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[Tiamat2san]

1. Red dead redemption 2
I really cared about Arthur.
I’ve never seen a character as human as him.

2. lost odyssey
Profound story, profound characters.
The story is dark and sad.
Some passages are heartbreaking.

3. Alan wake.
A masterpiece.

4. FFVI
Each character has a reason to be here.

5. Witcher 3.
The story is good but the side quests are the best there is. (Blood baron...)

6. Last of us.
You feel the bond between Joel and Ellie.
The intro will stay in my heart forever.

7. Bioshock
One of the best twist in a video game.

8. A plague tale
Dark and human.

9. yakuza series.
If you put aside dumb side quests the main plot of the saga is fantastic.

10. A lot games, it’s hard to make a list that doesn’t change.

 

[MeteorVII]

Uhh yeah he doesn't remember who he is, so basically amnesia.

He doesn’t remember who he is due to DID, not amnesia.

Have you...played the game?

 

[Ultra Donny]

1. What remains of Edith Finch
2. Bioshock Infinite
3. Mass Effect
4. Witcher 2-3
5. RDR 2
6. Telltale's The Walking Dead - Season One.
7. Call of Cthulhu, Dark corners of the earth
8. Half-life 2
9. Cyberpunk 2077
10. Dishonored

 

[KàIRóS]

He doesn’t remember who he is due to DID, not amnesia.

Have you...played the game?

I don't know why you keep bringing that DID stuff up, you're just going in circles with your logic, it doesn't matter how Cloud lost his memory, if there's memory loss there's amnesia, we're discussing fiction here, not psychology, and I'm pretty sure if you ask any FFVII players, they will remember that Cloud had amnesia.

And yes I've played OG FFVII and the remake, many times actually, I even made a thread discussing the ending of the remake here at GAF and I remember fairly well all the flashbacks and how Cloud struggled to remember stuff in OG FFVII specially the entire segment with Tifa explaining Cloud's amnesia.

Here's the video actually:

Spoiler: FFVII Spoilers

I can totally see you're into Kazushige Nojima though, with KH in your top and as your avatar, I've played enough games written by that man to know that he loves using amnesia as a plot device, and clearly you like that, I mean you have Silent Hill 2 as your No.1, I personally hate that trope, I find it super boring because it has been used to death in all media, but I respect your opinion bro, I just find it funny how you're defending such a cliche character like Cloud.

Oh and this is the last time I'm replying, I find this whole argument not really worth my time and I really hate flooding threads with nonsensical discussion.

 

[MeteorVII]

I don't know why you keep bringing that DID stuff up, you're just going in circles with your logic, it doesn't matter how Cloud lost his memory,

It does, actually. That’s the entire basis of wether something becomes repetitious or not.

If a writer subverts the trope and makes it about something completely different, then it is no longer repetitive, thus no longer a trope.

Really not that hard to follow.

I can totally see you're into Kazushige Nojima though, with KH in your top and as your avatar,

I literally said KH has terrible plotting and characters in this very thread if you actually bothered to read.

I've played enough games written by that man to know that he loves using amnesia as a plot device, and clearly you like that, I mean you have Silent Hill 2 as your No.1, I personally hate that trope, I find it super boring because it has been used to death in all media, but I respect your opinion bro, I just find it funny how you're defending such a cliche character like Cloud.

Again, you seem to be under this innate fallacy that everything has to be mutually exclusive.

James Sunderland can have amnesiac characteristics and not have that be a defining trait. The game isn’t about him losing his memories, it’s about something much deeper that you probably weren’t able to comprehend and thus chalked it up to amnesia.

 

[AmuroChan]

Xenogears
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy VI
Journey
Trails series
Shadow of the Colossus
God of War 2018

 

[famfrit]

Cmon guys, no one voted for Suikoden 2 yet...

 

[D.Final]

Cmon guys, no one voted for Suikoden 2 yet...

Ancient game

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Xenogears
Xenosaga Trilogy
Xenoblade Chronicles Series
Trails Series
The Witcher Trilogy
Tales of the Abyss
Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross
Nier Automata
Persona 3/4
Odin Sphere

Suikoden Series

 

[FluffShake]

1. Silent Hill 2: Didn't click for me the first time around but after I replayed it.. oh boy.
2. Nier: Automata: 4 years later and I'm still obsessed with it.
3. Wonderful Everyday Down the Rabbit-Hole: One of the most degenerate things ever which is probably why it resonates so much with me.
4. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords: Obsidian man. Leave it to Obsidian to take such a safe franchise and turn it completely on it's head.
5. Steins;Gate: Made me fall in love with visual novels as a medium.
6. Umineko When They Cry
7. Planescape: Torment:
8. Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
9. The Walking Dead: Season One
10. Dragon Age: Origins

 

[RPSleon]

1. Okami - Best Wolf goes on quest to save existence. Only the half hour opening intro sucks, the rest is on par with the best Zelda games.

I never played Okami after starting it while tired and falling asleep 20 minutes in to the intro.

