Favourite Lore in Video Games

(Gaming discussion not related to Shenmue)

Favourite Lore in Video Games

Postby MiTT3NZ » Sun Jul 19, 2015 7:22 pm

When I was a kid, I was enthralled by the lore of Sonic games. Mainly the echidna race, the chaos emeralds, and eventually the character Chaos. Then Sonic Adventure 2 came along and I lost interest.

Anyway, since then I was never particularly arsed about it (disclaimer: the Arkham series doesn't really count considering it's an amalgamation of the comics and DCAU) Even in Shenmue and my favourite series Splinter Cell. I wouldn't even care about the story or impending threats in the latter at all. I very much had the attitude of "shut up, just tell me what to do and I'll do it without anyone ever knowing I was there."

Then Skyrim came along and changed everything.

I'd previously played Oblivion and was bored shitless by everything, though extremely addictive. In Skyrim though, I cared about everything. I was constantly torn between who I should back in the civil war. I wanted to learn as much as I could about the Dwemer. I genuinely despised the Thalmor. I even found myself conflicted as to whether or not I should do the Malacath quest. Up to that point I'd been very anti-Daedra, but after learning more about him, I almost felt obligated to help out the Orc tribe.

I've never been one for D&D or fantasy type shit, but The Elder Scrolls has become an exception (except Fable, but I see that more as a comedy) I have to take my hat off to Bethesda for making me sink hours into reading more about the lore, watching the Shoddycast series, and compiling an ever-growing list of mods to install for my eventual second playthrough.

So, what games grabbed you in a similar way? Which worlds did you go out of your way to learn more about? How much longer did you spend researching fictional history than you did our own?

MiTT3NZ has received a thanks from: St. Elmo's Fire
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Re: Favourite Lore in Video Games

Postby Pennyknife808 » Sun Jul 19, 2015 7:53 pm

Fallout has interesting lore. Each valt is secretly a different government project some valts even slowly let in Radiation from outside just to see how it would affect the population. Another interesting valt they put 999 girls and 1 man, my favorite they put 1 man in a valt all alone with nothing but puppets. There are bunch all make for good lore. _ My other favorite is Zelda, in ocarina of time Link had to Travel Though time causing a split time line one world with kid link another with no Link (why some zelda games he looks way different) cause its not him. Thats the best way i can explain it =)
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Re: Favourite Lore in Video Games

Postby MiTT3NZ » Sun Jul 19, 2015 7:58 pm

Yeah, I remember the Zelda timeline thing. The fans were pretty pissed off for years coz Nintendo revealed they had constructed a timeline that connects them all but wouldn't share it. Then it surfaced on the internet and was based on a few "what if..." scenarios.
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Re: Favourite Lore in Video Games

Postby Pennyknife808 » Sun Jul 19, 2015 8:07 pm

I think that Nintendo had a solid time line but sadly them like so many other companies just shit out a few zelda games then felt they had to make it work. Ps Hyped for Suicide squad? Im so stoked xD
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Re: Favourite Lore in Video Games

Postby MiTT3NZ » Sun Jul 19, 2015 8:10 pm

I dunno yet. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little worried, expecially considering the un-Jokerish Joker line at the end of the trailer. Then again I kinda feel the same about Shenmue III. Just hoping everything works out and we have a classic on our hands.
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Re: Favourite Lore in Video Games

Postby Pennyknife808 » Sun Jul 19, 2015 8:12 pm

Hop over to the chat?
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Re: Favourite Lore in Video Games

Postby Snakiest » Sun Jul 19, 2015 8:18 pm

I don't know, I always enjoyed learning about Metal Gear, and I was really big on Final Fantasy 10. I have never liked politics in games, so as much as I enjoyed Skyrim, I never really cared about all the lords and power struggle. The same goes for other games with similar themes: Dragon Age, The Witcher. The more politics there is, the less I start to care about everything else. Dragons? Nah, not interested anymore.

I guess my best one is going to be Forbidden Siren. If anybody here has ever tried to understand the plot putting all the bits and pieces of its lore together, then they should understand. I especially enjoyed Forbidden Siren 2. It was mighty interesting, I felt like I was part of that nightmare and really cared about what was happening to the characters.

In Yu we trust.
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Re: Favourite Lore in Video Games

Postby Pennyknife808 » Sun Jul 19, 2015 8:24 pm

Omg i forgot about hat game it fisrt looks like the worst game ever made but the story was so dark about acult and sacrifice if i remember ps2 days :) since we are on the subject fatal frame had some epic story telling i got thu 1 and 2 did there make 3?
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Re: Favourite Lore in Video Games

Postby Pennyknife808 » Sun Jul 19, 2015 8:29 pm

And shenmue is going to be as epic as possible with paypall skys the limit.
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Re: Favourite Lore in Video Games

Postby ShenGCH » Mon Jul 20, 2015 2:49 am

Metal Gear Solid is my #1 for sure - I read the wiki regularly just to immerse myself time and time again, and I still find things that get me thinking - and I find the lore behind The Elder Scrolls series very interesting and investing, too. (I couldn't stand Oblivion either, nor did I play any of the series before the former, but Skyrim flawed me.)

I'm a sucker (maybe more of an obsessive) for backstory and how everything came to be and fits together, and the aforementioned are so rich in fascinating lore they're just perfect for me and I adore them :)
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Re: Favourite Lore in Video Games

Postby Monkei » Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:06 am

Shenmue!

