What is your favorite game series storywise?

[Metal_Sonic]

So I recently finished the Metal Gear/ Metal Gear Solid series(excluding the handheld games) and I gotta say, it all came together nicely and it has become my personal favorite series. Start sharing folks.

[Iron Lizard]

Snatcher though it is not really a series. I always liked Panzer Dragoon as far as series wise goes. The story was always intriguing.

[TheEdge]

Shenmue

Also I have a lot of PC adventure games. Too many to name.

[MrMatthews]

Interesting topic!

The Resident Evil series is a contender, even though it's often a bit too convoluted and inconsistent. Maybe the Zelda or Metroid games. Oh, and Mega Man (there is a continuous storyline tying the various series together).

I don't really play too many "story" games. Gears of War is the probablly the only one I have left that even qualifies.

[Knuckle Duster]

Ys
Phantasy Star

The two best RPG franchises as far as continuity and story is concerned.

[jerry coeurl]

Phantasy Star, without question.

[RowdyRodimus]

Bad Dudes had an awesome story

[TheEdge]

Interesting topic!

The Resident Evil series is a contender, even though it's often a bit too convoluted and inconsistent.

I was just about to say the same thing. The Resident Evil storyline started out just fine until they started trying to explain every single thing imaginable.

I think the worst storyline out of the whole series would be RE: Zero. I don't know why, it was going well at first, then all of a sudden the guy has control over the leeches. Then he turns into a big leech or something. It was so stupid.

Another dumb move was in RE: Code Veronica when Steve could magically fly a plane at 17 years old. Also I never understood why the blind monster (Alexander Ashford) had that axe infront of him? He didn't even use it!

What a bunch of dolts........:? Good job Capcom!

[MrMatthews]

RE5 refers back to Zero quite a bit. Whether you end up liking it or not, I think you need to play it just for the story elements.

[TheEdge]

RE5 refers back to Zero quite a bit. Whether you end up liking it or not, I think you need to play it just for the story elements.

I'm sure it deals with Spencer, Marcus, and Alexander. I think they are finally attempting to tackle the beginning of the story. How everything started. They hinted at it for the first 4 games but never got too into too much detail about it.

[MrMatthews]

We're still talking about 5, right? There's a sense of finality to the game, and it seems to be trying to piece together all the other games with explanations for Wesker, all the various viruses, and the Las Plagas (Luis even gets a mention, I think).

Still, for Pete's sake, I wish they could make it comprehensible. I want capcom to just spell the entire storyline out from beginning to end: as thoroughly and straight-forward as possible.

[TheEdge]

We're still talking about 5, right? There's a sense of finality to the game, and it seems to be trying to piece together all the other games with explanations for Wesker, all the various viruses, and the Las Plagas (Luis even gets a mention, I think).

Still, for Pete's sake, I wish they could make it comprehensible. I want capcom to just spell the entire storyline out from beginning to end: as thoroughly and straight-forward as possible.

It does seem a little jumbled up. I think they are attempting to fill in more blanks with the Unbrella Chronicle games.

[MrMatthews]

Oh, and I thought the leech guy WAS Marcus

[Tanegashima]

99.95% of video game stories are for shit (sorry). Most are shallow, poorly conceived or just completely irrelevant. I really don't find that video games have better writing than Hollywood. I think both ends are equally as cliched, shallow and overall just badly written.

I have to say my favorite would have to be Flashback, though its not much of a series. Other than that, I really don't pay attention to plot lines in video games. Though I honestly don't play too many games that even have story lines beyond ''kill badguy, save world.''

Second favorite would be Freespace 2 followed by Einhander (pretty cool idea for a shooter).

[jerry coeurl]

Oh yeah, if we're talking about individual games than my favorite story would belong to either Vagrant Story or Final Fantasy Tactics. Yasumi Matsuno is an excellent scenario writer, particularly for games that involve political intrigue/subterfuge. It's a shame he had to "leave" Square-Enix before Final Fantasy XII was completed (which is still a great game, but it's quite obvious that the storyline just isn't finished).

