20 Best Video Game Stories Ever

13. Shadow Of The Colossus

Bioshock infinite elizabeth
Sony

The PS2 era is considered by many to be the last era of true experimentation by large companies in the video game industry, where for a brief, beautiful moment, risky projects getting a lot of money thrown at them was the norm rather than the exception. And one of the crown jewels of that era is, without question, Shadow Of The Colossus.

When a man named Wander loses his lover, Mono, he is told by a mysterious and totally-100%-trustworthy-we-promise spirit that he can bring her back by slaying 16 great beasts known as the Colossi. What results is a series of the best boss fights in gaming history as Wander gives up everything about himself to bring back the one person who gave his life meaning.

Shadow Of The Colossus is a genuine tragedy, a genre that games very rarely get right, being an industry where audience satisfaction is literally built into the bone marrow. But Shadow Of The Colossus (as well as a few other entries further down the line) show that this genre can absolutely work for video games if placed in the hands of a narrative master.

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?