Greatest Video Game Storyline

Which game(s) do you think has the greatest storyline from start to finish?

Personally, I really enjoyed the Leagacy of Kain and Metal Gear Solid storylines.

Deus Ex for me.

For me:

- Brothers In Arms series
- Grand Theft Auto series
- Mass Effect
- Call Of Duty 4

So far I'm really liking the persona 4 story, in a weird quirky Japanese way.

"Which game(s) do you think has the greatest storyline from start to finish?Personally, I really enjoyed the Leagacy of Kain and Metal Gear Solid storylines."

Mafia

The World Ends With You. The sublime translation held together a wonderful and unique story, although Mass Effect, KotOR and Jade Empire ahd some friggin' fantastic stories.

I have not played enough games with good storylines to determine which game has the best storyline. However, for personal enjoyment:
Mass Effect
Final Fantasy X
Indigo Prophecy (particularly the first half)

mgs & gta4

From what I've played, I'm going to have to go with The Longest Journey, particularly the first one. Morrowind wins the award for best setting, which is somewhat related.

Knights of the Old Republic, Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Persona 4.

BioShock or KOTOR1.

Kotor

KOTOR, Mass Effect, Jade Empire, Persona 4, Tales of  Vesperia.

• Metal Gear Solid
• Final Fantasy X
• GTA4
• Kingdom Hearts
• Jak series
• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
• The Elder Scrolls IV
  

Metal Gear Solid - Hollywood can't do better tbh.
Final Fantasy Tactics - I'd read the book, very elaborate medieval fantasy epic.
Panzer Dragoon Zwei - Perhaps little story, but perfectly conveyed.
Panzer Dragoon Saga  - Perfectly conveyed, and there's lots of it.

Ahem...
"I'm sorry, but the princess is in another castle!"

Grand Theft Auto and MGS

"The World Ends With You. The sublime translation held together a wonderful and unique story"

This thread just reminds me of how pitiful video game stories are in general. This is not an attempt at a troll, just the truth, and in my opinion its really too bad. The 80s had many great point and click adventures, where, once the templet was formed, the stories revolved around that. The stories came first. That is why games like Grim Fandango, Monkey Island, and Sam and Max, had such strong writing. Now the focus is elsewhere. Gameplay, graphics, and wowing the OCD Twitter crowd. The best video game stories dont even hold a candle to the worst novels, or films. Someday though I hope this will change.

Take for example GTA, could you imagine a GTA inspiried by The Wire, where there are no good guys and bad guys. You get the story of the cops trying to catch you, warst and all. You alternate between the hunters and hunted, and slowly grow to realize that the "bad guys" are a product of their environment, that the real bad guy is the bureacracy. A subtle, deep, and poignant story, told through subtle gameplay. You would not only see, and partake in, the crimes, but then do the investigation as well. I just want a game where before you know it, it all intertwines, its all the same story. Its not cops and robbers, its the story of those srangled by bureacracy and those who arnt, the story of a city and a focus so misguided that the only options are to be lead to crime. I dont watch The Wire, and feel "this would make a great videogame" but I do watch it and think "Boy video game developers could learn alot from this show." To be fair with a show so well crafted, any, storyteller could learn alot from The Wire.

Now to the games I do like.
I really like Final Fantasy 4, Okami, and the mysterious worlds of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.

The questions and things not explained make the world of the Ueda games just fascinating to me. I leave those games amazed and full of wonder. Those are the reasons I started gaming in the first place, and sadly, with the strive for realism a lot of tat is lost IMO. So while not complete "stories" the world of Ueda's games, much like those of Valve, tell a subtle and wonderful story...so that is my vote. Ueda takes the poetic route, where you fill in the meaning, but sadly, IMO, there hasnt been a video game with a robust, mutilayered, story that you see in novels and some television.

I'm going to pick Uncharted, not because of its nods to Hollywood cliche but because of its excellent characterisation.

Metal gear solid 2:- sons of liberty  if anything guys, the story was as relevant for this particular generation than most people would realise

Braid, BioShock, Mass Effect, GTA IV, and Persona 4 right now. I never really liked the MGS storyline, it is way to cluttered.

