Stories in Video Games

[Bravehearter]

I think the stories that are being based on video games are getting more and more respect these days, and its about time.

Sure the FF series has some great stories, but it was rare.

A few companies come to mind who put a ton of writing to their stories.

Blizzard: Diablo, Starcraft and the Warcraft series have some of the most emotional and well thought out stories to be on a computer in a long time.

Rockstar Games: Max Payne 1&2 are amazing games. AMAZING. But what makes them so good is the raw emotion that is in the story and the story telling. You just dont want it to end, the plot twists, the emotions. Its literally had my heart pounding just from the story and what was going to happen. Anyone who has played it knows what im talking about.

Grand Theft Auto has some great crime stories, another example of a cool mature game that does a great story well.

What are some of your favorites?

[Shocka]

The Silent Hill series. Although most of those games you mention have good stories, the game can still function without them, where as Silent Hill is very reliant on its compelling story and intriguing, empathising characters to make you play on.

This is fascinating because, unlike most games, Silent Hill games are often not much fun to play - you can get really quite scared by what's going on but you push on because you want to find out what happens next, making them one of the most interesting gaming experiences ever made.

I was also fascinated by the story in Manhunt even though the gameplay wasn't great. The Metal Gear Solid games are also great for storyline, with some amazing character development in very short sequences.

The older adventure games were great, and I'd like to see a resurrection of the genre. Games like Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Sam and Max, Kings Quest, even Leisure Suit Larry (don't even mention the terrible new porno game in which they didn't even get creator/genius Al Lowe on board) were great fun, all about the storyline integrated with the puzzle solving. The 7th Guest was notable in its day for the full motion video that showed the extent of cd-rom technology but also had an intriguing little horror story worked nicely into the mix.

The Neverhood!! Anyone remember this? As well as the Tex Murphy series. Another game I'd like to add to the list is Sanitarium, but I haven't played through that properly yet, I'm searching ebay for a copy. Mother makes us beautiful like that.

[Kuky]

Can't beat Xenogears :).

[lain13ego]

silent hill 2's story was really great.

but nothing beats katamari damashi(damacy)

[Truth]

Originally posted by Bravehearter@Oct 5 2004, 08:56 PM

Sure the FF series has some great stories, but it was rare.



I think you have to take that back... Final Fantasy had amazing story lines. I don't know, I've played most of them


Great story lines that come to mind besides silent hill...

Resident Evil II, truly great story and game, and I can't wait to find out what happene dto Leon S. Kennedy in RE 4

You can't deny the story of a great franchise such as the Legend of Zelda. This game is a trend setter and one that will hopefully last us generations to come.

If you haven't played Fatal Frame II, i dare you to play. The game is great. Different but great.

I can list tons more games, but i'm tired and ready for bed... I'll come back later.

[KnappyOne]

Bioware games.... remember them they will a future powerhouse in the gaming world.

But the storylines they've put into the Neverwinter Nights series is truly awesome.

There are more, a ton more, but I'm being lazy, and yeah they'll probably be mentioned, so I'm done now.

[Kuky]

At the risk of opening a very ancient can of worms *couFFONLINEgh*:

Some FF's have had amazing story lines (ff6, ff9), while others *couFF8gh* sucked major mule testicle-slots :).

[IGemini]

I'm biased toward Morrowind because you can make your own storyline! :) Besides that, the main plotline is really well-thought out. If you play this one through (and don't cheat) and take time to do little things, I guarantee that it will keep you busy for a while. I haven't even installed Tribunal and I'm not anywhere close to finishing the main line. I've played it for hours upon hours. It's a part of the Elder Scrolls series but Morrowind is what put it into the spotlight.

[SoSweetAngel]

I think the final fantasy games *mostly* had great storylines. Mainly because they were so LONG though. Can't play for 35 hours without *something* to keep you interested.
Also MGS, though MGS2 was a bit odd. Apart from that there's not much I can think of.

[mikkelsr]

Hmm, let's see...

FF7 has the absolute greatest storyline ever! I played it for the first time when it came out at my cousin's house, and I had so many joygasms it was crazy.

I also liked Final Fantasy Tactics, Chrono Trigger, and Neverwinter Nights.

[MuthaFranka]

Not big into the whole RPG thing.

Fighting games and Halo type games for me. I'm afraid I never moved past that stage in my video game development.

[Brass Monkey]

Myst (the entire collection) - Excellent storytelling and intuitive plot. Some really cool ways of implementing puzzles... some just a pain in the ass.

Chrono Trigger - Best RPG of all time. Hands down. Over a dozen different endings, countless extras and secrets, and a good 80+ hours of playtime. God I still love this game.

FF7 - Good story, but fairly overrated.

Monkey Island - Funniest game of all time.