 

[Marvel14]

1. Portal 2 - humour, bleakness, horror, vulnerability ....its so unique and original it deserves to be on top.

2. Fire Emblem 3 Houses. Rarely has a game convinced people to replay for over a hundred hours primarily to see more story..both of characters and the game plot itself.

3. Red Dead Redemption: classic immersive Western that takes you on an emotionally charged journey.

4. The Last of Us. Not an original premise but emotionally engrossing throughout.

5. Starcraft. Arcturus Minsk is an asshole. I haven’t played the game in more than a decade and I still remember.

6. Breath of the Wild. Not for the game story but for each person's unique hero's journey. Amazing.

7. Okami...beautiful and culturally vibrant plot that draws you in.

8. Skyrim and Dark Souls both for the emergent way the setting and story are revealed to you.

9. Spiderman and Arkham City. Classic comic tales both with drama and surprises.

10 .Master of Orion and Dungeon Master. Old school nostalgia goggles. Both felt like epic stories you were making as you progressed.

 

[SinDelta]

I never played Okami after starting it while tired and falling asleep 20 minutes in to the intro.

The length of the opening narrative is the biggest flaw unfortunately.

 

[RPSleon]

The length of the opening narrative is the biggest flaw unfortunately.

I might try again and have the mindset that im sitting down to watch tv.

 

[Closer]

1. Chrono Trigger - Best game ever.
2. Super Metroid - Masterful narrative without words.
3. Final Fantasy VI - You failed to stop the world becoming shitty but you can make the world slightly less shitty I guess. Yay?
4. Silent Hill 2 - Face your inner demons.
5. Silent HIll: Shattered Memories - Face someone else inner demons.
6. Dead Space - Face demons.
7. Xenoblade Chronicles - Protecc Smiles.
8. 999/Virtue's Last Reward - I was really not ready for that rollercoaster.
9. Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon - This worlds sucks and you'll feel all the feels if you get the memories lying around. Love it.
10. Tales of Symphonia Series - Let's fix this world by ruining another world also Zelos is the best character ever shut up.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Metal Gear Solid is best.

I paid attention to almost all of The Last of Us II.

Baulders Gate II was kinda interesting.

Twisted Metal 3 had fun intros and endings to characters at the time. Same for TM Black.

Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite were cool on paper but rat maze level design killed them.

Everything else bad.

 

[UltimaKilo]

OP hasn’t played Eternal Darkness, I see.

 

[Marvel14]

Duplicate post please ignore and/or delete

 

[Marvel14]

Duplicate post please ignore.

 

[zaanan]

Resistance: Fall Of Man: I am a sucker for military sci-fi and horror, and the alternate history WW2-era timeline makes it even better. Hale is a great Everyman protagonist for me, and I thought it was genius how he doesn’t speak much, and instead Parker narrates his story. The Chimera are a great enemy, and I love the fact that nobody knows who they are or why they are here, something that the sequels ruined. The concept and execution are second to none in my book.
[Side note: if you like these genres, I recommend the movies Deathwatch, Outpost, Below, Frankenstein’s Army, Dog Soldiers.]

Dead Space: space sci-fi/horror at its finest, along with a good dose of body horror and gore. The madness/unreliable narrator angle is icing on the cake. Clarke doesn’t need to say much; the storyline is advanced through NPCs instead, which I appreciate. It is also refreshing that you don’t have a gun in the traditional sense. And again, I love the mystery of “what the fuck is going on?” Another well-thought-out-and-executed story in my book.

Halo: Combat Evolved: again there is a little-understood enemy that corrupts everything it contacts; this is the original (for me) storyline that inspired the above two stories. The Flood is just a great enemy.

The Last Of Us: not really a zombie guy, but the intro hooked me immediately. The story of Joel and Ellie is classic, and the ending is a brutal reminder that you would do anything, good or bad, to protect those you love.

Bloodborne: I read every line of everything in the game, and I still have no idea what the fuck is going on. And yet I love it! Its dark ambiguity really puts your imagination into overdrive, and your mental efforts to fill in the gaps make it even darker.

Borderlands: yes the original cheesy classic! Not typically my kind of game and I originally set it down. But when I came back and forced myself through the first ten minutes, I was hooked. I am a “less is more” guy, so I like how the story progresses sporadically. In fact, as funny as Jack is in 2, I greatly preferred the isolating feel of this one. And I thought the last boss was fine!

The Wolf Among Us: really like this one. Just a fan of werewolves, so I loved playing as a badass werewolf. Being a noir detective solving a murder mystery is the cherry on top.

Titanfall 2: just a nice story of how you are thrust into war and bond with your robot. Nothing complicated, but it got me playing so much I almost earned platinum—if it wasn’t for that fucking training speedrun you have to nail 100% perfect or fail. Bastards!

The Order: 1886: sadly there is a great story here about werewolves, vampires and corruption; one that is buried beneath valid gameplay criticisms and a cliffhanger ending.

The Fate Of Atlantis: such a great take on Indy. Always a fan of alternate wartime history, and this does not disappoint. As a bonus, it’s even darker than Temple Of Doom, yet retains the classic tongue-in-cheek humor!

