Board 8 > Board 8's Top 60 Stories in Gaming - Results Topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hbthebattle posted...

Did Higurashi actually beat Umineko or did it just not make the list?

I'd be shocked if it isn't the latter.

(I really need to get around to playing Higurashi, though.)

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TheArkOfTurus posted...

(I really need to get around to playing Higurashi, though.)

yes you do
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UshiromiyaEva posted...

Umineko is like 120 hours long though, so Fata Morgan's nice and easy 35 may be a better starting point.

Valid I would def prefer to start with something shorter

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PS4 is the best version of that game currently released, too!

Perfect I'll add it to my wishlist

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Unless I should play something less good to not spoil all future plays of VNs haha

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+10 Deus Ex
+9
+8
+7
+6 Chrono Trigger
+5 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
+4
+3 Portal 2
+2 Suikoden 2
+1 Grim Fandango

9 won't make it probably, 8 and 7 will. 4 may, we will see

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pezzicle posted...

Unless I should play something less good to not spoil all future plays of VNs haha

I mean that's exactly what I was worried about when I did the same same, and it ended up being totally fine.

good topic

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Clannad's on PS4 and Switch. The rest of the ones I posted are PC only.
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I like Episode 8 a lot since it kinda ties a lot of the emotional loose ends.

Though certain parts of it certainly dragged...

Well, at least Umineko as a whole got into the Top 20 so I'm good.

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Up

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Episode 8 is definitely the reason I didn't vote for Umineko. I can't separate the question arcs from the answer arcs in my mind. It's all one game to me.

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As others have said Episode 8 is the main reason I didn't consider Umineko for this. And regarding Higurashi it was the last game I cut before sending in my top 10.

I need to get back to reading Higurashi at some point.

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Man, when did my playthrough topic there was only like one dude going off about episode 8.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Man, when did my playthrough topic there was only like one dude going off about episode 8.

Yeah, we don't really like to talk about it unless we have to. It's better off forgotten.

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

Man, when did my playthrough topic there was only like one dude going off about episode 8.

People were probably trying not to talk about stuff you hadn't played yet too much.
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Well, no, specifically someone said episode 8 sucked and I shouldn't play it and everyone else said "no way, that's crazy, episode 8 is good/fine".

I don't know if people were saying it's good, but I personally wouldn't tell someone not to play the finale just because I'm not a fan. It should be finished.

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Episode 8 is good and I legit think the people who don't like it feel called out for having too much fun solving the mystery. As someone who cracked the case after episode 5 I enjoyed being made to reflect on my rather callous deductions/enthusiasm!

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I made no active attempt to solve the mystery, as previously stated!

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Leonhart4 posted...

I don't know if people were saying it's good, but I personally wouldn't tell someone not to play the finale just because I'm not a fan. It should be finished.

Yeah, I thought ep8 was disastrous, but I wouldn't take the experience back if I could. Gotta see the end once I've come that far.

Umineko is really hard to rate because the high points are incredible, yet there's also huge stretches of stuff I didn't care for. The beginning of ep1 is boring and takes forever to slog through. Same with ep2. Then, the answer arc: The golden truth reveal in ep5 is an amazing moment, but I hate it as a mechanic and, in retrospect, it paved the way for much of what I disliked later. Ep7 is mostly boring (though the tea party is my favorite scene in the series). Then ep8 is a tire fire.

edit:

Leonhart4 posted...

I made no active attempt to solve the mystery, as previously stated!

Same here!
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The beginning of episode 2 was far and away my favorite part of Umineko that I got through. (Which was like ~60% through episode 3 or something?)
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I feel like episode 4 gives you the core Umineko experience. The first half was an absolute slog, but the second half is some of my favorite stuff in the series.

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Yep, 999 was my +4. I'll update with my full list once the countdown finishes.

About the whole 'sexual content in VNs' discussion, I also wasn't a fan of Lotus' presentation, and VLR's leap in that direction is part of why I haven't felt terribly inspired to play it. That being said, at least the game treated Lotus' outfit as abnormal (for lack of a better word) and gave a justification for it, which feels like a step and a half above lots of Japanese games (including one I really love, admittedly). It also doesn't hurt that Lotus is a pretty good character.

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+10 Suikoden 2
+9 Umineko When They Cry: Question Arc
+8
+7
+6 Final Fantasy IX
+5
+4 Final Fantasy VI
+3 Doki Doki Literature Club
+2 Danganronpa V3
+1 Gyakuten Kenji 2

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The reason why I put Umineko Question Arc was because it's listed on GameFAQs... and I think it's got a better chance if votes were split.
Though looking back at it, I did like Question Arc better. EP3 is still an all time favorite, EP1 was a great introduction (and I didn't mind the slow start), EP2's where Umineko really got Umineko (and the Tea Party is bonkers). I only remember EP4 mostly as that miserable boo hoo story about Ange though.

Also, yeah, Lotus was actually a likeable character to me and I can kind of ignore her outfit after a while.

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Maybe this is a result of me playing it all at once, but I can't in good conscious rank question over answer when I consider this key Umineko ingredient missing from the formers mix.

https://twitter.com/animegirlnoises/status/1230124700140896256?s=20

47.5 Points
6 Supporters

It takes a special kind of game to be held up as one of the industry standards of writing in games for over 20 years straight, but Planescape managed it all the same. This thing came out in 1999 and people still won't shut up about it.