And Metal Gear, but I hope it all ends with The Phantom Pain. It's gotten a little too crazy (and inconsistent in some places). Nevertheless I'm looking forward to the fifth game mostly for the story and characters.
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Re: Favourite Lore in Video Games

Postby sand4fish » Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:56 am

Besides the mind-blowing cliffhanger in Shenmue 2, Shenmue's straight forward storytelling always fascinated me by its universal ideas like keeping your closed ones in mind whenever you fall astray (consumed by revenge in Ryo's case). I always thought Ryo felt more human than other game protagonists by the fact he could feel pleasure and be easily distracted by arcade games and toy capsules, despite of his revenge driven mind and hate towards Lan Di. Also Ryo's journey was about getting to know his father as much as getting to learn about himself.

The MGS series is another favorite lore of mine. The exploration of themes about the human condition, war, politics and philosophy had me in moments of sheer amazement, specially in the second game.

And probably the best lore in gaming to me is in Dark Souls. The "less is more" approach is definitely the best way of conveying a story within the media. By not having the lore told to you but simply shown through in-game items and environments, it was such an involving task to try to piece the story together to make sense of the world and the motivation behind the main character's actions. It's definitely a worthy journey.
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Re: Favourite Lore in Video Games

Postby ShenGCH » Mon Jul 20, 2015 4:24 am

Monkei wrote: Shenmue!

And Metal Gear, but I hope it all ends with The Phantom Pain. It's gotten a little too crazy (and inconsistent in some places). Nevertheless I'm looking forward to the fifth game mostly for the story and characters.

Yeah, I would be completely fine with The Phantom Pain being the final entry in the series, but who knows what'll happen with Konami in charge of the series' future? In a toss between TPP marking the end of the series and Konami putting out naturally inferior MGS games every couple of years, I would rather the series end right there.

I'd be curious to see what Konami would do with a whole new cast of characters and universe, etc., but I don't hold much hope.
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Re: Favourite Lore in Video Games

Postby Henry Spencer » Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:49 pm

sand4fish wrote:The MGS series is another favorite lore of mine. The exploration of themes about the human condition, war, politics and philosophy had me in moments of sheer amazement, specially in the second game.

And probably the best lore in gaming to me is in Dark Souls. The "less is more" approach is definitely the best way of conveying a story within the media. By not having the lore told to you but simply shown through in-game items and environments, it was such an involving task to try to piece the story together to make sense of the world and the motivation behind the main character's actions. It's definitely a worthy journey.


These basically. MGS normally tends to cover a lot of subjects within each game. Unfortunately, 4 tried too hard to connect everything and everybody, making the world-view much smaller, but the games prior to it and maybe 5 also, tried to be a far reaching series that covers as many convoluted subjects as possible. Dark Souls is basically "Dark Fantasy - The Official Lore", nothing else really comes close in that category.

I also enjoy the "lore" of classic Resident Evil games, especially 1-3, which all connect together incredibly well despite different writers coming and going with each game. Finding the documents left by those who have either died or turned into horrific monsters (or are just awful, awful people) helps to immerse me into the game.

Fatal Frame/Project Zero has a great "lore" behind it too that I am really a big fan of. Especially in 3, whereby they basically have Shenmue's notebook system, with some enhancements like a section of the notebook dedicated to each Ghost encountered in the game which gets updated as the story goes along, every single ghost having their own story to tell which makes up the larger story of the mystery of the haunted mansion. There's also sections divided for each location and items in the game also and just notes left by the deceased that haunt the mansion, each time the notes adding more of a backstory about just exactly happened. Sometimes it's left intentionally open for interpretation what exactly happened to certain ghosts, further emphasising that mysterious feeling of the place. It just helps to make the games even more haunting and disturbing, which makes it stand out against its competition. The way everything connects up at the end of each game is just masterfully done. Every game is written by the same guy (Shibata, who is also the director/creator) and he just really has a knack for tying all of the stories loose ends after the end of each game. Really underrated writing in these games.
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Re: Favourite Lore in Video Games

Postby Monkei » Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:00 pm

ShenGCH wrote:
Monkei wrote: Shenmue!

And Metal Gear, but I hope it all ends with The Phantom Pain. It's gotten a little too crazy (and inconsistent in some places). Nevertheless I'm looking forward to the fifth game mostly for the story and characters.

Yeah, I would be completely fine with The Phantom Pain being the final entry in the series, but who knows what'll happen with Konami in charge of the series' future? In a toss between TPP marking the end of the series and Konami putting out naturally inferior MGS games every couple of years, I would rather the series end right there.

I'd be curious to see what Konami would do with a whole new cast of characters and universe, etc., but I don't hold much hope.


Who knows. The future of MGS seems to be totally in the air at the moment. If Konami keeps making Metal Gear games for consoles I could actually imagine them doing some kind of reboot or (like you said) 'whole new cast/universe' thing. They'll want to attract new players after all, and at this point it's pretty tough to catch up and get into the established lore without playing all of the (canonical) previous titles.

The Situation with Konami and Kojima is crazy as hell. Have you read this? http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/07/20/did-kojima-tell-us-hed-be-erased-in-mgs-5-ground-zeroes?utm_source=IGN%20hub%20page&utm_medium=IGN%20%28front%20page%29&utm_content=15&utm_campaign=Blogroll - pretty sad what's happening over there.
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