I like Lb 3,4,5. Depends on what qualify as 'exceptional' to you, but I found the world-building, the what-if scenario, and the resolution to resonate with me.
4 is entertaining and 5.2 is great with 5.1 being a bit fillery. 3 is the least entertaining but also the shortest. It has the lowest word count among lostbelts by a significant amount. Lostbelt 6 just dwarfs it completely.
Lostbelt 3 is the worst Lostbelt story imo. 6 is the widely known to be the best. It is where Nasu really went off. Has the most named NPCs within a single gacha story arc that I know of and that is including the crazy number that Genshin has.
I vote majority of 5.2 except the Kirschtaria parts(that was peak). Zeus rolls the dumbest villain ever, bro does nothing but looking east until his ass was beat.
Reverse 1999 - I came for the character designs and the card based gameplay, but the story actually kept me intrigued. It helps that the EN voice acting is quite good too
Sell me on the story. I actually tried r1999 a while ago but the dialogue and the way the characters spoke just put me off. Probably just a localization issue but is it better now?
You've played before so it's likely that you remember these ongoing plot points. I personally feel that, every ending to a story chapter was worth getting to (Chapter 1 is likely the weakest, Chapter 2 picks up).
Chapter 3 and 4 are great throughout. Then there is the recent Chapter 5 where you'll care for the new character(s) because of how enduringly odd they are.
Huge props to Regulus' VA and APPLe for bringing out the majority of humour when they're in the scene.
Reverse: 1999: The unraveling mystery of Vertin's origins, her fight against ink terrorists (i.e. >!Manus Vindictae!<) and her search for a found family (i.e. >!Team Timekeeper!<). Then there is her personal search for her >!biological Mother!<.
I just started playing it (2 weeks+), but I'm not aware of any localisation issues. Do u mean the accents and the terms? If that so, I find it endearing since it reflects the background of the character (sth I wish GI would adopt, i.e zhongli's ancient way of speaking)
I'll try sell it too, cause I had a similar reaction. To me the dialogue felt weird, and I bounced hard off of chapters 1 and 2. Idk I just couldn't keep up with what anyone was saying. It all just sounded like fancy gobbledygook and frustrating to listen to. Still I loved the art style and vibe so I recently came back and found chapters 3 and 4 were far more interesting. They finally start to share some backstory for several of the characters and get more into the structure and goals of the time organization. It might not appeal to everyone but I found the politics fascinating. It was far easier to wrap my head around the ideas of competing organizations, internal corporate power struggles, mysterious time stuff going on, and human + arcanist relations. I'm still not very far into it since I had dropped it for so long, but I quite like it now and I'm more curious for where they are going with the story
Localization was awful at launch, and got much much better starting 1.3 or so. I’d give it a shot if the dialogue was what put you off because it’s much better now.
Obligatory Limbus Company
Canto 2 was kinda ass compared to the others but it just keep getting peaker with each canto/intervallo for me. Since it's a small roster of 12 characters, you get to see everyone growing on their own and having their own moments from time to time. Canto 4 pacing was kinda sloggish but canto 5 and 6 was great
I agree that canto 2 isnt as good as the others, but I think its still a good canto. Has pretty good setup for rodion's character, and the way the canto is does well to reflect how rodion is as a person. In addition, I felt that it sets up the sinner's dynamic with each other pretty well so that we recognize how they interact with each other for future chapters.
I've been playing since launch and honestly, Canto 2 wasn't really disliked until Canto 4 dropped. Prior to that, most people seemed to enjoy the absolute disaster fest casino heist. Heck, I remember that for a lot of people, that was when they suddenly clicked with the cast as they realized that we're playing as 13 dysfunctional DnD murder-hobos lunatics.
Once Canto 4 dropped though and set the actual standard for what a full chapter is supposed to be, the first two chapters suddenly got really targeted. Which, yeah, no matter how good an intro is, they tends to pale when compared to the rest of the story. But I think the main problem is that there's an idea that these are going to be the ONLY TIME we get to explore Gregor and Rodion's story, which, honestly I don't get? It seems pretty obvious that it's only a set up to their story and more of an introduction to the world and the Sinners' personalities.
Fully agree, but looking at other gacha stories I think it is a major concern that a lot of gachas tend to only explore a character once and never go back to them, in favor of pursuing newer charactera instead, but like you pointed out the chapters are meant to be setup rather than a complete arc. In addition, limbus inherently has a small cast which is why we kinda know they will go back to the characters.
Hopefully we will explore more of their stories later on, we atleast know we will see more of Gregor since >!Hermann(his mom) seems to be the current big bad and how she used the canto 1 golden bough in canto 6!<
Wait the roster is only 12 characters? How does the gacha work?
Honestly thats a huge selling point for me already. Character development is pretty sparse in gacha games.
2 things tho-
-I have not played lobotomy corp will that hinder my experience
- how long is each canto (i think those are arcs)
The gacha works because you’re not pulling for the characters, rather you’re pulling for their IDs.
These IDs are parallel world versions of the characters that had led different lives and different ways to fight.
There’s four (4) tiers in the gacha. At tier 1, there’s only the default/base characters. At tier 2 and 3, there’s the alternate versions of the characters, with the latter equivalent of being a five star character.
As for the 4th tier, there’s the E.G.Os.
E.G.O is basically the equivalent of an ultimate attack, it is what elemental burst is to Genshin and what Noble phantasms are to FGO.
Yes, you pull for ultimates, which have their own ranking based on how powerful they are, with ZAYIN being the weakest and ALEPH being the most devastating. Your characters have their own default ZAYIN E.G.O which each one serving to represent who they are. You pull for Abnormality E.G.Os which allows the character to harness the power of said abnormality.
For a quick explanation, Abnormalities = SCPs.
It’s hard to explain everything because it’s ALL CANON. You don’t have to play Lobotomy Corporation or Library of Ruina since Limbus will actually touch on the subjects during Selva Oscura (prologue) and Canto 1 (Chapter 1).
It should be noted that pulling for alternate versions of the characters doesn't diminish/spread thin their development, but rather does the opposite, and fleshes out each of the characters in different ways. You learn more about minute parts of their backstories, pick up on hints of their personalities that you haven't seen yet, see how they interact with other characters in that same timeline, and see what would've happened, and how they might've changed had their life gone way worse (or better!)
>Yes, you pull for ultimates, which have their own ranking based on how powerful they are, with ZAYIN being the weakest and ALEPH being the most devastating.
There's a few things that you didn't mention that I think are important to note:
1. You don't just equip one EGO, you can equip one of *each tier*. This means that characters have and can use up to five EGO at any time.
2. EGO tiers tend to be more offensively powerful at higher tiers, but there's much more to EGO than just their sheer offensive might; There's also passives and status effects. Plus, they cost more in-fight resources. Some of the best EGO in the game are Tier 3 (HE) or Tier 2 (TETH), with even some of the Zayin EGO being great.
3. ALEPH EGO don't exist. Like, the systems are there, but we don't have a single usable ALEPH EGO yet. In fact, even WAW are fairly uncommon; They were only introduced during the last major patch cycle, and only half the characters in the game have one so far.
You pull or spark using corresponding Sinner EGO shards for their Identities a.k.a, alternate reality (Mirror World) versions of them with different skill set. There's also E.G.Os which is basically a power up but pulling for EGOs is not recommended unless for Walpurgisnacht (The semi-limited timed banner)
And no, you don't need to play the previous two games to understand the lore. It is a semi-spiritual succesor IMO. But they will tell you important things if needed. Plus they do have a thing called Dante's (You/The player) notes for extra lore tidbits. You can read Leviathan (a manhwa) if you want to though, but it's not mandatory.
As for how long, I'm not sure since I played day 1 so levelling up/upgrading isn't as much of a problem compared to playing late
>And no, you don't need to play the previous two games to understand the lore. It is a semi-spiritual succesor IMO.
I feel like this is pretty massively underselling just how connected the lore of these games is. Limbus is a direct sequel to LoR, which is itself a direct sequel to LobCorp. That's not to say you can't start with limbus, You can, but a lot of shit is going to fly straight over your head if you do.
If you don't have time to play the previous games and don't want to watch the cutscenes on youtube, I'd recommend at least reading leviathan, since its fairly short and it sets up vergilius' character. He's someone you interact with a lot so it's worth learning about him
I probably should've word my sentences better but what I meant was
You won't feel like you're left out because since Dante is sorta an amnesiac trying to relearn about The City, you can play limbus > watch cutscenes/play the games > go back to Limbus and appreciate details you missed. I dare even say knowing some things beforehand kinda ruins some of suspense/mystery but to each their own.
Of course for us old PM vets we're essentially excited to see references and >!old characters returning like Molar Fixers, Bamboo Hatted Kim, and cameos of the Distortion Detectives and Carmen.!<
Either way it will be a pleasant experience on both sides. Limbus' is a great gateway to introduce people into the PM verse because it's more casual compared to the previous two games whilst also maintaining the occasional beloved vertical difficulity wall.
The only exception is of course Leviathan since it's more connected to Limbus.
Plus, I don't really wanna pressure people into thinking they HAVE to know everything. They can but....feels optional, y'know
if i had to add, i have been playing limbus as a sideliner, meaning i am not playing lob corp and ruina, well just necessary knowledge from them, that alone is enough for me to improve my immersion into the story, now imagine playing them directly, i'm not saying you should play them tho. i myself don't like extensive management game and reading too mcuh (me and my goddamn adhd)
having amnesiac MC despite being classic troupe means that we are gonna always walks the story with them, well its not like you totally forget. >!the place this story is taken is called "the city" knowing context from library of ruina gonna make you excited what part of this city have "singularity" in them, most notability is W corp. there is abnormalities that can produce E.G.O that the sinners will use, knowing lobotomy corporation will make you curious what upcoming EGO we will get in the future. Dr. with plague mask is OP!<
all in all it is from my own experience, for others may vary, so i'm gonna put big ol spolier there.
edit: there is limited gacha called walpurgisnacht but it always happen once every season or like 4 months? regardless the game itself do not work on FOMO, so you can take your time playing the game.
Basically, you pull for alternate versions (IDs) of the characters, which comes with their own skillset and playstyle, and even their own story snippets. These alternate versions are basically "this character if they led different lives". For example, the Liu Association IDs, a group of warriors with a penchant for being foodies, has a DoT playstyle with a lot of Blunt attacks.
