Current Events > What was the first game you played that blew you away with its story?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I think it was probably the Mass Effect trilogy for me. Yes, I'm counting all 3 as one game, deal with it smh tbh.

Like, I'd played games before where I was invested in the story like Kingdom Hearts 1 + 2, but they were still full of dumb video game stuff so I never took them that seriously. ME was crazy though, felt like the video game equivalent of Star Wars with its massive universe, well written characters and meaningful choices. A shame how far Bioware's fallen since then.

FF7

Baldur's Gate 2.

I'd say... Ocarina of Time. It's not that deep in storyline but it was a pretty big step up from the gen before for sure.

Like seeing Link get so surprised at seeing Ganon's castle where Hyrule Castle once stood, stuff like that

OG FF7 for me.

Okami. It had style and substance.

Metal Gear Solid

My mind immediately went to God of War lol. It's not particularly deep, particularly in comparison to the other God of War, but it's more nuanced than people give it credit for.

I don't know. The bar has been raised so many times that it's difficult to think about what it felt like the first time.

But the answer is probably King's Quest 6.

Ninja gaiden 2 on the NES.

What can I say, my household was easy to impress when it comes to video game stories and the NES trilogy's short cutscenes did the job, lol.

I actually really got invested into finishing ninja gaiden 2 when irene lew was like, dead dead in part 2. (She gets better in the end).

Suikoden 2

Xenogears

Ocarina of Time probably. I remember the Sheik reveal making me gasp. My sister who had played the game before I did was like "It was so hard for me not to spoil it!"

Metal Gear Solid.

There wasnt much else out there like it at the time. My young mind was awestruck from the first trailer I saw.

OniLink5000 posted...

Ocarina of Time probably. I remember the Sheik reveal making me gasp. My sister who had played the game before I did was like "It was so hard for me not to spoil it!"

One of the better Game Grumps moments where Arin managed to keep this reveal from Danny despite constantly fucking up and calling Sheik by female pronouns.

Five minutes in if the timestamp doesn't work.
https://youtu.be/C_AORn8lX9U&t=302

I smiled when bro asked "wait so zelda's a ass-kicker?!"

"Yeh"

tri-sapphire posted...

Xenogears

Yeah this and xenosaga.

The first time? Probably Ace Attorney 1 when it came out in the west. I got it after hearing good things and I was just HOOKED. It kind of got me hooked on VNs and I still love them.

Special shoutouts to Ace Attorney Investigations 2 after that, the most that a game has shocked me, and The House in Fata Morgana, which set a standard for a game story that no game has matched. Those weren't first, obviously, but they were massive heights for me that completely blew me away and that haven't been matched.

Yeah, Mass Effect for me as well.

Final Fantasy 10

OG FF7 for me. My mom would wake me up early and we would play through it in the mornings before I went to school

Final Fantasy VII for me too. That game had some amazing action setpieces and cinematic moments in it.

OoT mostly as a kid.

Avowed

Metal Gear Solid.

It's not the first but the first that came to mind was red dead 2.

I do still regard Tales of Symphonia as a turning point for me. Like, before it, I was a person who played video games, but after, I was a gamer~

probably ff10. i remember crying at the ending.

I only played fighters, racers, and platformers when I first started gaming. Chrono Cross was my first ever rpg and it changed my gaming landscape forever.

I know Chrono Trigger fans hated it, but I thought it was amazing.

Tales of Symphonia.

It was the first truly epic RPG I played.

I wouldn't count Super Mario RPG, the original Paper Mario, or the Pokemon games as "epic", and the Zelda games are comparably light on the story.

maybe Killer 7 (I didn't really get into playing single-player games until I graduated from high school).

PissedOffMonk posted...

Metal Gear Solid

This one.

You had some earlier games with comparable stories, like FF6/7 for example, but even those didn't have anywhere near the presentation that MGS1 did. MGS1 had quality voice acting (even in English!) and actual cinematography for most of its cutscenes.

Metal Gear Solid.

Not because the story was particularly good, but its cinematic presentation was unlike anything else in video games at the time. You really felt like you were part of a movie. Previous games with good stories, like various RPGs, still felt like games and were often limited to dialogue boxes.

YoungMutual posted...

I'd say... Ocarina of Time. It's not that deep in storyline but it was a pretty big step up from the gen before for sure.

Like seeing Link get so surprised at seeing Ganon's castle where Hyrule Castle once stood, stuff like that

Same. Characterization was on a different level from what I knew was possible at that point.

What was known in the U.S. as Final Fantasy II at the time (actually FF IV). I was a gamer, but pretty much arcade only because my mom couldn't afford a console, and the concept of a game having an actual plot which amounted to more than "do this for X slim reason", having characters who were more than just talking heads reading off plot points, blew me away.

I've been an RPG fan ever since.

Probably Halo

Xenoblade

DiScOrDtHeLuNaTiC posted...

What was known in the U.S. as Final Fantasy II at the time (actually FF IV). I was a gamer, but pretty much arcade only because my mom couldn't afford a console, and the concept of a game having an actual plot which amounted to more than "do this for X slim reason", having characters who were more than just talking heads reading off plot points, blew me away.

4 is actually really underrated story-wise. And everything-wise. But it did things with the story that wouldn't be common for a long time. Like how they leveraged elemental weaknesses to make sure going up Mt. Ordeals is harder than going back down, even though you go up at like level 20 or whatever and down at level 1, and how this plays into the resolution of Cecil's internal struggles.

And there are a few other things like that. Rydia doesn't know fire when she joins the party, even though it's the most basic spell, and the obvious reason why. Tellah knows meteor, but he doesn't have enough MP to cast it, and his stats decrease as he levels. Maybe more that I've just never thought of.

Baldur's Gate 1 and 2.

What spawned my love of RPGs and really gaming in general.

This topic makes me feel old. Only a couple from the same generation or older compared to mine.

Final Fantasy 6 for me. While the early bits kinda played into my kid brain just going ha ha fantasy fun times, the transition into the back half of the game and the process of going through it was a huge bombshell. It's the kind of thing that cemented into my memory and helped shape some of my gaming preferences going forward.

OG FF7 when I was like 10 years old

Final Fantasy 4

KOTOR 2 since I played the second one first or else it wouldve been KOTOR.

Metal Gear Solid

Deus Ex

Those ranting dragons that you un-statue in Spyro The Dragon made the game a lot more immersive

Though I don't remember the story at all so my apologies if it sucked and this is off topic

Edit: my real answer should've been Super Mario RPG (SNES)

i remember playing Klonoa Door to Phantomile as a kid.

wouldn't say it blew me away but that ending definitely caught me off guard! like damn! O_o

FFVII. It wasn't the first RPG I played, and it's almost incomprehensible now due to its wonky localization, but I hadn't seen such depth, emotion, and world-building out of a game before.