Story Driven Games

[Null]

I'm looking to pick up some story driven games / series. Its been to long since I've played / watched something with a great story. Any games you guys would recommend?

Ones I've played and liked

Metal Gear Solid series
Final Fantasy series cept Crises
Kingdom Hearts series
Suikoden series cept 4 and 5
Chrono Trigger and Cross

Now I'm really itching to be immersed into a game. I really haven't enjoyed anything since MGS4. I have all three next gen systems and a backwards compatible PS3. Don't have any handheld systems though although I can get access to a psp.

[Blabj]

Bioshock - it's a bit thin on the ground.
Grand Theft Auto series - Naturally, but again, the stories aren't completely compelling.
Fallout 3
Crisis Core

[Null]

I'm tempted to try Crises Core. I need to buy a PSP at some point anyway for the new MGS and I figured that would hold me over a bit.

Fallout 3's plot just pissed me off. Fuck Fawkes and his / her unwillingness to flip a simple switch.

Do the GTA side games titled "Stories" actually have decent stories worth paying for?

[Blabj]

Yeah the portable games are pretty decent. They follow the usual GTA style story telling of main plot involving revenge, with subplots for different gangs and what have you dotted around.

Mass Effect is a decent RPG too, while we're on the subject of FPS/3PS RPGs.

[Null]

Man I totally forgot about that title. I've heard nothing but good things about it. Gotta say the only reason I haven't played it up till this point is because I was skeptical about how open it seemed. The other open games I've played such as Fallout and Oblivion were fun as hell but the story seemed to be created by watching donkey balls slide through the sand. But then again it has always been titled as RPG rather then open world like the others. I will definitely be given it a try.

[Wintermute]

The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey are supposed to be very good.

[Elcura]

I would play Suikoden 5 if you haven't. 3 and 4 are so different but 5 returns things to what you loved about 1 and 2.

Lost Odyssey for a good RPG with a great story and characters.

Disgaea series? Not really story driven to the max but the story and characters are fun and light hearted.

Valkyrie Profile series, again, not totally story driven (especially 1, but 2 is more like a classic RPG) but where there is story, it's good.

[Kiarax]

Mass Effect is a great suggestion.

Most people seem to hate Crisis Core, but I thought it was great. I would highly suggest you play it on Hard mode from the get go if you do get around to it, most people complain about the game being purely "spam X", but you will get your ass kicked if you attempt to do that on Hard mode, it made the game alot of fun having to constantly be dodging things. Fantastic music, assuming you liked FF7 you should enjoy all of the story.

Tales series (stand alone games like FF for the most part, there is a few sequels and alot of the games have cameos of older characters) is great, Vesperia on the 360 is fantastic. Decent story, amazing music, awesome gameplay, lots of content and the best protagonist ever.

[Arnwulf]

Infininte Undiscovery has a great story with sub par gameplay. Mass Effect is much different than Oblivion and Fallout, it's somewhat open, but the story is great, it's pretty much like being part of a really great Sci-fi movie.

[Kiarax]

sub par gameplay

What?

[Gokulo]

Umm... Xenogears and (some will burn me) Xenosaga?
.Hack G.U. series? Not everyone likes them but.
Oh, Shadow Hearts 1&2, and if you really like them then 3 also but it's not that good.

[rithridan]

It was mentioned before but I really liked Crisis Core. Gameplay is quite repetative but for me the story was one of its good points. Regardless if you get to a certain point (aka costly punch + break hp limit) the game becomes so incredibly easy that you can just sit back and enjoy the cutscenes while litterally stomping everything in between the cutscenes

[Laude]

Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. <3

[shidobu]

Silent Hill 2
think my first mind fuck ever. And i only played at night after 11pm shit was scary yo

[Isiolia]

Similar to Mass Effect, the Knights of the Old Republic games, and Jade Empire, are very good story-driven games.
They're "open" in that you can choose how you want to approach things, but the overall story is pretty much going to play out (mostly) the same. Kind of makes replaying 'em fun because you can go back and do things the "evil" way (or vice versa).

Compared to the Bethesda titles, these are a bit more guided/focused games. Most western RPGs aren't quite as open as Fallout3/Oblivion/etc.

For PC-onry, Neverwinter Nights 2 had a decent story, which is (sort-of) continued in the first expansion, Mask of the Betrayer, which has a stronger narrative. The basic mechanics of the game are similar to the above mentioned RPGs, you just have a lot more depth.
I'm playing the Witcher atm, which may also fit the bill.

If you want to delve into older PC titles, Deus Ex is perhaps good - not as cinematic as Metal Gear or whatnot, but it's not just an action/RPG.
There's the whole Adventure genre as well, which is basically always going to be story driven, usually punctuated with puzzles of some kind. There are a number of classics, mostly from Lucasarts or Sierra, though the Longest Journey (first one at least) as mentioned, was a shining example of the genre as well.

[Arnwulf]

What?

The gameplay of Infinite Undiscovery is very bland, don't even pretend that it's exciting, or innovative. It's a half-assed version of the Star Ocean 3 battle system. And don't even get me started about trying to find all the sidequests in towns and getting all the extra scenes by figuring out who to connect to and talk to who.

[Blabj]

The Halo series has a decent enough story line, lots of lore and mythology surrounding the stories. There's lots of places online too which can help fill you in on stuff between when the games take place, as well as help you to remember certain aspects of previous games (I used them extensively when playing H3, since my mind is like a sieve.)

Similarly, Call of Duty games have pretty good campaign stories, though they're ridiculously predictable usually

[Arnwulf]

I always thought Call of Duty 4 would make a heck of a movie.

[Odesseiron]

I'd have to suggest Lost Odyssey. That's one of my favorite RPG's of all time. The beginning of the game seems very cliche, but by the time you're about. 5-10 hours in, it really is a fantastic game and has a good story. Some think that's long for a game to get good, I don't for a good RPG. See almost every recent FF. Does anyone remember wanting nothing more than to get out of Midgard in FF7? I do. But yeah, great game.

Other suggestions already made: Mass Effect, Suikoden 1, not so much. 2, 3 & 5 definitely.

Another under-appreciated gem that nobody suggested yet is Shadow of Destiny. It was pretty early gen on PS2, but I played it last week and the graphics or anything didn't make me groan too much. It's a relatively short game clocking in at maybe 3-5 hours, but there are 7 different endings, each one piecing together the game a bit more. It's honestly one of my favorites, and you can probably pick it up dirt cheap.

[Isiolia]

Another under-appreciated gem that nobody suggested yet is Shadow of Destiny. It was pretty early gen on PS2, but I played it last week and the graphics or anything didn't make me groan too much. It's a relatively short game clocking in at maybe 3-5 hours, but there are 7 different endings, each one piecing together the game a bit more. It's honestly one of my favorites, and you can probably pick it up dirt cheap.

Heh, that was one of the first PS2 games I got way back when, it was pretty good.