30 Days of Video Games

[turbojet]

The best Final Fantasy ever and one of the best RPGs ever made.

YEAH, Nigga I said it!

Now why is the story so damn awesome if not somewhat convulted. Cloud Strife. I swear if I see an emo joke...

Cloud Strife at the beginning of the game was the typical badass 90s hero. In fact, it was hard to even call him a hero since he was a byronic mercenary who just wanted to get paid. He didn't care about the AVALANCHE cause about destroying Shinra or restoring the planet. He just wanted to hit on the chick in a mini skirt and score some cash. Then we see him give a damn about shit when Sephiroth decides to give a damn. Let me remind you that I did not play this game before I watched Advent Children so it was still new to me. Let me tell you during the beginning, I hated Cloud. I hated how selfish he was. I hated how he was the perfect badass. He just seemed to excel at everything. He set out from his family and friends to join SOLDIER, made it to the top of the class, and became the hero like he said he would. Fuck this perfect asshole. And then there were some scenes that showed Cloud not being exactly okay in the head...alright then. I still hated him.

And then the truth came. Cloud never joined SOLDIER. In fact, he never made it to pass the initiation process so he became a lowly grunt. When he returned home, he was so ashamed of his failure that he hid his identity from his family and friends. All of the sudden, this perfect asshole became the most human character I've ever seen. See, Cloud is every person who dreamed of becoming great. He wanted to show everybody in town that he was somebody. He wanted to get the pretty girl. He wanted to be revered. He wanted to show those assholes that they should have never picked on Cloud Strife. He is just like that kid who wanted to join the high school football team...and failed. He is just like that boy who wanted to prove he was smart enough to be in a high profile college...only to be denied admission. He is a failure who deluded himself into being something he always wanted to be. Seeing him beg Hojo for a number or some sense of identity was heartwrenching. His depression was true. He was Cloud Strife. Not a mercenary or some ultra badass super soldier. He was the master of his own illusions. And through accepting his own failures and flaws, he became stronger willed. He became better than the hero he always wanted to be.

[Bria]

Day 14 - Your Favorite Story in a Video Game.

This one is pretty tough for me. There are a lot of good stories in games and I really can't think of one to pick from. I had to sit and think hard, and I mean really hard, for this one. Anyways, from a small handful of extremely favorite storylines, I'll just grab these few...

Tales of Symphonia

I wanted to pick Tales of the Abyss, but I've already picked that for my Favorite Game...so this one would have to be my next real big favorite because this game really got me into the Tales series. The characters are very engaging, you get attached to everyone from their respective character plots, the story seems like a simple plot but suddenly changes on you in the middle. I swear, this game taught me about discrimination. It goes deep in that root and really shows how wrong the world can really be and how much you can change it if you have an open heart. I actually cried at one point during this.

Runner Up:

Mother 3

This would have been more then a Runner Up if I actually played this game. I'm mentioning it because I've not only watched this game be played five times, I absolutely love the story. It's such a heartwrenching story that really made me think about life. Just by watching this game I got emotional.

Honorable Mentions:

-Tales of the Abyss

-Majora's Mask

-Okami

-Final Fantasy IX

-Poke'mon Black & White

[Noir]

When it comes to my favorite games, they're all well-rounded packages so that said, my favorite story and runners up are exactly the same as And since I don't like to repeat myself I'll keep this short.

Majora's Mask is by far the greatest for what an emotional world it crafts. Its characters are all genuinely interesting, the impending doom is related perfectly through their words and actions, and the game got me to feel truly concerned for their lives. It really wasn't afraid to do something different and ambitious for the Zelda series, and benefitted for it by ending up as the best-written Zelda by far.

The Metroid Prime trilogy, Prime most of all, didn't tell its story; it made you piece it together and I loved it for that. Nothing was fed to you (except in Corruption), everything was discovered at your leisure as if you were Samus. The way extinct races were given so much character just from observing their ruins is such a testament to what well-told story the games had.

Half Life and its expansions also take this approach to an extent too. It shows, rather than tells. Half Life 2 and its episodes deviate from that, but don't suffer. They create a great environment and make it easy to connect to the characters as well as despise the Combine and Breen. There's also a lot of mystery to it all that makes it interesting from start to finish and then some.

