Board 8 > Board 8's Top 60 Stories in Gaming - Results Topic Part 2

(+) Yeah! (+)

Leonhart4 posted...

So it looks like I was the only vote for Shadow Hearts Covenant. That makes me a bit sad. Such a good game.

All time great even if it didn't make my cut.

The Man Festival has me...conflicted nowadays, though. Hits very different than it used to. <_<

---

Lightning Strikes posted...

A bit disappointed Zero Time Dilemma got no points at all. The three are practically equals in my book.

Yeah, I really like that one too, but I already had 2 Uchikoshi games on my list and I didn't want to put in another one. Everyone seems to hate it though so I didn't have much expectation of it doing well.

Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition - 6

Wow, I completely forgot that Root Double existed. One of the biggest mind**** VNs I can think of, although the pacing's all over the place.

---

+10 Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
+9 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials & Tribulations
+8 Undertale
+7 Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy Way
+6 Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky
+5 Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
+4 Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
+3 MOTHER 3
+2 Hollow Knight
+1 Final Fantasy VI
---

+10 Sonic Adventure 2
+9 Fallout: New Vegas
+8 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
+7 NIER
+6 Suikoden V
+5 Deadly Premonition
+4 Heavy Rain
+3 Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
+2 Catherine
+1 Final Fantasy X

my very embarassing list

not because of heavy rain of course

---

KamikazePotato posted...

Her conversations with Naked Snake throughout the game, culminating in the final boss fight and ending, are legendary.

AND YOU CAN VOTE FOR THEM NOW IN THE BEST FEMALE VILLAINS QUOTE CONTEST, RIGHT HERE ON BOARD 8

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78753864

---

Perhaps the smoothest shameless plug I've seen in Board 8 history

---

ZenOfThunder posted...

AND YOU CAN VOTE FOR THEM NOW IN THE BEST FEMALE VILLAINS QUOTE CONTEST, RIGHT HERE ON BOARD 8

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78753864

Hey, no fair! I need them to lose for my bracket!

---

Human Revolution is also a Square game that got points. If Nier counts I dont see why that and LiS cant.

Internal Squares storytelling nosedived, but luckily they got good at recruiting others.

---

It's a bit confusing when I see people say they voted for story and not characters. Characters are story, and some of the games on this list are pretty nothing from a purely story standpoint (like, say, Disco Elysium). Even stuff like MGS3 or AA3 are more great for the characters than the story.

My list:
+10 Higurashi When They Cry Kai
+9 Song of Saya - Saya no Uta
+8 Tsukihime
+7 Vagrant Story
+6 Valkyrie Profile
+5 Planescape: Torment
+4 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
+3 Mass Effect 3
+2 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
+1 Final Fantasy VI

Bolded the ones that didn't make it.
---

I just started Higurashi. Trying to finish before the new anime starts next month.

---

pezzicle posted...

also can i just say that the people on this board are weirdly nice which is not like other places here nor other forums i've frequented

I'm really glad you feel that way. Most of us know each other fairly well, so it would be nice if you stayed around here if you like!

---

Advokaiser posted...

I'm really glad you feel that way. Most of us know each other fairly well, so it would be nice if you stayed around here if you like!

It's just very non toxic which is a radical change from the boards I'm used to. My original account was a LUE guy tho so take that as you will

I suspect I'll continue to browse

---

Since 428 was brought up last page: it's a really cool game. The style is awesome, and it doesn't really follow a lot of typical VN cliches. I didn't quite love it in the end for a couple reasons, but I'd still highly recommend it. There's not really anything else like it.
---

KamikazePotato posted...

Ah, I missed squexa's 3rd list revision. Ever17 barely makes the Top 63 if you factor that in.

^5 squexa

My full list:

+10 Final Fantasy VII
+9 Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers
+8 Dies irae: Amantes Amentes
+7 Fate/Stay Night
+6 Final Fantasy Tactics
+5 Vagrant Story
+4 Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition
+3 Rewrite
+2 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
+1 Ever17: Out of Infinity

I was hoping Shadowbringers would be able to snag a spot on the list, but oh well.

