30 Day Video Game Challenge Thing.

[drahkon]

Best Story

Bioshock Infinite - it's just amazing (the gameplay not so much, but the plot...I enjoyed it immensely when I played it)

Nope. It's the Nonary Games Trilogy

Edited July 15, 2020 by drahkon

[Goafer]

Best Story

Persona 4 Golden

A great story filled with awesome characters, each with their own interesting stories. Finishing the game felt like saying goodbye to friends. If you're a fan of (or even just tolerant of) JRPGs, it's an absolute must play.

[bob]

Best Story

Probably would have gone for Yakuza 0 if i hadn't already used it earlier, so I'll go for this:

Tales from the Borderlands

It's the only Telltale Games i've played, and loved it from start to finish. It had great characters, funny dialogue, amazing twists and turns, and generally felt like an actual game rather than one long cut scene, which is what I was worried it would be when i started.

[Cube]

Day 15 - Best Story

I've already used Control, so I'm going with Alan Wake. It's a fascinating mystery, and part of the game involves finding manuscripts which has the story of the game - sometimes bits you haven't encountered yet.

And using a song to tell some of the story is definitely an awesome thing.

 

 

[Happenstance]

Day 15 - Best Story

I think I'll also go with Persona 4, although the original and not Golden. I think Golden is probably the better game overall but I don't think many of the scenes they added really brought much to the overall story. Plus I think the original had the better voice actors which helps. Anyway, the murder mystery was a brilliant backdrop for the almost slice of life side stories from the game.

I've got to give a shout out to Mass Effect 2, Walking Dead Season 1 and To The Moon as well though, they were definitely in consideration.

[Will]

Best Story

This one was a little tough for me as I generally don’t play too much thatis story driven that i haven’t already mentioned. One game I absolutely loved and will play again at some point is Eternal Darkness. Loved the different settings and interwoven storylines across different times. Probably wouldn’t be considered great by today’s standards but for the time it was really awesome.

[Dufniall]

2 hours ago, drahkon said:

Best Story

Bioshock Infinite - it's just amazing (the gameplay not so much, but the plot...I enjoyed it immensely when I played it)

This is my pick as well. It doesn't happen often that I'm left in confusion in a good way by the end of a game!

[BowserBasher]

Tough to think of one for me as most games I play are racers, puzzle games and platformers that the story is Princess kidnapped for save her. However I’ve decided to go with a story that becomes more outrageous as the game goes on, and that’s saying something as it starts of that way too. 

 

Yeah it’s not much of a story but there is something kinda there. 

[Ronnie]

Best Story

As with a lot of others here I don't really play many narrative-heavy games, and the big AAA games I do are mostly forgettable a month or so later. One exception to that is Detroit: Become Human. I adored the story-telling in that game and the way your choices affect the narrative was fantastic, really enjoyable experience. I didn't like Marcus' storyline much but Kara and Connor were great. Stunning game too, which helps. Not just the graphics but the UI as well.

Edited July 15, 2020 by Ronnie

[Dcubed]

Day 15: Best Story

My vote goes to Nine Persons, Nine Hours, Nine Doors

YES, YES, YES

While I could really have picked any of the Zero Escape games (screw you! I LOVE Zero Time Dillemma!), I am going for the first game because it is the only one in the trilogy that happens to work perfectly as a standalone story.

This is a rare example of a game that tells a story that could ONLY be told through the medium of video games.  It's an absolute corker and I love it to pieces!

... just make sure that you play the original DS version.  The PC/PS4/Vita port loses a LOT of the magic of the big twist at the end of the game (to say why would be a tremendous spoiler...)

Oh, and the gameplay kicks arse too! Brilliant puzzle design! An absolute must play!

Edited July 15, 2020 by Dcubed

[Mandalore]

Day 15: Best Story

Horizon Zero Dawn. It was a unique spin on the post apocalyptic setting and the story was very well presented. There were a few nice twists and I found it really compelling slowly learning about what happened to the world. Still plenty of mysteries left to explore in the sequel too, really looking forward to it.

