The best storyline games ever.

[Aqualung]

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for me. As a 6 year old playing my first video game, it was easy enough to understand and play. But now, many years older, I've developed a strong appreciation for every plot-twist and every side story. Especially Ganondorf's (slightly vague) origin story, and his deal with the Gerudos/Nabooru.

 

[goldfox]

Final Fantasy X
Resident Evil: Code Veronica X

 

[Worsle]

Okami does deserve more of notice, a wonderful game that never got the attention it deserved. I still stand by the idea that it is in many ways the best Zelda game to have come out, including Ocarina of Time (though I will admit to not getting that one as I never played it at the time but that is a flaw in nintendo's repetition). Wonderful characters and interesting gameplay only real flaw the game has is that half hour unskippable introduction, however that annoyance soon washed away.

However the game that really should get a mention here is persona 3 fes (and you want the fes version, though the upcoming psp port looks interesting even if it lacking the answer part of the story). While the main story is not he most original thing going and takes a little too long to really let you in the pay off is great and the character growth in the game is rather special. Junpie especially goes though a massive change from start to finish that is very nicely scripted. The ending as well really got to me, a lot of I would put down to how attached I grew to the characters. I would also recommend persona 4, the story is not ad good but it has some nice hooks in it and is a little better paced overall. From there pretty much any megaten game is some thing you should play, though getting them can be the tricky part.

 

[Daedalus1942]

Well thanks for your help everyone! I've talked to my mate and I should be running Mass Effect by Wednesday! Feel free to continue discussions if you want! Personally I always felt the original Golden Sun had a cool, if somewhat generic story line and Prince of Persia: SoT

So... out of allll the posts in this Thread, you only took away Mass Effect? While I enjoyed it.. It's hardly the best game that was mentioned here.
Beyond Good and Evil was so much better, storywise, and concept wise. As was Okami.

 

[WillSimplyBe]

Two Words: Lost Odyssey.

More Words:
Seriously, if your looking for a game just for the characters development and plotline, you really cant go wrong with Lost Odyssey. The game goes into so much detail with plot it actually has short stories about the characters pasts that pop up at seemingly random times. They are great. The game is like a book and also like a movie. Seriously, 4 disks and its actually not an extremely long playthrough(still about 60 hours, i believe, just barebones runthrough) its 4 disks from some of the amazing cinematic cutscenes it has, which will leave you dying to find out what happens next to the characters. I havent read through the whole thread so I dont know if it has already been recomended yet, but it probably already has, because it has one of the best rpgs I've played through, and would play through over and over again just to hear the story again. Its like a great book.

Just my two cents.

 

[hansari]

If you can find it, play the first Mafia. That game really gets you caring about its characters.

I second this! I'm looking forward to Mafia2...

 

[N-Sef]

The Longest Journey. For me, there really is no contest.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Might point out that if you're looking for characters to fall in love with, don't play an FPS- at least not if you want PLAYABLE characters you can fall in love with. Sure, some may have great SUPPORTING characters like Alyx Vance or GLaDOS, but your character is usually mute and completely bereft of any kind of personality. And to be honest, FPS plots aren't usually that crash hot anyway.

My personal pick is Odin Sphere for the PS2. I'm only half way through it, and it has one of the most complex and epic plots I've played in a long, long time. There are 5 playable characters, each one deep and well rounded, and they interact with each other in fascinating ways due to the fact that, since their stories happen mostly simultaneously yet in completely different chapters of the game, they're not always on the same side. Also the gamepay is interesting (if hardcore difficult and at times a bit frustrating or repetative), the complete voice acting (your choice of Japanese and English) is exceptional and the 2D graphics are beautiful beyond belief. One of those games overlooked on the same level as Beyond Good and Evil.

 

[Daedalus1942]

Might point out that if you're looking for characters to fall in love with, don't play an FPS- at least not if you want PLAYABLE characters you can fall in love with. Sure, some may have great SUPPORTING characters like Alyx Vance or GLaDOS, but your character is usually mute and completely bereft of any kind of personality. And to be honest, FPS plots aren't usually that crash hot anyway.

My personal pick is Odin Sphere for the PS2. I'm only half way through it, and it has one of the most complex and epic plots I've played in a long, long time. There are 5 playable characters, each one deep and well rounded, and they interact with each other in fascinating ways due to the fact that, since their stories happen mostly simultaneously yet in completely different chapters of the game, they're not always on the same side. Also the gamepay is interesting (if hardcore difficult and at times a bit frustrating or repetative), the complete voice acting (your choice of Japanese and English) is exceptional and the 2D graphics are beautiful beyond belief. One of those games overlooked on the same level as Beyond Good and Evil.

I'm currently playing Odin Sphere, it's pretty awesome, but i'm not past book one.
I just like versing previous bosses and grinding up my level and Phozons.
I also absolutely love how it's set in the same universe as the Valkyrie Profile series.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Might point out that if you're looking for characters to fall in love with, don't play an FPS- at least not if you want PLAYABLE characters you can fall in love with. Sure, some may have great SUPPORTING characters like Alyx Vance or GLaDOS, but your character is usually mute and completely bereft of any kind of personality. And to be honest, FPS plots aren't usually that crash hot anyway.

My personal pick is Odin Sphere for the PS2. I'm only half way through it, and it has one of the most complex and epic plots I've played in a long, long time. There are 5 playable characters, each one deep and well rounded, and they interact with each other in fascinating ways due to the fact that, since their stories happen mostly simultaneously yet in completely different chapters of the game, they're not always on the same side. Also the gamepay is interesting (if hardcore difficult and at times a bit frustrating or repetative), the complete voice acting (your choice of Japanese and English) is exceptional and the 2D graphics are beautiful beyond belief. One of those games overlooked on the same level as Beyond Good and Evil.

