Best Original Videogame Lore?

[aozgolo]

Lore is the collective back stories, settings, and supplementary details that help enrich a game's world and narrative and make it more interesting and vibrant. There are some great games with terrible lore, and vice versa mediocre or bad games with incredibly rich lore to draw upon, most games probably fall closer in the middle.

So let's discuss which game has some of the best lore. Best how? Best written, best expressed in game, most interesting, most robust, but basically just mention your favorites and why you like it.


One caveat though: Only discuss lore that originated for a video game, games that borrowed from other existing franchises like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings should not count for this list.

 

[Zhukov]

I'll tentatively throw my Mass Effect hat into the ring, fully expecting to get jumped on.

Although I've started to come to the conclusion that the quality of a game's lore isn't determined so much by the lore itself, but by the degree to which it is made relevant within the game.

I like the Mass Effect lore because it is frequently relevant. You need to know about the Rachni Wars, the Krogan Rebellions and the Genophage in order to understand Wrex's outlook on the world and Mordin's entire character arc. You need to know about the Geth Uprising and the Migrant Fleet in order to understand Tali's motivations or Legion's behaviour.

Whereas I don't give a damn about The Elder Scrolls lore because it never seems to matter at all. It might be all very interesting, but it's all hidden away on in-game books and probably a wiki somewhere. Never seems remotely relevant to me as I laboriously clear out Cave-o-Draugr #17.

 

[Tilly]

I'm not sure how much originality really matters. It seems to me that it's far more about well realised it is. Probably my all-time favourite game world is Final Fantasy 9's. Its lore is just really a kind of shameless pilfering of european historical periods but it's insanely well done.

Both of the aforementioned are excellent too although, once again, not necessarily that original. I love both Mass Effect and Dark Souls but they are still just variations on popular and commonly used themes.

The least original has to be Dragon Age Origins. It reminded me of how Pro Evolution Soccer used to save money by not buying the licenses and just slightly renaming all of the players. David Buckingham and stuff like that. That seems to be roughly what Dragon Age did to LOTR.

 

[The Madman]

I'm really fond of the setting from the old Thief series myself. Although kept pretty vague there's just something incredibly cool about that world and its various inhabitants.

For those that haven't played the original trilogy the entire series is basically set in 'The City', a place in which early steampunk style technology meshes with ancient magic while religious turmoil, poverty, and rampant crime fill the streets. In that city you've got The Hammerites as the main religion, a fanatical order of zealots that believe in absolute order under their god and work to advance technology for their purposes:

Spoiler: Hammerites cutscene

And then you've got the Pagans, a secretive order that follows the old ways of the world. Working from the shadows they live in the dark corners and forgotten sanctuaries of The City, silently working to worship their old gods and undermine the progression of the Hammerites.

Spoiler: Pagans cutscene

Aside from those two there's the Thieves guild, the various noble houses, various wizards and necromancers, the Sheriffs and Guards, splinters from each faction sometimes even more nutty than the originals, and the Keepers, an order dedicated to the preservation of balance withing The City and self-appointed safe-keepers of the cities accumulated knowledge.

Spoiler: Keepers cutscene

Not only are the factions and setting interesting, but the way their portrayed is also brilliant. Hammerites and Pagans both have their own unique ways of speaking and dialect while the art style, a sort of dark gothic steampunk, is something I've yet to have seen replicated elsewhere. It's just a wholly unique and mysterious setting I wish I could explore further, but which, maybe for the better, has been left behind with time.

Spoiler: Still my favourite cutscene from a game, also a good demonstration of the pagan way of talking in-game

 

[Aerosteam]

POKEMON!

While some pokemon are based on real things, the idea of befriending things to fight for you to take on tougher foes then befriending them is always a fun idea. The universe is basically if animals were all superheroes.

And of course this doesn't have to apply to just monsters/creatures but unfortunately the concept hasn't been much explored outside of that yet.

 

[Hero of Lime]

POKEMON!

While some pokemon are based on real things, the idea of befriending things to fight for you to take on tougher foes then befriending them is always a fun idea. The universe is basically if animals were all superheroes.

And of course this doesn't have to apply to just monsters/creatures but unfortunately the concept hasn't been much explored outside of that yet.

