What rpg has the best story?

[MrPopo]

After finally finishing it I can say that I really enjoyed the story in Odin Sphere. It kept me going through the bad times (some really evil boss fights) and made the good times an absolute pleasure. It heavily borrows from Norse mythology to give us a story that you don't see all that often. I mean, this is one of the few games I can think of where the "good" ending has that distinction soley due to just how horrible the "bad" ending is.

[andythebadass]

im sorry to be cliche but final fantasy VII and its amazing cast of characters, the ultimate bad guy, and love story, makes my heart sing still today.

[Funk, E]

Yeah, FF VII and its amazing cast of characters like Cait Sith, and wonderfully, totally incomprehensible and badly translated storyline, along with character development system that totally removes anything unique about each character! Whoo!

[vlame]

pokémon blue
/thread

[marurun]

I'm gonna have to agree with Funk, E on FFVII. Even at the time I found the characters angsty and cliched. The problem is that while some games do cliched well, FFVII did cliched badly. I have a huge number of other complaints about FFVII, but this is not the thread for them.

[glynnahab]

I have a huge number of other complaints about FFVII, but this is not the thread for them.

Do it! Kill the fanboy dreams!

Your earlier rant on RPGs was fantastic!

[the7k]

No RPG has impacted me quite like SMT III: Nocturne. I don't really know why, though. Perhaps it was that the story was so significantly different from any other, mainly because it seems they didn't overdo characterisation. Most interactions are with demons, and the humans are kept distant enough that backstories/motivations aren't thrown in your face, but the traits these characters did have were believable. They were flawed. It wasn't the story that got to me, it was the atmosphere. Nocturne has made me incapable of giving two craps about practically any mainstream RPG (and even most of the non-mainstream ones).

If we include tactical RPGs, then I'll say I really enjoyed Final Fantasy Tactics for its story. Badly translated, yes, but the story is so much more realistic and down to earth than anything else with "Final Fantasy" in the title. The fact that the action was localized instead of having the entire world in peril made it much more powerful. Take out the long-haired pretty boys with destructive tendencies, meteors on a collision course with earth and evil-for-no-reason empires, replace them with downtrodden terrorists, region spanning riots and rebellion and divided kingdoms looking to maintain power, and you have something much more powerful. Aside from Tactics, the only thing I like about the Final Fantasy series is the soundtracks.

As for Western RPGs... I honestly haven't been able to get into them. They all seem to be like MMORPGs without the social aspect, which pretty much is the only reason I play some MMOs. I've watched many people play wRPGs like Fable I&II, Oblivion and Diablo II, and the whole time I wonder: What's the point? All the NPCs seem about as developed as a mall-store mannequin, and an RPG without good characters to come back to becomes nothing more than a grind. I can only cast Bone Prison+Chain Lightning so many times before I become completely bored. Of course, I never had the chance to play Fallout I&II, which is something I really wish I could have done.

[Funk, E]

The wRPGs you mention aren't really the, uh, height of RPG-ness. Fable's an action game, Oblivion is Bethesda and thus devoid of story, and Diablo II is a dungeon-crawler.

[marurun]

Dammit, again I agree with Funk, E! You selected Western "RPGs" that aren't really RPGs much at all. Now, if you tried Baldur's Gate 2 or Arcanum or Fallout I think you'd find story plays a pretty central role, along with intelligent combat decisions.

[pepharytheworm]

Goldensun 1 and 2 combined. I just like how in the first game you think you are helping but it turns out in the second game you were causing all the problems in the first game. who you thought was the bad guy is actually perventing disaster in the second.

When it comes to comedic story i have to say paper mario the tousand year door.