One of my other big interests is video games. After the trailer for the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild dropped earlier this month I had been thinking about some of the games that I played that I really enjoyed and they all had one thing in common. Great storylines! So I have cultivated a small list of games some you many know, others you may not, that I feel had a brilliant storyline. FYI, this will be all on Nintendo as that’s the only brand of console I own. I own a switch, a Wii U and a 3DS.

The Legend of Zelda series

So, the first game is one that loads of you may already know and that’s the Legend of Zelda series. I started this series back in 2018 with Skyward Sword, the image you see above, and just fell in love with it. I consistently started playing all the games I could play on the consoles I owned and just loved the plot of each individual game. I didn’t think I would be good at games that required combat elements as all the other games I had played at that time were visual novels or Animal Crossing. But that was actually easy and fun to play but what solidified the series for me was how captivating and engaging the storylines are. The first game I suggest people play is Skyward Sword, this is the first game in the Legend of Zelda timeline so it sets up a lot of important points for further games.

Plot for Skyward Sword: Take to the skies, draw your sword, and experience the earliest story in the Legend of Zelda series. Link, resident of a floating town called Skyloft, heads on a quest to rescue his childhood friend Zelda after she is kidnapped and brought to the Surface, an abandoned land below the clouds.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series

This is a visual novel series which has spanned numerous instalments and spin off series. This is a visual novel game where you play as a man called Phoenix Wright who is a new to the scene defense attorney. The games consist of numerous cases split into two sections, investigation sections where you look at the scene of the crime and interview people and then Court sections where you defend your client in court using evidence from the investigation sections. The art style is super fun and the storylines are super emotional and exciting.

Plot for the first case in the first Phoenix Wright game: Phoenix Wright, a newly hired defense attorney at the Fey & Co. law firm, agrees to represent his childhood friend Larry Butz, who has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Cindy Stone. 

Professor Layton series

One of my all time favourite video game series. I had played numerous Nintendo games during my childhood but it wasn’t until I played the first game, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, that I suddenly got invested in a series at all and then gaming as a whole. This series is known for its insane and exciting storylines with beautiful art and music, I have a playlist full of this series music on my Spotify. This game consists of visual novel aspects and puzzle solving aspects. As you go around and inspect the areas you’re in and talk to different characters you will have to play a variety of different puzzles to further the plot. In full transparency I will say there were many times where I looked the answers up online, especially when we get to some really important moments in the story so I just want the answer quickly so I can carry on reading. I am not normally a puzzle fan but I actually enjoyed all the little puzzles you get to solve.

Plot for Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Game 1): The game centers on Professor Hershel Layton, and his self-styled apprentice, Luke Triton, investigating the fictional village of St. Mystere about an artifact known as the Golden Apple, an heirloom that the late Baron had left as a test to determine who would receive his fortune after his death.

9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors

This was a game I didn’t expect to love. I liked the idea of it as it’s a mixture of a visual novel and escape room gameplay which at the time I was obsessed with online escape rooms. But I didn’t expect to be captivated by the story and to be so invested in the characters. This is part of a bigger series with two other games, Virtue’s Last Reward and Zero Time Dilemma, I have played Virtue’s Last Reward but I think the plot gets super convoluted to the point of confusion so I would only suggest this game.

Plot: The story follows Junpei, a college student who is abducted along with eight other people and forced to play the “Nonary Game”, which puts its participants in a life-or-death situation, to escape from a sinking cruise liner.