Game With the Best Story? (For school assignment)

[Arqus_Zed]

Shadow of the Colossus.

Your character is killing these creatures to save the soul of a girl, these creatures are not a threat, they only defend themselves, for you seek them out, and with every one you kill, you can see the toll it's taking on your character.

So much is told without words.

The best stories always are.

I knew this would be the first comment.

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.

I just have to comment on this one.

You pretty much told yourself what is so amazing about SotC: "[it's] just really well told in the mechanics and the aesthetics."

Isn't that the whole point?
Isn't that what we should be striving for? To create a means of storytelling that can't be copied by any other medium?

It's the interaction with your horse, the slaying of the gigantic creatures and the search in the desolate landscape...
If a picture is worth more than a thousand words, than an experience is worth more than a thousand pictures.

 

[Shinigami Fire]

SotC had one of the most tragic moments I experienced in all my years of video games, when Aggro does that thing that he does. (I don't know how to put spoiler tags) It's an example of how video games can tell something differently than a game like Mass Effect. That is an important concept. Video games are not movies, nor are they books, and that is my biggest problem with BioWare and JRPGs. They try too hard to make it a movie with playing sections. I love these games to death, but they're not doing anything

BioWare's games could have been summed up as a 5000 page choose-your-own-adventure book with shooting elements. Games like Bioshock (as has been stated) are overrated, but the end of the 2nd act was one of the most amazing moments in my history as a gamer. It descended into ridicule after that point, because either ending was a bit extreme with absolutely no middle ground.

SotC does storytelling with barely any narrative. The only dialogue is in the prologue, a bit near the start of the final act, and then at the climax. However, it conveyed a powerful message as I was galloping through the forbidden lands, waiting to murder another magnificent beast. And the ending was just.........Moving beyond words. It's a way games can be unique, rather than try to be a movie.

However, you are arguing completely different things in your essay. Games are art has nothing to do with games have good stories. or good narratives. They are independent of art value. Flower is art. The game is moving beyond belief, especially at level five. As a story, there isn't much there. As a commentary, a game with no text conveys so much. Something like that is an example of games as art.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I just have to comment on this one.

You pretty much told yourself what is so amazing about SotC: "[it's] just really well told in the mechanics and the aesthetics."

Isn't that the whole point?
Isn't that what we should be striving for? To create a means of storytelling that can't be copied by any other medium?

It's the interaction with your horse, the slaying of the gigantic creatures and the search in the desolate landscape...
If a picture is worth more than a thousand words, than an experience is worth more than a thousand pictures.

SotC, Bioshock, Bastion...these are all excellent examples of using the medium of gaming to excellent effect in telling a story. But that's a little outside the boundaries of the OP's question. He wanted to know what, in our opinion, had the best story. Full stop.

Planescape is almost aggressively anachronistic in how it tells its story. It demands a lot of reading. A lot of plowing through text. It's not exactly groundbreaking in this department. In terms of what you're talking about...gaming maturing into its own art form, completely distinct from literature and film...I'd put it way down the list. But in terms of offering up a mature, compelling, rich story, it's pretty much without equal in its medium, and has been for quite some time. And that's no slam on games like SotC, Silent Hill 2, MotB, Bioshock, Ultima, or many of the other excellent games mentioned on this list. Planescape is just a cut above when it comes to story, is all.

 

[PlatinumWarlock]

I'm going to be honest with you, OP. As a teacher, if I were to grade your essay, and you spend a significant amount of time essentially defeating your own major point, you probably wouldn't pass. This isn't to say that you should ignore the weaknesses in your argument, but rather that you should only raise the counterargument when you're in a position to skillfully defend yourself against it. Admitting a major flaw in your argument invites structural problems. Not trying to be offensive towards you, here, but rather point out a pretty sizable writing flaw.

That said, in terms of games...
Planescape: Torment's been said--but the story itself outstrips the game.

Chrono Trigger weaves a powerful, tragic narrative, especially considering that it's from the SNES era.

Baldur's Gate II had a sympathetic villain, whose narrative made you feel for him, even as you proceeded to plant your sword in his face.

I'd second the visual style blending with the narrative of the original Fallout. The sequels tend to drop the ball in this regard.