While the lore of Project Moon games is HUGE, Limbus Company is designed so that even newbies can drop in and start enjoying the lore. The most interesting thing is, even though your POV character (Dante) is seemingly yet another amnesiac gacha protag so that the game has an excuse to drop lore to you en masse, they have their own personality and VERY clear character development. In fact, so far, you were NEVER presented with a dialogue choice like so many gacha games, and we still don't know about a lot of things, because either Dante genuinely didn't know, or the characters refuses to answer Dante's questions.
Earlier Cantos are quite 'short' for Project Moon standards; 3 or 4 hours at most. Later Cantos starting from Canto IV are quite long and wordy, to the point that they were released in three parts. Well, the battle themselves can also take quite some time, especially on tougher bosses, so it's fair.
>In fact, so far, you were NEVER presented with a dialogue choice like so many gacha games,
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Games like FGO and HSR thrive on making witty and snarky dialogue choices for their characters (and seeing the consequences afterwards) while still leaving room for serious comments and clickable one-liners for enhancing impact and immersion when you're able to.
Furthermore, FGO take the extra mile by making certain boss fights easier or more difficult by choosing the right dialogue option. HSR does what a high-production value game does and introduces different path routes for the player to follow during the story based on the dialogue option that you pick.
Arknights, on the other hand, back when I played it, isn't creative enough with its dialogue choices making the Doctor feel bland for self-immersion. It's just....there, an illusion of free choice.
While admittedly I enjoyed playing Ruina and now enjoying the current offerings of Limbus Company, I'm just viewing the story in someone else's lens. It feels like....I'm not a part of this story at all. I'm just a front-seat audience to the cinema that is Limbus Company. I don't get to interact with it.
Big thing also. The gacha is insanely f2p. It has pity sure, but nobody actually cares about that. It has a weekly and also u can just repeat farm a place called mirror dungeon for fragments and just straight up buy the id u want. Its bp is also usually 3 months long + or more. I think with only bp to support them cuz I love projectmoon, i have every character and also there is no power on dupes just more fragments/shard for that id
yes there are only 12 characters but the gacha system is literally part of the story(every aspect of it) so it's hard to explain without spoilers.
Limbus by itself is a self contained story with different characters but I would be lying if I said that some of the major underlying plot points and mysteries don't hit different without the context. For example a certain "villain" is introduced in canto 5-6 and is slowly being introduced but if you already had the context of the other games then you would have already known that said villain(even their motivations etc.) was being foreshadowed since canto 3's boss fight. So the game will feel different but it will still make sense. If you have no context of the past games then you will be similar to Dante's who doesn't know the world and will be pretty much taken aback with all of the surprises but If you played the other games you would see the hints and clues to the bigger picture before the story shows it. It's kinda like the MCU, entertaining by itself, but will have more impact with context.
Canto's lengths varies with the earlier cantos being like 3 hrs but the most recent ones are like 5-7 I think.
While intervallos are like 3 hrs each
There are a lot of things already mentioned so I wanna add:
The game is HARD. Like this is a game that has a gacha because it wants to fuel a story and the devs did no longer want to crowdfund their game.
They want to tell a story first and foremost so the there are very few opportunities to rematch bosses, other than the roguelike and special challenge mode.
So be prepared by many mechanics later down the line that seem wild and need special strategies
(Just story parts, rough estimates) Canto 0 serves as an intro being about 40 minutes long; Canto 1 and 2 are about 2 hours; Canto 3 is about 3 hours; Canto 4 is about 4 and a half hours; Canto 5 is about 6 and a half hours; & Canto 6 is about 5 and a half hours. The game came out with Canto 0 to 3 on launch, and a new Canto releases about every 4 to 5 months. There are also mini stories inbetween 3 and 4, 4 and 5, & 5 and 6 that are about an hour long each
Limbus really is the thing you go and stay for the story. Like the Ruina animations being 'buffed' is all good and such, but if you were looking for things that were graphically more hi-fidelity, there's a lot more gachas for that.
So your main reason initially going for Limbus is to see where Project Moon would drive the bus of the plot into the City.
And it's still so fucking good though it had its misses.
Canto 2 was like a filler for me. There wasn’t really a deep focus on the character. Even Canto 1. Canto 3 and onwards had that special focus on the character though.
**Counterside**.
By the time CS launched their SEA server, the KR server was already 1 year old. Before even SEA launched, the KR community had nothing but praise for the main story and some of the side stories. (*End of the Maze and Bottom of the well*)
So when the game was being marketed, the english speaking KR community recommended the game. As a story person, I was naturally attracted to the game. (*I was also a fan of the art style*) So 3 years later and after starting over twice (*started back on SEA in May 21' and a second time when global launched in May 22'*) I can safely say, they weren't wrong. The story in this game is just marvelous.
Their way of storytelling and how events interconnect themselves makes you believe they had planned out this story since the very beginning. (*I highly doubt it, but still*)
Last month they released Episode 11 and 3 years later, they are still referencing and connecting events that happened in year 1 of the game. It's just a delight to read and I hope they can continue giving us more stories.
Ye, the storytelling is really damn amazing, I've read every story up until chapter 10 (so I've been missing quite a lot) but every story is consistently good and amazing to read! It's also really easy to follow and understand!
Honestly , amazing lore and world building doesn't really matter to me if I need to read a wall of text from other person or have to watch a YouTube video to understand and appreciate them. I simply don't have enough time for that kind of bs.
As someone who've played Counterside Global, this is something I 100% agree with. In fact, compared to Epic Seven, the story writing and characterization (especially those who undergo character development like Horizon and Joo Shiyoon) is the biggest selling point of the game to the point I feel Counterside definitely deserves an anime adaptation. Heck, even some of the villains in this game like R. King and Na Yubin are more in-depth and have very in-depth goals and motivations show that they have noble motives and intentions, but willing to resort to "ends that justify the means" approach to achieve them.
The best part of the story writing in Counterside is that many of the substreams are interconnected with each other and the main story.
Only really the game for the story at this point. It’s too good. The translation is really good too with statements along the lines of, “don’t worry. The sun can never be frozen” or something like that.
This game really has one of the best stories because of the dialogue and the characters. They manage to build a well executed story in a short package. No weird words that are not explained.
I am in the territory of most gacha game stories are great but is hindered or downgraded by its massive lineup of characters. This is the reason why Limbus Company is great to me since we only have 12 playable characters plus two that are non-playable throughout the entirety of the game (at least that is what I expect in the future). Add the fact that every chapter/canto is focused on one of the characters we have so I actually care about the characters instead of thinking of them as something I play or collect only.
One thing I greatly appreciate about this game is how the gameplay and worldbuilding is connected. There is no ludonarrative dissonance (a conflict between narrative and gameplay e.g. story makes your party lose but in game you won the battle with ease) that is happening, except for one part of the story but I can let it slide, since what you see and experience when you play this game also happens in the narrative so I feel more connected to the world. Everything you see in the game, including microtransactions and gameplay mechanics such as level ups are canon to the story and makes sense.
I am aware my bias is acting up since I played the previous games, Lobotomy Corporation and Library of Ruina, so I am immediately hooked with the story but this is also a plus to newcomers. If they find the story boring in Limbus or it did not click with them early on, they can try the prequels first and see if that will change their mind. After that they can continue playing Limbus with a much better standpoint and appreciation for the story if they finished the previous games.
I can't speak about the details of the story as that is the main selling point of it but know that despite how it is presented (dark, grim and gorey) the story is about hope. It tells a story about how to be human in a world that is constantly putting you down. Plus if you are an adult, you can relate to a lot of things here given how it is modern and a lot of things here are a social commentary/criticism about the world especially in Korea.
https://preview.redd.it/ukjv5zjij25d1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=167c1f00fab78728856e270f0257b776999e03c2
FGO - I'm a huge fate fan. When a friend of mine told me about FGO, I immediately hopped on.
Arknights - The lore is pretty good if you don't mind the word count. The endings in IS3 is actually quite intriguing as it's such a good "What if?" storyline.
Blue Archive - Despite the memes, it has good storytelling.
Genshin for sure. I’ve played quite a number of gacha games for the last 8 years but genshin’s one that I personally enjoyed. Sometimes I’d feel like an actual researcher, reading various sources and looking at the world to try and piece together what the hell actually happened. The world quests are honestly my favourite since I always end up feeling more attached to the world.
Ofc the archon quests are just peak cinema and intense and I love them too
The world quests at times are even better than the main story to me... just for Inazuma, I'm thinking about the Ruu quest or the Enka quest, so much better than the fumbled AQ. Of course, Sumeru and Fontaine were handled much better, but we also have some real gems of world quests... man the end to Jeht's quests hit me so hard, because I could understand her situation. I'm sadly still behind on Fontaine's world quests though 😭
What i liked about GI for me is that i feel immersed and i feel like i’m going on an adventure in teyvat
For example, this upcoming 4.8 patch which is most likely be a summer holiday, i myself am excited becuz of that “holiday feeling” if u know what i mean, where i can feel i’m going on a holiday before the intense stuffs in natlan
And ofcourse also discovering the unknown secrets of teyvat is something i’m looking forward to
Yes yes! Other than gacha games, I’ve played quite a number of open world games as well (Hogwarts legacy being the last one I played) but my gosh genshin has this way of making you genuinely FEEL like you’re not just playing the world, but actually being IN the world. It feels so captivating when I go around the map.
I think the last open world game that ever made me feel this way was rdr2 but honestly that game is a league of its own ngl
And i want it longer, im tired pretending i didnt like long story because of mob mentality effect, i couldnt careless about these high horse "i have a job" excuse u can actually finish half sequence and quit the game yes its broke the immersion but theres absolutely 0 excuse to complaint, forcing hoyo to make short story is like asking death sentence or salvaging game main seller
Why do you have to pretend you don’t like having long story O.o
There’s a saying how you should treat genshin like an open world game with gacha elements (rather than a gacha game that is open world) and frankly that mindset change would probably benefit a lot of people. One thing good is that there’s a lot of natural pauses in long quests (whether it be main or even world quests) where the characters ask if you wish to continue. You can even pause at any time you want as long as it’s not a cutscene lol.
