Day 21: Game with the best story.
You guys already know I’m going to say Final Fantasy VII.
“Silence like a cancer grows…” -The Sound of Silence
From my notes:
VII is a story of secrets, shadows, and silence, but it is the silence that echoes so deep. This is a narrative that seeks to fill the ubiquitous emptiness by ironically presenting it in full. Not only its characters, but also we are hollowed out by what is never said and never revealed, but many of these things are integral truth that in silence can only destroy.
FFVII is the story that not only captured, but held my attention for 20 years and over half my life. It is the number one inspiration for all of my writing whether that writing is fictional, fantastic, essay or critic. It came to me after the worst tragedy of my life, and while I can’t say it filled the void, it made me realize I wasn’t alone in the darkness of my own thoughts. Even though I didn’t know all the details of much of VII’s own major inspiration at the time (and there’s no way in hell that event didn’t change the story, because it was going to be something entirely different before it became what is what, and events like that change you. Yes, I’m being vague), I still knew there was something special about this game. Even before I played it, it forced me to go beyond my normal genre since VII is firmly science fantasy or, as I used to call it, the fusion of fantasy and sci-fi. From a game I had no interest in playing to my life’s obsession, VII’s story was the first narrative to make me question the meaning of the word “terrorist,” because the term is entirely dependent on point of view. It also made and still makes me either face or push down dark truths about myself and what I would do if confronted with certain situations. I always insist that I know I wouldn’t be fooled, but in all honesty, I don’t know and it scares me. Do we really truly understand the darkness that could lie seething in our own deepest cores? Or do we only think we do?
Puppy time!!!
I needed a drastic subject change, because that got way too deep way too fast, but that’s my relationship with VII. There were almost some tears shed! WTF, I don’t have emotions like some commoner *sniff* Look at dem ears above though. He could probably take off flying ♥
FFVII isn’t the only game whose story I love. I have to give props to the Legend of Zelda series especially with all the timelines and loops, Mass Effect of course, Child of Light with its fairy tale atmosphere, Super Paper Mario with the ending that literally made me cry, but Final Fantasy VII has the best story to me, but more importantly for me.
What’s your favorite game story? Why do you hold it so close to your heart? Feel free to share as much or as little as you want!
The Shameful Narcissist Speaks 
Other than FF7…Drakengard/Nier, Planescape: Torment, Pillars of Eternity, Silent Hill 2. (Yes, I have a serious problem with just picking 1 answer for all these kinds of questions)
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I like multiple answers! If I hadn’t tired myself out writing about FFVII in this one, I would’ve said Majora’s Mask, Child of Light, Dead Space (even though that game scares the hell out of me), and FFIX. Silent Hill is famous throughout the land. I should watch an LP of that, but I’d have to do it during the day lol.
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Oh I miss Dead Space…
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I think my husband played the first two if I’m correct about it being a trilogy. I remember reading the major spoiler of the game and being completely horrified. That game did an excellent job creating the perfect horror atmosphere.
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Yeah it all ended on a huge cliffhanger with a giant undead planet flying towards Earth too
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….holy shit. Yeah I know about the Brethren Moons. They’re worse than Unicron and Galactus combined D:
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The Last of Us is my immediate response. NieR: Automata, BioShock, and SOMA also come to mind.
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Last of Us and Soma are on my watch list, and I think NieR might be my next purchase! I think I’ve seen a bit of BioShock in addition to some great cosplays of it. *adds it to watch list*
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Christopher Odd has great LPs of all the BioShock games and their respective DLC. SOMA and The Last of Us as well.
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Oh man how could I forget Soma. And that ending on Last of Us…
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Yeaaaaah I’ve heard quite a bit about The Last of Us’ ending. No one has spoiled it, which is good, because it’s on my to watch list. Hm, parasitic fungus…that sounds like a George R R Martin short story.
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The end of SOMA is fucking gut-wrenching.
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I think I’ll stand by Vagrant Story.
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I’ve heard good things! It’s another Squeenix so I can’t help but approve 🙂
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My favorite story-heavy games are Planescape: Torment, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, and Undertale. What I look for in an experience like that is how much it utilizes the medium to tell its story. It’s more than just being written well; these are stories that could not work in any other medium – without that interactive component, they couldn’t sustain themselves. It’s why I feel the AAA industry’s approach of trying to make them into films (i.e. most of Naughty Dog’s output after Uncharted), ultimately misses the point of the medium.
