If you like darker stories, and more heartfelt ones, and can deal with dungeon-crawling Japanese RPGs, you owe it to yourself to play Persona 3 from beginning to end.

Why?

I played and finished Final Fantasy Tactics around 2000. It became my favorite game of all time at that point, and never was dislodged.

I think Persona 3 just did that.

I DID get Dark Souls, yes. It was in the process of being sent when I made this new journal.

And yes, I do like it. It's competing with Dragon's Dogma at this point.

( Epic rant. )

 I mean like attempts to make some epic story.

Hear me out.

I'm making this post after reading clessaileron 's spiel about Tales of Graces. Mostly, his stuff about the story and characters being quite lackluster. As for me, Tales stories have just been not all that great after Phantasia. Yeah, I mean the original. Some random bits of goodness, others that come out as standing some test of time. Otherwise, very basic. But good gameplay.

Recently, despite some exceptions, I've found that games really emphasizing game play or atmosphere have been topping my lists. I mean Demon's Souls, Dragon's Dogma, Legend of Grimrock. Hell, even Skyrim's is background for the ongoing journey across the country. These games' stories just are not at the forefront. Or, in some ways, the gameplay overshadows the story, but some minor elements to discuss make people love the story they see anyway.

See my icon, Sif. He's apparently an epic character, and all you really see of him is a fight. That's it. Finding out the rest, you see an emotional story. Hell, watch the fight with him. Pay attention when his health is low. He's determined to fight you over something.

So another example of bad narrative?

Mass Effect 3. Yes, the bloody ending. It has caused massive shockwaves of discontent. Frankly, it IS a freaking great game. But here's an example when narrative fails, because they apparently messed with the ending. 
Skyrim maybe was an attempt at something groundbreaking in Elder Scrolls. But every comment I see seems to find it lackluster.
Better examples probably come from a majority of narrative intensive Japanese games. Tales, Star Ocean... 

Maybe I REALLY do not know what I'm talking about. But there is an idea that you need ME3 level narrative for a game somewhere. I've just recently seen failures, while the ones lacking are praised. I don't know, it's a random journal.
So do video games need to compete with movies and books on story, or should they just stick to being games, with some interesting ideas that can make you think?

Why is there no inquisitive mood to choose? Dammit, people.

Irony: Complain about Tales, where I dislike the music. Insert icon from game praised where same composer did the music.

Eh, all bullshit. Keywords: Deus Ex Human Revolution, and The Witcher 2. Good game play AND great narrative. I'm just saying.