[TheEdge]

Oh, and I thought the leech guy WAS Marcus

He was, I'm just assuming that in RE:5 they talk about the motives of the three beginning scientists.

Spencer, Marcus, and Alexander.

[MrMatthews]

In that case, the story's REALLY confusing. It flashes back to when Wesker "killed" Marcus and there's a revelation about Wesker that apparently predates the original game. Damn it!

[TheEdge]

In that case, the story's REALLY confusing. It flashes back to when Wesker "killed" Marcus and there's a revelation about Wesker that apparently predates the original game. Damn it!

lol, that is very confusing:?. I think there may be one or two prequels then if that was introduced in RE:5

What happened to Ada and Leon? There are so many dam questions. We need a graph or something to plot all these events.

[MrMatthews]

Dude, if you don't mind spoilers, PM me and we'll combine what we know (including UC and RE5) and see if we can figure it out

[Youngie]

Shenmue
Discworld
Monkey Island
Final Fantasy

[FoxHound]

I would say Zelda for me, and the AVGN nerd video of explaining the series was pretty good.

[TheEdge]

ShenmueDiscworld
Monkey Island
Final Fantasy

Another Shenmue fan in the hizzle :!: :cool:

"Remember on that day the snow turned to rain?"

[InternalPrimate]

Lunar.

[Youngie]

Another Shenmue fan in the hizzle :!: :cool:

"Remember on that day the snow turned to rain?"

Shenmue fanatic yes.

I just wish there was a third one out...

[Zebbe]

Phantasy Star I - IV. They all have some unique, innovative stuff and fit together nicely to make a full circle.

[stalepie]

I like the story of Ms. Pac-Man. Boy meets girl. Boy chases girl. Boy makes Pac-Man Jr. What a great story!

[TheEdge]

I like the story of Ms. Pac-Man. Boy meets girl. Boy chases girl. Boy makes Pac-Man Jr. What a great story!

I was playing NES Pac-Man last night. Very Romeo and Juliet if I may say so.

Amazing Avatar by the way.

[stalepie]

Amazing Avatar by the way.

Thanks. I don't want to say how long I spent trying to get the perfect Bloodlines picture. :)

[Jesse813]

Zelda
Phantasy Star

There all just good :cool:

[Scooter]

99.95% of video game stories are for shit (sorry). Most are shallow, poorly conceived or just completely irrelevant. I really don't find that video games have better writing than Hollywood. I think both ends are equally as cliched, shallow and overall just badly written.

I have to say my favorite would have to be Flashback, though its not much of a series. Other than that, I really don't pay attention to plot lines in video games. Though I honestly don't play too many games that even have story lines beyond ''kill badguy, save world.''

Second favorite would be Freespace 2 followed by Einhander (pretty cool idea for a shooter).

Well, Flashback did have a sequel, Fade To Black. And while Out of This World/Heart of the Alien aren't directly related, they are spiritually related (even came from the same studio). All of those were great.

As far as the most compelling overall storyline, I'd have to go with Silent Hill. The stories have just enough overlap to at least loosely tie them together and yet each story is strong enough by itself that they don't necessarily rely on the others to exist. They don't make a really strong effort to explain everything, in fact they tend to explain very little about many things, but the concept is so very compelling any new game in the series draws you in with the hope of learning more about that bizzarre world.

Parasite Eve, Metal Gear Solid and even Tomb Raider all have storylines that tend to draw me in. I suspect the Zelda series would too but I've only ever played on game in that series.

[Youngie]

I like the story of Ms. Pac-Man. Boy meets girl. Boy chases girl. Boy makes Pac-Man Jr. What a great story!

:lol:

[Elusive]

I've no idea whether the Valve developer team had any overarching continuity planned out when it was first released over a decade ago, but for a 1998 first-person shooter (only five years after Doom!), Half-Life's entire presentation is superb. I'm surprised it's not been mentioned yet!

For example: many FPS' enemies are programmed to spot you, shoot you and intercept you. The Marines in HL will not pursue you through doorways: they'll outflank you, flush you out with grenades, THEN fill you full of holes.