Planescape covers so many different topics that it can't be summarized in two-paragraph forum post (especially one intentionally trying to avoid spoilers), but the main one is also the game's mantra: what can change the nature of a man? The protagonist of Planescape: Torment is an immortal amnesiac trying to piece together the remnants of his past and current live(s) while assembling a ragtag bands of misfits who are almost as messed up as he is, and the game does an excellent job at exploring every avenue of potential that setup makes possible. A pillar of WRPG writing, Planescape is simultaneously intelligent and emotional in a way that few other games are.

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Fun fact: Planescape is probably the least-photogenic game out of literally every game nominated for this list.

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https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/17/mar/pst0.jpg/RPSS/resize/760x-1/format/jpg/quality/90

Something like that might've been a bit better? The CGI definitely looks dumb.

Also, nice to finally get a third game on the list. Wonder if I'll break 4? (one is guaranteed)
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I tried to play Planescape several years ago, but the gameplay was way too archaic for me. I'd still like to experience the story someday just because of all the good stuff I've heard.

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Yeeeeeesssssss

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There's probably mods to make Planescape a more modern experience by now, but at the very least I know it's possible to beat the game while only getting into combat 4 total times.


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pezzicle posted...

+10 Deus Ex
+9 Planscape: Torment
+8
+7
+6 Chrono Trigger
+5 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
+4
+3 Portal 2
+2 Suikoden 2
+1 Grim Fandango

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This is one of those games that I've always been interested in the love for, but is just too a esthetically unappealing for me to try out.

Which happens a lot with Western games famous for their stories.

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48.5 Points
7 Supporters

The Last of Us is a frontrunner in the conversation of 'best zombie media' - in general, not just in video games. Not everyone agrees on how fun a Naughty Dog game actually is to play, but pretty much everyone can agree that they're the golden standard for cinematic storytelling in gaming. No other company puts out cutscenes as well-directed and acted as they do, and The Last of Us is Naughty Dog at the top of their game. The Last of Us' story doesn't break new ground - I mean, it's a zombie apocalypse story - but its execution is fantastic.

Much like Telltale's The Walking Dead, the core of the story is the burgeoning father-daughter relationship between protagonists Lee Everett and Clementine, er, I mean, Joel and Ellie. The road they take is rocky and steeped with trauma, drama, and some rather big lies, but boy does that make for good fiction.

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I'm kind of surprised Planescape made it this high. I know it's well regarded by almost everyone who's played it but I didn't expect its playrate would be high enough.
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pyresword posted...

I'm kind of surprised Planescape made it this high. I know it's well regarded by almost everyone who's played it but I didn't expect its playrate would be high enough.

It only takes 6 out of 53 voters supporting you to make it this far, assuming the voters are passionate enough, which they were. Planescape's weighted votes were:

9
9
6.5
8
8.5
6.5

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Update!

iiicon posted...

My votes were like this:

+10
+9
+8 80 Days
+7 Gone Home
+6
+5 Planescape Torment
+4
+3
+2
+1 Outer Wilds

The only one I'm confident made it is my +3.

I'm not sure if this a good sign for my +9 or not...

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50.5 Points
6 Supporters

Remember how I said that Planescape Torment was considered a standard for game writing? Disco Elysium is so good that it managed to make even Planescape's most diehard supporters admit that there was competition for the throne. No game gives you as many ways to customize your character as Disco Elysium does, and I'm not talking about how you look or which way you kill things (although the game does give you an extensive wardrobe). In Disco Elysium, you spec in things like thought processes, the ways your character interacts with the world, your political leaning, and how fucking crazy you are. It's a game that 100% gets that the fun of playing a word-heavy WRPG comes from the kind of character personality you create for yourself, and no game does it better. You can be a hard-boiled serious cop who treats solving a murder mystery with the utmost of severity, or you can be a trash disaster of a human being shaking people down to get to your next drug hit sooner, or anywhere in between, or to the side, or up or down, or diagonal. I'm quite partial to the 'THE END IS NIGH' cop, myself.

Of course the writing itself is also excellent, with many deep and well-realized characters and scenes that range from hilarious to emotionally grueling (or both), but at this point in the list 'the writing is excellent' should be assumed.

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Cannot wait for this to hit consoles.

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Oh hey, I could've thrown DE on my list too! Great story, definitely the best of the last few years. Think I would've said it was on Planescape's level if the ending sequence were more interesting. Confronting the sniper is alright, but uninspired, and meeting up with your coworkers feels a bit too Telltale for me, which the rest of the game mostly managed to avoid.
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52.5
6 Supporters

Few stories are as emotionally resonant as The House in Fata Morgana. You, an unknown person in a mansion that doesn't feel quite right, are led through its corridors by an offputting woman and shown different tales of tragedies that happened to the previous inhabitants of the House. Who are you? Who is the woman? Why are you here? Why are you being shown those tales? What do they mean to you? Fata Morgana leverages those mysteries to keep you intrigued while simultaneously putting you through the emotional wringer, and the experience is unlike anything else out there.

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+9 Planescape: Torment
+8 The House in Fata Morgana
+7 Steins;Gate
+6 Disco Elysium
+4 Umineko When They Cry: Question Arc

My list is starting to die (my +5 and +3 are almost certainly already dead), but I'm happy some of these made it as far as they did.

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Some fun facts:

Fata Morgana has one of the highest points-per-vote average on the list. It's the only game outside of the Top 10 to receive three or more +10 votes.

Fata Morgana is the highest 'pure' Visual Novel on the list. I can confirm that Higurashi and Ever17 were only supported by two people apiece.

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So VLR on the list then? Or T&T. As those are certainly not pure VNs, more adventure games than anything else.

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