I'm currently playing Odin Sphere, it's pretty awesome, but i'm not past book one.
I just like versing previous bosses and grinding up my level and Phozons.
I also absolutely love how it's set in the same universe as the Valkyrie Profile series.

That's not correct, although I can see why you would make that mistake. Odin Sphere and Valkyrie Profile have similar settings based on the same Norse mythology, but are set in completely different universes.

Odin Sphere's story is a true epic where the entire world does NOT revolve around your character for once, which is why you have 5. If you're still in book one, I should mention that the story doesn't get really interesting until chapter 4 when something really cool happens.

 

[Daedalus1942]

Might point out that if you're looking for characters to fall in love with, don't play an FPS- at least not if you want PLAYABLE characters you can fall in love with. Sure, some may have great SUPPORTING characters like Alyx Vance or GLaDOS, but your character is usually mute and completely bereft of any kind of personality. And to be honest, FPS plots aren't usually that crash hot anyway.

My personal pick is Odin Sphere for the PS2. I'm only half way through it, and it has one of the most complex and epic plots I've played in a long, long time. There are 5 playable characters, each one deep and well rounded, and they interact with each other in fascinating ways due to the fact that, since their stories happen mostly simultaneously yet in completely different chapters of the game, they're not always on the same side. Also the gamepay is interesting (if hardcore difficult and at times a bit frustrating or repetative), the complete voice acting (your choice of Japanese and English) is exceptional and the 2D graphics are beautiful beyond belief. One of those games overlooked on the same level as Beyond Good and Evil.

I'm currently playing Odin Sphere, it's pretty awesome, but i'm not past book one.
I just like versing previous bosses and grinding up my level and Phozons.
I also absolutely love how it's set in the same universe as the Valkyrie Profile series.

That's not correct, although I can see why you would make that mistake. Odin Sphere and Valkyrie Profile have similar settings based on the same Norse mythology, but are set in completely different universes.

Odin Sphere's story is a true epic where the entire world does NOT revolve around your character for once, which is why you have 5. If you're still in book one, I should mention that the story doesn't get really interesting until chapter 4 when something really cool happens.

Aww, damn... I just assumed because of the valkyries and everything it was the same world as the VP series. Oh well, I haven't finished it yet, but I plan to go back to it soon. Good game.

 

[Rad_Brad]

Portal is wonderful.
I also liked Command & Conquer: Red Alert.

 

[AbuFace]

Final Fantasy Tactics. I have never played another game with a storyline as deep and complicated as that game. The plot is so good that you can take away the entire game aspect, and the story would still be worth experiencing.
Unfortunately, it was kind of a side-project of Square so it didn't get the development it should've. Antiquated, sprite-based graphics and shoddy translation/localization can really work against it. I hear the PSP version is very cleaned up, but that the story was simplified. Either way, if you like strategy RPGs and you want a good story full of betrayal, murder, conspiracy, manipulation, and warfare, all without an awkward forced love interest, look no further than FFT.

Deus Ex is another masterpiece of storytelling mixed with gameplay. If you like FPSes with RPG elements, this is the game for you (downloadable from Steam for $10 or so.)

Edit: It's worth mentioning that both games have amazing musical scores. For proof, Deus Ex was composed by the same company who did the original Unreal Tournament.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

I'm gonna second Mass Effect and Bioshock, and pretty much every other game made by Bioware.

This. Other games like Halo and Oblivion have good backstories but the in-game stories are not that impressive, and in Halo's case, mediocre.

 

[Mekkon]

5 pages into the thread, and the original Chrono Trigger still not mentioned. It's oldschool, I know, but then again it's some sweet, bit of jap-infantilism flavoured story.

 

[Daedalus1942]

Braid. Ffs you have to play Braid. And if you don't like it or think that it's uninteresting or "meh" then you sir, are a tosser

the story is confusing though, and if you miss the third star by solving the puzzle, then you're screwed.

Yeah it is ;P But that makes it so much sweeter. Like the Watchmen comic. You gather bits of the puzzel to finally make up the whole picture. There's something elusive about it, something hidden. The story might not be woho or Nobelprize worthy, but it's the way it's presented that makes it so appealing. The time mechanic in-game really does amplify the "misstakes" that Tim has made and wants undone. I think it's worth getting for the utter experiance alone.

And the puzzles? Come on, being stuck in one area for one hour to figure out how to get the damn thing and then finally! Through trial-and-error the answer hits you and you feel so bloody satisfied, the game did not beat you!

It was great, but I solved all the puzzles then found out about the stars.
I'm NOT restarting that game.

 

[Sephiwind]

If you want to get a game that has a very in-depth story, I would suggest Xenogears for the PS1. It would probably be very hard to track down with out forking over some cash but I consider it one of the best RPGs. Even with useing a guide just the first disc alnoe is about 35-40 hours of gameplay. The down side to the game is that once you make it to disc 2 it's more like a video book for about 2-4 hours with a fight every now and then.

For the PS2 I would recomend Persona 3 or 4. Both are easily 80 hour games each, but they are very much a railroad. It is built kind of like a dateing sim but rather then "hooking up" it's building up your friendships with people. If yo can get past that aspect they both have very good story lines. If you decide to get either of these I would suggest playing Persona 3 first just becasue of the mechanics that got fixed in the 4th game. Also if you can get the Persona 3: FES version becasue it has an add-on game that concludes the actual game. It usualy can be found on Amzon for normal PS2 prices.