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There are many games that have been passed since their unique style and plot seems out of place. I'd like this thread as a place where we can find games with plots that rival even movies.

Second Sight - You are John Vattic. You wake up in a compound and have no idea why the heck you are in bandages and are bleeding. You then recall memories of the WinterICE mission you did in the past. Overall, the story is dark and mysterious and the way it is presented is very original. It reminds me of a film called Memento.

Beyond Good & Evil - You are Jade, a citizen of another world. The government surprisingly steps in only after crisises are okay. You must investigate and find the truth to the matter.

Eternal Darkness - You are Alex Roivas, the last descendent of the Roivas family line. When your grandfather dies with his head decapitated, you must investigate his mansion to find who or what is the killer. Along the way, you find a larger scheme of evil taking over the world and hear the tales of those who resisted it. The storybook style is unique and the overall story is rich and detailed.

Metroid Prime - You are Samus, an explorer who investigates a space platform. You are then thrusted into the world of Tallon IV. Here you must find how to stop the plague known as phazon from infecting the entire world from the source. The story lacks emotion and drama in a sense, but I will give this game credit for presenting the plot in an interesting way - by notes.

There's more, but I'm out of time.

OMG like Starcraft!

Chrono trigger hands down

Zelda Ocarina of Time

Final Fantasy X has a great story, wanting you to play through the game just to see what happens. Same with the Golden Sun series

I love that movie. I would watch it more offen but they made the menu screen to confusing and went to far with it, it's a pain in the ass to figure out if you have the speical features disc or movie disc and how to start the movie or not.

Although it has some cliches KOTOR has a pretty good storyline.

Second Sight Pwns, becuase it... No, I won't tell, but the ending twists everything you learned from the first level, and every flashback.

Tales of Symphonia deserves mention, it constantly rewrites the world's standing.

The Metal Gear series. I keep playing the games to see what happens next!

Hmmm...
Starcraft and The Legend of Zelda

Baldur's Gate games for PC. The console ones suck.
Treasure of the Rudras for Snes is pretty cool. It tells the story from 4 perspectives.

Famicom Detective Club Part II: The Girl Who Stands At The Back

Description: As a young detective, you work as an assistant for the famous investigator Utsugi. Your first important assignment is to investigate a murder case. A girl named Yoko was found murdered near a central bridge. During the investigation, you discover a strange rumor about a mysterious ghost-like "girl who stands at the back" spread around the school Yoko studied at. Soon the young detective realizes that the case grows more and more complex and that he will need all his wit and talents to find the criminal!

Chrono Trigger

Description: What begins as a carefree day at the Millennial Fair for a young man named Crono turns into his ultimate adventure. When Crono meets a young girl named Marle, little does he realize that this young girl, his best friend Lucca's invention, and a mysterious pendant will thrust him into the ultimate trip through time and space, encountering new friends, defeating the forces of evil, and encountering the one who would destroy the flow of time: Lavos.

Final Fantasy III / VI

Description: 1,000 years ago, the War of the Magi occurred. People remember it as one of the most horrible tragedies in history. Since the War of the Magi, magic has been all but forgotten, technology began to grow, and people returned to seemingly normal lives. The only true worry people had was the Empire, whose leaders were looking to revive the great force once known as "magic". But then... something happened that would change the course of history forever...

The Empire had heard word of the remains of a mystical being, known as an "Esper", being found in the mining town of Narshe. Quickly, three soldiers were dispatched to find this Esper and bring it to the Emperor. One of the soldiers, a young girl, triggers a power in the Esper that will begin one of the most dangerous series of events ever. And the only ones who can help her are a rag-tag band of rebels and heroes, whose very hearts and souls are the only ones that can save the world from the mad plans of the Empire.

Star Ocean: Fantastic Space Odyssey

Description: A young boy named Ratix lives together with his best friends Dorn and Milly in the town of Clatos on a planet with medieval culture. They belong to respectable families of warriors and healers, and excel in battles kills. One day, a letter from a neighboring town arrives. A strange disease has plagued the town, and its inhabitants plead the healers of Clatos to help them. Milly's father decides to go, but he himself catches the disease. The young adventurers must save Milly's father and other people at all costs. But in the beginning of their journey, they discover a crashed space ship with people who belong to a much more advanced civilization. People from two different worlds must work together to solve the grand mystery...

Treasure of the Rudras

Description: The Earth is ruled by heavenly powers who destroy it and create it again every 4000 years to end the lives of powerful races and to let new ones appear. Many years ago, four great races dominated the Earth: the wise Danans, the beautiful Mermaids, the proud Reptiles, and the strong Giants. But those races had to give place to a newly born one - the humans. During their short reign on the Earth, the humans have destroyed and polluted the planet. It seems that the end of this mighty race will soon come...

EarthBound

Description: Young Ness was asleep one night when a loud crashing noise awoke him suddenly. As he rushes out of bed and up to a nearby hill, he encounters a strange meteor carrying a single passenger: a mysterious insect-like being named Buzz Buzz. Buzz Buzz tells him that in the future, an evil alien being known as Gigyas has conquered the world, and the only one who can stop him are 4 young kids: 3 boys and a girl. Ness, of course, is one of the chosen ones...