And finally Portal 2, which is just plainly hilarious. It has some of the best written characters around, fantastic humor, an extraordinarily interesting setting, and some rather interesting twists. I fell in love with the characters and laughed the whole time through. It's just so much fun.

[T-Min]

Day 14: Favorite Story

We all know how the storylines of the Metal Gear games tend to roll: complex, convoluted and having enough plot twists to impress M. Night Shyamalan. That said, generally they tend to be pretty dang good storylines, MGS4 most of all - and it had better have the best storyline, considering you're going to be spending nine and a half freaking hours of the entire game watching cutscenes. But in all seriousness, this one is by far the most convoluted of the series - to the point that it's at times hard to keep up with. There are tons of plot twists, revelations, and allusions to previous games. But you know what? That's...kind of what makes it really engaging for me. All (or, at least, most) of the twists and whatnot were very well done and intelligent in my opinion, and kept me very interested and engaged. But that's not the only thing that makes this storyline so great. Hideo Kojima really knows how to get an emotional reaction. At times, MGS4 approaches Fullmetal Alchemist levels of sad and depressing - and that's saying something. This is helped by the fact that it's almost impossible not to care about all of the main protagonists. In short, it's complex, engaging, has great characters and does a great job of evoking emotions.

[Jeffhog]

Day 14: Favourite story in vidya

Sonic Unleashed

By a very narrow margin, this video game holds the title of favourite story for me.

The game kicks off with the opening movie depicting a final confrontation between Sonic and Eggman, as if it were the final level/boss of a new adventure. You've got swarms of robots, alarms blaring, giant Eggman mech, and Super Sonic. Fucking. Awesome.

Then, by duping the chaos empowered hedgehog, Eggman rebounds the energy of the Emeralds into an energy cannon that splits the freaking planet apart. Super Sonic, for the first time, loses, as he now bears the form of the Werehog in defeat with Dark Gaia unleashed upon the world. The game practically ends with Eggman actually winning. Double the awesome.

From there, Sonic crash-lands onto the surface and befriends the amnesiac Chip/Light Gaia, and the two then travel the world to restore Chip's memories and restore the planet as one by getting the Chaos Emeralds their energy back.

From then on, as you literally travel the world you're trying to save, the game and story (mainly story) was nothing but pure, unfiltered joy to me. Great characterization and development for both Sonic and Chip, and it especially shows in the scene following Adabat.

;A;

The story altogether had the right amount of cheese and depth, without going overboard, that I haven't seen in a Sonic game since Adventure 2. An epic tale indeed! I miss stories like these in my Sonic games!

Honourable Mentions

-Pokémon Black and White

-Almost every Zelda game

-Super Smash Bros Brawl

-Various Sonic games

-Mario RPGs

[Your Vest Friend]

Erm, well, my pick today is awkward, because it's incredibly biased, and one that I'm sure EVERYONE would disagree to even being a good story, let alone worthy of being a favourite. But fuck it I'm biased.

You Should Be Able To See Where This Is Going

Ah, Sonic Heroes. I've mentioned how much I enjoy this one, and the story is part of it. With the main story, Eggman challenges Sonic to save the world from his latest world domination attempt. Sonic gleefully accepts the challenge, and off he runs as Tails and Knuckles join him since they happened to be in the area.

This story...is pathetic, especially considering how wibbly wobbly the timing of the story is. The first three level areas alone are covered in story time over two days, with the last four being rushed in a day. I could go on forever about how the interesting insights into their characters are minimal, they end up coming off as really babyish in their fight against team Dark, how Sonic is really the only character that matters in the long r--

OH, RIGHT. I'm supposed to be saying which is my fave story aren't I? Welp, then it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone (and if it is, see a doctor, seriously).

Case 1: Do Not Write When Really Sleepy [sonic Heroes]

This story, on the other hand, is a lot more like how Sonic Heroes' stories as a whole SHOULD have been like*. It's more engaging than the other stories. It's arguably the most integral story to the plot (the rest did their own things while also looking to find Eggman/Sonic for stuff, the Chaotix were actually hired to free Eggman who thus revealed the whole shenanigans behind the fake Eggman they'd all been pursuing) and it's presented like a mystery case, which is an interesting and suiting premise. There's more emphasis on team Chaotix rather than just Sonic of team Sonic/Shadow of team Dark/Amy of team Rose. I know they're the leaders (EXCEPT SHADOW ISN'T**), but the other characters really should have been more key players (aside from an occasional pivotal moment in each story, they're not really).

