00:28 Number 10 - Stellar Blade 03:40 Number 9 - Monster Hunter: World 05:55 Number 8 - Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction 07:38 Number 7 - Neon White 09:35 Number 6 - Marvel's Midnight Suns 12:12 Number 5 - Vanquish 15:56 Number 4 - Metroid: Other M 18:33 Number 3 - Freedom Planet 21:01 Number 2 - StarCraft II 22:55 Number 1 - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Honestly, I don't think any Borderlands game had that great of a story, but it was more on the characters. That said, I think the biggest issue with the series is the writers. Yes, Handsome Jack was a good villain, but my god they need to stop beating that dead horse. It felt the ones in BL3 were just trying to be "like Jack, but annoying influencers". Gameplay wise, I personally think BL3 was better than BL2. They fixed the weapon scaling and drops so you don't have to spend an entire weekend farming all new guns after going up a couple levels.
@@nickdaulton7340 Just a bad story in general, the worst thing is that it could of been good, the bones of a good story was there, it was just that the flesh was made out of rotten crap.
I absolutely loved Midnight Suns. I'm usually not a fan of cards based combat but it is working incredibly well here. I also actually enjoyed the casual banters with Marvel cast between mission. It's not "great writing" sure, but does the job for something based on comics' superheroes.
Midnight Suns is such an underrated game. My headcanon is that most of the bad writing is a throwback to marvel comics, instead of copying the MCU characters
I would say the writing is bad, but the story/plot isn’t; a standard good vs evil story. It’s not innovative or great, but I wouldn’t call it bad. So I think this is just on the wrong list.
Falcon, your description of wants for Monster Hunter worlds was perfect and hilarious 😂. "All we want to do is watch cats cook food, smack big lizards with multicolored sticks, look a the cool red spider thing in the new trailer" classic 😂
I loved Midnight Suns though. It's so much fun, and the dialogue is very detailed and comic-related, which is great as well. The main story was awesome enough that I had to catch my breath after it was all done. I won't spoil too much, but they really built up an emotioanl ending in a surprising way.
I really liked the gameplay of Midnight Suns, it just frustrated me that I had to go through the entire day and night cycle to be allowed do the next mission. And on the one hand I wanted to do the social stuff cos I found it interesting, but also..... Let me do more than one mission a day please!! Like even just side stuff maybe. I really do have to go back to it though. Your comment has also intrigued me enough that I might try during the week haha.
Man! Idk who is the main guy the does the countdowns for GameRanx but y’all do a great job in general. This channel is always measured in their coverage of games…just gold. Hope this channel never changes…would be one hell of a gem to lose. 🙏🏾💯
I completely forgot about mercenaries, and I agree. But only if they keep most things the same. I feel like it's one of those games that since it's so old and simple in it's premise that they'll try and change or add a lot to 'make it better'
I ended up playing Stellar Blade in Korean with English subtitles. MUCH better voice acting. But I agree the "delivery" of the story wasn't the best. BUT still thoroughly enjoyed my playthrough with that game. Honestly a top game for me. I'm on my second playthrough and enjoying it ALOT.
When you can call the entire story in the first few hours. But still loved the game the gameplay was super, the story was passable. Its in my top 3 games of the year.
I mean, they kinda picked random games, theres so much games like this. Like Nioh1 and 2, or, and FS fanboys will crucify me, DS trilogy + ER. Lore does not equal story, FS games dont have great stories, or realy stories at all.
I think the beauty of the original Dragon's Dogma is how they give you little hints about story throughout. It gives you enough that you can put the pieces together after a playthrough or two, but you never have to sit through an hour of cutscenes. Not saying the story is amazing or anything, just that it actually fits when the main focus is the gameplay.
I think the story is like that internationally just like the first one only complain is enemy variety isn't that good alot of them are not stretched throughout the game properly and the abilities where less than the first
Both Dying Light games would fit here. Mainly the second one. First one catches heat for all the "Your princess is in another castle" moments, but DL2 feels like a Fallout story. In a bad way. Even down to leaving/getting kicked out of the vault/city.
Mercenaries came out in January 2005, at the time it was pretty unique and most of us hadn’t seen anything like it. Some aspects still don’t really have a competitor, the way you could call in an air strike on any random building at any random time to destroy it…. That was crazy at the time. I remember just randomly just going into random cities then systematically destroying them by calling in air strikes just for the hell of it, or you could walk up to any random NPC (enemy or civilian) and throw them on the ground and put them in hand cuffs lol. It was the open world chaos of GTA on steroids, and was an absolute gem.
Oh man, it was so good. The best aspects were the factions/turns, calling in supplies/strikes, and hunting for everyone in the deck of cards. Such a good game
I still remember when I played Mercenaries for the first time in our XBOX, we were so hyped by the unhinged action and mass destruction being kiddos wanting to blow up the entire map with airstrikes, that I think I I never put attention to the story until the 10th time I played it. My humble opinion is that it makes the story come along, nothing more, nothing less.
Love the channel. Only complaint is the countdown colour - most of the time I’m watching at night in bed and the white background is a little harsh on my eyes. I’m sure I’m not the only one. Big fan tho!
Yeah I stopped passing out to gameranx cause of the random flashbacks on a 2-5 minute timer. But still good stuff if you flip the phone screen down which is better for sleep anyway *shrug*
I hope you guys didn’t put Alien Isolation on this list, the alien gets the spotlight sure but the story itself is actually engaging when you progress through it.
As a bethesda fan I was about to scoff but then I realized they pretty much reversed fallout 3s story and gave us the most pathetic faction ever (minutemen) as the guiding device.. good shout out.
What's the point though if it's an unfinished game? Way too repetitive and the same maps get used over and over. It would have been amazing if they just reduced the scale or delayed it by like a year or more to finish it.
Man the pure whiplash you get from the quality of storytelling of starcraft 1 then going to 2 is insane. The story and characters are pure hollywood michael bay shlock..
