How Do You Like Stories In Fighting Games?

[KissingSunlight]

As someone who thinks stories in videogames are overrated. Nothing really prove that point as fighting games. They are a fun extra. However, they are nothing that will make or break a game. However, some fighting games do come up with some clever storylines and endings for different characters.

How do you like stories in fighting games? Is there a game or character story ending that you liked?

 

[Saelune]

Mortal Kombat is my favorite fighting game series, and for a good stretch it was solely cause of the story. Fighting game stories are one of my favorite things actually. I wish SF would get theirs straight cause Id like it alot too then.


Yeah, I understand all the stuff he says.

 

[TheScorpion]

Yeah, since I suck at fighting games usually, I tend to stick with single player modes. That means I do enjoy a good story mode since that always helps me understand a character I'm playing as or I could enjoy character interactions.

Then again, it could backfire hard for me if the story is practically impossible to understand without playing previous titles(or still tough even if you do from what I've been told) as the case is with BlazBlue. Aside from that, once I either beat the story mode or lose interest in the character endings, that's usually when I lose interest in the game entirely.

 

[Hawki]

The lack of (good) stories in fighting games is part of what turned me off the genre. Back in my single-digit years, I could play the likes of Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, and not give a damn about why people were beating the crap out of each other. Nowadays, I do care. And what sucks more is that often, fighting games' stories are a case of exclusive pathways for the characters, and you won't find out what really happened until the next game. But unlike, say, the early Warcraft or Command and Conquer games (where there's only one of two canon paths), you have an entire roster to shift through.

I think the Mortal Kombat reboot (never played, but watched) had a pretty good idea, to make a flowing, single story, but even then, it's stymied by characters fighting at the drop of a hat, and the plot telling you how severe the fight was. Sometimes a character dies, sometimes it's just a little rumble. Injustice was a bit better (also watched, never played), but also suffered from the same problem. The only fighting game series I've ever truly gotten into was Soul Calibur, but by SCIV, I'd had enough. I'm not shifting through all these backstories in SC4 to find out what happened in SC3. SC3 did have a fairly strong core story (at least by the standards of its predecessors), but you still had to piece it together. If anything, the Soul Calibur adventure modes were more engrossing on a narrative level.

So, yeah. I think Netherealm has the right idea as to how to handle story in fighting games, but it shows how handicapped the genre is in making a compelling story.

Edit: Sonic Battle. Sonic Battle came out before the Mortal Kombat reboot, and used the same formula, of having one continuous story told over time from numerous character perspectives, and you get to build up Emerl along the way, from being absolutely useless, to the most powerful character in the game. And the story itself is pretty decent - not spectacular, but still decent, enough to make me care about Emerl's fate, and how it's a fate that he could basically never escape, and whatnot. I know, I know, it's a taboo to like Sonic nowadays, but, whatever, bite me.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

The way Blazblue does it is the best, 30+ hour long storymode that is separate from the arcade mode.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I just look for an engaging and fulfilling experience. If I get a visual novel I expect a good story but not good gameplay likewise with fighter I expect good gameplay but not a good story however if it can do both then all the better.

Only two games I would say are really good stories on their own for fighters would be Blazblue Central Fiction and imo the best of the lot Persona Arena (first one). After that you have the prequel BB Chronophantasma and sequel Persona Ultimax.

Only other story worth mentioning is MK9s. Then its the rest and then its SFIV at the bottom of the barrel.

Like I said though if the gameplay is good then it can make up for the story in fighters (or lack thereof). I find a simple premace works well for a lot of these games you have the overused fighting tournament angle which many use but my favourite is the SC one with there is a magic sword that grants untold power so everyone wants magic sword for their own personal reasons which I feel really fits the tone and theme of the series.

Likewise character development can benefit from a good story but I dont feel it is a necessity in a fighting game and it takes a ton of effort to do well and if done wrong can actually take away from the characters you have. Street Fighter is a great example for this 2 had it down well with short simple endings that showcased each characters personality a little but 4 and 5s story just make so many characters look like a joke that it actually hurts their extremely strong visual design.

Anyway like I said I just want an engaging experience whether it is from story or gameplay is irrelevant for me and I value quality over quantity but if I can get quality and quantity then I am all for it.

Most fighters try and place to many fights in their story modes like everyone is looking for a fight for no real reason but the four I mentioned definitely do not feel like this and Persona Arena in particular has hardly any fights in its story. Persona Ultimax has a ton but sets it up in a really fun if stupid way that acknowledges what it is doing as well as tying it in properly to the story.