Sam and Max - Forget funniest game ever, this is the funniest peice of meida ever created.

GTA: Vice City - Hilarious take off of several classic movies and TV shows. Anyone else able to find the apartment from Scarface... you know, the chainsaw scene?

Eternal Darkness - Great storyline, really fun game. Highly recommended.

Legend of Zelda - A legacy that will hopefully never die. A Link to the Past ranking at #1. However Ocarina of Time is the best 3d adventure game ever. Anyone remember the comic book in Nintendo power before it came out? Or how about the cartoon. :lol:

Tales of Symphonia - About 60 hours to play straight through. Plenty of twists and turns and a fairly open storyline.

Halo - No explanation needed.

Zork - I didn't play all of them, but the ones I did play were addicting and fun. Good amount of humor and a lot of imagination went into these games.

Wing Commander - The first 4 of the series were really fun.

Resident Evil - Epic story when all put together spans contenents and traces the deceptions and evil done by the Umbreally Corporation. Play through the games and take the time to read all the books, notes, and everything else you'll find in the game. It reveals several large backstories. Not to meantion a new chapter will soon be released with RE4 soon to be out on Gamecube.

Metroid - The Sci-fi space epic of home consoles. Well thought out gameplay and with the release of Metroid Prime, a much deeper and compelling storyline... but it was able to keep what kept the original Metroid games so compelling.

Starcraft - 3 different races battling it out for survival and dominance. Imaginative characters and designs. Great storyline and excellent delivery in how the story was presented.

Metal Gear Solid - Brillant storyline. Plenty of twists and turns and great voice acting (at least on the Gamecube remake) with a well written script. And who doesn't love a good conspiracy?

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time - Cool story, I liked the whole concept... but way too short for my tastes. I'm waiting on the next one, due out next year I think.

Half-Life - If you don't know why this is here, just stop reading now.

Conker's Bad Fur Day - Hilarious rude comedy, great parodies (favorite has to be the Saving Private Ryan level... or "the lobby" from the Matrix... or the Resevoir Dogs scene), and just overall funny and a great time had whenever I played.

Ultimia 8 - Oh my god, how many hours of my life did that game suck out of me?

Master of Magic - Crappy graphics, but it's old-skool. Research spells, build armies, building townships, waging war... on more than one plane of existance at the same time.

Secret of Mana - Epic story, one of which I don't remember much about. Looks like I'll have to start up the emulator and give it another play-through.

Sonic the Hedgehog - Go little blue dude, go. I never did the the whole point of the rings and how they helped him.

Diablo - Who thought exploring hell could be so fun?

Age of Empires - Really brings to life some historical time, battles, and scenarios. You know you had fun trashing everything in the Genghis Khan campaign. :P

Goldeneye - Still one of the best FPS games you can find on a console. Followed the storyline of the film perfectly and allowed for plenty of action and extras.

But nothing will compete with the quality of bad dudes...
http://www.nesplayer.com/reviews/baddudes/BadDudes1.gif
:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Clive]

Xenogears was one of the most extensively thought out stories I've ever experienced in video games or reading or anything really, it was just amazing. something great has to be said about a game that makes up an entire religion and history to entwine with the story, this was definately one of the best.

with the thought of religion in the story lines, something really has to be said for final fantasy 10 as well. this was an amazing story, despite all the crap it got from people, I loved this game, and all final fantasy games for that matter. My favorites in this series would have to be 6, 4, 7, 9 & 10, but not in that order really :P all AMAZING games. In case you were curious, and I KNOW you were, Final Fantasy Six is my favorite.

The Suikoden series is also VERY amazing. 108 characters is the minimun standard for these suckers, with the most character development coming in the recent title, Suikoden III. I'm very excited for the fourth game to come out because if it follows the progression the games have been setting out for themselves, it will be the best of the series.

Grim Fandango was one of the most fun games I've ever played in my entire life. Wow, this was just a genius move by Lucas Arts to put this out, but because of the level of success Star Wars games have compared to this title, not a lot of people hear about it, it was AMAZING!

Chrono Trigger someone mentioned before and I felt like a jackass for not remembering to mention this game. I loved it, it was amazing. 7 characters I believe, and it told the story of each, and with the different time lines and everyone being connected, it was definately not a game that should be missed.

I know I mentioned all the Final Fantasy Games before, but Final Fantasy 4 is just sticking out in my head at the moment, possibly because I am listening to the soundtrack. But, long story short, which I hate to do but it's necessary for this topic, A knight works for an evil king, and then realizes the error of his ways and betters himself into becoming a grand knight, chases after his love captured by his former companion and best friend only to find out a secret in the end about who he thought he was going to defeat in the end. AWESOME GAME.

