How Do You Like Stories In Fighting Games?

[The Wykydtron]

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.

Half the time I won't stick with a game unless the story is decently engaging even if the gameplay is good. Going back to BlazBlue for a second, as the series goes on a lot of the fights have specific voicelines between characters on introduction and outro, in some really hype matchups like Hazama vs Ragna the game has a specific soundtrack written just for that fight and the two use a completely different set of voicelines during the fight, with Hazama's usual calm and collected attitude replaced by Terumi's bloodlust and I guess Ragna is slightly more angry than usual.

That shit elevates the gameplay even further without changing the mechanics. After BB, I can't stand other games repeating the same stock quotes even when the matchup is supposed to be important. Even Guilty Gear is guilty (lol) of this for the most part.

I'm even willing for the gameplay to take a hit if it makes a good story moment. I was playing Furi the other day and without too many spoilers, for a game built around tough as nails bosses the final (non optional) boss was incredibly easy. As in once you get into a swordfight with her it is near impossible for her to damage you because she has a single one hit combo that is crazy slow and her HP is low as hell.

It seemed weird, why the final boss so terrible? Until you realise that the very fact the worst guardian of the place was at the back was by design of the architect of the place you fight through. The competent guys were ahead of her so she would never have to fight, they would beat you for her.

I always believe that a boss fight doesn't need to be hard, it only needs to be interesting and I think she is the best example of that. Coincidentally, I feel like this is why most people thought Dark Souls 2 was disappointing. When you try to make boss fights hard instead of interesting with challenge, you get garbage like Royal Rat Authority and Prowling Magus with his congregation clogging up your game.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I completely ignore them.

 

[Frankster]

I actually find fighting games without at least a half hearted story mode to be utterly boring and not worth my money >_<

Fighting games with big story modes i enjoyed:

-Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3, had separate stories for each characters with you flying around in an overworld and levelling your characters stats.
-Mk9-X had the most cinematic story of any fighting game i played,but tbh i'm not entirely sold on it due to how easily one can just watch the whole thing on youtube, there's a bit of a disconnect between the cutscenes and the fighting, if they threw in some feature like giving you the option to fatality your story opponent to change the story (the ONLY moment that comes close to this is deciding whether to kill baraka but doing that or not changes nothing), that would make all the difference for me.
-Soul Calibur and its soul edge mode, never played the sequels but the first had a nice story mode where your character was given full story for their actions as they explored the world and collected new weapons to expand their arsenal.

 

[MrBoBo]

I do like context yes, reading about how Sagat got his scar in the Street Fighter II: Turbo manual back in the early 1990's added character to the game. They became comic book characters rather than a bunch of sprites.

 

[hermes]

I like when there are things to do when there is no one to play with.
If they get interesting or inventive, the better.

I wouldn't have touched Injustice if not for the story mode.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

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 find the enjoyment that stems from story-based content and gameplay-based content differs a lot. With fighters, I have to be in very different moods to go into storymode or online/training mode. I always try all kinds of buttons and actions when I get my hands on a new game, figuring the controls without doing anything else, at the same time though, when it comes to stuff like rpgs and whatnot, if I don't care enough for the story I can lose interest while if it's good enough I can put in 150 hours in the span of 3 weeks, as happened a few months ago with Persona 5 (amazing game btw).


So all in all, you gotta be in the mood to consume a story-driven experience but story in games is great. It doesn't have to mean that that is all you enjoy, however. As I am also competitive in fighting games and love playing at tournaments. Put me in training mode and I can spend 5 hours in a row inventing tech for the characters I like without a care in the world. Just like you, I also love playing games and figuring out their mechanics and how to do well in them and when in that mood I'll pick modes or games where the gameplay is the focus. Fighters like Blazblue are so amazing because their story imbues their non-story content with extra dollops of meaning through making you care deeply about the characters. That way, when you play online, it's not entirely playing a fighting game, you also are striving to make your favorite character from a story perspective shine. You want them to defeat their rivals or inspire their friends. The game supports this by having chars utter character-specific matchup quotes for specific fights (including unique quotes for when you land certain attacks and whatnot) and only if you actually know what happens in the story can you get the most out of those elements.