As for FFX, it's grown on me a lot over time. I didn't consider it for my top 10 but it might make top 25. When I first played it, I felt the pilgrimage was too stale/formulaic (mechanically it's not any different from literally any RPG where you travel from town to town in sequence, but FFX wears that sequence on its sleeve). But in retrospect, that stands out to me less and the big emotional moments stand out more. And like Leonhart said it nails the ending.
---

The thing with the pilgrimage is that it just works so well with the formula of the JRPG at the time. As you said, it's formulaic, and I love that they knew that and decided to base an entire story around HAVING to do that kind of thing

---

ZenOfThunder posted...

AND YOU CAN VOTE FOR THEM NOW IN THE BEST FEMALE VILLAINS QUOTE CONTEST, RIGHT HERE ON BOARD 8

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78753864

I kind of pictured those words in a sort of WATCH TODAY'S MATCH BETWEEN THE ROCK AND THE UNDERTAKER, AT RAW!! way.

---

+10 Kentucky Route Zero
+9 Disco Elysium
+8 80 Days
+7 Gone Home
+6 Nier
+5 Planescape Torment
+4 Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers
+3 The House in Fata Morgana
+2 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II
+1 Outer Wilds

thought KRZ might make it on the lower end

---

i gotta play this kentucky route zero thing

---

Also, good thing the legendary Mod, writer and reviewer DetroitDJ didn't participate in this since I bet he would've been really sad to see no support for Final Fantasy Tactics.

---

Oh right, I guess I can post my list now that I'm on my main.

+10 - Final Fantasy X
+9 - Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
+8 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials & Tribulations
+7 - The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC
+6 - Persona 4 Golden
+5 - Metal Gear Solid
+4 - Shadow Hearts: Covenant
+3 - Final Fantasy Tactics
+2 - Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
+1 - Steins;Gate

I am Board 8.

Mac Arrowny posted...

It's a bit confusing when I see people say they voted for story and not characters. Characters are story

I get what you're saying, and in a sense, you're right, but I think you can make a distinction between character arcs and the overarching story. For example, I didn't vote for FFVIII because I don't think the overarching story about Ultimecia, time kompression, and all that, is particularly well told and is often poorly explained. What I love is Squall's character arc, his growth, how he interacts with the other characters and how those interactions change over time, and FFVIII is full of Squall foils, and I love me some foils.

Or to use another example, Tales of the Abyss. I really enjoy Luke's character arc, but all the stuff about the Score, fonons, the Seventh Fonon, etc. just feels like nonsense after a while. I think Symphonia kills Abyss in the story department (and characters, too, but yeah).

---

Funny for you to mention Abyss like that, since as strong as the characters are I put it above Berseria purely because of the story. If I had focused more on characters than story, Berseria would have flipped that easy.

Of course characters are a huge factor, since Berseria made the list regardless.

There was a very, very excellent full Tales series character ranking topic earlier this year that I hope someone has archived.

Rose last place is always good.

---

Yeah the best characters will always serve the story and vice versa, but they can pretty easily be separated and be of greatly differing quality even within the same game.

---

Or I guess in the case of something like Trials & Tribulations, it succeeds because all the major character arcs work, and they work well together, between Phoenix, Mia, Godot, Dahlia, Iris, heck, even Edgeworth.

It's why I voted for it even though the main stories of 3-2 and 3-3 really don't have that much to do with the overarching storyline. Their purpose is to build up Godot as someone you care about and what to know more about, and then it delivers on that front with the last two cases.

---

i didn't make a list coz apparently i completed missed the nominations periods but noticed this a few days ago and have been paying attention. i'd guess my votes would've been something like the below:
1. Grim Fandango
2. Nier: Automata
3. Disco Elysium
4. Planescape: Torment
5. Yakuza 0
6. The World Ends With you
7. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
8. Snatcher
9. The Longest Journey
10. Metal Gear Solid 2

so sorry if that would've changed anything for the better.