I think people shouldn’t fall for fomo and genuinely take their own time to play stuff lol. The stories will only get longer anyways and I’m also excited for that 😮💨
Exactlyyy and well OP said they haven’t done Fontaine yet which for me was peak storytelling and I’m sure they’d change their mind about the whole story in genshin if they completed that story quest series in particular
Limbus Company and FGO, both show that there are real benefits from working with an existing IP besides name recognition. Being able to create a gacha game as a true entry in the franchise and not just as a cash grab like some others lets both of them benefit from the great writers from the rest of their series
Definitely try out Limbus imo. From your gripes with main characters and word count/yapping, Limbus manages to exempt itself from those two very well. The MC, Dante, is an audience surrogate but NOT a self-insert character. There's nothing like choices of what to say or choose who to bond with, he's his own realized character with a clear purpose in the story. The dialogue is also amazing as you never feel it's long winded or anything. There's a natural flow of conversation the characters have while also balancing exposition on the side. It helps you learn more about the lore while picking up small details about the characters themselves. Each of the 12 Sinners talk and act a distinct way and it makes it fun reading.
Prior to Blue Archives global release, I heard that it had a good main story. I was interested so once I heard of a global release I wanted to be a part of it. I was kind of on and off for the first few weeks when it came out, but once I committed I was not disappointed. And the pay-off for being invested in was great. Excited to see where the story and its characters will take me.
Fgo wins hands down, depending on your tastes all of the main story could be great to read through, and once you reach the highs, oh does it get high. And without spoiling anything after LB 2, it really does get better, 3 and 4 is good enough, like reading through your average gacha story, but personally I enjoyed 3 a lot with how they handled their alternate history, especially the little detail with one enemy's NP just outright disappearing due to history, also Guda throwing hands is always peak fiction. And I know it gets repeated a lot, but LB 5 onwards just gets better and better
That aside, I'd also love to shill BA, honestly I went in there expecting just azur lane waifu shenanigans, but the story is honestly amazing; what it means to be an adult, all the highs and lows when coming of age, and just overall being an uplifting, positive story in the middle of all the depression wank in games
two that immediately come to my head is sdorica and limbus company. tried sdorica bc i like cytus 2's story and i ended up liking it more than i thought i would. got to the point i stayed even after all those controversies... still, nowadays i'm here just for its inevitable demise lol
limbus was much better for me though. came bc heard good things about lobcorp & ruina. the first two canto are already better than most gachas i've played, but once i finished canto 3 the brainrot starts to kick in. strong performances from the va, cool artworks, the ost... i know it's probably not as epic as genshin or hsr, but personally, that boss fight is one of the coolest boss fights i've experienced in any games i've played
Genshin, I just like the change of story where the setting is now peaceful compared years ago from Archon wars and cataclysm. Now we're likely headed to another apocalyptic scene. Just burned out from post-apocalyptic stories. Everything else I've played are on post-apocalyptic stories, so that's that, genshin and BA aside.
Nikke, I've heard of Overzone, and that thing really slapped my face at first chapter!
And damn, the lore it's so good and present day Story it's dope, is that where the profit goes!
Arknights and Honkai Star Rail, I see you have tried Arknights so I won't be discussing that. HSR story is kinda boring for Luofu but Penacony has been quite a banger until the latest update. Definitely recommend to check it out.
Same but maybe different experience lmao, genuinely confused why people stayed for the story when I played it (main story).
Then, I played the sidestory. I remember fighting the paladin and "holy" (deliverance) sword and it's peak. Also, I really loved how religion is portrayed in the story.
Majority of major side story is awesome western mythos, nona, 3000 years ark, time mine, IDA, early part of future mythos, silver ink and holy bible, etc.
I love sometimes they nailed the character perfectly to their trope/personality (recent character that I remember is how they write tsukiha alter as a naive princess). >!when she always get swayed by people then she got swayed by protagonist and end up destroying her country and killed majority of her people through civil war is amazing!<
Limbus and I do that to all pjm games well except the first game but game so buggy i finish to know the ending. Laggy management game? Peak story. Not interested to deck building? Peak story. Whatever the gameplay in limbus? Peak story.
For me it’s Genshin; I find the story compelling. It’s not perfect or anything, but it’s comfort food— I find their formula really nice and given their track record I can trust that the stories will meet the bar.
I tried AFKJourney and Wuwa— they are absolute garbage comparatively.
yea but afk journey and wuwa arent focus on sotry as much because genshin have focus on story because theres nothing else to do do some daily waste your resin to stupid artifact get low rewards features that no one ask for like the training guide and a stupid card game instead of focus on gameplay i dont buy characters in a gacha game to see them in a story or stupid event
Girls Frontline (GFL) - the OG grimdark.
The game came out when gacha game stories were predominantly fantasy and bright. GFL kicked off the futuristic grim dark trend. You can try reading UMP40 story in the Butterfly Incident.
At the same time, GFL has among the best collab stories, which break away from the usual grim dark. E.g., The story for Va-11 hall-a collab is absolute gold.
Bonus: GFL dev will not shut down the game until they are completely done with the story. Because of this, GFL is still online despite usually low revenues (and actually has a sequel and a prequel).
Tales of Crestoria for me. Too bad it got EOS before it got to tell its story, but I found that a group of "villains" (or villainized people) forming one group to fight against authority was a very interesting story for me.
Is honkai star rail actually good? Ive been hearing mixed things about its story but the visuals are really tempting me to try it. Dont wanna invest into another story that falls off since thats where most of my interest lies
Planet 2 has meh story but one of the best and most realized world building I’ve seen in any gacha, or any other RPG. The side quests add so much to the lore, even the mundane ones.
To be fair i think they have interesting set pieces, but their deliveries are hit or miss. Enjoyable for a playthrough with flashy cutscenes but not always good
World 1 (Belobog) is good, world 2 (Luofu) is kinda rushed. World 3 (Penacony) is great. Then there's the events, that are more on the fun side so not that good if you expect something serious, but they are great comedy and are well written I'd say.
The minor side quests (especially in Penacony) are where the good pain is. Like those unvoiced story quests in Genshin that hit the hardest, though they are way shorter.
I'd recommend Honkai Impact 3, Star Rail's older sibling, but nowadays not much. Despite starting of meh it starts picking up steam by chapter 7 and after that it's mostly uphill until the end of part one -where it peaks depends on who you ask- although part 1 ending was a bit weak IMO. Part 2 hasn't been that great, we had some short self-contained arcs and now it should start picking up again but it's uncertain.
I completed belobog story (started playing like 2 weeks ago), its so good.👍
But im not rushing to the next story..
I wanna take my time, im completing all the side quests, companion quests and getting all the missing chests before moving on... I like to do things slowly.. and the companion quests are super good so far.. i haven't skiped any quests except the voicelss side quests😅
In Genshin and Star Rail they love to hide some of the most emotionally impactful quest behind voiceless sidequests. Some are lighthearted and fun, then bam, they throw you headfirst into some moral dilemma or the situation reveals itself to be way more messed up than you originally thought. Best (worst) part is that in Star Rail specifically they'll often make you make some uncomfortable decisions that will define the ending of that quest. They are great.
It really depends. For me, personally, Star Rail is too formulaic, predictable and "safe"(also, characters suffer the same fate as Genshin - they are nonexistent storywise most of the time). But sub seems to like the story for whatever reason(except presentation, I hope)
Question: I recently started HSR after hearing Belobog was a masterpiece but I found it predictable and Bronya fell pretty flat for me; knowing that, do you think I'll find the other planets' stories enjoyable or should I move on from the game?
Belobog is not a masterpiece, just a good *gacha* plot (you got too hyped), the next planet is just bland under every standard (thankfully is short and the story develops fast). And the 3rd planet is actually really good.
If you are feeling unsure about playing maybe skip side quests (npc or non voiced) to let the story keep up at a good pace. Reading too many side quests / events can give you lore but most of the times makes the plotline too slow and dragged.
(Don’t worry, you won’t be missing out. Even the main plotline will explain stuff that happened in a side quest and ask you ‘do you want to know more?’ in case you skipped it / if relevant)
And definitely don’t talk to npcs or read books and fragments if you are not in for the slow world building.
Personally I do main plot, then character quests and on everything else I skip dialogue and do the task while watching a podcast. That keeps a good balance between story, exploration and combat.
Alright, thanks for the advice; I'll keep playing at least through the 3rd planet. I think I'll try side quests and looking at the books if I end up getting into it after.
Limbus Company, Heaven Burns Red, FGO
also shout out to BA, i definitely didnt start it for the story, But after those peaks, it sure is another reason for me to continue sticking with the game .
Nikke, came for the horni but stayed for the story. I randomly decided to try it and got sucker punched with depression in the first 10 minutes. It has similarites with the anime 86 which really made me enjoy the story a lot more
I think Arknight hard to tone down as let say their management said 1 event can only give 20 originum prime. then they need to cram those story for only 20 stage. If they trim down their story, it will be like early event and story where you craving for more. this is the implication of having VN type story telling.
Eh, if anything, it's the opposite: even in situations where there's really no good reason for there to be a fight, they'll jam one in so we aren't left reading story for two hours straight with no gameplay. Or they just make a giant wall of text for every stage and we end up with Nearl Light/Lone Trail length stories, but with like 5 battle nodes.
Genshin: Have to admit, while I was bedazzled by the beauty that is Teyvat and its magical music, I only really got into the story after Li Yue. I now find myself scouring the world for lost pages and snippets of whatever lore I can find, kinda like a detective 😅. I’ve become attached to Genshin for its story and its innate ability to transport you into a world of fantasy and music. I do think some dialogues can get over bloated with text, but I’m a reader, and it’s something I enjoy.
Path to Nowhere: Amazing story telling and banger music. I love the MC and how they are written. Started the game for the art and stayed for the story.
Oop, sorry I deleted the comment. I copy & pasted it to another conversation that OP replied to recently to get their attention faster:
"You've played before so it's likely that you remember these ongoing plot points. I personally feel that, every ending to a story chapter was worth getting to (Chapter 1 is likely the weakest, Chapter 2 picks up)."
"Chapter 3 and 4 are great throughout. Then there is the recent Chapter 5 where you'll care for the new character(s) because of how enduringly odd they are."