That said, I guess there is one character who isn't so much a team player in the Chaotix group;

Don't mind me, I'm just one of the fucking co-founders of the Detective Agency.

*In that regard, the next-most Heroes-like story would theoretically be team Rose. Huh.

**To be fair, I don't blame Shadow himself for team Dark's story shortcomings. Rouge does get more to do, but I feel it's more downplayed due to Heroes having to continue the story arc that began in SA2.

Edited January 30, 2012 by VEDJ-F

[The Tenth Doctor]

Best story for me is again obvious.

Sonic Adventure 2

Known as one of Sonic's darkest stories, I enjoyed it alot. From the mometn I saw Eggman barging into a base to Sonic jumping from a plane, the beginning was awesome. Shadow's backstory was very interesting, you want to know what happened more each time you see a glimpse of Maria. When he came to his final conclusion in the Last story, I cheered. When the ending struck, it was a bittersweet moment. No Sonic game has ever ended like that one.

[Lady Soniko]

day 14 - Favourite Story in a videogame

it would seem Asagi & Sean have already beaten me to it and pretty much explained everything in a none spoilerrific way!

but my favourite game is Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

i don't think anyone was expecting something so different from the creator's of phoenix wright until you really got down a played Ghost Trick... the characters, are Fantastic, the dialogue is captivating and the music is probably the best i've ever heard in a handheld, so much so i went and bought the Soundtrack through Capcom's site! Capcom may have been neglecting the Megaman fans and shovelling a lot of hate recently, but they still never fail with the Wright style games... the story is so good in ghost trick, and so cleverly pieced together that it keeps you serious, but grinning like a madman by the end of it...and that 5 Second countdown music FFFFF....

This was my game of the year in 2010, i loved it that much.

honourable mentions go to.

Sonic CD - i adore this game, as my favourite classic of all time, and the simple storyline is what makes it shine, Eggman uses time stones to build roboticizers in past to create polluted future, creates metal sonic to kidnap Amy Rose, Sonic beats metal and eggman saves Amy and escapes little planet.

Metroid Prime - the only game i've played where you carve your own story with the facts given to you via logs and ancient artifacts, ancient beasts and power-ups littered throughout the world, this place... reeks of Chozo technology!

Edited January 30, 2012 by Samus Aran

[Marcello]

Day #14 - Favorite Story

It has one of the most interesting stories in games I have played.. I was always on the edge my chair wondering what would happen next. It really felt like I was in an old secret agent movie. Another thing i loved were the silly cutscenes like Eva getting the tracking device out of Snake xD But the best thing about it, are the radio calls. I could spend over an hour just talking to people on the radio, because they'd always have something interesting to say. I was really sad when the Codec calls in MGS4 were so bare-bones.

[Lucky]

Day #14 - Your Favourite Story in a Video Game

Heck, I could have filled my list with pretty much everything Tim Schafer's been involved with, but the one that always towered over the rest was Grim Fandango... the main reason being it's clever noir-inspired plot and incredibly charming cast of characters.

Manny Calavera is stuck in the Land of the Dead, a sort of purgatory between the land of the living and true afterlife, and he can't move on until he's worked of his moral debts for being "less-than-good" in his previous life, which he's been trying to achieve by working as a travel agent at the Department of Death (the agents pick up the souls of the recently departed and offer them a package deal into the afterlife depending on how they've lived their life; say, someone who's been a horrible person might be given a simple walking stick and sent off to make the dangerous four-year journey on foot, while the lucky folk who've lived the life of a saint get a ticket for the Number Nine train, which makes the trip in four minutes flat).

Unfortunately for Manny, he's been stuck with loser clients and it's doing absolutely nothing for his commission, and to top it all off his boss is threatening to fire him if he doesn't come up with something soon. That's when he decides to take matters into his own hands and steals a client from co-worker Domino.