 

[Zhukov]

Nonexistent.

Games already struggle with trying to fit "... and then the mighty hero of destiny spent 12 hours repetitively killing nameless henchmen" into their stories. Now they're supposed to build a cohesive narrative around "... and then everybody had a series of improbable 1v1 punch-ups"?

How about this? Once upon a time there was a big fighting tournament. Lots of fighting happened. Eventually somebody won. The end.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

I like them with a good helping of self-awareness and camp. It's why I like Tekken so much: ignoring the absurd dorama that is the core Mishima/Kazama story (which honestly is still kind of fun) then Tekken has a rather absurd set of realities coexisting together. Compare this with Tekken's rival eternal, Dead or Alive, and they play most of their story oddly straight and it just comes off as stupid despite DoA having the much better regarded fighting system.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I thought the stories in Skullgirls was interesting. It was like the one ring from LoTr but the Skullheart.

I usually find the stories in fighting game to be somewhat odd particually sequels like Soul Calibur. I mean I played SC2 on the Gamecube and then when I played 3 at my bro X-Box, it mention Soul Edge was shatter but reformed again and were vaguely who won the last game. Well ok I think it was Knightmare human self eventhought he was not playable in SC2. Isn't it the same with Street Fighter as in who won the last tournament?

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Nonexistent.

Games already struggle with trying to fit "... and then the mighty hero of destiny spent 12 hours repetitively killing nameless henchmen" into their stories. Now they're supposed to build a cohesive narrative around "... and then everybody had a series of improbable 1v1 punch-ups"?

How about this? Once upon a time there was a big fighting tournament. Lots of fighting happened. Eventually somebody won. The end.

Here's the trick, the storymode in fighting games with good storymodes barely has any fighting at all in it. It's more like a separate thing, there to make the chars vivid and bring them to life and make you wanna use them because you identify with their traits and feel they're cool. Guilty Gear Xrd doesn't even have any 1v1 fights, at all, it's all just a big story cutscene that lasts 5 hours per game.

 

[darkcalling]

Personally if a game is more than a simple puzzle game or a simCity or something similar then it needs a story to help keep me interested. Are videogame stories particularly good? Probably not as often as we'd all like.

When it comes to fighting games I find them less necessary and can live with the dumb "endings" that all contradict each other.

That being said Netherrealm Studios did great stories for Injustice and the last two Mortal Kombat games. Are they examples of fine art? no. Do they feel like they fall all over themselves to get people to fight? of course. But they manage to be interesting and give something resembling context to what is otherwise just a bunch of doofuses punching each other.

Looking forward to whatever happens in Injustice 2.

 

[sXeth]

I think the Mortal Kombat reboot (never played, but watched) had a pretty good idea, to make a flowing, single story, but even then, it's stymied by characters fighting at the drop of a hat, and the plot telling you how severe the fight was. Sometimes a character dies, sometimes it's just a little rumble. Injustice was a bit better (also watched, never played), but also suffered from the same problem. The only fighting game series I've ever truly gotten into was Soul Calibur, but by SCIV, I'd had enough. I'm not shifting through all these backstories in SC4 to find out what happened in SC3. SC3 did have a fairly strong core story (at least by the standards of its predecessors), but you still had to piece it together. If anything, the Soul Calibur adventure modes were more engrossing on a narrative level.

So, yeah. I think Netherealm has the right idea as to how to handle story in fighting games, but it shows how handicapped the genre is in making a compelling story.

Yeah, some of the dissonance in the MKX story mode was amusing. While they blocked Fatalities out (save for a couple that occur in cutscenes), you still had people doing X-ray attacks that snapped spines and stuff as part of sparring or training exercises. With some of those fights thrown in I'd guess just to keep a wider showcase of matchups (along with the Zombied characters of people who died iin MK9)

 

[Ephixa]

I like story mode especially in Tekken franchise. Their motives to win tournament is always fun to see, especially Kuma lol. As my favorite fighting game is Tekken I can't wait to see the next one and it's storyline.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I'm willing to bet that every single person who says that fighting games have no story have never touched BlazBlue. Continuum Shift Extend as a story is great even ignoring everything else in the series since every character gets their own turn in the spotlight via character specific routes instead of one main story. It really had some amazing alternate endings too, I liked how in Tager's bad ending he got merged (deconstructed?) with Relius' puppet Ignis to make Ignis 2.0. Because fuck Tager. But then Relius mind rapes Makoto and i'm just sad. Come on I thought we were bros, why would you do this to Based Girl?