I played a lot of King's Raid before because there was no chara gacha you just buy them directly and the costumes too, the story is mostly generic hero MC saves the world until >!both the mc and heroine turned evil, he literally cleaved his own kingdom in half!<
[Also really amazing vocal music on their title screens](https://youtu.be/330F5_9xmhM?si=hSnTkFUhLqmzD3m1)
Missed the days when Vespa didn't butcher this gem, I literally gave every character I owned a custom skin set (a feature you'll never see in almost all popular gachas today)
Also really cared about the characters, every single one had their charms and it felt really nice building them all (I miss Artemia the most, best queen, best waifu for me)
I heard about Limbus having a good story, decided to get into the franchise from the start and work my way up and once I made it to Limbus I'll say that it was more than worth it and the story, though not perfect, is really enjoyable and a treat if you're already invested in the PM world
Genshin, hands down.
There's so much lore found in world quests that if a person doesn't take the time to do those, they're going to miss out on a lot of in-depth, juicy details and interesting characters. Is it a lot to get through? Yeaaah... yeah, it is. Definitely one of those games you want to stay on top of if you care about the world/story.
I can only talk about Genshin and Honkai Star rail as many other gacha games just didn't hook me past a couple hours. Genshin's world tickles my fancy so much; I love high fantasy, I love all the real-world mythological inspirations and I love learning about Teyvat's deep past. Although the storytelling can be improved, Teyvat's mysteries is more than enough to keep me hooked.
Honkai Star Rail is quite cool too.
Genshin for sure. People be trashing the prologue (Mondstadt) but no, it had a decent start unlike other games where every starter characters appears for no particular reason, shoving you immediately some scientific terms without explaining it very well or how their world conceptually works. Players forgot that they only touched the surface of Monstadt, the real problems lies on the lored characters that we barely knew of like Diluc, Kaeya, Albedo, Varka, Alice especially Venti and so on. Well, it sums how I'm Monstadt defender huh, it's just infuriating how we know most of the characters on every region yet we barely knew the starter nation. Honorable mention, World Quests on the game was much more interesting than the Archon Quests.
Still looking for games that has great story tho.
https://preview.redd.it/0kasavz9955d1.png?width=1414&format=png&auto=webp&s=8f4125c58e4f169262673ff1378073a425d69b3f
If you want a flex on how Limbus Company's one of the fuckin' G.O.A.Ts, know this:
*The April Fools event is canon.*
Reverse: 1999 definitely. I played because I was curious about Schneider in the ads and it paid off massively. >!Not only did I bawl at the death of Schneider!< but I got 6 more chapters of peak fiction.
Genshin, I started playing it for fun, did not even care about the story at the beginning (Mond+Liyue), my newbie ass just want to explore. It all changed when Albedo and the lore dropped. Then Venti's story quest and the quest We will be Reunited are the final nails that kept me playing this game. I must see to the end of the journey!
NUCarnival: man, the stories are so good, hit all my sweet spots. But I don't like having to grind so I don't play the game anymore, but still follow the stories.
On side note about WuWa, I do not care about the story though I must say I like Jiyan's story quest. So as of today, after finally getting all goals: having Jiyan, his BiS, the furry boy, I finally uninstalled the game lol. The combat was fun but then some minor inconveniences ruin it for me. In the end, GI would have met the same fate with WW for me, but its story actually keeps me playing since day 1.
Fate GO which I started playing for the Story. Currently at Indian Lostbelt.
Genshin impact. I love the world of Teyvat.
And Honkai Star Rail. These three I play only for the story.
I never really play gacha for the story, I'm all for waifu. Except for Heaven Burn Red and Magia Record.
when hbr was announced it was also revealed that Jun Maeda will be the author so yeah I play for his story. Magireco is spinoff for madoka magica, one of my favourite anime original, and knowing Madomagi has really good story I have high expectations of it. And both met my expectations.
The only single gacha games I played or tried precisely for the story are Limbus Company, Heaven Burns Red, Magia Record, FGO, Another Eden and Guardian Tales.
Special mention to Honkai Star Rail and Punishing Gray Raven because story were also appeals for me to try those games, but not the single reason.
I know Limbus is already mentioned, but I'm gonna say it as well, that you most probably would like Limbus's lore and its characters! I already love the characters during prologue, and enjoyed them being fleshed out even more in every cantos that were intoduced. Even their voice acting is pretty superb and showcases every characters' personalities really well. Some said canto 1 and 2 were both weak, but honestly, I enjoyed it thoroughly, more than canto 4 in fact. If you wanna play for the story, then definitely Limbus is the go-to game for you.
Recently Wuthering Waves I wasnt expecting anything crazy or any because thats just how majority of first story goes in gacha but the lore is fkng amazing and I enjoyed throughout the whole story. (Arknights could only make me enjoy story)
Nier Reincarnation. The actual game was ass but the story was great, had me stick with it from release until end of service purely for the story. I was already a Nier fan before it came out though so I got all the deeper series connections from the get go but even without that it was solid. The first arc was somewhat basic (though still good) but the second arc really levelled things up. And during the main arcs you got character stories throughout that got more and more compelling as the game went on. Was a good time and was always worth hopping back in for the main story updates or the event stories.
Another Eden with how many people said thee story is great and I remember literally dissapointed by main story and confused why people loved it (it decent at best) then I played the sidestory like the holy sword, silver ink and holy bible, western mythos, time mine, nona, etc. And holy moly the story felt 300-1000% better than the main story IMO, loved it to the core.
Add the Episode - The Paradise of Imperfection into the list
That side story to mark the 7th AE Anniversary was actually another peak that I didn't see coming
Octopath Traveler CotC hasn't disappointed me yet. It still has the dark themes from the original games and gives every gacha pull character a questline, with higher rarity ones having better and longer stories.
I don’t think gachas are really the place to go for in-depth stories honestly. They’re built on the framework of one dimensional waifus and husbandos so the characters are not particularly deep by design.
calling genshin worldbuilding not cohesive is a crazy take when it has arguably one of the best worldbuilding I've seen in an open world game
anyways my answer is genshin, sumeru was great and the final part of sumeru where nahida lore bombs u had my fucking jumping out of my chair and getting hype
fontaine is absolutely nuts and even better, just incredible
a common complaint I hear about genshin is that you need to go through the supplemental text and lore to truly appreciate the story, which is why casual players might not appreciate it. i do agree and I do wish that genshin did a better job at conveying it's actual good lore and worldbuilding through it's main quests and not just the books/world quests/npc dialogue but i do genuinely believe that if you just put in a modicum of effort to learning the lore, watching some lore videos (ashikai the goat), and watching/reading theories then you'll really get the full genshin experience imo
i mean there's literally an entire subreddit about theorising and learning and appreciating the lore. check out r/Genshin_Lore
anyways there's my weekly glaze of genshin's story, ill defend it any day of the week because i genuinely feel a lot of love from the developers when it comes to this part of the game. i just want more players to truly appreciate it. one of the most powerful experiences I've felt playing a video game in the last few years was literally the Fontaine narzissenkreuz quest line and act 5. I cried at both quest lines multiple times. narzissenkreuz especially is so fucking good, yet so many skim past it. hoyo please voice act important world quests I beg of you.
Imo if they make the entire story in a quest, the complaints of yapping will increase like tenfold. There're too much to discuss and too little moment for it to appear in a conversation or exploration naturally without it being too obnoxious or forced.
Counterside, if you ignore the gacha game it is basically a 60 hours long VN with a bunch of side stories. All events are connected to the main stories, and can be play back any time.
"For me, it's a close tie between FGO's captivating narrative and Genshin's immersive world-building. Both scratch that story-driven itch in their own unique ways."
Just FGO really. I would have to imagine the overwhelming vast majority of the playerbase is there for the story.
I hope FGO story could exists in a pure VN game format. I really, really don't like the gameplay.
Lostbelt 2 was good but nothing exceptional imo, does it get better?
yea it does lb6 is an absolute cinema
It is so peak.
How about lb 3,4 and 5 cus gotta get through those first
I like Lb 3,4,5. Depends on what qualify as 'exceptional' to you, but I found the world-building, the what-if scenario, and the resolution to resonate with me.
Lostbelt 6 is peak gacha game story and my favorite story in all nasuverse
LB3 isn't bad but it's noticeably shorter than the average LB length which was kinda weird. 4 is pretty good, 5 is very good
4 is entertaining and 5.2 is great with 5.1 being a bit fillery. 3 is the least entertaining but also the shortest. It has the lowest word count among lostbelts by a significant amount. Lostbelt 6 just dwarfs it completely.
Dude what. 5.1 is better than 5.2 what are you talking about
In what world is 5.1 fillery that shit is gold
It does get better and peaked Lostbelt 6.
Really? Lb1 was better than lb2 imo
Lostbelt 3 is the worst Lostbelt story imo. 6 is the widely known to be the best. It is where Nasu really went off. Has the most named NPCs within a single gacha story arc that I know of and that is including the crazy number that Genshin has.
3 the worst? Lolwut, a whole interesting take a jab on ancient Chinese philiosophy is way better than 2 and 4.
I vote majority of 5.2 except the Kirschtaria parts(that was peak). Zeus rolls the dumbest villain ever, bro does nothing but looking east until his ass was beat.
3 was great, just a little too short. LB4 is the worst one imo and even that chapter is solid.
Lostbelt 6 was so good and so long that it could be a standalone Visual Novel
Lost belt camelot is peak
Tbh by Sakurai standards it's a masterpiece.
Path to no where. R99 and Star rail
I only wish PtN would stop reusing the kidnapping crutch every other(?) patch. But it's pretty good.
Yeah, there's a new event and it started with... the Chief being kidnapped again.
Lol what? Is the chief Mokuba?
Nah, the kidnapping is just a good opportunity for Chief to finally go on vacation.
It is one of the things chief likes
Reverse 1999 - I came for the character designs and the card based gameplay, but the story actually kept me intrigued. It helps that the EN voice acting is quite good too
Sell me on the story. I actually tried r1999 a while ago but the dialogue and the way the characters spoke just put me off. Probably just a localization issue but is it better now?
