Best story

[Torkuda]

From a non-gammer, hard core anyway, I'm still interested to find out what everyone thinks is the best story they've seen in a game.

I'm not a big gamer, so for games, the Tyrain story was surprisingly interesting. I know there's better out there, but, that was one of the best I ever played.

A buddy of mine said Dragon Age's story was great, but I don't know, did anyone else really like it?

 

[tippy2k2]

Well it kind of depends on your definition of "Best Story"

What was the best story to make me cr...I mean...what story made my allergies act up?
The Walking Dead (Don't even pretend like the game didn't...make your allergies act up too!)

What story gave me the biggest gut punch?
Probably either Call of Duty 4 (kaboom!) or Spec-Ops: The Line (you know...)

As for best overall story? Gun to my head off the top of my head:

Madden The Last of Us

I absolutely adore this game. The characters (especially the voice actors) 100% make this story and makes this game my game of the year (so far...). The environment (post apocalypse) might not be the most original place ever but what they do with it is absolutely brilliant (not to mention it's very pretty).

An absolutely brilliant game that nails just about everything right.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Silent Hill 2 always lands a Top 5 place with these questions. Very good game with a very good story.
Haven't played Dragon Age so I don't know.

 

[Torkuda]

I've heard that despite having bad game play, Asura's Wrath still had a pretty good story behind it. Anyone else think so?

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Devil Survivor Overclocked. The story in that game is the definition of epic.

Final Fantasy X is another story I really enjoyed.

 

[Mikejames]

Hard to compare some genres. I can't say that I loved Shattered Memories as a psychological thriller for the same reason that I loved the strange characters and dark humor of Psychonauts.

I quite enjoyed Dragon Age Origins. Some of the fantasy elements may not break too far away from Tolkien, but it's a vast world with a lot of stories and interesting character arcs if you're willing to explore them.

What was the best story to make me cr...I mean...what story made my allergies act up?
The Walking Dead (Don't even pretend like the game didn't...make your allergies act up too!)

Haven't had the chance to play the Last of Us yet, but Telltale's Walking Dead remains one of the most gripping stories that I've played through.

Tropes were subverted, child characters were actually well-written, tears were shed.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I've heard that despite having bad game play, Asura's Wrath still had a pretty good story behind it. Anyone else think so?

It's literally a DBZ/Gurren Lagann type manly as fuck punch up anime disguised as a game. If you like anime the story, fight scenes and artstyle will 100% carry the game if you dislike the gameplay or lack thereof. For a game, it is a good anime

The "best" story is hard to say, since many stories are great for different reasons.

Best story in terms of scale and shit going down? Devil Survivor: Overclocked!

Best story in the sense of adventure? Final Fantasy IX

It really depends, some can be great for being epic, while another can be great for being a tearjerker.

I think you meant to type "Persona 4" there Tizzy. Lucky I caught your massive oversight huh?

OT: Obviously Persona 4. It's like someone took a list of every genre I like and mashed them together perfectly. Upbeat, murder mystery anime game with Visual Novel elements mixed into gameplay with an intelligent plot with interesting characters. All the theming is excellent with every theme followed through and not just left hanging because "cba lol"

Looking at you Bioshock Infinite.

You know i've just realised that Naoto is like the best reverse trap ever... Stop perverting my innocence 4Chan! T_T

[sub][sub]Fucking /a/...[/sub][/sub]

 

[skywolfblue]

1st place) Portal 1 & 2: Nearly every line will bring a smile to your face. It's not a deep philosophy or a grand epic, but it's a completely exciting, interesting, and whimsical tale. If you have not played these, go out and play them. Now!

2nd place) Bastion: Like portal it's not a grand epic, it's a smaller, more personal tale and it's narration is the best, bar none. The story is interesting, and well worth hearing.

3rd place) Starcraft series / Warcraft series (including World of Warcraft): About as grand of an epic as you can get, if you want to spend hours and hours learning the story/history/lore these two game series will give you that in spades. They've got plenty of flaws yes, but also plenty of gems.

4th place) Bioshock series: If you like examination of political topics, this is a great game to do so. The first game takes a look at objectivism, the second at collectivism, and Infinite looks at exceptionalism. It also explains and examines the many flaws of these systems, and how any political system taken to an extreme is a dangerous path.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Hmm hard to say I will just mention the stories that have stayed with me and I thought/think were excellent:-

The Longest Journey (and by extension Dreamfall)
FFVII
To the Moon
Persona 4 and Persona 4 the ultimate in Mayonaka Arena
Valkyria Chronicles

There are others I remember but I think these are my favourite stories I have encountered in games and thus best for me. I probably would have had the Walking dead in there but the game fell apart for me after episode 2 when it became to transparent mechanically and as such I stopped caring about the characters for me the game part actually weakened the story there with its false meaningless choices making it feel gimmicky and unreal, shame really also I seem to be one of the few who didnt give 2 shits about Clementine however I suppose the story was good enough to pull me thorough but I was glad when it finished.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

1st place) Portal 1 & 2: Nearly every line will bring a smile to your face. It's not a deep philosophy or a grand epic, but it's a completely exciting, interesting, and whimsical tale. If you have not played these, go out and play them. Now!

