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Post by Ex on Feb 7, 2018 14:43:10 GMT -5
I'm wondering which vintage (as in pre-2009) RPGs you folks think have good plots? As in legitimately good story telling. As in, you actually cared about what was happening with the characters, and maybe even felt a twinge of emotion once in a while.
I'm pressed for time right now, but I'll come back later with my choices.
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Post by anayo on Feb 7, 2018 15:07:10 GMT -5
For Christmas of 2008 I asked for Chrono Trigger on the Nintendo DS. I didn't realize how good its story was until I played other lesser RPG's (such as Panzer Dragoon Saga). Chrono Trigger is very charming, with exciting places to go and people to meet. It's also cohesive, with an impending disaster over the horizon that you draw closer and closer to as your quest progresses. I'm not really a Square Soft fan (for instance I don't enjoy Final Fantasy VII at all), but I warmed up to the world of Chrono Trigger.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 7, 2018 16:09:03 GMT -5
Yep, Chrono Trigger is the first thing that popped into my mind. The story is both compelling and cohesive. One of the few games that handled time travel right. I think Final Fantasy VI spins a pretty good yarn, too. Valkyrie Profile might be the most fascinating, because while the "real" ending is gated behind some very poorly-communicated mechanics, the story is still interesting overall, and each individual character's backstory is even more compelling. That might be the most disappointing part of the sequel; while the main tale of Silmeria is solid, most of your recruits have no real backstory to speak of. I liked the dual protagonist/antagonist plot of Breath of Fire IV. The first two Suikoden games are spot-on. Shadow Hearts: Covenant was a combination of deadly serious and whimsically goofy, and is my favorite of the series before the sequel went completely nuts. I think I'm going to stop with this last entry, but I can't have a list without a Dragon Quest game. Figure the honor goes to Dragon Quest IV. Nope, I lied, one more: Shadow Madness, a pretty terrible game on its own, but man the dialogue was fun. Harv-5 had some great lines.  |
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 7, 2018 18:42:29 GMT -5
I liked the dual protagonist/antagonist plot of Breath of Fire IV. FINALLY... SOMEONE ELSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even bring myself to finish BoF1-3 because the characters/plots SUCK, lol. BoF4 was on a completely different dimension. Even though I think the second disc of Xenosaga III might be the alpha and omega peak for me, Xenogears as a whole is just perfect. The layers of characters and their own agendas is incredible and I've only really seen the Suikoden and Matsuno games do it to that same level, JRPG wise. Gray line storytelling done right with no clear good or evil. But Tetsuya Takahash is my favorite since he layers on the sci-fi/mecha/philosophy and frankly as much as I love a lot of mecha anime, the Xeno stuff is pretty much better than all of it. If Xenogears or Xenosaga (the short OVA is solid), were perfectly and fully translated into anime they would be my favorite shows of all time. Which you could make an argument that that's the issue with them being flawed games, maybe Takahashi got in the wrong business haha... but I don't care. I cherish these games. They are an experience of the highest order. They're not for everyone, but they were definitely made for me. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA6HpFfsFxY |
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Post by Ex on Feb 9, 2018 1:31:12 GMT -5
Here's some I enjoyed:
Vagrant Story
Playing as a lone medieval secret agent, infiltrating a haunting and mysterious forgotten city, while trying to stop a sorcerer sounds interesting, and that's just the first five minutes of this tale. This is a Yasumi Matsuno jam, meaning layers upon layers of complexity and intrigue. Vagrant Story's unique plot kept me guessing the whole way through, and never disappointed my brain.
Fallout
Playing as the savior (or demon) of a real world wasteland, never felt more real than it did in the original Fallout. What's left of this world? Who can you trust? And why does this game keep making you laugh at terrible things? Fallout's writing was strong in both its thematic delivery and buckets of black humor. This RPG has many NPCs that are hard to forget, and an ending that fits perfectly the behavior of the player throughout the experience.
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
People often accuse this series of having threadbare plots, and (sans Persona entries) that's not entirely untrue. Nocturne doesn't have a hugely elaborate tale either, but what it does provide the player is a stone cold story with all the fat cut out. The world has ended and its up to you to decide how its reborn. Every choice the player makes in this matter dramatically affects the overall outcome of the plot. Player impetus is extraordinarily strong here, you will feel in control of your destiny. You will suffer the consequences of every decision, while reaping the reward of a future you wrought upon all others.
