Game With the Best Story? (For school assignment)
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There are many games out there with stories to impress gamers. To make it easiest on yourself and to best impress or convince an arts/English teacher, just go with the first recommendation of Shadow of the Colossus.
For an artsy type a game like Mass Effect will come off as little more than boy/man-child fiction. A game like Planescape Torment is great but it's basically a massive novel and a little too deep. You'd really be biting off a lot if you pick that.
SotC on the other hand is a 10 hour game, a simple but powerful concept, and most importantly isn't something that can be better replicated through writing or film.
For an artsy type a game like Mass Effect will come off as little more than boy/man-child fiction. A game like Planescape Torment is great but it's basically a massive novel and a little too deep. You'd really be biting off a lot if you pick that.
SotC on the other hand is a 10 hour game, a simple but powerful concept, and most importantly isn't something that can be better replicated through writing or film.
Actually, yeah. You have a very good point. There is a huge fallacy in saying "the best example being ______" since you really can't say that. There is no "best", you can't just pinpoint one. That's like trying to say "the best movie story is ______". There are many, and every person will have a different answer.Tzekelkan said:
It would be best to give a few examples of good stories (and give examples where each game tells the stories in different, unique and creative ways, such as with Heavy Rain, very good example of how uniquely it tells the story, and that you can even influence how the story unfolds) and try to explain why they are good, but not say one or a couple of them are the best.
If he/she said something to that effect, I think it would be more of a valid argument.
Vagrant Story or Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. Yasumi Matsuno makes every writer in gaming look like an amateur fanfiction writer.
Mass Effect has great writing, but not really a great story. I say this as someone who considers Bioware as my favorite game studio, and Mass Effect as one of my favorite games. Sadly, there's almost no way to have a truly great story when that story is constructed basically mix-and-match, dependent on player choice. The actual main plot in Mass Effect is actually rather silly, when you remove it from the context of the game. Giant genocidal space robots are coming to destroy the galaxy, and one man/woman has to stop them. That's not a great story, that's a B-movie scifi action plot.
If I were going to try to make this sort of argument, I'd actually focus in on one of the subplots. For example, the rachni plot from ME or the decision about whether to kill or essentially brainwash the geth on Legion's loyalty mission in ME2. Perhaps focus on the story behind one particular character, maybe even one of the non-party member characters such as Saren, Ambassador Udina or Matriarch Benezia. Those might be strong enough to support an argument for games as art. The main storyline of the ME series is not. It's a ton of fun to play through, but it's fun in the same way that action movies are fun. It's not deep in the way that stories which are widely thought of as works of art are.
Oh, wait.
I'm not saying words are necessary to the creation of a great story, but claiming that the best stories are always told without words is patently ridiculous.
If I were going to try to make this sort of argument, I'd actually focus in on one of the subplots. For example, the rachni plot from ME or the decision about whether to kill or essentially brainwash the geth on Legion's loyalty mission in ME2. Perhaps focus on the story behind one particular character, maybe even one of the non-party member characters such as Saren, Ambassador Udina or Matriarch Benezia. Those might be strong enough to support an argument for games as art. The main storyline of the ME series is not. It's a ton of fun to play through, but it's fun in the same way that action movies are fun. It's not deep in the way that stories which are widely thought of as works of art are.
Yeah, like the Godfather movies, Watchmen, A Song of Ice and Fire and the work of Shakespeare and Mark Twain. Not a single word in any of that.Daystar Clarion said:
Oh, wait.
I'm not saying words are necessary to the creation of a great story, but claiming that the best stories are always told without words is patently ridiculous.
With regards to Mass Effect, might I suggest you read http://www.couchathletics.com/content/135-mass-effect-generations-star-trekzHellas said:
I want to start with some mild constructive criticism: it sounds like you're asking for the best story in a game only to give it a back-handed compliment - as if to say the entire medium hasn't yet reached the level of literature or cinema. While in pure quantity of quality this is true, the ratio of gold to shit is about the same as it's always been with books and movies. It just might not seem that way because only the greats are rememebered. But for every good book or movie, there are thousands of bad ones, just like games.
That said, I think Majora's Mask is a candidate, though the most profound stuff is in the subtext, not mentioned in the surface story. Link has 3 days before the moon hits the earth, and the ability to relive those 3 days over and over, like Groundhogs Day. He uses the repitition to predict and help all of the land's habitants with their problems, and in doing so gains abilities and advantages that he can take back with him through time. Resetting the timeline, however, undoes all of the help he's given to the locals. So in order to save the world from complete destruction, he gets to grant everybody a glimpse of happiness, then take it away, make them forget, and leave them miserable so that they may survive. Also, he gets to do most of it wearing cute rabbit ears.
Better than countless books or movies.
But if you're just looking to see what most people say, a) you should have made a poll, and b) I'd join the KOTOR party.
That said, I think Majora's Mask is a candidate, though the most profound stuff is in the subtext, not mentioned in the surface story. Link has 3 days before the moon hits the earth, and the ability to relive those 3 days over and over, like Groundhogs Day. He uses the repitition to predict and help all of the land's habitants with their problems, and in doing so gains abilities and advantages that he can take back with him through time. Resetting the timeline, however, undoes all of the help he's given to the locals. So in order to save the world from complete destruction, he gets to grant everybody a glimpse of happiness, then take it away, make them forget, and leave them miserable so that they may survive. Also, he gets to do most of it wearing cute rabbit ears.
Better than countless books or movies.
But if you're just looking to see what most people say, a) you should have made a poll, and b) I'd join the KOTOR party.
