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The best story and characters in gaming

L

Luffytubby

Member
"Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important." - John Carmack



I love and hate stories in video games. I think many of us feel that they fall short compared to the best of films and books. It's not even close. On the flipside, gaming has produced some unique stories you wouldn't anywhere else due to its interactive nature. We all have our favorites. In 2019 for me, stories in games serve as the motivation to push onward. A story can be good from multiple angles. It can also be a mixed bag that still entertain you immensely.

Sometimes you have a bad or mediocre story supported by wonderful stories. Sometimes you have a mediocre story helped by a great twist. Sometimes you have an average story, but heightened for how it introduces player mechanics, manipulation and choice to it.
Does that mean that a linear-passive-cutscene experience like ala Kojima-madness marathon is inferior to dialogue wheel escapades of Bioware stories? I don't think so. It's just different.



My favorite story and game? To this day, it is Witcher III. I loved the world, the characters, the writing and the questing. Witcher III is certainly formularic. Like the vast vast majority of quests and story in the game revolves around you the player, activiting your spidy-witcher senses. Geralt is as much a detective of fantasy mystery as he is a monster slayer. This sort of storytelling mechanic to use context sensitive powers of the player character to show "what happened" has been used in so many games.
Its just the quality of everything that is so insane. The voice acting is amazing. The cut scenes are great. The worst thing you can really say about the Witcher III's story is probably the main quests "big bad guy" who folds into predictable territory. Fortunately the villains of the expansions redeem it completely and take Geralts conclusion to new heights. And the very last moment of the ending is just perfect. Now that is how you say goodbye to a character you have come to love.

NpcIKUw.jpg


It's been more than four years now since The Witcher III toppled Ocarina of Time for me as the best game I have ever played. Since then, I have been searching for great narratives with cool characters, good voice acting and bespoke animations that take me to another world. Witcher III was an emotional rollercoaster for me as my first playthrough of the title gave me the worst and most depressing of the endings. After around 90 hours, the main quest lines conclusion left me feeling shite. I had really mucked it up with the choices I have made, and then you just watch it unfold as a trainwreck.
Mass Effect 2s ending was a fantastic trainwreck. The way your party members could get chopped off one-by-one as you made your way towards the end was fantastic.
But in Witcher III I didn't understand what was happening until it was too late. I left W3 alone until the two expansions came out and did another playthrough and 100% everything in the game. The stories and characters in Heart of Stone and Blood & WIne are amazing. The locations and premise is amazing. The post-launch improvements they did also was a massive leg up. The main quest of Witcher 3 has a sort of basic formularic climax, but the expansions serve as the real ending and it just took W3 from a great game, to the greatest game ever for me.





What are stories and characters in games that stand out to you in 2019? Older games or newer, which games had a plot that really sticks with you as the best you have experienced?
 
GreyHorace

GreyHorace

Member
Welp. Your first post took my choice and explained it better than I could have. The Witcher 3 is my go to example for best story in a videogame. I used to think Bioware were the masters of storytelling until I noticed how formulaic their plots were (even in Dragon Age Origins, their best written game). But CDProjekt take storytelling in an rpg to a whole other level for me.

Another example for a game with great story and characters would be the recent Red Dead Redemption 2.
 
The Cockatrice

The Cockatrice

Member
Well a lot of games deal with the main story in different ways. I will agree that Witcher 3 is top tier to this day but I think I would like to nominate other games that impressed me just as much and those are the Mass Effect and Uncharted series. I believe these 3 series, Witcher included, are one of the best when it comes to characters. You absolutely cannot hate Drake, Geralt or Shepard(femshep included) and its weird that to this day I have yet to love a character as much as this trio. And its not just the main chars that are great but the supporting cast is incredible as well.

Also an honorable mention should go to Divinity OS2 and I wish if they ever make a third one that the cast remains because I sure liked them a lot.
 
