Which game do you think has the best story?

When you include spin-offs then the award goes to the Mystery Dungeon games hands down. It's almost no competition (though I've never played Conquest so I cannot say if it's story is good). It seems that Explores of Time/Darkness/Sky has the best MD story, but since I didn't play that one I want to say RB Rescue Team's story is my favorite. It feels like a very personal journey as you find out about your role for becoming a pokemon and how you develop strong and powerful relationships with your partner, team, and the pokemon square. And of course the ending is a tear jerker.
 
I found Mystery Dungeon Darkness/Time/Sky to be by far the best. MD gameplay isn't really my thing, but reaching the next cutscene to unravel the story that bit more always gave me plenty of motivation to keep playing. The game does a fantastic job building a connection with everyone in town, and the actual plot is extremely good as well with loads of twists and turns. Though I honestly preferred the implication that Grovyle died in Darkness/Time to him being confirmed alive in Sky, I felt like it kinda reduced the weight of his sacrifice; although this is a minor nitpick more then anything.
 
Black & White
I recently replayed Black & White alongside a friend who had never finished it before. He got me to notice that the writing is very straightforward, and characters from scene to scene are basically spelling out what you're supposed to take away from it all. Even with that being the case, most characters are regularly making good points to consider. I think it's a great coming-of-age story, and Bianca in particular impressed me this time around when I paid more attention. Her arc is someone who really humbled herself, learned from those around her and was able to figure out how she could be of the best use to others when it really mattered. Cheren's character growth on display in B2W2 also shows a level of reconsidering what really matters.

I also think BW gets confused as being a message about pokemon liberation. It's not, it's a story about the perils of extremist views using that talking point as a vehicle. Pokemon liberation is supposed to sound enticing and like a solution to a problem, but the point of people brushing it off isn't saying "it's okay to own pokemon to use them to our advantage", it's saying the reality is pokemon bond with their trainers and are consenting, and the Plasma world view only works when you let fear dictate your choices instead of actually communicating. That's why all the characters grow when they meet other people and learn new perspectives.

I don't think there's another game that really delivers a message this well, but there are runner ups. Scarlet & Violet/Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon have some interesting characters and arcs, and the late game of each offer some of the most fascinating lore implications in the franchise. But they meander in a lot of places so the story doesn't feel evenly distributed. ORAS feels really solid and compelling to me, but I think I'm biased because I adore Hoenn.
 
The mainline games have yet to make a game with a good story tbh. The ones that are the 'best' are probably BW or The Teal Mask, but those are still mediocre compared to an RPG with an actually decent plot. But I don't play Pokemon for the plot anyway so idc if the plot is bad. =P

As for PMD, I played a PMD game only once and never finished it so I'm gonna leave those games out of this.
 
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