Story in Games

[Kiddington]

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

I think no matter how many more Paper Mario's we get, this will still go down as the best in the series.

Such a great game.

I still think Super Paper Mario has a better story than The Thousand Year Door. It's funnier, the villains are more well rounded and quirky, and it can get surprisingly emotional when it wants to be.

Sadly, the gameplay suffers as a result.

I've said before that I think SPM is definitely the funniest in the series (very rarely has a video game made me laugh as much as that), but everything else is a significant step down.

[talonmalon333]

Sadly, the gameplay suffers as a result.

I've said before that I think SPM is definitely the funniest in the series (very rarely has a video game made me laugh as much as that), but everything else is a significant step down.

I wouldn't say "as a result". I think it's more that they wanted to try something new, but that the RPG and platforming elements just didn't mesh as well as they did in a game like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Still, I loved Bleck and Dimentio.

With that said, I do think that the wrestling ring mystery sub arc in Thousand Year Door is the best Mario story overall. Incredibly engaging, it was. And it had an awesome soundtrack too.

[Spark Of Spirit]

If it can tell a good story I love story in games. If the story is bad, as long as it doesn't play a major role in the game (*cough*Heavy Rain*cough*) it doesn't bother me much.

Some of my favorite stories from games:

Telltale's The Walking Dead
Deadly Premonition
Silent Hill franchise
Resident Evil (yeah, they're cheesy, but I loved finding all the files and such to read up on the RE lore)
Phoenix Wright series
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Mario & Luigi
Borderlands 2
Portal/Portal 2
Killer7
No More Heroes


I'm sure there are more but these are what come to mind.

Hotel Dusk is another great one, I think Trace Memory was a good start but Hotel Dusk is one of my favorite DS games.

999 is another great one. I wanted to force the podcast squad to play this game, but I still haven't gotten myself a way to donate. 

[talonmalon333]

Reviving this thread because of BioShock Infinite praise.

The BioShock series in general are games that I need to play (actually, they are pretty much next on my lineup for gaming). Until I get to that... I have to honestly say that quite possibly the only video games that I think have legitimately great stories (not just for game standards), are Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3.

[Foggle]

Play Planescape: Torment, System Shock 2, Spec Ops: The Line, Alan Wake, Max Payne series, Portal 2.

[talonmalon333]

Play Planescape: Torment, System Shock 2, Spec Ops: The Line, Alan Wake, Max Payne series, Portal 2.

Are these just your favorite game stories? Or your response to what I said, about posting games that I feel go beyond "good by game" standards?

[Foggle]

They go beyond "good by game" standards IMO, especially the first four. As do the BioShocks.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

There are a few games which I have played that I consider to have legitimately good stories:

-Max Payne 1 and 2 (I still haven't played 3, yet)
-Alan Wake (the first 5 episodes)
-Chrono Trigger (even though I'm not a fan of JRPGs, I liked the game's story)
-Final Fantasy IX (same deal)
-Mortal Kombat 9 (even though I don't care for the gameplay itself)
-BioShock (just the first game)
-Various Zelda games (such as Ocaria of Time and The Wind Waker)
-Star Wars: Knights of the Old Repupblic and Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

I mostly like stories in games when they just set out to be entertaining and be true to whatever the theme of the game is. None of these games have what you could call "Oscar-worthy" stories, which is how its SUPPOSED to be, because they aren't movies. They are video games, and they don't forget that fact. Hell, they take pride in that fact, and they tell you the kinds of stories that only a video game could possibly deliver. None of these stories are up their own ass about trying to be artistic break-throughs. They are simply just well-written stories that keep you interested in them and accompany great gameplay to make for an overall compelling experience. That's what video game stories should be. They should service the gameplay while still being well-written and compel you to keep discovering more about the game that you are playing and the story that it is telling. They should not, however, take precedence over the gameplay, or even if they do, they should not just try to be stories that are told in such uninteresting ways so as to not take advantage of the fact that they are being told in the form of a video game. At any rate, the above video games which I listed are the types that I consider to get story right. They are fun stories that all kept me interested in playing the games, and never felt pretentious or boring. Better yet, most of those games were actually pretty damn fun to play, and some of them are even my favorite games ever. Huh? Imagine that.

[talonmalon333]

They go beyond "good by game" standards IMO, especially the first four. As do the BioShocks.

I'm actually surprised you left out Silent Hill 2. Any reason?

[talonmalon333]

By the way, in terms of game stories I love, would it be bad if I sneak Resident Evil 4 in here?

I mean of course it's not a legitimately great story. But I love it for practically that reason. The cheesy dialogue and over the top story elements, all carried by a one-liner spouting action hero. If Resident Evil is the Evil Dead of video games, than RE4 is the Army of Darkness.

Resident Evil was always known for being cheesy. But they really just went all out with RE4.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I actually really liked the basic concept of RE's story. I mean I like the idea of how Leon is sent on a mission to find and rescue the President's daughter from a seemingly harmless village, however he stumbles onto something much bigger than he anticipated in the process. I just like the way things are set up in how at first Leon is fighting basic villagers (or so he thinks), but then realizes that they are being controlled by some advanced kind of infection called the Las Plagas, and how things only get even more crazy as he makes his way to the main castle and comes face-to-face with even more deadly forms of the infection, as well as other horrendous experiments.

It makes not only for a great atmosphere, but also for a story that's intriguing enough to keep you going. Of course, the actual execution itself is cheesy and over-the-top, but that also has its own charm and still makes the cut-scenes fun to watch.

As far as RE games go in general, I do love all of the text-based entries and journals that each of the games offers up. I feel that those are probably the elements of the story that are legitimately good and intriguing. Its really mostly only the actual cut-scenes and the story-line revolving the characters that you play as that are the bad parts. I find all of the history and background story that you uncover throughout these games to be genuinely interesting, personally.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Oh, also, if we're talking about cheesy video game stories that we love BECAUSE of how cheesy they are, I'd certainly toss in a vote for Devil May Cry 3, myself. The story itself is standard action game bull-shit, but the actual presentation of it all is so damn over-the-top that its insanely fun to watch.

[Foggle]

Yeah, RE4 is also one of my favorite video game stories for its dialogue and presentation alone. Love dat cheese. It's basically Army Of Darkness: The Game.

Gotta' love the action cutscenes in DMC 3 and Bayonetta as well. Awful stories, but awesomely over the top fighting. If I ever make a movie, all the action scenes will be like a cross between that and Dead Leaves.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, RE4 is also one of my favorite video game stories for its dialogue and presentation alone. Love dat cheese. It's basically Army Of Darkness: The Game.

The village half of the game kind of gives me more of an Evil Dead (the parts that are legitimately atmospheric) to Evil Dead 2 (the parts that are just fucking stupidly hilarious) vibe, whereas the portions taking place in the castle kind of remind me of Army of Darkness, with everything after that sort of being its own kind of crazy.

[gunswordfist]

I haven't beat it yet (I was on the cemetary sniper flashback) but Max Payne 3 has got to be the most depressing game ever. I honestly think they'd have to do a prequel or reboot next because Max pretty much should become a vegetable due to emotional shock if he experiences anything else as remotely sad as the events in that game.