Topic: Best story in the video game medium

[Darkson]

What do you guys think it is?
Metal gear has a good story, but it is sorta overly convoluted and towards the end, becomes odd.

So, I'd have to say that the legacy of kain has the best story in the medium. Hell, it is my favorite vampire centered story. The combination of the solid voice acting, the expertly written story, and intriguing characters really makes the series one of the best I've seen in any medium, and I am an avid reader in mature fantasy like George Martin and terry brooks.

[Kale]

I can agree with that. VtM Bloodlines does it well too.


I have yet to play Half-life's story so the story of that is lost on me. But I do hear lots of people saying it's story is very good as well.

[Neobelmont]

Sometimes being simple is the best way to go. So I say Dragon Warrior even if it is simple (maybe too simple for it's own good). Overall I think the stories presented in DW are ones that everyone can really enjoy and to me that is a "best story"  .

[crisis]

::waits for someone to say OCARINA OF TIME::

this topic is entirely subjective. i;m partial to Final Fantasy Tactics (the very first one), and cowboy bebop

[KaZudra]

::waits for someone to say OCARINA OF TIME::

this topic is entirely subjective. i;m partial to Final Fantasy Tactics (the very first one), and cowboy bebop

OoT has a super-weak story.

My vote is on Bioshock 1+2

[Kale]

::waits for someone to say OCARINA OF TIME::

this topic is entirely subjective. i;m partial to Final Fantasy Tactics (the very first one), and cowboy bebop

That's another one that I can agree with, even if the end was weak. But no story is really "perfect" in my eyes.

[Neobelmont]

OoT has a super-weak story.

Super weak or super simple hmmm both in my opinion just if I were to say this on a Zelda forum I would get toasted to tell the truth zelda stories have never really impressed me for some reason they were more good than bad, but....

Another one I would like to say is onimusha just good action packed storyline goodness with the oni and everything.

[Ahasverus]

Legacy of Kain without a doubt. Recently I would put up there Bioshock and To the Moon.
Red Dead Redemption should be uo there too

[Ratty]

Part of the problem with game stories, and this goes all the way back to pen and paper RPGs, is that you can have the most moving, epic and deep tale to tell in the world. But none of that makes any difference if all the player wants to do is hang out in the bar and hit on wenches.
An 8 Bit Reenactment of Dungeons and Dragons
So unlike other mediums to some degree "how good" the story is depends on the player, as they actively drive (or fail to drive) it. So how good or bad a story is for the viewer/player will if anything be even more subjective than in passive mediums.

All that said, I'm hard pressed to think of a game that I think could stand up to the best of writing and film, but "Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines" is certainly a good start. And for fantasy I've always been rather fond of FFIX's setting and characters/characterization, and the story is not bad either.

[Abnormal Freak]

My vote is on Bioshock 1+2

I figured someone would say BioShock, and it indeed has a good story.

But, allow me to gush over Thief: The Dark Project s'more here. I've been in love with it for 14 years after all.

The story was actually written by Ken Levine, same dude who did BioShock. He was trying to make it in Hollywood as a screenwriter before moving on to games; he apparently got into games because Looking Glass Studios thought to hire someone from Hollywood to write the story for their game.

Anyway, the story in Thief is deeply involved, very mystical, it has an interesting steampunk setting (cool, reserved steampunk sort of like the movie Brazil but in a medieval setting, not that stupid bullshit cosplayers are doing today), and holy shit I dunno how much I can say without completely ruining the story for anyone who wants to play it, but it's great.

But yeah, you're this dude who as a kid was a pickpocket, you try to nab money from a dude in a cloak who's part of the Keeper Order, he recognizes your skill and takes you in, trains you, you leave the Keepers, you use the skills to not just pickpocket but extensively rob men of high standing, and...man, I can't go further without spoilers, lol. But there are a lot of fascinating characters involved, there are the Hammerites, a religious order who worship the Builder and have a boner for making and wielding hammers, there's creepy undead shit and ghosts... I really can't go into the twists and turns of the story, but what starts out as, "I'm gonna steal things," turns into this big story that's again really involved and interactive, and it goes into some really dark territory.

Thief II: The Metal Age also has a fantastic story. There's a new Hammerite denomination known as the Mechanists, led by a really eccentric and prophetic guy, and they bring about the Metal Age with awesome stuff like steam-powered security robots, really making the steampunk fantasy even stronger than in the first game. Amazing stuff happens there as well; you'll just have to take my word for it.

:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O:O

And the mission briefs and cutscenes are a treat to watch. The lead artist developed a really cool method for creating unique animation (which also occasionally involved silhouettes of actual people), and he wanted to do the movie adaptation for A Scanner Darkly and it's bullshit the producers didn't go with him 'cos the faux-animated look of the actual movie sucks cojones.

Thief: The Dark Project - Intro

(I'm convinced, by the way, that the intro for Batman Beyond was inspired by this game's intro.)

[Abnormal Freak]

Oh, but other than that (lol), Silent Hill 2 has an incredible story, as does killer7. The quality of storytelling in these games is pretty rare, I find. They actually resemble movies while still being interactive video games, which I really like.

Oh, and Conker's Bad Fur Day. That has some of the best writing and dialog in a game—not even joking.

[TheouAegis]

Maybe it's just me, but on the topic of Half-Life, I think the story is good only by way of what is not told in the game(s). There were a lot of questions left unanswered in the first game. Some of the were answered in Blue Shift and the other side-story (forgot what it's called), but they left even more questions unanswered. And then along came HL2 and woo-boy! Talk about more questions being left unanswered! The beauty of Half-Life is it told you enough and yet kept so much unexplained so that you felt the HL universe could very well be real.

That and it was just plain creepy. It borrowed elements from so many sci-fi and horror novels and movies and meshed them into a simple story of scientist-opens-portal-to-another-dimension-and-lets-aliens-into-our-realm-and-must-stop-the-invasion. It's as cliche and simplistic as it sounds, but the question on everyone's mind -- what in blazes was Black Mesa up to in the first place?! Whatever it was, it called for a military strike against Black Mesa personnel as well as the aliens. And then you get to Nihilanth and all your assumptions just fizzle away -- it's a fucking fetus slave! What the hell did they do to its body?! ... AND WHO ARE THEY?! ... Wait, how did G-Man get here?
...Enter HL2.


Supposedly there's a big story within Half-Life series, but it's not all laid out in the game. Mostly backstory you have to read into, I think.

[Johnny Alucard]

Legacy of Kain without a doubt. Recently I would put up there Bioshock and To the Moon.
Red Dead Redemption should be uo there too

Oh, yes, definitely. Red Dead Redemption was incredibly well written.  It set the tone for each of the areas perfectly, the characters were very memorable, and it really captured the feel of the dying spirit of the Old West.

[Neobelmont]

I always wanted to play this game yet I don't have a dreamcast. And that game is Shenmue anyone whos has played that what impression did one get from that game, As for me I think Okami needs some love and I am really enjoying Tales of Vesperias story.

[Claimh Solais]

The Assassin's Creed franchise.

Definitely one of the best stories I have ever even seen.