But even though Mercedes "Meche" Colomar should have instantly qualified for a NN ticket, the department computer assigns her to the four-year journey and she's sent off with nothing but a walking stick, and that's when Manny realises that there's something very wrong going, and takes it upon himself to get to the bottom of it. And so kicks off Grim Fandango's epic of a tale, and you get to follow the next four years of Manny's afterlife as he goes from someone looking for a way out of his situation to a man who's trying to set things right for everyone, visiting amazing locations and meeting some of the most memorable characters along the way. Words can't describe just what a funny-yet-poignant tale it is, and I'd urge anyone to check the game out if they enjoy a good plot... because not only is it one of the (if not the) best stories in gaming history, but one of the greatest stories ever told in any media.

Runners-Up

Sam and Max are the Freelance Police, a duo of overzealous crime fighters who basically go around and do whatever the hell they want. Hit the Road is an absolute classic, and the Telltale series ranks right up there with it. Each case the pair take on seems to get wackier than the last, starting with a hypnosis-scheme led by a former child start in episode 1, to the rampage of a giant Max in the latest installment. The dialogue is definitely what makes the series shine, especially the off-the-wall Max... and as simple as the games are once you've gone through them once, I still find myself going back to them now and again just for a laugh.

Can't go into much detail on what I love about these without ruining the entire plot (although I'd like to think any self-respecting Star Wars fan would have looked into them long before now ), but let me just say that the writing is excellent and KotOR in particular contains one of the best plot twists in any video game ever.

Last one is a bit of a guilty pleasure...

Harvester promised "something to offend everyone" and considering it was banned in several countries (and censored in others), it done a pretty good job of it. But I think it's marvelous. Twisted and kind of unsettling at times, but absolutely hilarious just for how absurd it gets. The fact that it's part of the FMV glut of the 90s just makes it all the better.

You're put in the shoes of Steve Manson, who seems like your average joe... only he's woken up in the twisted town of Harvester and can't remember a single thing.

The peculiar townsfolk range from the eccentric to the batcrap crazy (to name a few, there's a woman whose house is a giant wasp nest, a crazy old madman who's one step away from releasing the town's nuclear bombs, your overly-peppy mother who seems to do nothing but bake cookies all day, every day, and a paperboy who'll get... rather unpleasant, should you fail to do as he says... that's just in the first few minutes), and the only other sane soul in the place is Stephanie Pottsdam, the girl next door who you're apparently set to marry in a couple of weeks. Except her parents (a mom who seems like she was made from the same cookie-cutter mold as your own, and a dad who's a little too fixated on his meat) won't let her leave the room until she's hitched and keep a close eye on her through a hidden peephole in the bathroom, and she's just as clueless about everything as you are... mostly due to the fact she's suffering from her own curious case of amnesia.

But what she can tell you is that there's something strange going on in the mysterious Lodge, which you're going to be hearing about a lot. Because it seems like just about everyone wants you to join it and you don't get a lot of choice in the matter.

Except if you want to actually get into the Lodge, you're gonna have to perform a few tasks to prove your worthiness... which seem to start out harmless enough, but it's only a matter of days before it leads to the unexpected deaths of several townsfolk. And then Stephanie disappears, with only a skull and spinal cord left in her place... which turns out to be the last thing you need to get into the Lodge. Hooray? And if things weren't wacky enough before, this is the point where it really starts to get weird. Especially after you've battled your way up to the top floor and find out what the town of Harvest actually is in its not-so-happy ending:

The whole game has been an elaborate virtual reality experience, and the real Steve is hooked up to a machine that's constantly feeding him images. Why? Because there's some scientists who are working to create their own brand of serial killers, and the object of the "experiment" is to desensitise the subjects to the point where other people's feelings and lives mean nothing. And after all the lying, cheating, stealing and murder Steve's been put through to reach this point, he's now been deemed ready to join an elite group of murders in the real world... oh, but wait there's more. Because it's then revealed that Stephanie is still alive (and very much a real person... she's currently hooked up to the same machine as Steve back in the real world) and she's presented to you for game's final test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6Mzaimi0bY, or let her live... and be executed immediately by being disconnecting from the life support system. If you choose this option, Steve will feel as if he had died normally after being http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNhjOJvAu4s. If you decide to kill the poor girl, you must repeatedly strike her with the Harvest Blade and finish the task by ripping the skull and spinal cord right out of her body.

Neither outcome is particularly pleasant.

