Best stories in an RPG

[NecroLord]

Greetings.
Now, I know what you might be thinking: "Stories in an RPG? Combat is king! This nigga is surely mad!"
Perhaps that might be so, but let's talk a bit about what are possibly the best stories in any RPG.
Planescape Torment, all memes and storyfaggotry aside, is arguably one of the RPG's with the most well developed stories, courtesy of Chris Avellone.
Kotor 2, despite many glitches, is another RPG with a very well written and detailed story and characters. Another Chris Avellone creation. One of the best Star Wars stories ever created, and definitely not one of your average Good vs Evil ones. Game is pretty grimdark too, depending on your perspective.
Mask of The Betrayer is another RPG which must be enumerated. Again, Chris Avellone!

What do you think? What RPG has the best story? What are you looking for in said story? Do you like it Grimdark? Lots of blood, guts, suffering, despair? Or do you prefer High Fantasy Good vs Evil Paladin rescues kitties stuck in trees and shoves his Holy Avenger in some Tanar'ri's guts?

 

[__scribbles__]

Ultima IV had a pretty memorable and unconventional one, and the way it ties into the gameplay is superb with needing to, for example, avoid killing fleeing enemies for loot or donate gold to beggars. By the end, you actually feel like your character embodies the eight virtues.
A good story furthers and/or ties into the player character's actions. If the story and gameplay are disconnected or they feel like two different games, then you might as well make a sandbox game and write a novel instead.

 

[Bohrain]

Torment or New Vegas for me. Both have a distinct theme, some memorable characters and story beats and the story plays into player interactivity without any bullshit like villains having speeches behind bulletproof glass doors. Neither also make any major assumptions about the player sympathizing with a particular character or viewpoint.
The stories in video games and to some extend in tabletop RPG's don't really operate with the same rules or standards as linear stories. If you were to write out the video game stories, they will usually worse than what the average film or novel has to offer. But player agency changes things dramatically. Something like an antagonist that's active and visible throughout the story usually adds to the experience in linear media, but in a video game you have to come up with excuses why the player(s) can't murderhobo him out of existence and doing so will usually lead to player feeling scuffed. High budget titles typically strive to emulate blockbuster movies in both presentation and structure, so you usually have these garbage plots with lenghty cutscenes with little player agency besides maybe some press blue or red button at the very end of the game kind of thing. They kind of get the point right that people usually want a mix of pure mechanical gameplay moments with some scripted interaction in between, but if you aren't majorly invested in the character motivations they assume you to be, you typically just want to glance the dialogue or skip cutscenes entirely.

 

[Butter]

I'd rather have a story like Pool of Radiance, a slow-burn mystery that gets out of the way when it's time to murder things, than have something like KotOR 2 which is constantly stopping you in your tracks so you can listen to annoying monologues.

 

[Tihskael]

I can't even get myself to think conventionally about stories in RPGs because ideally in RPGs, "stories" can pan out in several different ways. What choices does the player make, what direction do these choices take the player in, how it sandwiches these "story moments", does the player fuck around or sticks to the route the developer wants him to stick to, etc. just makes it impossible to compare the narrative experience a game provides to different players playing the same game let alone compare these different narratives across different games. I like to think that New Vegas is a perfect example of this where the story is quite ordinary, but the world building, the C&C, the side content is so well written and contributes to the believability of the world so well, that it ulitmately becomes a good RPG experience. People on this thread will definitely mention the better story RPGs they have played over the years, but as far as I am concerned, let us say if I play a game two to three hours a day for an x number of days and if maintaining the journal, so to speak is fun for the x number of days, i.e. there is something worthwhile and interesting to do, I would say it is a good story experience, even though the story on its own without considering other parts of the game might be okay at best.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

What do you think?

I really wonder sometimes what people look for in a story of an rpg, too.

What RPG has the best story?

If by best story you mean an exploration of philosophical thoughts over the development of a plotline, then that game about the physically scarred dude with a talking skull among other companions, and the mentally scarred dude with a talking droid among other companions. Or that one with a spiritually scarred dude with a talking bear among other companions.
If by best story story we're talking about a believable set of events that tie in nicely to each other and make for an interesting plot, Alpha Protocol and Betrayal at Krondor.
Or if you just want some good drama and don't give too much of a crap about philosophy- the game of thrones rpg and Yakuza 7.

New vegas is probably one of the better ones with respect to letting the player have a sayin directing the plot though.

What are you looking for in said story?

What I want in a good RPG story is that there essentially be none.
Rather than a well written plot that is linear at worst and branching at best, I'd much rather have be part of a world where things happen with or without player intervention, where not only player success but also failure and non-interference can drive events.

Do you like it Grimdark? Lots of blood, guts, suffering, despair? Or do you prefer High Fantasy Good vs Evil Paladin rescues kitties stuck in trees and shoves his Holy Avenger in some Tanar'ri's guts?

I really don't care, but damn if people don't really care about Heroism anymore.

 

[Hag]

While not the greatest story ever, Age of Decadence has a clever way of limiting its own scope so that it can adapt to player's actions and show consequences, and to show different points of view on the same plot across playthrough with different classes. Also it has a nice backstory that you're free to ignore completely.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

KotOR 2 had a pretty shitty story tbh, way overrated here. You know when a word like "deconstruction" is used to describe a story it will be shit.

PST I agree, it's up there. As is Mask of the Betrayer, however I don't think Avellone wrote it, I think it was Ziets, no?

