Most thought provoking game story?

[GoldStarz]

I'm seeing Nier and Nier Automata but I think the whole DrakeNier franchise as whole fits into this.

Drakengard 1's theme seems to be the really weird one of "maybe these shitty people literally do just deserve to fucking die" is kinda fascinating to me. Like you play as a small group of some of the worst people you can think of, but they're still the protagonists and you expect them to pull a win, but they literally never do. Every ending has them lose in some form and they just get worse and worse the more you play the game.

Drakengard 3's ending are also kind of like that but they handle the theming pretty differently. It seems to be more about coming to terms with how cruel the world can be and how to learn to bear against the pain it gives you without letting it change your character.

Ah okay. I'm curious if I'm still right. I would be if I got ending N

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Spoiler: nier automata spoilers (?)

You are right; 9S is a racist against the machines.
Arguably all of YoRHa are, but 9S especially embodies this.

 

[lt519]

The Talos Principle.

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Thought the DLC was great too.

 

[H2Yo]

Silent Hill 2: Water playthrough

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

Probably Nier and Nier Automata

 

[LostLink]

Okay, I'll start with SOMA, I'll get the mac version, I'm a little nervous tho, I feel like it's going to be a staggering experience.
Thank you so much everyone, this thread will help me and many others for a long time ahead. <3

 

[Ultimadrago]

Night in the Woods handles this best in recent memory. It's really speaks from a struggling "Millennial" perspective that I've never seen done well before then. I thought about it and replayed it numerous times after my first completion.

 

[CHC]

Okay, I'll start with SOMA, I'll get the mac version, I'm a little nervous tho, I feel like it's going to be a staggering experience.
Thank you so much everyone, this thread will help me and many others for a long time ahead. <3

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My personal recommendation would be to play with Safe Mode on, which disables monsters attacking / hunting you. Even though it makes it slightly less of a "game," I think it makes Soma more of a pure and unsettling experience. Just seeing these shambling nightmares listlessly wandering around is actually more creepy than having them hunt you like typical, predictable video game enemies. Not to mention the game's horror doesn't really come from avoiding monsters, it comes much more from..... well.... you'll see.

 

[foras592]

Xenogears

 

[Tpallidum]

Soma is def number 1 in this category for me. Nier Automata is another good on though.

 

[Deleted member 25606]

I recently had quite the experience with Rime. Don't know if not many played it haven't heard much and nothing positive. Was cleaning my plus backlog to make videos and played it for the animated artstyle, but the end of the game hit me like a ton of bricks and finding out the games conceit recontexualized the entire game and led to another playthrough just to see the themes in action once I was aware of them.

 

[LostLink]

My personal recommendation would be to play with Safe Mode on, which disables monsters attacking / hunting you. Even though it makes it slightly less of a "game," I think it makes Soma more of a pure and unsettling experience. Just seeing these shambling nightmares listlessly wandering around is actually more creepy than having them hunt you like typical, predictable video game enemies. Not to mention the game's horror doesn't really come from avoiding monsters, it comes much more from..... well.... you'll see.

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I will play it in safe mode for sure. Thank you!

 

[Elodes]

Ooh. I had heard mixed things about this game on release. But I am a Buddhist myself, so if it makes a thoughtful treatment of anatman I may have to give it a go.

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I can absolutely recommend it. I'm not a Buddhist myself, but I've discussed the game with resident Buddhist professor gosublime, and together we found a number of correspondences between Buddhist philosophies and Rain World's lore, structure, and narrative. These might delight you.

I should warn you that most of the game's narrative is subtle and well hidden; but I do think there is enough in the text itself to support a deeply Buddhist meaning. It's less about anatman perhaps (though I definitely had a similar experience while playing it - a more Confucian meditation on identity being malleable and non-essential), and more about the folly of having desires at all; the transhumanist aspect comes, in part, from the game's realization that our desires aren't inherent to us, but were instead forced upon us by years of blind and cruel evolution, a thousand clashes of incentives sharpening our own. The game doesn't exactly say a lot about this, but it does show you the end result in stupendous detail. It's not the final argument for many of the topics it brings up, but it's a spectacular starting point - coherent in vision, utterly ambitious, and quite original.

Edit: I should add that the game's mixed reception is almost entirely due to its difficulty, which is incredibly high; specifically, the game is often unfair. I think the game deals with said unfairness in a very wise and explicit manner in its narrative, but it does make for a more frustrating playing experience. However, the game's quality is very high.

 

[Rendering...]

