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Post by wyrdwad on Apr 28, 2018 13:08:32 GMT -5
Yes. Yes, it will.  Another game that I think is worth mentioning (but perhaps with an asterisk?) is Fire Hawk: Thexder the Second Contact. I say "with an asterisk" because I don't know if this game has great writing or -- indeed -- just "great writing for a game," but considering it's from 1989, I think it's worthy of a mention, since its writing is kind of shockingly ambitious for 8-bit, not to mention for an action game as opposed to an RPG. Note, though, that I'm talking about the original Japanese version of the game, not Sierra's DOS version (which altered the prologue considerably and took out most of the cutscenes, all very much to the game's detriment). What makes Fire Hawk's writing special, I think, is just how effective it is at capturing the feel of a true space opera. An alien comet called "Nediam" full of weird, hostile alien creatures (none of which quite seem intelligent, though, notably; more on that later) is hurtling toward earth, and will cause an environmental catastrophe on a heretofore unseen level if it collides, so you -- a woman named Joshua (just run with it) -- along with the rest of your squadron are each placed in specialized transforming military suits called "Fire Hawks" and sent down to its surface to stop it from the inside, since all attempts to stop it from the outside have failed. You also have something of an ulterior motive: your fiance, Arthur (the hero of the first Thexder), never returned after his first mission to Nediam when it showed up 4 years ago. You assume he was successful, as Nediam reversed its trajectory and halted its approach to earth -- but it sped off with Arthur in tow, and although his chances of survival are slim, you continue to hold out hope that he's still in there, somewhere, and still somehow remains alive. As the game progresses, each stage is preceded by a mission briefing which shows the progression of Nediam's path toward earth, with it getting closer and closer until -- by the end -- it's practically in earth's upper atmosphere! You do essentially destroy a whole bank of thrusters, however, during the boss battle in stage 5, and Nediam's approach to earth slows a bit after that (which I thought was a really nice touch; in general, the world is very consistent, and the stages flow together really well to give you an actual sense of progression into the core of Nediam). As you play through the game, too, you'll find other crashed Fire Hawk units -- the rest of your squadron. You can open communications with them, and they'll either lament their failure, be unconscious/dead, or tell you what did them in (thus giving you hints on dangers that lie ahead). This, I feel, is not only an effective in-universe means of giving gameplay tips, but also really helps address a lot of the other trappings of older games like this (if you're part of a squadron, where are the rest of the soldiers?), AND helps make you feel like a total badass, since you're systematically getting farther and farther than every one of your teammates. You're succeeding where they failed, basically. And then, finally, there's the ending. Fire Hawk's ending may be one of the most satisfying of the entire 8-bit era: Turns out, Nediam is an alien... and he's dying. He was coming to earth because he wanted to share the massive amounts of knowledge he's gathered over the millennia, but because he was sick, he kind of lost control -- and the defense systems that attacked those who landed on him/ventured into him were quite literally the equivalent of his body's red and white blood cells and antibodies combating what his body interpreted to be foreign particles entering his blood system. The last attack on him threw him off course, but also left him with a "stowaway" of sorts: Arthur. So after he recovered the tiniest bit from that first attack, he determined he had to attempt to return to earth again, if only to deliver Arthur back home... to Joshua. Because all he had in his heart was a desire to be with her again.
Nediam then dies, but not before entering a stable orbit around earth, essentially becoming earth's second moon. And Nediam's databanks are full of so much information that scientists wind up analyzing it for hundreds of years to come, using the knowledge contained within to better earth society and advance the human race's evolution almost exponentially. ...It's cheesy, yeah, but like, this is an action game from 1989! Is that not an amazingly good story for that era and medium?! And that ending is just SO SATISFYING -- you genuinely feel like you've accomplished something big! It really is the epitome of space opera writing, and really shows how thoughtful and creative Game Arts were, even way back then. -Tom |
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Post by alphex on Apr 28, 2018 23:51:37 GMT -5
Space Quest IV. Brilliant sarcastic writing, especially the death messages. Same for Leisure Suit Larry VI & VII.
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Post by jorpho on Apr 29, 2018 0:11:43 GMT -5
Hotel Dusk is the one that always comes to mind. That and Teen Agent – not that it's an especially good game and necessarily needs good writing, but it's just of such surprising quality for a Polish game.
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Post by Bumpyroad on Apr 29, 2018 1:09:08 GMT -5
“Jill, here's a lockpick. It might come in handy if you, the master of unlocking, take it with you.” Thanks. Maybe i'll need it. |
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Post by dsparil on Apr 29, 2018 7:01:04 GMT -5
For Infocom games, A Mind Forever Voyaging is the standout. Traditional IF only has is writing so it has to be good. AMFV truly is interactive fiction with little emphasis on puzzles.
