JRPGs with worthwhile stories: name them.

Seconded.

@video_game_king: Frankly, understanding internet tones in forums has often eluded me. I thought you were being whimsical or something.

But yes, I guess do look down condescendingly on people who find video-games to be such a high-form of art, because how little must you take out of the other ones to have such an opinion.

Or maybe I am being reductive, and one day I might look back on these thoughts with new opinions on art and ponder on how I could have been so arrogant. But I don't think that's the case.

In any case, I regret this discussion because it was useless to everyone involved, and reminded me never to enter an internet argument again. Something I seem to forget every 7 months or so.

Oh, no, I'm being quite whimsical. Keep in mind that I was listening to this just before I came to respond to this specific post.

Quite the contrary. I've actually read a wide range of literature in my day, and I still think it can't match what video games have done for me. Remember when I said that Metal Gear Solid 2 is the Moby Dick of gaming? I could actually make a reasonably informed argument on why that is. Gimme some credit, man.

That's no attitude to take. You've got to overwhelm the opposition with specific intellectualism. Or, if you're me, fey dickishness that might be hiding something (or at least pretends to hide something). Whatever works, I guess.

I disagree. The stories aren't the problem, it's the storytelling. In video games, the best way to tell a story is through what the medium does best - interaction.

In Silent Hill 2, for example, if i where to pull an educated estimate, only 20% of the story is told through cutscenes and dialogue, the rest of the story is integrated into the complex symbology, gameworld, character designs, enemy designs and so forth.

If you want to talk about the quality of a story you see in books and movies, that's tied to the quality of the writing and the script. And to that, i give you Planescape:Torment's writing, which transcends the video game medium, and could easily rival some of the best works from the film and book medium.

Good writing isn't exclusive to books and movies.

I think that the reason why very few video games are adapted into other mediums, is because the storytelling of said games is bad.

Why is that? Video games can tell an entertaining story, but I would agree the with opinion that they're a lousy medium to meet the components of good storytelling, especially character development. I don't believe for a moment that the medium could ever match the story telling of books or film. The primary focus of a video game is just that......gaming.

What about those games that explicitly go otherwise? The games that focus on story and an emotional experience beyond fun and enjoyment? And how is that inherent to games? What is it inherent to the act of interacting with a story and experiencing it firsthand that makes said story immediately suck (at least compared against not interacting with it)?

This focus is shifting more and more and storytelling becomes a key element these days. Lets take a look at the Last of Us for example. The story is pretty average nothing really great but the storytelling through the cutscenes and gameplay is excellent. Videogames can do something no other medium can do through its interactivity. These intense scenes can become more intense because you are playing these sections.

Also I believe that everything people are made is art. Making a knife can be art as well. The questions is can it become a higher form of art. Like old paitings or music etc. I think it can because just like art people are talking about some videogames their whole life because it bbecame something you never forget.

As for JRPGs. One reason why I love JRPGs is because it is so predictable, chessy and corny. It is a great fantasy often greatly presented. Storyies do not need to be very complex to be great or entertaining. And that is why I love JRPGs^^

Happy to see so many people know how good Xenogears is. Anyways pretty much everything I would say has been named already. But one I haven't seen mentioned that I'd like to add is Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, really charming game, cool world, interesting characters and enemies and overall probably the only Mario game that actually had a story I cared about. It throws a wrench in the typical Mario story and even Bowser teams up with Mario and joins your party, it's hilarious and great.

I'd throw in Mana Khemia, not because it has a good story (the story doesn't even really start up til 2/3 of the way through the game), but because the characters are fantastic and it's a lot of fun to seem them be them. Also, an option for the less-is-more storytelling crowd, Boktai is a game with an excellent sense of atmosphere and intentionally leaves gaps in information for your imagination.