Honourable mentions: Monkey Island series, Sonic Adventure 2, and Astro Boy: Omega Factor.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Lucky

[Phantomime]

I'm going to say the 3 games which have the best story, from least to most are:

1: Wind Waker

I cannot express how much I enjoyed this game and it's story. It's not too serious, it's lighthearted, it's not too serious, but it has enough to it to make you care about the characters and world. I already talked about this one in my "favorite game" entry, so I'll stop here with that.

2: PORTAL 2

This is on my list mostly because of how hilarious it is. The entire story had me laughing. The characters are all great and likeable, and if you forced me to choose my favorite, which you would have to do to get me to even know myself, I would have to say Wheatley. He's funny, goofy, and just a fun character, even in the final levels. Of course, GLaDOS and Cave Johnson are great too. I love this story mostly because how well-written the characters are.

3: MOTHER 3

Good Lord, where to begin. This is an amazing game because of the incredible story. It starts you out in an extremely rural area, that even after the disaster in Chapter 1, has a general air of friendliness to it. As you go through though, you see it get twisted and pervaded by a strange imperial force, claiming to be changing it for the better. Modernizing it. By Chapter 4, it's more familiar, in that it's somewhat more like a normal town, if still somewhat rural at it's core.

As you explore the world around you, there's this... uneasiness everywhere you go. Not to the people in the game. They're used to it. To the player. The forests and mountains have out of place construction everywhere. The animals have been tampered with by someone who obviously doesn't think about anything other than how he can make animals "better" by mixing them with other animals, leaving few of the originals, and creating monstrosities like cows with necks made of snakes, or cattlesnakes. Bipedal dogs with fish legs and tail, which I believe are called dogfish (har har). A flower with 3 pig heads on top of a flower stalk called pigtunias (Now that's just cruel, to both the pigs and anyone who has to say that in public.).

Near the ending, something terrible happens in the town which is pretty depressing, and you find yourself going to that place everyone who played Brawl knows about, New Pork City. It's a giant amusement park filled with everything neon and colorful, but it's all fake. There's sludge unceremoniously dumped in the closest thing it has to a park. I'm not going to go any further than that, but I will say the ending is amazing. It's a GBA game.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Phantomime

[Octarine]

Okay, so it's certainly not the best story I've seen in a video game, but it was one of the first really decent ones I experienced, so whatever.

The Legend of Zelda series has always been good at putting together simple but compelling stories; they're never very deep, but there's always just enough there to serve as a perfect framework for the characters and the gameplay*. Majora's Mask was a particular standout for the series and The Wind Waker is another personal favourite of mine, but my heart will always belong to Link's Awakening. Sure, it pretty much just amounts to a get-the-eight-bits quest, but there's a genuine sense of mystery about the nature of the setting and exactly who the antagonists really are. The characters are quirky and fun, and when the big twist rears its ugly head near the end the idea that Link basically has to murder them all for his own freedom is genuinely unsettling. The twist itself is compelling not because it's much of a surprise (I mean, it's in the title), but because of how it's revealed: not all at once, but gradually, through hints and conversations. Even if you know what's coming, it all builds up a subtly creepy atmosphere that clashes wonderfully with the goofy setting. For a Game Boy game, that's a pretty big achievement.

*Well, most of the time. The first three games in the series were all a little too simple even for me, and Twilight Princess was just kind of a mess. Not that those games weren't good, but I wouldn't ever hold them up as paragons of storytelling, even within the context of “go collect the things and save the girl” stories.

I'll give a close second place to StarCraft for making the absolute most of what it had to work with. The storytelling tools available to RTS games don't usually lend themselves well to deep stories or complex characters... they can often achieve scope, certainly, but they tend to have a hard time getting the player invested. StarCraft took a bunch of talking unit portraits and nothing else (the game's pre-rendered cutscenes almost never had anything to do with the main characters) and made me really care about the fates of the little cartoon guys I was throwing in waves at my enemies. The setting felt gritty and real despite the detached perspective, there were some genuine plot twists and even a few cases of characters outright lying to you about important story details and never being called out on it, which for me at the time was a huge deal. I don't think Blizzard's done better before or since.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Octarine

[Cola]

DAY 14 COLA GOT HIS THING IN AND WILL PROBABLY FIX THE POST HEADING WHEN HE GETS HOME YEAH ALSO CARBO YOU BETTER HAVE NOT STARTED THE NEXT DAY WHEN THIS GET POSTED OR I'LL BEAT YOU AT MARIO KART AGAIN UNLESS YOU USE ANOTHER TANOOKI TAIL, DAMNIT

Favorite Story:

Sonic Unleashed

The narrative of Sonic Unleashed is one of my favorites, yet not my very favorite, mind you. Yet, it's what I'll be talking about today.. It's theme of teamwork and friendship is more subtle and less in-your-face than Sonic Heroes, and I like that. It also outlines the contrast between good and evil, dark and light, night and day. It's a pretty strong narrative and is really well written. It's one that really stuck with me. I really enjoy the friendship between Sonic and Chip, and it's a lot more meaningful than many other Sonic games.

