Summary
- Video game narratives are crucial, often surpassing gameplay importance.
- Top PS5 games include eccentric storylines to engage players.
- Some developers can smartly balance eccentricity and convoluted plots in storytelling.
Narratives in video games have become almost as important as the actual gameplay mechanics, with many AAA titles in the current generation prioritizing stories over everything else. It gives players something to engage in and makes it easier to produce eye-catching promotional material.
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Outside multiplayer-focused titles and a few Nintendo franchise holdouts, fans have come to expect worlds filled with rich lore and intrigue to keep them hooked for dozens of hours of gameplay. With that burden of expectation, developers can sometimes get carried away. This list is a swansong to those titles that carefully toe the line between eccentric and convoluted. These rankings will prioritize said eccentricity rather than overall quality when considering the best PS5 games with over-the-top stories.
8
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Crime And Conspiracies
- Released
-
January 26, 2024
- OpenCritic Rating
-
Mighty
The Yakuza series has developed an identity of oddball flair and quirky side activities across the recent entries. With that comes something of an expectation of an over-the-top plot to complement the gameplay, and while Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth doesn’t disappoint in that regard, it does exercise some restraint.
A direct continuation of the previous entry, protagonist Ichiban Kasuga is dealing with life outside of the yakuza when he is drawn back into a world of violence, religious cults, and political corruption on the island of Hawaii.
7
Resident Evil 4
Escape From Spain
- Released
-
March 24, 2023
- OpenCritic Rating
-
Mighty
Answers on a postcard, anyone who can follow the overarching plot of the Resident Evil series that surely leans closer to the convoluted side of the scale. Of the recent re-releases, Resident Evil 4 is the game that deviates furthest from the core plot, leaving behind the iconic Racoon City in favor of a rural Spanish village.
It also delivers more action than the more survival horror-focused alternatives, making it altogether more fitting for the descriptor of ‘over-the-top.’ Leon Kennedy is sent to rescue the president’s daughter only to be confronted by supernaturally powerful townsfolk under the influence of a mind-controlling parasite.
6
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
All The Way To The Top
Adventure
Indie Games
Fighting
Puzzle
It’s starting to seem like conspiracy and shadowy cabals are trusted staples of exaggerated narratives, as Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion roots out another chain of corruption that stems from the highest reaches of vegetable governance.
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When Turnip Boy refuses to pay the tax bill for his greenhouse, he is sent on a journey that uncovers the ties between the mayor and organized crime, fleshing out a rather disturbing — if adorably animated — post-nuclear holocaust world.
5
Genshin Impact
Elemental Factions
RPG
Action
Adventure
Gacha
Open-World
- Released
-
September 28, 2020
- OpenCritic Rating
-
Strong
The JRPG genre is not one known for paring down deep and often convoluted plot threads that span huge worlds. One of the most ambitious modern entries in this regard is Genshin Impact. As a free-to-play title with monetization, it aims to keep players hooked for hundreds of hours through its expanding lore.
That includes but is not limited to a thirteen-chapter manga that helps flesh out the world and explain the complex political machinations between seven nations and the elemental gods that rule them. The narrative is not Genshin Impact’s strongest element, relying on clichés and occasionally crossing that line into convoluted, but as a huge amalgamation of an already eccentric genre, it definitely qualifies as over-the-top.
4
Tekken 8
Fighting With The Family
- Released
-
January 26, 2024
- OpenCritic Rating
-
Mighty
Any story that involves someone surviving being thrown into a volcano is sure to be pretty out there. The Tekken series is another that’s gone off-the-wall with their storytelling as the series has evolved, and Tekken 8 very much continues that trend.
The central premise includes a loose justification for another fighting tournament complete with violent global conquest, dormant ‘devil’ genes, transformations, and encountering one’s own devil self within the realms of the subconscious.
3
Harold Halibut
Underwater Mystery
- Developer(s)
-
Slow Bros.
- Publisher(s)
-
Slow Bros.
Harold Halibut is the first game on this list that prioritizes narrative over gameplay, straying close to being a visual novel. The first thing that is apparent is the claymation art style, which helps give the world its endearing character.
The story regards a Cold War-era ark mission that was launched into space to ensure humanity’s survival, later crash landing in the underwater reaches of an alien world. Flash forward a few hundred years to find Harold in his rather mundane retrofuturistic world, which is thrown into turmoil when he has an unexpected encounter with an extra-terrestrial being.
2
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus
The Horrors Of Dating
- Released
-
June 30, 2021
- Developer(s)
-
Team Salvato
- OpenCritic Rating
-
Mighty
- Publisher(s)
-
Team Salvato
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus is one of those cultural phenomenons best summarized by the traumatized Mr Incredible meme. On the surface, it’s an anime-style dating sim that’s best left to a certain subset of the gaming community, but lurking beneath that is a very disturbing psychological horror.
It’s difficult to discuss specifics of the narratives as it is better to be experienced, but it’s essentially a meta-commentary on the way players interact with games. Seemingly innocuous decisions can and will lead to unsettling horror moments in a narrative format that’s certainly unique.
1
Alan Wake 2
Death Notes
- Released
-
October 27, 2023
- OpenCritic Rating
-
Mighty
The first Alan Wake achieved cult status with fans, and after a long wait for a proper follow-up, the sequel did not disappoint. Alan Wake 2 both continues and expands on the story of its predecessor of a famed horror author whose creations are literally leaping off the page.
The story also folds in quite ae bit of the larger Remedy Entertainment universe, which, in the interim, has included reality-warping titles Quantum Break and Control. Simultaneously steering through alternate dimensions and fiction brought to life, there’s a lot to unpack as the mystery unfolds.
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