Arachnid

Arachnid

Member
Favorite video game characters for me are easy, and I don't think they'll ever be replaced.

tumblr_o9g79tsrXl1us5zpuo1_500.gif


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Best story in a video game for me is Silent Hill 2 though. It's kept that title for most of my life. It did a fantastic job of tackling so many mature themes, and every character had a satisfying/heartbreaking arc and ending. I hope it gets the remake it deserves someday.
 
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Danjin44

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
For me personally it’s NIER Gestalt and NieR Automata, and what I like about the stories those games is that it fully uses video game as medium to tell its stories. Yoko Taro doesn’t write stories like it’s writing for movies, the way he write stories can only be told through video games.


 
L

Lastyou1

Banned
Geralt of Rivia. The way CD Project Red expanded and improved the books' universe is astonishing.

Another great, complex and easily misunderstood character is Squall from FF8, easily the best FF protagonist. I also love his atypical love story with Rinoa and reversed coming-of-age development and growth.


In terms of pure story Bioshock and Silent Hill 2 are untopped.

Solid Snake was a very favorite of mine until Kojima really switched to Big Boss. The real hero of MGS is Solid Snake, not Big Boss.
 
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Danjin44

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
DESTROYA said:
God of War series, sure it’s mostly just a revenge fantasy with the first games but the last one really shines with the father son bonding with Atreus.
Click to expand...
The funny thing about that is, his "revenge" didn't begin until the 2nd game. After he killed his family he worked with Athena for 10 years to get free from his nightmare and Athena's final task was is to kill Ares.
 
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decisions

decisions

Member
RDR2 definitely. The Witcher 3 is a great game with a fantastic world, but RDR2 simply does it better. Arthur's character arc is weaved directly into the gameplay and world. The way that you play the game at the beginning will be very different than how you play it towards the end, if the story does have its intended effect on your, and for me it totally did. Not to mention, the characters around Arthur are no slouches themselves. Everyone in the camp nearly feels like a real person, along with many of the side characters that you meet out in the world. The amount of contextual consequences present in the game is just unreal.

I'm not saying it's the only game that has a good story, but man it really is one of those rare games that has a high budget and uses every cent of it to create a world that is just unrivaled. Far above anything else R* has done and surpasses any other open-world dev. However, I am sure that CDPR has really studied this game and I will be interested to see how Cyberpunk turns out in light of that.
 
cr0w

cr0w

Old Member
Red Dead 2 and Arthur are my favorite game story and protagonist of all time, bar none. The Lords of Shadow series is a close second.

I tend to prefer narratives that aren't linear or obvious though, so Ueda's games are also waaaay up there for me, especially SotC.
 
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D

Dragon Lord

Member
I do think interactivity can enhance storytelling. Take a game like The Last of Us. Great story—but not a complex or original one. Fantastic characters. By being in their shoes and playing through their journey, you experience their suspense, their despair, their heartbreaks and their hopes. That makes the simple story feel real and important in a way I doubt would be nearly as effective if it were a passive experience (i.e. a film).
 
WindomURL

WindomURL

Member
Nothing ever hit me like MGS did back in 98, and nothing has since. Sure, may be some rose colored glasses involved or whatever, but it remains at the top for me.

Witcher 3 was pretty damn close. If I had never played MGS it would certainly be number one.

Next would probably be The Last of Us.
 
deriks

deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
Luffytubby said:
"Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important." - John Carmack
Click to expand...
I kinda like some stories, but yeah, I'm with Carmack. I play for fun in first place, not really because of the story.
Mistershine. said:
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Click to expand...
Oh, my

Also, "Lula" is the nickname of our ex president that is in jail, so this title is kinda weird to me
 
Fbh

Fbh

Member
I really like what Yoko Taro has done with the Nier games. As Danjin44 Danjin44 said, he is great at telling stories that can only really work in videogame format and that take full advantage of the medium.