I'm a Nikke enjoyer and advocated for Stellar Blade story pre-release because I believe Shift Up knows their stuff about storytelling...I don't know what happened but the game's storytelling was definitely not up to par that I expected from them. I think they tried too much to make another NieR and did a half-assed job, but I still believe in them and hope they play to their strengths with their next game
Nikke Lore and Story was Actually pretty good and some Events they made were alright stories The Increasing Raptures after rapture in one chapter and expect me to Finish 5 chapters in one day But i hope shift up and greater Storytelling later games
There is a difference between a bad story and a disappointing one. A bad story makes no sense, isn't paced well, and/or has no player investment. A disappointing one tends to have all the pieces but fails to put it together or is usually second thought.
Bad story = I don't know, Dustborn? The last of us part 2 Disappointing story = the last dragon age. With old games: Bad story= borderlands 3 Disappointing story = prototype series (it's older than all of the other and fit well here)
Well then that's exactly what Stellar Blade's story was like! Lol I love the game, I platinumed it, but the story feels too much like "we got Nier Automata at home".
Earth Defense Force. Gameplay fun as ever but the overall story is pretty much nonexistent. But depends on how you classify “story”, there’s really well written moments in the missions. EDF6 somehow got one of the most convoluted time travel story I’ve even seen in games. I would also argue that Monster Hunter have very good stories. MH4 was probably the best, setting up epic rivalry between the player and the monster across the journey, built up cast of interesting characters, and surprisingly, actually pulled off some interesting mysteries in the plot.
EDF's story is deliberately corny so I guess it doesn't count. Yes, the story is bad, but if the goal of the story IS to be bad, then technically they did a good job of writing a story you're supposed to see as corny.
@@Monsolidowriting isn't that simple and you'll even have multiple writers for each character. When you experience enough media you'll realise writing worth studying makes up like 0.1% of media.
It's not that they aren't good, it's that they don't feel written for a game. That's been Sony's issue for a decade. There are lots of games that get top-notch writers and craft this excellent story that simply doesn't match the gameplay, because the writers and the gameplay designers (especially in large companies) don't have much interaction. I think that's part of why indie games have been succeeding on delivering complete packages for years while the bloated AAA releases keep getting more disjointed.
@@VeritabIlIti Personally, I'm indifferent about video game stories. While its nice to have a good video game story, at the end of the day most stories in video games (and in media in general) are just trying to find new ways to spin the same wheels. That's what makes video games different for me than books or movies is that a bad story could be mitigated by good interaction. For instance, I love the Devil May Cry series. However, I will admit that series' stories are simple and blah at best. However, I don't play Devil May Cry for the story. I play it for the high flying action, the replayability, the characters are generally funny, and the campy fun. Also, stories tend to be al a carte for most people anyway. I loved the story in Lost In Random but I found many people who said it was uninteresting and vapid.
@@D4C_LoveTrain1 There are many talented writers around the world who can write dialogues above middle school level. They just aren't employed by game companies. It's a crying shame. If we want to elevate video games to an art form on the same level as others, it's gonna have to step up. The quality of content is too often trailing way behind the technical aspect.
When I played the first Witcher game my graphics card wasn't up to snuff, so I played the entire game with a 1-2 second input delay. The story was good enough that I played the entire game with a terrible amount of delay. Story is CRUCIAL to real gamers
I'm surprised Shadow of Mordor didn't at least have an honorable mention. Some of the most fun gameplay imo and the Nemesis system paired with LOTR was just perfect. But the story was pretty mid and the characters were not the most enjoyable. Shadow of War I think came to a closer balance between the two.
Hi Falcon and Jake. A fan here, and this is your Top 10: Varied Video Game Channels that are Awesome: 10. Gameranx 9. Gameranx 8. Gameranx 7. Gameranx 6. Gameranx 5. Gameranx 4. Gameranx 3. Gameranx 2. Fextralife 1. Gameranx
I'm suprised that Just Cause isn't on here. Every just cause game whenever there is a cutscene or something story related I'll just go use the restroom, go on my phone, or start watchin something on another screen cause I really just don't care about the story at all. The gameplay though is so much fun.
Think my choice would be Mass Effect: Andromeda. I know it was busted on launch but after finally experiencing the main trilogy through LE a few years back, I had such a craving for more of this universe I dove straight into Andromeda following it. Honestly the gameplay I think is awesome, all the abilities, skill trees, the fast paced nature with the jetpack, the vaults and all the puzzles they contained and even adding back the exploration style that ME1 aimed for. The story however is just meh, couple of new races in a whole new galaxy as big as Andromeda and cutting out so many past races. Plus the new crew and protagonist are just discounted from the level of the main trilogy and honestly never felt the emotional investment in it that I did with Shepard and his crew. I think if ME5 does ever reach us if it could harness the story telling and emotion of old with the faster pace and more diverse combat system of Andromeda... it would be epic
Okay monster Hunter world's is kind of a fair point story wise.. but my god the game play the hours of fun the amount of crafting and items and weapons to play and things to do is incredible
The story of Stellar Blade is one of those instances when you HAVE to read all the documents and do all side quests to fully understand it. It makes a lot of sense and it's very good. Sadly, not many people do like reading these days and I guess Gameranx' stuff is one of them...
Borderlands 3 should be #1 on this list. The game was a massive step up from bl2 in every way but the story was such a massive step back people hated it
Number 1 Pains me so much... but I cant argue cuz everything you said was true.. Only thing I can add is "I was so stunned and felt so hollow so empty when the credits roll Maybe that was the point why Kojima made this game the way it is... I dont maybe I am just too much kojima fan to admit the truth.. anyway .... great video as always guys...
Stellar Blade I was expecting zero story and it was way better than what I was expecting. Imagine if the next game is fun like this will a killer story... that would be awesome!
Blaster Master. Sure, not exactly a story driven game, but given the entire premise is a kid losing his pet frog down a sinkhole, following it down only to find a futuristic combat vehicle, and he just suits up and goes off driving like that’s the most normal reaction possible, I think it merits a mention.
MGSV story was peak, it was just incomplete and many people didn't liked it because story was told in a different way and it was not what they wanted, same thing happened with MGS 2. David hayter was changed, this also made some fans hate the game even though Kiefer Sutherland did phenomenal job as Snake. MGSV story is better than 90 % of games out there.