That's what I came to say! For starters(no pun intended), it's a neat, unique concept. And with all the generations, the game universe keeps expanding, adding more of a sense of connectivity and depth.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Hm...I'd have to say that the game that has impressed me the most with the way it's lore works would be Dark So--

I'll call on Dark Souls, because you can bet your ass someone will.

...I hate you.

Yes, I think Dark Souls did a really good job with its lore and backstory. You get that cutscene at the beginning and that's it. If you don't take the time to read stuff, you're going to be wondering what that opening had to do with anything. But once you start looking, once you start putting the pieces together, holy cow. It puts the game in a whole new light.

The only other game lore that comes to mind that I really like is Dragon Age. The reason being that there's something there, some little piece of information, that ties everything together. It's felt like that since the first game in my opinion. There's something that everyone is missing, and if we can just find that, everything changes. I've greatly enjoyed coming up with theories about stuff, especially with the background lore and events in Dragon Age II.

Sadly, Inquisition came along and decided to turn everything on its head in the last hour or so of the game, so now I'm a bit more frustrated with it than I was before. It has, however, given me a lot more to think about.

 

[SajuukKhar]

The Elder Scrolls, if only because its a unending series of twists and turns that ultimately deconstructs standard western mythology and fantasy, and does so in such a way you would never likely notice it unless you know what to look for, not because they hide it, no because its just so fucking PERFECTLY ingrained into everything that it becomes normal.

 

[Tayh]

I'm beginning to think that it won't matter what you ask, there'll always be someone to shout how Dark Souls is the best (game) ever.
Personally, I'm going to go with the Fallout series.
There's always an interesting backstory over the vaults you come across, and there's a lot of different areas to visit and learn about.
Just wish they'd start elaborating on what happened outside of NA.

 

[Spider RedNight]

I've always rather enjoy the lore of Bioshock... notably the first game. Infinite and Bioshock 2 were good as well, however, but I found myself VERY invested in each character and their stories and how this magnificent, wretched city at the bottom of the ocean fell into chaos and disrepair.

And I'm mentioning Zelda here but namely Wind Waker. I know it's kind of simple compared to others on this list but the Zelda lore has always kind of intrigued me

 

[Evonisia]

I've always rather enjoy the lore of Bioshock... notably the first game. Infinite and Bioshock 2 were good as well, however, but I found myself VERY invested in each character and their stories and how this magnificent, wretched city at the bottom of the ocean fell into chaos and disrepair.

Same. I especially wanted to figure what happened to Diana. Then I realised there was this whole new area you can completely skip over where you find out the last shreds of her part of the story, just damn.

But since somebody already said BioShock, I'll shoot another obvious one out because shut up it's 2am: Silent Hill. There's something kinda magical how the town has the power to change itself in subtle ways with each instalment, but it generally keeps the same idea of basing its symbolism around the characters inside it, and sometimes lets you see into other people's "otherworlds" (see Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill Downpour). Of course that's not discussing stuff like the background details, the glimpses into the town's real world and how fucked up it already was (The Order adds a lot to this), the fact that it always seems to be the main villain even in Silent Hill 3 and Shattered Memories (which I won't spoil as to why I think that).

I'd say more, but it's 2am right now.

 

[Iwata]

I quite like the Killzone lore. Not just because it has a cool story, but also because it gets an entirely new twist on it if you choose to dig deeper into it. It's a series that seamlessly incorporates historical revisionism into the way the heroes see themselves.

Spoiler

The ISA are major dicks, the Helghast were pretty much screwed at every turn, blamed for everything and then kicked out of Vekta, which was originally one of their two planets

 

[RedDeadFred]

Elder Scrolls was already mentioned, So I'll go with Guild Wars.

The game itself (I've only played GW2) doesn't do to great a job of conveying all the lore to you, but once you actually look into it, it's really quite interesting. I especially like the backstories of the Asura and Sylvari.

 

[Pyrian]

The Talos Principle. I found its background remarkably affecting, even though finally finding out the actual cause of the apocalypse was a bit anticlimactic. I think it might've been better if they'd never said.

 

[Spider RedNight]

I've always rather enjoy the lore of Bioshock... notably the first game. Infinite and Bioshock 2 were good as well, however, but I found myself VERY invested in each character and their stories and how this magnificent, wretched city at the bottom of the ocean fell into chaos and disrepair.