It just depends on the kind of mood that strikes in the end.

 

[sageoftruth]

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

Gotta love those gag reels too. Some drag on too long, but a bunch of them were pretty amusing. I just wish there was more to them visually than a bunch of talking portraits.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

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

Gotta love those gag reels too. Some drag on too long, but a bunch of them were pretty amusing. I just wish there was more to them visually than a bunch of talking portraits.

Haha, well, it is a visual novel after all.


GGXrd does the full on animated movie style story which is amazing too but it is much much shorter in exchange for all those beautiful graphics. That way they have something for everyone. I just kinda play all of it.

 

[CaitSeith]

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 don't think it's generational. I started with Atari too, and I appreciate story in games after including a booklet with backstory and lore with the game stopped being common.

 

[Misterian]

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.

I have to agree. I used to be fine with fighting games having limited story until I discovered Injustice. Nowadays I wonder why so few fighting game franchises ever make a fully fleshed out story mode.

Smash Bros Brawl did something similar with Subspace Emissary, which I liked, but Nintendo decided against adding something similar for Smash WiiU/3DS.

The Dragon Ball fighting games at times put in a story mode, but most of them (arguably with the exception of the Xenoverse games) just largely recycle the story of the anime and manga they're based off.

One Piece Grand Battle (called Grand Battle Rush in Japan) and Grand Adventure had a similar problem, but those games kinda made up for it by allowing you to play Story mode as Villians or as Smoker, which spiced things up abit, assuming you can tolerate that infamous 4Kids dubbed voice acting. And if you can't? I don't blame you.

Oh, and technically Namco tried to make a story mode somewhat similar to Injustice's Story Mode for Soul Calibur V. but that.... didn't do very well.

 

[MrBoBo]

I like when there are things to do when there is no one to play with.
If they get interesting or inventive, the better.

I wouldn't have touched Injustice if not for the story mode.

As far as video games go, on any term I thought that had a pretty great story mod.
Sure as heck was better than the live action movies.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Dragon Ball Xenoverse games

I wouldn't mind trying those games, but from what I have read of the control schemes and balance issues, I'm not sure it's worth it.

 

[PurplePonyArcade]

No harm in trying but no. Mixed really. Obviously some form of narrative works. Good or bad every character's moves reflect something of them and the thoughts going into their design so a narrative helps expand that. That said I do not really care. I disagree with everyone who says their preferred fighting game has a good story because I never agree. Maybe that is my fault but that is how I feel. You can make a decent story of anything but as an obsessed fan of fighting game I have NEVER seen a story to wow me and probably never will.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Pretty much the only fighting series I've ever played is Tekken. I don't really care. I don't play fighting games to see character development or engaging drama, I'm there to beat the crap out of other characters. Fighting games need no more than a single sentence setup (eg. "War between worlds!", "Crazy fighting tournament"), not an ongoing story, since to have any feeling of weight to it would mean having to throw out characters, which in terms of game design is rather counterintuitive. Never mind the nightmare of trying to make some sort of continuity out of a game with essentially several dozen different endings, where in each one a different character wins the day.

I remember Yahtzee once saying on a Let's Drown Out that fighting games are in a way a form of purely visual storytelling, since they're about variety and personality in the roster, and therefore the characters create stories merely based on their designs and their animation. I like that mindset. Take a few characters from Tekken as examples, and what we can tell about them merely by playing them:

- Paul Phoenix: burly, tough, manly braggart. Looks and dresses like he's been in gangs or the like. Proud, might makes right type.
- Forest Law: lean, agile expy of Bruce Lee. Disciplined and determined. Looks like he lives for training.
- Miguel (whose backstory I don't know, btw): Muscular, seems a tad unprofessional yet tough. Relaxed posture and lack of clear fighting form seem to indicate aloofness, improvisational approach or indifference. Seems to have a mean streak, hinting at some sort of troubled past.
- Baek: Slim, military sergeant type. Maintains control and discipline at all times and will let you know when you don't please him. Not a guy you want to cross, but uses no more force than is necessary.
- Wang: The old, benign asskicker archetype. Master of such a high level he's always calm even when he's beating the crap out of you, and will then help you up when he's done.

