Most here, from what I've seen, consider vidya to have bad or mediocre plots/writing in general. So what games have you come across that you found actually interesting when it came to the plot, writing, setting, or even the presentation of said elements.
I've found Ar No Surge pretty interesting so far with the power of songs and artificial planets/space stations.
I think a lot of people confuse "bad" with "simple".
You don't need to have a masterpiece with loads of symbolism and character depth and subtext and the like to make a good story. You should have *some* of that, but less can be more.It's often better to imply then to tell, too.
Two of my favorite examples of video game stories are Halo 2 and Asura's Wrath. While it's not like either of those lack any sort of symbolism or subtext (especially for 2, which is the most lore connected game in the series and there are like 20 halo books which are surprisingly good) or character devolpment or depth, for both those take a big backseat to just showing cool shit and connecting why you are doing what inside/between each level.
Both of them have enough meat to have serious discussions about the characters and narrative but are also simple and tight enough that you can sit back and relax and just play the game and not question things.
Didn't Halo 2 end on a shitty cliffhanger?
Ar Tonelico will always have the greatest setting in all of video games.
And Master Chief was beaten to the punch getting back to Earth by the Arbiter and Johnson because reasons.
I liked Dragons Dogmas story and lore, as well as New Vegas's. I'm not exactly breaking barriers with my examples though.
Modern Warfare 2 is a prime example of how to write an action movie on steroids
Legend Of Dragoon is a masterpiece and the fact it doesn't have a sequel is an example of why God has abandoned us.
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together.
tell us more homo
I don't know about good, but it's interesting trying to explain kingdom hearts plot points to people.
This as well, along with the obvious spiritual sequel FFT
And Suikoden 1&2, shit there's alot of bretty good stories out there now that I think of it
...
Fucking Legacy of Kain pretty much rode on plot alone. The gameplay was kinda meh, sans Blood Omen and arguably the first Soul Reaver.
Albert was not even half the man Lavitz was. And Rose was hot as fuck.
Suikoden 1 & 2 are based off the books of Suikoden. Its why there was a significant drop in quality from 3 onwards
just so you all know, this is a single post and ditch thread
OP is already gone
You sure think this is like reddit, don't you?
Probably because the OP is 3 hours old, and it only started becoming active 30 minutes ago?
user, does it matter if the OP is a 1 and done if the thread topic is actually good?
I found the combined story between Shadow Hearts and Shadow Hearts: Covenant to be pretty neat, given both being revenge plots and being set (loosely) against early 1900's Earth as a background. The overarching canon focusing on Yuri beginning to once again open his heart to others, coping with loss, finding of purpose, acceptance of fate, as well as the question of living as a hollow or dying as yourself also struck a neat chord with me.
Their predecessor Koudelka was less heavy in the story department but the writing (and surprisingly, the English voicing too) seemed solid enough, and between the interactions of your three protagonists, who aren't overly fond of each other and the backstory you can learn from journals and letters as to what happened at Nemeton in the past, I found it really interesting.
Debated about giving that a go before, but from what I've seen over my years on imageboards, it seems to be a pretty divisive game. Granted, that doesn't necessarily make it a bad game (some games I like are rather love it or hate it, with people on both ends being very adamant in their opinions), but I haven't exactly heard much that sells me on it.
Been meaning to play Ar Tonelico and Surge Concerto (well, Ar Nosurge, anyhow; can't exactly play through Ciel in English) somewhere in the future, especially now that the retranslation for Ar Tonelico II is finished. Though, I'm wondering if maybe I might hold off on Ar Nosurge since with henkaku, there might be a chance that Ciel receives a translation one day.
I'm just on guard
I still can't figure out if Noah giving Xande a mortal life was supposed to be a snub or a true gift. It is established in the game that there is some sort of afterlife/perpetual existence of the soul. On one hand, he turned out to be evil, so it makes you think "Oh it's obvious, it was meant to be an insult because he was clearly a bad guy". But on the other hand, when you realize this, it might imply that it was a gift to be an actual gift since everyone else would be locked into their duties forever. He wouldn't be.
For a game that felt like it only had a few pages of dialogue related to the mainplot, it's surprising food for thought.
I get what you're saying. I don't mind simple stories in games and, as long as the plot isn't some nonsense that's full of plotholes, I have no problem with most plots. I just won't find many things worth discussing. Many RPGs have stories but I've found most not even worth discussing. Like Skies of Arcadia is a game I love but all the focus was on exploring cool shit. The story was just a reason to see and interact with said things.
I'm slowly getting into this series with 2 and Ar nosurge. Ar nosurge was hard to get into. Jerky animations at times, framerate dips, and other small things. Game is the definition of waifubait and otaku pandering. I then realize I was playing a Visual Novel and not a RPG like AT2. Started noticing that a ton of the polish wasn't on the surface. The setting, characters, and their interactions had a lot of depth.
The narration alone makes that game a ride.
A lot of people got buttmad over it, yeah but I never had a problem with it.
What do you mean? It's not like we don't know why, there's an entire comic covering what MC was doing between 2 and 3, even.
One of the better ones, too. The halo books are good but there's a much lower average quality with the comics.
Be on guard for something that actually matters, then, you attention hungry faggot.
Morrowind.
I could just leave it at that, but I will elaborate.
Have you ever walked so far that you met god and punched said god in the face?
Wandering gleefully through mashmarrow fields, picking cork bulb. Taking each grain of salt rice I came across.
Break into a random house only to discover a thought provoking book on the topic of miscegenation and orc rape.
Find a crab that can not only speak, but will get drunk with me.
Taking the most powerful of holy objects and tools necessary for plot progression- and using them either to kill, scratch one's ass- nay, scratch ANY ass, or as decoration- and know that it's within my power to just discard it, or just misplace it.