My personal recommendation would be to play with Safe Mode on, which disables monsters attacking / hunting you. Even though it makes it slightly less of a "game," I think it makes Soma more of a pure and unsettling experience. Just seeing these shambling nightmares listlessly wandering around is actually more creepy than having them hunt you like typical, predictable video game enemies. Not to mention the game's horror doesn't really come from avoiding monsters, it comes much more from..... well.... you'll see.

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I totally agree with this. Having to run and hide from enemy monsters is a distraction from the story that the game has to tell.

 

[nekkid]

Flower made me think about stuff.

 

[gosublime]

resident Buddhist professor

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That is some notification to get when you're planning your lessons for tomorrow, although I should point out I'm simply a teacher who has taught Buddhism as a specialiam to A-Level (17/18 year olds) and not a Professor! Feel free to share any of our musings Elodes and I'm still trying to sort out time/energy to write a thread on difficulty - might need to wait for the summer holidays though!

 

[Elodes]

That is some notification to get when you're planning your lessons for tomorrow, although I should point out I'm simply a teacher who has taught Buddhism as a specialiam to A-Level (17/18 year olds) and not a Professor! Feel free to share any of our musings Elodes and I'm still trying to sort out time/energy to write a thread on difficulty - might need to wait for the summer holidays though!

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Whoops. Well, you're a professor compared to me, at least ;-)

Sure, anyone who's interested in hearing about the relations between Rain World and Buddhism is free to message me / quote this. No worries about that thread, there's no rush! I look forward to reading it.

Good luck with your class tomorrow!

 

[Elodes]

Night in the Woods handles this best in recent memory. It's really speaks from a struggling "Millennial" perspective that I've never seen done well before then. I thought about it and replayed it numerous times after my first completion.

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Ooh, that makes me want to play it. The millenial perspective is so unique and comes with so many of its own philosophical patterns and paradigms, but it's very hard indeed to find any work that knows how to engage with it well. If you're interested in novels that do this really well, I can whole-heartedly recommend Sally Rooney's Normal People and Tony Tulathimutte's Private Citizens.

 

[Deleted member 46958]

Xenogears.

Sons Of Liberty.

Bioshock.

 

[DarkFlame92]

SOMA baby....such an amazing story

 

[Window]

I feel like there's been many adventure games and indie games with thoughtful stories which aren't getting mentioned. Some recency bias is also occuring here.

While I haven't played these games (in full), I know they've been highly regarded for their story

The Swapper
The Fall
Kentucky Route Zero

I feel like there's many more which haven't been mentioned yet but I'll admit I'm having a tough time recalling them.

 

[justiceiro]

The stanley parable. Actually make you think why you even play games in the first place.

 

[willoneill]

Man, I must really need to play Soma.

There is a small indie game called Soul Searching that made me feel some kind of strange, somber way that no other game ever has. It's simultaneously the most hopeful and hopeless thing I've ever played.

 

[Pendas]

Shadow of the Colossus. You'll be thinking about it for a while after it's done.

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I recently played Shadow of the Colossus for the first time... and I can't help but feel like the game would have ended perfectly for me if it just cut to black before the

Spoiler

the princess woke up, found the baby.. horse is alive.

Would have really sold how the character allowed himself to be manipulated / do terrible things for the promise of achieving an impossible, selfish goal. I feel like the game is a huge metaphor for the lengths people will go to, and the terrible things they will unwillingly do, in their quest to do achieve the impossible. And more importantly.. if it was all worth it.

 

[Shinzen]

If you count visual novels as video games, Umineko no Naku Koro ni would be my choice. It's extraordinarily long but man was it brilliant.

 

[Nocturno]

Metal Gear Solid 2 easily.

 

[z1ggy]

Fallout 2, back in the day it was called an anarchist propaganda

 

[Whompa]

tlou, sotc, mgs2, sh2,

 

[Timeaisis]

Tetris. You learn a lot about yourself playing Tetris.

 

[mhayes86]

Planescape Torment, easily.

 

[Liezerota]

I'll list in two different categories, Gameplay and Story.

Gameplay - I treat these three as equals in this category, there's: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, DotA 2, and Dominions 5.

In Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, every turn matters, and you have to have a game plan that's adjustable to whatever the game decides to throw at you, it's my most played game of all time, and each game feels at its core 90%+ different from each other one you play. You can never guess what's going to happen, but by applying the knowledge of all of the game's mechanics and skills, along with meticulous planning you have a solid foundation for a thought provoking game.

DotA 2, It's played against human players, that element to near any game adds an extra level of complexity, but add that onto a game which is already incredibly complex with lots of niche uses for each and everything that you'd have to learn and be able to utilize at a moments notice? All I have to say about this, is that there's a reason there's a $20mn+ tournament for this game every year, Very little games come down to the flip of a coin or luck-based elements, it's all skill and deep communication trying to read and reply to each of your enemies movements while pushing your own agenda for the victory.

