This is an old version of my list that was affected by a 100-limit bug on ordered lists, forcing me to create a new ordered list here:
Top 100 most well-written game storylines of their time (best of 1975-2015)
1983
NEC PC-6001
Adventure / visual novel
Yuji Horii (Enix)
1983
Fujitsu FM-7 & NEC PC-8801
Adventure / visual novel
T. Sugie (Enix)
1985
Fujitsu FM-7 & NEC PC-8801
Adventure / visual novel
Hironobu Sakaguchi (Squaresoft)
1986
NEC PC-8801 & NEC PC-9801
Adventure / RPG
Arrow Soft
1987
Fujitsu FM-7, MSX2, NEC PC-8801
Adventure / visual novel
Koji Miya (Enix)
1988
MSX2 & NEC PC-8801
Adventure / visual novel
Hideo Kojima (Konami)
1989
Sega Mega Drive
RPG
Chieko Aoki & Chiemshi (Sega)
1990
MSX2
Stealth
Hideo Kojima (Konami)
1991
SNES
RPG
Takashi Tokita & Hironobu Sakaguchi (Squaresoft)
1992
SNES
RPG
Yuji Horii (Chunsoft)
1993
SNES
RPG
Kazushige Nojima (Data East)
1994
SNES
Visual novel / survival horror
Takemaru Abiko (Chunsoft)
1995
SNES
RPG
Masahide Miyata (Neverland)
1996
NEC PC-9821
Adventure / visual novel
Hiroyuki Kanno (ELF)
1997
PS1
RPG
Kazushige Nojima & Yoshinori Kitase (Square Division 1)
1998
PS1
RPG
Tetsuya Takahashi, Soraya Saga, Masato Kato (Square Division 3)
1999
PC
RPG / visual novel
Chris Avellone & Colin McComb (Black Isle Studios)
2000
PC
Visual novel
Jun Maeda (Key)
2001
PS2
Stealth
Hideo Kojima & Tomokazu Fukushima (Konami KCEJ)
2002
PC
Visual novel
Kotaro Uchikoshi & Takumi Nakazawa (KID)
2004
PC
Visual novel
Jun Maeda (Key)
2007
PSP
Action RPG
Kazushige Nojima (Square Enix)
2008
PS3
Stealth / third-person shooter
Hideo Kojima & Shuyo Murata (Kojima Productions)
2009
Xbox 360
Visual novel / adventure
Naotaka Hayashi (5pb) & Vio Shimokura (Nitro+)
2010
PSP
Adventure / visual novel
Kazutaka Kodaka (Spike Chunsoft)
2011
PC
Adventure / visual novel
Kan Gao (Freebird Games)
2012
PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Horror adventure / visual novel
Sean Vanaman, Mark Darin, Gary Whitta (Telltale Games)
2013
PS3
Survival horror TPS / action-adventure
Neil Druckmann (Naughty Dog)
1981
Arcade
Platformer
Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo)
1982
Fujitsu FM-7, NEC PC-8801, Sharp MZ
Adventure
Tsukasa Moritani (MicroCabin)
1996
NEC PC-9821
Adventure / survival horror
Team GrisGris & 5pb
2003
PS2, GameCube, Xbox
Platformer / hack & slash
Jordan Mechner (Ubisoft Montreal)
2006
PS2
Visual novel
Kinoko Nasu (Type-Moon)
1979
Arcade
Run & gun shoot 'em up
Genyo Takeda & Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo)
1980
Apple II
Adventure
Roberta Williams (On-Line Systems)
1978
Arcade
Shoot 'em up
Tomohiro Nishikado (Taito)
1975
Arcade
Run & gun shooter
Tomohiro Nishikado (Taito)
1976
Arcade
Paddle & ball
Nolan Bushnell & Steve Jobs (Atari)
1977
PDP-10
Text adventure
William Crowther & Don Woods (Stanford University)
1994
Sega CD
RPG
Kei Shigema (Game Arts & Studio Alex)
1995
NEC PC-9821
Adventure / visual novel
Hiroyuki Kanno (C's Ware)
1997
PS1
Action-adventure / action RPG
Ichiro Tezuka (Matrix Software)
1997
PS1
Tactical RPG
Yasumi Matsuno (Squaresoft)
1998
PS1
Tactical RPG
Yoshitaka Murayama & Junko Kawano (Konami)
1999
PS1
RPG
Masato Kato (Squaresoft)
2001
PS2
Adventure
Junko Kawano (Konami)
2003
PC
Horror visual novel
Ryukishi07 (07th Expansion)
2004
PS2, GameCube, Xbox, PC
Platformer / hack & slash
Corey May & Dooma Wendschuh (Ubisoft Montreal)
2005
Nintendo DS & PC
Adventure / visual novel
Shu Takumi (Capcom)
2005
PS2
Action-adventure / action RPG
Hase Seishu (Sega)