I also still really like Mass Effect. It doesn't have the best writing or plot, and they screwed up big time with 3. But in a way I still think it's one of the most fun and engaging worlds in modern gaming, and IMO no game has quite managed to replace it or attempted to create such a compelling new universe. It had all of these different alien races with their own backstories and traits and worlds, it was this fun and engaging gaming universe that IMO could easily rival stuff like Star Wars
3388740-masseffectraces.jpg


And thanks to it being a game and the way you interact with characters I felt like they did a good job at fleshing out several of the characters and races way more than in some popular TV/Movie properties . I can tell you more about Grunt and the Krogan or about Legion and the Geth than any of the new Star Wars characters introduced since Disney took over.

I really hope that , somehow, EA discards the franchise and some new and talented studio gets to do something with it. It's a real shame that right now the best you can hope for when it comes to mass effect is that "Bioware" gets a chance to screw up a new title.
 
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synchronicity

synchronicity

Member
I do love Silent Hill. It is quite deep, emotionally and thematically. But I already saw a mention.

But I'll mention another series that, for me, deserves high praise, and that's Ueda's trilogy of games. His narratives are far more subtle and open to interpretation than what most people would identify as great story telling, but that's precisely what I love so much about them. There is enough information given to form some ideas, but never too much. We're never explicitly told all the finer details. If it was a connect-the-dot puzzle, it would be missing some dots. What we're left with is an ambiguous puzzle that has room to be fleshed out within the imagination, and that, for me, is the most powerful and impactful form of narrative delivery. I'm engaged long after I've filed the games away. And the suggestions connecting all three titles leaves so much room for imaginative play. I just find his approach to be particularly deft. To me, he's a genuine artist.
 
Clear

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Luffytubby said:
"Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important." - John Carmack
Click to expand...

Story in videogames preceded the obsession with graphics that ID's output exemplifies. The early days of computer gaming were dominated by pure text adventures like those produced by Infocom or Scott Adams' Adventure International. Later on graphics got added (Melbourne House' The Hobbit for example) but always text remained the primary interface.

The truth is that Story is as intrinsic to gaming as shooting is, historically speaking. In terms of popularity the influence of arcade gaming supplanted it over the course of the 80's, with that in turn eventually giving way as the tropes carried in from the coin-op format (lives, continues, game overs, etc. which in truth were just mechanisms to feed another quarter into the slot) were recognized as be redundant in an ownership-driven marketplace.
 
Myths

Myths

Member
Way too many posts without any mention of Chrono Trigger. At the Bottom of the Night playing during Glen and Cyrus’ discussion on Zenan Bridge...
latest


One of the best scenes in the game next to the END of 65M B.C. second arc. But really, everything comes together including granting the player the power to affect the storyline and smaller side quests.
 
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#Phonepunk#

#Phonepunk#

Banned
MGS easily have peak stories. i remember the first time i played through MGS, and i was so bad at it, and the controls were so frustrating, yet i played on, for the promise of more codecs and more cutscenes. the voice acting was perfect, the story thrillingly insane, i loved it. later on the gameplay got to be really really good, worth playing on it's own. when Ground Zeroes came out i had so much fun running all the side tasks and playing in the sandbox. makes sense that the middle entry, MGS3, is generally regarded as having the best story.

other than that, not much tbh. i like the writing in the original DOOM but don't really care for the new one's story (& thank god it doesn't either). for the new Tomb Raiders, the story was the worst part. Assassin's Creed stories i absolutely hated ever since trying Black Flag, falling in love with the tutorial island mission, then getting pulled out into a modern day office for a 30 minute long unskippable info dump. almost quit the whole game right then and there.

the old graphic adventures used to have really cool stories with great original characters. the Monkey Island series was my favorite. Guybrush Threepwood, the Cannibals, LeChuck, the Voodoo Lady, the three headed monkey, Herman Toothrot, so many from the first two games leave a lifelong impression.
 
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D

DarthBuzzer

Member
Xenogears is still the most ambitious and metaphysical story I've experienced in a game. It really makes you think and has lots of great twists with amazingly written characters.

The crazy thing is that it was meant to be only 1 of 6 games worth of story.
 
Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Panzer Dragoon Saga for overall story I guess. Pretty epic shit with complex characters in even more complex situations. I'd read a book of that (they novelized it iirc but I think only in Japan). I like the stories of lots of other games but they tend to be less story driven and more gameplay/systems driven. Like System Shock 2. I wouldn't read a novel of that without a ton of added elements that weren't in the game to make it interesting. While the game was interesting mechanically and made it a cool journey for the player, it wouldn't be cool to just read about scavenging empty rooms etc.
saturn_panzerdragoonsmrj94.jpg

If you want to reminisce of Panzer Dragoon Saga's entirety without actually playing through it (or watching it on youtube I guess) you can go through this little write up that comes complete with screenshots of each scene and area. Very nice stuff.

Part 4: Panzer Dragoon Saga

After the events of Panzer Dragoon drew to a close, roughly thirty years passed before the next chapter of the story, Panzer Dragoon Saga, took place.
www.panzerdragoonlegacy.com www.panzerdragoonlegacy.com
Xenogears is another good one for sure. And Final Fantasy Tactics. And Vagrant Story. They're slowly coming back to me, I'm old :p
ps1_xenogears_5eujh3.jpg
ps1_finalfantasytactii8khm.jpg
ps1_vagrantstory_5bdjly.jpg

Grandia was great too imo. Lovely feelings of adventure similar to what Skies of Arcadia did later but the stakes did grow to epic levels too.
ps1_grandia_6ppjcs.jpg

On the PC side I love the likes of Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale, Gothic II, Fallout 2 and others. I was younger as a console gamer so I think of these first though.
 
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ROMhack

ROMhack

Member
Some that have stuck with me:

MGS2
Xenogears
Soma
Deus Ex and Human Revolution
Mother 3
Nier: Automata
Bioshock
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
The Talos Principle
Grim Fandango
Broken Sword
Killer 7
Final Fantasy VI
Ico
Shadow of the Colossus

All very different. They range from making me think deeply about the world, to more simply enjoying the characters/respective worlds.
 
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Barnabot

Barnabot

Member
Xenogears.

and the James Sutherland's quest of his own consciousness. a.k.a. Silent Hill 2.

Now where's the love MiyazakiHatesKojima ?
 
E

EightBit Man

Member
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was fantastic, but I could make a case for all the previous entries from Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake onwards.

The game felt like a genuine journey, with a outstanding cast of characters, great drama, plot twists, lots of tension, and it gave a good feeling of progression throughout the different environments. Without a doubt my favorite PlayStation 2 game of all-time.

9.7/10
 
Ballthyrm

Ballthyrm

Member
It may sound cliche but the best stories are the one we make ourselves in game.

Sure we got great characters, memorable scenes, exploration of deeper themes, but great stories overall, I'm not sure.

When I hear about the crazy contraption of the eve online community, or the exploits of bird Jesus on twitch play Pokemon, that's kind of the stuff I want to remember about video games stories.

To each his own I guess.
 
Tahj

Tahj

Member
As a few have already pointed out W3/Geralt & Co., I'll go to my other favorite, Final Fantasy VII, along with its prequel Crisis Core (I'd include Last Order, but I've never played it, just read all abt it). When I first played FFVII at launch, I was 18, & didn't really take it all in, meaning the story. Graphics were cool, characters were cool in their cutscenes, music was cool, etc., etc. It wasn't until Crisis Core came out - which had some imo painful one-noteness, don't get me wrong - that I really ~got it~, & immediately played FFVII afterwards, &...damn, it worked for me, made the entire run mean so much more. To this day, Hojo is my most hated/loved villain...Gaunter O'Dimm gets a close second, however.
 
SlashBringingHasher

SlashBringingHasher

Banned
i dont care for stories in games too much as long as its enough to enhance the world building. i could care less about details or drama in games stories. it just has to be enough to make the worldbuilding right. the rest i could care less about. which is why I absolutely loathe games like uncharted, last of us and metal gear. and most japanese games.

my favorite story is probably dark souls or something its so basic. there aren't much of cutscenes or dialogue. perfect. am here to play a game not watch a movie. let me make my own experience.
 
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