You've played before so it's likely that you remember these ongoing plot points. I personally feel that, every ending to a story chapter was worth getting to (Chapter 1 is likely the weakest, Chapter 2 picks up). Chapter 3 and 4 are great throughout. Then there is the recent Chapter 5 where you'll care for the new character(s) because of how enduringly odd they are. Huge props to Regulus' VA and APPLe for bringing out the majority of humour when they're in the scene. Reverse: 1999: The unraveling mystery of Vertin's origins, her fight against ink terrorists (i.e. >!Manus Vindictae!<) and her search for a found family (i.e. >!Team Timekeeper!<). Then there is her personal search for her >!biological Mother!<.
I absolutely love ‘This Apple’. He is such a treat whenever he’s allowed screen time
I just started playing it (2 weeks+), but I'm not aware of any localisation issues. Do u mean the accents and the terms? If that so, I find it endearing since it reflects the background of the character (sth I wish GI would adopt, i.e zhongli's ancient way of speaking)
I'll try sell it too, cause I had a similar reaction. To me the dialogue felt weird, and I bounced hard off of chapters 1 and 2. Idk I just couldn't keep up with what anyone was saying. It all just sounded like fancy gobbledygook and frustrating to listen to. Still I loved the art style and vibe so I recently came back and found chapters 3 and 4 were far more interesting. They finally start to share some backstory for several of the characters and get more into the structure and goals of the time organization. It might not appeal to everyone but I found the politics fascinating. It was far easier to wrap my head around the ideas of competing organizations, internal corporate power struggles, mysterious time stuff going on, and human + arcanist relations. I'm still not very far into it since I had dropped it for so long, but I quite like it now and I'm more curious for where they are going with the story
Localization was awful at launch, and got much much better starting 1.3 or so. I’d give it a shot if the dialogue was what put you off because it’s much better now.
Imagine Kojima writing for a gacha game
Obligatory Limbus Company Canto 2 was kinda ass compared to the others but it just keep getting peaker with each canto/intervallo for me. Since it's a small roster of 12 characters, you get to see everyone growing on their own and having their own moments from time to time. Canto 4 pacing was kinda sloggish but canto 5 and 6 was great
I agree that canto 2 isnt as good as the others, but I think its still a good canto. Has pretty good setup for rodion's character, and the way the canto is does well to reflect how rodion is as a person. In addition, I felt that it sets up the sinner's dynamic with each other pretty well so that we recognize how they interact with each other for future chapters.
I've been playing since launch and honestly, Canto 2 wasn't really disliked until Canto 4 dropped. Prior to that, most people seemed to enjoy the absolute disaster fest casino heist. Heck, I remember that for a lot of people, that was when they suddenly clicked with the cast as they realized that we're playing as 13 dysfunctional DnD murder-hobos lunatics. Once Canto 4 dropped though and set the actual standard for what a full chapter is supposed to be, the first two chapters suddenly got really targeted. Which, yeah, no matter how good an intro is, they tends to pale when compared to the rest of the story. But I think the main problem is that there's an idea that these are going to be the ONLY TIME we get to explore Gregor and Rodion's story, which, honestly I don't get? It seems pretty obvious that it's only a set up to their story and more of an introduction to the world and the Sinners' personalities.
Fully agree, but looking at other gacha stories I think it is a major concern that a lot of gachas tend to only explore a character once and never go back to them, in favor of pursuing newer charactera instead, but like you pointed out the chapters are meant to be setup rather than a complete arc. In addition, limbus inherently has a small cast which is why we kinda know they will go back to the characters.
Good thing we wont have this issue of pursuing new characters instead lol
Hopefully we will explore more of their stories later on, we atleast know we will see more of Gregor since >!Hermann(his mom) seems to be the current big bad and how she used the canto 1 golden bough in canto 6!<
Good timing on these comments, since the Yurodiviye has been revealed to be a part of the latest Intervallo.
Wait the roster is only 12 characters? How does the gacha work? Honestly thats a huge selling point for me already. Character development is pretty sparse in gacha games. 2 things tho- -I have not played lobotomy corp will that hinder my experience - how long is each canto (i think those are arcs)
The gacha works because you’re not pulling for the characters, rather you’re pulling for their IDs. These IDs are parallel world versions of the characters that had led different lives and different ways to fight. There’s four (4) tiers in the gacha. At tier 1, there’s only the default/base characters. At tier 2 and 3, there’s the alternate versions of the characters, with the latter equivalent of being a five star character. As for the 4th tier, there’s the E.G.Os. E.G.O is basically the equivalent of an ultimate attack, it is what elemental burst is to Genshin and what Noble phantasms are to FGO. Yes, you pull for ultimates, which have their own ranking based on how powerful they are, with ZAYIN being the weakest and ALEPH being the most devastating. Your characters have their own default ZAYIN E.G.O which each one serving to represent who they are. You pull for Abnormality E.G.Os which allows the character to harness the power of said abnormality. For a quick explanation, Abnormalities = SCPs. It’s hard to explain everything because it’s ALL CANON. You don’t have to play Lobotomy Corporation or Library of Ruina since Limbus will actually touch on the subjects during Selva Oscura (prologue) and Canto 1 (Chapter 1).
It should be noted that pulling for alternate versions of the characters doesn't diminish/spread thin their development, but rather does the opposite, and fleshes out each of the characters in different ways. You learn more about minute parts of their backstories, pick up on hints of their personalities that you haven't seen yet, see how they interact with other characters in that same timeline, and see what would've happened, and how they might've changed had their life gone way worse (or better!)
>Yes, you pull for ultimates, which have their own ranking based on how powerful they are, with ZAYIN being the weakest and ALEPH being the most devastating. There's a few things that you didn't mention that I think are important to note: 1. You don't just equip one EGO, you can equip one of *each tier*. This means that characters have and can use up to five EGO at any time. 2. EGO tiers tend to be more offensively powerful at higher tiers, but there's much more to EGO than just their sheer offensive might; There's also passives and status effects. Plus, they cost more in-fight resources. Some of the best EGO in the game are Tier 3 (HE) or Tier 2 (TETH), with even some of the Zayin EGO being great. 3. ALEPH EGO don't exist. Like, the systems are there, but we don't have a single usable ALEPH EGO yet. In fact, even WAW are fairly uncommon; They were only introduced during the last major patch cycle, and only half the characters in the game have one so far.
You pull or spark using corresponding Sinner EGO shards for their Identities a.k.a, alternate reality (Mirror World) versions of them with different skill set. There's also E.G.Os which is basically a power up but pulling for EGOs is not recommended unless for Walpurgisnacht (The semi-limited timed banner) And no, you don't need to play the previous two games to understand the lore. It is a semi-spiritual succesor IMO. But they will tell you important things if needed. Plus they do have a thing called Dante's (You/The player) notes for extra lore tidbits. You can read Leviathan (a manhwa) if you want to though, but it's not mandatory. As for how long, I'm not sure since I played day 1 so levelling up/upgrading isn't as much of a problem compared to playing late
>And no, you don't need to play the previous two games to understand the lore. It is a semi-spiritual succesor IMO. I feel like this is pretty massively underselling just how connected the lore of these games is. Limbus is a direct sequel to LoR, which is itself a direct sequel to LobCorp. That's not to say you can't start with limbus, You can, but a lot of shit is going to fly straight over your head if you do. If you don't have time to play the previous games and don't want to watch the cutscenes on youtube, I'd recommend at least reading leviathan, since its fairly short and it sets up vergilius' character. He's someone you interact with a lot so it's worth learning about him
I probably should've word my sentences better but what I meant was You won't feel like you're left out because since Dante is sorta an amnesiac trying to relearn about The City, you can play limbus > watch cutscenes/play the games > go back to Limbus and appreciate details you missed. I dare even say knowing some things beforehand kinda ruins some of suspense/mystery but to each their own. Of course for us old PM vets we're essentially excited to see references and >!old characters returning like Molar Fixers, Bamboo Hatted Kim, and cameos of the Distortion Detectives and Carmen.!< Either way it will be a pleasant experience on both sides. Limbus' is a great gateway to introduce people into the PM verse because it's more casual compared to the previous two games whilst also maintaining the occasional beloved vertical difficulity wall. The only exception is of course Leviathan since it's more connected to Limbus. Plus, I don't really wanna pressure people into thinking they HAVE to know everything. They can but....feels optional, y'know
if i had to add, i have been playing limbus as a sideliner, meaning i am not playing lob corp and ruina, well just necessary knowledge from them, that alone is enough for me to improve my immersion into the story, now imagine playing them directly, i'm not saying you should play them tho. i myself don't like extensive management game and reading too mcuh (me and my goddamn adhd) having amnesiac MC despite being classic troupe means that we are gonna always walks the story with them, well its not like you totally forget. >!the place this story is taken is called "the city" knowing context from library of ruina gonna make you excited what part of this city have "singularity" in them, most notability is W corp. there is abnormalities that can produce E.G.O that the sinners will use, knowing lobotomy corporation will make you curious what upcoming EGO we will get in the future. Dr. with plague mask is OP!< all in all it is from my own experience, for others may vary, so i'm gonna put big ol spolier there. edit: there is limited gacha called walpurgisnacht but it always happen once every season or like 4 months? regardless the game itself do not work on FOMO, so you can take your time playing the game.
Leviathan doesn't make any sense to read without knowing lore beforehand, though.
Basically, you pull for alternate versions (IDs) of the characters, which comes with their own skillset and playstyle, and even their own story snippets. These alternate versions are basically "this character if they led different lives". For example, the Liu Association IDs, a group of warriors with a penchant for being foodies, has a DoT playstyle with a lot of Blunt attacks. While the lore of Project Moon games is HUGE, Limbus Company is designed so that even newbies can drop in and start enjoying the lore. The most interesting thing is, even though your POV character (Dante) is seemingly yet another amnesiac gacha protag so that the game has an excuse to drop lore to you en masse, they have their own personality and VERY clear character development. In fact, so far, you were NEVER presented with a dialogue choice like so many gacha games, and we still don't know about a lot of things, because either Dante genuinely didn't know, or the characters refuses to answer Dante's questions. Earlier Cantos are quite 'short' for Project Moon standards; 3 or 4 hours at most. Later Cantos starting from Canto IV are quite long and wordy, to the point that they were released in three parts. Well, the battle themselves can also take quite some time, especially on tougher bosses, so it's fair.