2007
Xbox 360
RPG / visual novel
Hironobu Sakaguchi & Kiyoshi Shigematsu (Mistwalker & feelplus)
2009
Nintendo DS
Adventure / visual novel
Hideyuki Shibamoto & Shigeyuki Hirata
2010
Xbox 360 & PS3
Survival horror TPS / action-adventure
Hidetaka Suehiro & Kenji Goda (Access Games)
2011
PS3 & Xbox 360
Horror adventure / puzzle-platformer
Yasuyuki Shimizu & Shijiro Nishimi (Atlus Persona Team)
2012
Nintendo 3DS & PS Vita
Adventure / visual novel
Kōtarō Uchikoshi (Chunsoft / Spike Chunsoft)
2013
iOS
Adventure / visual novel
Simogo
1992
SNES
Visual novel / survival horror
Chunsoft
1991
NEC PC Engine CD-ROM² & Sega Mega Drive
Action RPG
Hiroshi Akahori (Telenet Japan)
1987
Sega Master System
RPG
Kotaro Hayashida & Rieko Kodama (Sega Consumer Division 2)
1989
NEC PC Engine CD-ROM²
Action RPG
Tomoyoshi Miyazaki (Nihon Falcom)
1990
NEC PC Engine CD-ROM²
Adventure / visual novel
Rika Suzuki (Riverhill Soft)
1984
NEC PC-6001 & NEC PC-8801
Adventure / visual novel
Yuji Horii (Login Software)
2007
Xbox 360 & PC
Survival horror FPS
2K Games
1988
Famicom Disk System
Adventure / visual novel
Kazushige Nojima (Data East)
1993
FM Towns & PC
Adventure / visual novel / interactive movie
Haruhiko Shono (Synergy)
2014
PS Vita
Adventure / visual novel
Kazutaka Kodaka (Spike Chunsoft)
2013
Mac OS X
Third-person shooter
Walt Williams & Richard Pearsey (Yager Development)
2011
PC
Visual novel
Ryuuta Fujisaki (Front Wing)
2006
PC
Visual novel
Hirohiko Yoshida (Age)
2006
PSP
Stealth
Gakuto Mikumo, Satoshi Hirano, Hideo Kojima (Kojima Productions)
2003
PC
Horror visual novel
Gen Urobuchi (Nitroplus)
1998
PS1
Action RPG
Tomoyoshi Miyazaki & Masami Ohkubo (Shade & Arc Entertainment)
1999
PC
Visual novel
Jun Maeda (Key)
2001
PS2
Action-adventure
Amy Hennig, Paul Jenkins, Richard Lemarchand (Crystal Dynamics)
2002
PS2 & Xbox
Survival horror
Hiroyuki Owaku & Takayoshi Sato (Konami KCET Tokyo)
2004
PS2
Stealth
Hideo Kojima, Tomokazu Fukushima, Shuyo Murata (Kojima Productions)
2009
Xbox 360
Visual novel / adventure
Naotaka Hayashi (5pb)
2010
PS3
Action-adventure / action RPG
Masayoshi Yokoyama (Sega)
1996
PS1 & Saturn
Adventure / visual novel
Hideo Kojima (Konami)
1993
PC & Mac
Adventure / visual novel
Takashi Kawahara (Softedge)
1992
Sega CD
RPG
Kei Shigema (Game Arts & Studio Alex)
1994
SNES
RPG
Yoshinori Kitase & Hironoby Sakaguchi (1994)
1982
Apple II
Adventure
Roberta Williams (On-Line Systems)
1991
NEC PC Engine CD-ROM²
Action RPG
Nihon Falcom
2014
PC, PSP, PS Vita
Visual novel
Ryuuta Fujisaki (Front Wing)
2014
PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC
Puzzle adventure / visual novel
Ubisoft Montpellier
2008
Wii
Visual novel / adventure
Jiro Ishii (Chunsoft)
2012
3DS, PS Vita, PSP
Visual novel / adventure
Jiro Ishii (Level-5)
2005
PC
Visual novel
0verflow
1986
NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-9801, Fujitsu FM-7
Adventure / visual novel
Hironobu Sakaguchi (Squaresoft)
1981
Apple II
Adventure
Roberta Williams (On-Line Systems)
2000
Dreamcast
Action-adventure
Masahiro Yoshimoto & Yu Suzuki (Sega AM2)
1984
RPG / adventure
Fujitsu FM-7 & NEC PC-8801
Hot-B
2002
PC
Visual novel
Romeo Tanaka (D.O.)
2008
PC
Action-adventure / stealth
Corey May & Dooma Wendschuh (Ubisoft Montreal)
2000
PC
RPG
Lysander86
1985
MSX
Adventure / visual novel / interactive movie
Eiji Yokoyama (T&E Soft)
1995
SNES
Shigesato Itoi (HAL Laboratory)
2015
PC
Visual novel
Jun Maeda (Key)
2015
PC
RPG
Toby Fox
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