I am one of those people who learn best by example. I was curious if anyone could point me to a few good examples of a good game story(Or story in general) and some good examples of a games script(or any other script), Thanks, Harson

IMO _Vagrant Story_ for PS1 and _Sanitarium_ for PC had some of the best stories I've ever seen in a game.

The story for Half-Life 1 & 2 and Episode One was pretty good as well.

Also, on the chance that you mean you want to see the actual paper script it isn't going to happen. That stuff is proprietary and never released for professional games.

-me

This is kind of subjective. I think it would be helpful to point out games that have good dialogue. Good dialogue independent from the story.

Best stories I have played must be Planescape: Torment and Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy). Fahrenheit (the first half anyway) was also an excellent piece of storytelling.

I think game scripts for story driven games could be very similar to movie scripts.

Check out (links also to examples):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenwriting

Yeah I had meant an actual example of a story, but I guess that won't be possible :P

Thanks for the help guys, really appreciate it.

With many game stories, half the story is told through visuals and music, which you wouldn't see just by looking at a script, or even at a storyboard if you could somewhow get one. The best thing to do is go through a game with a great story and make yourself a script and storyboard by writing down the dialogue and taking screenshots.

While Half-life had a great storyline, it was one done through the game as opposed to cutscenes; although the tram scene could be construed as a cutscene.

You should definately check out the May Payne games if you haven't done so already, they have great narrative story and dark themes in them in a storyboard type delivery.

Two best story lines I've ever seen, this is best defined as: whatever I want to call the best, are Final Fantasy Tactics and Advent Rising.

I thought FFT did a really good job of political intrigue, because I was interested in it. There's mystery, women, power, unholy monsters, that's like, the whole gambit of possible things that can be in a video game.


More recently, the game Advent Rising (which failed shortly after it was released and the trilogy was canceled, crying shame if you ask me) had the very most original story line I have ever heard in a game. More than KOTOR, which just holds the award for best twist.

You might have heard of Advent Rising if it weren't for the abundant, catastrophic problems they had to ship it with that ultimately caused it to sink below the waves history like the titanic.

But I mean, it's still around so you can probably pick it up for a slick $20. That game has the best dialogue, ever. I'm not even going to leave a reasonable amount of room for anyone to hold a different opinion. I will say, with my very short internet reputation on the line, that at this very moment, when I reach the period, that no videogame in the history of humankind has ever had dialogue that was even half as good, period.

I could be wrong I guess, but it was really that big of a deal.

I can't actually tell you what it's about, because that's kind of, well, what it's about. But there's aliens in it.

Also, Barret's backstory in FFVII. That one I will tell you.

Barret and Dyne live in a town called Corel, which is a coal mining town and it has been for generations. They're poor, but they're happy enough and they get along.

One day, Scarlett from Shinra comes to the town and asks for their permission to build a Mako reactor on their mountain, which (apparently) is legally the property of the town.

To the town's people, this actually sounds like a good idea. Coal is dirty, their homes are dirty, they're dirty, their children are dirty, and all they can offer their kids is the dirt they inherited from their own parents.

So the people decide they want the reactor. They want to have something more to offer their children then an unbroken chain of poverty and grime. Barrett is the head of this group. (I actually have this written down, can you believe that?.) He says "Listen, Dyne. I don't want my wife, Myrna, to suffer anymore." To which Dyne replies: "I know how you feel! I feel the same way too, damn it!"

But Dyne is utterly convicted that it is just as wrong to "throw away" everything their parents, dirt grubbers though they were, fought so hard for, because without all of the pain and suffering of the ancestors, the people of Corel wouldn't even have their dirt.

They're both right. Both sides want something good, one wants to provide for the children, one wants it respect the ancestors. (People don't really have "ancestors" in the United States, not like in Japan anyway. But ancestry means something important to the East.) So here is this struggle, between two rights, and one group decides they want to make a deal with the devil. Scarlett. Eventually Barrett sways Dyne's vote. Not his opinion, but Shinra gets to have their reactor, and the people get what they think is their economic salvation.

One day a little while down the road there is an explosion at the reactor. Shinra comes in, and they think the townspeople have had second thoughts about their choice. Perhaps, they were trying to remove the reactor that they asked for. The troops descend and kill everyone, everyone. No more town, no more legal claim. Barrett and Dyne were away on business, but as they return to the growing flames above their town they know somehow they both lost. The troops spot them trying to sneak in and open fire.

Barrett and Dyne retreat below the railbridge, which shields them for a little while, but with the march of progress comes the loss of their coal, and with the march of Shinra come the lost of their protection. Dyne slips over the edge of the cliff and ultimately disappears into the void beyond.

When the dust settles, Barrett takes Marlene, Dyne's daughter, and tries to start over, and make up for his terrible mistake. He's angry because all he ever tried to do was the right thing, and he knows that if he had never swayed Dyne's vote his wife might still be alive.

It's Shinra's fault, but Barrett can't forgive himself either.

Ultimately, Dyne loses his mind, and when he hears his daughter is still alive he decides to take her to see her mother, deceased.

Barrett and Dyne, once friends, have to murder each other. Again on different sides of the same argument, they try to reason, and again reason is followed by violence. Dyne ultimately receives a mortal wound, and by staring death in the face he regains his sanity. He apologizes and gives Barrett a locket to give to Marlene. He knows he'll never see her while he's alive, but throws himself off the cliff before he dies, absolving Barrett from at least one murder.

Barrett and his friends are absolved of the other murders Dyne committed as well, and they are able to get the keystone and march onward to the end of disc 1.



Funny thing about poorly translated side stories, they're easy to ignore.