Romancing SaGa III

Description: Every 300 years, the Death Eclipse destroys the world completely. Men, women, children, animals, plants, and even ferocious monsters - no one can survive the devastation caused by the Eclipse. No one except for a child chosen by destiny. 600 years ago, such a child survived the Death Eclipse only to become a demon king. During the next Eclipse, a chosen child became a holy king, and he defeated the evil demon king. Now, when the next Eclipse is nearing, nobody knows who the next fortunate survivor will become - another demon king or another holy king?

Resident evil 4, It broke off from the previous ones kinda, but the game was so suspenceful I often couldn't shut it off because I wanted to see what happened next, and some parts where super scary.

Pokemon..haha, it has an interesting//different story line, although a bit repetitive. Diablo too, also has an interesting story line, and maybe Starfox 64.

First off, I want to thank pimpinelephant for his large and detailed contribution to this thread. Now back to the program...

I have to say Starcraft had an interesting plot. Not 2, but 3 races are competing for dominancy. The storyline is very diverse and detailed, large portions are found in the manual, which speaks of the history of each race. I thought it was very interesting, though I wish each race didn't act like one. What I mean is some terran should have different alliances, etc.

Zelda had a generic storyline. I'm sorry, but it's been done before... It's called a Link to the Past. Sages? Maidens? Did I mention you have to save Hyrule from Ganon AGAIN? What's this? You have to get your items AGAIN? Though I never played Link to the Past, it seems very similar to OoT, based on what others have said... therefore losing it's originality in the process. This is another "save the world" sort of games.

I can't really comment on the Final Fantasy X game, since I never finished it, though it's another STW (save the world) game. Of course there is a nice plot twist at the end.

Second Sight was amazing since it's not about STW, but about you figuring out WAT THE FECK happened in an original way.

ToS has a horrible storyline. The characters are predictable like the dopey Lloyd. Of course you were going to know that Kratos is his father. The plot is way too predictable and bland. One of the worst storylines by far.

Metal Gear Solid? At first, I thought it was interesting, you have a badass named Solid Snake and some interesting bosses... but then you realize it's yet another STW game. I couldn't stand playing the cube version, since the plot is cheesy. You have a ninja that says vague lines and disappears magically... Then you have cutscenes where his sword just HAPPENS TO SLICE A BULLET IN HALF, A BULLET! They go for a realistic style with the graphics, but when you have those kind of cut scenes, it throws it off completely. I'm sorry, but I don't find anything interesting about this game at all.

Never played Baldur's Gate, but I have a hunch it's a STW game.

Famicom Detective sounds original and it's not another cheesy STW game. If there are enough twists and turns, I think it could be great.

Chrono Trigger is said to be one of the, if not the best RPG of all time. The story from what you said seems not too original, expected guy, maybe a girl, a baddie and a STW plot. If there's twists and turns, I think it might be good.

Final Fantasy seems... done before. Evil Empire? STW plot? Sounds like Star Wars... NEXT!

Star Ocean still doesn't break any ground with the disease setting. I'm disappointed it's pretty much another STW game, but the inclusion of a new race brings some variety to the story. I'm still not sure if the stories generic or original. I've never played it before, so I wouldn't know.

Treasure of the Rudra's seems pretty cool since it does something original with the 4 different perspectives (kinda like what half-life, opposing force and blue shift did). I would like to play the game if I had a SNES. The plot is original since it details the past and it doesn't seem to focus on a particular person. This is something I'd like to play to find out.

Earthbound plays the RPG game differently, but it seems like another STW type of game. At least the characters and art style is unique.

Romancing Saga sounds interesting. It leaves a question that goes through the player throughout the game. It's something I'd like to play to find out.

Resident Evil 4 has a LAME plot. First of all, kidnapping the PRESIDENT'S daughter is unbelievable. Second of all, I think that would be on the news. Third of all, I repeat the PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER is missing, yet the president himself sends one guy, Leon, to investigate. Next, the characters themselves aren't interesting to learn about, since their personality is as deep as a potato.

When Leon saves a person who is tied up in a warddrobe, the first thing he says is "You got a smoke?". Oh, baloney. In many parts of the game, Leon tries too hard to pull out a joke. The result is an odd moment where you realize how cheesy the line actually is. Seriously, Capcom stop the jokes, it really kills my respect for your characters.

Next, it's yet ANOTHER STW game. There's a plague that somehow controls people that Saddler is trying to spread to America. Oh please, we've seen that in how many RE games? Before you face the final boss, he gives some talk about this is the end, yada. Then 4 tentacles the size of school buses pop out of his head... That really makes sense. I really hate it when the developers use the artistic style to justify any abnormal happenings in a game. The same cheesiness I felt when I saw a kitana slice a bullet in MGS was felt in that moment.

RE1 is a much better game, at least in terms of storyline. You were in a mansion and your main goal was to get out of there and discover WHAT THE FECK happened, instead of going around, killing all the mofos you can find. RE4 lacks the scare factor and mysteriousness that RE1 had.

