What Game Stories Have You Got Invested In?

[Karo]

So I know my title is a bit vagued, but I wanted to ask all my friends on Universal Gaming about a concept that I just love to see. Stories in games that really suck you in that you care about these characters you really get invested in them and you don't want to put down the game and you want to see it through until the end.

I'll start off with a few for me:
1. Majora's Mask
This probably is the first game in the series that to me I really got sucked into it learning about these characters their reactions to the inevitable dooms day of the moon crashing it was truly an amazing story game and honestly I can't say anyother Zelda I played has captured this since of these are real people with their own stories and due to the time mechanic we can really get a sense of who they are what they are worried about and try to help them with their problems. 
2. Red Dead Redemption 2
When I first got this game I picked it up and focused on helping out the gang and seeing this until the end of the story the characters were all likable and I did get invested inot their story seeing Dutch slowly devolve into the state that he is in Red Dead Redemption 1. The development of all the gang was really interesting and it was a good ride the whole way through and the pacing really ramped up as everything truly did go to hell.
3. Shin Megami Tensei IV
SMT IV was the first official Shin Megami Tensei game that I played after my introduction to the series with Persona 3 and its an interesting one the apocalypse has basically already happened at this point in the story and the main character lives in an ancient Japan type city in the sky eventually you make your way down to Tokyo and get to see the hell hole that Tokyo has become humanity still lives but they live in fear and groups of power contend for control over Tokyo and you eventually get to the point where you decide the fate of Tokyo and Mikado.

[Moonface]

I edited the title of the thread to something that might be less vague, since you wasn't keen on the original title as per you post @Karo.

For stories I got invested in and wanted to see it through to the end, Red Dead Redemption and its sequel are both game stories I really got into. I really enjoyed the characters in both games and the biggest draw for the sequel for me was finding out what happened to the Van Der Linde gang. I remember being so invested in the sequel that I ended up in the finale without realizing beforehand, which I was intending to do when @ShiraNoMai was home to see it. XD
I never finished the epilogue of RDR2 though, because it didn't really manage to hold my interest doing menial chores and stuff in a game I already had gripes about for being horrifically slow for the sake of realism.

The Last of Us was another story I got really invested into, and one of the few that has made me actually need to step away because of how heavy some scenes are. No other game has come close to making me feel the way that games story made me feel.

[Mr EliteL]

Uncharted, well 2-4 because of the main trio of Nate, Sully and Elena, and by extension Chloe and Sam all being lovable characters (to me), a story easy to follow and not take seriously apart from the relationships between them.

Xenoblade Chronicles to an extent. By that I mean I haven't gotten invested in the Mechonis half, well I kinda of am but I just didn't get that far into it and haven't played it since, but do want to, just other stuff getting in the way so I lost the urgency to play the rest. What I did play of the Bionis half and the start of Mechonis I loved every minute.

Some more may come to mind later.

[Monocle]

shit there are a ton of stories but one always comes to mind

Tales of the Abyss

Luke is a piece of shit that has some of the best character development I've seen. the rest of the cast were great too. Finally learning everything about Luke and how The Score basically controlled the events of the story was amazing. I'm ready to replay it now

[Nightingale]

Without telling much about it, I thought The Last of Us's story was excellent and very well executed. It grabbed me from the very first moment and carried me through multiple playthroughs, a side comic and a DLC... TOO BAD 2's UNDERWHELMED ME TO THE POINT OF SHOCK.

[Moonface]

Without telling much about it, I thought The Last of Us's story was excellent and very well executed. It grabbed me from the very first moment and carried me through multiple playthroughs, a side comic and a DLC... TOO BAD 2's UNDERWHELMED ME TO THE POINT OF SHOCK.

What about 2 wasn't you fond of in that sense? I had my own grievances with the game but I'm curious what yours are.

[Nightingale]

Without telling much about it, I thought The Last of Us's story was excellent and very well executed. It grabbed me from the very first moment and carried me through multiple playthroughs, a side comic and a DLC... TOO BAD 2's UNDERWHELMED ME TO THE POINT OF SHOCK.

What about 2 wasn't you fond of in that sense? I had my own grievances with the game but I'm curious what yours are.

It honestly felt incredibly aimless and forced. I also found it to be very heartless in its execution and annoying to play in spots... not to mention, seems to have set itself up to assure that there will never be another one made (or to at least wish that wasn't the case).

And this is totally just me, but... maaaan was it long!

[Moonface]

Without telling much about it, I thought The Last of Us's story was excellent and very well executed. It grabbed me from the very first moment and carried me through multiple playthroughs, a side comic and a DLC... TOO BAD 2's UNDERWHELMED ME TO THE POINT OF SHOCK.

What about 2 wasn't you fond of in that sense? I had my own grievances with the game but I'm curious what yours are.

It honestly felt incredibly aimless and forced. I also found it to be very heartless in its execution and annoying to play in spots... not to mention, seems to have set itself up to assure that there will never be another one made (or to at least wish that wasn't the case).

