Games started with concepts as stories and not branching narratives that took hours to complete. For example, the goal in Super Mario Bros. Was to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser, although those names weren’t official quite yet. Following the NES, stories started to become more complex in positive ways, and even the best ones can be hard to figure out alone.
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They may have complex themes or take place in other parts of the world where certain cultural aspects aren’t normal for everyone. It can also just be fun to call a friend or go on a message board to discuss the following games because they go wild at the end.
There will be spoilers.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Nothing Is Real
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Released
- April 24, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Turn-Based RPG, JRPG, Fantasy
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s story focuses on the titular Expedition 33, which travels across the sea to face a magical being known as The Paintress, who has been erasing people from existence based on age for years.
Once players destroy the boss, the victory will be fleeting as people start to disappear, leading to a big illumination about the very nature of the world and the people in it. One of the party members, Maelle, is actually from the real world, Paris to be exact, unbeknownst to her, and this entire world that players tried to save was all fake, and that’s just a basic summary.
Silent Hill f
Must Replay
Silent Hill f
- Released
- September 25, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror, Action
Silent Hill f begins with Hinako leaving her family to meet her friends in town when the whole place starts to get eaten by a flowery menace, including one friend, Sakuko, who dies. While Hinako manages to meet up with other friends, Shu and Rinko, a few times, they disappear eventually, and there’s also the matter of the other world with the fox spirit.
Almost nothing is explained the first time around, but players can piece things together from notes left behind and continue their save file, since it’s actually impossible to finish the story the first time through, as there are multiple endings and branching paths. That said, it can still be confusing after replaying it.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake
What’s With The Wisps?
Final Fantasy 7 Remake
- Released
- April 10, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T for Teen due to Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
Final Fantasy 7 Remake takes place entirely in Midgar, which is only a small fraction of the original game, and while most of the core story remains intact, the new content is where fans may start to add speculative theories. New to the story are the ghost-like wisps that interfere with Cloud and the others from changing anything from the original story.
Also, the final boss features Sephiroth in many forms, way ahead and when he is supposed to meet the party. Even fans who have absorbed every piece of Final Fantasy 7 content out there may find the finale hard to analyze on how this game fits into the overall series, as it technically isn’t a remake at all.
Kingdom Hearts 3
Hearts Into Darkness
Kingdom Hearts 3
- Released
- January 25, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
Kingdom Hearts 3 has a lot of baggage attached to it, specifically, eight Kingdom Hearts games filled with lore that this sequel tries to address in some form or another. Even though it’s a daunting task, the story manages to give little moments of clarity to the plots of past games, like rectifying what happened to Aqua and her crew at the end of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.
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The game even manages to incorporate the mobile game, Kingdom Hearts Union X, into the penultimate battle. It’s a great fan letter and an end to a saga, but as good a job as Square Enix did, the story isn’t perfect, and there are many loose ends that even the DLC doesn’t answer, like who Xigbar really is and where Sora is currently.
BioShock Infinite
Your Owen Villain
BioShock Infinite
- Released
- March 26, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, Mild Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco
- Genre(s)
- Shooter
BioShock Infinite seems like a simple story of a private detective, Booker, hired to save a girl, Elizabeth, in a floating city, Columbia, but it gets so much more complex once rifts and time travel are involved. The overarching villain of the game is the ruler of Columbia, Comstock, who players later find out is just another version of Booker, and Elizabeth is actually another version of his daughter, Anna.
The world has been off balance ever since Booker was baptized to become a new man, Comstock, so in order to right the wrongs of history, this current Booker essentially has to let a multiverse of Elizabeths and Annas drown him to stop the cycle, and that is really only the tip of things.
Death Stranding
Entering The Kojimaverse
Death Stranding
- Released
- November 8, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Strong Language
- Genre(s)
- Action
Death Stranding is one of the hardest Hideo Kojima games to parse through because it’s set in a new world, and there are so many characters and terms to remember that players practically need a dictionary alongside a translation guide. The basic plot is a trip across a destroyed version of the United States wherein the courier hero, Sam, has to reconnect the country on an Internet-like structure.
This plot also includes babies that can detect invisible monsters, another world held deep beneath the tar, characters with magical abilities like being reborn, beaches that represent life and death, and so on. Thankfully, the sequel is an easier story to follow, as bonkers as it is.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
Needs Another Game
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
- Released
- September 1, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language
- Genre(s)
- Action, Open-World
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is another Hideo Kojima game, specifically the last Metal Gear he worked on before leaving Konami, which was meant to finish the Big Boss prequel saga.
Due to budget and time constraints, not everything was connected, leaving a lot of weird holes in the plot, which is well documented in a special version of the game that showcases one of the proposed final missions in the epilogue. Beyond cut content, events just sort of happen without much background given to the context, as fans are seemingly supposed to figure things out for themselves, like the nature of Quiet, the flaming man, and who Venom Snake really is.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Worlds Collide
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
- Released
- July 29, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T For Teen due to Language, Mild Blood, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Genre(s)
- RPG
Since Xenogears, the stories in the Xeno series have been complex, and that remains true for Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Not only does it take nearly a hundred hours to complete, but players have to keep a lot of characters and bits of lore in their heads throughout this time frame. Two factions of a war have been fighting for eons, but it was all orchestrated by an organization named Moebius, who has been toying with their lives just for entertainment.
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Two villains within the organization, N and M, are actually other versions of Noah and Mio, the dual protagonists of the game, who are actually their more positive reincarnated souls. Reincarnation plays a big role thematically in the story too: light becomes dark, dark becomes light. To top it all off, Noah and Mio belong to separate worlds, and once they fix the anomaly caused by Moebius, their worlds separate again in a tearful goodbye. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a game that pulls on other entries in the series, more so than others, so piecing together small bits of the lore can be a daunting task to make sense out of everything.
The Evil Within
Inception: The Game
The Evil Within
- Released
- October 14, 2014
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter, Survival Horror
The Evil Within begins normally as police arrive at a hospital wherein some murders have happened, but that’s when things start to get twisted as the lead detective, Castellanos, soon finds himself in a medieval-like world within the hospital.
Based on the set design, it can start to feel like a spinoff of Inception or The Matrix, because it is later revealed that characters are hooked into pods, which is how everyone is connected within the other world. The sequel dives into the nature of the tech more, but there’s not much to go on in the original game, forcing players to come up with their own interpretations by analyzing in-game notes.
Deadly Premonition
Get A Load Of These Scars
Deadly Premonition
- Released
- February 23, 2010
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Suggestive Themes
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
Deadly Premonition is one of the weirdest horror games ever made, as it takes place within a small town, Greenvale, wherein a series of murders have occurred. An FBI Agent is brought in, Francis York Morgan, who constantly introduces himself as such and talks to himself by referring to a man named Zach, much to the confusion of everyone around.
That’s because his badge says his name is Zach, but in the game, he takes on the protective persona of York after a childhood incident. As for the town, the mysterious rain and other world were all caused by a war experiment, but that’s just barely scraping the barrel.
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