Resident Evil & Silent Hill shouldn't necessarily be considered the same type of game, but they are both amazing and have stories that'll knock your socks off!

Final Fantasy Tactics slipped my mind as well, probably because it kind of ran away from the other titles, what with being a strategy based game and all. The story involved multiple sides in a war pitting people against their best friends and one man followed his best friend in an attempt to go against the following, starting an army of his own so to speak, and awesome title.

Well, that is all I am going to type for now, because I am sure you are getting bored with listening to me, hehe, if you even read this far! I am sure I will think of more things I forgot later, or just elaborate on why the final fantasy games rock my socks!

[mikkelsr]

Monkey Island - Funniest game of all time.


Oh my God! I forgot to mention it! You're right, it is the funniest game of all time. I'm personally partial to the 2nd one.

I hope they make a 5th one soon, I'm dying for it.

[tadaoNakamaru]

Originally posted by Brass Monkey@Oct 6 2004, 09:19 PM
Metal Gear Solid - Brillant storyline. Plenty of twists and turns and great voice acting (at least on the Gamecube remake) with a well written script. And who doesn't love a good conspiracy?
Silicon Knights took Metal Gear Solid and ruined it. Yes, they updated the graphics so that they were on par with Metal Gear Solid 2, but they also removed so much that made it a great game in the first place. Quite a few quotable lines from Ocelot and Meryl were removed, a good portion of the voice acting went from powerful and dramatic to completely lackluster, and the game was watered down with "Matrix"-like cut scenes. Lastly, the controls were terrible.

On topic…

The Legend of Zelda - Miyamoto's masterpiece keeps getting better and better.
Chrono Trigger - The epic of 1995, changing the SNES (and RPG's) forever.
Final Fantasy 2, 3, 5, and 7 - Best of the best when it comes to FF storylines. FFVIII would have been a respectable game if it didn't have the fabled franchise name attached to it.
Metroid series - Although the series is getting stale, the original games were amazing. Sooner or later the fans are going to get tired of Ripley and the space pirates.
Halo - If it weren't for the trilogy of books I wouldn't mention this.
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay - Really good game based on the Riddick movies.

I know there's many more I could think of, but I would really have to think on it. With video games becoming such a mainstream form of entertainment, the quality of games is declining while the quantity goes up. Kind of sad to see the Final Fantasy series dwindle down into what FFX-2 was.

[Kuky]

Originally posted by tadaoNakamaru@Oct 7 2004, 12:21 AM
Final Fantasy 2, 3, 5, and 7 - Best of the best when it comes to FF storylines. FFVIII would have been a respectable game if it didn't have the fabled franchise name attached to it.

*raises fist*

by "3", you better mean "6" :)

[Asphodelle13]

Great list you have there, Trevor. I personally think that Ocarina of Time is one of the best adventure games of all time.

Myst - I remember playing this when it was new. And it just blew my mind away. It was the most surrealistic looking game I've ever seen. And at the time I found it to be one of the most challenging(it is hard). It was funny and unsettling and intimidating and sublime...all at the same time.

Neverwinter Nights - There are so many stories that make up this awesome monster of a game that I wouldn't know where to begin. I had a lot of fun memories with this one. A highly addicting game, and what's great about it is that you could play it a million different ways with several different classes(not including the expansion packs).

And all the games from my youth that can never be replaced..Sam & Max..Monkey Island..

King's Quest series..In 1984 this game made history being the 1st adventure game to be in 3rd person mode and support EGA graphics. And since then its made leaps and bounds in gaming. aAnd KQV has always been one of my favs(with the desert and the talking owl).

Space Quest series.. Anyone that's played this game knows its hilarious. The jokes are endless in this game and I have a lot of fond memories of it.

The Legend of Kyrandia series..Fairly challenging, I spent many hours on these games...and a lot of the puzzles(and mazes) were very frustrating. But you've got to love the jester. :cool2:

And my alltime favorite being the Quest for Glory series. Which lives on in the heart of its fans.(Qfg2 is being remade and should be completed around xmas!) I loved these games so much that I know I played everyone of them at least a dozen times(and there's 5)..What sets this series apart from the others is that there's more role playing features..like building up the skills of your class(Fighter, Wizard, Thief and Paladin as a special class). I had so much fun with this series..it'll always remain a memorable part of my childhood.

[lain13ego]

i do think VIII's story was much better than VII, but only a few agree with me...actually all of my friends do...its my aquaintances that don't...hmmmm

[Kuky]

FF8 was reasonable in certain ways, but not in the "Final Fantasy VIII" way... it shoulda been called "Squall's Sci-Fi Adventure 1"

[lain13ego]

...right...