And this is totally just me, but... maaaan was it long!

Length is definitely an issue for it, although I wouldn't mind the length so much if there weren't areas of the game that feel padded and slow for the sake of a video game, especially for Abby. I also think it was a double edged sword to have Abby's Seattle segments all come after Ellie's, since on the one hand I don't know anyone that was happy about the rest of the theatre scene being pushed back for hours of gameplay with a character everyone hated at the moment that occurs, but on the other hand it would be difficult to get the same emotional rollercoaster of forgiveness by moving her sections to an earlier point in the game.

I will also say that there was not a single death in Part 2 that made me feel as bad as I did for those who died in Part 1, including the very first one in the game. There was just so much of it and all of it expected given the tone that I became numb to it all, and maybe that was meant to make the player feel the lack of sympathy that almost every character exudes during any death scene, but in making a lot of them throwaway and/or justified it was hard to care, even when Jessie dies who was probably the only innocent person in the entire cast to die in Ellie and Abby's conflict.

[Nightingale]

What about 2 wasn't you fond of in that sense? I had my own grievances with the game but I'm curious what yours are.

It honestly felt incredibly aimless and forced. I also found it to be very heartless in its execution and annoying to play in spots... not to mention, seems to have set itself up to assure that there will never be another one made (or to at least wish that wasn't the case).

And this is totally just me, but... maaaan was it long!

Length is definitely an issue for it, although I wouldn't mind the length so much if there weren't areas of the game that feel padded and slow for the sake of a video game, especially for Abby. I also think it was a double edged sword to have Abby's Seattle segments all come after Ellie's, since on the one hand I don't know anyone that was happy about the rest of the theatre scene being pushed back for hours of gameplay with a character everyone hated at the moment that occurs, but on the other hand it would be difficult to get the same emotional rollercoaster of forgiveness by moving her sections to an earlier point in the game.

I will also say that there was not a single death in Part 2 that made me feel as bad as I did for those who died in Part 1, including the very first one in the game. There was just so much of it and all of it expected given the tone that I became numb to it all, and maybe that was meant to make the player feel the lack of sympathy that almost every character exudes during any death scene, but in making a lot of them throwaway and/or justified it was hard to care, even when Jessie dies who was probably the only innocent person in the entire cast to die in Ellie and Abby's conflict.

Yeah, excellent points (especially about the theatre).

To me (and for most people, it seems) the wheels began falling off the second that bloody snowball fight mini-game turned up. Get that thing away from my emotionally-investing, heavy game!

[Moonface]

The snowball minigame didn't bother me, although I do wish it was optional whether to play or not. It's nice the first time, but I hate having to go through slow things like that on subsequent playthroughs; although, I'd say Naughty Dog has that problem with their games not being great to replay in the openings because the pacing is intended to be slow for a first time introduction. I appreciated that Horizon Zero Dawn skips the opening sequence entirely on New Game+ because there's no need to put the player through it again.

[ShiraNoMai]

I agree with TLOU being one of those emotional-investment type games. I have to add Suikoden and Suikoden II to that list, though. These were games I never expected to grab me the way they did with the story-telling but god damn did it do a great job, all with just a little sprite work, dialogue and music. One of my favorite highlights comes in the form of having a 100% save file from Suikoden I when you start up a new Suikoden II game.

[Nightingale]

The snowball minigame didn't bother me, although I do wish it was optional whether to play or not. It's nice the first time, but I hate having to go through slow things like that on subsequent playthroughs; although, I'd say Naughty Dog has that problem with their games not being great to replay in the openings because the pacing is intended to be slow for a first time introduction. I appreciated that Horizon Zero Dawn skips the opening sequence entirely on New Game+ because there's no need to put the player through it again.

Yeah... I was gonna say. The ONE aspect that's rough for me to go back to in the original Last of Us is having to redo both the prologue with Sarah (which I didn't even know you could die on) and the kinda-tutorial level with Tess.

If it weren't for those, I would replay the game over and over again. As it stands, though, I saved right after and always go from there.

[Moonface]

The snowball minigame didn't bother me, although I do wish it was optional whether to play or not. It's nice the first time, but I hate having to go through slow things like that on subsequent playthroughs; although, I'd say Naughty Dog has that problem with their games not being great to replay in the openings because the pacing is intended to be slow for a first time introduction. I appreciated that Horizon Zero Dawn skips the opening sequence entirely on New Game+ because there's no need to put the player through it again.

Yeah... I was gonna say. The ONE aspect that's rough for me to go back to in the original Last of Us is having to redo both the prologue with Sarah (which I didn't even know you could die on) and the kinda-tutorial level with Tess.

If it weren't for those, I would replay the game over and over again. As it stands, though, I saved right after and always go from there.

Yeah, if I'm replaying the game for fun I usually chapter select to the area outside the Boston quarantine zone so that I can just get to where the game is actually enjoyable and not holding your hand for everything.