 

[K-sha]

I think the extra stuff they put in arcana heart 3 love Max is under rated. it might be because I'm a yuri and spice of life fan

some cards of glory(some of them, basically extra episodes you unlock as you play)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWdu03dilZiXo0sh3Q9ulfRjYhe5t3Ani

after story mode (1st few episodes with some characters)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWdu03dilZiWwhgtU8tbLyGP_l5t5IaZq

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

I've played one game that had a story mode I really liked, which was Soul Calibur III. It made the characters much more interesting when you got to go on a globetrotting adventure with them, and had decisions to make and input on how their journeys played out. Much better than "And then they fought because they were randomly matched in the tournament, just like the last opponent and the next opponent," or even BlazBlu's ambitious "and then they fought because the last 9 hours of esoteric and mindbending expository flashbacks, flashforwards, and unexplained asides said they should fight."

It's really really too bad they didn't build on that for the next game, and instead ditched it completely for 5 unrelated and unexplained fights with random opponents. How has nobody followed SC3's example?!

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I've played one game that had a story mode I really liked, which was Soul Calibur III. It made the characters much more interesting when you got to go on a globetrotting adventure with them, and had decisions to make and input on how their journeys played out. Much better than "And then they fought because they were randomly matched in the tournament, just like the last opponent and the next opponent," or even BlazBlu's ambitious "and then they fought because the last 9 hours of esoteric and mindbending expository flashbacks, flashforwards, and unexplained asides said they should fight."

It's really really too bad they didn't build on that for the next game, and instead ditched it completely for 5 unrelated and unexplained fights with random opponents. How has nobody followed SC3's example?!

I fail to see how what BB does differs from what SC did. If anything BB takes that concept in a more focused way, making it central to the game experience and imbuing the non-story modes with elements derived from the very detailed story. There's lots of decisions you make in the BB story and it's a tale spanning centuries which is like a globetrotting adventure times ten.


You can summarize SC story in that dismissive way too if you want, as well as any story for that matter, doesn't mean it's not still amazing lol.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

I've played one game that had a story mode I really liked, which was Soul Calibur III. It made the characters much more interesting when you got to go on a globetrotting adventure with them, and had decisions to make and input on how their journeys played out. Much better than "And then they fought because they were randomly matched in the tournament, just like the last opponent and the next opponent," or even BlazBlu's ambitious "and then they fought because the last 9 hours of esoteric and mindbending expository flashbacks, flashforwards, and unexplained asides said they should fight."

It's really really too bad they didn't build on that for the next game, and instead ditched it completely for 5 unrelated and unexplained fights with random opponents. How has nobody followed SC3's example?!

I fail to see how what BB does differs from what SC did. If anything BB takes that concept in a more focused way, making it central to the game experience and imbuing the non-story modes with elements derived from the very detailed story. There's lots of decisions you make in the BB story and it's a tale spanning centuries which is like a globetrotting adventure times ten.


You can summarize SC story in that dismissive way too if you want, as well as any story for that matter, doesn't mean it's not still amazing lol.

Don't get me wrong, I certainly appreciate that BB puts in so much effort to tell a story, and you'll rarely hear me criticize a game for having too much story content. Maybe it's down to the fact that I only played the first one and bits of the second, but the story in BlazBlu is so convoluted and so hard to follow, and not just because it's complex but because none of it is explained.

In Soul Calibur the story is at just the right level. It's central to the experience, but it's easy to follow, even when characters cross over each other's paths, it's basic and classic heroes and monsters stuff, and there's never too much of it at once so I can stay engaged in the combat.

