Video games are a great way to tell an engaging story. The player is the protagonist in games, rather than just watching them on the screen. The player gains a connection to in-game characters and locations via the eyes of the main character, which at times can be a fresh vision of our own world. Games can tell impressive stories, with deep narrative structures and careful worldbuilding, along with lots of background lore. Here are some of the best story-centric games you can try on the PS5.
The first game in the Yakuza series that introduces main characters other than Goro Majima and Kiryu Kazama, Like A Dragon tells the tale of new-age Japanese Mafia gangs through the eyes of Ichiban Kasuga and a few of his friends. The story that follows is riveting, engaging, and sets you in modern Tokyo, with detailed environments that speak for themselves. The game also ditches the fast-paced melee combat with turn-based RPG style mechanics, making for good pacing.
If horror games are more to your liking, this is a great one to pick up. It has a level like setting, with a hub world at the centre, and the player, Ethan Winters, is tasked with making his way through dilapidated houses in a Village in Romania. The journey brings him face to face with otherworldly foes that are out to harm his way of living. The game has a spooky narrative, jump scares, and many creepy places to explore. The game’s combat system is survival-based, so you need to manage your inventory space as well as the materials you carry. It has good graphics which add immersion to the bespoke world.
Here’s a game that takes on real-world mental health issues. The game's theme is depression, and the main character, Senua, must fight her inner demons that suppress her true personality from blossoming. The game has you take on foes in the form of doubts in your mind and take on the tiny voice in your head that says you can’t do it. It is a challenging game, which fits the theme- you have to persevere and be determined to break the cycle. It has a dark tone with heavy thematic narratives that might charm certain users.
Hades is a game based on Mythology, and it certainly isn’t the first one. You play, die, and rise again in this rogue-like game wherein the game's goal is to get better progressively, hone your skills, defeat other gods, and take their powers to enhance your own. The game has been lauded for its narrative structure, pacing, and world-building. The game has challenging combat as well, which fits the game's theme. There are temporary and permanent buffs to your character that make for exciting and experimental gameplay throughout the game.