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I have 999 on my backlog and I think I have Undertale…yup I do! Okay, I just added Planescape. It sounds like something I would really like.
I think it’s because the tech to do so is still relatively new, so they’re going all out to give games this amazing cinematography. I’m not as upset about that since a lot of the games I play are the type of RPGs where you’re more following along a character’s story rather than the character is more of your avatar, but I definitely understand that video games are supposed to be interactive, and it’s the interactive nature that often serves to pull you deeper in.
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The Zero Escape trilogy has an awesome story. Very clever plot packed with twists. It’s also a rare example of a story that works because it is a video game. It wouldn’t work as well as a movie/book because the interactivity plays a big part of the experience.
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I like that. It sounds like the game really utilizes the medium it’s rendered in. I definitely like games that *could* be books or movies, but if a creator can make it so that a game has to be a game otherwise it won’t work, that’s quite an accomplishment.
Ah okay, I just looked this game up. I have it on my backlog. Ah, it’s a DS game. Looks like you could play it on iPhone, too. I wonder if it’s available on Android…
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The mobile version doesn’t have the puzzles of the DS original, but is fine to play if all you want is the story. It also has a flowchart option that makes replaying the title (necessary to get all the endings) much easier.
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Ah, I’m going to stick with the DS version then. I want the whole Phoenix experience!
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Stories are beautiful things! You never know which one will touch you when you need it the most 🙂 People will always get different meanings from different narratives so I make sure to at least respect stories I’m not a fan of.
Other than the trilogy I keep rambling about, Horizon Zero Dawn’s story is still with me and it’s ending was 2nd time a game made me break down and cry. It was the best paced story I’ve ever seen in a game. The writer’s revealed everything perfectly. Honorable mention to The Last of Us. I’ll never forget that depressing journey.
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Wow, I definitely have to play this soon. Just the premise of it drew me in, and I have The Last of Us on my watch list now.
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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney has one of my favorite stories ever, regardless of medium. I like mysteries and this game is chock full of them. More importantly, the original trilogy of the game has an superb storyline filled with such epic twists and turns that all come together in the finale. It’s a visual novel adventure, yet I’ve replayed it at least 5 times. I can’t get enough of it! I incorporated it into our video game wedding alongside the “big” franchises like Mario, Zelda, and Final Fantasy, which says how important the game series is to my wife and me.
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I’ve seen the memes all over the internet, and it’s been on my backlog for a while! That’s a shame about the 4th, but at least there were three good ones prior.
It must be a good game if you incorporated it into your wedding along with those big hitters 😀
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One of the more hardcore gamers at our wedding gave us huge props for including Ace Attorney since that was an obscure pick in a sea of other more mainstream series. It felt good, haha. The 4th one does things to the characters that I didn’t appreciate, but the 5th and 6th entries thankfully “fix” it. I wish they retconned the developments, but at least they “fixed” it.
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You were probably not the only fan to detest what happened there, and, well, gamers tend to not keep our opinions to ourselves, and the internet has only made us louder 😀
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Believe me, most fans hate what happened in the 4th game. Still technically a great game, and I enjoyed it, but it played with my expectations of characters, and that’s not a good way to appeal to your loyal fanbase.
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OMG that basset hound puppy is so cute! Look at those ears! ❤ I love basset hounds so much but I'm pretty allergic to them. It sucks because I love dogs, and I'm fine around some breeds and start getting sick around others. It has to do with their dander and some sort of protein present in their saliva 😦
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I’m slightly allergic to cats like not too badly, but if I’m around them for too long, I’ll start sneezing. I have two cats of course lol. Yep, it’s the dander/dried saliva, and there really isn’t any hypoallergenic pet, contrary to popular belief
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Aww! I hate allergies! 😦 Well, I have several reptiles and I’m not allergic to any of them so that’s a plus 😉 Oddly enough, I don’t seem to be allergic to cats at all and I find that more people tend to be allergic to cats instead of dogs.
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I think it’s because cats lick themselves and the saliva dries and becomes dander, but dogs don’t lick themselves as much?
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Yeah I think you may be right!
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