Narrative Games

[Violentvixen]

Just found out this year's LudoNarraCon starts today and I wanted a thread to aggregate narrative games.

I went through games from their previous year lists and here are some of my favourites, several of which I found out about through this festival. I'll have to go through my backloggery and add more later but this is a good start:

Chicory Probably my game of the year from 2021. Just fantastic, and co-op is fun.
Haven I can't find the post, but this just had a big update that let's you swap the genders of the main characters which is very cool.
Spiritfarer There's the TT thread, go play this dang game it's amazing, beautiful and emotional. This might be the best written game I've ever played?
Svoboda 1945 Liberation Czech history. Very niche but I love it.
Umurangi Generation There's the TT thread, go take pictures of things in a weird depressing yet cool but also rebel punk world? Haven't beaten this one but it's wild.
Unpacking Tells a story in a relaxing yet puzzle-y way. Satisfying sound design.
Coffee Talk Barista game in an interesting sci-fi/fantasy world. Sadly the creator passed away earlier this year, but it looks like Coffee Talk 2 has a demo in this year's con and planned to release in 2023.
Neo Cab I want to be a Quantum Witch.
VA-11 Hall-A Bartender game, lots of intense discussions and a few characters fall flat but I like it. Haven't heard anything about the sequel for years sadly.
Her Story Dig through an archive to try to piece together what happened. It took me a while to get into the flow of this one but once I did I love it.

 

[JBear]

My Steam library is jammed full of these, but I have to be in the right mood for one so I still have a ton on my backlog that I'd probably otherwise shout out here. That said, of those in my library that I have played:

Heaven's Vault - This is a really neat one. You're an archaeologist with a chip on her shoulder looking through ruins, and trying to decipher a dead language with the help of your robot buddy who is there to spy on you for your supervisor at the university. The mechanics by which you try to tease out meaning over time by examining related glyphs is super fun and interesting. If trying to decide if a squiggly line means "death", "funeral", or "celebration" sounds fun to you, then I can't recommend this game enough.

Contradiction - Spot the Liar! - A personal fave of mine. It's an FMV mystery game where you play a detective trying to solve a crime in a small town, mostly by interviewing locals who all radiate strong "local community theatre" energy. Just the right amount of cheesy, especially the lead detective himself.

Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist - A short, fun, zany, free walking sim (note that I'm not using that term pejoratively, obviously, but I like it and find it a useful descriptor) from half the team what made the amazing Stanley Parable.

The Stanley Parable - The gold standard in funny walking sims. Still a great game, and also recently got or is getting some sort of update, I think?

Eliza - You play a programmer who helped develop an AI that offers counselling services, but then mental health issues led to you withdrawing from the world for a few years. Now you've decided to take a job as a proxy for that same AI and decide how you feel about what you've created and what direction you want for both it and your life going forward. A fascinating game where most of the game is you having 1-on-1 conversations with folks in need of help where your character is tasked with parroting what an AI feeds into her headset. Notable for having some wildly different possible endings.

Kona - A uniquely Quebecois first-person adventure game with an amazing sense of time and place, as you play a detective that gets stranded in a blizzard in a remote northern Quebec town in the 1970s. Developed by a French-Canadian team. Also, just as a warning, this one gets a little spooky and has some light action elements.

Observation - The elevator pitch for this one is pretty fun: What if you were HAL 9000? You're an AI on a space station that is awakened by one of the astronauts after some kind of disaster, and need to help guide her through what follows.

Verde Station is a short, clever, fun, and unique walking sim that takes place on a space station. To say any more would be a spoiler, but you can finish it an hour and it costs like a dollar on Steam. It's aces and more people should play it!

Firewatch - It's been years since I've played this one, so I can't say a lot, but it's well-known enough that it probably doesn't need my help. You play a new fire ranger tasked with solving some mysteries out in the wilderness.

Return of the Obra Dinn - I mean, this game is a GOAT. You play an insurance adjustor that uses a magic watch that can show you the frozen instant in time that someone died, and need to use it to piece together the series of disasters that befell the Obra Dinn and all hands aboard.

 

[Violentvixen]

Firewatch - It's been years since I've played this one, so I can't say a lot, but it's well-known enough that it probably doesn't need my help. You play a new fire ranger tasked with solving some mysteries out in the wilderness.

Oh yes, this one is top-notch. Definitely swerved in directions I was not expecting to make an even richer narrative.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Contradiction - Spot the Liar! - A personal fave of mine. It's an FMV mystery game where you play a detective trying to solve a crime in a small town, mostly by interviewing locals who all radiate strong "local community theatre" energy. Just the right amount of cheesy, especially the lead detective himself.

But man, there is one actor with very strong Alan Rickman energy. He's easily the best part of the game.

 

[Voncaster]

Do visual novels count as narrative games or is that a separate genre? If not what is the difference?

 

[Adrenaline]

All visual novels are narrative games but not all narrative games are visual novels

 

[Poster]

Off the top of my head, I played What Remains of Edith Finch a while back. Return of the Obra Dinn is on my list, though. And possibly VA-11 Hall-A, because of the soundtrack.

 

[Violentvixen]

Do visual novels count as narrative games or is that a separate genre? If not what is the difference?

All visual novels are narrative games but not all narrative games are visual novels

Yeah, I'd agree with this.

Anyway, went through Steam and here are a few others:

Bury Me, My Love - Syrian refugee story
Long Live the Queen - branching path visual novel but stats
To the Moon- Solve a mystery by going through someone else's memories
Hatoful Boyfriend- Is a dating game a narrative game? Does dating pigeons affect the category?
Papers, Please- kicking myself for not thinking of this for the first list. So good.
Depression Quest- While simple and short this got a lot of people talking about depression more openly which is good.