Timeless Story-Driven Games

I don't know if people feel the same way, but I've always enjoyed games with captivating and thought-provoking stories. They are my favorite kind. They can be long or short. They can have lots of dialogue or little.

A few of my favorites.

-Yakuza series (2006-Present)

I started with 0 because my friend bought it on a whim, then we played the rest of them. Fantastic series with engaging gameplay that makes you want to see what happens to idealistic Kiryu through every chapter of his life as he tries to make his way through an imperfect world. 6 is about to come out too! So far, 0 is my favorite with 3 a close second. 4 was not great.

-Shenmue series (2000-Present)

I'm halfway through II, but I love it so far. I never played the first one, but I will after II. I also have III ordered, but who knows when that will come out. Yu Suzuki's masterpiece about a teenager who has a long journey ahead on his path to avenge his father's death. Fantastic music by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and Yuzo Koshiro. I've always wondered what "Chinese revenge drama" Suzuki had in mind when he said that Shenmue is a video game equivalent.

-NiGHTS into Dreams (1996)

No dialogue in this one, but seeing the kids navigate their dreams and their effect on real life is an interesting journey. The game itself is kind of like a dream.

-Sonic Adventure 1/2 (1999-2001)

Not everyone's cup of tea, but those who enjoy melodrama will love Shadow and Chaos's stories.

-PT (2014)

A bit of an odd one, but the open-ended terror of the player's descent into insanity is executed perfectly.

-Phantasy Star Series (1988-1994)

Excellent series exploring a star system ruled by more than what meets the eye. The story of III is particularly surprising, for those who've played it.

Does anyone have any similar experiences of games they enjoyed for the story, old or new? I really want to hear if people feel the same way.

Final Fantasy VI.

Brothers A Tale of Two Sons.


Assasin's Creed II. Forget the rest of the series. II is just a great character and story driven game that is very genuine rather than the current trend of "cinematic".


Grim Fandango.


Metal Gear. I'm not a fan of the series outside of Rising but it has a good amount and awesome lore to it.


Xenoblade 1-2. They start off cliche enough but offer enough twists to make it really interesting. (I don't think Gears is put together well enough despite how much is there)


Lost Odyssey.


Nier series. Holy shit do these games fuck with your emotions and really interesting ideas.


Sweet Home. Ok this is based on a movie so I might be cheating but it's a pretty messed up and depressing story with one of the most horrific heroic sacrifices in games.


Grandia. Nothing too crazy but has one of the best simple stories to give an amazing sense of adventures most RPGs only dream of.


Games like Ico/Lost in Rain, Lost in Shadow, RiME and much more has a story told without words and you get it as it's about to end.


I think The Last Story had a touching tale and I'm still holding out for a sequel but alas it may not be an ironic name after all from the creator of Final Fantasy.


Dues Ex series is great at making us reflect on ourselves. It's really good cyberpunk.


Policenauts/Snatcher. Maybe can remove Snatcher since it's basically just Blade Runner.


Shining Force III.


Guardian Heroes. So many paths to take and it's simple but works really well.


Vagrant Story.


Okami.


Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom. This one is so so good at a simple tale that still manages to pull those emotional strings.

Definitely Shenmue (I-II) and Phantasy Star (I-IV)

Also for me:
Ico
Shadow of the Colossus
Grandia III definitely brings back memories


More modern "instant classics" I'd say:
A Boy and His Blob
Ni No Kuni
Ori and the Blind Forest
Child of Light
Nier
The Witcher III
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Uncharted series
Some would agree The Last of Us (didn't propel me, personally, as much as it did others. But I can see it finding a place in this thread)
I personally have enjoyed the Assassin's Creed series for their stories.
God of War series, believe it or not.


These are basically games I've felt have touched me the most; whose stories have driven me and with characters that are unforgettable to me. Again, this is just from what I've delved into.

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Originally Posted by QuickSciFi

Shadow of the Colossus
The Last of Us
God of War series

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These, totally.

Also, Metal Gear Solid series (moreso MGS3 than any of the others), Walking Dead, StarCraft, and Gears of War.

Here’s a bit of a stretch, but Journey. No characters or plot to speak of and hardly a word of dialogue, but I started playing that one evening and my wife and I sat there absolutely captivated for the next two hours as I played through to the end. That was probably two years ago, and we still talk about it from time to time. It’s hard to describe how a game with so little gameplay or traditional storytelling elements could be so compelling, but if you have played it, hopefully you know what I mean.

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Originally Posted by SegataS

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom. This one is so so good at a simple tale that still manages to pull those emotional strings.

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Happy to see someone else is a fan. Felt like a 3-D Monster World IV to me, or Ico with more color and fun gameplay.

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Originally Posted by QuickSciFi

I personally have enjoyed the Assassin's Creed series for their stories.

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I would, too, if Ubisoft would just ditch the stupid Abstergo plot and stop interrupting the stories with modern tangents. I know that's the whole premise of the franchise, but it really takes me out of the games.

The original Starcraft (pre-broodwar) had an awesome campaign, really captured me.

Front Mission Gun Hazard, Tactics Ogre & all the other SNES RPG masterpieces.

Going to second Okami, the game is huge.

Shadow of the Colossus.

Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening (only Zelda game I cared for the story)

Panzer Dragoon Saga of course.

Silent Hill 2.

Soma.

Bioshock & Bioshock Infinite.

Metal Gear Solid 3.

The first (and only the first) Halo.

Resident Evil 7.

Jade Empire.

The Suffering.

Ori & The Blind Forest.

Spec Ops: The Line.

Snatcher, and other adventure games.

Shenmue.