Murder my ex-wife from a past life.
Break reality with a child's chemistry set.
And books- countless books explaining stories, lore, current events, past events, future events, and politics.
And of course the complex differences between CHIM and the living horrors of Dagoth Ur's waking dream.
user, those are shitpost threads. This is clearly not a shitposting thread. Saying that, I've already posted in the thread but under a different IP due to being at work at times. Stop being so paranoid.
You're always in the threads I make Shadow Hearts user. I'll definitely get on that series someday. After repairing my 4TB external with the game on it. FUCK!
More like on tard you fucking moron.
As for vidya plots, Baten Kaitos has one of the coolest twists in any game I've played. The setting is pretty nice too.
I think Second Sight was the last game I played that I thought had a good plot.
I like when vidya series have lore that builds up in the background so that you might not even notice. Subtlety is key. I don't want the plot to be the main reason to be playing a game, but when games are good regardless, and then when you think about them you realize they actually have a better plot than you thought, that's pretty cool. The Zelda timeline is probably the most famous example, but there are others.
Shadow the Hedgehog doesn't have that design purely for the sake of edginess. Professor Gerald had previously explored the ruins and seen the murals on Angel Island and the Mystic Ruins, which is how he knew about Chaos and the Emeralds, not to mention being able to build the Artificial Chaos. In Sonic & Knuckles we see that one of these murals depicts Super Sonic chasing Robotnik who has an emerald in his hand. This would be why Shadow was designed the way he was, to match this prophecy of a very powerful creature that follows Robotnik. Like Super Sonic, Shadow has upturned spikes. Of course Super Sonic is also yellow, and Shadow is not. But you know what is? A tenrec, a yellow and black creature with upturned spikes that is also known as a "fake hedgehog." But Shadow's yellow highlights are red instead because aliens.
Lots of games have really cool lore if you bother to look into them. The thing is, people are more impressed when the plot is just shoved in your face. Then they think it's deep, because they don't have to think to understand any hint of subtlety.
I actually liked the story in Solatorobo, but the game ended up being pretty easy and had way too much dialogue I couldn't skip. It probably would have been better off as a movie or short OVA series.
Are there any games that do both story and gameplay well? Or at least work well together?
The most recent kickass plot I can remember is from that witcher 3 expansion, Hearts of Stone
Shame you had to beat the mostly mediocre main game to get to it though
Agreed. Plot nowadays in games is strictly the shit shoved in your face. There is no subtle plot, no plot written in lore or told through images, just Point A to Point B.
It's why shit like FNAF, which was completely different in gameplay, had a straightforward plot, and then had a difficult to piece together sub plot and Holla Forums was all over that shit.
But nowadays,you'll never get a game that has a fairly elaborate plot with an entire second plot hidden in the details.
I didn't cry a little, my man. Not even a bucket.
It was shitty the ending was DLC but fuck it was so incredible I almost don't even mind
cute dogie go wan wan
Nah my man, don't hate Capcom too bad. They wanted to make a whole 'nother game out of it but due to poor sales they realised that wasn't gonna happen and released the ending as DLC.
I mean maybe it should've been free but at least we got an ending.
As a heads up, while PCSX2's compatibility list shows all three games as being emulator compatible from start to finish, I've heard the first one is rather finicky; according to PCSX2's wiki, it is very GPU intensive outside battle, resulting in bad slowdown in the world/towns/dungeons. Supposedly there's a work around in toggling between software mode for exploring and hardware mode for battles, but I can't claim to have tested it myself since I'm on a toaster (I've got actual copies of the games). Also heard from a Nichegamer article last year or so that the latest version of PCSX2 (1.4.0 at the time) saw improved emulation for certain games, with the author specifically noting an improvement for Shadow Hearts in his own testing.
We never know if Gerald explicitly found the Hidden Palace from S3&K since Sonic Team pretty much gave up on crafting a hard background lore. Details from the classics have been somewhat retconned such as the Super Emeralds.
More important than a game's plot is it's premise. If a game can hook you in with an interesting concept or design, than it greatly adds to its playability and replay value.
Take a look at almost any famous game, like guitar hero. You are a generic rockstar playing cover songs with a plastic guitar with 5 buttons. By all rights this game sounds retarded, but premise is so cool that everybody wants to try it.
Explains why things like Sonic, FNAF, Pokemon, Zelda, and Souls had such autistic fanbases. 4 of those had furry material though. That could also be a reason.
Thanks. I actually got my harddrive repaired with no data lost thankfully. Also playing that patched Ar Tonelico 2. I can really feel the love put into the game and I'm not even far into it. It's giving the same vibe I got from Tales of Eternia. When you start playing from start to finish and love the whole experience.
Yeah, as stated above, I need to still get to Ar Tonelico and Surge Concerto down the line (currently taking a break from playing series oriented games with Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir and Tsugunai). Might give it or .hack a go as the next series I try to get invested in.
Anyhow, the combined experience with Shadow Hearts (and Koudelka) is pretty neat, especially if you find yourself getting invested in the characters and world (the writer said in an interview he was interested in history from a young age and liked to imagine a world from those times where demons and monsters still lurked the shadowy parts), but do note that the ratio of "Dark" to "Quirk" increases in favor of quirk as the series goes on (said interview mentioned above said that the Japanese playerbase bitched about SH1 being too dark and scary and their publisher got mad at them about it). I didn't mind it that much, but since I tend to play things long after release, I suppose knowing what to expect in advance helps things, rather than being hyped for more dark adventures and getting, uh, Franked, by FtNW.
wtf is wrong with his quads
dude needs to lift more ffs