Best Story Driven Games RPG/JRPG/Action/Other

To be honest I dislike those best game posts that pop up here and there from time to time but mostly because those games are taken out of perspective. I find it difficult to compare plot of games which are not related to each other at all like for example Fahrenheit and Final Fantasy XIII.  

So I want to know what you would choose for THE BEST STORY DRIVEN GAMES EVER in their separate categories.  

I had problems sticking to just one game for each category so I chose those which deserved to be mentioned in my opinion.  

Best Story Driven Games (no order)

	1. Phantom Dust Probably one of the strangest games I ever played. It's more or less a card game made into an action game with a compelling story formed around two characters on a dusty planet.
	2. Breakdown Though Breakdown was not the best game game-play wise it's still a great game that features dimensional and temporal travel. This would fall into the category action.
	3. Gothic II I loved the second installment in the series. It's a good looking western rpg which has an awesome German voice cast and a great story.
	4. Mass Effect Most people surfin' on GB will probably know this game since it's also one of the more recent. Though I didn't love the combat I sure liked the story. An action rpg.
	5. Terranigma Rebuilding the world piece by piece is your goal in this SNES classic. It's a jrpg mixed with western characteristics. You battle in real time but gain levels.
	6. Indigo Prophecy A very fast paced story to tell and worth to be played. This game can be counted to the action-adventure genre
	7. Shenmue II A game which had a great atmosphere and a story worth telling. To bad this story was never finished. An action-adventure like Fahrenheit.
	8. Valkyria Chronicles One of the best told and looking stories ever packed into a strategy game.
	9. Final Fantasy X A lot of unexpected events happened in this game and I never ceased to love it. One of the best jrpgs ever made.
	10. Lost Odyssey A game that proved to me that a game with a looooot of text doesn't have to be bad, on the contrary the short stories in the game were really deep and thoughtful. A jrpg at its best.

Grim Fandango.

too many pictures but i really lieked ff6, it was with me as a kid and for yaers later

My favorite story driven game: Grandia. 
 
I also really liked KotOR, Morrowind, Oblivion, Silent Hill 2, and Mafia for their stories. Games like Curse of Monkey Island and Psychonauts are not epic, but should get points for being charming.

" Grim Fandango. "

Fighting: Has to go to Blazblue... 
WRPG: Of the ones I've played KOTOR. I don't really like Western RPGs. Perhaps the original Fallout for what it set up?
JRPG: Tales of Symphonia 
Action: Legacy of Kain: Defiance or Yakuza 
Adventure: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories or Day of the Tentacle.
Horror: Shockingly, Silent Hill 2..is there another answer to that? 
SRPG: Front Mission 5 or Valkyria Chronicles

Street Fighter IV

ME, ME2, Front Mission Series, Grandia, Thousand Arms, FF6, Lost Odyssey, Star Ocean (SNES/PSP) to name a few.

Half Life1 and 2

Great thread. Story/character-focused games are the only games I really fall in love with. Fuck this open-world, emergent game-play trend. A few off the top of my head:
 Half-Life series
Mass Effect series
Chrono Trigger
Psychonauts
Another World
Ico
Shadow of the Colossus
Metal Gear series
No More Heroes series
Panzer Dragoon Saga
The World Ends With You
Persona series
Golden Sun series
System Shock series
Fallout series

" Street Fighter IV "

" @Skullo: Half Life 1 had one of the most terrible endings ever though and the story could be summed up in one sentence. But I feel the same way about HL1 as you do. The story it had was nicely unfurled with an outstanding atmosphere and graphics. I guess the game is comparable to Bioshock in that matter. 
 
@FancySoapsMan said:

" Street Fighter IV "

Did the game have a story mode like games in the Dead or Alive series, those cut-scenes were really nice in 4? I like fighting games but had problems getting into 2D fighters other than Marvel VS Capcom 1 + 2. Do you think I should give it another shot? If so would it make sense to pick up Super Street Fighter 4?  "

• Nier 
• Alan Wake
• Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
• Silent Hill 4
• The Darkness 
• Parasite Eve
• Ninja Gaiden (NES)
• Sanitarium
• The Witcher
• Mass Effect 2
• Alpha Protocol

Gonna defib this thread and ask if there's been any developments here in the last 3 years and 10 months. I'm like Vinny in that I need a story to keep me interested in a game these days.

If you're asking for suggestions on what story based games you should play, then Sleeping Dogs, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Bioshock Infinite, The Witcher 2, and Max Payne 3 are all pretty good in that department and fairly new.

@stefan: couldn't agree with you more on phantom dust, breakdown and lost oddessy. I loved that time travel(kinda) story in breakdown and the no HUD reveal.

Okami is the best game. Rich story, rich atmosphere. The progression of the characters throughout the story and the smaller communities with their own stories that you run into along the way are great. The world feels lived in despite the limitations of PS2 hardware.

It's just such a grande and well done adventure. It's an epic.

• Persona 3-4
• Witcher series
• Muramasa: The demon blade (i actually really liked the story for some reason, but not a story driven game per say)
• Dishonored
• Tales of Xilla

I also feel this thread needs a resurrection. There was a similar thread recently but it only applied to JRPG's.

The first game that pops up for me is the original Deus Ex. The story has a very criticizing perspective of modern society, if any game needs to be HD-ified, it's that. Human Revolution doesn't even come close.

And the music.. amahgad, the music, guys...

Indigo Prophecy was a great game, but holy shit did they botch that ending.

best story in game hmm.. On the top of my head I would have to say Planescape Torment. Silent Hill 2 was pretty great as well.

There are shitload of good storydriven JRPG, like Aria Story, Heroes of Shaola, Everlong, Shatterd Hourglass, and classic like FF, Secret of Evermore and the Mana franchise series, Wanderer of Ys etc.