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Video games with great lore

Molemitts

Member
25th-anniversary-zelda-mural-7731-1298363909-11.jpg

I've become unimpressed with Zelda's overall lore, to be honest. After playing games like Dark Souls and Metroid Prime, Zelda just doesn't stand.

Although, Majora's Mask seems like it could have a lot of potential lore, the world building in that game is great.
 
Destiny's got a fantastic lore, it's a shame it's all tucked away on little trading cards on the website and mobile app instead of the game.
 

Arttemis

Member
Definitely Dark Souls. I haven't played the sequel, yet, but the first game has enough for the entire generation. I haven't heard the greatest things about the design of the sequel, so I guess I'll wait for a 'complete edition' that includes the DLC before diving in.

So very much this.

People love to shit on World of Warcrafts's story, but those are people that haven't taken the time to actually read into any of it. There is a hell of a lot of really great lore in that world with some fantastic characters. There are are also a ton of novels that are very well done that give you a more detailed look at characters and events in the timeline.

I have to disagree here. I feel like the lore of a video game should predominantly come from the source material itself. World of Warcraft the game is not a good source of game lore. The novels may present their stories well, but when you have to go to an entirely different type of media to find that quality of lore, then I think it should be discredited from the "Video games with great lore" category.
 
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Whats truly amazing in the above case is how you experience the lore as you go through the game and how its subtly told or has to be pieced together.

Resident Evil and MGS also come to mind.
 

Kain

Member
Suikoden, and the fact that we will never see another installment again makes it better in my opinion.

Also anything by Matsuno, set in Ivalice or not (Vagrant Story, FF Tactics, Tactics Ogre, FFXII...). Every game is filled with lore and stories and unparalleled world setting unrelated to the main plot that really flesh out the overall game.
 

Sotha_Sil

Member
TES's lore is mind-bogglingly large and diverse, especially once you start delving into the existential parts of it. And that's without counting the semi/arguably-cannon out of game sources (I don't like most of them, but a lot of people do).

Fallout goes without saying. So many incredible stories and characters.
 

Altazor

Member
Dark Souls, Baldur's Gate, Deus Ex (yes, it's kinda tinfoil hatty with all its conspiracy paranoia but I still love it), Bioshock
but disregard the ending of Burial at Sea pls
, The Legend of Zelda, Diablo, Metroid Prime.

There's more but I'm not remembering them at the moment.
 

Scoot2005

Banned
Baldur's Gate
EverQuest
Mass Effect
Diablo (not the story, the lore)

I will echo this. Don't know about Everquest though as I never played it.

Fallout has good lore in my eyes. As does the Elder Scrolls. That's my opinion and my be biased because I love these series so much.
 
The Killzone series always had great lore. The Helghast is probably the most intimidating enemy force I've come across.
Naturally there's Zelda. Btw, that painting posted earlier is fucking phenomenal.
 
Rather then (than?) my usual answers, gonna say that Infinity Blade's lore is pretty cool! I think it goes under the radar because it is a mobile game. Spoiler for the first game's ending ahead: I love
the mix of scifi and fantasy.
 

Red Mage

Member
Suikoden, Ivalice, Elderscrolls and Dragon Age are all pretty good, lore-wise.

Vagrant Story. A surprisingly big lore for a such a short game. The world felt believable and rich with legends, feats, past stories, etc.

That's because it's part of a larger universe. It's a part of the Ivalice world.

Perfect. At least the lore is memorable. Can anyone remember half of the characters name in other games?

I've always found the lore of Zelda to be a bit bland, tbh. It comes across more as arc-wielding, rather than a genuine myth arc. Considering how Miyamoto dislikes story in his video games, I doubt there was a legitimate effort to make the games work at all until around the time of OoT or WW. Especially since (if I recall correctly) the first three games are regulated to the timeline where Ganon defeats Link in OoT.
 
Metroid Prime still had my favorite example of lore and story telling, because it's all actually very detailed and only is presented to the player if they actively pursue it.

Same thing I was going to say. I played the game when I was younger and didn't read much of the scans since my English wasn't up to par to really grasp everything. Recently replayed it and I got amazed at how much lore is hidden within the things you can scan.
 
You mention Bishock - Levine was actually on a podcast last week talking abuot the religious influences in the game. It's well worth a listen.

http://gamechurch.com/gamechurch-po...l&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Never saw this before. Thank you. I'll give it a listen now.

I really appreciate all the responses. If I may ask, can you give a brief exposition on what the game is about even for things I already know or should know (like Mass Effect and The Legend of Zelda). I'm not sure if I can play all the given games but I'd still be interested in exploring them.
 

kasane

Member
warcraft

seriously

i have no idea why blizzard wont assemble their cg team to make a warcraft movie, hire a big name as a director, big name voice actors

advertise it as some game of thrones type shit

sell gangbusters

Maybe.
 

120v

Member
I'd say Elder Scrolls hands down has the richest and most integrated lore of any game hands down. It's not even a contest

Dark Souls probably has the most compelling, but that's mostly because of he way it's told
 

Altazor

Member
warcraft

seriously

i have no idea why blizzard wont assemble their cg team to make a warcraft movie, hire a big name as a director, big name voice actors

advertise it as some game of thrones type shit

sell gangbusters

Maybe.

but there's gonna be a Warcraft movie directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code, and he's also David Bowie's son)... unless you want a different one :p
 
Perfect. At least the lore is memorable. Can anyone remember half of the characters name in other games?

Yeah; there's Agahnim,
who is also Ganon
, there's Zant,
who is also Ganon
, there's Malladus,
who is basically Ganon
, there's Yuga,
who becomes Ganon
, and there's Demise,
who is the first incarnation of Ganon
.

There's also that Tingle guy who wears the tight spandex.
 

televator

Member
In my experience, Killzone is the only one that starts off strong and still remains largely untainted throughout the course of the games. Then again the games hardly bother to delve into it directly.

A lot of games I've played, royally torpedo their lore through the unfolding of their badly writen, plot hole riddled, retcon resorting, yet canonical stories.
 

Mr. RPG

Member
I've always been fascinated behind the story and "lore" of Final Fantasy IX.

It had a really great world and setting.
 

Magnus

Member
Warcraft, MGS, Resident Evil (haven't played the last few years' worth of entries, though), and yeah, definitely Bioshock.

25th-anniversary-zelda-mural-7731-1298363909-11.jpg


I've gotta find the highest-res version of this possible. I remember it was posted on GAF years ago. Anyone?
 
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