 

[S.C.G]

Day 15: Best Story

Tales of Symphonia

A really fantastic RPG with a great story for its time, well worth playing for anyone who hasn't played it before, I can remember playing it on the GameCube when it first came out and although there are probably RPG's with better stories, I think it all just resonated with me at the time, in particular there is part of the storyline which shows Colette's journey to become an 'Angel' and it's as the story unfolds that you start to realise what this actually means. You have Lloyd and Genis at each step trying to say to her... 'erm, maybe this isn't such a good idea' and at almost each and every point Colette essentially replies with 'this is fine...' a bit like that meme in a way.

There are other elements to the story though, I don't want to spoil too much but it is a two disc game and let's just say that when you think you're maybe coming up towards the end of the game, you're only really halfway through as the true scope of the game unfolds across a larger world than you'd have thought exists in the game, there are some good lessons in the story and some interesting themes at times as well, plus some well written characters with decent voice acting for the time, even if some of it comes across as a little bit off now perhaps, the story is generally good, especially when you get some extra details during certain parts through the skits which unveil more about the characters.

[nekunando]

 

[drahkon]

2 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Nine Persons, Nine Hours, Nine Doors

Oh shit, how could I not think of this one...

I'm gonna have to change my vote...It's the Nonary Games trilogy all the way

[Jonnas]

10 hours ago, S.C.G said:

Tales of Symphonia

Dangit Sam, twice in a row have you mentioned the game I was going to! If not for my busy schedule, I'd have mentioned this by now.

But yeah.

It was a tough call between this and Final Fantasy IX, but I used "Go for Hard Mode still!" as a tie-breaker.

There are other games with better worldbuilding. There are games with more concise messages. There are (tons of) games with better in-game cutscenes. But there is something special about Tales of Symphonia.

• The well-written characters. Though beat by Fire Emblem on quantity alone, Tales of Symphonia remains a traditional RPG with some of the best realized characters I've ever seen. Their camaraderie feels genuine,  their personal arcs all have something to say, and it feels like everybody relates to the main themes of the game on some core level. This includes the villain, still the most fleshed out RPG villain I've ever seen (and a close contender for "Best villain" in this thread);
  • By the way, the skits are fantastic, and allow the characters a lot of space to breathe outside of the plot. They play a major part towards me growing attached to these guys;
• The subversion of the typical "JRPG journey" is brilliant. The chosen one who must save the world, the holy prophecy, the clear-cut villains, the merry band who goes along... all of it explored and deconstructed at different points of the game;
• The main themes are all well explored, and intertwine more elegantly than one would expect. The worth of Idealism, the value of sacrifice, the nature of racism and the different ways it permeates society... Going back to the game in my more mature years, it's surprising how well they're handled. Racism is a non-entity during the first few hours of the game, but the more you find about the world, the more you see how ingrained it is. Some of the main characters are racist in realistically subtle ways (hey there, Genis). Lloyd is still my go-to role model whenever I think about the nature of idealism.

This is a game that marked my teenage years, and for good reason. It's not just a big, fun world to explore, it's a story worth experiencing and thinking about.

 

  Previous picks (Hide contents)

Earliest video game memory - Tetris or Sonic
Opening section - Final Fantasy IX
Local multiplayer - Snipperclips
Favourite villain - Ganondorf (Ocarina of Time)
3D Platformer - De Blob
Most relaxing navigation - Wind Waker
Favourite ranged combat - Worms Armageddon
Best musical moment - One Winged Angel (Final Fantasy VII)
Scariest moment - Doki Doki Literature Club
Best Credits sequence - Super Mario 64
Best Town - Windfall Island (Wind Waker)
Best "bad" game - Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade
Best open world city game - Chaos on Deponia
Best 2D Platformer - Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Best story - Tales of Symphonia

 

Edited July 16, 2020 by Jonnas

[Glen-i]

@drahkon, that's a cop-out, you gotta pick one.