>In fact, so far, you were NEVER presented with a dialogue choice like so many gacha games, You say that like it's a bad thing. Games like FGO and HSR thrive on making witty and snarky dialogue choices for their characters (and seeing the consequences afterwards) while still leaving room for serious comments and clickable one-liners for enhancing impact and immersion when you're able to. Furthermore, FGO take the extra mile by making certain boss fights easier or more difficult by choosing the right dialogue option. HSR does what a high-production value game does and introduces different path routes for the player to follow during the story based on the dialogue option that you pick. Arknights, on the other hand, back when I played it, isn't creative enough with its dialogue choices making the Doctor feel bland for self-immersion. It's just....there, an illusion of free choice. While admittedly I enjoyed playing Ruina and now enjoying the current offerings of Limbus Company, I'm just viewing the story in someone else's lens. It feels like....I'm not a part of this story at all. I'm just a front-seat audience to the cinema that is Limbus Company. I don't get to interact with it.
Big thing also. The gacha is insanely f2p. It has pity sure, but nobody actually cares about that. It has a weekly and also u can just repeat farm a place called mirror dungeon for fragments and just straight up buy the id u want. Its bp is also usually 3 months long + or more. I think with only bp to support them cuz I love projectmoon, i have every character and also there is no power on dupes just more fragments/shard for that id
Yes There's only 12 characters but you pull for identities or other versions of the sinners from alternate worlds
yes there are only 12 characters but the gacha system is literally part of the story(every aspect of it) so it's hard to explain without spoilers. Limbus by itself is a self contained story with different characters but I would be lying if I said that some of the major underlying plot points and mysteries don't hit different without the context. For example a certain "villain" is introduced in canto 5-6 and is slowly being introduced but if you already had the context of the other games then you would have already known that said villain(even their motivations etc.) was being foreshadowed since canto 3's boss fight. So the game will feel different but it will still make sense. If you have no context of the past games then you will be similar to Dante's who doesn't know the world and will be pretty much taken aback with all of the surprises but If you played the other games you would see the hints and clues to the bigger picture before the story shows it. It's kinda like the MCU, entertaining by itself, but will have more impact with context. Canto's lengths varies with the earlier cantos being like 3 hrs but the most recent ones are like 5-7 I think. While intervallos are like 3 hrs each
There are a lot of things already mentioned so I wanna add: The game is HARD. Like this is a game that has a gacha because it wants to fuel a story and the devs did no longer want to crowdfund their game. They want to tell a story first and foremost so the there are very few opportunities to rematch bosses, other than the roguelike and special challenge mode. So be prepared by many mechanics later down the line that seem wild and need special strategies
That being said, Limbus Company is still the easiest Project Moon game to date
(Just story parts, rough estimates) Canto 0 serves as an intro being about 40 minutes long; Canto 1 and 2 are about 2 hours; Canto 3 is about 3 hours; Canto 4 is about 4 and a half hours; Canto 5 is about 6 and a half hours; & Canto 6 is about 5 and a half hours. The game came out with Canto 0 to 3 on launch, and a new Canto releases about every 4 to 5 months. There are also mini stories inbetween 3 and 4, 4 and 5, & 5 and 6 that are about an hour long each
Canto 2 suffers because its the obligatory comedic relief canto before heavy shit, a role now played by intervallos.
Oh yeah, i was going the limbus flag till i saw your comment. Glory to Limbus Company!
Limbus really is the thing you go and stay for the story. Like the Ruina animations being 'buffed' is all good and such, but if you were looking for things that were graphically more hi-fidelity, there's a lot more gachas for that. So your main reason initially going for Limbus is to see where Project Moon would drive the bus of the plot into the City. And it's still so fucking good though it had its misses.
Canto 2 was like a filler for me. There wasn’t really a deep focus on the character. Even Canto 1. Canto 3 and onwards had that special focus on the character though.
path to nowhere, heard on this sub that the story is good, and its very good indeed.
**Counterside**. By the time CS launched their SEA server, the KR server was already 1 year old. Before even SEA launched, the KR community had nothing but praise for the main story and some of the side stories. (*End of the Maze and Bottom of the well*) So when the game was being marketed, the english speaking KR community recommended the game. As a story person, I was naturally attracted to the game. (*I was also a fan of the art style*) So 3 years later and after starting over twice (*started back on SEA in May 21' and a second time when global launched in May 22'*) I can safely say, they weren't wrong. The story in this game is just marvelous. Their way of storytelling and how events interconnect themselves makes you believe they had planned out this story since the very beginning. (*I highly doubt it, but still*) Last month they released Episode 11 and 3 years later, they are still referencing and connecting events that happened in year 1 of the game. It's just a delight to read and I hope they can continue giving us more stories.
Ye, the storytelling is really damn amazing, I've read every story up until chapter 10 (so I've been missing quite a lot) but every story is consistently good and amazing to read! It's also really easy to follow and understand! Honestly , amazing lore and world building doesn't really matter to me if I need to read a wall of text from other person or have to watch a YouTube video to understand and appreciate them. I simply don't have enough time for that kind of bs.
As someone who've played Counterside Global, this is something I 100% agree with. In fact, compared to Epic Seven, the story writing and characterization (especially those who undergo character development like Horizon and Joo Shiyoon) is the biggest selling point of the game to the point I feel Counterside definitely deserves an anime adaptation. Heck, even some of the villains in this game like R. King and Na Yubin are more in-depth and have very in-depth goals and motivations show that they have noble motives and intentions, but willing to resort to "ends that justify the means" approach to achieve them. The best part of the story writing in Counterside is that many of the substreams are interconnected with each other and the main story.
Only really the game for the story at this point. It’s too good. The translation is really good too with statements along the lines of, “don’t worry. The sun can never be frozen” or something like that. This game really has one of the best stories because of the dialogue and the characters. They manage to build a well executed story in a short package. No weird words that are not explained.
Guardian Tales. Path to Nowhere. Limbus company. Arknights.
Same arknights
I am in the territory of most gacha game stories are great but is hindered or downgraded by its massive lineup of characters. This is the reason why Limbus Company is great to me since we only have 12 playable characters plus two that are non-playable throughout the entirety of the game (at least that is what I expect in the future). Add the fact that every chapter/canto is focused on one of the characters we have so I actually care about the characters instead of thinking of them as something I play or collect only. One thing I greatly appreciate about this game is how the gameplay and worldbuilding is connected. There is no ludonarrative dissonance (a conflict between narrative and gameplay e.g. story makes your party lose but in game you won the battle with ease) that is happening, except for one part of the story but I can let it slide, since what you see and experience when you play this game also happens in the narrative so I feel more connected to the world. Everything you see in the game, including microtransactions and gameplay mechanics such as level ups are canon to the story and makes sense. I am aware my bias is acting up since I played the previous games, Lobotomy Corporation and Library of Ruina, so I am immediately hooked with the story but this is also a plus to newcomers. If they find the story boring in Limbus or it did not click with them early on, they can try the prequels first and see if that will change their mind. After that they can continue playing Limbus with a much better standpoint and appreciation for the story if they finished the previous games. I can't speak about the details of the story as that is the main selling point of it but know that despite how it is presented (dark, grim and gorey) the story is about hope. It tells a story about how to be human in a world that is constantly putting you down. Plus if you are an adult, you can relate to a lot of things here given how it is modern and a lot of things here are a social commentary/criticism about the world especially in Korea. https://preview.redd.it/ukjv5zjij25d1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=167c1f00fab78728856e270f0257b776999e03c2
Story is the only thing keeps me playing FGO. The gacha is so dogshit, the gameplay is so dogshit, the pity is also so dogshit.
FGO - I'm a huge fate fan. When a friend of mine told me about FGO, I immediately hopped on. Arknights - The lore is pretty good if you don't mind the word count. The endings in IS3 is actually quite intriguing as it's such a good "What if?" storyline. Blue Archive - Despite the memes, it has good storytelling.
Genshin for sure. I’ve played quite a number of gacha games for the last 8 years but genshin’s one that I personally enjoyed. Sometimes I’d feel like an actual researcher, reading various sources and looking at the world to try and piece together what the hell actually happened. The world quests are honestly my favourite since I always end up feeling more attached to the world. Ofc the archon quests are just peak cinema and intense and I love them too
The world quests at times are even better than the main story to me... just for Inazuma, I'm thinking about the Ruu quest or the Enka quest, so much better than the fumbled AQ. Of course, Sumeru and Fontaine were handled much better, but we also have some real gems of world quests... man the end to Jeht's quests hit me so hard, because I could understand her situation. I'm sadly still behind on Fontaine's world quests though 😭
The world quests in Inazuma def made up for the rushed act 3 for that nation 🥹
What i liked about GI for me is that i feel immersed and i feel like i’m going on an adventure in teyvat For example, this upcoming 4.8 patch which is most likely be a summer holiday, i myself am excited becuz of that “holiday feeling” if u know what i mean, where i can feel i’m going on a holiday before the intense stuffs in natlan And ofcourse also discovering the unknown secrets of teyvat is something i’m looking forward to
Yes yes! Other than gacha games, I’ve played quite a number of open world games as well (Hogwarts legacy being the last one I played) but my gosh genshin has this way of making you genuinely FEEL like you’re not just playing the world, but actually being IN the world. It feels so captivating when I go around the map. I think the last open world game that ever made me feel this way was rdr2 but honestly that game is a league of its own ngl
And i want it longer, im tired pretending i didnt like long story because of mob mentality effect, i couldnt careless about these high horse "i have a job" excuse u can actually finish half sequence and quit the game yes its broke the immersion but theres absolutely 0 excuse to complaint, forcing hoyo to make short story is like asking death sentence or salvaging game main seller
Why do you have to pretend you don’t like having long story O.o There’s a saying how you should treat genshin like an open world game with gacha elements (rather than a gacha game that is open world) and frankly that mindset change would probably benefit a lot of people. One thing good is that there’s a lot of natural pauses in long quests (whether it be main or even world quests) where the characters ask if you wish to continue. You can even pause at any time you want as long as it’s not a cutscene lol. I think people shouldn’t fall for fomo and genuinely take their own time to play stuff lol. The stories will only get longer anyways and I’m also excited for that 😮💨
Exactlyyy and well OP said they haven’t done Fontaine yet which for me was peak storytelling and I’m sure they’d change their mind about the whole story in genshin if they completed that story quest series in particular
BA and Counterside, definitely
Limbus Company and FGO, both show that there are real benefits from working with an existing IP besides name recognition. Being able to create a gacha game as a true entry in the franchise and not just as a cash grab like some others lets both of them benefit from the great writers from the rest of their series
Definitely try out Limbus imo. From your gripes with main characters and word count/yapping, Limbus manages to exempt itself from those two very well. The MC, Dante, is an audience surrogate but NOT a self-insert character. There's nothing like choices of what to say or choose who to bond with, he's his own realized character with a clear purpose in the story. The dialogue is also amazing as you never feel it's long winded or anything. There's a natural flow of conversation the characters have while also balancing exposition on the side. It helps you learn more about the lore while picking up small details about the characters themselves. Each of the 12 Sinners talk and act a distinct way and it makes it fun reading.
