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[Dakk]

I agree with the OP, Ogre Battle 64 put all other games mentioned to shame in that aspect. The story is very complex and involving, it feels you're watching a documentary or movie on medieval history, except its in a low fantasy setting and completely fictional. Your choices actualy matter, gameplay AND story wise, due to multiple endings, karma meter, tons of characters which may or may not join you depending solely on your choices and actions, secret unit classes, etc. Too bad I never found an emulator able to run it with perfection.

I'd say the only game off the top of my head with similar plot complexity would be Final Fantasy Tactics, though that one doesn't really let you affect the plot with your choices. There's lots of little story bits and secret stuff you can unlock, and the game keeps track of all important events with very well written entries that you can read at any time, altough it still suffers from not allowing your choices to affect the plot in any significant way, like all FF games, the difference here is that FFT's plot is actualy interesting, rather then just BAD PEOPLE HAVE POWER, LETS GATHER UP A POLITICALLY CORRECT GROUP OF FEMININE BOYS AND TEEN MODELS AND SAVE THE WORLD FROM EVIL.

Anyway, on Ogre Battle, I wish the series would get a reboot, every single Ogre Battle game has been good, even the gimmicky GBA ones. Scratch that, cookie-cutter save the world from devil analogy plot.

[runiq]

Morrowind, Shadow of the Colossus and Torment have already been named, but there is one I consider absolutely sublime: Vagrant Story. The English translation is absolutely spot on.

Also: Kana - Imouto. (Except for the H scenes; those just felt tacked on.)

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

What's this?  A game about incestuous statutory rape?

[runiq]

What's this?  A game about incestuous statutory rape?

Not... exactly. As I said, the H scenes weren't exactly fitting. At its core, it's a story about a girl with terminal kidney failure.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The fact that she's adopted and the whole incest thing was legally right felt like the cop-out that it was, though.

[forsaken1111]

Of PC games, I guess the little-known A.I.M. (and A.I.M. 2) would be the ones I remember most. You're playing as a mechanoid, an artificial AI in a ball, flying a hovercraft-like glider. At its heart it's a typical action-rpg, but the setting is unique enough that the usual genre conventions don't break suspension of disbelief that much. The story is rather interesting as well.

I did enjoy A.I.M. quite a bit. The 2nd one, while much improved graphically, lacked some of the character the original had.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Of PC games, I guess the little-known A.I.M. (and A.I.M. 2) would be the ones I remember most. You're playing as a mechanoid, an artificial AI in a ball, flying a hovercraft-like glider. At its heart it's a typical action-rpg, but the setting is unique enough that the usual genre conventions don't break suspension of disbelief that much. The story is rather interesting as well.

I did enjoy A.I.M. quite a bit. The 2nd one, while much improved graphically, lacked some of the character the original had.

As always with sequels, I guess. There's a reason the SurprisinglyImprovedSequel trope is named what it is. I'm still hoping that what's left of Skyriver (that is/was actually based quite near to where I live) will someday follow up with a third game. No, I don't consider "A.I.M. Racing" to be in the same series. That's just mockery.

Back to the topic, I wonder where to put Space Rangers on this scale. On one hand, you don't get much in the way of immersion - the whole thing is a tad too wacky with the gameplay shifts every which way. On the other hand, it's essentially the closest the gaming world's ever come to a "Massively Singleplayer" RPG, with scores of NPCs and Rangers roaming the galaxy much in the same way you do, mostly having the same abilities in regards to communication and collaboration, etc. I've played X2 (and X3) later, and though it's vastly more complex, it doesn't quite provide the same feeling, despite the graphics and presentation making it much better immersion-wise. The Klissan/Dominators also provide their own kind of immersion, a sense of urgency and even responsibility, because you can see them gradually taking over worlds, you can see (or at least hear about) the military bravely attempting to push them back, etc. I mean, it's almost like DF in worldgen, except you're actually participating.

[Samio]

Syberia? The character development was AMAZING. You start off as a

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

lawyer who's just trying to get this big toy company into this small town. But slowly, you begin to realize that this defunct toy factory that some lady died at is really awesome for the town.

I can't remember the EXACT details of the plot, so I have no clue if this is right or wrong. I heard the sequel sucked though...

[creodor]

iji is a superb game for atmosphere and story...and a fun game for pure gameplay, too. I never played enough Cave Story to comment, but the little I played was excellent. Heavy Rain was cool enough, but even that I felt a bit detached from. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was also very well made, and given some more playtime, I might consider it on par with my experiences with Morrowind.

Morrowind would be my choice though, if it was down to just one. It pulled me in like no other game since, even before I found the mods. The story was cool, but it was really just the environment, the world, the people and events. Part could be nostalgia too. I spent so much time wandering around, finding weird locations in the wilderness, and shitting myself occasionally at some of the stuff I stumbled across. Honestly, if I had followed the story and questlines properly I don't think it would have been quite as shocking to find a seemingly random man made plateau with a few buildings on top full of crazed murderers and strange sounds/lights. And the time I found a tower half built into a mountainside, and went in only to find everyone inside dead, except two House guards/assassins who did the killing. I now know it's part of a questline, but in my opinion finding it randomly made it waay more interesting and immersive.
I have so many little stories from that game, about finding random stuff that blew my mind a little bit, but I won't go on about them. That would take half the day. I have yet to get past the first 1/6 of the main quest, though I've been told it's well worth completing.

[runiq]

Oh god, how could I possibly forget Aquaria?! I'm sitting here compiling it, and yet it slipped my mind.

