Most detailed plots out there in video games

What game do you think has the most detailed plot out there in a video game. Not putting into consideration how much fun the game was to play or how much you liked the characters. Not putting those things into consideration what game do you think has the most detailed story.

Some games that I know of with very detailed stories would be
Xenogears
Chrono Cross
Metal Gear Solid franchise


Games like ff7 or 10 who are probably considered by the majority to be their favorites. But those games are mostly fun to play because they have some very intriguing characters and very fun game play issues. But as a whole the plots for those games are for the most part just average.

Whereas Xenogears and Chrono Cross do not have the most intriguing or memorable of characters or as fun of gameplay options as ff games have but the plots are the aspect that drives these games forward.

So which game do you think has the best or most detailed plot. Are there any other games that were not put on the list that you think might have the most detailed plot.

Xenogears I think is everyone's top pick for most detailed plot. The game had layers upon layers of character development as well as a very detailed and rich history that is never really explored in many games. The past and creation of the world became a very big part of the game and they really showed it in the story.

Another detailed game story wise I would have to say is Tales of Symphonia. They did a lot of the same as Xenogears but it wasn't as serious and had quite a lot of dorky dialog...also near the end they seemed to drive the same character points home about 214029t7u34094 times.

Games with a story that isn't on the fore-front or main focus of the game but still top tier I would say are Metroid games, Ico and Shadow of the Colosass. All those games the story is pretty much your game play. You are the lone character traversing the unique worlds trying to escape or defeat whatever. It is a different kind of story telling apart from your standard story telling and I think it works just as if not more effectively.

One that I think was awesome is Eternal Darkness. It's one of my most favorite games in the whole world. << Then you also have Beyond Good & Evil, another little known game that had a great story to it. << Eternal Darkness was so great with its storyline that I wrote a fanfic to it ^^; Resident Evil has an okay storyline, I suppose. << Zero was pretty cool, as was REmake. Code Veronica was just a lil' weird, but 4 had a decent story.

Xenogears famously had a good story, I also liked Metal Gears, which I guess is generally thought the same.
One game that is not really thought as excelling In story is the Legacy Of Kain series, I found the story between all of the games to be very gripping.....

Legend of Dragoon.

Xenogears ~ Duh.

Silent Hill ~ There is so much to those games, and a lot of people that have played them completely miss most of it. There's so much of the story told through symbology, and I love that.

And, as ed said, Shadow of the Colossus, and pretty much everything he said about it.

Xenosaga would be the top of my list for most detailed story.
Then of course games such as chrono trigger, Breath of Fire 2 was pretty good,

The Metal Gear series, Xenogears and possibly the Front Mission series.

Actually now that I think of it... Summoner 3 had an involving and complicated story, that all makes sense.... get my drift?

Final Fantasy 8...
There are many story of games which make you suspense like Zelda: Ocarina of Time. when I played the game, I felt that there was something missing in the story; but when I read the manga, I felt the story was completed.

I am not sure if any of the final fantasy games could be put into the group we are talking about. As most of the plots in the ff games are not really that deep.

But you said "best or most detailed plot."

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Originally Posted by Stormsworder

One that I think was awesome is Eternal Darkness.

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The story-line in that game is quite good, even if parts of it have been done a million and three times. Xenosaga would also top my list.

Sorry, when I said 'best' I was still pretty much talking about how deep the plot was. Not really what people's personal favorites were.

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Originally Posted by darkchrono

Sorry, when I said 'best' I was still pretty much talking about how deep the plot was. Not really what people's personal favorites were.

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Detailed? Xenogears, I could tell when that girl walked out of the wreckage that game was really, really deep. Come to think about it, that was a good scene. Done beautifully too, no vulgarity whatsoever.

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Originally Posted by Germ Hamee

Silent Hill ~ There is so much to those games, and a lot of people that have played them completely miss most of it. There's so much of the story told through symbology, and I love that.

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I completely agree with this. I love the fact that there's so much that isn't said, and I love that the game doesn't assume you're an idiot and need to be told everything. That and the symbology, :heart:

Get this.. Tetris, no.. seriously, Tetris is deep, In my Tetris, I was Gladunisu, the magical and eccentric mayor of Lonsu. I hid high upon the balcony every morning after I did my morning jumping jacks droping magical connected squares into the alleyway of my mansion. Every time I would gain a randomly determined amount of points, usually determined by my randomly selected member of reading club from the local library; a person would die. not just any person though, the person had to be able to breathe.. the death of this person would usually cause grief among their family and friends, then I'd rack up grief points, grief points lead to higher levels, with more deaths. the more grief I cause within my town without getting caught leads to the rainbow where I can find the mushrooms. because, the one person that can't breathe is the leprechaun, but I can't find the leprechaun without killing everyone else. once I single out the leprechaun, I force him to take me to the rainbow. there I find the mushroom, the mushroom gives me vigor in my loins, it makes me grow, and I can finally consummate with my wife, which I suspect is cheating on me. freaking deep story.. oh, and I don't proofread, or edit, so it may hurt to read anything I type. why do you think I refuse to reread what I say.. it even hurts me...

