of said main villain ironically) are all great and memorable. Which I suppose is good since you will fight all of them multiple times, stronger each time.