I really like Portal and I think it's very funny, but as far as story goes... it's really just some gal jumping through hoops, isn't it? Like literally jumping through hoops. Again, it's very funny and it does the ambience thing formidably, but not much of an arc going on.

 

[lacktheknack]

Oh, easy. Geneforge.

The set-up, the idea that humans have discovered magic and the ability to "shape" life out of chemicals, resulting in a strange dystopia where the "Shapers" are king, is a great and unique idea, and the game's hook of "What if the created life became sentient?" is a dangerous and fascinating hook indeed.

The game actively shaped my opinions on cloning and genetic manipulation. No other game has done that.

 

[Drummodino]

Persona 4. The most amazing video game story I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying. Nothing even comes close to that masterpiece in my opinion.

Some other excellent stories:

Persona 3
The Last of Us
The Walking Dead
Spec Ops: The Line
Shadow of the Colossus

 

[scorptatious]

There really isn't a "best" story in my opinion. Too subjective. There are several different kinds of story telling, and they each offer something the others can't.

That being said, games like Shadow of the Colossus, Final Fantasy IX, and Metal Gear Solid 3 have some of my favorite stories in gaming.

SotC is a simplistic story that leaves a lot up to the imagination of the player. It's pretty much driven by emotion and piecing together what little information you are given. As the game goes on, you can tell that what you are doing is wrong, but it's the only way to bring back your loved one from the dead.

Final Fantasy IX is a tale that follows a very central theme: Life and Death. A lot of the characters in the game end up facing a similar issue, such as one's purpose in life, what happens after death, ect. I think the game did a great job at developing everyone's character and connecting it to the game's central theme. Particularly with...

Spoiler

Vivi. A young boy who finds that he was an artificially created soldier made to destroy things. Later on, he finds that he has a short, yet undetermined life span after hearing about how the other black mages eventually "stopped" shortly after creation.

By the end of the game, thanks to his travels with Zidane and crew, he grew to accept who he is and lived life to the fullest. He creates new black mages in his image, most likely to carry on his legacy and to pass on what he has learned, and dies shorty afterwards.

MGS3 is a more complex title that involves espionage, loyalty to one's country, betrayal, and patriotism.

Spoiler

By finding out about what the Boss's true intentions were, Naked Snake/Big Boss, a man who was previously loyal to his country and it's government, was broken, his ideologies changed, and he set himself on the course to becoming the villain of Metal Gear 1 and 2.

 

[Blitsie]

I've heard that despite having bad game play, Asura's Wrath still had a pretty good story behind it. Anyone else think so?

Definitely! It's like the Gurren Lagann of games (the craziest most over the top game ever) and its super-cool over the top nature is basically what makes its rather simple story so darn enjoyable. It is, in a nutshell, "The Rule of Cool: The Game" if I had to call it something.

Anyway, my personal choice is definitely Planescape: Torment, still the best story I've ever experienced in any game ever, just everything from the deep characters to the twisted world they reside in makes it so glorious. You encounter everything from a brothel that only satisfies intellectual lusts (clients go there to philosophize and play chess)to a demon that's been cursed to do only good things (which you can abuse the hell out of for the lulz).

 

[diligentscribbler]

Portal, definitely Portal, yep Portal.

or maybe Bioshock.

But probably Portal, I mentioned Portal yeah?

 

[Squilookle]

People keep asking this question. The answer remains the same to this day:

Nothing else even comes close. If you haven't experienced this games's story, boy are you missing out.


Even just the trailer gives me goosebumps at the 2:00 mark.

 

[INVALIDUSERNAME]

Probably one of the Bioshocks. The first is great but I loved Infinite that much more, and I just recently got done beating it again on 1999 Mode, so I'll give my bet to Bioshock: Infinite for now.

Such a good fuckin' game.

 

[Agayek]

I've heard that despite having bad game play, Asura's Wrath still had a pretty good story behind it. Anyone else think so?

Eh. It's not great. The story is pretty boilerplate, to be honest. Big hotshot general gets betrayed, his wife murdered and daughter kidnapped, and he goes on an honestly pretty brutal rampage to get his daughter back and avenge himself. There's nothing really spectacular about it and it's not told particularly well, not to mention the voice acting is just bad.

The game itself I rather enjoyed though, even though something like 70% of it is quick time events. The story just isn't the reason why. It's strengths are the aesthetic, the absolutely ridiculous, TTGL-esque escalation, and the combat outside of the QTE's being pretty damn good.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I think I would have to go with Bastion. Its world has an amazing back story that deals with racism, genocide, war, and moral conflict. The main story with "The Kid" slowly grows on you until you are utterly sucked in. By the end, you're questioning yourself on whether the creatures/people you are killing really deserve the fate you are giving them.

There are two major choices that come late in the game. The first one (depending on the choice) is so heart-wrenchingly beautiful that I full out cried. The second one let's you contemplate whether we should live with the mistakes people have made and make the best of it, or try and correct them.

All of this fantastic story telling is accompanied by beautiful art, fun gameplay, and one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard. Not just in video games, but in movies too.