Popful Mail on the Sega CD :)

Planescape Torment (makes the rest look like children's bed time stories)

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Originally Posted by Kamahl

Front Mission Gun Hazard

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I was going to run through a few games off the top of my head until I read this, then my mind went blank.

I love Front Mission: Gun Hazard. Front Mission was great, haven't played 2, 3 was terrific, but Gun Hazard - what a fantastic story, start to end.

Hard to believe it was released yesterday twenty-two years ago. For anyone who hasn't play it, at least spend 3 minutes on the intro, too cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnA8FfiRGGk

Will revisit this thread once I get over my Front Mission-high... :daze:

I like the story for X-Men on Sega Genesis. The story could have easily been one from the comics and they did great dialogue for all of the characters.

I also liked Rise of the Dragon for SegaCD. Voice-acting was new to me in video games so I was really taken with the story. Heck, I was even impressed by the full-voices in Sewer Shark since it was all so new. :mrgreen: But Rise of the Dragon had a better story than Sewer Shark. I just wish the arcade elements weren't so awful.

Same goes for Double-Switch on SegaCD/Saturn. I found the story and characters to be amusing. "You and me are friends, right?" :rofl:

The Legacy of Kain series, esp Soul Reaver 1 and Defiance.

Asura's Wrath did the concept of the story better than GoW. GoW I would not say timeless as Kratos is a poorly written character and a huge idiot on top of that. Hard to take a character seriously when OH MY FAMILY IS DEAD! Welp time to fuck some prostitutes! It's worse than the new Tomb Raider reboot.OH NO, A DEER! I KILLED A DEER! NOOOOOOOOOO!...oh and I just killed 50 dudes no problem.

Nah. Both the God of War and new Tomb Raider reboot series are top notch fantastic. Can't say I agree.

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Originally Posted by QuickSciFi

Nah. Both the God of War and new Tomb Raider reboot series are top notch fantastic. Can't say I agree.

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Well, they certainly aren't bad story wise, but they aren't that good either. The new God of War seems to be a lot more interesting, with Kratos finally maturing. New Doom Guy had more of a personality than GoW 1-3 Kratos (who was just a ball of anger and bad decisions).
New Tomb Raider is... eh... doesn't grab me in any way (my gf likes it, but even she was not that interested, had more fun throwing chickens into a well than anything else in the game)

Well most great story driven games that I love are RPG's, with one or two exceptions:

Shining Force (Mega Drive)

Shining Force II (Mega Drive)

Shining Force CD (Mega CD)

Landstalker (Mega Drive)

Flashback (Mega Drive)

Alundra (PS1)

Breath of Fire III (PS1)

Final Fantasy VII (PS1)

Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain (PS1)

Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen II (PS2)

Suikoden (PS1)

Suikoden II (PS1)

Vandal Hearts (PS1)

Metal Gear Solid (PS1)

Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast)

Shenmue (Dreamcast)

Shenmue II (Dreamcast)

How could I have forgotten Alundra?! Such a wonderful game, loved every second of it. Of all the "Zelda-like" action adventure games it has easily the best story.

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Originally Posted by Kamahl

How could I have forgotten Alundra?! Such a wonderful game, loved every second of it. Of all the "Zelda-like" action adventure games it has easily the best story.

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Easily. Such a deep and, at times, tragic storyline. I always consider it a companion piece to Landstalker as, for various reasons, it is a very similar game in style if not tone.

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Originally Posted by Mega Drive Bowlsey

Easily. Such a deep and, at times, tragic storyline. I always consider it a companion piece to Landstalker as, for various reasons, it is a very similar game in style if not tone.

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I always treat it as Landstalker 2. Similar, but fixes most problems I had with LS.
The jumps are still horrible though. No more perspective issues, just timed pixel perfect jumps, great.

But that story, damn, had me glued the whole time. That game was detrimental to my health.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kamahl

I always treat it as Landstalker 2. Similar, but fixes most problems I had with LS.
The jumps are still horrible though. No more perspective issues, just timed pixel perfect jumps, great.

But that story, damn, had me glued the whole time. That game was detrimental to my health.

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lol same here. I lost weeks playing through it and some of the puzzles, like the one involving moving the ice pillars in the cave of the ice wand, drove me mad trying to crack them. If I couldn't solve a puzzle I'd just sleep on it and, invariably, in the morning I'd find I could do it. I have such great memories of playing through the game.

Chrono Trigger.
Persona 4.
Hotel Dusk.

All the Ecco games for me, especially the Dreamcast outing.

The Last Of Us really captivated me.

I agree with many of the posts already, and in particular, Panzer Drgoon games, Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus; I like how the story unfolds in game and you find it out as you play.

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Originally Posted by cleeg

All the Ecco games for me, especially the Dreamcast outing.

The Last Of Us really captivated me.

I agree with many of the posts already, and in particular, Panzer Drgoon games, Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus; I like how the story unfolds in game and you find it out as you play.

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Ah yes, The Last Of Us. Good call. Excellent story. Speaking of story driven horror games I'm a big fan of Telltale's Walking Dead game series. I love how the story pans out based on the decisions you make.

Definitely agree with the people who mentioned Shadow of the Colossus. Another one for me is Dragon Quarter. A simple concept executed well.

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Originally Posted by SegataS

Persona 4.

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Would you mind expounding on this one? One of the main reasons I don't want to play that game is because of what I know about the story.

Also I want to add that the Mass Effect trilogy had an utterly captivating and very deep storyline. Loved those games.

Shenmue 1 & 2

Assassin's Creed 1 & 2

Bioshock 1 & Infinite

Life is Strange