Personally, I'm in the camp of it purposely being incomplete as a f*** you to Konami and the premise being an allegory for how Kojima felt about the drama that went down
MGSV is one of the most over rated games of all time and I’m a huge MGS fan. It seems like every mission was a hostage extraction mission. Great gameplay but it’s just not enough. That’s just my opinion.
stop the cope bro, every kojima fan says that the only reason people don't like the games because "they're different". Great gameplay but the story is mid
You´re right about Stellar Blade delivering the story in an unsatisfactory way. This becomes clear in the final minutes of the game where you are given a choice that shapes the ending you get - and you barely have a clue what you are supposed to pick or what the supposed "good" or "bad" choice even is
There is a meme of Link saying "Wait, I got to rescue Zelda AGAIN" also one for Mario "What, Peach got captured by Bowser AGAIN, let her save herself, I"m done!"
There is a word in Russian "Говноед" (*Govnoyed) wich basically means "Shiteater". It usually describes a person who consumes crap products and is more than fine with it. In my humble opinion it pretty much summerise Nintendo fan base
Can't agree more for Metroid Other M. It's definitely not the best Metroid game, but for the Wii it had some amazing ideas and for the most part felt great to play. You just skipped every cutscene you could so you didnt have to listen to everyone whining. (The bit about the Ridley clone evolving was kind of a cool idea, though.)
Hard disagree on starcraft 2 story. I find the only people who really dislike it are the people who were expecting the sequel to be identical. You have some valid points about kerrigan's redemption, but if you can't see the quality in the writing for the disappointment in it not being something you wanted it to be, that's a personal issue, not a quality issue.
Vanquish definitely is appropriately named here. This was a game that i realized that a story can be completely poorly done but be still be a fantastic game. A true testament to developer skill
Have been awesome, if someone make a 3,5d game like following: A rhombus-shaped cube can probably be a four-dimensional cube viewed from a three-dimensional perspective. Let me explain. If we imagine a rhombus shaped hole in the ground, in which we try to get a cube through, we all know it won't work, unless we make the cube rhombus. But a four-dimensional cube can be rotated, to another perspective, so that it (from our perspective) becomes rhombus shaped and thus gets through the rhombus shaped hole which (from the cube's perspective) is square shaped. We can actually form a hyper cube, by using a cube and two rhombic cubes! By the way, AWESOME video! 🙂
OK, I know it's a running joke how often Falcon mispronounces things, but I just can't get over him repeatedly saying "fire axis" for "Firaxis." There's not even an E in there; how can "Fir" be two syllables??
Nothing wrong with the voice acting on Stellar Blade. The story is a basic story typical of action-exploration games. It does the job. it's fine. If a story line like 'guy betrays country because he wants to take over an African nation and make it a retirement home for mercenaries' is considered award winning writing, then no one has a right to complain about any game writing.
Everyone has a right to complain, we're not the ones giving (whatever it is you're describing) awards. Awards are not a good show of artistic value, especially not Grammy's
Meh, 50/50... especially with RPGs. I love a good story. I've even played some visual novels, which barely rank as "games".... Depends on what I'm looking for. Some games would just not work without the story no matter how good the game play is.
The thing is, there are ways that stories can be conveyed that only video games can do. That's why with some games story is just as important if not more so than gameplay.
I will ALWAYS be a gameplay first, story second person. If the gameplay is good, I don’t care about the story. That’s not to say I don’t like a good narrative, but I play games, for fun gameplay. A good story is just a bonus Edit: am I allowed to plug my channel here? Sure.
Another *GREAT* game with a good or bad story depending on your taste is Breakdown for the OG XBOX, I have never seen a melee combat system so well implemented in a 1st person game, such freaking cool fighting mechanics have to be everywhere. Another honorable mention but from the X360 era is of course Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
No. The gameplay is brain dead, the enemies are stupid and sluggish but also you have to spam dodge roll, the levels are predictable and with no ambition, the skill tree is just mash more and slot in some side grade into your mash sequence. you have no standards.
i would wager 'monster hunter rise' had the better story out of all the 'monster hunter' games, they did a good job of making you feel the weight of the situation, even though you always knew you were gonna save kamura village in the end. it always added tension during rampage missions
The Amatsu mission of Sunbreak was a real surprise and draw a perfect conclusion to the Kamura village story. Wasn’t expecting that in a new inconspicuous eldar dragon mission
@gameranx Midnight Suns was *so good*. Actually the story has *weight* to it by the end, and your varied ways of going through it, Light/Dark morality, give it replayability and depth. Steve's joke alone excuses any clunkiness in writing branching dialogue for a game with environmental conversations. The gameplay though was *top notch*. Why can't we get an x-men game like this with romance subplots and multiple power-sets/character customizations?
With Neon White I was pretty much just skimming all the dialogue except for the main character's, which I'd listen to an pretend I was playing as an AU Spike, since they were pretty clearly going for that exact sort of character.
Every Soulslike ever. They literally have no writing. It's like they made half a game, but forgot to actually do the writing - the bit that is hard coincidentally.
The ironic part is the only non-fromsoft souls likes i really enjoy are the ones that buck the trend of obtuse story telling and just use the mechanics of a souls game while actually telling a clear narrative.
@@Punk-Mask story was very divisive at best. Killing Joel off at the start is complete slap in the face to many. And Abby was hated by many, plus that sexscene was just unnecessary. Then you build up the entire plot of avenging Joel only to just walk away felt like a huge let down to those who A) were outraged Joel died and B) that they tried to play Abby as the real hero/victim in all of this. If you liked it, good for you, but there were definitely a large portion who did not like the story
@@Lawrence_Talbot Avenging Joel was never the point of the story. It was about Ellie and Abbys emotional journey and how they grow from it. No one in TLOU is a good guy.
@@Punk-Mask growing on my emotional journey by offing off a bunch of people but then not offing the reason for why im offing off a bunch of people. you have mental illness to call this shit good.
Technically speaking this is almost every mainline Mario game, but those stories are MEANT to be simple to focus more on the immaculate gameplay. Also the DK country series is the best 2D platformer Nintendo has ever made bar none.
