Single Player in Fighters

[DeathSwitch109]

I enjoy single player modes in fighting games and without a decent story mode it's hard for me to consider buying it.

My top 3 fighting games in recent memory:

-Super Smash Bros. Melee
-Soul Calibur II
-Mortal Kombat (PS3/360)

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was a failure.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

I'm sorry, but "even though we're on the same team I'm going to beat you to within an inch of death because you said something I didn't like, then you'll be fine in the next cutscene" ain't exactly oscar-winning material my friend. XD

He wasn't arguing that though, he just said it worked if you assumed everyone in Mortal Combat was sociopathic (which isn't really a stretch considering a lot of things), and as you described:

"even though we're on the same team I'm going to beat you to within an inch of death because you said something I didn't like, then you'll be fine in the next cutscene"

....is pretty much the definition of sociopathic.

You want BAAAAAD writing? Take Dead or Alive's singleplayer, anime logic times a million.

"I would like to hire you to kill Donovan"
"I see....But I need to know your strength of will"
(fight begins and ends, never referenced afterwards)


I'll still play it though, I need the laughs and the fanservice.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

If more fighting games had a story like BlazBlue, the world would be a better place...

However, considering how much I enjoy the feeling of competition when I play against other players in fighting games...I don't really mind if there isn't much of a single player experience.

Definitely a nice thing to have, but for most players (or at least ones who feel the need to be competitive), the real treat is figuring out the system, improving, and eventually becoming an expert at the game.

 

[crono738]

If more fighting games had a story like BlazBlue, the world would be a better place...

However, considering how much I enjoy the feeling of competition when I play against other players in fighting games...I don't really mind if there isn't much of a single player experience.

Definitely a nice thing to have, but for most players (or at least ones who feel the need to be competitive), the real treat is figuring out the system, improving, and eventually becoming an expert at the game.

This. In all honesty, how many times would someone play story mode in a fighting game? I played through MK9's story once to unlock Quan Chi and Cyborg Sub-Zero then spent most of my time in training mode before going online.

The meat of damn near every fighting game is the fighting. I'd rather have a fantastic combat system and solid online than a story mode. Hell, that's why I love Soulcalibur V so much. Best netcode I've seen in a current gen fighter, and arguably the best gameplay execution in the series since SC2.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Not having to mess around with unlocking character means that people that enjoy fighting games with friends or as a competition don't have to mess around with doing extra work to allow people to play characters and don't have to worry about save game data. It's a good thing.

As for single player in fighting games. Meh. These game have a variety of audiences and although I'd like them to try and have single player, as with all games, I can see why they would shift focus away from it since the audience that cares for such things seems (to me) to be small-ish.

 

[SageRuffin]

While fighting games certainly don't need it, a solid single-player experience can help ease one into the game. It can also explain how the universe works (Soul Calibur), explain the characters and their motivations (Soul Calibur again, Guilty Gear, Blazblue, Mortal Kombat), or simply let the players know what the fuck is going on.

You may have noticed that the above paragraph is mostly associated with those infamous "stories" you occasionally come across in fighting games. It doesn't have to be just that; Virtua Fighter (especially 4 onwards) included a staggeringly robust "Quest Mode" which was basically a glorified training mode that allowed you to earn various clothing and accessories for the characters (with nigh endless possibilities per character, not this half-baked timed shit that Capcom's been doing recently). And while you may not realize it immediately, you slowly get better at the game in the process. Soul Calibur I and II before it were the same way with "Mission Mode" and "Weapon Master", respectively without being able to customize the characters appearance (though you could obtain an extra outfit and all sorts of weapons with assorted properties). There are many other games that offer nice and tasty single player modes, even if they are beginning to be an endangered species, especially with Street Fighter IV's resurgence of the genre.

Long and short, single player modes aren't paramount to a fighting game, but it doesn't hurt to have them.

And now my favorite part: COMMENTING!

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Fighting games have always been and should always be about the player versus player combat.

Ah, Strider. We meet again.

Seriously though, while I'm not disagreeing, I will say I think this is somewhat short-sighted. The game doesn't have to go through great lengths to provide content if the gameplay holds (i.e. MK 2011), but something that at the very least gives you something to do other than Arcade, Versus, and Practice would be nice. Hell, the way I see, fighting games could take the 3SO route and include unlockables like fan art and alternate color palettes!