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Post by GamerL on Apr 29, 2018 7:15:27 GMT -5
For Infocom games, A Mind Forever Voyaging is the standout. Traditional IF only has is writing so it has to be good. AMFV truly is interactive fiction with little emphasis on puzzles. You know I actually tried to play a couple of Infocom games recently, Infidel and Cutthroats. What killed me though was the navigation, having to type in "north, west, south, southwest, northeast" and so on, I kept getting completely lost and having to start over, which got old, why they did it that way and not simply type in specific places (eg "go to store") considering ya know, there are literally no graphics and navigation is like stumbling blind through a maze, is beyond me, but it was too before my time to deal with. But reading about the plots of the games they sounded interesting, especially A Mind Forever Voyaging, tell me, can you find transcripts of the games so you can "read" them like a novel or are there even let's plays on Youtube? And if not why has someone not thought to do that? |
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Post by condroid on Apr 29, 2018 10:20:58 GMT -5
You know I actually tried to play a couple of Infocom games recently, Infidel and Cutthroats. What killed me though was the navigation, having to type in "north, west, south, southwest, northeast" and so on, I kept getting completely lost and having to start over, which got old, why they did it that way and not simply type in specific places (eg "go to store") considering ya know, there are literally no graphics and navigation is like stumbling blind through a maze, is beyond me, but it was too before my time to deal with Back in the day I usually drew a map on paper while playing these games, which also allows you to keep track of item locations, puzzles, etc. Now that emulation is an option, I can highly recommend the spreadsheet method as shown in this video. This makes playing old adventure games a lot easier. It's also worthwhile to track down scans of the items from the original game package as this often included maps, books, and other information that was required to play the game. AMFV has already been mentioned as an example for good writing, but pretty much anything written by Steve Meretzky does probably qualify for this topic. Some of my favorites are Planetfall, Stationfall, and the Spellcasting series. He also co-wrote Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with Douglas Adams. The entire Magnetic Scrolls line-up had very good writing as well. The best way to play these games today is via the two Magnetic Scrolls Collections that update all the older games with the Wonderland engine so you have access to QoL features like separate windows for map and inventory, a hint system, and iirc there is a goto 'location' command as well. |
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Post by jorpho on Apr 29, 2018 10:31:04 GMT -5
As far as IF goes, I've heard lovely things about Trinity and Photopia.
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Post by chronotigger65 on Apr 29, 2018 12:08:15 GMT -5
Resident Evil 1. "Blood? I hope this isn't Chris' blood..." "You were almost a Jill sandwich!" “Jill, here's a lockpick. It might come in handy if you, the master of unlocking, take it with you.” Best writing ever!!!! And who can forget Zero Wing? "We get signal." "How are you gentleman. All your base are belong to us. You are on the way to destruction!" "What you say?!" "You have no chance to survive make your time. Ha. Ha. Ha." Oh, man! You beat me to Zero Wing! Still, "All your base are belong to us." is priceless. |
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Post by Snake on Apr 30, 2018 11:40:59 GMT -5
Mother 3 and the first half or so of FF9. Yeah! Mother 3 was a big improvement for me, over Earthbound. Such an emotionally charged story with higher stakes. All while managing to keep the fun weirdness about it. |
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Post by ommadawnyawn2 on Apr 30, 2018 11:48:34 GMT -5
Absolutely, not that I didn't like Earthbound's writing but M3's was excellent and shows Itoi's evolution between them well. Of course part of it could have to do with it having a better translation, it's not something I'd be able to judge properly.
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Post by necromaniac on Apr 30, 2018 16:43:49 GMT -5
Two adventure games that have impressed me recently are Technobabylon and The Last Door Seasons 1&2.
Technobabylon in it's unapologetic refusal of dumbing down its Cyber/post-Cyber/Biopunk influences and terminology, The Last Door in being one of the few Lovecraft (Poe/Chambers/Ligotti/Lynch) influence games that actually feels Lovecraftian.
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Post by eatersthemanfool on May 10, 2018 21:37:54 GMT -5
I've been thinking lately about making an effort to get into IF. I played a couple of the old Apple II IF games on school computers back in the day and enjoyed them.
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Post by wyrdwad on May 13, 2018 23:43:24 GMT -5
One more recent game I haven't seen mentioned here yet, but which I think is very much worth a mention, is "2064: Read Only Memories." I grabbed a physical copy of it for PS4 from Limited Run Games on a whim (just because it looked pretty cool!), and I was immediately VERY impressed with the quality of the writing. Sadly, I'm used to Western-developed games being riddled with unnatural exposition, typos, grammar errors, or all of the above, but even beyond simply having none of these, the writing in 2064 is just very... snappy. Conversations have a really nice flow to them, everybody's sufficiently witty, and the world feels keenly realized just from the dialogue alone. It's very much akin to reading a novel, yet the game is NOT a visual novel -- it's a full-on point-and-click adventure.
I guess good writing is kind of a staple of point-and-click adventures, though, because I'd say just about every one I've played has been arguably worth a mention here. Thinking back on the ones I played as a kid, "Loom" stands out in particular as having really quality banter that you just don't typically see in video games.
Also, has "Lost Odyssey" been mentioned yet? Because... I mean, Lost Odyssey, man! Those stories are just... amazing. And represent probably THE best localization work I've ever encountered.
-Tom
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Post by Null0x00 on May 14, 2018 5:04:29 GMT -5
Lisa: The Painful. It's the only RPG aside from Undertale that made me emotionally involved and completely invested in its world. It also helps that it's basically Fist of the North Star: The RPG.
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