Runner Ups: I forget but I'll post when I remember, k?

Edited January 30, 2012 by Heart

[Diz]

Day 14 - Your Favorite Story in a Video Game.

[Carbo]

Day 15 - Your Favorite Moment from a Video Game

What do I mean by moment? Basically it can be a scene, an event, experience or anything that just managed to hit all the right buttons and stayed with you forever.

As a minor heads up, this is going to have one or two subcategories the following couple of days, and I can say right off the bat that it won't be followed up with a "least favorite" one, it's going to be a lot more colorful than that.

[Solkia]

Day 15

Zelos: Exsphere mines, huh?...Riiiight...

Sheena: What? Something wrong with that?

Zelos: Surely you know about it, too. Exsphere mines in the vicinity of

Altamira...What else is there besides the Toize Valley Mine?

Sheena: Ah, that one that's connected by tunnel to Moria?

Zelos: And if that's the one, think for a moment about who it is that owns

the mountains in that area.

Sheena: ...I guess it'd have to be the Lezareno Company. But...so what?

Zelos: ...Oh, brother. Is your chest the only part of you that's

well-endowed?

Sheena: You better shut up or I'll smack you!

Zelos: Don't say it after you've smacked me! Sheesh...

Tales of Symphonia - "Use your head" skit.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Solkia :U

[Jeffhog]

Day 15 - Your Favorite Moment from a Video Game

What do I mean by moment? Basically it can be a scene, an event, experience or anything that just managed to hit all the right buttons and stayed with you forever.

As a minor heads up, this is going to have one or two subcategories the following couple of days, and I can say right off the bat that it won't be followed up with a "least favorite" one, it's going to be a lot more colorful than that.

In that case, Groose Skydives to the Surface - The Legend of Groose: Pompadour of Destiny Zelda: Skyward Sword.

This scene was absolutely, without contest, funny! xD You got the big bully from childhood trailing you through the skies, then he jumps you out of freaking NOWHERE and drags you both down onto a crash landing.

Coupled with the fact that they lived in the sky their whole lives leading to Groose's reactions to the surface, you've got gold right here.

"BIRDS!? Little birds!?

*sees Goron* And what is THAT thing!?

WHERE AM I!?"

Also, baptizing the surface Grooseland and the music that accompanies with it makes a great laugh!

Seeing the snob lose his cool, then leading to decent character development on his part, makes this scene all the more worthwhile.

tl;dr, this one moment in gaming is the most

SMASHING

And that's my favourite moment in vidya. o3o

Edited January 30, 2012 by VizardJeffhog

[Double Agent Motobug]

I had so many, that I found it very hard to choose... Buuut for the sake of no one else being likely to pick this, I'mma go with...

Towards the end of the game in Jet Set Radio Future! It's a bit of a spoiler, so for the sake of it, I'mma spoiler tag it.

So throughout the game, as zany as it is, the plot stays relatively grounded and more or less "possible" (if a bit over the top), you've gotta teach that oppressive government a lesson by...tagging up their pretty buildings, rival gangs come in and also fuck your shit up, then the police/army/whatever all come in, and start causing havoc, etc. But towards the end of the game, things start to get weird. DJ-Prof. K mentions that people have seen a strange shadowy figure causing chaos, and that it looked a lot like Beat from the GG's (That's your gang). Suddenly you encounter Zero Beat, and it's revealed that he's a manifestation of evil brought to life by Gouji Rokkaku (Whom was alluded to throughout the game as the "big boss" kind of.) and that Rokkaku's going to suck away people's souls with his new radio tower from hell pretty much. xD So then things get REALLY messed up, as you get sucked in as well, and have to fight a mutated Gouji Rokkaku inside his own pocket dimension with pieces of other areas you've been to flying around everywhere, and a pretty scary song playing in the BG.

