Young Writers Society

Beware of Spoilers



Well. I love video games. Especially when the games have great storylines.



Tell about your favorite game and it's storyline. You can include some of your favorite scenes too ^_^





Silent Hill 2

A story of a widowed husband. He recieves a mysterious letter from his wife. The letter was written before she dies, and it talks about their 'special' place- Silent Hill. He goes there to search for her, and he soons begins to question how she really died.

This game is very amazing, with crazy characters, and amazing diologue.

James: You're alive! Maria...! I thought that thing killed you...! Are
you hurt bad'

Maria: Not at all, silly.

James: ...Maria? That thing... it stabbed you. There was blood everywhere.

Maria: Stabbed me? What do you mean?

James: It chased us to the elevator. And then...

Maria: James, what are you talking about'

James: Just before! Don't you remember'

Maria: James honey... Did something happen to you? After we got separated
in that long hallway? Are you confusing me with someone else?
*laughs* You were always so forgetful... Remember that time in the
hotel...

James: Maria...'

Maria: You said you took everything... But you forgot that videotape we
made. I wonder if it's still there...

James: How do you know about that! Aren't you Maria'

Maria: I'm not your Mary.

James: So you're Maria'

Maria: I am... if you want me to be.

[b]

The mother games, particularly Mother 3.

Most people only know Mother because it has two characters and stages in Super Smash Bros: Brawl, but god, the mother series is so much more than the series gives it credit for.

The only one that made it here, Mother 2, was called Earthbound stateside. It flopped, partly because RPGs weren't overly popular in the US yet and partly because NoA was retarded and used "this game stinks" as its advertising slogan.

Mother 1 was for the NES and is about Ninten, Loid and Ana, two boys and a girl, armed with baseball bats, various explosives and psychic powers, using knowledge passed down from Ninten's grandparents to protect a very idealized 50's-style America from alien invasion. It was fun, but not overly remarkable and definitely a bit of a grind-fest (meaning that it took a whole lot of working to level up enough to not get squashed by the next bit). It was all worth it, though, because the final boss fight was just amazing.

[spoiler]Ninten, Loid and Ana fought back the general of all the aliens, named Giygas, who at one point had been trapped in an alternate dimension with Ninten's grandparents. They repeatedly sang the lullaby that Ninten's grandmother had used to sing Giygas to sleep at night until they pretty much guilt-tripped him into leaving.[/spoiler]

Mother 2, or Earthbound, was for the SNES and is about Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo, also known as the chosen four. Ness wakes up one night to discover that a meteor has landed nearby his home. He goes to investigate with his dog and his next-door neighbor Porky, who is boastful, fat, and continually put down by his parents. When they reach the meteor, a fly named Buzz-Buzz comes out and tells Ness that he has an unfulfilled destiny to...well...fulfill, so he sets out on an epic adventure across pseudo 50's idealized America, England, Egypt, the Orient, Swamp that reminds me of Vietnam War movies and so much more.

Over time he deals with cultists who obsess over the color blue, a city with a parallel version where no is yes and yes is no, an evil giant pile of puke who controls a hoard of zombies and has a taste for honey and so much more.

[spoiler]Then, at the end, the chosen four have their souls placed into robots so they can safely go to the past and fight the one responsible for setting aliens on the planet. It is, again, Giygas, but much has changed. In the time that he was gone, he tried to become something that could attack the planet without feeling sorrow or regret and ended up making himself into an entity of negative emotions. There, alongside him, is Porky, Ness's next-door neighbor, who is using the power of Giygas to do what he wishes with the world. This is the biggest mindscrew boss I've seen in any game ever, as the person who wrote the dialogue took the emotion from his own childhood trauma of seeing a gory rape scene from a movie as a child and channeled the trauma into the script. And dang does it show.[/spoiler]

Mother 3 was for the GBA, and is by far the best in the series. It takes the same wit and crackpot humor from the other two, then takes the raw negative emotions from the final bosses of the first two games and makes them stay through pretty much the entire story.

You start out as Flint, a cowboy who lives in a perfect utopia and happens to be the Chuck Norris of video games. One night he's woken up by the town's fireman, who tells him that the forest is burning down for reasons unknown. He saves some people from burning houses and the like, then gets word that his wife, Hinawa, and twin sons, Lucas and Claus, have gone missing on their way home through the forest. He searches for them with the help of an awkward thief named Duster and his faithful dog Boney, but can't find any sign of them. On his way back from his fruitless search, he hears that they found his son. Unfortunately, his wife was killed by a fire-breathing cyborg T-Rex. When he hears the news, he goes berserk and attacks a few townspeople, so he's jailed.

He breaks out of jail, arms himself with a 2x4 and the tooth that was found in his wife's heart, and goes to take revenge. He kills the fire-breathing cyborg dinosaur with a 2x4 and its own tooth. He then finds out that his son Claus tried something similar and died trying.