Kinda stuck as to what's included in the "best story" tho. the Longest Journey and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines are ones i was struggling with coz for TLJ the pacing is fucking non-existant for the first half and the ending is laughable, but the world building, the characters and the excellent script makes me feel that i'm a lot more positive towards the overall story than it probs deserves. similar thoughts with VTMB, the story itself isn't really all that interesting and the endings are also shite. but probs has the strongest dialogue from any game i've ever played, along with one of the most interesting and colorful worlds ever realized in a vidya game. wanted to vote for it coz i've never been more interested in learning about a world within a video game as i was with VTMB, but i don't really want to vote for a game where i was never really all that bothered about what came next in the plot.

the opposite of MGS2 and MGS3 where i really, really like the "plot" in both but the hilariously shite dialogue (which does add to the charm of MGS tbf) takes a lot of shine off the story.

ZenOfThunder posted...

+9 Fallout: New Vegas

^5.

Also ^5 to whoever the other Firewatch supporter was. I thought that would manage to make the list, but I guess it just doesn't have the playrate.

---

Deserved winner. FFX actually places higher on the list but I thought it didnt need help with points and turns out it didnt. Really disappointed to not even see DQ11 on the list when stuff like Ocarina of Time snuck in.

+10 Xenogears
+9 Suikoden II
+8 Final Fantasy VII
+7 Xenoblade Chronicles
+6 Silent Hill 2
+5 Dark Souls
+4 Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
+3 Final Fantasy X
+2 Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
+1 Bloodborne

+10 Disco Elysium
+9 Grim Fandango
+8 NieR: Automata
+7 Kentucky Route Zero
+6 Outer Wilds
+5 NIER
+4 Suikoden II
+3 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
+2 Deadly Premonition
+1 Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

i'm guessing kr0 didn't pick up a third supporter huh


---

+10 Silent Hill 2
+9 Silent Hill 3
+8 Spec Ops: The Line
+7 Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
+6 Max Payne 3
+5 Nier: Automata
+4 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
+3 Outlast 2
+2 Haunting Ground
+1 Mass Effect 2

If I had remembered to put Rule of Rose I would've placed it at +5. Call of Duty: Black Ops was originally my +1 but I pushed it down for Nier: Automata.

---

+10 Bioshock
+9 Bioshock Infinite
+8 What Remains of Edith Finch
+7 Life is Strange
+6 God of War (2005)
+5 God of War (2018)
+4 Return of the Obra Dinn
+3 Gone Home
+2 Spec Ops: The Line
+1 Assassin's Creed II

Only 1/2 made it in

---

+10 The Beginner's Guide
+9 Disco Elysium
+8 The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series
+7 Pyre
+6 NieR: Automata
+5 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
+4 Gone Home
+3 What Remains of Edith Finch
+2 Devotion
+1 Her Story

i made my list based on a random mix of plot, characters, dialogue, tone, themes, and how the game took advantage of the medium to tell its story

mgs2 is the only game that relied on me having played a previous game from the series for its story to really pay off

stuff that i also heavily considered but ultimately cut

eliza
final fantasy tactics
the last of us
butterfly soup

---

I considered characters and setting as things that contributed to the story, perhaps more than I should have, but I think part of writing a good story is writing good characters and placing them in a well-written setting.

I gave Majora's Mask some points because of it, I wouldn't have if I thought of it the same way most seemed to do.

---

+10 Final Fantasy VII
+9 The Last of Us
+8 Red Dead Redemption 2
+7 NieR: Automata
+6 Life is Strange
+5 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
+4 Final Fantasy X
+3 Mass Effect 2
+2 The Walking Dead
+1 Red Dead Redemption

Only my +1 didn't make it in. My list is pretty cookie-cutter but I guess I just enjoy the big games that are known to have good stories, that's kind of my thing.

