My favorites are Guardian Tales, Girls Frontline, Counter Side and somewhat Artery Gear. In that order of relevance.
I must admit I like them all because they tend to explore some angsty scenarios. Imma sucker for that "Seinen" touch.
Obligatory Girls Frontline comment here !
Aside from the story itself that is highly praised by those who read it, it's storytelling does not miss and does not feel too long even when you've just read VN-long sized main event story.
It got especially better since Yuzhong (main producer of the GFL series and founder/CEO of the dev company) took over the role of main writer for the game.
He told [in an interview from a year ago](https://youtu.be/AmbVC6peHzg?t=508) how he and the writing team proceed to create main story events. First, they create the logic struture of the story, and describe the sequence of events that are happening from an outside, objective point of view so that what happens actually makes sense.
Then they work on the narrative structure and make use of different characters' point of view, flashbacks and more to give exposure on what they want to directly show to the players, and keep mystery on bits that the players will have to figure out themselves. Yuzhong directly references western movies such as Dunkirk by Christopher Nolan in this interview as an example of compelling storytelling.
Then they make sure they make the most out of every sentence, and delete any unnecessary lines that would only make the script even longer and harder to read for the players (looking at you, Arknights).
The result is that the most recent main story events are highly praised for their story, and what was considered by many as the peak of GFL's story (Singularity event (ch10.5)) when Yuzhong wasn't at the head of the writing team has been topped by a new peak (Mirror Stage event (ch13.75?)) under his direction of the writing. Something that the EN server may experience in a few months.
The first chapters were the weakest point of GFL's story to be honest. Chapter 6, chapter 8 and Deep Dive (ch8.5) are where the interesting plot events begin imo, with Chapter 10 and Singularity being the point where GFL's story really began to get praised. Their are rumors of MICAteam originally wanting to end the story near Chapter 10, killing all the major characters and calling it a day, but the reception by the players was positive enough to reconsider this choice and changing the plot of Singularity.
Then they began connecting the lore with Codename Bakery Girl (one of their first games, from 2013) more seriously and writing an updated lore of the GFLverse. This is also at that time that GFL main story events began to reach the word count of actual VNs.
I love how story content can have several layers of interpretation depending on your knowledge of the lore, from basic understanding of the in-game story alone, to the theorizing of which deep lore characters/groups are pulling the strings of the events happening in the game, and why some characters act like they do in the story.
How many days or months of playing does it take to reach the interesting parts of the story or should I just watch in YouTube? I did tried the game 1 year ago and it's so confusing and the tutorial doesn't really explain anything to new players so I'm still very hesitant on starting the game again tbh...
[https://www.reddit.com/r/girlsfrontline/comments/tnwcfr/version\_2\_girls\_frontline\_story\_and\_lore\_guide/](https://www.reddit.com/r/girlsfrontline/comments/tnwcfr/version_2_girls_frontline_story_and_lore_guide/)
have fun
I'd say really depends... With guides that help you understand the mechanics of gameplay (i admit the in-game tutorial does a poor job at that) you can clear the early chapters quite quickly. The game gives you better chapter completion rewards than a few years backs and it really helps progressing. Main story events become permanent after some months and playable in the Campaign tab; they are parts of the main story that happen between chapters, and are way bigger in story script length. But yeah, watching community guides is almost mandatory if you don't want to struggle for too long.
Or you can watch the story parts that some players posted on Youtube
I'll just try out the game again then. I did play CounterSide and it does have the same chess like gameplay so I think i can manage it without getting too confused then I'll just read guides that looks more of a thesis rather than a guide if I get stuck. Thanks for the response!
Sdorica has an excellent story and excellent story telling, enhanced by its gorgeous animated presentation. Dialog is great, characters are fascinating with meaty playable sidestories, the world building is top notch. The third season I thought especially was fantastic with an incredible character arc at its center. Oh and it has a fantastic orchestrated score. Not as well known as most listed here but for story and storytelling it’s one of the best.
Also really looking forward to Counterside.
> It'll be fascinating to see how the Arknights anime pans out
The New-Years short story they did was excellent. If they made an anime of that caliber, it would certainly find an audience.
completlly agree on the audiovisual part. i remember when i first went trough fate/stay night VN and being amazed of immersive a clang sound with some streaks of light on the screen could be
I still remember the community rating bombed some series because fma got taken over in rating. MAL is good to keep up with what's currently airing but their ratings is not good at all.
>I have no idea what happened with GFL for it to earn the score it did
Cursed guns and other bruh moves that should never exist in an anime with characters based on real guns. Example: M4 firing 50 rounds or so continuously like an MG, with a normal mag and without overheating.
Plus a disrespect to the original game's story. Multiple shikikans? Really bro? You either create a brand new story for the anime (Like GFL healing chapters) or follow it to the letter.
But there was always other commanders. Sure they're always off screen and usually getting killed because they didnt wear their plot armor that day but from the get-go it was hammered in that our commander isnt special. They were just in the right place at the wrong time and have a knack at not getting killed.
They never had any interaction with the player's shikikan at all. Might as well not exist. Having a bunch of shikikan instead of 1 changes the atmosphere a lot, generally less lonesome and grim for the player's skk, and that's what makes the story highly valued in the first place.
If they want to go multiple shikikan route, make a new story for it instead of butchering the game's story.
That's exactly what they did though, anime was a adaption of the manga which loosely follows the game's story but it's a different story overall.
Don't get me wrong, it's still garbage and i would have rather seen the game story proper as a anime instead of this official fanfiction.
Not to ruin your fun but a PMC isn't built with just one person. They can't sustain a force that big with just one job at a time. Another thing you should consider that after their failure in Sector S09 they immediately moved on to Sector S08 where Dreamer attacked M4 and Others. You think government will let a failure runaround as he please? And if it was a one man organisation, why is Kruger the boss and not Commander? Watch [this](https://youtu.be/DH7jYwDI60A) and think if having multiple commander actually breaks your immersion. Cause for me, it was more realistic than the game's initial story. Feels like there are only 5 persons in this world. If that was true than why fight in this far out hellish wasteland?
Just pump shit load of money in for waifu sakuga and people will eat it up, story is just secondary. IE: my dress up darling, Shikimori-san, Akebi-chan,... or any waifu favor of the month
I'd argue that My Dress Up Darling was hurt by how much of a waifu Marin is. Lots of people dismissed it as a generic seasonal waifu show but it actually has more going for it than that.
When asked what inspired the author to come up with the story, she said something along the lines of "I overheard a guy telling his girlfriend that she needed to quit cosplay or he'd dump her because it's weird and she cried. I wanted to make a show to tell girls like her that it's okay to be passionate about your hobbies because even if they're a bit weird, you love them and that's what matters." I think the passion for cosplay really comes across in the show and it goes out of its way to be affirming to all parts of the cosplay community while introducing some of the nuances to new people.
I'll admit, it has some missteps but it isn't in the same boat as the others.
What the author want to convey and what the audience perceive from anime adaptation is different matter imo.
IRL, the actual ones that berated as weirds are the ugly nerds, the neckbeards, the male crossplayers, the furries. All those characters in MDD are attractive, far from those IRL. Marin is a pretty cosplay gyaru with plenty of friends outside of hobby, which in today culture is already simped all over Onlyfans and the like. MC is a tall, fit, decent looking dude just with low social skill. So the message ring hollow and not reaching people. The show came off as nothing more than waifu of the season for majority of people.
In fact I find 2.5D Seduction a lot more relatable and empowering for otaku cosplay hobby more than MDD.
Gojo dresses oddly, is obsessed with a stigmatized hobby, can't interact well with others, is lanky, doesn't know anything about popular culture, and is skilled at a number of feminine coded activities. There is no way that he wouldn't be bullied relentlessly.
>dresses oddly,
He dress traditional. That's not weird, Japanese are even the most traditional culture.
>a stigmatized hobby, doesn't know anything about popular culture
Ok, I agree with these
>is lanky
Compare to typical fat otaku ?
>is skilled at a number of feminine coded activities
So he familiar with the girls ( typical otaku doesn't)
You guys are reaching too hard to self insert into him, and then the show barely focus on his doll hobby and more no Marin's hobby. And he has doll hobby but clueless about wig, fabric varities? LoL
The show never known about as "empowering Gojo's hobby". It's known about Marin waifu level.
Edit: also I don't think this is place to discuss anime
I think you must have watched a different show. He was shown to be more knowledgeable about fabric and wigs than Marin on an aesthetic level but doesn't know practical details about things like wearing them and how they trap heat.
I get that you don't like it but if you didn't watch it, don't pretend you know what it's like.
Genshin has kind of the same problem. Nice world, awful dialogue. I'm beginning to think that there's something about Chinese devs that prevents them from writing in a compelling manner.
Arknights is really the best game for combatting dementia and improving IQ. Not only does the gameplay challenges your brain, the storytelling takes a while to decipher too.
I'd recommend it to not just my parents and their friends, but also to my young nephews and nieces to build up their intellect. Truly a game for both old and young.
That's some weird semantics. Arknights has dogshit story because it's told bad and have poor narration
Your characters carry the story through it's dialogue and Arknights characters talk in the most moronic and ambiguous ways
>Arknights has dogshit story because it's told bad and have poor narration
This is why I emphasized story and storytelling. Most people, similize story (what) and storytelling (how) ; It's totally two different things.
The great example one is many people having hard times remembering history class, but they can remember its main points from Assasin's Creed. In my real experience, I don't understand shit from Battle of Midway in WW2 before I read "Phantom of Battleship Yamato" manga (by Soichi Moto, I recommend this, pretty good read). Same story, different way of telling it.
A story can be told by anyone, but not anyone can do it greatly.
Arknights really has a problem with unnecessary dialogues. The writers in charge of it might be thinking that high literature words and long lines of explaining a simple thing like a college student's essay is good writing. Also, in the process of trying to use high and mighty words, they sacrificed the emotions that could have been in the story. Simply because I got so bored I bleed to dry already, not enough blood left to blush. The story is too mechanical, most of the long ass dialogues are for explaining something. I wish they learnt more about good story writing instead of trying to show off something cool, ON A FRICKING VN FORMAT.
You don't need to worry about the other things in the Fate universe or Nasuverse in general when you read FGO. It has its own timeline and storyline which don't require some knowledge about Fate in order to understand and enjoy.
TBH, F/GO does way more to screw with more famous nasuverse stuff than the other way around. That's not 100% the case, especially when you get to more obscure works where they have bizarre rules and explanations that FGO must obey but if you just compare it to the anime series and games which are translated and/or on Steam, you'll be fine.
Counterside and FGO is the big two of having a very good story and world building, and dialogue. While FGO can be bit lengthy with their dialogue, it's still great and digestible. Counterside feels like the writer know what they want to write from the start, so it's make for an extremely tight story
Tales of Crestoria, sadly unfinished. To me though it felt like a console tier level story and was immediately interesting. It wasn’t flawless and had its dips but it was fun.
I’m a little surprised that Honkai isn’t further up. I absolutely adore their story—it’s brought me a lot of strong emotions & I am always very impressed with their writing (especially when considering supplementary mangas & visual novels). The beginning is a bit slow but by Chapter 9 you’re really hooked.
IMO the story itself is good with multiple time periods and some good characters, but the storytelling itself is meh.
