Which CRPG has the best STORY? (Forked from: Do you not play WoW?)

[ProfessorCirno]

The problems with FFX was in 1) the characters (Or rather, Tidus and Yuna. Wakka was pretty annoying, but he was liveable; those two were horribly done and unsympathetic), and 2) the atrociously bad dubs. AH HA HA HA HA. AH HA HA HA HA HA HA. AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

 

[LightPhoenix]

I'm a little late to the party.

For PC, there's little left to be said besides PS:T. Sabathius is totally correct about Star Control 2 though. Just avoid SC3.

For console... I'll add my vote to Suikoden, except 4 (which blew, IMO).

I'm an SNES-era (4,5,6) FF fan (though my first was FF1, sorry Darkwolf), especially with regards to the stories. After that, I'm not so much a fan of the stories, though 9 is alright and 10 at least had excellent gameplay.

Final Fantasy Tactics has an excellent story... if you can stand the absolutely shoddy translation. The gameplay leaves a little to be desired, but is good enough.

I'll throw in Lufia 2, especially the ending. Also, I'll mention Wild Arms 1 and 2 as having decent storylines as well.

Really, the best console game ever though is Chrono Trigger, hands down. It's a bit on the easy side, but the story makes a huge impression and the characters are well done.

Xenogears, on the other hand, I can not disagree with more. I found the gameplay very tedious and boring, to the point of actually detracting from the story. As others have mentioned, it completely broke down in the second half. IMO one of the most overrated games ever.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Lufia deserves a second nod. It was interesting.

The problems with FFX was in 1) the characters (Or rather, Tidus and Yuna. Wakka was pretty annoying, but he was liveable; those two were horribly done and unsympathetic), and 2) the atrociously bad dubs. AH HA HA HA HA. AH HA HA HA HA HA HA. AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

Well, the first is pretty subjective. Tidus (and Zidanne and Vaan) fits a certain archetype that is kind of on the opposite side of the "cynicism vs. optimism" scale from Cloud (and Squall). Which one one finds more annoying largely depends on their sympathy for antiheroes vs. old-skool heroes.

The second...yeah, that laugh was horrible. But for 70 hours, I've got no problem with the vast majority of it. I can say it was better quality than most anime dubs, which is slightly damning with faint praise, but more on-point with how they probably went about finding voice actors who could dub the US version. Kind of makes me wish there was an option to hear Japanese audio with Engilsh subtitles....

 

[Center-of-All]

What KM said. I vastly preferred Tidus and Zidane to Cloud and Squall in terms of sympathy, and about on par with Terra. (Vaan was terrible, though; I've never seen a "main"character with so little characterization in an RPG). And yes, that laugh is probably the single worst piece of voice acting I've ever heard, but I found the rest of the game tolerable-to-good, pretty much the only point that XII improved on.

Also, if possible, get the PSP version of Tactics. They did a retranslation (it sounds alot like pseudomedieval speek, actually; lots of thee's and thou's), plus it has a few extras. Probably also easier to find.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Hey now, I hated Cloud and Squall just as much as I couldn't stand Tidus ;p

As for FF11, here's the thing to keep in mind: the story was changed at the last minute to make Vaan the main character, because Squaresoft felt they needed a bishounen protagonist. He was originally just a side character, but since he was the prettiest, at the last minute, he became the most important.

 

[avin]

Morrowind and Oblivion bored me to tears. Daggerfall had a better story, with the dead king shouting "VENGEANCE" at the middle of the night.

FO3 does not exist. It does not deserve its name. Oblivion with guns.

Nobody mentioned Arcanum?

I still think the best CRPG is Fallout 1. Period. No other game deserve be called RPG as FO1 and FO2...

Planescape still has the best story, tho.

I'd like to say that probably Black Isle's canned Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound ("you cannot kill guilt") would be a winner too.

theblackhound - The Black Hound FAQ

 

[Nightchilde-2]

I have a working theory that everyone's favorite FF game coincides with their first FF game. For me, there is no question that FFVI is the best. I still play through it once evry 18 months or so.

I'll have to dispute your theory. I started with Final Fantasy I (in the states..I think in Japan it was FFIII or something) back on the NES, but my favorite by a super huge margin FF is FFVII.

And, FFVII also happens to be my vote for best CRPG storyline, though if you can look past some of the technical flaws of the game, the story from Lost Odessy (for the Xbox 360) is terrific and full of emotion and Metal Gear Solid 4 is also very good (though I'm not that last one counts as a CRPG...).

 

[Set]

I don't play standard computer games (only MMOs, because I like the socialization and being able to talk with / roleplay with actual people), so I'm unfamiliar with the awesomeness that is Planescape: Torment.

For MMOs, the best 'story' I've read so far is in Shadowbane. Other MMOs, like Dark Ages of Camelot or Age of Conan have some fascinating *classes* to play and encounters and questlines and all of that, but they feel a little more class/encounter focused than world-focussed at certain times, and an obvious comparison comes to mind, which I will avoid for the sake of my sanity.

Shadowbane was the first to have such a richly detailed world that I got sucked into checking their site daily to read new stuff, long before the game was launched.

The game blows, IMO, but gosh, the world, races, professions and storyline are fascinating to read!

 

[Darkwolf71]

Interesting theory, but it doesn't apply to me. My first FF experience was with FF1 on the NES, back in the 80's. I didn't particularly care for it...in fact, I beat it in less than a week and never played it again.

Then I played FF2 (also on the NES), and while I liked it better than the first one, the story wasn't particularly memorable.

Then I played FF3 (aka FF6 in Japan), and it changed the way that I look at CRPGs forever.

I'll have to dispute your theory. I started with Final Fantasy I (in the states..I think in Japan it was FFIII or something) back on the NES, but my favorite by a super huge margin FF is FFVII.

Alright, stop jacking with my theory. It's a good one. >.<

Honestly you two are the first to ever dispute it, but I think you are also the first to say that you started with FFI.

anyway all this talk about FFX has me itching to break that one out again... Hmm.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Honestly you two are the first to ever dispute it, but I think you are also the first to say that you started with FFI.

Yeah. I'm old school. I started video gaming when the Atari 2600 was brand spankin' new.