I think the top 10 ended up looking pretty fantastic. Despite only giving FFX +4 I'm cool with it winning. Honestly it was very tough to place everything from +10 to +3 on my list, and on a different day they might have been ranked differently. The bottom two are the only ones that I couldn't see moving up.

Time to try some Visual Novels.

---

no list is a cookie cutter list! the fact that you got 9/10 games on there shows it's quality

---

Thanks, Zen!

---

davidponte posted...

Time to try some Visual Novels.

This

---

start with Steins;Gate

---

Steins Gate is probably not the best one to start with for someone who is presumably not a huge fan of anime.

---

I bought the Phoenix Wright trilogy

---

Fantastic place to start. Do know that it is Board 8 law to make a playthrough topic when you start, though.

---

Yup, and then you're guaranteed to get spoiled because b8ers love talking about stuff that comes later in the game when people make playthrough topics.
---

I bought the Phoenix Wright Trilogy on 3DS a few years ago and committed the greatest B8 sin by not liking it all that much after finishing the first game. I haven't tried any of the others, though.

---

Mac Arrowny posted...

Yup, and then you're guaranteed to get spoiled because b8ers love talking about stuff that comes later in the game when people make playthrough topics.

Eh, B8 has gotten a lot better about that over the years.

---

davidponte posted...

I bought the Phoenix Wright Trilogy on 3DS a few years ago and committed the greatest B8 sin by not liking it all that much after finishing the first game. I haven't tried any of the others, though.

It's not for everyone, but the first game is different in some ways than the rest of the series. They streamline the gameplay aspects a bit more as the series goes on.

But if your problem is that you don't like the story or the characters, then it's probably not for you.

---

I'm looking for Visual Novels that are more strictly interactive experiences and less puzzle/adventure games. I didn't grow up with the classic "click everything on the screen and use every item in my inventory" adventure game, so I have no nostalgia for it and just find them frustrating. I don't want an inventory.

I loved the court parts of Ace Attorney, but going around and finding the clues was kind of hit or miss. It felt good when it all clicked but it was very frustrating when I couldn't figure it out and had to resort to the aforementioned "click everything on the screen".

DDLC, where there are choices and I'm interacting in small ways was a great experience.

---

I love finding everything there is to find and getting every piece of dialogue I can because the writing and the characters are so good.

But if you want something along the lines of DDLC, then I'd recommend Steins;Gate. Or if you like thriller/horror type stuff, then go with Higurashi or Umineko, but just know there is literally no interactivity with those two. It's just clicking from scene to scene.

---

Leonhart4 posted...

Or if you like thriller/horror type stuff, then go with Higurashi or Umineko, but just know there is literally no interactivity with those two. It's just clicking from scene to scene

Horror in this genre sounds great, but I feel like I need at least a little bit of interactivity to keep me engaged.

You mentioned the gameplay in Ace Attorney getting streamlined in future installments. Does any of that include the issues I had with it? I didn't hate it, I just wanted more court and less banging my head against the wall at certain points. The story/characters are great, but I don't just want to watch a playthrough of it because, again, I need at least a little bit of interactivity.

---

The House in Fata Morgana meets your criteria and is the highest rated VN on this list that isn't a sequel.

It is also not particularly long, around 40 hours with all of the content, tops.

---

UshiromiyaEva posted...

The House in Fata Morgana meets your criteria and is the highest rated VN on this list that isn't a sequel.

Yeah this is probably #1 on my list.

I really want to give Ace Attorney another try, partially because I can get it on PS4 where there are trophies, but I don't want to hate myself while playing it or just resort to using a guide to get to the story beats.

---

hey what is the best VN-to-anime adaptation?

i want some good story stuff but a lot of time I just want it in anime form

---

AA shouldnt really be in the conversation, they are adventure games first and foremost. It is a sliding scale sure, but AA is definitely to the adventure game end.

ZenOfThunder posted...

hey what is the best VN-to-anime adaptation?

i want some good story stuff but a lot of time I just want it in anime form

Well thats easy:

Steins;Gate

---