='3 yeah...

[Kamicciolo]

Day #15 - Kami's Always Wonderful "Ninja could never achieve anything close to this in his lifetime" Favourite Moment in a Video Game

It took a bit of thought for this (partially since I don't wanna use up my options for later days), but I decided to go with a gameplay moment that's stuck with me from Dragonball Z Budokai 3.

This moment took place in the ...character level up mode thingy... where ya faced computer opponents and trained your character's levels up, assigning skill points as you went on (you could then generate a code, and share that online with people, which was pretty neat). Anyway, I was training up Goku (favourite character :V), and ended up with challenge from Omega Shenron, who only appears at the highest levels (so he's gonna be pretty tough). The battle took place, and even using the Super Saiyan 4 boost I was taking a pounding, to the point of nearly giving up, until I managed to start a Dragon Rush on him.

Now the Dragon Rush was the new mechanic of the game, that kinda played like a Rock Paper Scissors thing, where you pressed a button, and the other person had to match it to prevent it going further. The thing would chain up to about 3 places, each building up higher damage, and the third usually having a flashy high damage attack. Well I managed to get Omega Shenron in this Rush, and took him all the way to the end, finishing the last off his health with Ki Blast spam, which is what SS4 Goku does (which surprised me, since I expected the computer to block it at the start :V).

I actually cheered when I managed to beat him. It felt that tense at the time.

Honourable Mention

An honourable mention would be when Silva Rymes streamed Minecraft for some of us in the TC, and accidentally set his entire forest on fire. It was hilarious as we all watched (and some played accompanying music~) him scramble like a headless chicken as he tried to stop the fire and kept failing. It was priceless.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Kamicciolo

[Victory Defender]

Day 15 - Favorite Moment

Marble Garden Zone boss.

It's amazing. You got Tails, who was pretty much useless up until this point, helping Sonic because he needed it. You see the teamwork both put out. Sonic to destroy eggman, and Tails to lift Sonic up because the stage is falling. I can't really say anything else, you just have to play the stage (which most of you have) to know how awesome it is.

[Tornado]

Carbo, you should have just named this "Best Moment in a Pheonix Wright Game," because that's basically what it will come down to.

Spolier'ed Because Spoilers

Pheonix Wright - Ace Attorney

Rise From the Ashes - Final Day

Never before, and arguably never after, was someone in this series so thoroughly and viciously hoist by their own petard as when Damon Gant strung himself up from the rafters in his attempt to get Pheonix disbarred (skip to 3:45 to see the best of it, though the whole video is the setup). And it was glorious. He dug himself in so deep that he couldn't even see the sky, and he didn't even know it.

And depending on what the subcategories for this day will be, you can probably guess what my choices will be for them too.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Celestia

[Semi-colon e]

For me I have a couple of relatively recent ones, want to keep this one recent, but meh.

Crisis City in Generations, particularly the Modern level, on my first playthrough. This is because of not only how much it had been improved, but how awesome it looked, and how difficult it was, and how amazing the music was. In Act 2 I just kept going along and thinking "this is fucking epic" and "OH SHIT I'M GOING TO DIE ANY MINUTE" because of how tense it is. It's a recent Sonic memory, but one I won't forget quickly. I gush about this level enough, and I'd even seen some of the footage before I played, but jumping on the little platforms over the lava was like oh goooddddd, without it feeling unfair as the controls are decent in Generations.

The other is Metroid Prime, the part when you first reach Phendrana Drifts. You go through the little ice corridor with a pinch music of it, then in the main room, it just opens up, looking tragic and beautiful, and then the title is shown, and finally, the music begins properly. Was another "oh shit" moment, and from then on, I knew this game was even more amazing than I expected it to be.

I don't really have many specific "moments" really, something's either awesome or it's not. Particularly so with a lot of the Classic Sonic games, where I just have a general nostalgia and/or appreciate certain elements many years later.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Semi-colon e

[Emmett L. Brown]

Fifteenth: Favourite Moment

The climax of Elite Beat Agents is my favourite video game moment. I don't think I've ever been so pumped up for the final level of any game. I don't care how cheesy, narmy or sugary the lead-up is, I eat that stuff up with feeling. Seeing the little girl from the heartbreaking You're the Inspiration level take the lead as all the people you've helped throughout the game cheer on the petrified Agents, hearing the music build up in tune with the clapping and stomping feet, and then...

