Metal Gear Solid (All four), Zone of the Enders 2, and Ace Combat 4, zero and 5 are awesome stories. Obviously, also Final Fantasy 6. I really liked Dead Space, Front Mission and Front Mission 3, a lot of parts of Chrono Cross, Xenogears, and many other RPGs. Lost Odyssey is pure class. So is Breath of Fire V. Lunar, Lunar 2, Grandia and Grandia 2 don't have terribly complex stories, but they have very fun stories presented in very entertaining ways.
Except Blast Wind, where in the end you look into yourself and ask, "This time... who was the real villain?" I guess Mars Matrix works that way too though.
I never saw Event Horizon. Now I look at the plot synopsis... and fuck, it really is the same. Still, awesome presentation.
Actually there's a lot more... you just have to really dig to find it. All the Cave games have some type of meticulous back story... told in a couple of paragraphs of text. Interesting that someone goes to such detail but makes the user work so hard to understand it.
best out of all the games i own would be mario party 3 , and no i don't just play n64 game they are just my pride and joy, that an sonic adventure 2 for dreamcast.
Holy Shit. That's so true, Panzer Dragoon gets points for every fucking thing on the checklist, including story. I m a huge Azel/RPG fan and I love Zwei. The first one was the weakest in terms of presentation but it's been up hill since then. It's one of the few series that establshes an emotional bond for me with those dragons, it's heartbreaking to see them go through some stuff (don't want to spoil it for others). EDIT: sorry, hadn't been high in a while.. now it all comes back! Yes, the Neverhood, Monkey Island, Conker's Bad Fur day (essentially a parody) and even Earthbound have well thought-out stories in my view. Although I must confess that it was a bit of a long drag to read all the Hall of Records in the Neverhood..but that was part of the charm, plagiarizing the Bible and all
Mario 64, Streets Of Rage, MGS and the Broken Sword Trilogy (First three) I can particuarly remember.
Mario Party 3? Lol. Enough with the sarcasm, . I definitely think great stories in games are possible. I actually cried during one part in Policenauts. The story of the game is like nothing I've ever experienced.
I'd have to say "Another World". Even if there isn't a single line of dialogue in the enitre game, the atmosphere and characters tell you everything you need to know about the plot.
Lemme see... a few games were I really enjoyed the stories were: Suikoden 2 Fatal Frame 2 Ghost Trick Ace Attorney 3 Ecco 2 Chrono Trigger, Cross Final Fantasy 7, 8, 10 Majora's Mask (some parts of the story were really good...) I'm sure there's more.
I still can't play this all the way through without wanting Squall to fucking hang himself. Too much teenage emo/angst bullshit for my liking. Stick to 7 and below and you're golden. IX was ok, X was officially the death of FF when Square gave in to hollywood. XII almost swayed it back but it was just Star Wars meets WoW. XIII is an incredibly beautiful and fun game but the entire plot is stored in your journal thingy and I found myself spending more time reading than playing.
Tomb Raider Zelda Majora's Mask Zeda Ocarina of Time Star Wars Shadows of the Empire Streets of Rage Diablo No One Lives Forever
I liked the story of FFXIII, but really, the pacing killed that game. Gran Pulse is just too fucking detached from the rest of the game, and it is a very shitty hub. Still, just following the plot, I really, really dug it. The Ace Attorney games have AWESOME stories. I'm revisiting Apollo Justice (found it for 20 dollars the other day!) and it just exudes class. The characters, the writing... everything. Suikoden 2 and Valkyrie Profile - I had also forgotten those two! Great, GREAT stories.
The main issue I had with Gran Pulse was really a problem with the map: there's no North indicated, and it fucking rotates relative to they way you're facing, so every time you look at it it looks different. Makes it really hard to get a bearing of where you are. Otherwise Gran Pulse was amazing, the visual representation of that space is just incredible. I thought the overarching story was alright if a bit convoluted, but mostly I just detested the characters. I have grown to hate JRPG storytelling, it's utterly trite and wince-inducingly predictable.