 

[honeybunch]

So much is told without words.

The best stories always 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.

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.

Way to take something I said out of context.

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.

No further context was necessary. Obviously there will always be some larger context for every quote that's not included in the quote. It's impossible to quote everything a person said that led up to the quote, so the proper thing to do is to quote in such a way that the meaning of the quote is clear, and undistorted.

In this case, you made the absolute blanket statement that the best stories are always told without words. You did not specify that you meant the best stories in games, and I read what you actually said, not what you may have meant. I did not misquote you; you didn't properly express your idea. I can't quote something that was only in your head.

What you originally claimed was ridiculous. What you're saying now is an almost totally different claim that I personally agree with.

Feel free to be annoyed at me for my tone, which I concede was somewhat mocking, but don't accuse me of misquoting when I did no such thing.

 

[PunkRex]

Shadow of the Colossus.

Your character is killing these creatures to save the soul of a girl, these creatures are not a threat, they only defend themselves, for you seek them out, and with every one you kill, you can see the toll it's taking on your character.

So much is told without words.

The best stories always are.

I knew this would be the first comment.

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.

I just have to comment on this one.

You pretty much told yourself what is so amazing about SotC: "[it's] just really well told in the mechanics and the aesthetics."

Isn't that the whole point?
Isn't that what we should be striving for? To create a means of storytelling that can't be copied by any other medium?

It's the interaction with your horse, the slaying of the gigantic creatures and the search in the desolate landscape...
If a picture is worth more than a thousand words, than an experience is worth more than a thousand pictures.

Yeah I mo, I didnt really state what I thought clearly did I.

I meant to ask the OP what he was looking for. Theres many aspects to a good story. Gaming does things well and other things not so well. SotC plays on gamings strengths and turns a story thats baically killing big boss monsters into something amazing. Theres a back story but it just doesnt really come up (your there because of what happened but your not told it), unless you want to start talking about ICO, or was that a sequel in story terms? Where as Bioshock maps out every little detail, YOU just have to look for it. Playing on another of gamings strengths.

They both work well but some would argue otherwise, is the OC talking about a story with a massive back story, where every little action and and detail leads up to this big emotional cluster cuse or a story that doesnt go anywhere past the moment but is so well told you dont really care... until youve completed it and MUST find out.

Im starting to sound like an ass hole so ill stop now.

EDIT: Oh one more thing, FF9 was the best of the lot, the parralel worlds, final boss mess was abit of a jar but the rest was epic, even if the story and the gameplay clashed abit. Training Steiner up after that long ass break he had from the story took looooooooooong!

 

[Mikeyfell]

So the title pretty much says the main idea. I do need some help with an argumentative essay I'm writing on the subject of "Can Video Games Be Art?". I'm arguing for it.

In one of the paragraphs, I admit to gaming's current faults and one of them being the relative lack of story quality (relative being the key word there). I say in the plan for the paragraph, "Story in games is currently bad, to be honest, with the apparently "best" one being: _______"

I was hoping I could get general consensus on what exactly do we gamers think is the game with the best story.

I personally view the Mass Effect series as being the best story, but then again I'm 17 and the amount of games I've played is quite limited compared to many other gamers.

(I know what I wrote for the paragraph's plan is a bit oddly worded, but it's just the basic idea I have for the few lines)

I think you're going about this in the wrong way. Hear me out though.

Being art and having the best story aren't synonymous. The Seventh Seal is a very "arty" movie that hardly has a story to speak of. There are a bunch of paintings that don't have stories that are still art. Art is about the ability to evoke emotions in the audience and you can do that with out a story at all.

If what you want is the game with the "best story" I suggest you go with one you like. If you're emotionally invested in it you can come up with much more compelling reasons for it being good.

(Mass Effect is an okay choice, it showcases how games are different to movies and books because you get to choose Shepard actions. But in that same vein Dragon Age Origins is a better choice to show that aspect specifically because of the lack of voice acting for the protagonist which generates even more emotion by letting you decide not only what was said but how it was said.)

As far as games that have really good stories that are pretty much set I'd recommend Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. or Bastion. Also Tales of Vesperia but I doubt you could finish that game in time to write your paper.

I would also recommend avoiding using the word "best" English teachers HATE that word in essays.