Myst: barebones, but classic take on betrayal that never gets old.

Detroit: Become Human, The Last Guardian: have not finished these yet, but I feel they will end up on my list of favorites.

Yes, I can count, just couldn’t stop

 

[Mozzarella]

1. Pathologic 2 (Art-house film - The game)
2. Witcher 3 (Great dialogue, flows naturally, well written overall throughout the main game and its expansions, great cast)
3. Planescape Torment (Amazing setting, top tier characterization, very deep themes)
4. Disco Elysium (Artistic, well written, excellent dialogue and themes)
5. Deus Ex (Conspiracy theories and interesting plot, thought-provoking themes)
6. Suikoden 2 (Amazing cast, great antagonist and protagonist, well written overall plot)
7. SOMA (Great themes, thought-provoking and very atmospheric)
8. KOTOR (Bombastic plot and good plot twist, probably the best work in star wars universe)
9. Bioshock (Atmospheric and good plot twist, amazing setting)
10. Mafia 1 (Probably the best crime drame in gaming, godfather the game)

 

[Bo_Hazem]

- MGS.
- Yakuza.
- Prince of Persia.
- Assassin's Creed.
- TLOU.
- Uncharted.
- Days Gone.
- RDR1.
- Ghost of Tsushima.
- GOW.

And many more that I don't recall now.

 

[ButchCat]

Kim Kardashian Hollywood

• Bioshock through it's clever meta commentary the game manages to demonstrate the limitations of video games when it comes to player agency by focusing on free will.

• TLoU uses a cliché trope and turns it to it's advantage. It gives the player enough time to bond with their companion over the course of the game's twists and turns and leaves the player in a moral dilemma by the end.

• BloodBorne much like Dark Souls takes advantage of the medium and minimizes expository cutscenes. The game puts you in the shoes of a character that knows about the world just as much as you do which at the start of the game is absolutely nothing and helps the player through it's visual story telling and item descriptions to put the pieces together.

• Soma brilliantly tackles the idea of consciousness and subjective reality by taking advantage of traditional gameplay mechanics.

• Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons has no dialogue yet tells a very simple yet powerful story that pulls your heartstrings thanks to the game's novel controller layout.

• L.A. Noire I am a fan of detective games and although flawed in some areas very few games are as fleshed out as L.A Noire is in that genre, through it's mature writing the game builds mystery and respects the player's time by playing detective especially in the mid act of the game.

• Red Dead Redemption I was gonna include II originally but narrative constitutes pacing and the pacing of the first is much tighter and better put together even though I prefer the story of part II.

• Braid the game literally tells the story through the game mechanics and leaves the player to dissect it's ambiguity.

 

[PooBone]

Silent Hill 2

Everything else is subjectively second place or lower.

 

[cortadew]

I want to play it, but I've never played a Zelda game and I have a strict rule to always play a new series from the beginning in release order.

 

[swaffles23]

1. Silent Hill 2

Enslaved Odyssey to the West
Spec Ops
Deus Ex Human Revolution
NieR Automata
The Walking Dead Season 1
The Last of Us
ICO
Metal Gear Solid 3
The Witcher 3

Silent Hill is on top. Everything else can go in any order

 

[darth.shrimp]

The love for Grim Fandango shown in this thread pleases me.

Since this one hasn't been mentioned yet (unless I've missed it), I'll go with Tales of Symphonia.

Spoiler

It all starts like any other random fantasy setting, with the "chosen one" going on a journey to save the world; then you learn about the truth of that journey and the world(s) and everything starts making sense, and it is only near the very end that you understand that this was actually a prequel to Tales of Phantasia and, somewhat, the origin story of Dhaos' people.

I'll also add Fairy Fencer: Advent Dark Force to the list.

Spoiler

Same, it starts like your cliché JRPG story (which it is, more or less), until you try fighting the final boss way too soon; from there you end up back in time and have to do the same dungeons, recruit the same characters etc... but depending on what you did during the first half of the game, that second half can become very different, with the role sof protagonist and antagonist being reversed for example.

And before I forget, Superdimension Neptunia vs Sega Hard Girls (yes, really).

Spoiler

In this game you're stuck in a time loop, a bit like in Majora's Mask; you do quests, which make time pass, then the final boss appears: the (literal) Time Eater.
If you beat it, good.
If you lose, it eats the time left and you start back at the beginning of the game (but with your levels and equipment) to try again.
Thing is, for every quest you do, he gets weaker, and for every quest left when you fight him, he grows stronger, and since you can't complete every quest unless you loop again and again( required for the "best" ending) you need to prioritize which quests to do.
Then there's the "bad" ending, if you actually manage to beat him the first time you fight him, before looping; since the heroines haven't learned about its true strength at the time, they leave, believing they defeated him for good (but that'll only make him come back stronger, while the heroines aren't there to stop him anymore). Best part is, the Time eater is so strong at that point of the game, there's NO WAY you can do it without going to NG+ with a max-level party...

God I love this game, probably my favourite Neptunia spin-off.