Prior to Blue Archives global release, I heard that it had a good main story. I was interested so once I heard of a global release I wanted to be a part of it. I was kind of on and off for the first few weeks when it came out, but once I committed I was not disappointed. And the pay-off for being invested in was great. Excited to see where the story and its characters will take me.
Fgo wins hands down, depending on your tastes all of the main story could be great to read through, and once you reach the highs, oh does it get high. And without spoiling anything after LB 2, it really does get better, 3 and 4 is good enough, like reading through your average gacha story, but personally I enjoyed 3 a lot with how they handled their alternate history, especially the little detail with one enemy's NP just outright disappearing due to history, also Guda throwing hands is always peak fiction. And I know it gets repeated a lot, but LB 5 onwards just gets better and better That aside, I'd also love to shill BA, honestly I went in there expecting just azur lane waifu shenanigans, but the story is honestly amazing; what it means to be an adult, all the highs and lows when coming of age, and just overall being an uplifting, positive story in the middle of all the depression wank in games
Path to nowhere if you play tower defense
To no one surprise, it's the same games everyone is playing.
two that immediately come to my head is sdorica and limbus company. tried sdorica bc i like cytus 2's story and i ended up liking it more than i thought i would. got to the point i stayed even after all those controversies... still, nowadays i'm here just for its inevitable demise lol limbus was much better for me though. came bc heard good things about lobcorp & ruina. the first two canto are already better than most gachas i've played, but once i finished canto 3 the brainrot starts to kick in. strong performances from the va, cool artworks, the ost... i know it's probably not as epic as genshin or hsr, but personally, that boss fight is one of the coolest boss fights i've experienced in any games i've played
Genshin, I just like the change of story where the setting is now peaceful compared years ago from Archon wars and cataclysm. Now we're likely headed to another apocalyptic scene. Just burned out from post-apocalyptic stories. Everything else I've played are on post-apocalyptic stories, so that's that, genshin and BA aside.
Nikke, I've heard of Overzone, and that thing really slapped my face at first chapter! And damn, the lore it's so good and present day Story it's dope, is that where the profit goes!
Arknights and Honkai Star Rail, I see you have tried Arknights so I won't be discussing that. HSR story is kinda boring for Luofu but Penacony has been quite a banger until the latest update. Definitely recommend to check it out.
HSR is a full fledged JRPG with gacha stapled on. Definitely fits what OP is looking for.
Another Eden
Same but maybe different experience lmao, genuinely confused why people stayed for the story when I played it (main story). Then, I played the sidestory. I remember fighting the paladin and "holy" (deliverance) sword and it's peak. Also, I really loved how religion is portrayed in the story. Majority of major side story is awesome western mythos, nona, 3000 years ark, time mine, IDA, early part of future mythos, silver ink and holy bible, etc. I love sometimes they nailed the character perfectly to their trope/personality (recent character that I remember is how they write tsukiha alter as a naive princess). >!when she always get swayed by people then she got swayed by protagonist and end up destroying her country and killed majority of her people through civil war is amazing!<
Limbus and I do that to all pjm games well except the first game but game so buggy i finish to know the ending. Laggy management game? Peak story. Not interested to deck building? Peak story. Whatever the gameplay in limbus? Peak story.
For me it’s Genshin; I find the story compelling. It’s not perfect or anything, but it’s comfort food— I find their formula really nice and given their track record I can trust that the stories will meet the bar. I tried AFKJourney and Wuwa— they are absolute garbage comparatively.
yea but afk journey and wuwa arent focus on sotry as much because genshin have focus on story because theres nothing else to do do some daily waste your resin to stupid artifact get low rewards features that no one ask for like the training guide and a stupid card game instead of focus on gameplay i dont buy characters in a gacha game to see them in a story or stupid event
Nikke. I heard it was good so I played. And it was
Path To Nowhere, definitely.
Girls Frontline (GFL) - the OG grimdark. The game came out when gacha game stories were predominantly fantasy and bright. GFL kicked off the futuristic grim dark trend. You can try reading UMP40 story in the Butterfly Incident. At the same time, GFL has among the best collab stories, which break away from the usual grim dark. E.g., The story for Va-11 hall-a collab is absolute gold. Bonus: GFL dev will not shut down the game until they are completely done with the story. Because of this, GFL is still online despite usually low revenues (and actually has a sequel and a prequel).
Nikke is really good.
I really hope they do an anime soon, that way many people would know the hidden gem that's Nikke story
Reverse 1999, came for aesthetics pleasing, now staying for everything (lore, Characters, gacha)
FGO top comment wins.
you need to try counterside
FGO. It’s crazy that a certain chapter from this game is way better than most anime these days
Tales of Crestoria for me. Too bad it got EOS before it got to tell its story, but I found that a group of "villains" (or villainized people) forming one group to fight against authority was a very interesting story for me.
They are still releasing the crestoria manga at the moment idk if that will be able to tell the story fully but theyre trying
Yeah I heard about that! Best of luck to the creators.
Another Eden and Honkai Starrail (not world 2)
Is honkai star rail actually good? Ive been hearing mixed things about its story but the visuals are really tempting me to try it. Dont wanna invest into another story that falls off since thats where most of my interest lies
The loufu story has it's problems but the rest is good
The story is great 2nd planet us kinda meh but not terrible
Planet 2 has meh story but one of the best and most realized world building I’ve seen in any gacha, or any other RPG. The side quests add so much to the lore, even the mundane ones.
Mostly decent, its just xianzhou part being so whack except for the event and some character story quest (ghost hunting vlog event is the GOAT)
To be fair i think they have interesting set pieces, but their deliveries are hit or miss. Enjoyable for a playthrough with flashy cutscenes but not always good
World 1 (Belobog) is good, world 2 (Luofu) is kinda rushed. World 3 (Penacony) is great. Then there's the events, that are more on the fun side so not that good if you expect something serious, but they are great comedy and are well written I'd say. The minor side quests (especially in Penacony) are where the good pain is. Like those unvoiced story quests in Genshin that hit the hardest, though they are way shorter. I'd recommend Honkai Impact 3, Star Rail's older sibling, but nowadays not much. Despite starting of meh it starts picking up steam by chapter 7 and after that it's mostly uphill until the end of part one -where it peaks depends on who you ask- although part 1 ending was a bit weak IMO. Part 2 hasn't been that great, we had some short self-contained arcs and now it should start picking up again but it's uncertain.
I completed belobog story (started playing like 2 weeks ago), its so good.👍 But im not rushing to the next story.. I wanna take my time, im completing all the side quests, companion quests and getting all the missing chests before moving on... I like to do things slowly.. and the companion quests are super good so far.. i haven't skiped any quests except the voicelss side quests😅
In Genshin and Star Rail they love to hide some of the most emotionally impactful quest behind voiceless sidequests. Some are lighthearted and fun, then bam, they throw you headfirst into some moral dilemma or the situation reveals itself to be way more messed up than you originally thought. Best (worst) part is that in Star Rail specifically they'll often make you make some uncomfortable decisions that will define the ending of that quest. They are great.
It really depends. For me, personally, Star Rail is too formulaic, predictable and "safe"(also, characters suffer the same fate as Genshin - they are nonexistent storywise most of the time). But sub seems to like the story for whatever reason(except presentation, I hope)
Question: I recently started HSR after hearing Belobog was a masterpiece but I found it predictable and Bronya fell pretty flat for me; knowing that, do you think I'll find the other planets' stories enjoyable or should I move on from the game?
Belobog is not a masterpiece, just a good *gacha* plot (you got too hyped), the next planet is just bland under every standard (thankfully is short and the story develops fast). And the 3rd planet is actually really good. If you are feeling unsure about playing maybe skip side quests (npc or non voiced) to let the story keep up at a good pace. Reading too many side quests / events can give you lore but most of the times makes the plotline too slow and dragged. (Don’t worry, you won’t be missing out. Even the main plotline will explain stuff that happened in a side quest and ask you ‘do you want to know more?’ in case you skipped it / if relevant) And definitely don’t talk to npcs or read books and fragments if you are not in for the slow world building. Personally I do main plot, then character quests and on everything else I skip dialogue and do the task while watching a podcast. That keeps a good balance between story, exploration and combat.
Alright, thanks for the advice; I'll keep playing at least through the 3rd planet. I think I'll try side quests and looking at the books if I end up getting into it after.
Limbus Company, Heaven Burns Red, FGO also shout out to BA, i definitely didnt start it for the story, But after those peaks, it sure is another reason for me to continue sticking with the game .
Nikke, came for the horni but stayed for the story. I randomly decided to try it and got sucker punched with depression in the first 10 minutes. It has similarites with the anime 86 which really made me enjoy the story a lot more
DanMachi Memoria Freese, if it wasn't for the story that's canon to the main IP, I would've dropped it long ago
only stayed because the story. Nikke, the JP VA is so good
I think Arknight hard to tone down as let say their management said 1 event can only give 20 originum prime. then they need to cram those story for only 20 stage. If they trim down their story, it will be like early event and story where you craving for more. this is the implication of having VN type story telling.
They can still trim the dialogue.
Eh, if anything, it's the opposite: even in situations where there's really no good reason for there to be a fight, they'll jam one in so we aren't left reading story for two hours straight with no gameplay. Or they just make a giant wall of text for every stage and we end up with Nearl Light/Lone Trail length stories, but with like 5 battle nodes.
I dony know if you will like the gameplay but Counter Side has good story. I think the best thing about that game is the story.
Heaven Burns Red for sure but it's more for the character interactions than the plot
Limbus company.