I feel like this just applies to a very big majority of mainstream games, it's a horrible practice, they put everything into gameplay because it's addicting and dopamine inducing which boosts sales, but then the story which is honestly where the true art lies for us, is just half baked. The only game I was genuinely shocked by the story because of how insanely good it was was Alan Wake II, I don't think we'll ever get a story that good from any other company other than Remedy for a long time. I'm the type of person that really likes picking apart stories and seeing deeper meaning, searching for easter eggs, foreshadowing, and subliminal messaging, but in these games there is none.
MGS5 was the first MGS I ever played. I genuinely had no idea who or what was happening but the gameplay was fun
I relate to that so much
Go play metal gear solid for the ps
And if you already have
Its so awesome!!!!
MGS2 was my first and I cried at the end of MGS4. Go back and play themmmmm
@Randybobandy12345 i started play snake eater a while ago, it's pretty fun
Try out the MGS3 Remake when it comes out
00:28 Number 10 - Stellar Blade
03:40 Number 9 - Monster Hunter: World
05:55 Number 8 - Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
07:38 Number 7 - Neon White
09:35 Number 6 - Marvel's Midnight Suns
12:12 Number 5 - Vanquish
15:56 Number 4 - Metroid: Other M
18:33 Number 3 - Freedom Planet
21:01 Number 2 - StarCraft II
22:55 Number 1 - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Thank you kind sir. Was about to skip the entire thing.
Saved me the whole video 😂
@@DeiwulfWhy even click on the video then 💀
Surprised Mass Effect Andromeda isn’t here.
*tips hat * 🎩
Sad to see that Borderlands 3 isn't on here... cause my god :'(
My first thought was Borderlands 3
I agree with this wholeheartedly. Worst story in the whole series.
I don't think the story was that bad. The villains suck but going around to different planets and unlocking different vaults was cool.
Honestly, I don't think any Borderlands game had that great of a story, but it was more on the characters. That said, I think the biggest issue with the series is the writers. Yes, Handsome Jack was a good villain, but my god they need to stop beating that dead horse. It felt the ones in BL3 were just trying to be "like Jack, but annoying influencers". Gameplay wise, I personally think BL3 was better than BL2. They fixed the weapon scaling and drops so you don't have to spend an entire weekend farming all new guns after going up a couple levels.
@@nickdaulton7340 Just a bad story in general, the worst thing is that it could of been good, the bones of a good story was there, it was just that the flesh was made out of rotten crap.
Can u please do next good story but underwhelming gameplay
Yup i would love that
Deadly premonition would be my pick for that.
Both of the new god of wars easily should make that list
@@TheChilipepper77 nah the combat is too strong for a list like that. I think the A Plague Tale series is a better example of this. And Hellblade.
Mass effect 1, Assasin creed Ezio trilogy, nier automata/replicant, baldur's gate 3, rdr2, alan wake 1/2, a plague tale 1/2, senua's sacrifice
Vanquish, my beloved. I play it every few months. The gameplay is just out of this world. Shame there was no sequel.
Yep gameplay is top notch
Music's great to 👌
@@poppamic Absolutely. Battle on the East Deck makes the action 10 times better.
Absolutely.
I really need to play Vanquish
I absolutely loved Midnight Suns. I'm usually not a fan of cards based combat but it is working incredibly well here. I also actually enjoyed the casual banters with Marvel cast between mission. It's not "great writing" sure, but does the job for something based on comics' superheroes.
Superhero anything is usually about, over the top. Dialog, action, etc.
Midnight Suns is such an underrated game. My headcanon is that most of the bad writing is a throwback to marvel comics, instead of copying the MCU characters
I started playing it a week ago, and I'm having fun with it xD I kinda expected the more campy dialogue and the quips so I'm just rolling with it ^^
I would say the writing is bad, but the story/plot isn’t; a standard good vs evil story. It’s not innovative or great, but I wouldn’t call it bad. So I think this is just on the wrong list.
I would have preferred a standard xcom like strategy game with Midnight Suns, but i did very much enjoy it.
Falcon, your description of wants for Monster Hunter worlds was perfect and hilarious 😂.
"All we want to do is watch cats cook food, smack big lizards with multicolored sticks, look a the cool red spider thing in the new trailer" classic 😂
I loved Midnight Suns though. It's so much fun, and the dialogue is very detailed and comic-related, which is great as well. The main story was awesome enough that I had to catch my breath after it was all done. I won't spoil too much, but they really built up an emotioanl ending in a surprising way.
I agree. I liked the story.
I really liked the gameplay of Midnight Suns, it just frustrated me that I had to go through the entire day and night cycle to be allowed do the next mission. And on the one hand I wanted to do the social stuff cos I found it interesting, but also..... Let me do more than one mission a day please!! Like even just side stuff maybe. I really do have to go back to it though. Your comment has also intrigued me enough that I might try during the week haha.
Man! Idk who is the main guy the does the countdowns for GameRanx but y’all do a great job in general. This channel is always measured in their coverage of games…just gold.
Hope this channel never changes…would be one hell of a gem to lose. 🙏🏾💯
Mercenaries needs to be remade! That game was insanely fun!
Yes please
People will say Lost Cause, but it's not the same unfortunately
@@__-xy9gxjust cause*
I completely forgot about mercenaries, and I agree. But only if they keep most things the same. I feel like it's one of those games that since it's so old and simple in it's premise that they'll try and change or add a lot to 'make it better'
I ended up playing Stellar Blade in Korean with English subtitles. MUCH better voice acting. But I agree the "delivery" of the story wasn't the best. BUT still thoroughly enjoyed my playthrough with that game. Honestly a top game for me. I'm on my second playthrough and enjoying it ALOT.
The combat was phenomenal. Also Ran well
When you can call the entire story in the first few hours. But still loved the game the gameplay was super, the story was passable. Its in my top 3 games of the year.
Gotta find all those cans! The last one pissed me off because it’s missable and I would have to play the entire game again just to get it.