A lot of people are saying Shadow of the Colossus, Which is good.
I've seen Bioshock crop up from time to time. You should avoid that one unless you're going to give multiple examples. Bioshock is a satire on Objectivism. While satire is an excepted art form using it as the highlight of a medium wouldn't help your cause. By all means you can use it in your essay but you'd have to cover how other genres have been translated into games. Bioshock for satire. Catherine as a romantic drama (There's another game you could fill an essay about). Tales of Vesperia as an exploration of how power corrupts the human psyche. Shadow of the Colossus as a tale of true love overcoming desire for survival. Prince of Persia, God of War or Silent Hill 2 are stories about someone overcoming external manifestations of their internal turmoil (Silent Hill 2 could fill your essay all by it's self). Record of Agarest War is about how different people are effected by knowing the exact time and place of their death, or the death of a loved one.

You can do this pretty easily. Pick a game break it down to it's themes and arcs and conflicts and just prove you can write a book report about it.
I hope this helps you out, My teachers never let me write an essay about this.

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

If you're focusing on "can video games be art?" then I suggest you don't just focus on story. There's as much art in the level design of a game like Half Life 2.
As someone who's had experience of designing games, my opinion is that a typical game can't be viewed as art, by typical I mean not something billed as "an interactive experience". A video game is more like a collection of different works than one piece itself. There can art in the storytelling, in the level design, in the graphical style. Even in a good bit of code. When you put all that together, you have the potential to create something greater that art itself.
Does that make sense? Probably not.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Why is this even being discussed, no game has deeper lore and more interesting story than War3.

Ugh.

Max Payne

Because of all the games I have played. this one is the most memorabel.
You can connect with the main caracter easier than compared to all other
videogame characters. which reminds me of.

I second this. Max Payne always stood out to me as one of the tightest, best presented short game stories I've seen.

Y'know, I'm a huge fan of Half Life, but I think it's a little to easy to boil the story of the first down to that of the original DOOM. I always preferred Unreal to HL1, anyway.

I haven't seen anyone mention Homeworld yet. A simple story, wonderfully told.

 

[hazabaza1]

You might want to play Nier.

Yeah this. Really fucking good.
Persona 3+4 are pretty damn good too. Part of me also wants to say Assassin's Creed series for some reason.

 

[Matt Hancox]

Probably either Heavy Rain (a game designed to play out as an interactive movie, with a plot that changes depending on your experience) or Mass Effect, though you could probably take your pick from Bioware's back catalogue.

Best to stick with a game that you know and understand however, so I and everyone eles can just spitball ideas. Just don't pic the most popular one despite no having played it.
I've seen plenty of essays crap up because of just that, including my own.

 

[DestinyDriven]

So the title pretty much says the main idea. I do need some help with an argumentative essay I'm writing on the subject of "Can Video Games Be Art?". I'm arguing for it.

In one of the paragraphs, I admit to gaming's current faults and one of them being the relative lack of story quality (relative being the key word there). I say in the plan for the paragraph, "Story in games is currently bad, to be honest, with the apparently "best" one being: _______"

I was hoping I could get general consensus on what exactly do we gamers think is the game with the best story.

I personally view the Mass Effect series as being the best story, but then again I'm 17 and the amount of games I've played is quite limited compared to many other gamers.

(I know what I wrote for the paragraph's plan is a bit oddly worded, but it's just the basic idea I have for the few lines)

I think you're going about this in the wrong way. Hear me out though.

Being art and having the best story aren't synonymous. The Seventh Seal is a very "arty" movie that hardly has a story to speak of. There are a bunch of paintings that don't have stories that are still art. Art is about the ability to evoke emotions in the audience and you can do that with out a story at all.

If what you want is the game with the "best story" I suggest you go with one you like. If you're emotionally invested in it you can come up with much more compelling reasons for it being good.

(Mass Effect is an okay choice, it showcases how games are different to movies and books because you get to choose Shepard actions. But in that same vein Dragon Age Origins is a better choice to show that aspect specifically because of the lack of voice acting for the protagonist which generates even more emotion by letting you decide not only what was said but how it was said.)

As far as games that have really good stories that are pretty much set I'd recommend Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. or Bastion. Also Tales of Vesperia but I doubt you could finish that game in time to write your paper.