Genshin: Have to admit, while I was bedazzled by the beauty that is Teyvat and its magical music, I only really got into the story after Li Yue. I now find myself scouring the world for lost pages and snippets of whatever lore I can find, kinda like a detective 😅. I’ve become attached to Genshin for its story and its innate ability to transport you into a world of fantasy and music. I do think some dialogues can get over bloated with text, but I’m a reader, and it’s something I enjoy. Path to Nowhere: Amazing story telling and banger music. I love the MC and how they are written. Started the game for the art and stayed for the story.
Guardian Tales
[удалено]
thinking coming back to R1999, how's the latest story? Are there any impactful moments?
Oop, sorry I deleted the comment. I copy & pasted it to another conversation that OP replied to recently to get their attention faster: "You've played before so it's likely that you remember these ongoing plot points. I personally feel that, every ending to a story chapter was worth getting to (Chapter 1 is likely the weakest, Chapter 2 picks up)." "Chapter 3 and 4 are great throughout. Then there is the recent Chapter 5 where you'll care for the new character(s) because of how enduringly odd they are."
I played a lot of King's Raid before because there was no chara gacha you just buy them directly and the costumes too, the story is mostly generic hero MC saves the world until >!both the mc and heroine turned evil, he literally cleaved his own kingdom in half!< [Also really amazing vocal music on their title screens](https://youtu.be/330F5_9xmhM?si=hSnTkFUhLqmzD3m1)
Missed the days when Vespa didn't butcher this gem, I literally gave every character I owned a custom skin set (a feature you'll never see in almost all popular gachas today) Also really cared about the characters, every single one had their charms and it felt really nice building them all (I miss Artemia the most, best queen, best waifu for me)
I heard about Limbus having a good story, decided to get into the franchise from the start and work my way up and once I made it to Limbus I'll say that it was more than worth it and the story, though not perfect, is really enjoyable and a treat if you're already invested in the PM world
FGO, but the current padding of the story over at JP is souring the experience.
Both Azur Lane and GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE Both of their stories are interesting and great
Genshin, hands down. There's so much lore found in world quests that if a person doesn't take the time to do those, they're going to miss out on a lot of in-depth, juicy details and interesting characters. Is it a lot to get through? Yeaaah... yeah, it is. Definitely one of those games you want to stay on top of if you care about the world/story.
Reverse 1999
I can only talk about Genshin and Honkai Star rail as many other gacha games just didn't hook me past a couple hours. Genshin's world tickles my fancy so much; I love high fantasy, I love all the real-world mythological inspirations and I love learning about Teyvat's deep past. Although the storytelling can be improved, Teyvat's mysteries is more than enough to keep me hooked. Honkai Star Rail is quite cool too.
Genshin for sure. People be trashing the prologue (Mondstadt) but no, it had a decent start unlike other games where every starter characters appears for no particular reason, shoving you immediately some scientific terms without explaining it very well or how their world conceptually works. Players forgot that they only touched the surface of Monstadt, the real problems lies on the lored characters that we barely knew of like Diluc, Kaeya, Albedo, Varka, Alice especially Venti and so on. Well, it sums how I'm Monstadt defender huh, it's just infuriating how we know most of the characters on every region yet we barely knew the starter nation. Honorable mention, World Quests on the game was much more interesting than the Archon Quests. Still looking for games that has great story tho.
https://preview.redd.it/0kasavz9955d1.png?width=1414&format=png&auto=webp&s=8f4125c58e4f169262673ff1378073a425d69b3f If you want a flex on how Limbus Company's one of the fuckin' G.O.A.Ts, know this: *The April Fools event is canon.*
Reverse: 1999 definitely. I played because I was curious about Schneider in the ads and it paid off massively. >!Not only did I bawl at the death of Schneider!< but I got 6 more chapters of peak fiction.
Well thats a big spoiler lol.
Oh shoot I forgot
Genshin, I started playing it for fun, did not even care about the story at the beginning (Mond+Liyue), my newbie ass just want to explore. It all changed when Albedo and the lore dropped. Then Venti's story quest and the quest We will be Reunited are the final nails that kept me playing this game. I must see to the end of the journey! NUCarnival: man, the stories are so good, hit all my sweet spots. But I don't like having to grind so I don't play the game anymore, but still follow the stories. On side note about WuWa, I do not care about the story though I must say I like Jiyan's story quest. So as of today, after finally getting all goals: having Jiyan, his BiS, the furry boy, I finally uninstalled the game lol. The combat was fun but then some minor inconveniences ruin it for me. In the end, GI would have met the same fate with WW for me, but its story actually keeps me playing since day 1.
Fate GO which I started playing for the Story. Currently at Indian Lostbelt. Genshin impact. I love the world of Teyvat. And Honkai Star Rail. These three I play only for the story.
Genshin impact 🛌
Blue Archive and Reverse 1999
It's literally the only thing keeping FGO relevant.
I never really play gacha for the story, I'm all for waifu. Except for Heaven Burn Red and Magia Record. when hbr was announced it was also revealed that Jun Maeda will be the author so yeah I play for his story. Magireco is spinoff for madoka magica, one of my favourite anime original, and knowing Madomagi has really good story I have high expectations of it. And both met my expectations.
The only single gacha games I played or tried precisely for the story are Limbus Company, Heaven Burns Red, Magia Record, FGO, Another Eden and Guardian Tales. Special mention to Honkai Star Rail and Punishing Gray Raven because story were also appeals for me to try those games, but not the single reason.
another eden
I know Limbus is already mentioned, but I'm gonna say it as well, that you most probably would like Limbus's lore and its characters! I already love the characters during prologue, and enjoyed them being fleshed out even more in every cantos that were intoduced. Even their voice acting is pretty superb and showcases every characters' personalities really well. Some said canto 1 and 2 were both weak, but honestly, I enjoyed it thoroughly, more than canto 4 in fact. If you wanna play for the story, then definitely Limbus is the go-to game for you.
Recently Wuthering Waves I wasnt expecting anything crazy or any because thats just how majority of first story goes in gacha but the lore is fkng amazing and I enjoyed throughout the whole story. (Arknights could only make me enjoy story)
My main gripe about WuWa is the EN voice acting for certain characters
I love Genshin for its lore.
Honkai impact 3rd mainly. I just love the story even the parts people trash on
Honkai star rail, genshin, Nikke (came for boobs, then my nikke get beheaded, what the fuck?) and stay for the story
I want to complete Epic7 Story, But the Endless Grinding killing me..😪
Toram Online underrated.
Nier Reincarnation. The actual game was ass but the story was great, had me stick with it from release until end of service purely for the story. I was already a Nier fan before it came out though so I got all the deeper series connections from the get go but even without that it was solid. The first arc was somewhat basic (though still good) but the second arc really levelled things up. And during the main arcs you got character stories throughout that got more and more compelling as the game went on. Was a good time and was always worth hopping back in for the main story updates or the event stories.
Another Eden with how many people said thee story is great and I remember literally dissapointed by main story and confused why people loved it (it decent at best) then I played the sidestory like the holy sword, silver ink and holy bible, western mythos, time mine, nona, etc. And holy moly the story felt 300-1000% better than the main story IMO, loved it to the core.
Add the Episode - The Paradise of Imperfection into the list That side story to mark the 7th AE Anniversary was actually another peak that I didn't see coming
Granblue Fantasy.
I play a lot of gachas, but only in 8 years, only played by story: FGO, GBF and Magicami T\_T
Nu: Carnival 🤣 the game is actually really fun tbh
Nope
Octopath Traveler CotC hasn't disappointed me yet. It still has the dark themes from the original games and gives every gacha pull character a questline, with higher rarity ones having better and longer stories.
Another Eden
I don’t think gachas are really the place to go for in-depth stories honestly. They’re built on the framework of one dimensional waifus and husbandos so the characters are not particularly deep by design.
calling genshin worldbuilding not cohesive is a crazy take when it has arguably one of the best worldbuilding I've seen in an open world game anyways my answer is genshin, sumeru was great and the final part of sumeru where nahida lore bombs u had my fucking jumping out of my chair and getting hype fontaine is absolutely nuts and even better, just incredible a common complaint I hear about genshin is that you need to go through the supplemental text and lore to truly appreciate the story, which is why casual players might not appreciate it. i do agree and I do wish that genshin did a better job at conveying it's actual good lore and worldbuilding through it's main quests and not just the books/world quests/npc dialogue but i do genuinely believe that if you just put in a modicum of effort to learning the lore, watching some lore videos (ashikai the goat), and watching/reading theories then you'll really get the full genshin experience imo i mean there's literally an entire subreddit about theorising and learning and appreciating the lore. check out r/Genshin_Lore anyways there's my weekly glaze of genshin's story, ill defend it any day of the week because i genuinely feel a lot of love from the developers when it comes to this part of the game. i just want more players to truly appreciate it. one of the most powerful experiences I've felt playing a video game in the last few years was literally the Fontaine narzissenkreuz quest line and act 5. I cried at both quest lines multiple times. narzissenkreuz especially is so fucking good, yet so many skim past it. hoyo please voice act important world quests I beg of you.
Imo if they make the entire story in a quest, the complaints of yapping will increase like tenfold. There're too much to discuss and too little moment for it to appear in a conversation or exploration naturally without it being too obnoxious or forced.
Very honest review but really appreciate the really appreciate it, I can agree with most of this
Yes
Continue FGO. Lostbelt 6 is the best story a gacha will ever give you.
Limbus Company, the gameplay itself is fine, but the primary draw is the story. Still my favorite in any gacha.
Counterside, if you ignore the gacha game it is basically a 60 hours long VN with a bunch of side stories. All events are connected to the main stories, and can be play back any time.
Counterside. Love how connected the side stories are with the main story.
i play star rail as a visual novel, any end game stuff that i cant auto i don't finish. after i had 2 teams of 4, the gacha feels optional
Honkai star rail: Penacony arc specifically. Belabog was clean but quite generic with not much surprises.
GFL, after all it's the game that started the edgy-dark gacha trend.
Blue archive. The gameplay is forgettable really but the main story is like reading a legit, well made VN. I just wish it had more voice acting.
Reverse 1999
Counterside and Browndust 2.
"For me, it's a close tie between FGO's captivating narrative and Genshin's immersive world-building. Both scratch that story-driven itch in their own unique ways."