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Originally Posted by Lalvarien

Get this.. Tetris, no.. seriously, Tetris is deep, In my Tetris, I was Gladunisu, the magical and eccentric mayor of Lonsu. I hid high upon the balcony every morning after I did my morning jumping jacks droping magical connected squares into the alleyway of my mansion. Every time I would gain a randomly determined amount of points, usually determined by my randomly selected member of reading club from the local library; a person would die. not just any person though, the person had to be able to breathe.. the death of this person would usually cause grief among their family and friends, then I'd rack up grief points, grief points lead to higher levels, with more deaths. the more grief I cause within my town without getting caught leads to the rainbow where I can find the mushrooms. because, the one person that can't breathe is the leprechaun, but I can't find the leprechaun without killing everyone else. once I single out the leprechaun, I force him to take me to the rainbow. there I find the mushroom, the mushroom gives me vigor in my loins, it makes me grow, and I can finally consummate with my wife, which I suspect is cheating on me. freaking deep story.. oh, and I don't proofread, or edit, so it may hurt to read anything I type. why do you think I refuse to reread what I say.. it even hurts me...

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I stopped reading that at the third word. :rolleyes2

I really like the Legacy of Kain story. It gets especially complicated after Soul Reaver 2.

Halo's storyline is one of the best if you actually learn more about it. But then they went and pretty much blew it with Halo 2.

With all respect to Xenogears' complexity, it really didn't do a stellar job of exploring it. IMO. Independence War was far from as complex, but performed better. One game that just has to be mentioned here is Planescape: Torment. Its complexity doesn't stem from conspiracies and secret societies, though. Who needs that when you have all of Planescape to muck about with?
Now... about conspiracies and secret societies... I have to say Xenosaga looks mightily promising, but I won't speak too loudly until I've played the final game (looks like only three parts now...).

Finally, a note on my new signature. This is 100% real, no joke on my part. Just a straight cut-n-paste-n-translate job (Swedish to English). And a little addition to show what program this is all about. W0rd!

Xenosaga would originally have been on my list as well. But with all the inconsistincies they have had in developing the series the story has turned out to be a real let down. We don't even know what Xenosaga was originally supposed to be like.

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Originally Posted by darkchrono

Whereas Xenogears and Chrono Cross do not have the most intriguing or memorable of characters or as fun of gameplay options as ff games have but the plots are the aspect that drives these games forward.

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Whatwhat? CC and XS have the best characters in videogaming, period. Sure, I love Lulu and Nanaki as much as anyone else, but you really can't argue with Citan, Bart, Nikki, and Karsh.

My vote definately goes to the Chrono and the Xeno- games. Legacy of Kain bears a mention, it's majestically deep and expands wonderfully in later games. Plus, you cannot mess with Vorador; he is better than you are.

Xenogears and the Xenosaga Series, Chrono Series, and a few of the Final Fantasies all had detailed plots. Xenogears beats them all when it comes to story in one single game.

MILF,

I think part of the reason why by the end of the game the characters in Xenogears or Xenosaga (not sure if you were joking on the CC comment as most of the characters in that game received very little development) may have appeared more memorable then say the characters in the FF games is because they generally spent about three times longer (Xenogears maybe even four times) developing them than the FF games did. But given the same amount of development that the FF characters were given I don't think the characters in xenogears or xenosaga would have appeared nearly as interesting as the characters in say ff7 were.

But we will never know that because they did develop the characters 4 times longer. Don't attempt to downplay Xenogears. Everyone seems to be in universal agreement to it's greatness.

If the characters did half 1/4 the development time though they would have been developed entirely differently and thing would get cut from the game and blah blah blah. Didn't happen so it stands that they trump all.

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Originally Posted by darkchrono

MILF,

I think part of the reason why by the end of the game the characters in Xenogears or Xenosaga (not sure if you were joking on the CC comment as most of the characters in that game received very little development) may have appeared more memorable then say the characters in the FF games is because they generally spent about three times longer (Xenogears maybe even four times) developing them than the FF games did. But given the same amount of development that the FF characters were given I don't think the characters in xenogears or xenosaga would have appeared nearly as interesting as the characters in say ff7 were.

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I'd just like to point out that memorable characters != highly developed characters.
I can remember almost every single character from Chrono Cross, despite the minimal storyline each recieved (and if you actually paid attention to the game, you'd see that each character DID have reasons to be, and they were referenced more than once in the game) because they were all different and memorable in their own little ways.

They're memorable is because they're not generic, overplayed characters like the FF characters, this applies to both Xenogears and Chrono Cross. Cloud, for example, is exactly the same as countless other characters, from games and films, Aeris is a typical Mary-Sue, Tifa is the attempt to have a "strong" female character, except like usual, female characters MUST fall in love with the hero.
Yes they spent more time developing Xenogears, and it shows, and because it's done now you can't say "Oh but FF games would be this good if they'd been developed better!", they're already made, and already made poorly.

Oh and, regardless of the characters, the Chrono Cross storyline is a FANTASTIC piece of writing, especially once you get down to the actual matters of FATE and the Dragons.

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Originally Posted by Lindy

I'd just like to point out that memorable characters != highly developed characters.
I can remember almost every single character from Chrono Cross, despite the minimal storyline each recieved (and if you actually paid attention to the game, you'd see that each character DID have reasons to be, and they were referenced more than once in the game) because they were all different and memorable in their own little ways.
Oh and, regardless of the characters, the Chrono Cross storyline is a FANTASTIC piece of writing, especially once you get down to the actual matters of FATE and the Dragons.

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When Lindy speaks, you mortals listen.

Also like to add that going hunting for more info on characters is possibly the best part of CC. Also, the fact that you could take different characters through the same events and get different reactions, that's amazing.

- Any Metal Gear game
- Vagrant Story -> am I the only one who thinks this way?
- The Legend of Dragoon
- Chrono Cross

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Originally Posted by I'm my own MILF

Also, the fact that you could take different characters through the same events and get different reactions, that's amazing.

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It's a lot more amazing before you get the programmer's ending and that guy tells you that every character says the same lines, which are just automatically run through an accent generator.

xenosaga seems to go on forever...

pokemon