Pokemon, another collect all 8 cheerios and get a free nissan pickup game. It's one of those, I'm going to be the best XXXer in the world games. I liked how it's not a STW game, but the plot wasn't exactly thrilling or thought provoking. I guess the simple plot suits the younger crowd more than the older gamers. Characters are all fairly shallow and lack emotion other than "push A to open your pokemon".

Diablo, yet another STW type of game. I really like some of the side stories such as a man chosen to imprison a hidden evil since the container broke. The way Diablo got into the Wanderer was quite disturbing and unique. Though, that excuse let them make Diablo II, I'm wondering how Diablo comes back to life AGAIN in the supposed Diablo III.

Starfox is another STW game. The characters are all shallow and did I mention that I want to strangle Peppy and Slippy?

As you can see, I like plots that do new things and break new ground, instead of seeing the same things again and again, but in different names and time periods. I have nothing against anyone here, but I dislike generic and shallow storylines. It's just a matter of opinion when it comes down to it.

These guys, I agree with.

You guys forgot Half-Life/HL2 though. There are so many weird things that haven't been explainable in the story and how there are recurring themes between both games add incredible depth to the story. Also the ultimate story bit in HL series: Who/what is the G-Man?


ADDITION:


WHOA, you got it WAAAAAAAY off. OoT was based off of the gameplay principles that made LttP so fun.

In LttP, before you get the master sword, you gotta beat 3 dungeons and get 3 pendants. OoT has you collect jewels. Pretty much the same afterwards. OoT is based off of LttP man!! LttP came out on SNES and OoT came out on N64.

You miss an important piece before what I said:

It should be "I'm sorry, but it's been done before... It's called a Link to the Past." Dude, I know my stuff. Obviously OoT came out after LttP. It just seems the games are VERY similar in plot (yes I know OoT is 3d). Therefore, I give LttP the credit for originality. OoT just gets praises since it's the first 3d Zelda, the story has been done before, so I won't give OoT credit there.

Revelade, you act like you've played all these games, yet your descriptions prove otherwise. STW > WTF HAPPENED, any fricking day of the week.

Revelade, who the plays a game solely for the story? These new generation consoles have warped everyone's idea of what a "fun" game is. It's something that has fun gameplay, not watching boring, hour long cutscenes. If you want that, go watch a movie. I mean, I love a good story, but sometimes it's just alittle absurd how much story they put into games, in comparison to how little gameplay there is.

This is obviously a detective game, but it is text-based. The game seems like it is only a few hours long tops, but it took me about 3 long days to finish it. The story gets very complex, but then begins to clear up at the end. The real murderer is someone you wouldn't expect.

Is it a dolphin with a sniper rifle?

Baldur's Gate + it's expansion for PC aren't save the world games. Baldur's Gate 2 : SoA isn't either. In the expansion for BG2 the story turns sort of save the world-ish.

Even if the story is told interestingly, it is a STW game.

I agree with Wilhelm, gameplay is first, but story can make games much better, unless it is unneeded.

Very close but no banana peels.

You want to argue? Give me some facts. I happen to like WTF HAPPENED games since they are more original and rare than the STW type of games.

I made this thread for the sole purpose of games with great plots. If you want to debate about plot vs. gameplay, do that in another thread, or maybe I'll make it for you. If I wanted to discuss gameplay, I would have said so, but this thread is for plots. There is more to it than watching cutscenes as well. You prefer gameplay over plot? Well that's fine and dandy, but it doesn't help this thread at all.

I'd like to add Half-Life for it's interesting presentation of a usual plot. We all know about experiments going wrong and perhaps infesting people. However, what I liked about Half-Life is that there are so many factions. You have your scientists that want to get out, soldiers that kill aliens OR YOU. And the aliens who want to kill all the people and even other aliens. You also have mercenaries that have somehow joined the party, which totals to a complex game. The other games play the story from multiple angles which makes it even more interesting.

The Suffering is a game that isn't widely known on the Xbox and PS2. The developers have studied prisons and torture and there's even a LONG clip of a documentary on a haunted prison and the types of punishments they did. Of course, it's another WTF HAPPENED type of game, but it could also be a STW game as well. I really wouldn't know, since my friend owns it and I only saw him play an hour of it. I could safely say that I was captivated and wanted to know what happened next.

Famicom Detective Club Part II is mainly all about the story. It has neither battles nor movement, it is nearly entirely text-based (similar to "Radical Dreamers"). Then again, this is a mystery game, so battles and such aren't really needed. The way this game was set up is amazing, it keeps you guessing throughout the whole story.

The best story game I have EVER played is GoldenSun... Sure Revblade is gona say another STW but hey... The storyline with the Adepts and MT'Alph erupting and spreading psyenergy to creatures makign them mosters and the 4 elements lighting the lighthouses is prety original... I haven't played the 2ed golden sun but the first one was amazing...

I haven't played Xenosaga but I read a little bit of the storyline and it seemed prety interesting...

Revblade you need to understand almost ALL good games are STW... Seriously who Doesn't want to save the world!