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

[Silent Cartographer]

A few folks have mentioned examples of these, but I'll throw in a sub-genre of games that aren't CRPGS (at least not strictly), but still have some fun stories; story-driven FPSs. As mentioned, Deus Ex is the top of that heap in terms of story, is a full-on hybrid Action/RPG game, and has plenty of CRPG elements. Plus, an ending (endings) worth playing all the way through for! Also have to mention System Shock and BioShock, which are in the the same hybrid vein along with Deus Ex. The Thief series has even better gameplay, fantastic setting and immersion, but is much more linear (or focussed) from a CRPG perspective.

Fallout 3 is in this category as well, but as noted by others, is better at telling you're own story in the Fallout setting than telling a particularly compelling story of theirs. The Bethesda-style sandbox games are all like that; FO3 is simply the best example of the type.

 

[Mallus]

Oh, and my vote for best computer game story goes to....

Star Control II

...and its not even an RPG!

I can't believe I forget SCII!!!

Just playing the first 15 minutes until you meet Fwiffo and learn the tale of how the Spathi and Ilwrath came to guard the enslaved Earth...

My favorite bit is the story of how the ZotFotPik discovered fire, the wheel and religion simultaneously.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Illusion of Gaia is worth a second mention. That's a very good game with a dynamite story. And one of the few games where you can beat monsters to death with a flute.

I'd also recommend The World Ends With You. The use of fashion as a mirror for the soul is very cool and the story is quite dark with some interestingly memorable characters, and the dual-screen mechanic for rewarding teamwork is bonzer as well.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I am going to put in for another MMO but one that I find has a compelling story.

Lord of the Rings Online: While it is an MMO it also has an major story arc serries of quests (covering all levels) that runs parallel to the Lord of the Rings storyline. This can be ignored entirely by those who don't care, but for those like myself that love middle earth this adds an extra dimension. Plus I also find that the graphics are fantastic and have been done with as much respect for the original novels as Peter Jackson had while still converting them to a new medium.

 

[scrubkai]

If we are evaluating a game only on it's story my favorate is PS:T. But then I'm someone who tends to talk to every NPC and really get their money worth from a game, and that game really needed that to get the max enjoyment out of it.

In the non RPG world: The first Gabriel Knight was pretty good, as was Star Control II.

My favorite bit is the story of how the ZotFotPik discovered fire, the wheel and religion simultaneously.

There were so many good parts of that game it's hard to pick one favorite part.... But if I was to pick just one, I actually would have to say it's the running commentary from each race at the end of the credits.

SC II is the only story type game I've ever gone back and replayed years later. I knew the story, and remembered generally where most of the "quests" were leading me, but I played the entire game again just to bask in the flavor of each of the different races.

Oh and I wanted to check in on the Frungy game

 

[TwinBahamut]

Xenogears is good until you get to the second disk, which is where the developers ate their hands and replaced them with large chunks of ham, promptly forgetting they were making a video game.

Err, not quite... As I said, Xenogears suffered from budget issues. The second disk is where Final Fantasy 7 ran over-budget and Xenogears got cannibalized. Xenogears still has the better story, though.

Also my god I cannot believe someone beat me to Dragon Quarter. Especially considering I'm one out of the ten people in the entire universe that liked it.

It is definitely an underrated game. The game has incredible mood, a touching story, and great gameplay. It is a real shame that the future of the entire Breath of Fire series is in question now, with Capcom officially stating that they have no plans to make another one anytime soon...

I recently replayed Illusion of Gaia and I cannot believe how I missed some of these things when I was a kid. Good lord, this game is dark. And I don't refer to the in-game lighting.

Yep, it certainly has some pretty grim aspects to it. I wish I actually beat the game and saw the ending, but the final boss is a killer, and the secret boss might be worse... I really wish that the Soul Blazer/Illusion of Gaia/Terranigma trilogy would get released on the Wii Virtual Console or something.

 

[guivre]

#3: Final Fantasy X. This was, I think, the first time square really hit it with regards to world building. Spira is as interesting and well-developed world as you'll get short of Tolkien, and unlike it's absolutely atrocious successor (not counting XI) it didn't sacrifice character to do it. Also, Tidus remains the most realistic and best developed main character in the Final Fantasy series. Voice acting could use some work, though it gets bonus points for having the best minigame, period.

X really doesn't get nearly enough credit. Between the raging arguments between the "16 bit Final Fantasy games were so much better" elitists and those whose first FF game was VII (some of the former category in here too, they just think it's cooler to like VI or IV or whatever) it gets lost in the shuffle.

Having played every Final Fantasy, including XI, X is really my favorite. Right now I consider it the peak of what Square has been able to do with the series. The story was well paced, immersive, and intriguing. The characters were like-able and well thought out. The graphics and music were fantastic. The gameplay was dead on: from the basic mechanics to the side quests and blitzball it was just really well implemented. If I had to pick one console RPG as my favorite X would be it. But really there are a host of them that should be played: the entire FF series (almost entire), Earth Bound, the Breath of Fire series, Xeno Gears, the Dragon Warrior series (VIII was cell shaded goodness), Mass Effect.. it's hard to stop listing them.

PC RPGS are a different beast and Fallouts 1 and 2 pretty much own the market IMO. Torment is good, Baldur's Gate, Pool of Radiance (everyone should play at least one Gold Box game), Arcanum... same problem here, it's difficult to choose just one.

 

[guivre]

Fallout 3 is in this category as well, but as noted by others, is better at telling you're own story in the Fallout setting than telling a particularly compelling story of theirs. The Bethesda-style sandbox games are all like that; FO3 is simply the best example of the type.

Fallouts I and II set the standard for that type of game. Bethesda managed to get about 80% there. I went in with low expectations after seeing the travesty that is Oblivion, but they definitely did a good job with the franchise. It wasn't as good as it could have been, but it was well executed.

It is true though that people that look at the main storyline quests of Fallout 3 and complain about the length are missing the point, it's unfortunate to have to put it this way but they are playing it wrong. The game (and the other fallouts) are about telling your own story along the way to the plot ending, the side quests you encounter, those you choose to do, and how you choose to do them are intended to be different every time you play. You're not supposed to go in and try to do everything on one play through (and that's not even linearly possible) you're supposed to just play and explore (in the "oh that looks interesting let me follow up" sense rather than the "let me cover every last bit of ground" sense. If you ask friends how their game unfolded they may (and probably will) have a different story to tell than yours.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Oh and I wanted to check in on the Frungy game

Thank you for playing Star Control II - The Ur-Quan Masters.
This game has been brought to you by
Frungy! The Sport of Kings!
No it wasn't!
Yes it was!
Frungy had nothing to do with it!
This game was about war, slavery, intolerance
heroism, justice, and the inevitable triumph of Good over Evil!
Are you crazy?! The developers got millions in Frungy endorsements!

 

[resistor]

X really doesn't get nearly enough credit. Between the raging arguments between the "16 bit Final Fantasy games were so much better" elitists and those whose first FF game was VII (some of the former category in here too, they just think it's cooler to like VI or IV or whatever) it gets lost in the shuffle.

Having played every Final Fantasy, including XI, X is really my favorite. Right now I consider it the peak of what Square has been able to do with the series. The story was well paced, immersive, and intriguing. The characters were like-able and well thought out. The graphics and music were fantastic. The gameplay was dead on: from the basic mechanics to the side quests and blitzball it was just really well implemented. If I had to pick one console RPG as my favorite X would be it.

I really like FF X as well, but it's the only one I've played, so I'm not sure I'm qualified to comment. ;-)