In BB I far too often have to wait 5 minutes or more between fights to watch people talk to each other (and themselves) and don't even come away with any better understanding of the actual plot. I guess I just think that of all video game genres, fighting games need less story than others so I can actually keep fighting.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I've played one game that had a story mode I really liked, which was Soul Calibur III. It made the characters much more interesting when you got to go on a globetrotting adventure with them, and had decisions to make and input on how their journeys played out. Much better than "And then they fought because they were randomly matched in the tournament, just like the last opponent and the next opponent," or even BlazBlu's ambitious "and then they fought because the last 9 hours of esoteric and mindbending expository flashbacks, flashforwards, and unexplained asides said they should fight."

It's really really too bad they didn't build on that for the next game, and instead ditched it completely for 5 unrelated and unexplained fights with random opponents. How has nobody followed SC3's example?!

I fail to see how what BB does differs from what SC did. If anything BB takes that concept in a more focused way, making it central to the game experience and imbuing the non-story modes with elements derived from the very detailed story. There's lots of decisions you make in the BB story and it's a tale spanning centuries which is like a globetrotting adventure times ten.


You can summarize SC story in that dismissive way too if you want, as well as any story for that matter, doesn't mean it's not still amazing lol.

Don't get me wrong, I certainly appreciate that BB puts in so much effort to tell a story, and you'll rarely hear me criticize a game for having too much story content. Maybe it's down to the fact that I only played the first one and bits of the second, but the story in BlazBlu is so convoluted and so hard to follow, and not just because it's complex but because none of it is explained.

In Soul Calibur the story is at just the right level. It's central to the experience, but it's easy to follow, even when characters cross over each other's paths, it's basic and classic heroes and monsters stuff, and there's never too much of it at once so I can stay engaged in the combat.

In BB I far too often have to wait 5 minutes or more between fights to watch people talk to each other (and themselves) and don't even come away with any better understanding of the actual plot. I guess I just think that of all video game genres, fighting games need less story than others so I can actually keep fighting.

BB is a story split between 4 games and each game has between 20-40 hours of storymode content. It won't all make sense right off. A lot of what you say is true but that is kinda the point of why it's so good. After 7 years when you finish the final chapter of this main story arc (Ragna's story basically) it is incredibly fulfilling. It doesn't even begin comparing with stories of other fighters out there.

Also the later games can have you watching cutscenes up to an hour or more without any at all fights. You have to go into it thinking you're playing a visual novel with fighting game characters, not a typical "fighting game story" where the gameplay is the point. Here, the story is the point when you pick storymode, you get arcade mode for the typical fighting game thing where you fight a few fights, see a cutscene, fight a few more, see another scene, then fight the final boss and get a cool short anime movie but when you pick storymode you're playing a full-fledged visual novel.

 

[DrownedAmmet]

I've played one game that had a story mode I really liked, which was Soul Calibur III. It made the characters much more interesting when you got to go on a globetrotting adventure with them, and had decisions to make and input on how their journeys played out. Much better than "And then they fought because they were randomly matched in the tournament, just like the last opponent and the next opponent," or even BlazBlu's ambitious "and then they fought because the last 9 hours of esoteric and mindbending expository flashbacks, flashforwards, and unexplained asides said they should fight."

It's really really too bad they didn't build on that for the next game, and instead ditched it completely for 5 unrelated and unexplained fights with random opponents. How has nobody followed SC3's example?!

I never played Sould Calibur III, but II had a couple of very nice "story" modes. The first was the normal one on one fights until your character fights the big guy with Soul Edge, and then it shows you a nice little cutscene about what your character does with it.
But weapon master mode was dope as fuck! All the different routes you can take, the stuff you can unlock, the interesting fight gimmicks. Easily the best mode in any fighting game I've ever played.

But in General Soul Calibur has a really cool and simple story. There is this super sword that gives you super powers, and here are a bunch of people who all want it for different reasons. Every character is unique has their own motivations and it makes sense for why they would fight each other