Dominons 5 - The best 4x strategy game I have ever played, whilst there's a considerable amount of random elements that go into this game, the game is absolutely a measure of your skill to apply and utilize all of this game's mechanics to their fullest. It doesn't feel like a grind necessarily, and everything feels like it was put there for a reason, the level of depth in this game is astounding and no matter how many times you play, you'll find something you didn't know about regarding interactions and how things function in this game.

Story - The top two are visual novels, and the bottom is an actual game. I regard the visual novels as the top, most thought provoking stories I have ever played through of all time, while the game in question is the best one with actual gameplay that I've played regarding story. These are stories I find that draw you in, never let you out until the very end, and constantly testing your mind and making you feel all sorts of emotions...

I won't go into detail on these, as I believe Story based games are best gone in blind, other than the most basics of genre: Steins;Gate, A slice of life story about time travel. Muv-Luv is a fantastic slice of life/paranormal story, while it may start a bit slow once you get to the final bit of the trilogy it uses everything in the previous stories and just hits you hard nonstop. Bioshock Infinite is my last entry, and for a game with actual gameplay, it has the most thought provoking story I have experienced, the major theme being parallel worlds.

 

[Z-Beat]

Never even occurred to me to list Soma. That game's story definitely makes you think, and then huddle in a corner for a few hours having an existential crisis

 

[Mr. Poolman]

Planescape Torment, and its not even close really.

Some quotes:

• As I fell from the walls of Shra'kt'lor, know that my self was broken. My blade was mist, my mind divided. I was adrift upon Limbo's seas, and I wished to drown. I died for days, my mind awash in division, when death finally came to me. It wore your skin, and it had your voice.
• Time is not your enemy. Forever is.
• METAL IS LIKE FLESH. BOTH CARRY POTENTIAL IN THEIR VEINS. WHEN TEMPERED WITH HEAT AND PRESSURE, THE POTENTIAL SURFACES.

Vhailor: When the injustice is great enough, Justice will lend me the strength needed to correct it. None may stand against it. It will shatter every barrier, sunder any shield, tear through any enchantment and lend its servant the power to pass sentence. Know this: there is nothing on all the Planes that can stay the hand of justice when it is brought against them. It may unmake armies. It may sunder the thrones of gods. Know that for ALL who betray Justice, I am their fate... and fate carries an Executioner's Axe.
The Nameless One: I see.
Vhailor: No, you do NOT see. Pray you NEVER will.

 

[Neil98]

For me personally, 999, or the Zero Escape series as a whole. What an incredible journey that was.

 

[DarkShame3]

I think Bioshock: Infinite's narrative is a lot better than some people give it credit, and a lot of the later negativity towards the narrative is rooted in people getting a rude shock when the socialist uprising goes incredibly sour just like... *checks notes* almost every single socialist uprising ever. Granted, however, it goes sour in an alternate universe. There's a gap there that should have been dealt with. However, we know from history that Booker would have been on the chopping block ASAP. Socialist uprisings typically murder the shit out of the heroes of the revolution. To keep them quiet. To use as sacrificial pawns. To turn them into icons. (This is what Animal Farm was getting at with Boxer the Horse.) That's just how it works.

I don't think the quality of the prose in Infinite is as good as System Shock 2 or Deus Ex, though. Those games featured a level of philosophical/political meditation with strong prose that you just don't find in AAA gaming nowdays. (Games writing was really good on PC in the late 90s.)
I felt that Far Cry 5's story was very thought provoking in places, although as with Burial At Sea for Bioshock Infinite, it later muddies its waters a bit in New Dawn. (Far Cry 5's main writer co-wrote Bioshock Infinite and was the main writer on Burial At Sea, IIRC.)

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Thanks for such a detailed response. Most of the negativity I've seen thrown at Infinite came from gamers who expected it to be more like Bioshock 1 and 2. I'm actually playing those now for the first time, so I'll be curious how going through in a different order alters my perspective. I didn't know that a lot of people were upset at Daisy and her revolution being rotten. Like you, I didn't really expect any different. Considering that Rapture is an Objectivist city gone to hell and Columbia is a religious fundamentalist city gone to hell, I think these games are less about any specific political stance, and more about how human extremism in any form becomes destructive.

 

[Pinco]

I suggest to play SOMA with safe mode OFF. The enemies are part of it as much as the story is in my opinion, and they help reinforce the unsettling atmosphere the game has. Considering that it was an option added way after the release of the game, I think that's also the original vision the developers had of the game.