Best Story

I bet you're all thinking "He's gonna pick PMD"? Well, you're wrong. Kinda. My choice is from the same developer though. Which is always funny.

Yeah, have to disagree slightly with @Dcubed a bit. While 999 does have the "Story that could only be told on a DS" thing going for it. I think VLR has the more solid story all round. There are so many perfect moments of foreshadowing that changes completely once a twist happens. It's great to go back through the game again just to see them and then go "Oh yeah, of course!"

Honestly, I can't say any of the Zero Escape trilogy can be a bad choice for this catagory. (Zero Time Dilemma has the most amazing twists, in case you're wondering)

After playing these games, it's not surprising that Pokémon Mystery Dungeon has such good stories. Probably won't get paragraphs of graphic details of how someone died in PMD though.

Edited July 16, 2020 by Glen-i

[Ronnie]

Most Interesting Collectible

This one's pretty recent for me, I don't normally bother listening to audio logs or reading lore dumps in games, but Control had me reading everything I picked up. They're written really well and placed at the right time so you end up reading about a particular thing just before you come across it. Also it's a brilliant game, highly recommended.

Edited July 16, 2020 by Ronnie

[drahkon]

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

that's a cop-out, you gotta pick one.

It's VLR, then.

Most Interesting Collectibles

Easy: Horizon Zero Dawn.

[Goafer]

Best Collectibles

Pokémon Blue

Pokémon are collectible, right? It's literally the main selling point of the game.

Super close second place is Shenmue's capsule toys.

Edited July 16, 2020 by Goafer

[Cube]

 

Day 16 - Most Interesting Collectable

The Mumbo crates from Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. They were fun to collect, some of them teased you until you unlocked a vehicle part and you got more vehicle parts to create more interesting vehicles.

 

[Happenstance]

Day 16 - Most Interesting Collectables

Ok, maybe these aren't the most interesting but they basically made the game worth playing so I'm going to say the orbs in the Crackdown series

[Glen-i]

Most Interesting Collectables

@Goafer certainly has a great idea with his choice, but that's the obvious choice and it's not even the best implementation of "Gotta Catch 'em All!"
No, that honour goes to Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon's Connection Orb!

I wouldn't look too hard at that if you haven't played every PMD game, there's a few spoilers there.

Simply put, the Connection Orb keeps track of all 779 Pokémon that you can recruit (That's all 720 Pokémon species as of the time this game came out, plus any Pokémon with multiple forms or gender differences).

What makes the collection aspect here different to every other Pokémon game is that recruiting them is not random. Every single Pokémon is recruited by performing some sort of task. What's even more neat is that the lines you can see indicate some sort of connection between Pokémon, basically telling you that those Pokémon know each other in some way. This includes Pokémon from previous PMD entries!

It's basically a graph showing every character in every single Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game to date as well as which Pokémon they know.
For example, Emolga being connected to Virizion makes perfect sense if you've played Gates to Infinity.

I can just imagine Chun Soft getting a meeting together with a big whiteboard and saying, "OK, we're going to figure out how every Pokémon in our spin-off universe relate to each other" Cue many arguments, maybe.

Yes, it's basically "Everybody is Here" before Smash Ultimate did it.

Edited July 16, 2020 by Glen-i

[bob]

Most interesting collectables

I'm going to pick the sea shanties from Assassin's Creed: Blag Flag. 

 

One of the best parts of this game was simply sailing across the incredibly realistic seas, made all the more awesome by the songs your crew would sing as you went. You could unlock new songs by finding scrolls dotted around the open world, thereby giving a reason to track down and collect them all.

 

[Will]

Most Interesting Collectables

I’m going to go with the Chao from Sonic Adventure. On their own I don’t think they were that great, but the combination with the VMU and being able to take part of your game with you was something very cool.

Makes me want to dig out some of my old VMUs and have a play with them.

[Dufniall]

Day 16: Most interesting collectibles

The cats in Astral Chain. Because cats are great, and collecting cats for a shelter is adorable. But they are challenging to find and catch as well. Haven't found them all yet!