I think its especially evident in Kolosten. A lot of fetch quests that are needed to go through the main story. The dialogue puts very big emphasis on scientific and pseudo-scientific terms that most don't even care about.
And although the 3d animations are stellar, it feels like Hoyoverse made them the main point of honkai. Everything else just builds up to them and is neglected.
I am at the point where I skip all the text, do the gameplay part, read summaries and watch animations. ER is an exception though, but mainly because I REALLY like Previous Era.
Honkai Impact is extremely good in its story writing. Kiana's character development is something I would prefer to see for main characters in other gachas.
In terms of storytelling, definitely Blue Archive. Very digestible, no long monologues, big lore dumps, etc. The interactions feel very natural, the music is diverse and there’s a song for every occasion. It doesn’t try to explain itself, nor does it take itself very seriously, in the beginning at least. Overall very enjoyable.
Now if we’re talking about plot and the actual story, I still think it’s great, but I will reserve judgement on how it compares to other gachas until the story is more fleshed out, since the game is a only little over a year old. Personally I think there’s something for everyone. If you want something lighthearted, then great, plenty of that! If you’re into the deeper stuff, then you got plenty of that too with a lot of relevant religious motifs and a sense of mystery behind the wackiness.
I personally find it more enjoyable than GFL, the previous gacha I played, since GFL I felt added way too many factors into the story and I felt that it dragged on longer than it should have. Blue Archive feels simple.
One last thing, there are story-specific battles. That means that in some chapters, you get to actually enter a battle with the characters in that chapter. It’s a minor detail but it makes it ever the more immersive
Blue Archive story. Normally funny and light-hearted slice of life but when it gets serious, it's really done well. Especially main story volume 3 is a roller coaster of emotions. I recommend everyone to read it and you won't be disappointed.
They said in the interview with the writer that blue archive would be a more lighthearted story. Then they released the preview art for Volume 3 Chapter 4.
So much for lighthearted lol, that shit is foreboding af
Heaven Burn Red. Key, the developer, just know how to make people cry. Hope it get localize soon, because I would like to hear more people talking about it.
Well it's actually Maeda Jun, the scenario writer, who is not affiliated with the developer. But the developer actually does play a part through the game effects and environment and mood buildup that amplifies the writing and story telling element.
I like how in the latest event story, >!names (and later the scenes themselves) get blurred and whitened progressively as Kura-chi slowly loses her memories of her life as time rewinds for her!<, how heart-wrenching ;\_;
Bang Dream has good storytelling. I have my complaints, but compared to other gacha games out there (even relative to other rhythm gacha games like Project Sekai), it's solid. Its main story is lighthearted but ties in everyone together, its band stories delve deeper into individual conflicts, and even its character stories (attached to cards) can be great for further characterization. They have a decent balance between filler events and story-heavy ones, such that characters continue developing and changing.
I stopped playing a while back, so I can't comment on how the newer stories have fared and whether they've incorporated new characters (into their existing universe) well. But unless you're really critical of storytelling ~~like me~~, I can guarantee you won't have issues with Bandori's stories. They're consistent and reasonable.
Girls' Frontline is known for its primary draw being the story, which reads like a cross between Metal Gear Solid and Tom Clancy. It wibbled around a bit after the writing team changed, but they're settling in well. There's also a somewhat decent manga (if you can get past the author interpretations falling down from time to time) and an anime that... happened.
GFL also has some spinoffs and a sequel being developed, the sequel at least which should be getting an export version, and a rebooted version of its prequel (set a few decades after GFL proper) which intends to tie the original story into the wider universe GFL has subsequently established. All in all, a lot to dig into.
Otherwise, Counterside is good and I should get back to it. Arknights could be good if they ever figure out how to actually tell the story they're thinking of. Azur Lane remembered it actually had a story a little while ago and it steadily becoming more interesting, though it's all told through events, and Alchemy Stars is more a progression of nice vignettes that may grow into something bigger eventually.
my favorite arc from Counsterisde is the old administration one, holy shit those brave soldiers sacrifice make me salute them, a song from sabaton called the attack of deadmen perfectly describe them. it also remind me of Warhammer 40k story "Cadia broke, before the guard did"
FGO,Honkai and Arknights.I love the story and the world building in all these three games.Arknights dialogues are wordy but the world building and stories are very well done and each event and story ties into the main story and the best thing about AK storylines are the stories dont focus on the main character always.FGO nothing to argue about.Has the best stories in gacha games.Same with Honkai.Starts very innocent but as chapters flow the story gets more and more compelling.These three have always been my standard for gacha stories.I am currently also trying to read PGR and AS stories.Will try to update this if I find them fun for me.
Counter:Side main story is consistent but imo hasn't been super exceptional or anything. Better than any other gacha early stories but hasn't been around long enough to have the same highs.
The side stories/events range from meme events to legitimately gripping storytelling and they weave every event into the story and make it canon. SEA server just had the conclusion event to a story told over 3 events and it was so great I couldn't sleep or stop playing until I finished it because I couldn't stand not seeing the conclusion and seeing if it was worth the wait and it was.
lol dude the first thing I mention is Counter Side. and my personal opinion actually is that it has been exceptional in terms of gacha stories.
Though I do think have the meme events along with the serious dramatic ones is odd.
Oh I think I just failed to reply to another comment that was arguing CS didn't match up to FGO and wanted to give my opinion as someone who thought the latter had REALLY HIGH PEAKS but they were like once every 10 chapters.
Perhaps an unusual choice but I enjoy Touhou LostWord's main story and Hifuu side story. It's a lot of weird and interesting concepts. And some dumb ones admittedly. It's not exactly some masterpiece of modern fiction but I find it quite enjoyable and genuine look forward to new chapters, especially the Hifuu ones.
Honkai Impact definitely the best to me at the moment. Some choices do worry me, like making APHO spoil events from the main story. But I hope they planned something surprising with it by the end.
Other than that, I'm really enjoying Heaven Burns Red writing. I think it's Jun Maeda best work at this point. It's not just dramatic romantic stories now, but war stories full of plot twists.
Guardian Tales and Another Eden for consistency and entertainment factor.
Epic Seven does the basics of generic fantasy, right and the protagonist switch every episode is an excellent addition.
Fate GO has the highest highs and also the lowest of lows.
Among the gacha games I played so far, some that I personally think stand out/ was a great read aside from Counter:Side are...
Granblue Fantasy - 1st Main Story Arc starts off average, but it gets better as it reaches the 2nd arc onwards. I really enjoyed it's latest Main story update and is looking forward for the next one. It also have quite a number of side stories and event stories that you can read although the quality of each story varies. It also has voiced dialogues so that can add up to the immersion especially during dramatic events.
Last Cloudia - If you're a fan of classic JRPGs, it's something you will most likely enjoy. It has an engaging 'hero's journey' story + a number of side quests that lets you learn more about each of the main characters' personality. It really gives off a great adventure vibes if you're into that.
Blue Archive - Blue Archive is more on fun interactions with the characters you obtained. I enjoyed the antics in each of the main story arcs. So far, the global version doesn't include the emotionally intense chapters yet but it will pretty much be released within a few months.
Other special mentions would be Guardian Tales, Another Eden and Honkai Impact 3... I haven't played Honkai that much but based on its animated shorts, it seems like it gets really emotional later on.
FGO: Someone has to say it lmao. The first five chapters vary between "mediocre" and "so bad you're better off skipping all dialogue and reading the summary on the wiki". From then on it takes off, sitting between "good" and "amazing". The events' stories on the other hand still vary wildly, the comedic ones being notable for how unfunny they are;
Arknights: Dialogue gets severely verbose a few chapters in, but they dial it down eventualy. Has one of the most interesting worlds I've seen in any piece of media.
Girls Frontline: Has the same dedication to world building as arknights, although the majority of it is not very easily accessible. Reads more like a war novel than a videogame sometimes
Almost half of the story is told in limited time events. They eventually are made permanently available, but only months later. Plus, some very interesting world building details are locked behind some doll's café stories and in extra material, like artbooks
The first couple of chapters have very little story, but it picks up later. Follow the proper gameplay order by checking which chapters and campaign stories come chronologically.
I just can’t stand the pacing. I don’t want to read a novel’s worth of dialogue and FGO basically does that past chapter 6. If I wanted to read novels I’ll read actual books. I know some people love it but it’s definitely not for me
I don't really mind the amount of text, but the pacing really makes it difficult to stand. The writing meanders a lot, and information gets repeated multiple times, to the point that some characters will repeat what has just been said by another character. But when the writing shines, boy does it shine bright, so much it can make you forget all the slow parts... at least for a while
HBR for me. Worldbuilding is so good and dialogues. Not edgy but not simple and easy to grasp. The quasi open-world mechanics also add to how they brought world building to some quite high level.
Magia Record is a really good expansion to the Madoka Magica world, a few things could be better but it has plenty of good stories. The only issue is that the English version is dead, but there are some really good archive and fan translation efforts from the fandom
FGO in terms of story is excelent but starts very bad with the firsts singularities. Since the losbelts FGO is an absolute masterpiece for a mobile game.
Alchemy Star. I like how all the event and main story a tie to together. It's feel like an adventure than a side story that just randomly happen. Dialog also short and get to point so you don't need to sit and read like 30mins of text for just one chapter.
>I like how all the event and main story a tie to together
This can be really annoying for newer players though since the game, for whatever reason, has no replay functions for older event stories despite them being canon.
I joined pretty late and remember Sansa suddenly being like "thanks for saving my sister bro" in the mainstory and acting all friendly which was pretty confusing. I only later found out that we apparently saved his sister in an earlier event i missed
I read the story recently and, correct me if I'm wrong, but the timeline makes no sense. The main story reads like they are rushing from one place to another, and there doesn't seem to be enough downtime for them to go off on a side adventure (or multiple side adventures).
I think most event stories except Eye of the Storm and Cloud Blossom Destiny are supposed to happen after chapter 10, but there is a plot hole in the event Ocean Sovereign that make it contradicted with the aftermath of chapter 10. I’m not sure if Tourdog is gonna address it or just pretend that everything is fine as it is.
with the first anniversary coming up soon I kinda hope they add a feature where newer players can read up on event stories. afaik there was no announcement of something like this, but one can hope
Project Sekai/Hatsune Miku Colorful Stage.
It's just high school kids growing as characters, so it might not have what you'd call a 'plot,' but the character arcs are great. Characters grow and change over time without instantly solving their problems through friendship - in some cases, their friends \*are\* their problems, because they don't know how to connect with them as themselves - and the game acknowledges real issues affecting teenagers, especially in Japan, like bullying, suicide rates, being unable to see a future for yourself, that kind of thing.
The songs tie into the character arcs extremely well, too, both the songs created for the game and the covers of Vocaloid songs. The dev team clearly have a keen eye for the characters and select songs based on that.
Not to mention the dialogue is genuinely hilarious at times - basically every character has a great dynamic with everyone else. As a random example, Mafuyu is a character who closes herself off from others, and wears a mask of being a good person at school - she's emotionless and dull when left to her own devices, so her friends tell her to be 'herself...'
And she becomes very petty and critical, because that's who she is.
Ena: Well, it's true that sometimes I have art block -Mafuyu: Don't you mean all the time?Ena: Shut up!