A few years later, an evil army of some strange dystopian group has taken over the utopian town and modernized it. Lucas leaves to fight them off with his dog Boney, and they are later joined by Duster and a psychic tomboy princess named Kumatora.

[spoiler]at the end of the game, Lucas and his bunch go to the main city, where they find at its center a very old and decrepit Porky strapped into a life-support system with eight legs. They all race to a needle hidden deep in the earth that will reset the entire world if pulled. If one with a good heart pulls it, the world will be reset to be a better place. If one with a dark heart pulls it, no one knows what will happen. Porky sends his mysterious masked henchman to pull the needle, and it culminates into an epic battle between Lucas and the henchman to see who can pull it first. God, I can't say anymore, even if this is in a spoiler section[/spoiler]

I'm the only person I know who didn't cry at the end of mother 3. It's pretty powerful stuff.

And wow, I've written a freaking novel on this series and I still can't do it justice....

Amen, Mamthew. I luvluvluv those games already despite having never played them. xD I've seen all the ending boss battles on YouTube, though, and they. are. epic.

Mmm, as for me? Hehe, well, since I'm such a geek, I'll have to nominate The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. I think it needs more appreciation than it gets.

Okay, before I get to the story, just a touch on the art style. It's controversial, true, but I find it quite captivating and yes, beautiful. Other games have realistic monsters and gore and WHOA SFX, but this game is just . . . graceful. Sure, it looks like a kid's cartoon, but what's wrong with that? You're never too old to like kid's cartoons. ^^

The story starts out with the young boy Link and his little sister Aryll living on a peaceful, secluded island with friends and family. Then Aryll is mistaken for a sought-after princess and kidnapped, and of course it's up to Link to rescue her. He stows away on a pirate ship and befriends (sorta . . .) the brash pirate girl Tetra. As the game goes on, more plot details unfold, and Link's innocent quest to rescue his kid sister descends into a desperate battle against the sinister resurrected evil, Ganondorf.

Eventually, Link finds out that the pirate Tetra is actually Zelda, the princess Ganondorf seeks so badly. The reason for this is that Zelda possesses a part of the Triforce - a magical artifact that attaches itself to a worthy spirit. Ganondorf already has one piece of the Triforce, Zelda has another, and the final one is lost beneath the waves. As a last resort, Link collects the lost Triforce fragments, which promptly deem him worthy to have a piece of the Triforce dwell in his own body.

The whole Triforce mythology is kinda complicated, actually, so I won't write a book about it. ^^ But at the end, Link and Zelda must face Ganondorf once and for all. Sure, it's an archetypal story, but it's really fun to play through, and a really, really good feeling when the plot is resolved. I highly recommend it.

On a side note, this game has one of the most hilarious (and yet epic) evil laughs ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d5-fDfh7Mg Starting at about one minute. o_O

Oh . . . and the character's facial expressions throughout this thing are awesome, too. Lots of subtle emotions running through the scenes.

But yeah, anyway. Great game. It's got a few annoying parts gameplay-wise, but I don't care so much about that. xD

Ah yes. Windwaker was excellent. Played through that one a couple times. If you go with Zelda games, though, you also have to mention Twilight Princess. Midna's characterization alone was enough to make that game amazing.

Since legen of zelde already got nominated and yes i have to say it's a great game. Also the earthbound series which is anouther great game with a good story line I'm going to nominate final fantasy 7. For its time it had some of the best graphics around and yes now it low end and old school but who doesn't like oldschool every once in a while. Now on to the story line. The storyline is a soldier( in this game a super human with power beyond that of the norm) turns mercinary and thats the point at which you start you have to take down shinra at first a company using the planets life force to power the world. On your way you discover many ally and foes the biggest foe being sephiroth a soldier like yourselve and you come to realize he is trying to deystroy the planet well along the way one of you main allys die. very in depth and very hearttouching game with one of the best bad guys of all time.

That is very true. The legend of Zelda series is truly amazing. They idea of a warrior forced to fight against evil every time he is given a new life (Or reincarnated). I love Link he is so cool, even though he never says a word. The TP game was truly amazing the game creators took a step futher. When he was first dragged into the twilight was AMAZING ^_^

Another great one is Chrono Trigger. Sure, it's got a few RPG cliches, but if you think about it, it's the reason those cliches exist.

Besides, it's got some twists that surprised even me, and the way the sidequests reveal more about the characters instead of just giving you powerful items or something is really quite fantastic.

has anyone heard of "Threads of Fate 2"? I love that game, played it only once though.

Not quite a video game, but all the Ace Attorney games have amazing storylines.

New one's coming out this Winter. I can't wait.

Couple I can think of;

The Dig
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Beneath a Steel Sky
Bioshock
Mass Effect
Doom 3


oh and whoever said Silent Hill 2 - I absolutely agree, a great game, very immersive storyline. Scary too.

Devil May Cry series. First one had an okay storyline. Second one... I don't think it even had a storyline, really. Third one's just amazing, and has an epic storyline. Fourth one has the best dialogue by far, and a really cool storyline besides.