@@drgonzo123you could go fishing for it potentially I did that for one I needed
@@alexgermane2211 really? I did very little fishing to be honest. I’ll probably replay the game once they come out with the Nier DLC.
I liked the story/dialogue of midnight suns... All the characters actually felt like their comic book characters and not the MCU for once.
That's what i was thinking lol
Agreed
I loved the camp!
Absolutely! I forgot comic book captain marvel was actually a good character!
The guy clearly haven’t read much of comics
Dragon's Dogma, anyone?
Gameplay - awesome
Voice acting - well done
Story - huh?
Played that for 200 hours and I couldn't tell you anything about the story
I mean, they kinda picked random games, theres so much games like this. Like Nioh1 and 2, or, and FS fanboys will crucify me, DS trilogy + ER. Lore does not equal story, FS games dont have great stories, or realy stories at all.
Absolutely 100% accurate
I think the beauty of the original Dragon's Dogma is how they give you little hints about story throughout. It gives you enough that you can put the pieces together after a playthrough or two, but you never have to sit through an hour of cutscenes. Not saying the story is amazing or anything, just that it actually fits when the main focus is the gameplay.
I think the story is like that internationally just like the first one only complain is enemy variety isn't that good alot of them are not stretched throughout the game properly and the abilities where less than the first
Both Dying Light games would fit here. Mainly the second one.
First one catches heat for all the "Your princess is in another castle" moments, but DL2 feels like a Fallout story. In a bad way. Even down to leaving/getting kicked out of the vault/city.
As much as I love playing dying light I have to agree with you completely
Definitely not mainly the second one. The second one has very meh gameplay.
I’ve honestly seen worse in terms of good gameplay/bad plot, and Crane was actually a decent protagonist as far as I’m concerned.
@@49HEALTH Mainly the second one. Great gameplay and terrible story LMAO.
@@Gogohobbytv it’s gameplay is just eh. That’s why more people still play the first game.
Mercenaries came out in January 2005, at the time it was pretty unique and most of us hadn’t seen anything like it. Some aspects still don’t really have a competitor, the way you could call in an air strike on any random building at any random time to destroy it…. That was crazy at the time. I remember just randomly just going into random cities then systematically destroying them by calling in air strikes just for the hell of it, or you could walk up to any random NPC (enemy or civilian) and throw them on the ground and put them in hand cuffs lol. It was the open world chaos of GTA on steroids, and was an absolute gem.
Oh man, it was so good. The best aspects were the factions/turns, calling in supplies/strikes, and hunting for everyone in the deck of cards. Such a good game
The Red Faction games pioneered world destruction though.
I still remember when I played Mercenaries for the first time in our XBOX, we were so hyped by the unhinged action and mass destruction being kiddos wanting to blow up the entire map with airstrikes, that I think I I never put attention to the story until the 10th time I played it.
My humble opinion is that it makes the story come along, nothing more, nothing less.
Love the channel. Only complaint is the countdown colour - most of the time I’m watching at night in bed and the white background is a little harsh on my eyes. I’m sure I’m not the only one. Big fan tho!
Yeah I stopped passing out to gameranx cause of the random flashbacks on a 2-5 minute timer. But still good stuff if you flip the phone screen down which is better for sleep anyway *shrug*
@ yeah definitely bro
i played mgsv with zero idea of wtf is going on but still one of the best games i played
the story is weirdy fun tho
I love that Falcon says Monster Hunter is fun and then shows, quite possibly, the most infuriating monster.
Which one, Zorah Magdaros or Kushala Daora
@cyberra0180 one kushy boi
edit: Zorah is just time consuming... Kushala makes me wanna stab myself.
@@cyberra0180most likely Leshen, it's the most annoying monster in MHW for me! 😅
Stellar Blade's dialogue did come off strange sometimes, like a bunch of robots and a monster pretending to be human.
Adam was the weirdest one for me - I dunno what direction they gave his voice actor but he sounds like Butt-Head from Beavis and Butt-Head.
Another banging video by the Gameranx team! Hey Falcon!
🤝🦅
Hey
I hope you guys didn’t put Alien Isolation on this list, the alien gets the spotlight sure but the story itself is actually engaging when you progress through it.
@@gameranxTVlisten!
People finally learned that clicking on head-shaped objects isn't compelling or innovative gameplay? Is that why Fallout 4 isn't here?
As a bethesda fan I was about to scoff but then I realized they pretty much reversed fallout 3s story and gave us the most pathetic faction ever (minutemen) as the guiding device.. good shout out.
MGSV has the best gameplay in any stealth game, period.
I concur
Too bad the game itself was such a massiveturd
What's the point though if it's an unfinished game? Way too repetitive and the same maps get used over and over. It would have been amazing if they just reduced the scale or delayed it by like a year or more to finish it.
Might be so, but overall, I have enjoyed multiple other stealth games more because they offered more immersive worlds and stories.
MGSV has the worst story in any stealth game, period.
Man the pure whiplash you get from the quality of storytelling of starcraft 1 then going to 2 is insane. The story and characters are pure hollywood michael bay shlock..
I'm a Nikke enjoyer and advocated for Stellar Blade story pre-release because I believe Shift Up knows their stuff about storytelling...I don't know what happened but the game's storytelling was definitely not up to par that I expected from them. I think they tried too much to make another NieR and did a half-assed job, but I still believe in them and hope they play to their strengths with their next game
Shift up is never good at making heavy lore. Their gameplay is just trash.
Nikke Lore and Story was Actually pretty good and some Events they made were alright stories
The Increasing Raptures after rapture in one chapter and expect me to Finish 5 chapters in one day
But i hope shift up and greater Storytelling later games
There is a difference between a bad story and a disappointing one. A bad story makes no sense, isn't paced well, and/or has no player investment. A disappointing one tends to have all the pieces but fails to put it together or is usually second thought.
Bad story = I don't know, Dustborn? The last of us part 2
Disappointing story = the last dragon age.
With old games:
Bad story= borderlands 3
Disappointing story = prototype series (it's older than all of the other and fit well here)
Well then that's exactly what Stellar Blade's story was like! Lol
I love the game, I platinumed it, but the story feels too much like "we got Nier Automata at home".