Half-Life 2 went a little weird in parts (ravenholm, i hate you), but weird in ways that fit - for example, the 'transhuman' Combine forces will happily throw themselves into gunfire to eventually blast you to bits. I'm eagerly waiting to find out how they're going to overlap Black Mesa and Aperture Science technologies :-)

[edit] OK fine: the way Rocket Knight Adventures tells the game's story without uttering a single word is brilliant.

[outrunner]

Duke Nukem
Doom
Wolfenstein
Adventure Island
Wonder Boy
Burgertime

[kool kitty89]

I don't know if I can decide on a favorite series story line, but one that hasn't come up yet (and the mention of Freespace reminded me of) is the Wing Commander Series.

The first 2 games more of less revolutionized the genere, and of all that crap that came out durring the FMV craze, the movie scenes form WCIII and IV shine through. Sure the video's grainy (inless you get the limited edition DVD releases) and it was extravigantly expensive to produce (both games had unprecidented budgets, at $4 million, and nearly $12 million) but with actors like Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and John Rhys Davies playing out a well written and directed story (much better than the WC film adaptation), it's just awesome. (with gameplay to match)

[nonner242]

Lunar
Half-Life
Shenmue
Out of this world/Flasback
Phantasy Star

[KenshiroX]

House of the Dead had a cool storyline. It probably helped that the acting was hilarious.
"Suffer like G did?"
"To protect the LOYFE cycle."
"Dogs of the AMS...time they made a move"
"Rogan, it's you! I was so scared."

[Baloo]

House of the Dead had a cool storyline. It probably helped that the acting was hilarious.
"Suffer like G did?"
"To protect the LOYFE cycle."
"Dogs of the AMS...time they made a move"
"Rogan, it's you! I was so scared."

"Don't Come! Don't Come!"

I've always loved reading the Eternal Champions character backgrounds. They're so intricate. Larcen's and Xavier's were always my favorite.

I like Power Stone's.

Sonic's is pretty good for the 2D games (1,2, CD, 3, Knuckles)

Uhh...Moonwalker?

[j_factor]

Panzer Dragoon, definitely. For individual games, my vote goes to The Last Express.

[cj iwakura]

Persona. Every game's been excellent, and the first three games make one epic trilogy.

(By the second two, I mean Persona 2: Innocent Sin & Eternal Punishment.)


I'll also second Wing Commander. How did the film go wrong?

For an individual game, SMT Nocturne.

I guess I should just finish the SMT bias and throw in the two Digital Devil Saga games.

[16-bit]

Burgertime

I can't agree more with you on that one. The storyline is so deep and involving. I like the part where the chef Peter Pepper has to decide whether he's going to save the hamburger he's making, and crush his egg friends underneath, or get eaten alive by a hotdog to save his egg friends. That needs to be made into a movie.

[Iron Lizard]

Couldn't be any worse then the Resident Evil movies.

[Flygon]

Mother 3 had a great story, before you accuse me of jumping onto the boat, there is a good reason.

It is one of the few storylines in a game that has actually left me thinking for quite a while (And no, I didn't cry at the ending).

[Chameleon86]

I just started playing the Metal Gear Solid series. I started with MGS2. I have all the MGS console games except MGS for PS. Great story line and cut scenes look really good.

[kool kitty89]

The wing commander movie is OK (though I honestly haven't seen the whole thing), but it doesn't have the right feel, and it certainly wasn't as good as the movie sequences in WC III/IV. (interesting note, WC III and IV were actually marketed as interactive movies, even puts it on the box) Kind of like comparing the Stargate movie to the series. (granted, the series came after the movie, opposed to WC)

Not to get too off topic, but I agree on the RE movie comment (though I'm not really big on RE). All things considdered the RE movies were OK, particularly for movies based on games (of which there are some real stinkers). That said, I think they did an excellent job with the Silent Hill film. (a series I am a fan of)


Speaking of which, the Silent Hill series deserves a mention as well. (especially the first 3 games)