Mass Effect's good, as it uses old elements in an original way, but Planescape: Torment had the best story. You cannot die. The entire plot is one long, drawn out suicide, in the best fantasy setting there is. Imagine if the multiverse concept from Dark Tower was explained coherently. Too bad the gameplay suffered because, hey, you can't die. It's kind of like Memento, except with a millenia-old zombie for a main character.
But some of the best stories are little side detours, not even associated with quests. Stories about a werebear, or a man duty-bound to sterilize a planet with orbital bombardment, crying the whole time. Some of your followers have backstories almost as interesting as your own-especially Daakon. Did you play the Fallout:New Vegas Honest Hearts expansion? Imagine if you found stories like the Zion Survivor's routinely scattered around.
And I won't even get into how awesome Ignus is. That game really made you feel for its characters.
But some of the best stories are little side detours, not even associated with quests. Stories about a werebear, or a man duty-bound to sterilize a planet with orbital bombardment, crying the whole time. Some of your followers have backstories almost as interesting as your own-especially Daakon. Did you play the Fallout:New Vegas Honest Hearts expansion? Imagine if you found stories like the Zion Survivor's routinely scattered around.
And I won't even get into how awesome Ignus is. That game really made you feel for its characters.
I'm not trying to be a grammar Nazi, but maybe a better way to word that sentence would be "Stories in games are currently bad, to be honest, but the apparent "best" one is ______."zHellas said:
Sorry...just...had to get that out of my system...
OT: Anyway, best stories hmmmm? Well, my personal choices would be as follows:
-Persona 3
-Hotel Dusk
-Last Window (sequel to Hotel Dusk)
-Phoenix Wright (specifically, Trials and Tribulations)
-Apollo Justice
I say these because they are primarily about the story and less about the gameplay. They are great stories, and since they focus on characters and plot moreso than anything else, it makes sense they are pretty good. If they didn't have good stories, there wouldn't be much interest there.
Oh, and because I do so love it, Okami. I thought it had a great storyline, personally.
Way to take something I said out of context.honeybunch said:
I didn't say that the likes of the Godfather were bad stories, but in terms of games, a great story can be experienced with very little written or spoken words.
Probably Bioshock.
Assassin's Creed 2 had a pretty great story too. Very few games have this much of a well done character arc.
Assassin's Creed 2 had a pretty great story too. Very few games have this much of a well done character arc.
I knew this would be the first comment.Daystar Clarion said:
I think it depends greatly from game to game. SotC doesnt have all that deep a story, you summed it up in two and a half lines, its just really well told in the mechanics and the aesthetics.
You want a deep story with a rich back story then (again proberly comment two or three) Bioshcok. Its set up is massive, why number twos story let me down so much, why make a sequel with a bunch of new stuff that was kind of out of place when you had that crazy new years mash up to focus on. The multiplayer sort of helped but still a bit of a let down.
You want a funky, crazy story then try Pikmin or Timesplitters. Their my faves for VERY good reason.
Hmm, good stories, you say?
classic storytelling
- Final Fantasy IX (Tolkien, eat your heart out.)
- Shadow Hearts and Shadow Hearts: Covenant (It retconned the first World War and the events leading up to it - and it was amazing!)
- Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call (A stoic clair-obscur art style and a story touching on quite some philosophical topics - a dark but amazing experience.)
- Okami (Uses Japanese mythology to create something unique, drawn in the way of old Japanese ink paintings.)
modern storytelling that optimally uses the medium of video games
- ICO (An amazing tale where the wordless interaction between the two protagonists tells a story no other medium could.)
- Shadow of the Colossus (A prequel to ICO.)
- Rez (actually won a prize for "best representation of art within a video game medium", It's based on the works of Kandisnki.)
classic storytelling
- Final Fantasy IX (Tolkien, eat your heart out.)
- Shadow Hearts and Shadow Hearts: Covenant (It retconned the first World War and the events leading up to it - and it was amazing!)
- Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call (A stoic clair-obscur art style and a story touching on quite some philosophical topics - a dark but amazing experience.)
- Okami (Uses Japanese mythology to create something unique, drawn in the way of old Japanese ink paintings.)
modern storytelling that optimally uses the medium of video games
- ICO (An amazing tale where the wordless interaction between the two protagonists tells a story no other medium could.)
- Shadow of the Colossus (A prequel to ICO.)
- Rez (actually won a prize for "best representation of art within a video game medium", It's based on the works of Kandisnki.)
Granted this is totally a subjective subject to debate, but in my opinion Red Dead Redemption is a great example of exceptional video game storytelling.
I'm gonna have to put my vote in for Final Fantasy X. For me, it embodied and personified the resilience of humanity, willing to fight and attempt to defeat a great evil, even at the cost of their own lives. It also shows how religion can be used as a lie to make people believe that there is hope if they become followers. (If anyone's played Final Fantasy X to at least Yunalesca, you'll understand what I mean) Overall, this was easily my favourite game, and for very good reason.
Heavy rain. I don't care if you don't like the game or you love it, the plot and the system of consequences is amazing. You could go into SO much detail with that it's unbelievable.
You can tell who's played the game, because it's their pick. At the very least, nobody's arguing against it. My favorite game is System Shock 2, but Planescape definitely has the better story. But Bioshock? C'mon. Big difference between atmosphere and narrative. Mass Effect has a story that doesn't crap out 2/3 of the way through, right after the best part.BloatedGuppy said:
Think about the best game you've played
recount its story
think about what parts you like
write that shit down and hand it in
recount its story
think about what parts you like
write that shit down and hand it in