[h3lblad3]

As for those speaking of Heavy Rain...

Yes. It's immersive. I got sucked in for hours. And hours.
However, you might notice a few problems here and there....

Spoiler: Will ruin game. Don't read unless finished (click to show/hide)

At least one character is essentially useless to the plotline and causes more plotholes alive than dead. No, seriously.
And even has a moment where they have a choice on who to contact... but has never met one of choices.
Not to mention the surprise about the big reveal when those two have never met, either.

[Qloos]

MONSTER BUMP

I've played iji, fahrenheit, digital: a love story and cave story.  (so far)

Review of each, for those who have already played it because SPOILERS:

Spoiler: Fahrenheit (click to show/hide)

So I'm Lucas Kane, and suddenly I've murdered this guy.  Holy fuck, I'm drawn in immediately, hiding the weapon, cleaning up and trying to play it smooth and failing to get out of the diner.  I'm liking where this game is going, then I'm in my apartment and im some badass sandbag asskicking machine.  I'm enjoying the police manhunt between the 3 main characters and suddenly:

Marionet strings pulled action scenes and random robot grandma and my immersion was just throw out the window.  Then Lucas thinks it's a good idea to ride the abandoned icey tracks rollercoaster at -15 degrees fahrenheight and I decided to stop caring about my immersion.

I enjoyed it enough to finish it, (once) so the game was a quality time.

Spoiler: Cave Story (click to show/hide)

Alright, it's a platform based shooter!  Sweet beans!  I immediately start paying attention to the character interactions which are believable and complicated while trying to figure out why Kazuma Sakamoto is trapped in a room bitching on a computer.  The game seems to have this happy adventure feel, so as I defeat maddend Toroko: I say to myself "Awesome!  I saved them!  Right guys, guys?!"

I felt like the developer had thrown a punch below the belt, in a good way.  They defied my expectations of plot development.  But then they did it twice.  As I defeated the core with Curly, which at that point was the longest boss battle I had to endure, I felt this great relief which was echo'd by my good sidekick.  "Son of a bitch."  I cursed as I repeatedly hit my Z key on Curly.

On my first play through, I adamently refused to bitch out of the floating island.  I had this internal struggle between "Jackass is going to pay for what he's done" to "I ain't going to let that shit happen again"

This game played me like a fiddle, and I ain't the least bit angry about it.  I played it twice, (to make sure I saved Curly Brace)

Spoiler: iji (click to show/hide)

I was dubious at first from the graphics, (not that graphics make the game naturally, but at first it seemed like a lack of effort)  In reality, the graphics are the only thing simplistic. 

The music was fitting and composed beautifully, the voice acting was amazing - no, Extravagant the voice acting was better than most main stream games in all regards, believable lines spoken in a full emotional tone at the proper volume.  Your character will scream if killed and the fact that the lines changed based on my stats was an added bonus.

Learning about the aliens as you traverse the levels was highly entertaining and the bosses made this game.  Without the bosses, this game would be a spec of sand in a beach of games.

Image related to best boss, don't argue with me.
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs27/f/2009/250/0/2/Iji_vs_Asha_by_Oneiric_Studios.jpg

Beat the game three times, once on normal, once doing extreme pacifism/all ribbons and once on hard.

Spoiler: Digital love story (click to show/hide)

I swear this game was mocking me by making me fall in love with a computer.  I was rather annoyed that I couldn't read what I had wrote to everyone else, and, (just like the real online world) not being able to put a face to the username I was talking to made me indifferent to them, even the poetic AI I was supposed to be saving.

Thankfully the game was short to end my painful experience with this game.

Keeping the thread alive to get more imput and discussion.

[NewsMuffin]

Don't play the third Fable game, Lionhead really dropped the ball with that one.
But yeah, Shadow of the Colossus is an amazing game. You don't really say anything, and there are only three or four important characters, but the storyline is great and the ending always makes me sad.
And the game play is beyond amazing. The way you control the main character seems like you're playing though pudding, compared to other games, but it adds to the game.

[Majestic7]

As a teenager, I was really struck by Planescape Torment. Mainly because everything wasn't black and white in it like in most fantasy games, the characters had depth in them and instead of the usual world-saving cliches the main plot was very personal for the main character. (and I thought Annah was pretty hot.) No other game has really had that impact later on. I must be one of the few people who bought Torment from a store right when it was a new game. I heard it sold like shit.

 I guess if I had been 10 years younger when I played Witcher, it could have had the same effect, for all the gray choices in side quests. Some of the stuff in Fallout New Vegas have the same kind of atmosphere, I just wish the Legion was not a bunch of bad guys so clearly. 

[lordcooper]

The Path

/thread

[Virtz]

I can't think of a game that would actually be aimed at being emotional and succeed at it.

I mean, I guess Pathologic worked for me, but that might've been due to my state of mind at the time. Despite the shoddy translation and average gameplay, the atmosphere got to me. It had just the right mix of realism and surrealism to get me somewhat disturbed by the imagery. And the plot kept me going. I was curious to find out what'll happen with the town, the protagonist and the plague. Though that was until I hit a bug that made a certain objective randomly appear or not at a certain time of day and I wasn't sure if it was vital. I'll have to try again some day, I guess.

As far as just great plots go, I'd go with the Legacy of Kain series (possibly not including Blood Omen 2). Not much saving the world in these games. Maybe a little in Blood Omen, but normally in every game you're just out for vengeance against someone. It also tends to get more complicated with time travel, going full circle, destiny and attempting to change or embrace it. Plus the gameplay is always at least decent.