The entire backstory to the Six Heroes is super interesting too. You hear about how Terumi betrayed them and stuff but it gets revealed that- to me at least- they kinda got what was coming to them or at the very least they should not have been surprised it happened nor act so hurt after the fact.

I particularly enjoy how fantastic the English dub of Hazama went in CSEX and i'm still sad about how they replaced him in CPEX.

Honestly the more I think about the general story of BB, the more I think that it ain't Ragna's story at all, instead it's more of Terumi's story since so much shit happens because of him being such a good antagonist. Yes I am biased as hell cuz Terumi is the best but still. Ragna just kinda... reacts? Y'know? Terumi is always doing something to advance his agenda and Ragna kinda just dicks around?

Once Calamity Trigger is over and you go into the events of Continuum Shift the entire story shifts around Terumi's actions and the majority of the rest of the cast have to deal with the shenanigans he puts out, even going into CPEX where he takes a back seat to Izanami, you have the entire Six Heroes and Sector Seven + Rachel portion of the good guys trying to shut down Terumi alone. I've barely started CF's story but the snippets i've picked up only supports this further. The fact that Susano'o exists on the roster at all is great.

But real talk though. Why is Lambda not dead? That shit pissed me off. Terumi fuckin' demolishes her at the end of CSEX but she shows up in CPEX for no reason. Actually unexplained and she doesn't show up once in the main or side stories, she just sits in character select mocking me.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I thought how the story unfolded in Injustice was very well done. Makes me wish that they'd do as equal a good job with Street Fighter.

 

[K-sha]

I don't mind it for extra fun, and it can make you like/hate a character more or not as much. problem is most games dont even try. Here's a few I liked

AH3LM extra stories were fun, though the original arcade mode is your typical story. I liked the cards of glory in gallery mode and story of finding the hotsprings. it's good to see characters do random things like go on a yuri date while avoiding petra, talk about valentines day, etc.

Almost everything I can think of from arcsystem is pretty good. blazblue is kind of confusing, but enjoyable, and expandable. guilty gear is great how they made it like an anime. persona 4 arena series is expected to be good, considering how it's based off persona series.

in the future I don't mind of other games can take the xrd route of making an anime over VN where you often have to imagine things, or at least have more pictures in between. but I'm guessing thats extra resources/time, which is counterproductive. unless all their characters are cell shaded like xrd.

 

[KissingSunlight]

I'm willing to bet that every single person who says that fighting games have no story have never touched BlazBlue.

OK. You got me there. I have never played Blazblue. I didn't even know that was a fighting game. I going to have look that one up.

I want to thank everyone who have posted so far.

Is the interest in stories in videogames a generational thing? Considering I started gaming with Atari. (Sadly, I am that old.) There were no stories in the games. There was little story written in the game manual. However, I just ignored that. I wanted to know how to play it more than I wanted to know about the story.

 

[Xorph]

I'm willing to bet that every single person who says that fighting games have no story have never touched BlazBlue.

OK. You got me there. I have never played Blazblue. I didn't even know that was a fighting game. I going to have look that one up.

I want to thank everyone who have posted so far.

Is the interest in stories in videogames a generational thing? Considering I started gaming with Atari. (Sadly, I am that old.) There were no stories in the games. There was little story written in the game manual. However, I just ignored that. I wanted to know how to play it more than I wanted to know about the story.

I wouldn't say it's a generational thing insomuch as the genre evolving over the years. By comparison, look at how simple cave paintings were vs how some modern art pieces can fit so much stuff into them that they can practically qualify as a short story.

Personally I love a game that's all gameplay and zero story just as much as I love the inverse and the in-between, it just depends on what I'm in the mood for at the time, the same way you might watch an EXPLOSIONS ACTIONSTORM like Transformers one day and then watch a heady slow-burn like 2001 A Space Oddysee the next.

On topic of fighting games I'm in the same boat as others where I seldom if ever touch the online (though i do play plenty on the couch with friends), so story-rich stuff like Blazblue are my favorites, though I can still enjoy something like Street Fighter 4 where I can run through arcade with each character to have fun with the gameplay and the little ending cutscenes they all have, and then go and try to clear challenge and survival modes to get some more hours out of it.

 

[iwinatlife]

I love the Stories for Tekken and Soul Caliber, Everyone has their insane reason to be trying desperately to achieve whatever the goal de jour is. However Tekken wins because not even the serious stories take themselves too seriously. Like Heihachi and Kazuya and their cliff tossing habits. Soul Caliber trys a little too hard sometimes considering one of its roster is a zombie pirate.