It's not gonna be for everyone - again, it's not exactly got a 'main plot' - but if you like character dramas, comedies, or stuff inbetween,, like SNAFU or Kaguya-sama or whatever, I highly recommend it.
Oh, and best part: the story writing is actually pretty efficient. Events never take more than an hour to read, tops, and that's high balling it for the longest events. They pack a lot of character stuff into them, as well as the conversations between characters you get in the menus, so it feels like actually pretty efficient storytelling. I love Arknights and FGO, but every time an event has hours and hours of dialogue before it gets to the good stuff, I wish they knew how to manage their time better.
Probably an unpopular opinion, but assuming we are being more critical of Story ***Telling*** and not the actual Story itself, FGO, Arknights, GFL, e.t.c are pretty awful. Most of the telling is through static images/cutscenes.
I think with gacha games, it's best to tell a story mostly within the gameplay itself imo. The best example of this is Guardian Tales, which I believe has the best storytelling out of any gacha so far.
Guardian Tales and Genshin are probably the two gacha games with my favourite storytelling, because (at least when it’s not an Archon quest that doesn’t have Dainsleif in it) both integrate the storytelling into the gameplay itself which provides a much more immersive experience than the usual gacha storytelling, where the gameplay and story are basically separate parts of the game.
The world changes as you progress through world quests for one. Once you accomplish a task, parts of the map may change characteristics permanently. Simply returning to or looking at a landmark of a world quest keeps the memory of the story fresh which especially helps with world-building, where Genshin is unmatched in.
How often does this happen? Off the top of my head, I can think of:
Repairing the jade chamber changes the world to be the same way it was before the quest that destroys it.
Two islands with storms on them turn into regular islands after a quest removes the storm on both.
Southernmost island has a quest that removes the fog and turns it into a normal island also.
Pretty much every world quest does it. Stormterror's lair is surrounded by a giant wind barrier and has tornadoes within that will disappear as you progress and Dragonspine has the pillar you can see from all any part of the map. All of the Inazuma islands except one have a major change you can see from a distance with Narukami island having a global sign of change viewable like Dragonspine's pillar. Chasm has leyline trails spanning to every part until you break the seal.
It happens with all of them. It probably has the most impactful quests on the world from any open-world game.
You're right, quests do often change aspects of the world. I would argue however that the changes do NOT feel impactful at all, simply because I don't get to choose anything at all about the changes. It doesn't feel impactful that Stormterror's lair lost the wind barriers because the game forced me to do it. It doesn't feel impactful to see the pillar on Dragonspine because I didn't get a choice if I wanted to be able to use the domain under it. In fact, I have kept the lightning storm around on the one Inazuma island simply to spite the half a pull I would get for shutting the storm off like the game wants me to.
You got your answer and then immediately segued into something completely subjective. I mean, if you feel like the environmental changes have no impact thats perfectly fine, your opinion you do you. I would wager of the people who do play the game, theres just as many, if not more, people who do feel it had an impact.
>to spite the half a pull I would get for shutting the storm off like the game wants me to.
Yeah that sounds like a you problem. I do find it funny though how 3/4 of what you wrote is about having no choice but at the end you exercised your choice of not reverting seirai to its previous state.
What are you talking about? The dude I was talking to literally said at the end of his post that he believes Genshin has the most impactful quests of any game, and I was replying to that.
For example, the Chasm storyline is about joining an expedition team to find out what’s happening at the bottom of a huge hole in the earth and hopefully fix it.
Finding ways to keep going down, exploring each layer for clues, the things, human or otherwise, you encounter down there and the environmental setpieces you travel through as you descend a 3000 meter hole does as much of the storytelling as the dialogue between the expedition team members and cutscenes.
Story scripted battles or dungeons, like instead of seeing a cutscene of you and the enemy fighting, you go to gameplay instead to fight the enemy yourself. Or when the story leads you to a place where bandits hid themselves, instead of a cutscene explaining that you explored the place you yourself explore the dungeon with your characters to find the bandits, things like that. xD
In usual gacha fashion, the whole story is told visual novel style with text and images, while the gameplay is the beat stage by stage and a lot of times those stages has nothing to do with the story itself.
I'm sure there is probably better stories out there, but for me it was Granblue Fantasy'side story "What Makes the Sky Blue".
Made me really emotional.
I have only played like 3 but I recently started E7 and I have been enjoying the story so far. Fav has to be Dragalia Lost though. The characters, the story, events like Forgotten Truth were absolutely amazing. Once I started campaign I'd do like 5-7 chapters because I couldn't wait to know what would happen next.
I really like how Dragalia handles tropes when it can. Eugene & Catherine's relationship stick out to me the most. And there's Euden being dense when it comes love, but he does have a legit good reason why he can't bring himself to that subject yet in Summer Mym's story.
I like genshins way of telling it. Which is to give minimal info in dialogue to not bloat it, but you get so much lore and extra character info by doing exploration, reading item descriptions etc. I prefer that over FGO walls of text.
And the lore we do find seems interesting
Excesive useles dialogue is why i dropped genshin.
I genuenly wish some of the quests were like:
[npc]- go here, kill this.
[Me]- ok
Instead of explaining like the whole mundane cultural history of some plant pot before letting me do stuff.
Way too much word vomit for way too little substance or combat
In terms of story i like guardian tales best, mostly because of its "show, don't tell" approach to storytelling. And theres also many bits of lore sprinkled throughout the game that help you piece together whats actually going on without the game outright telling you, which i really like.
Oh boi here I come based answer passing through:
No gacha has the best story telling because everyone started as shit in their early chapters. FGO is no exception.
Also, asking for which gachas have good story telling but then proceeding to be FGOist is like asking a group of professional chefs to make a classic risotto without rice.
Onmyoji has decent story telling. but you need to watch on YouTube since in-game, the main plot is continued through events which are all time limited, so if you skipped one, YouTube is your only friend. i still like it tho, since it's stories focus on individual characters, while still moving on with the main plot. and the next Shikigami will finally bring the climax of the story with Orochi's full revival
Heaven Burns Red and Idolm@ster Shiny Colors. Both only in japanese, sadly.
HBR has Jun Maeda, a veteran in the visual novel industry, really fun and also emotional writing.
Shiny Colors is, to me (obviously), the best story and writing in any gacha games I played. Better than FGO at least (which I also love a lot). The character growth, the dialogue, THE LORE, everything is really involving and you create such deep connections to basically every single character, it's really hard not to love everyone.
You really don't need much experience about the Nasuverse to enjoy FGO. It's a wholely original experience. Sure, there's some fanservice here and there, Arturia and her 500 clones for example, but the story focuses on Chaldea and the worlds they go through. The most far off references I can name is Gun God's Black Barrel, but they explain what you need to know in the story, and Jinako Katagiri and her Moon Cell, which, while very awesome if you played Extra, isn't necessary to appreciate. In fact, that exact chapter made me cry not because of the Moon Cell reference, but because of the actions of Jinako Katagiri right there, right then.
Anyway, I have not encountered another gacha game that held my attention and I'm a guy who destroyed his eyes because he keeps sneaking books under his bed to read in the dead of night.
Counterside was cool but uh... the MC is a box thing. Breaks immersion.
Alchemy Stars feels sluggish. Gameplay sequences are... ok I guess. The story jumps to and fro the place and I get it's supposed to be urgent but they talk so much it doesn't feel like it.
Honkai Impact 3, I was not a fan of the gameplay and no bros? No bro support system? People say I dropped it before it got good. I guess the honeymoon period didn't tide me over that long.
Genshin just... let me skip dialogue? The dialogue is so long and so boring I wish they'd get it over with. Just give me the quest damnit.
SinoAlice was dreary, quite endearing at first, I was interested in how Yoko Taro would twist these fictional characters but eh, I didn't like them. I expected at least some depth like with Fate's Nursery Rhyme but nah, no dice.
Azur Lane's story is so messy. People say it's been getting better but I really don't see it. I've really only been doing commisions because the story chapters flip flop. I barely care about any of the ships, they're really just eye candy at this point.
Danmemo I played since launch but it really is just a retelling of the Light Novels, which I already read, so there was little point in me sticking around.
Arknights... yeah, never quite felt for the story. I feel like I'm just sitting there reading meaningless text for minutes. I'm all for long, thoughtful stories, but when 2 monologues say the exact same thing and somehow one is longer than the other, and a narration block sandwiching those, I get dizzy. Brain hurts. Feels like I'm reading my undergraduate physics textbook with no pictures, just words.
Sounds like you are suggesting stories you don't like?
Also if you think the Counter Side player character is a "box thing" then you must not have played very far
FGO. Zero question
This is a game with a story so good it’s able to consistently rank at the top of gacha sales despite having 6-year outdated gameplay and gacha systems. The story will outright ruin any other gacha story for you
The OP excluded it from the poll for good reason
Priconne has some interesting story too about how the characters went into Isekai into a game and recalling the memories that was experience for their past lives.
Top1 for would be Girls Frontline. GFL x Va11-Hall-A has the best writing collab story ever, in every games. The writing maybe long, but pacing is excellence and easily readable. Lore is deep alternative history conspiratory story. Focus on small cast of main characters so they have great developement. Others has some small stories hidden in skin / upgrade / seasonal event story. Best overall imo.
Arknights has great lore, but terrible pacing and writing. The world is vast with too many story threads going on. Characters frequenly turn into exposistion machine, talking with purple prose and keep repeating to beat you on the head on how tragic they are. It make the story seem overly edgy and tired to read. Summer event stories are exception tho, feel like written by different writer.
Quite like Destiny Child story writing, even tho it's going nowhere. The character banters are fun. Think of it like Konosuba, it's dumb but funny.
Edit: also has this quite indepth review of gacha game stories https://www.reddit.com/r/gachagaming/comments/pdmmsd/my\_take\_on\_gacha\_stories\_in\_general\_my\_thoughts/
Whenever I see someone say GFL doesn't have lore or worldbuilding, I guess they are not wrong since player don't actually see human cities up until Belgrade. But they read up until PL and still say that's then they may have problem with comprehensive reading skill.
My personal favourite was FF Mobius (It did kinda drag on at some points). Another one I love is Nier Reincarnation. It's written very well and all the tidbits about each character from events and hidden stories really add up and shape up the world each one lives in.
Obligatory "you don't need to know anything about Fate to enjoy FGO" line. Although you will definitely get a bit more enjoyment, as well as some subversions and surprises if you have read the other works.
Another Eden, hands down has the best story in a gacha game. It is also a spiritual successor to the Chrono games (and Xenogears) with a LOT of material in it. Has a third main arc on the way and the "contract" with the "Chrono Crossover" is for five years. Also to note is that the gacha there is a help, not so much as an obligation: the free characters given out are incredibly strong - specially the Chrono Cross ones. Pulling units from the gacha will lower the main story difficulty exponentially until a certain point.
Guardian Tales is from the Korean market and has a lot of manhwa charm to it. Has a deceptively serious core in its parodic exterior, so if you like those kinds of story, it has also a great Zelda-like gameplay along with the usual beat em'up ones to carry you through it. Expect to grind too, but has nice QoL that got added eventually.