Arcanum had a very good main story.

Witcher 1 main story is excellent as well, with an interesting time travel angle.

Neverwinter Nights 2 main campaign story was pretty good actually as well, at its core (the stuff about the guardian), but it meandered too much on other side crap.

Betrayal at Krondor has a very good main story, which is amusing, since it was written not by Raymond E. Feist, but by the game developer (who ocassionally used to post here I believe?).

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Betrayal at Krondor has a very good main story, which is amusing, since it was written not by Raymond E. Feist, but by the game developer (who ocassionally used to post here I believe?).

Yup. nealiios, I wot.

 

[NecroLord]

I appreciate all of your input.
ERYFKRAD I think the wave of Game of Thrones-like art and artists led to this decline in the appreciation of Heroism and characters with strong and well defined moral codes.
PorkyThePaladin Yes, Arcanum has a great story.A story of manipulation, prophecy, and a misguided villain... The Technology vs Magick aspect is another defining trait of the game.

 

[Tweed]

Betrayal at Krondor had the best story in a game by far and every bit of writing is tied into the game itself.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Of what I I've played, in no particular order: KotOR II, Witcher 1, Planescape: Torment, Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage

Honorable mention: Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark

The common thread in these is that they all present the player with an inward journey as much as they do an outward one. Either they focus on a kind of character revanchism via overcoming amnesia or repressed memories or the characters fundamentally change throughout the course of the game based on events around them. Often it's tied to C&C, but not always. I find it deeply satisfying to take something weak and make it strong again, both philosophically and physically.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

The best CRPG stories are those that emerge from gameplay, rather than those in a predetermined narrative.

 

[NecroLord]

The best CRPG stories are those that emerge from gameplay, rather than those in a predetermined narrative.

Can you elaborate?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

The best CRPG stories are those that emerge from gameplay, rather than those in a predetermined narrative.

Can you elaborate?

Basically stories that are made by the player and world acting and reacting, instead of being on rails.
Like dwarf fortress vs Baldur's gate.

 

[lukaszek]

maneater

 

[Falksi]

Ones not mentioned yet...

Witcher 2 - I just love the blend of politics, romance, monster hunting, and war. It demands replays to view all the story outcomes, and each one offers a fresh perspective on events. Fantastic.

Phantasy Star series - Phantasy Star 4 has a simple, but very well told and well-balanced story. However, the series (1 thro 4) is something of a work of genius, and it's amazing how well everything is tied up with the final entry. There is a caveat to all this, and that is that the way the story is told in the first 3 entries isn't the greatest, and the key 3rd entry isn't quite clear with its genius moment. This moment was something which online fan-talk fleshed out to me long after finishing it, and I genuinely can't think of any other JRPG which comes even close to such an ambitious and pretty mind-blowing mid-series resolution. If I could remake and game it would be Phantasy Star 3, because what the developers intended is far more stunning than what the development time allowed to be birthed.

Divinity 2: TDKS - the Ending makes this one. It's a pretty decent story anyway, but the ending is just divine.

Hard West - There is literally 0 happiness in this game, and the game makes you enjoy that. You're gonna die, your friends are gonna die, everything that you touch and love is gonna decay and burn in hell, every good moment is only there to set up inevitable sorrow. But you love that because ultimately, it's about hurting the enemy more.

Shadowrun Returns - Just a really fucking neat bitesized murder-mystery.

Nier Gestalt - One of those games which has a lot more to it than it seems on the surface.

 

[spockthewok]

For me it's either Skyrim or Fallout 4.

Spoiler

 

[NecroLord]

Skyrim.

Spoiler

Skyrim 2: Revenge of Alduin.

 

[Arthandas]

LISA

 

[Gunnar]

Geneforge 1 should be mentioned; creative, engaging and interesting - to facilitate the exploration

 

[JarlFrank]

The ones that give the player a say in how the protagonist reacts to events and what choices he or she makes are automatically the RPGs with the best stories, because an interactive medium requires interactive storytelling.

 

[Humanophage]

Apart from the obvious PST, I like Disco Elysium and Suzerain. Neither are proper RPGs, but it is difficult to combine a good RPG with a good story. If you think about some of the best RPGs like Baldur's Gate or Fallout 1 or Bloodlines or Gothic, the stories are not anything special. When it comes to the 'squishy' bits of RPGs rather than systems and combat, it is mainly about the setting, the details, the exploration, the reactivity rather than any overarching narrative. The story is more of an excuse, at most linking good vignettes like Bloodlines, at worst constraining exploration.

 

[Popiel]

P:T, Anachronox, MotB, Disco Elysium, Chrono Trigger, The Prophet (module for NWN1)... There are some other excellent ones but the abovementioned won my heart, due to various reasons though.

 

[NecroLord]

The ones that give the player a say in how the protagonist reacts to events and what choices he or she makes are automatically the RPGs with the best stories, because an interactive medium requires interactive storytelling.

Kotor 2 is interesting in the fact it allows
you(the protagonist) to decide the reasons why The Exile disobeyed the Jedi Council and followed Revan during the Mandalorian Wars. Was he as bloodthirsty as the mandalorians, keeping in mind the fact that most of the jedi who served in the Mandalorian Wars were close to the Dark Side? Massacring them with impunity, straying far from the Jedi Code and embracing the temptations of the Dark Side? *cough* Malachor V *cough*.
Or did the Exile join Revan only to protect the people of The Outer Rim, where the Republic has little to no influence?