And what about Assassin's Creed? By far the best storyline in any game I've ever played -- really makes you think, and while I sort of expected the twist, I guess I didn't expect it to that extent. Amazing, amazing game. Already have #2 reserved for me.

Legend of Zelda games rock. What about Super Mario 64? That had a decent storyline, I thought. Odd, but it worked.

And then there's always World of Warcraft, which takes the cake in any competition...

The best storylines lie in final fantasy games and other rpgs. Final Fantasy X had a particularly good one. But, the best storyline ever is in Tales of the Abyss. The character development is amazing!

One of my favorite games has to be Fable II.

You start off as a boy or girl whose 6 years old. You're living on the streets with your older sister at the start of a really cold winter. You and your sister find a 'magical' music box that you can make one wish into. The wish is two live in the castle to meet Lord Lucien and live there.

Their wish comes true in the middle of the night, where they are taken to see Lucien, who is in his study. He asks the two to step on a circle on the floor, which emits a blue light. It quickly turns red as Lucien mumbles something about, "You are not one of the three...one of you is the forth..." So, he shoots the older sister (this is all explained later) and he shoves your character out the window, where you are rescued by an old gyspy lady.

Ten years later, you get a dog, and it is revealed that you have spent the last bit of time in training. There are three heroes who specialize in different tasks (Strength, Skill & Will), and there is a forth, who is an all around, which is you. Your quest is to gather these heroes and defeat Lucien once and for all.

I second Silent Hill 2! It's the only Silent Hill I've ever played, but it makes me want to play the others.

My contribution to this thread is: The Chronicles of Riddick; Escape from Butcher Bay and The Chronicles of Riddick; Assault on Dark Athena(which I haven't finished yet so I won't post about that). To be honest, I don't play many video games at all, so I'm in no place to judge, but these games are one of the better shoot-and-kill-people games.

If you are familiar with the Riddick movies, Butcher Bay takes place before Pitch Black. You play as Riddick and you start off outside of the Butcher Bay prison, and end up killing the guy who took you there. You escape gunfire by jumping down into the underground/sewer system area and you make your way through there. This turns out to be your training for the rest of the game, and ends up all being a dream. You wake up and you're taken into the actual prison, the "double-max" security part of it. Being the most wanted man in the universe, naturally people have heard about you and know you've arrived. A few people try to kill you, but you quickly get a reputation of someone not to mess with. You can choose to help some people out, to earn items or information. You can kill anyone in the game too, but if you try to kill them outside of their cells, or take their bodies out of the cell (you can drag bodies and hide them, which supposedly keeps people from noticing you've been there but it really doesn't) you get shot at by wall turrets and/or guards.

There is eventually a riot and you make your way into the underground area again. Your motive is to escape, so you end up killing a lot of people and fighting these massive drones, get your DNA registered into the weapon database (so you can pick up and use guns) and all sorts of exciting stuff. I really like Riddick's stealth. You can hide in the shadows very well (people can't see you, saves you some time), which comes in handy when you shoot out lights. Eventually you make your way into this strange place, actually going back into the upper levels and then back down through a hole in the prison yard. You follow this very strange shamanistic man into his lair. He wants you to retrieve his radio, which is a sort of holy box to him. He's called Pope Joe and his fixes up your wounds. There is some speculation over whether Pope Joe or Shirah gives Riddick his eyeshine. In the movies, released before the games, Riddick says he got his eyes by trading 20 Menthol Kools (a pack of cigarettes), but in the game this mystical/spirit woman from Riddick's homeplanet bestows the eyeshine on him, saying something about his awakening and that he can see the truth.

You leave that place through a hole in the wall, and you're trying to get the man who runs the prison. There is a part where Riddick kicks some guards' butts with his Furyan blue explosion powers, lol, as seen in the Chronicles of Riddick movie. You are caught again and taken into the lower prison, the "triple-max" security section, which you of course get out of. You go down further, into the mines, and make your way out from there. To make a long story short, because I'm probably rambling and boring people that made it this far, you eventually kill the guy who runs the prison, and you take off in a ship with the guy who originally brought you there (Johns, from Pitch Black).

I love the game because I love Riddick, and I sympathize with his need to escape; the poor guy gets no rest. Assault on Dark Athena involves a dramatic escape, also. There are some pretty cool quotes from both, but even I'll admit they are a bit cheezy. It's a videogame though, not some epic speech, and it was a little difficult to work in the quotes to flow. They're powerful by themselves, but awkward in context.

Only a passing mention of Final Fantasy? Square make the best RPGs! My favourites are FF VII, VIII, X and Crisis Core

I don't know if I can do justice to the storylines here, but its all in the characters and the sheer scope of the games. The stories are as addictive as the actual gameplay. And you fall in love with the characters every time (except possibly Cait Sith). FFX in particular had me in tears at the end.