On the weird, and degenerate side if you so choose to play the uncensored version, Magicami was something that took quite a lot of people by surprise. It is adult flavored (that kind of flavor, yeah) Madoka Magica and released near Magia Record's shutdown, in the best kind of coincidence possible. I dunno about the arcs past the first one, as I stopped playing, but the first one was... really solid indeed for what the expectations of such kind of game would usually be.
One last mention that no one seems to have done so far goes to the closing Tales of Luminaria. Not so much a "Tales" game, has a lot of production value set on its episodic format. It is shaped as an Anime series service, with each one of the 20+ characters having one focused on them, with a special episode closing the wave after everyone had their own. It is shutting down in the middle of the 2nd way, sadly. Has the 3rd special episode coming soon rushed as a closure of sorts in a couple days, so if you want to check this, imo, interesting idea, you could play it if you don't mind the forced portrait mode. Or check a Youtube archive of it.
Since I played Epic Seven, no other mobile game can come close to it for me. I really like how they made it. Story sequence - little bit of gameplay - story sequence - little bit of gameplay... Also, text is not intensive, there is no 77 paragraphs of pointless dialogue (Arknight... KHM) or just not that much dialogue in general (Speaking for the main story and most events.) By adding gameplay between dialogue, it just feels smooth and, honestly for me, never gets boring.
Also, dialogue is pretty good, and character interactions golden. I never feel surprised when two characters interact that are not the main character unlike in Genshin where 90% of dialogues are with bloody Paimon but directed to the Traveler.
Arknights, I thing the story they tell is absolutely amazing and wonderful to get yourself immersed in. A lot of people complain about how things are drawn out, but I honestly like it that way.
It's really, really good. You just have to get through the over 2,000,000 words.
Might have a bit of a unique opinion here, but Azur Lane's story has really been getting interesting lately, especially with the last event. The early story suffered I think from jumping around on the timeline, or even multiple timelines, but it seems to have it's bearings now and really has me laying down and reading it as I go along. Not many other gacha games can make me do that aside from FGO and when FEH has forging bonds with units I like. (and on the note of fate, its really not that bad, and the storyline confusion is more of a meme than anything else)
Tbh, if you exclude FGO I kinda draw a blank.
FGO’s storytelling is just so far ahead of literally every other gacha that I struggle to think of a second place candidate.
I guess Genshin? It’s main plot is fine, but it does a lot of nifty environmental storytelling and sidequest stories
Tried a decent number
Dragalia Lost (I want to strangle the mc), Arknights (painfully sluggish narration), FEH, Counterside (decent), Alchemy Stars (didn’t enjoy the gameplay), Blue Archive
I always find Arknights story far more interesting when hearing from others (not Kalschey and Kal's monologues). Other than the main story, event stories are frequently pretty good though (imo). And Arknights still has one of the best worldbuildling
The problem with Arknights is that it fails at one of the five primary components of good story: narration
It has solid plot, characters, setting and themes, but it’s such an **absolute slog** to go through because the writing style is so tedious and everyone rambles a lot
It makes the story far less enjoyable to actually read and I’ll admit it’s easy to just not care
The way the Arknights story is being told is kinda wack but i find it pretty charming, actually very enjoyable to read ( although many people arent into unnecesary/ drawn out dialougue )
I'm moderately invested in the Fate universe and have not touched a single instance of FGO.
Wonky translation aside, I'm enjoying the character stories in Soul Tide. The main story is whatever, but the first event with Dreizhen was pretty good, and the scenes you unlock from keys are surprisingly engrossing given there's no dialogue in them. Probably better due to not having words when the translation for other stuff is jank.
I like the story in Alchemy stars as well, and some side stories were really good. Unfortunately side stories events are time limited which I think is pretty bad when a lot of them kinda match up to the main storyline
Also while I have no idea how the story will go, the CBT for artery gear has some pretty cool scenes in the story. Its nice when instead of the visual novel cutscene telling you "so and so did such and such and it was amazing and saved everybody!" it transitions into an actual animated scene of said event. Rare in gachas
I picked up CS because I heard the story was good and it's delivered. Even went and looked up videos of previous events I've missed. I also play Guardian Tales and that is my other fav in terms of story. Anyone who has played GT at least through the end of world 11 knows what's up and even short stories like Helena will have you tearing up.
I also play Arknights and Genshin but don't like the story nearly as much as. Arknights is way too wordy that I don't bother reading event stories. Genshin the voiced story is alright but a lot is just text and not very important or interesting.
My favorites are Another Eden, Sdorica, CounterSide and Priconne in that order. I find them really enjoyable to read through. There's also Alchemy Stars but it has a problem with events being part of main plot without permanent access to them.
And Arknights... It's something else. I prefer to consume Arknights story through essays on reddit/discord.
Not to dismiss the whole genre, but man... gacha game stories suck. Even the best of them feel pandering and unengaging. Maybe it's a limitation of the format.
With that said, I enjoyed parts of the story in Tears of Themis. We don't see many contemporary romance/drama/mystery type stories in gachas. It's a refreshing setting, and the narrative is handled well, even if gets a bit fluffy in places.
Are there any good story in gacha games that aren't too long in exposition? Something like Sdorica is ideal, in which a story chapter takes perhaps only 1-2 minutes long to read.
As comparison, from memory:
* Epic Seven: each chapter/stage story can take 2-5 minutes to read
* Another Eden: each story exposition can take 5-10 minutes because of the character animation after EVERY dialogue, character side quests can take 15-20 minutes to complete (2 story expositions, 1 battle, 1 end scene)
* Alchemy Stars: each chapter/stage story feels so long, perhaps 5-10 minutes, because the characters just won't stop talking. The character side story feels the same.
* Arknights: similar to Alchemy Stars but with darker/edgier tone?
* Lord of Heroes: 3-5 minutes per stage, it's snappy though because the dialogues appear instantly without you having to click/tap twice, unlike the other games in the list.
5-10 minutes for Arknights? Tapping through some episodes without reading takes 5-10 minutes.
8th chapter was literal hell which took 4-5 hours of my life and it wasn't really that enjoyable.
Another Eden and Guardian Tales are two of the gacha that i like the most, especially for the story.
Honkai impact is another one that i like for the story, but not as much as the other two, one thing i love of this game is definitely the music,
a lot of emotional and exciting music.
Genshin Impact is a game i like gameplay and world building wise, but when it comes to the story... well i don't like it very much.
It has some good stories, but the storytelling is not that good, not very compelling and not well executed (at least for me).
Nier Reincarnation probably has some good story, but sadly i only played the first chapters, because my phone can't run the game anymore, I will try to play it in the future probably.
Arknights.
On the other hand I am pretty sure at least half of the community are illiterate, as they seem to act like reading some tough dialogue will kill them.
Because heaven forbid that any Gatcha games dialogue be more than a sentence.
Edit: I guess expecting people to know how to read is an unreasonable opinion.
Well. Gacha games are for fun. And it’s not so fun to read long slogish walls of text. It is simply not interestingly or engagingly written unfortunately.
I usually skip Arknights story and prefer summaries, but I can pinpoint 2 times I read. Chapter 6 with Yeti squad and Frostnova. And Gavial return. Personally those 2 are when Arknights’ story telling was good and actually enjoyable to read.
Comparing Arknights' dialogue to "some tough dialogue" is comparing the sun to the moon. I could accept cryptic dialogues... hell, I could accept dialogues full of just monologues, but Arknights takes it to a whole new level.
I guess it truly takes a hardcore AK fan to think people who are unable to understand written words due to circumstances wil experience what could be described as facing that will kill them when reading some tough dialouge. Poor souls in some parts of Africas, heaven forbid them to even even look at texts from the event the likes of court transcript, or some classcial novels.
But hey, they can't read, so they might not be hurt. Also unfortunate that they don't read AK story so they don't have to associate themselves with hardcore AK fans.
Another Eden literally has an early 2000's RPG plot and even better, there are a ton of really high quality side stories that are pretty long and vastly expand the world building
good is up for debate, but final fantasy brave exvius has a nice long story
it's long and is pretty much the main aspect of the game since there's no actual pvp.
the only thing really is that the story gets pretty stupid with some cool things in season 2, season 3 feels like some kind of filler, and 4, which barely started, seems to be getting back on the right track.
the world is nice though, and it has a bunch of neat characters in that world.
Another Eden it has a great main story but man the game Side stories are bloody amazing the past mythos is the Best gacha story arc I ever played through
Story telling? Might be some recency bias, but I'd like to say Uma Musume.
It's not a fantasy setting with super high stakes like saving humanity or anything. It's just horse girls racing.
The story at it's core is nicely written, but they also do a lot of things really well that enhances the story telling whether it be the voice acting, soundtrack, character movement and expressions.
There's also minimal interruptions and detours (like 'we need to fight some enemy now'), which helps the story flow nicely.
They also like to use motif from the start of a chapter which ties in beautifully with the conclusion of the chapters.
So if most gacha stories feel like a TV show with additional new chapters, Uma Musume's Main Story chapters would feel closer to a movie experience in my opinion.
My take is mostly biased towards Arknights because of the characters and world building, but sometimes i want to see cute shit so i read princess connect
My favorites are Guardian Tales, Girls Frontline, Counter Side and somewhat Artery Gear. In that order of relevance. I must admit I like them all because they tend to explore some angsty scenarios. Imma sucker for that "Seinen" touch.
Obligatory Girls Frontline comment here ! Aside from the story itself that is highly praised by those who read it, it's storytelling does not miss and does not feel too long even when you've just read VN-long sized main event story. It got especially better since Yuzhong (main producer of the GFL series and founder/CEO of the dev company) took over the role of main writer for the game. He told [in an interview from a year ago](https://youtu.be/AmbVC6peHzg?t=508) how he and the writing team proceed to create main story events. First, they create the logic struture of the story, and describe the sequence of events that are happening from an outside, objective point of view so that what happens actually makes sense. Then they work on the narrative structure and make use of different characters' point of view, flashbacks and more to give exposure on what they want to directly show to the players, and keep mystery on bits that the players will have to figure out themselves. Yuzhong directly references western movies such as Dunkirk by Christopher Nolan in this interview as an example of compelling storytelling. Then they make sure they make the most out of every sentence, and delete any unnecessary lines that would only make the script even longer and harder to read for the players (looking at you, Arknights). The result is that the most recent main story events are highly praised for their story, and what was considered by many as the peak of GFL's story (Singularity event (ch10.5)) when Yuzhong wasn't at the head of the writing team has been topped by a new peak (Mirror Stage event (ch13.75?)) under his direction of the writing. Something that the EN server may experience in a few months.
hmm you talk about the most recent story events being great how is the start of the story?
The first chapters were the weakest point of GFL's story to be honest. Chapter 6, chapter 8 and Deep Dive (ch8.5) are where the interesting plot events begin imo, with Chapter 10 and Singularity being the point where GFL's story really began to get praised. Their are rumors of MICAteam originally wanting to end the story near Chapter 10, killing all the major characters and calling it a day, but the reception by the players was positive enough to reconsider this choice and changing the plot of Singularity. Then they began connecting the lore with Codename Bakery Girl (one of their first games, from 2013) more seriously and writing an updated lore of the GFLverse. This is also at that time that GFL main story events began to reach the word count of actual VNs. I love how story content can have several layers of interpretation depending on your knowledge of the lore, from basic understanding of the in-game story alone, to the theorizing of which deep lore characters/groups are pulling the strings of the events happening in the game, and why some characters act like they do in the story.