I would also recommend avoiding using the word "best" English teachers HATE that word in essays.

A lot of people are saying Shadow of the Colossus, Which is good.
I've seen Bioshock crop up from time to time. You should avoid that one unless you're going to give multiple examples. Bioshock is a satire on Objectivism. While satire is an excepted art form using it as the highlight of a medium wouldn't help your cause. By all means you can use it in your essay but you'd have to cover how other genres have been translated into games. Bioshock for satire. Catherine as a romantic drama (There's another game you could fill an essay about). Tales of Vesperia as an exploration of how power corrupts the human psyche. Shadow of the Colossus as a tale of true love overcoming desire for survival. Prince of Persia, God of War or Silent Hill 2 are stories about someone overcoming external manifestations of their internal turmoil (Silent Hill 2 could fill your essay all by it's self). Record of Agarest War is about how different people are effected by knowing the exact time and place of their death, or the death of a loved one.

You can do this pretty easily. Pick a game break it down to it's themes and arcs and conflicts and just prove you can write a book report about it.
I hope this helps you out, My teachers never let me write an essay about this.

zHellas, I hope you listen to these types of posts. They have VERY good points to help you make your assignment the best you can possibly do. Really good advice. Good luck!

I would really love to do an assignment on video games lol *nerd mode*
Thinking about creativity, I think Portal/2 are very unique games, I think they are brilliant. Very funny too.

 

[honeybunch]

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.

Since when is the complexity of a story indicative of its quality or depth?

Shadow of the Colossus is a simple story told well, and with impressive emotional depth. Unlike the Mass Effect series, which is well told around and in spite of a simple (and rather silly) story, SotC bases a complex emotional narrative directly on top of its admittedly simple plot. To compare it to more traditional media, it would be like saying that The Old Man and the Sea lacks depth because it's just about an old guy trying to catch a fish. That's not an argument that's going to fly. Of course, I personally didn't care for The Old Man and the Sea, but I don't deny that it is a deep and complicated narrative, even though it has a very simple story.

So, yes, while the mechanics and the aesthetics contribute to my opinion that SotC is a work of art, I also consider its story one of the best told in video games, partially because of its emotional depth coupled with the simplicity of its plot.

 

[scorptatious]

Hmm. The best story? That's kind of subjective as certain games that have good stories handle them differently from others.

The Metal Gear Solid games in particular have a complex and intricate story filled with plenty of information about the characters and settings. Meanwhile games like Shadow of the Colossus and Ico have stories with minimal dialogue, minimal explanation, but also express the story through actions and (for lack of a better term) visual exposistion.

I can also agree with the Mass Effect series, as those games have complex characters that grow and develop over the course of the games and they also have an interesting lore to them.

 

[Mikeyfell]

So the title pretty much says the main idea. I do need some help with an argumentative essay I'm writing on the subject of "Can Video Games Be Art?". I'm arguing for it.

In one of the paragraphs, I admit to gaming's current faults and one of them being the relative lack of story quality (relative being the key word there). I say in the plan for the paragraph, "Story in games is currently bad, to be honest, with the apparently "best" one being: _______"

I was hoping I could get general consensus on what exactly do we gamers think is the game with the best story.

I personally view the Mass Effect series as being the best story, but then again I'm 17 and the amount of games I've played is quite limited compared to many other gamers.

(I know what I wrote for the paragraph's plan is a bit oddly worded, but it's just the basic idea I have for the few lines)

I've seen Bioshock crop up from time to time. You should avoid that one unless you're going to give multiple examples. Bioshock is a satire on Objectivism. While satire is an excepted art form using it as the highlight of a medium wouldn't help your cause. By all means you can use it in your essay but you'd have to cover how other genres have been translated into games.

bioshock is less a satire more of an exploration of objectivist phillosophy put in action. Its underwater because ayn rands books were wierd like that. the world has winners and loosers and that is the main focus. that peoples lives were ruined because of two warring men.

Just because it's not supposed to be funny doesn't automatically disqualify it from being satire.
I do have a difficult time thinking of Satire that wasn't funny with out bringing up The Hurt Locker. 90% of the time Satire is funny or at least supposed to be but it's not an absolute rule.