ARE YOU READY?

YEAH!!

3-2-1 GO!

I WAS BOOOORN IN A CROSSFIRE HURRICANE~!

If you've played the game, then you're hearing the song in your mind right now. It hits your soul that hard.

[Tornado]

ARE YOU READY?

YEAH!!

3-2-1 GO!

I WAS BOOOORN IN A CROSSFIRE HURRICANE~!

If you've played the game, then you're hearing the song in your mind right now. It hits your soul that hard.

The amount of epic cannot be overstated. For example, from the top YouTube comment:

Unquestionably one of the most epic endings to a video game ever. When I finally got to it the first time, I was like 'Anthem? What a dull song to end the game with.'

Then it ended and the agents got turned to stone, and I thought I had failed...

'THEN IT WAS ALL 'YOU BETTER GET A NEW CHAIN, CUZ THIS SHIT IS OFF IT' and my face exploded.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Celestia

[Carbo]

This is going to be really long, so first, let me get you into the mood.

We all know Metal Gear Solid. How can you possibly not? This series is known for perhaps being the greatest mainstream game that focuses on it's compelling war-driven narrative, intellectual musings and statements on man and economy, incredibly imaginative and well rounded characters, and naturally the game play; a healthy blend of stealth and action.

This franchise began it's epic story all the way back in 1987, and even when accounting it's inoffensive attempt at crafting a simple war story based on mechas, nukes and the Cold War, after over 20 years of evolution with it's significant milestone being in 1998 when the series would forever be immortalized with the PS1 game Metal Gear Solid, the original installments still mattered and bar some minor retcons, were still incredibly influential to the plot. It's rather interesting to see how Kojima managed to evolve the universe into something so big and cohesive, but you can't deny that most of our roots with the franchise lies mainly in the original PS1 game. It was emotional, it was captivating, it was simply put; an epic.

10 years after that game, it's finally time to put it all to rest. The characters are aging, war is taking over, and the epic story that Kojima hoped to tell is finally coming into fruition with the penultimate installment. The heroes are hanging onto only one sliver of hope before the fate of the world needs to be decided by an all-out Atlantic battle, and where that sliver of hope lies, the story ends where it begins.

The only hope Snake has left in order to stop Liquid is to revisit Shadow Moses Island, the facility where the first game played out, and locate Metal Gear Rex which is the only device available in the world that can stealth launch nuclear missiles. Having to hear the Colonel debrief you on this and only building up to mentioning that name is enough to send shivers down your spine. But when you get there, it's a different story altogether.

The entire facility is left untouched since the incident of the first game. The shivering winter cold has taken over, and the entire place is practically out of commission. When you reached the helipad in front of the disposal facility in the first game, that was when your mission begins. In Metal Gear Solid 4, this is the beginning of the end. The second you step foot on that very same area, the song posted above, "The Best Is Yet To Come", begins playing. For reference's sake, this is the end credits music from the first Metal Gear Solid, and here it returns in it's completely unaltered glory, but this time carrying completely different implications. As you walk through the dilapidated area, audio flashbacks play in Snake's head. Codec calls of Snake reporting to the Colonel, his introduction to Mei Ling and reunion with Master Miller; as well as his first meeting with Meryl. All of these words echo throughout the area, including segments with Gray Fox, Otacon, Liquid and Sniper Wolf. In fact, you are able to find the Hind D now that you shot down all those years ago. Every single character that lived on in our hearts and minds were introduced to us here.

Kojima spent 10 years developing the series, catching up on technology, waiting for this very moment and revisiting. It's possibly one of the most majestic moments in video game history for me. Its perhaps the most successfully played "nostalgia card" in any video game; and it's not just here to get a cheap reaction. It's here for a purpose. Times have changed for everyone, including this iconic setting.

There's a portion of the area you can explore right at the start where Snake finds a security camera, the very same, first security camera that he takes notice of in the first game and that he knows he needs to stay out of the clear. After he takes notice of that said camera again, 10 years later, it falls off of it's hinge and shatters on the ground.

A Youtube comment described that moment the best when he said "when the security camera fell, that's when my childhood died".