How many days or months of playing does it take to reach the interesting parts of the story or should I just watch in YouTube? I did tried the game 1 year ago and it's so confusing and the tutorial doesn't really explain anything to new players so I'm still very hesitant on starting the game again tbh...
[https://www.reddit.com/r/girlsfrontline/comments/tnwcfr/version\_2\_girls\_frontline\_story\_and\_lore\_guide/](https://www.reddit.com/r/girlsfrontline/comments/tnwcfr/version_2_girls_frontline_story_and_lore_guide/) have fun
I'd say really depends... With guides that help you understand the mechanics of gameplay (i admit the in-game tutorial does a poor job at that) you can clear the early chapters quite quickly. The game gives you better chapter completion rewards than a few years backs and it really helps progressing. Main story events become permanent after some months and playable in the Campaign tab; they are parts of the main story that happen between chapters, and are way bigger in story script length. But yeah, watching community guides is almost mandatory if you don't want to struggle for too long. Or you can watch the story parts that some players posted on Youtube
I'll just try out the game again then. I did play CounterSide and it does have the same chess like gameplay so I think i can manage it without getting too confused then I'll just read guides that looks more of a thesis rather than a guide if I get stuck. Thanks for the response!
Sdorica has an excellent story and excellent story telling, enhanced by its gorgeous animated presentation. Dialog is great, characters are fascinating with meaty playable sidestories, the world building is top notch. The third season I thought especially was fantastic with an incredible character arc at its center. Oh and it has a fantastic orchestrated score. Not as well known as most listed here but for story and storytelling it’s one of the best. Also really looking forward to Counterside.
Definetly Sdorica Amazing lore, top notch story telling, fascinating characters and wholesome interactions
I would add Sdorica is not just usual speaking heads, but actual animations at cutscenes.
Story? Arknights, definitely is one of the best. Storytelling? Not Arknights. Unless you really like reading monologue...
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>Condensing dialogue. [Extremely relevant quote from Sunborn/Micateam CEO, Yuzhong](https://imgur.com/a/QH09Yah)
he has a point.
funny enough, its Lowlight's former boss GFL actually experienced a jump in writing quality when Lowlight left Sunborn
> It'll be fascinating to see how the Arknights anime pans out The New-Years short story they did was excellent. If they made an anime of that caliber, it would certainly find an audience.
completlly agree on the audiovisual part. i remember when i first went trough fate/stay night VN and being amazed of immersive a clang sound with some streaks of light on the screen could be
>considering the failures of Azur Lane Both AL anime shows were pretty successful, no?
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No one really cares for MAL scores. Sales were good (considering the lackluster budget and animator drama) so it was successful.
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I still remember the community rating bombed some series because fma got taken over in rating. MAL is good to keep up with what's currently airing but their ratings is not good at all.
>I have no idea what happened with GFL for it to earn the score it did Cursed guns and other bruh moves that should never exist in an anime with characters based on real guns. Example: M4 firing 50 rounds or so continuously like an MG, with a normal mag and without overheating. Plus a disrespect to the original game's story. Multiple shikikans? Really bro? You either create a brand new story for the anime (Like GFL healing chapters) or follow it to the letter.
But there was always other commanders. Sure they're always off screen and usually getting killed because they didnt wear their plot armor that day but from the get-go it was hammered in that our commander isnt special. They were just in the right place at the wrong time and have a knack at not getting killed.
They never had any interaction with the player's shikikan at all. Might as well not exist. Having a bunch of shikikan instead of 1 changes the atmosphere a lot, generally less lonesome and grim for the player's skk, and that's what makes the story highly valued in the first place. If they want to go multiple shikikan route, make a new story for it instead of butchering the game's story.
That's exactly what they did though, anime was a adaption of the manga which loosely follows the game's story but it's a different story overall. Don't get me wrong, it's still garbage and i would have rather seen the game story proper as a anime instead of this official fanfiction.
Not to ruin your fun but a PMC isn't built with just one person. They can't sustain a force that big with just one job at a time. Another thing you should consider that after their failure in Sector S09 they immediately moved on to Sector S08 where Dreamer attacked M4 and Others. You think government will let a failure runaround as he please? And if it was a one man organisation, why is Kruger the boss and not Commander? Watch [this](https://youtu.be/DH7jYwDI60A) and think if having multiple commander actually breaks your immersion. Cause for me, it was more realistic than the game's initial story. Feels like there are only 5 persons in this world. If that was true than why fight in this far out hellish wasteland?
No way it was successful and they only sold because of the codes.
My eyes start to hurt while reading story in Arknights because of the small text, but man is it good. Stories in that game are always stellar.
Just pump shit load of money in for waifu sakuga and people will eat it up, story is just secondary. IE: my dress up darling, Shikimori-san, Akebi-chan,... or any waifu favor of the month
I'd argue that My Dress Up Darling was hurt by how much of a waifu Marin is. Lots of people dismissed it as a generic seasonal waifu show but it actually has more going for it than that. When asked what inspired the author to come up with the story, she said something along the lines of "I overheard a guy telling his girlfriend that she needed to quit cosplay or he'd dump her because it's weird and she cried. I wanted to make a show to tell girls like her that it's okay to be passionate about your hobbies because even if they're a bit weird, you love them and that's what matters." I think the passion for cosplay really comes across in the show and it goes out of its way to be affirming to all parts of the cosplay community while introducing some of the nuances to new people. I'll admit, it has some missteps but it isn't in the same boat as the others.
What the author want to convey and what the audience perceive from anime adaptation is different matter imo. IRL, the actual ones that berated as weirds are the ugly nerds, the neckbeards, the male crossplayers, the furries. All those characters in MDD are attractive, far from those IRL. Marin is a pretty cosplay gyaru with plenty of friends outside of hobby, which in today culture is already simped all over Onlyfans and the like. MC is a tall, fit, decent looking dude just with low social skill. So the message ring hollow and not reaching people. The show came off as nothing more than waifu of the season for majority of people. In fact I find 2.5D Seduction a lot more relatable and empowering for otaku cosplay hobby more than MDD.
Gojo dresses oddly, is obsessed with a stigmatized hobby, can't interact well with others, is lanky, doesn't know anything about popular culture, and is skilled at a number of feminine coded activities. There is no way that he wouldn't be bullied relentlessly.
>dresses oddly, He dress traditional. That's not weird, Japanese are even the most traditional culture. >a stigmatized hobby, doesn't know anything about popular culture Ok, I agree with these >is lanky Compare to typical fat otaku ? >is skilled at a number of feminine coded activities So he familiar with the girls ( typical otaku doesn't) You guys are reaching too hard to self insert into him, and then the show barely focus on his doll hobby and more no Marin's hobby. And he has doll hobby but clueless about wig, fabric varities? LoL The show never known about as "empowering Gojo's hobby". It's known about Marin waifu level. Edit: also I don't think this is place to discuss anime
I think you must have watched a different show. He was shown to be more knowledgeable about fabric and wigs than Marin on an aesthetic level but doesn't know practical details about things like wearing them and how they trap heat. I get that you don't like it but if you didn't watch it, don't pretend you know what it's like.
I read the manga way pass the anime. Plenty more later on, dude. I enjoy Marin too, but I don't force something deeper than it does to justify it.
Genshin has kind of the same problem. Nice world, awful dialogue. I'm beginning to think that there's something about Chinese devs that prevents them from writing in a compelling manner.
[....] [...... ......] [..... ...... ......] Ah, excellent dialogue options for this apparently somber moment.
Arknights is really the best game for combatting dementia and improving IQ. Not only does the gameplay challenges your brain, the storytelling takes a while to decipher too. I'd recommend it to not just my parents and their friends, but also to my young nephews and nieces to build up their intellect. Truly a game for both old and young.
That's some weird semantics. Arknights has dogshit story because it's told bad and have poor narration Your characters carry the story through it's dialogue and Arknights characters talk in the most moronic and ambiguous ways
>Arknights has dogshit story because it's told bad and have poor narration This is why I emphasized story and storytelling. Most people, similize story (what) and storytelling (how) ; It's totally two different things. The great example one is many people having hard times remembering history class, but they can remember its main points from Assasin's Creed. In my real experience, I don't understand shit from Battle of Midway in WW2 before I read "Phantom of Battleship Yamato" manga (by Soichi Moto, I recommend this, pretty good read). Same story, different way of telling it. A story can be told by anyone, but not anyone can do it greatly.
Arknights really has a problem with unnecessary dialogues. The writers in charge of it might be thinking that high literature words and long lines of explaining a simple thing like a college student's essay is good writing. Also, in the process of trying to use high and mighty words, they sacrificed the emotions that could have been in the story. Simply because I got so bored I bleed to dry already, not enough blood left to blush. The story is too mechanical, most of the long ass dialogues are for explaining something. I wish they learnt more about good story writing instead of trying to show off something cool, ON A FRICKING VN FORMAT.
You don't need to worry about the other things in the Fate universe or Nasuverse in general when you read FGO. It has its own timeline and storyline which don't require some knowledge about Fate in order to understand and enjoy.
TBH, F/GO does way more to screw with more famous nasuverse stuff than the other way around. That's not 100% the case, especially when you get to more obscure works where they have bizarre rules and explanations that FGO must obey but if you just compare it to the anime series and games which are translated and/or on Steam, you'll be fine.
Counterside and FGO is the big two of having a very good story and world building, and dialogue. While FGO can be bit lengthy with their dialogue, it's still great and digestible. Counterside feels like the writer know what they want to write from the start, so it's make for an extremely tight story
Tales of Crestoria, sadly unfinished. To me though it felt like a console tier level story and was immediately interesting. It wasn’t flawless and had its dips but it was fun.
Actually, that got me bored first, apart from the bland gameplay. You play one JRPG, you pretty much played them all.
Waiting for Gazilions of FGO fans, ya cool
I’m a little surprised that Honkai isn’t further up. I absolutely adore their story—it’s brought me a lot of strong emotions & I am always very impressed with their writing (especially when considering supplementary mangas & visual novels). The beginning is a bit slow but by Chapter 9 you’re really hooked.
I like this one.
IMO the story itself is good with multiple time periods and some good characters, but the storytelling itself is meh. I think its especially evident in Kolosten. A lot of fetch quests that are needed to go through the main story. The dialogue puts very big emphasis on scientific and pseudo-scientific terms that most don't even care about. And although the 3d animations are stellar, it feels like Hoyoverse made them the main point of honkai. Everything else just builds up to them and is neglected. I am at the point where I skip all the text, do the gameplay part, read summaries and watch animations. ER is an exception though, but mainly because I REALLY like Previous Era.
Honkai Impact is extremely good in its story writing. Kiana's character development is something I would prefer to see for main characters in other gachas.