Valkyria Chronicles
It'd be easy to deride Valkyria Chronicles' plot as an aping of WW2 era Europe. And that'd be a fair derision. However, Valkyria Chronicles overcomes its obvious influence via the strength of its characters. Over the course of the game, the player will certainly grow fond of their ragtime squad of homegrown heroes. Welkin's victories start to feel like your own, and Alicia's smile radiates in your own heart. The fact that later on sexy magical goddesses wielding glowing blue lances start showing up is only icing on the cake.
Shadow Hearts
How many JRPGs start out with the protagonist on the verge of raping a girl on a train? And then demons show up, gore everywhere, and a wizard too? None except Shadow Hearts. From the rundown streets of London to the ethereal realms of outer dimensional darkness, Shadow Hearts constantly surprises its player. But despite all the plotline insanity, Shadow Hearts somehow makes all its disparate elements neatly fit together. Only strong writing can do that, a trait this RPG has in spades.
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Post by dunpeal2064 on Feb 9, 2018 3:50:14 GMT -5
Some really good stuff already listed. Vagrant Story is S-Tier stuff, as is Nocturne, and I really loved the first Shadow Hearts (And enjoyed the 2nd game a fair amount too!). I have a few as well. To preface, it tends to be individual characters that leave an impact on me, moreso than overarching plots, and can deal with less-than-stellar execution if the idea the game presents about the character is good (Perfect example, the US SNES release of FFIV. Really garbage in its execution, but its ideas impacted me and made me think.) Anyways:
Persona 4: Phew, just made the 10 year mark. This game is basically my gold standard for how to treat and grow characters in a game. Shit gets really real, and really ridiculous, but it always feels genuine, and the characters have traits that are both very real, and rarely explored in gaming in such a non-exploitive, genuine manner. Hell, even the dungeons are just used as tools to further grow characters.
Lost Odyssey: Your main character has dreams that read as short stories, and those short stories fucked me up. Some really interesting concepts are explored with the main characters too, and it does a lot right, but it was always those little dreams you'd randomly stumble across that left a mark on me. My wife actually made me wait for her to read them each time they popped up, even though she had no interest in the actual game.
Damn FF games: Yeah, this is why I pointed out that its more the ideas that stick with me, rather than their execution. The FF series regularly introduces characters that, when I imagine being in their scenario, get me feelsy. Red XIII visiting Cosmo Canyon, the ridiculous relationship between Cecil, Rosa, and Kain, Celes' moment in FF VI, everything Vivi does in FF IX, the duality of Yuna's character trying to maintain happiness in the face of certain death... I dunno, I'm probably just a weeb, but that shit gets to me. Its not executed perfectly, but thinking about those stories and what it would be like to be those characters, well, defined me for a long time, and it is the one reason I still hold these games so highly, despite other games in the genre being technically better in so many aspects.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 9, 2018 10:38:48 GMT -5
The localization work on Vagrant Story was phenomenal. It's also one of the most graphically-impressive games on the system.
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Post by Ex on Feb 9, 2018 10:59:59 GMT -5
It's also one of the most graphically-impressive games on the system. No kidding! I think it's the only PS1 game with edge lighting on characters?  |
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Post by anayo on Feb 9, 2018 11:12:24 GMT -5
It's also one of the most graphically-impressive games on the system. No kidding! I think it's the only PS1 game with edge lighting on characters? Before reading the preceding conversation I thought that screenshot was from a 1999 PC game.  |
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Post by toei on Feb 9, 2018 14:57:25 GMT -5
Breath of Fire 2 tells a great story. The first to do the fake religion storyline that I can think of, and the one that did it best. The whole beginning of the game, where you leave town to play, fall asleep, and wake up to find out that no one remembers you, your childhood as a street urchin with Bow, the weird comedy of helping out a poor man stuck with a cockroach infestation by literally beating the boss cockroach, that part where you enter a tree's mind to restore its memories, etc... so many memorable moments.
Earthbound and Mother 3, Chrono Trigger, Phantasy Star IV (though it's more about its characters and the world they inhabit than the plot itself), Lufia 2... I personally loved Xenogears' story. I don't care that they ran out of time and money for the last disc. Vagrant Story's was good, but I mostly enjoy it for the gameplay. Final Fantasy 6, which had the balls to have the world sort of actually end. Treasures of the Rudra and its lifecycle of the species thing. Glory of Heracles 3 had some of the only legit plot twists I've seen (most of the time plot twists are cheap, soap opera devices).
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