"Take for example GTA, could you imagine a GTA inspiried by The Wire, where there are no good guys and bad guys. You get the story of the cops trying to catch you, warst and all. You alternate between the hunters and hunted, and slowly grow to realize that the "bad guys" are a product of their environment, that the real bad guy is the bureacracy. A subtle, deep, and poignant story, told through subtle gameplay. You would not only see, and partake in, the crimes, but then do the investigation as well. "

First, let's get these series out of the way:

Elder Scrolls
Half-life
Edit: Mechwarrior (actually, the Battletech universe in general)

Now, as for individual games:

Xenogears
Deus Ex
Final Fantasy 6
The World Ends With You

Panzer Dragoon Zwei - Perhaps little story, but perfectly conveyed.

Metal Gear Solid
Prince of Persia
God of War
Assassin's Creed

MediEvil, simply because it has the best setup ever.

Chrono Trigger - for how the game world is changed over and over by things you do in different parts of time.  Writing isn't so great (being an old game), but it has a great plot.

I don't have one. 

I would say that Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door or The Legend of Zelda would have a great storyline, but saving the world from it falling into the hands of a villian is really basic.  The stuff in between is what helps make the story interesting though.

KoToR
Mass Effect
GTA4 (surprisingly)
Halo 1, the others sucked.

Oh, and I picked up Torment and it's definitely earned a place on my list so far.

"Oh, and I picked up Torment and it's definitely earned a place on my list so far."

I don't know about "best ever," because that's something like presuming I've played every game ever, but I really dig the Half-Life plot. It's generic at a distance, but I believe the way a narrative is presented has a lot to do with how "good" I think the story is--a lot of the plots driving video games are really, really similar in a vacuum like a wiki page. It's the presentation that solidifies the narrative, and Valve has it down to a goddamn science. 

"atejas said:

"Oh, and I picked up Torment and it's definitely earned a place on my list so far."

Never heard of it."

Silent Hill, Metal Gear, Half-Life, Parasite Eve

"LiquidPrince said:

"atejas said:

"Oh, and I picked up Torment and it's definitely earned a place on my list so far."

Never heard of it."

Not surprised. Old Black Isle RPG that flopped thanks to literally no hype and the worst main character design this side of Final Fantasy. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed games like Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale.

"

Super Mario Bros.  Princess gets captured, Mario and Luigi have to save her.  Plain and simple.

"Super Mario Bros.  Princess gets captured, Mario and Luigi have to save her.  Plain and simple."

The Yakuza series has some of the best storytelling I've ever seen in a game. It's too bad the gameplay isn't quite up to snuff when the stories are so damn awesome.

At first, I thought that everyone was simply ignoring this series, the one that almost brought me to tears. But apparently even those who love a great  story havent all come across the tales series.  T he three best of this series are Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Smphonia, and Tales of the Abyss. If you love a great story and can tolerate an RPG, PLAY THESE GAMES. They are the most dramatic games with enough twists to keep you in it for the whole 60 hours. Those who say Final Fantasy is dramatic is simply used to the over use of music and playing on stupid things. I loved FFX and all FF stories until I got hooked on Tales.

All Metal Gear Solids
All Devil May Crys (that did not end with '2')
All Xenosagas
and a bunch of others which I have just gotten too lazy to name.....I've played a LOT of games

KOTOR (1 not 2), Portal, Half-life (the whole series), Deus Ex (not Invisible War), Grim Fandango and Monkey Island (the whole series).

"This thread just reminds me of how pitiful video game stories are in general.

The Panzer Dragoon franchise (especially Saga of course), Deus Ex, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, Metal Gear Solid, Planescape Torment. Judging solely the story, I wouldn't put Portal in the same pit, as it has incredible story telling, but the story itself is nothing to write home about, imo. Similar to games like Ico, which was an excellent game and experience, but thinking of the story on its own, it's nothing big. I've certainly played better games than some of my choices for the best story, but I don't interpret the question in that way so I choose these few over all the rest. Anyway, game story snobs begone really, this thread isn't pitting game stories vs books or movies or whatever else, it's juat asking people about the best stories the medium has put out. There's no reason to start a war over this.

"Mafia"