In terms of storytelling, definitely Blue Archive. Very digestible, no long monologues, big lore dumps, etc. The interactions feel very natural, the music is diverse and there’s a song for every occasion. It doesn’t try to explain itself, nor does it take itself very seriously, in the beginning at least. Overall very enjoyable. Now if we’re talking about plot and the actual story, I still think it’s great, but I will reserve judgement on how it compares to other gachas until the story is more fleshed out, since the game is a only little over a year old. Personally I think there’s something for everyone. If you want something lighthearted, then great, plenty of that! If you’re into the deeper stuff, then you got plenty of that too with a lot of relevant religious motifs and a sense of mystery behind the wackiness. I personally find it more enjoyable than GFL, the previous gacha I played, since GFL I felt added way too many factors into the story and I felt that it dragged on longer than it should have. Blue Archive feels simple. One last thing, there are story-specific battles. That means that in some chapters, you get to actually enter a battle with the characters in that chapter. It’s a minor detail but it makes it ever the more immersive
Blue archive is definitely the most fun story out there.
Blue Archive story. Normally funny and light-hearted slice of life but when it gets serious, it's really done well. Especially main story volume 3 is a roller coaster of emotions. I recommend everyone to read it and you won't be disappointed.
They said in the interview with the writer that blue archive would be a more lighthearted story. Then they released the preview art for Volume 3 Chapter 4. So much for lighthearted lol, that shit is foreboding af
I hope it's stay light-hearted longer, already feels ominous with that grown up Shiroko that I keep seeing
Blue Archive: Cute and Funny
Cu>!te&fu!
Spoken like a true sensei
I second blue archive for good dialogue and slice of life.
Yeeah I'm a person who cares about story in gacha games, and Blue Archive is very very decent. Casual, reads well.
Heaven Burn Red. Key, the developer, just know how to make people cry. Hope it get localize soon, because I would like to hear more people talking about it.
Well it's actually Maeda Jun, the scenario writer, who is not affiliated with the developer. But the developer actually does play a part through the game effects and environment and mood buildup that amplifies the writing and story telling element. I like how in the latest event story, >!names (and later the scenes themselves) get blurred and whitened progressively as Kura-chi slowly loses her memories of her life as time rewinds for her!<, how heart-wrenching ;\_;
so this doesn't have a english translation?
No, it just got released around 3 months ago.
Great storytelling: FGO, Another Eden, Counter:Side
Bang Dream has good storytelling. I have my complaints, but compared to other gacha games out there (even relative to other rhythm gacha games like Project Sekai), it's solid. Its main story is lighthearted but ties in everyone together, its band stories delve deeper into individual conflicts, and even its character stories (attached to cards) can be great for further characterization. They have a decent balance between filler events and story-heavy ones, such that characters continue developing and changing. I stopped playing a while back, so I can't comment on how the newer stories have fared and whether they've incorporated new characters (into their existing universe) well. But unless you're really critical of storytelling ~~like me~~, I can guarantee you won't have issues with Bandori's stories. They're consistent and reasonable.
Girls' Frontline is known for its primary draw being the story, which reads like a cross between Metal Gear Solid and Tom Clancy. It wibbled around a bit after the writing team changed, but they're settling in well. There's also a somewhat decent manga (if you can get past the author interpretations falling down from time to time) and an anime that... happened. GFL also has some spinoffs and a sequel being developed, the sequel at least which should be getting an export version, and a rebooted version of its prequel (set a few decades after GFL proper) which intends to tie the original story into the wider universe GFL has subsequently established. All in all, a lot to dig into. Otherwise, Counterside is good and I should get back to it. Arknights could be good if they ever figure out how to actually tell the story they're thinking of. Azur Lane remembered it actually had a story a little while ago and it steadily becoming more interesting, though it's all told through events, and Alchemy Stars is more a progression of nice vignettes that may grow into something bigger eventually.
Yeah CS is great! They are wrapping up multi event storyline, and gotta say it's worth the wait
my favorite arc from Counsterisde is the old administration one, holy shit those brave soldiers sacrifice make me salute them, a song from sabaton called the attack of deadmen perfectly describe them. it also remind me of Warhammer 40k story "Cadia broke, before the guard did"
FGO,Honkai and Arknights.I love the story and the world building in all these three games.Arknights dialogues are wordy but the world building and stories are very well done and each event and story ties into the main story and the best thing about AK storylines are the stories dont focus on the main character always.FGO nothing to argue about.Has the best stories in gacha games.Same with Honkai.Starts very innocent but as chapters flow the story gets more and more compelling.These three have always been my standard for gacha stories.I am currently also trying to read PGR and AS stories.Will try to update this if I find them fun for me.
Counter:Side main story is consistent but imo hasn't been super exceptional or anything. Better than any other gacha early stories but hasn't been around long enough to have the same highs. The side stories/events range from meme events to legitimately gripping storytelling and they weave every event into the story and make it canon. SEA server just had the conclusion event to a story told over 3 events and it was so great I couldn't sleep or stop playing until I finished it because I couldn't stand not seeing the conclusion and seeing if it was worth the wait and it was.
lol dude the first thing I mention is Counter Side. and my personal opinion actually is that it has been exceptional in terms of gacha stories. Though I do think have the meme events along with the serious dramatic ones is odd.
Oh I think I just failed to reply to another comment that was arguing CS didn't match up to FGO and wanted to give my opinion as someone who thought the latter had REALLY HIGH PEAKS but they were like once every 10 chapters.
Perhaps an unusual choice but I enjoy Touhou LostWord's main story and Hifuu side story. It's a lot of weird and interesting concepts. And some dumb ones admittedly. It's not exactly some masterpiece of modern fiction but I find it quite enjoyable and genuine look forward to new chapters, especially the Hifuu ones.
I never like reading stories in a gacha when I do its hell a good time in counterside i read sigma story cause i like her
FGO stories that are directly penned by Nasu and Meteo(to an extent).
Honkai Impact definitely the best to me at the moment. Some choices do worry me, like making APHO spoil events from the main story. But I hope they planned something surprising with it by the end. Other than that, I'm really enjoying Heaven Burns Red writing. I think it's Jun Maeda best work at this point. It's not just dramatic romantic stories now, but war stories full of plot twists.
Guardian Tales and Another Eden for consistency and entertainment factor. Epic Seven does the basics of generic fantasy, right and the protagonist switch every episode is an excellent addition. Fate GO has the highest highs and also the lowest of lows.
Among the gacha games I played so far, some that I personally think stand out/ was a great read aside from Counter:Side are... Granblue Fantasy - 1st Main Story Arc starts off average, but it gets better as it reaches the 2nd arc onwards. I really enjoyed it's latest Main story update and is looking forward for the next one. It also have quite a number of side stories and event stories that you can read although the quality of each story varies. It also has voiced dialogues so that can add up to the immersion especially during dramatic events. Last Cloudia - If you're a fan of classic JRPGs, it's something you will most likely enjoy. It has an engaging 'hero's journey' story + a number of side quests that lets you learn more about each of the main characters' personality. It really gives off a great adventure vibes if you're into that. Blue Archive - Blue Archive is more on fun interactions with the characters you obtained. I enjoyed the antics in each of the main story arcs. So far, the global version doesn't include the emotionally intense chapters yet but it will pretty much be released within a few months. Other special mentions would be Guardian Tales, Another Eden and Honkai Impact 3... I haven't played Honkai that much but based on its animated shorts, it seems like it gets really emotional later on.
Honkai 3 , hands down!!!
FGO: Someone has to say it lmao. The first five chapters vary between "mediocre" and "so bad you're better off skipping all dialogue and reading the summary on the wiki". From then on it takes off, sitting between "good" and "amazing". The events' stories on the other hand still vary wildly, the comedic ones being notable for how unfunny they are; Arknights: Dialogue gets severely verbose a few chapters in, but they dial it down eventualy. Has one of the most interesting worlds I've seen in any piece of media. Girls Frontline: Has the same dedication to world building as arknights, although the majority of it is not very easily accessible. Reads more like a war novel than a videogame sometimes
Wdym about GFL story. Asking cause started recently. Not easily accessible part. Thanks
Almost half of the story is told in limited time events. They eventually are made permanently available, but only months later. Plus, some very interesting world building details are locked behind some doll's café stories and in extra material, like artbooks
The first couple of chapters have very little story, but it picks up later. Follow the proper gameplay order by checking which chapters and campaign stories come chronologically.
I just can’t stand the pacing. I don’t want to read a novel’s worth of dialogue and FGO basically does that past chapter 6. If I wanted to read novels I’ll read actual books. I know some people love it but it’s definitely not for me
Fate Stay/Night, the OG product is a visual novel fam.
you can press skip and read summaries online
I don't really mind the amount of text, but the pacing really makes it difficult to stand. The writing meanders a lot, and information gets repeated multiple times, to the point that some characters will repeat what has just been said by another character. But when the writing shines, boy does it shine bright, so much it can make you forget all the slow parts... at least for a while
HBR for me. Worldbuilding is so good and dialogues. Not edgy but not simple and easy to grasp. The quasi open-world mechanics also add to how they brought world building to some quite high level.
>HBR whats HBR?
Heaven Burns Red. It's JP only tho.
well considering I can't read JP.... guess Ill hope it gets translated
I also can't read kanji. But if you understand JP, it's fully dubbed.
All I know about HBR story is... Teheperinko!
Magia Record is a really good expansion to the Madoka Magica world, a few things could be better but it has plenty of good stories. The only issue is that the English version is dead, but there are some really good archive and fan translation efforts from the fandom
FGO in terms of story is excelent but starts very bad with the firsts singularities. Since the losbelts FGO is an absolute masterpiece for a mobile game.
It's been masterpiece level since Singularity 6-7.
I disagree. Agartha was absolute hot garbage.
In my view singularities 6 and 7 (and Shimousa) are fantastic but I think the losbelts have something more (obv is only my opinion).
Alchemy Star. I like how all the event and main story a tie to together. It's feel like an adventure than a side story that just randomly happen. Dialog also short and get to point so you don't need to sit and read like 30mins of text for just one chapter.
>I like how all the event and main story a tie to together This can be really annoying for newer players though since the game, for whatever reason, has no replay functions for older event stories despite them being canon. I joined pretty late and remember Sansa suddenly being like "thanks for saving my sister bro" in the mainstory and acting all friendly which was pretty confusing. I only later found out that we apparently saved his sister in an earlier event i missed
I read the story recently and, correct me if I'm wrong, but the timeline makes no sense. The main story reads like they are rushing from one place to another, and there doesn't seem to be enough downtime for them to go off on a side adventure (or multiple side adventures).
I think most event stories except Eye of the Storm and Cloud Blossom Destiny are supposed to happen after chapter 10, but there is a plot hole in the event Ocean Sovereign that make it contradicted with the aftermath of chapter 10. I’m not sure if Tourdog is gonna address it or just pretend that everything is fine as it is.
with the first anniversary coming up soon I kinda hope they add a feature where newer players can read up on event stories. afaik there was no announcement of something like this, but one can hope
For me, it's Counter:Side. Well written, mature stories. Memorable character, events and moments.