Earth Defense Force.
Gameplay fun as ever but the overall story is pretty much nonexistent.
But depends on how you classify “story”, there’s really well written moments in the missions. EDF6 somehow got one of the most convoluted time travel story I’ve even seen in games.
I would also argue that Monster Hunter have very good stories.
MH4 was probably the best, setting up epic rivalry between the player and the monster across the journey, built up cast of interesting characters, and surprisingly, actually pulled off some interesting mysteries in the plot.
EDF's story is deliberately corny so I guess it doesn't count. Yes, the story is bad, but if the goal of the story IS to be bad, then technically they did a good job of writing a story you're supposed to see as corny.
You could fill this list with just Mario and Zelda games lol.
Great as usual. Now give us 10 games with the best story.
I'll start: Bioshock
Alan Wake II at number 1 ofc
RDR2
1:15 why did that guy look pretty real and then the woman looked like she popped out of an anime
This is exactly how I imagine a visit to Japan would feel like
that's the point
A few Zelda games belong on this list.
Most of them do
Just Cause 2. Absolutely bonkers story with horrific voice acting, but damn did it feel good to go across that map blowing stuff up.
Came here to say any of the Just Cause games - especially 2 and the games after. Was the first game that came to mind for me as well.
@@YourEraGamer I really like the story of JC3, it's so campy and comical
100% agree
* I have replayed it twice and it’s still fun but yeah, dumb story 😂
WHAT? Switch SC2 with Borderlands 3
yeah idek how they miss bl3.
Same
3:08 "The sad truth is, most video game stories aren't that good."
Thank you for saying what needed to be said.
Yes and it's weird how games that cost hundreds of millions can't afford good writers. You'd think that would be the easy part.
@@Monsolidowriting isn't that simple and you'll even have multiple writers for each character.
When you experience enough media you'll realise writing worth studying makes up like 0.1% of media.
It's not that they aren't good, it's that they don't feel written for a game. That's been Sony's issue for a decade. There are lots of games that get top-notch writers and craft this excellent story that simply doesn't match the gameplay, because the writers and the gameplay designers (especially in large companies) don't have much interaction. I think that's part of why indie games have been succeeding on delivering complete packages for years while the bloated AAA releases keep getting more disjointed.
@@VeritabIlIti Personally, I'm indifferent about video game stories. While its nice to have a good video game story, at the end of the day most stories in video games (and in media in general) are just trying to find new ways to spin the same wheels. That's what makes video games different for me than books or movies is that a bad story could be mitigated by good interaction. For instance, I love the Devil May Cry series. However, I will admit that series' stories are simple and blah at best. However, I don't play Devil May Cry for the story. I play it for the high flying action, the replayability, the characters are generally funny, and the campy fun. Also, stories tend to be al a carte for most people anyway. I loved the story in Lost In Random but I found many people who said it was uninteresting and vapid.
@@D4C_LoveTrain1 There are many talented writers around the world who can write dialogues above middle school level. They just aren't employed by game companies. It's a crying shame. If we want to elevate video games to an art form on the same level as others, it's gonna have to step up. The quality of content is too often trailing way behind the technical aspect.
When I played the first Witcher game my graphics card wasn't up to snuff, so I played the entire game with a 1-2 second input delay. The story was good enough that I played the entire game with a terrible amount of delay. Story is CRUCIAL to real gamers
I really need more people to go back and replay Midnight Suns. Game is actually a classic.
11:49 can’t say I’ve ever heard a fully grown man say uwu before right now
Damn bruh, the moment i read the title the first thing came to my mind was Mgs 5.
🤝
Don't know what you're talking about. Midnight Suns was lit. It kept me IN well into the DLCs
I'm surprised Shadow of Mordor didn't at least have an honorable mention. Some of the most fun gameplay imo and the Nemesis system paired with LOTR was just perfect. But the story was pretty mid and the characters were not the most enjoyable. Shadow of War I think came to a closer balance between the two.
Spot on
Hi Falcon and Jake. A fan here, and this is your Top 10: Varied Video Game Channels that are Awesome:
10. Gameranx
9. Gameranx
8. Gameranx
7. Gameranx
6. Gameranx
5. Gameranx
4. Gameranx
3. Gameranx
2. Fextralife
1. Gameranx
I'm suprised that Just Cause isn't on here. Every just cause game whenever there is a cutscene or something story related I'll just go use the restroom, go on my phone, or start watchin something on another screen cause I really just don't care about the story at all. The gameplay though is so much fun.
Thata not a bad story thats more of a short attention span problem. I pad kid shit.
Think my choice would be Mass Effect: Andromeda. I know it was busted on launch but after finally experiencing the main trilogy through LE a few years back, I had such a craving for more of this universe I dove straight into Andromeda following it.
Honestly the gameplay I think is awesome, all the abilities, skill trees, the fast paced nature with the jetpack, the vaults and all the puzzles they contained and even adding back the exploration style that ME1 aimed for. The story however is just meh, couple of new races in a whole new galaxy as big as Andromeda and cutting out so many past races. Plus the new crew and protagonist are just discounted from the level of the main trilogy and honestly never felt the emotional investment in it that I did with Shepard and his crew. I think if ME5 does ever reach us if it could harness the story telling and emotion of old with the faster pace and more diverse combat system of Andromeda... it would be epic
Despite its very all of the place story. Phantom Pain is one of my favorite games OF ALL TIME.
(MARKER PLACED)
👍🏼
Okay monster Hunter world's is kind of a fair point story wise.. but my god the game play the hours of fun the amount of crafting and items and weapons to play and things to do is incredible
The story of Stellar Blade is one of those instances when you HAVE to read all the documents and do all side quests to fully understand it. It makes a lot of sense and it's very good.
Sadly, not many people do like reading these days and I guess Gameranx' stuff is one of them...
a game that requires you to read every piece of material is a poorly designed game lol.
@@D4C_LoveTrain1 LMAO. exactly
Ok, but is that the story or lore?