[Kuky]

Hehe ok ok, I'll leave FF8 alone... unless I feel like ranting about it :D

[Palmer of the Turks]

Parasite Eve, fuckers.

AWESOME story to that game.

Anyone remember 7th Guest?

I like Syphon Filter as well.

I'm not going to duplicate anyone else's answers, as it's pointless.

I shall leave you with this quote (paraphrased) however:
"This whole website sounds like chapters from a self-help booklet!"

[Kuky]

Originally posted by Palmer of the Turks@Oct 10 2004, 06:12 AM
I shall leave you with this quote (paraphrased) however:
"This whole website sounds like chapters from a self-help booklet!"
Thank you, Kefka :P. Hehe I love that quote, it's the perfect response to everyone's ramblings hahaha.

[IGemini]

That's a Kefka quote? Either it's been too long since I've played the game or I haven't gotten that far.

*goes off to play FF3*

(I say 3 because I have the SNES emulated version :P)

[Kuky]

You can get the emulated version of 6 :P. Actually, are there any differences, other than the title screen and the language? Like, plot differences or anything that they cut out/added?

Speaking of emulation... Hehe I remember back in the days, when I used to make roms and play them on my SNES :).

[Palmer of the Turks]

I don't know about differences in 3/6, but the differences in 2/4 were MASSIVE.

The quote?

http://www.ffcompendium.com/misc/selfhelp.jpg

Hehehe.

It's right before the last boss fight.

Emulators? I loves me my emulators!
I still have to finish Seiken Densetsu 3...

Unfortunately, Zuma keeps interfering. Damn those PopCap Games!

[Kuky]

Originally posted by Palmer of the Turks@Oct 11 2004, 01:27 AM
http://www.ffcompendium.com/misc/selfhelp.jpg

*wipes tear* ah, the good old days of gaming :).

[Truth]

it's great that i have over 200 snes and nes games combined... all on my emulator playable on my xbox so i have access to all the FF's

Fusoya in FF II was the best tho...

[Clive]

he was the freaking man, I still loved Kain the most though, who knew he'd be a blonde though? jeese

[Kuky]

Kain was funny.

I'm your ally
aha, I'm your enemy!
I'm your ally
aha, I'm your enemy!
I'm your ally
aha, I'm your enemy!
I'm your ally
aha, I'm your enemy!

[Palmer of the Turks]

*bitchslaps Kain upside the head*

The Force Is Weak In This Useless Twat, Cecil

[Clive]

funny story, first time my brother and I played that, for whatever reason, we read the name Cencil, not Cecil. so we always called him that and it just got to the point that we could never call him Cecil. now, whenever I play the game, he will be Cecil to the point he turns into a paladin, at which time I visit Namingway and change it to Cencil, pretending it is a way to sever his past...by adding an 'N'

please...make fun of me for this.

oh yeah, I thought Kefka was actually Kefeka, with the second e being long, like the e sound in eat.

make fun, NOW

[Truth]

Originally posted by Clive@Oct 12 2004, 07:29 PM
he was the freaking man, I still loved Kain the most though, who knew he'd be a blonde though? jeese
Kain was my favorite.... had to love that Jump command...

[Clive]

I don't know how many times my ass was saved because he jumped and the enemy was a boss and killed the others and he was still alive cause he was in the air, it was a nice way of landing and getting the hell out of there, hehe. there was the time when you're in the underground and you have to fight golbez with just rydia and Cecil and it was sooo much easier with Kain jumping, cause his damned snake would take out rosa and I think cid was the other one I had there, but kain would jump and when he'd come back he'd just womp on them-so yeah, yay jump!

[Kuky]

Originally posted by Clive@Oct 13 2004, 02:58 AM
funny story, first time my brother and I played that, for whatever reason, we read the name Cencil, not Cecil. so we always called him that and it just got to the point that we could never call him Cecil. now, whenever I play the game, he will be Cecil to the point he turns into a paladin, at which time I visit Namingway and change it to Cencil, pretending it is a way to sever his past...by adding an 'N'

please...make fun of me for this.

oh yeah, I thought Kefka was actually Kefeka, with the second e being long, like the e sound in eat.

make fun, NOW
Hawww hawwww :).

I usually rename Umaro to Bobbie. I just think it's kinda funny :P.

[MuthaFranka]

wow, perhaps I am missing out on having never played an RPG.

Wait a second...nope!

[Truth]

to be honest you are... but on the other hand RPG's are not for everyone....


When I say everyone I mean..... nevermind... :mrgreen:

[Deidre]

Originally posted by Brass Monkey@Oct 6 2004, 10:19 PM
Ultimia 8 - Oh my god, how many hours of my life did that game suck out of me?
Ultima 7 is ten times better than Ultima 8.

[Clive]

wouldn't that make it ultima 80?