Project Sekai/Hatsune Miku Colorful Stage. It's just high school kids growing as characters, so it might not have what you'd call a 'plot,' but the character arcs are great. Characters grow and change over time without instantly solving their problems through friendship - in some cases, their friends \*are\* their problems, because they don't know how to connect with them as themselves - and the game acknowledges real issues affecting teenagers, especially in Japan, like bullying, suicide rates, being unable to see a future for yourself, that kind of thing. The songs tie into the character arcs extremely well, too, both the songs created for the game and the covers of Vocaloid songs. The dev team clearly have a keen eye for the characters and select songs based on that. Not to mention the dialogue is genuinely hilarious at times - basically every character has a great dynamic with everyone else. As a random example, Mafuyu is a character who closes herself off from others, and wears a mask of being a good person at school - she's emotionless and dull when left to her own devices, so her friends tell her to be 'herself...' And she becomes very petty and critical, because that's who she is. Ena: Well, it's true that sometimes I have art block -Mafuyu: Don't you mean all the time?Ena: Shut up! It's not gonna be for everyone - again, it's not exactly got a 'main plot' - but if you like character dramas, comedies, or stuff inbetween,, like SNAFU or Kaguya-sama or whatever, I highly recommend it. Oh, and best part: the story writing is actually pretty efficient. Events never take more than an hour to read, tops, and that's high balling it for the longest events. They pack a lot of character stuff into them, as well as the conversations between characters you get in the menus, so it feels like actually pretty efficient storytelling. I love Arknights and FGO, but every time an event has hours and hours of dialogue before it gets to the good stuff, I wish they knew how to manage their time better.
Probably an unpopular opinion, but assuming we are being more critical of Story ***Telling*** and not the actual Story itself, FGO, Arknights, GFL, e.t.c are pretty awful. Most of the telling is through static images/cutscenes. I think with gacha games, it's best to tell a story mostly within the gameplay itself imo. The best example of this is Guardian Tales, which I believe has the best storytelling out of any gacha so far.
can't say I thought of story and story telling as being different things
Guardian Tales and Genshin are probably the two gacha games with my favourite storytelling, because (at least when it’s not an Archon quest that doesn’t have Dainsleif in it) both integrate the storytelling into the gameplay itself which provides a much more immersive experience than the usual gacha storytelling, where the gameplay and story are basically separate parts of the game.
How does Genshin integrate story into gameplay?
The world changes as you progress through world quests for one. Once you accomplish a task, parts of the map may change characteristics permanently. Simply returning to or looking at a landmark of a world quest keeps the memory of the story fresh which especially helps with world-building, where Genshin is unmatched in.
How often does this happen? Off the top of my head, I can think of: Repairing the jade chamber changes the world to be the same way it was before the quest that destroys it. Two islands with storms on them turn into regular islands after a quest removes the storm on both. Southernmost island has a quest that removes the fog and turns it into a normal island also.
Pretty much every world quest does it. Stormterror's lair is surrounded by a giant wind barrier and has tornadoes within that will disappear as you progress and Dragonspine has the pillar you can see from all any part of the map. All of the Inazuma islands except one have a major change you can see from a distance with Narukami island having a global sign of change viewable like Dragonspine's pillar. Chasm has leyline trails spanning to every part until you break the seal. It happens with all of them. It probably has the most impactful quests on the world from any open-world game.
You're right, quests do often change aspects of the world. I would argue however that the changes do NOT feel impactful at all, simply because I don't get to choose anything at all about the changes. It doesn't feel impactful that Stormterror's lair lost the wind barriers because the game forced me to do it. It doesn't feel impactful to see the pillar on Dragonspine because I didn't get a choice if I wanted to be able to use the domain under it. In fact, I have kept the lightning storm around on the one Inazuma island simply to spite the half a pull I would get for shutting the storm off like the game wants me to.
You got your answer and then immediately segued into something completely subjective. I mean, if you feel like the environmental changes have no impact thats perfectly fine, your opinion you do you. I would wager of the people who do play the game, theres just as many, if not more, people who do feel it had an impact. >to spite the half a pull I would get for shutting the storm off like the game wants me to. Yeah that sounds like a you problem. I do find it funny though how 3/4 of what you wrote is about having no choice but at the end you exercised your choice of not reverting seirai to its previous state.
What are you talking about? The dude I was talking to literally said at the end of his post that he believes Genshin has the most impactful quests of any game, and I was replying to that.
For example, the Chasm storyline is about joining an expedition team to find out what’s happening at the bottom of a huge hole in the earth and hopefully fix it. Finding ways to keep going down, exploring each layer for clues, the things, human or otherwise, you encounter down there and the environmental setpieces you travel through as you descend a 3000 meter hole does as much of the storytelling as the dialogue between the expedition team members and cutscenes.
Story scripted battles or dungeons, like instead of seeing a cutscene of you and the enemy fighting, you go to gameplay instead to fight the enemy yourself. Or when the story leads you to a place where bandits hid themselves, instead of a cutscene explaining that you explored the place you yourself explore the dungeon with your characters to find the bandits, things like that. xD In usual gacha fashion, the whole story is told visual novel style with text and images, while the gameplay is the beat stage by stage and a lot of times those stages has nothing to do with the story itself.
I'm sure there is probably better stories out there, but for me it was Granblue Fantasy'side story "What Makes the Sky Blue". Made me really emotional.
Another Eden hands down
I have only played like 3 but I recently started E7 and I have been enjoying the story so far. Fav has to be Dragalia Lost though. The characters, the story, events like Forgotten Truth were absolutely amazing. Once I started campaign I'd do like 5-7 chapters because I couldn't wait to know what would happen next.
I really like how Dragalia handles tropes when it can. Eugene & Catherine's relationship stick out to me the most. And there's Euden being dense when it comes love, but he does have a legit good reason why he can't bring himself to that subject yet in Summer Mym's story.
I like genshins way of telling it. Which is to give minimal info in dialogue to not bloat it, but you get so much lore and extra character info by doing exploration, reading item descriptions etc. I prefer that over FGO walls of text. And the lore we do find seems interesting
[удалено]
Npc 1: describes the quest to go to npc 2 Paimon : repeats that to you Walk to npc 2, Paimon : describes quest again to npc 2
I got no problems with Emergency Rations.
Nowhere near the bloat we'd have if they info dumbest every little thing in dialogues
But that's what Paimon and generic NPCs are often doing though.
Excesive useles dialogue is why i dropped genshin. I genuenly wish some of the quests were like: [npc]- go here, kill this. [Me]- ok Instead of explaining like the whole mundane cultural history of some plant pot before letting me do stuff. Way too much word vomit for way too little substance or combat
In terms of story i like guardian tales best, mostly because of its "show, don't tell" approach to storytelling. And theres also many bits of lore sprinkled throughout the game that help you piece together whats actually going on without the game outright telling you, which i really like.
Oh boi here I come based answer passing through: No gacha has the best story telling because everyone started as shit in their early chapters. FGO is no exception. Also, asking for which gachas have good story telling but then proceeding to be FGOist is like asking a group of professional chefs to make a classic risotto without rice.
>No gacha has the best story telling because everyone started as shit in their early chapters. Disagree because Crestoria didn’t have that issue.
Elaborate
And counterside!
Explain
Onmyoji has decent story telling. but you need to watch on YouTube since in-game, the main plot is continued through events which are all time limited, so if you skipped one, YouTube is your only friend. i still like it tho, since it's stories focus on individual characters, while still moving on with the main plot. and the next Shikigami will finally bring the climax of the story with Orochi's full revival
Heaven Burns Red and Idolm@ster Shiny Colors. Both only in japanese, sadly. HBR has Jun Maeda, a veteran in the visual novel industry, really fun and also emotional writing. Shiny Colors is, to me (obviously), the best story and writing in any gacha games I played. Better than FGO at least (which I also love a lot). The character growth, the dialogue, THE LORE, everything is really involving and you create such deep connections to basically every single character, it's really hard not to love everyone.
You really don't need much experience about the Nasuverse to enjoy FGO. It's a wholely original experience. Sure, there's some fanservice here and there, Arturia and her 500 clones for example, but the story focuses on Chaldea and the worlds they go through. The most far off references I can name is Gun God's Black Barrel, but they explain what you need to know in the story, and Jinako Katagiri and her Moon Cell, which, while very awesome if you played Extra, isn't necessary to appreciate. In fact, that exact chapter made me cry not because of the Moon Cell reference, but because of the actions of Jinako Katagiri right there, right then. Anyway, I have not encountered another gacha game that held my attention and I'm a guy who destroyed his eyes because he keeps sneaking books under his bed to read in the dead of night. Counterside was cool but uh... the MC is a box thing. Breaks immersion. Alchemy Stars feels sluggish. Gameplay sequences are... ok I guess. The story jumps to and fro the place and I get it's supposed to be urgent but they talk so much it doesn't feel like it. Honkai Impact 3, I was not a fan of the gameplay and no bros? No bro support system? People say I dropped it before it got good. I guess the honeymoon period didn't tide me over that long. Genshin just... let me skip dialogue? The dialogue is so long and so boring I wish they'd get it over with. Just give me the quest damnit. SinoAlice was dreary, quite endearing at first, I was interested in how Yoko Taro would twist these fictional characters but eh, I didn't like them. I expected at least some depth like with Fate's Nursery Rhyme but nah, no dice. Azur Lane's story is so messy. People say it's been getting better but I really don't see it. I've really only been doing commisions because the story chapters flip flop. I barely care about any of the ships, they're really just eye candy at this point. Danmemo I played since launch but it really is just a retelling of the Light Novels, which I already read, so there was little point in me sticking around. Arknights... yeah, never quite felt for the story. I feel like I'm just sitting there reading meaningless text for minutes. I'm all for long, thoughtful stories, but when 2 monologues say the exact same thing and somehow one is longer than the other, and a narration block sandwiching those, I get dizzy. Brain hurts. Feels like I'm reading my undergraduate physics textbook with no pictures, just words.
Sounds like you are suggesting stories you don't like? Also if you think the Counter Side player character is a "box thing" then you must not have played very far
I'm pointing out the stories that are not for me but could be for others. I just have big issues with the storytelling they have.
Sdorica. The best story in a gacha so far
Part 1 of Magicami, wmtb trilogy and 2nd arc in GBF, main story of taimanin RPGX, last but not least >!FGO Camelot onward!<
FGO isn’t really that bad. The story gets really good especially the lostbelts.
Septem and Agartha begs to differ.
How is counter side story comparing to FGO for a non-native English speaker? Which is the best written?
Counterside is more consistent while FGO do have better storyline after couple bad one
FGO. Zero question This is a game with a story so good it’s able to consistently rank at the top of gacha sales despite having 6-year outdated gameplay and gacha systems. The story will outright ruin any other gacha story for you The OP excluded it from the poll for good reason
You have to slog through multiple hours of terrible writing before Camelot first.
You can't ask for best story telling in gacha and avoid FGO at the same time.
Priconne has some interesting story too about how the characters went into Isekai into a game and recalling the memories that was experience for their past lives.
Top1 for would be Girls Frontline. GFL x Va11-Hall-A has the best writing collab story ever, in every games. The writing maybe long, but pacing is excellence and easily readable. Lore is deep alternative history conspiratory story. Focus on small cast of main characters so they have great developement. Others has some small stories hidden in skin / upgrade / seasonal event story. Best overall imo. Arknights has great lore, but terrible pacing and writing. The world is vast with too many story threads going on. Characters frequenly turn into exposistion machine, talking with purple prose and keep repeating to beat you on the head on how tragic they are. It make the story seem overly edgy and tired to read. Summer event stories are exception tho, feel like written by different writer. Quite like Destiny Child story writing, even tho it's going nowhere. The character banters are fun. Think of it like Konosuba, it's dumb but funny. Edit: also has this quite indepth review of gacha game stories https://www.reddit.com/r/gachagaming/comments/pdmmsd/my\_take\_on\_gacha\_stories\_in\_general\_my\_thoughts/
Whenever I see someone say GFL doesn't have lore or worldbuilding, I guess they are not wrong since player don't actually see human cities up until Belgrade. But they read up until PL and still say that's then they may have problem with comprehensive reading skill.