Most people today can't read sad to think about but true ...
all from software game are like that, elden ring, dark souls, sekiro@@D4C_LoveTrain1
Borderlands 3 should be #1 on this list. The game was a massive step up from bl2 in every way but the story was such a massive step back people hated it
For me it was Days Gone. I hated most of the characters and dialogues but still completed the game because of the gameplay.
👍🏼
Nice
Are you joking? I loved Marvel's Midnight Suns. Badass game!
....He said the game is great, just that the story is bad. That's what this list is
@@ChristophBrinkmann loved the story too. And quips. Lock stock and smoking barrel.
Number 1 Pains me so much... but I cant argue cuz everything you said was true.. Only thing I can add is "I was so stunned and felt so hollow so empty when the credits roll Maybe that was the point why Kojima made this game the way it is... I dont maybe I am just too much kojima fan to admit the truth.. anyway .... great video as always guys...
Borderlands 3 should of been mentioned plus honestly the Side Missions and DLC Stories were WAY better than the Main Story.
If I'm having my breakfast, I'm watching gameranx exclusively.
Happy Tuesday everyone!
TwoFace is happy. Or is he? He is always two minds about everything. Like Zaxbys’ tacos. Guacamole or Chipotle sauce?
Stellar Blade I was expecting zero story and it was way better than what I was expecting. Imagine if the next game is fun like this will a killer story... that would be awesome!
Neon White is a perfect example! I skip all the story stuff just to get to the speed running stuff.
Yass Vanquish. I love when this game gets mentioned. It's one of the goats fs
1:55 - Gamer bird discovers dubbed anime
Shut your mouth not all of them are bad 😂😂😂 some are actually fire
Blaster Master. Sure, not exactly a story driven game, but given the entire premise is a kid losing his pet frog down a sinkhole, following it down only to find a futuristic combat vehicle, and he just suits up and goes off driving like that’s the most normal reaction possible, I think it merits a mention.
MGSV story was peak, it was just incomplete and many people didn't liked it because story was told in a different way and it was not what they wanted, same thing happened with MGS 2. David hayter was changed, this also made some fans hate the game even though Kiefer Sutherland did phenomenal job as Snake. MGSV story is better than 90 % of games out there.
Personally, I'm in the camp of it purposely being incomplete as a f*** you to Konami and the premise being an allegory for how Kojima felt about the drama that went down
MGSV is one of the most over rated games of all time and I’m a huge MGS fan. It seems like every mission was a hostage extraction mission. Great gameplay but it’s just not enough. That’s just my opinion.
stop the cope bro, every kojima fan says that the only reason people don't like the games because "they're different". Great gameplay but the story is mid
A game’s unfinished story told through expository dialogue in the form of post ops cassette tapes 90% of the time is not good storytelling.
Play more game dude
You´re right about Stellar Blade delivering the story in an unsatisfactory way. This becomes clear in the final minutes of the game where you are given a choice that shapes the ending you get - and you barely have a clue what you are supposed to pick or what the supposed "good" or "bad" choice even is
the ending where eve turns into a freak is apparently the good ending 😭
No Nintendo games on here? Really? Most of their plots are total ass
Yeah but bro, Nintendo fans could not care less. They will defend Nintendo no matter what. Why open that can of worms?
There is a meme of Link saying "Wait, I got to rescue Zelda AGAIN" also one for Mario "What, Peach got captured by Bowser AGAIN, let her save herself, I"m done!"
There is a word in Russian "Говноед" (*Govnoyed) wich basically means "Shiteater". It usually describes a person who consumes crap products and is more than fine with it. In my humble opinion it pretty much summerise Nintendo fan base
This... it should been an entire list of nintendo games, have they ever wrote a good story?
Metroid other M is a Nintendo game technically
Can't agree more for Metroid Other M. It's definitely not the best Metroid game, but for the Wii it had some amazing ideas and for the most part felt great to play. You just skipped every cutscene you could so you didnt have to listen to everyone whining. (The bit about the Ridley clone evolving was kind of a cool idea, though.)
Hard disagree on starcraft 2 story.
I find the only people who really dislike it are the people who were expecting the sequel to be identical.
You have some valid points about kerrigan's redemption, but if you can't see the quality in the writing for the disappointment in it not being something you wanted it to be, that's a personal issue, not a quality issue.
“Gears on steroids” is the PERFECT description of Vanquish. It’s soooo fun tho 😂
Stellar blade had a amazing story
You talk about that fake deep story sure
Vanquish definitely is appropriately named here. This was a game that i realized that a story can be completely poorly done but be still be a fantastic game. A true testament to developer skill
The Evil Within. I love the gameplay of the 1st game so much, but hate the whole dream machine story.
Have been awesome, if someone make a 3,5d game like following:
A rhombus-shaped cube can probably be a four-dimensional cube viewed from a three-dimensional perspective.
Let me explain.
If we imagine a rhombus shaped hole in the ground,
in which we try to get a cube through, we all know it won't work, unless we make the cube rhombus.
But a four-dimensional cube can be rotated,
to another perspective, so that it (from our perspective) becomes rhombus shaped and thus gets through the rhombus shaped hole which (from the cube's perspective) is square shaped.
We can actually form a hyper cube, by using a cube and two rhombic cubes!
By the way, AWESOME video!
🙂
OK, I know it's a running joke how often Falcon mispronounces things, but I just can't get over him repeatedly saying "fire axis" for "Firaxis." There's not even an E in there; how can "Fir" be two syllables??
Can you do bad gameplay with good story plzzz
Nothing wrong with the voice acting on Stellar Blade. The story is a basic story typical of action-exploration games. It does the job. it's fine.
If a story line like 'guy betrays country because he wants to take over an African nation and make it a retirement home for mercenaries' is considered award winning writing, then no one has a right to complain about any game writing.
The voice acting wasn't great but the real awful part was the script. Embarrassingly bad dialogue
Everyone has a right to complain, we're not the ones giving (whatever it is you're describing) awards. Awards are not a good show of artistic value, especially not Grammy's
Which game are you talking about in the later part? I really want to know
@@aloksingh__3698 That's the basic plot idea for one of the early Metal Gear games. I enjoyed the game, but the writing was not good.