Same. I especially wanted to figure what happened to Diana. Then I realised there was this whole new area you can completely skip over where you find out the last shreds of her part of the story, just damn.

But since somebody already said BioShock, I'll shoot another obvious one out because shut up it's 2am: Silent Hill. There's something kinda magical how the town has the power to change itself in subtle ways with each instalment, but it generally keeps the same idea of basing its symbolism around the characters inside it, and sometimes lets you see into other people's "otherworlds" (see Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill Downpour). Of course that's not discussing stuff like the background details, the glimpses into the town's real world and how fucked up it already was (The Order adds a lot to this), the fact that it always seems to be the main villain even in Silent Hill 3 and Shattered Memories (which I won't spoil as to why I think that).

I'd say more, but it's 2am right now.

It's the funniest thing but *I* was gonna say Silent Hill as well before realizing I would probably just sound foolish.

Er... not that YOU sound foolish, I'm just glad SOMEONE said it

 

[Lilani]

What they've done with the story of Final Fantasy XIV is very interesting. Originally, when the game launched, it was your typical FF story: You've got the warlike, technologically advanced Garlean empire trying to take over the land of Eorzea, a land more reliant on magic than machines but still plucky regardless. But the first launch of the game didn't go so well, so they shut the whole thing down for a year and reworked a lot of it, some from the ground up. This new build was called Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

The story in this new version was slightly different: Same general situation, but with the added angle that a "Calamity" happened five years in the past. The Garleans attempted to bring down the planet's second moon Dalamud to cleanse Eorzea of life so they could take it over and bring it under their dominion. The Eorzeans stopped the moon from crashing, but when it broke up in the sky the ancient dragon Bahamut was released and began wreaking havoc anyway. A man named Louisoix worked some magic to reseal Bahamut, and in the process sent many "adventurers" into the future--adventurers being player characters. Both the adventurers and people of Eorzea have fuzzy memories about the whole thing, with nobody being able to remember who those "Warriors of Light" were who fought Bahamut. All they know for sure is Louisoix was able to reseal Bahamut, but died in the process.

It's a neat metaphor they've set up within the game's story, making it reflect the game's actual history. People who played the original game were able to keep their characters and import them into A Realm Reborn. In the story, these characters are the ones which Louisoix sent five years into the future to help rebuild Eorzea. And the whole thing about cleansing the land and starting anew is a general reference to the game's fresh start. The game's lore is entwined with the game's actual history, and I can't really think of any other game which has done this. At least in such a dignified manner.

 

[aozgolo]

I'm not sure how much originality really matters.

By original I meant that the origins of the lore started in video-games, not as a novel series (Witcher and Lord of the Rings), movie (Star Wars, Aliens), TV Series (Star Trek, Dr. Who), or other non-VIDEO game media (I guess Forgotten Realms and Warhammer would count for this).

I am enjoying the answers, and while I don't believe there's truly a "BEST" lore as it's all subjective, I'm curious to see people's favorites. I expected some of the responses like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Mass Effect, Dark Souls, but others were a bit more surprising (Poke'mon and Killzone). Still interesting to see people's view of what makes for good lore.

I think one of my favorites is The Ivalice Alliance collection of Final Fantasy games, which includes Final Fantasy Tactics War of the Lions, Final Fantasy Tactics A2 Grimoire of the Rift, Final Fantasy XII, and Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings. The games Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Vagrant Story are also loosely connected. I like this series' lore a lot because each game's story stands well on it's own but the background lore sort of encompasses the other. I enjoyed how having played Final Fantasy Tactics first that I could discover this sort of back-story of the Lucavi demons from FFT being actual summonable Espers in FFXII. The world of Ivalice I felt was very rich and had a lot of potential that I wish there were more games set in it. It's practically worthy of spinning off into it's own thing.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

I'm beginning to think that it won't matter what you ask, there'll always be someone to shout how Dark Souls is the best (game) ever.
Personally, I'm going to go with the Fallout series.
There's always an interesting backstory over the vaults you come across, and there's a lot of different areas to visit and learn about.
Just wish they'd start elaborating on what happened outside of NA.

I'd go with Fallout as well, especially with the fact that they never explicitly said that all of the F.E.V. II was gone. So there might be a new plot with Super Mutant Supremacists.

That said as it stands in current lore only NA really counts because china basically got carpet bombed, and the rest of the world lacked Vault-Tec Vaults.