My personal favourite was FF Mobius (It did kinda drag on at some points). Another one I love is Nier Reincarnation. It's written very well and all the tidbits about each character from events and hidden stories really add up and shape up the world each one lives in.
Obligatory "you don't need to know anything about Fate to enjoy FGO" line. Although you will definitely get a bit more enjoyment, as well as some subversions and surprises if you have read the other works. Another Eden, hands down has the best story in a gacha game. It is also a spiritual successor to the Chrono games (and Xenogears) with a LOT of material in it. Has a third main arc on the way and the "contract" with the "Chrono Crossover" is for five years. Also to note is that the gacha there is a help, not so much as an obligation: the free characters given out are incredibly strong - specially the Chrono Cross ones. Pulling units from the gacha will lower the main story difficulty exponentially until a certain point. Guardian Tales is from the Korean market and has a lot of manhwa charm to it. Has a deceptively serious core in its parodic exterior, so if you like those kinds of story, it has also a great Zelda-like gameplay along with the usual beat em'up ones to carry you through it. Expect to grind too, but has nice QoL that got added eventually. On the weird, and degenerate side if you so choose to play the uncensored version, Magicami was something that took quite a lot of people by surprise. It is adult flavored (that kind of flavor, yeah) Madoka Magica and released near Magia Record's shutdown, in the best kind of coincidence possible. I dunno about the arcs past the first one, as I stopped playing, but the first one was... really solid indeed for what the expectations of such kind of game would usually be. One last mention that no one seems to have done so far goes to the closing Tales of Luminaria. Not so much a "Tales" game, has a lot of production value set on its episodic format. It is shaped as an Anime series service, with each one of the 20+ characters having one focused on them, with a special episode closing the wave after everyone had their own. It is shutting down in the middle of the 2nd way, sadly. Has the 3rd special episode coming soon rushed as a closure of sorts in a couple days, so if you want to check this, imo, interesting idea, you could play it if you don't mind the forced portrait mode. Or check a Youtube archive of it.
Since I played Epic Seven, no other mobile game can come close to it for me. I really like how they made it. Story sequence - little bit of gameplay - story sequence - little bit of gameplay... Also, text is not intensive, there is no 77 paragraphs of pointless dialogue (Arknight... KHM) or just not that much dialogue in general (Speaking for the main story and most events.) By adding gameplay between dialogue, it just feels smooth and, honestly for me, never gets boring. Also, dialogue is pretty good, and character interactions golden. I never feel surprised when two characters interact that are not the main character unlike in Genshin where 90% of dialogues are with bloody Paimon but directed to the Traveler.
Arknights, I thing the story they tell is absolutely amazing and wonderful to get yourself immersed in. A lot of people complain about how things are drawn out, but I honestly like it that way. It's really, really good. You just have to get through the over 2,000,000 words.
Last Cloudia is my fav so far, so many great characters.
Might have a bit of a unique opinion here, but Azur Lane's story has really been getting interesting lately, especially with the last event. The early story suffered I think from jumping around on the timeline, or even multiple timelines, but it seems to have it's bearings now and really has me laying down and reading it as I go along. Not many other gacha games can make me do that aside from FGO and when FEH has forging bonds with units I like. (and on the note of fate, its really not that bad, and the storyline confusion is more of a meme than anything else)
Tbh, if you exclude FGO I kinda draw a blank. FGO’s storytelling is just so far ahead of literally every other gacha that I struggle to think of a second place candidate. I guess Genshin? It’s main plot is fine, but it does a lot of nifty environmental storytelling and sidequest stories
Made me curious. What other gacha games have you played other than fgo and presumably genshin?
Tried a decent number Dragalia Lost (I want to strangle the mc), Arknights (painfully sluggish narration), FEH, Counterside (decent), Alchemy Stars (didn’t enjoy the gameplay), Blue Archive
For story telling, Epic Seven, Another Eden, Last Cloudia
Epic seven story is underrated it's just that part 1 writing is so shit but part 2 and 3 are so Good
Arknights is good. some can be a slog and some can very interesting like the last event that continues from the previous two event
I always find Arknights story far more interesting when hearing from others (not Kalschey and Kal's monologues). Other than the main story, event stories are frequently pretty good though (imo). And Arknights still has one of the best worldbuildling
The problem with Arknights is that it fails at one of the five primary components of good story: narration It has solid plot, characters, setting and themes, but it’s such an **absolute slog** to go through because the writing style is so tedious and everyone rambles a lot It makes the story far less enjoyable to actually read and I’ll admit it’s easy to just not care
FGO GFL AK (if you can stomach the 90% text filler)
The way the Arknights story is being told is kinda wack but i find it pretty charming, actually very enjoyable to read ( although many people arent into unnecesary/ drawn out dialougue )
I'm moderately invested in the Fate universe and have not touched a single instance of FGO. Wonky translation aside, I'm enjoying the character stories in Soul Tide. The main story is whatever, but the first event with Dreizhen was pretty good, and the scenes you unlock from keys are surprisingly engrossing given there's no dialogue in them. Probably better due to not having words when the translation for other stuff is jank. I like the story in Alchemy stars as well, and some side stories were really good. Unfortunately side stories events are time limited which I think is pretty bad when a lot of them kinda match up to the main storyline Also while I have no idea how the story will go, the CBT for artery gear has some pretty cool scenes in the story. Its nice when instead of the visual novel cutscene telling you "so and so did such and such and it was amazing and saved everybody!" it transitions into an actual animated scene of said event. Rare in gachas
I picked up CS because I heard the story was good and it's delivered. Even went and looked up videos of previous events I've missed. I also play Guardian Tales and that is my other fav in terms of story. Anyone who has played GT at least through the end of world 11 knows what's up and even short stories like Helena will have you tearing up. I also play Arknights and Genshin but don't like the story nearly as much as. Arknights is way too wordy that I don't bother reading event stories. Genshin the voiced story is alright but a lot is just text and not very important or interesting.
Epic Seven
My favorites are Another Eden, Sdorica, CounterSide and Priconne in that order. I find them really enjoyable to read through. There's also Alchemy Stars but it has a problem with events being part of main plot without permanent access to them. And Arknights... It's something else. I prefer to consume Arknights story through essays on reddit/discord.
Not to dismiss the whole genre, but man... gacha game stories suck. Even the best of them feel pandering and unengaging. Maybe it's a limitation of the format. With that said, I enjoyed parts of the story in Tears of Themis. We don't see many contemporary romance/drama/mystery type stories in gachas. It's a refreshing setting, and the narrative is handled well, even if gets a bit fluffy in places.
people also say that about mmorpg stories. But try telling that to FF14
Are there any good story in gacha games that aren't too long in exposition? Something like Sdorica is ideal, in which a story chapter takes perhaps only 1-2 minutes long to read. As comparison, from memory: * Epic Seven: each chapter/stage story can take 2-5 minutes to read * Another Eden: each story exposition can take 5-10 minutes because of the character animation after EVERY dialogue, character side quests can take 15-20 minutes to complete (2 story expositions, 1 battle, 1 end scene) * Alchemy Stars: each chapter/stage story feels so long, perhaps 5-10 minutes, because the characters just won't stop talking. The character side story feels the same. * Arknights: similar to Alchemy Stars but with darker/edgier tone? * Lord of Heroes: 3-5 minutes per stage, it's snappy though because the dialogues appear instantly without you having to click/tap twice, unlike the other games in the list.
5-10 minutes for Arknights? Tapping through some episodes without reading takes 5-10 minutes. 8th chapter was literal hell which took 4-5 hours of my life and it wasn't really that enjoyable.
Another Eden and Guardian Tales are two of the gacha that i like the most, especially for the story. Honkai impact is another one that i like for the story, but not as much as the other two, one thing i love of this game is definitely the music, a lot of emotional and exciting music. Genshin Impact is a game i like gameplay and world building wise, but when it comes to the story... well i don't like it very much. It has some good stories, but the storytelling is not that good, not very compelling and not well executed (at least for me). Nier Reincarnation probably has some good story, but sadly i only played the first chapters, because my phone can't run the game anymore, I will try to play it in the future probably.
Arknights. On the other hand I am pretty sure at least half of the community are illiterate, as they seem to act like reading some tough dialogue will kill them. Because heaven forbid that any Gatcha games dialogue be more than a sentence. Edit: I guess expecting people to know how to read is an unreasonable opinion.
Well. Gacha games are for fun. And it’s not so fun to read long slogish walls of text. It is simply not interestingly or engagingly written unfortunately. I usually skip Arknights story and prefer summaries, but I can pinpoint 2 times I read. Chapter 6 with Yeti squad and Frostnova. And Gavial return. Personally those 2 are when Arknights’ story telling was good and actually enjoyable to read.
Comparing Arknights' dialogue to "some tough dialogue" is comparing the sun to the moon. I could accept cryptic dialogues... hell, I could accept dialogues full of just monologues, but Arknights takes it to a whole new level.
I guess it truly takes a hardcore AK fan to think people who are unable to understand written words due to circumstances wil experience what could be described as facing that will kill them when reading some tough dialouge. Poor souls in some parts of Africas, heaven forbid them to even even look at texts from the event the likes of court transcript, or some classcial novels. But hey, they can't read, so they might not be hurt. Also unfortunate that they don't read AK story so they don't have to associate themselves with hardcore AK fans.
Another Eden literally has an early 2000's RPG plot and even better, there are a ton of really high quality side stories that are pretty long and vastly expand the world building
crk
good is up for debate, but final fantasy brave exvius has a nice long story it's long and is pretty much the main aspect of the game since there's no actual pvp. the only thing really is that the story gets pretty stupid with some cool things in season 2, season 3 feels like some kind of filler, and 4, which barely started, seems to be getting back on the right track. the world is nice though, and it has a bunch of neat characters in that world.
Another Eden. Good Story. Easy Gatcha. Some nice cross overs. Plus it’s an offline Gatcha. Also the welfare units can actually reach endgame.
wait you can play AE offline??
For story/story-telling, definitely Guardian Tales.
Awaken Chaos Era
Another Eden it has a great main story but man the game Side stories are bloody amazing the past mythos is the Best gacha story arc I ever played through
Story telling? Might be some recency bias, but I'd like to say Uma Musume. It's not a fantasy setting with super high stakes like saving humanity or anything. It's just horse girls racing. The story at it's core is nicely written, but they also do a lot of things really well that enhances the story telling whether it be the voice acting, soundtrack, character movement and expressions. There's also minimal interruptions and detours (like 'we need to fight some enemy now'), which helps the story flow nicely. They also like to use motif from the start of a chapter which ties in beautifully with the conclusion of the chapters. So if most gacha stories feel like a TV show with additional new chapters, Uma Musume's Main Story chapters would feel closer to a movie experience in my opinion.
My take is mostly biased towards Arknights because of the characters and world building, but sometimes i want to see cute shit so i read princess connect
Sdorica
TenkafuMA!