MGS 5, time to clip a birds wings(JK)
Ok hot take, Spider-Man 2 (PS5) really should be on here.
It did delivered a story not as strong as we expected but still there was.
I think the story was good for a video game but if you have consumed any kind of Spider-man related media outside this game then yeah it is a hot mess
Miles Morales was a way worse story tbh
Loved Mercenaries! We need a one; for all the effort put up into call of duty and battlefield, an amazing new mercenaries could be made.
I totally disagree on Starcraft II and Metal Gear, maybe just me, but I really enjoy those two.
He is just trippin with Startcraft 2. It has a great story comparable WC 3.
Same
Honorable mention - the entire Just Cause series. Basically the same case as Mercenaries
A games gamplay is arguably more important than its story. Having great gameplay is something only video games are capable of achieving.
Meh, 50/50... especially with RPGs. I love a good story. I've even played some visual novels, which barely rank as "games".... Depends on what I'm looking for. Some games would just not work without the story no matter how good the game play is.
The thing is, there are ways that stories can be conveyed that only video games can do. That's why with some games story is just as important if not more so than gameplay.
Just Cause NEEDS to be on this list!
I will ALWAYS be a gameplay first, story second person. If the gameplay is good, I don’t care about the story. That’s not to say I don’t like a good narrative, but I play games, for fun gameplay. A good story is just a bonus
Edit: am I allowed to plug my channel here? Sure.
Another *GREAT* game with a good or bad story depending on your taste is Breakdown for the OG XBOX, I have never seen a melee combat system so well implemented in a 1st person game, such freaking cool fighting mechanics have to be everywhere.
Another honorable mention but from the X360 era is of course Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
The VeilGuard can fit in here perfectly
true that bro!
No because the gameplay is terrible too
Mid gameplay
No. The gameplay is brain dead, the enemies are stupid and sluggish but also you have to spam dodge roll, the levels are predictable and with no ambition, the skill tree is just mash more and slot in some side grade into your mash sequence.
you have no standards.
"The story is just... a diaper. A FULL diaper." 🤣🤣🤣
I remember saying stellar blade had bad voice acting in English on reddit and i got downvoted to hell. Glad someone agrees
Reddit is Twitter's cousin.
i would wager 'monster hunter rise' had the better story out of all the 'monster hunter' games, they did a good job of making you feel the weight of the situation, even though you always knew you were gonna save kamura village in the end. it always added tension during rampage missions
The Amatsu mission of Sunbreak was a real surprise and draw a perfect conclusion to the Kamura village story. Wasn’t expecting that in a new inconspicuous eldar dragon mission
Last of us part 2 should’ve been an honorable mention
It’s an objectively memorable story. For every million people that didn’t like it there’s another million that did.
Oh yeah definitely play Stellar Blade in Korean! I think the story is pretty great! Also: Borderlands 3
I disagree with almost half of these choices. I liked the stories for Stellar Blade, Neon White, Midnight Suns and MGSV.
This is the first time I'm hearing about people not liking those games's stories.
First comment?
I disagree with Stellar Blade having a bad story. In fact i loved everything about that game.
Needed this one. Thanks Falcon
Glad to help!
20 seconds 1 view falcon really fell off
You need a hug? 😅
40 mins over 13k
@gameranx Midnight Suns was *so good*. Actually the story has *weight* to it by the end, and your varied ways of going through it, Light/Dark morality, give it replayability and depth. Steve's joke alone excuses any clunkiness in writing branching dialogue for a game with environmental conversations.
The gameplay though was *top notch*. Why can't we get an x-men game like this with romance subplots and multiple power-sets/character customizations?
Gameplay >>>> story
If the gameplay sucks I’m not playing. Idc how good the story is
True.
Agree to disagree, story is the true art of the game without it we wouldn't get masterpieces like Alan Wake II.
@@andreamaral9725 yeah but it's story based game.
The original comment implies to games prioritize both story and gameplay almost equally.
With Neon White I was pretty much just skimming all the dialogue except for the main character's, which I'd listen to an pretend I was playing as an AU Spike, since they were pretty clearly going for that exact sort of character.
Every Soulslike ever. They literally have no writing. It's like they made half a game, but forgot to actually do the writing - the bit that is hard coincidentally.
The ironic part is the only non-fromsoft souls likes i really enjoy are the ones that buck the trend of obtuse story telling and just use the mechanics of a souls game while actually telling a clear narrative.
I adored the camp in Midnight Suns. One of my favorites stories in recent memory, honestly
Baffles me how The Last of Us Part 2 is not on this list.
Because the story is actually good
Falcon has a thing for golf and buff chicks
@@Punk-Mask story was very divisive at best. Killing Joel off at the start is complete slap in the face to many. And Abby was hated by many, plus that sexscene was just unnecessary. Then you build up the entire plot of avenging Joel only to just walk away felt like a huge let down to those who A) were outraged Joel died and B) that they tried to play Abby as the real hero/victim in all of this. If you liked it, good for you, but there were definitely a large portion who did not like the story
@@Lawrence_Talbot Avenging Joel was never the point of the story. It was about Ellie and Abbys emotional journey and how they grow from it. No one in TLOU is a good guy.
@@Punk-Mask growing on my emotional journey by offing off a bunch of people but then not offing the reason for why im offing off a bunch of people. you have mental illness to call this shit good.
Great list, love listening to your thoughts and tangents. Keep being you Falcon🫡
Technically speaking this is almost every mainline Mario game, but those stories are MEANT to be simple to focus more on the immaculate gameplay.
Also the DK country series is the best 2D platformer Nintendo has ever made bar none.
I feel like this just applies to a very big majority of mainstream games, it's a horrible practice, they put everything into gameplay because it's addicting and dopamine inducing which boosts sales, but then the story which is honestly where the true art lies for us, is just half baked. The only game I was genuinely shocked by the story because of how insanely good it was was Alan Wake II, I don't think we'll ever get a story that good from any other company other than Remedy for a long time. I'm the type of person that really likes picking apart stories and seeing deeper meaning, searching for easter eggs, foreshadowing, and subliminal messaging, but in these games there is none.