It nothing super-special, but it's there if you're tired of facing SA2 Chun Li, SA3 Yun, SA3 Ken, or even SA3 Urien (RX, you magnificent bastard) for the umpteenth time.

I want more fighting games to have stories with actual plotlines. Dead or Alive Dimensions is exactly what I mean. Now I want them to do the same thing with King of Fighters.

A lot of fighting games DO have a lot of character in them, however, which is something of a story itself.

King of Fighters' storylines are actually pretty robust.

Good luck trying to figure out who the fuck is doing what and why though. :/

Snip, by Sage.

A few things:

- Soul Calibur had a rather nice and coherent story up until SCIII. Then it shot itself in the balls with some really bizarre and downright nonsensical design choices. It never quite recovered after that. Fuck, and don't get me started on that heap of manure that was SCV's "1607 AD".
- The two best known titles from Arc Systems Works, Blazblue and Guilty Gear, have great stories as well... once you piece together all the character routes. Although Guilty Gear has a nasty habit of using multiple mediums (Japan only, I might add) to continue its story...
- Online communities are but a minor piece of the FGC; it's all about the games, the people who play them, and the venues dedicated to letting people play them. And you should never base your player skill on online matches (not until the rest of us can get some of that delicious Gigabit internet).
- Of course no one cares about single player modes at a tournament. That defeats the purpose of going to a tournament! And besides, even going to the bathroom is the farthest thing from anyone's minds when PR Rog is getting his shit wrecked by some no-name Japanese guy playing Viewtiful Joe and Rocket fucking Raccoon [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7XBncjF4xw].

The Mortal Kombat single-player story was a complete joke. A series of disjointed fight scene which needed little to no motivations from the characters involved. However, it was still more of a story than most fighting games have.

You don't play much fighting games do you? Virtually all story modes in fighting games are disconnected fight scenes. That's about the only way you can do it while still having player interaction. Otherwise, you might as well have the entire thing off on the side like what Capcom did with the animated SF2 movie way back on the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection.

So it's either the cutscene style of MK 2011, or the visual novel style of Blazblue and Guilty Gear. Your move.

And let's be fair. With all the dicking around Midway-turned-NetherRealm Studios did with MK, they should be commended for having MK make some goddamn sense for once.

Fighting games really need a story.

Not true. For reference, take Virtua Fighter. There's a story, it just so happens to deal explicitly with an international martial arts tournament rather than the not-so-savory people behind it. Also, what information there is comes thoroughly explained through the character bios. It just a matter of piecing together what happened where, when, and with whom.

Fighters don't need a story, but they certainly not hurt by having one.

You want BAAAAAD writing? Take Dead or Alive's singleplayer, not even the silliest anime I can think of can top that. I'll still play it though, I need the laughs and the fanservice.

Please. DoA's story may be a hot mess, but at least it's consistent. Try piecing together some of the shit that goes down in Street Fighter, or better yet, the King of Fighters series (especially with the retcons and inconsistencies of the former and the lack of coherence for the latter). For extra fun, take a drink every time you have to consult a wiki.

---

Whew! That was fun. But now it's time for cookies and then bed.

 

[SageRuffin]

Hell, that's why I love Soulcalibur V so much. Best netcode I've seen in a current gen fighter, and arguably the best gameplay execution in the series since SC2.

I have to disagree with you there. From my observations, Namco actually regressed with some parts of SCV's gameplay, namely in character moves.

Much like SCII to SCIII, everyone's move list got MASSIVELY gutted. In essence, nearly all the returning characters are either not as versatile (Ivy, Cervantes) or worse yet not as good (Siegfried, Raphael). Long and short, I feel Namco went back to SCII in all the wrong ways.

 

[TehCookie]

Fighting games really need a story.

Not true. For reference, take Virtua Fighter. There's a story, it just so happens to deal explicitly with an international martial arts tournament rather than the not-so-savory people behind it. Also, what information there is comes thoroughly explained through the character bios. It just a matter of piecing together what happened where, when, and with whom.

Fighters don't need a story, but they certainly not hurt by having one.

Sorry, I forgot people take everything literally so if I don't type IMO people don't realize it's just my opinion.

 

[dimensional]

I play quite a few fighters casually and usually end up playing on my own as I dont really enjoy playing faceless strangers most of the time so a good single player is important to me. That being said a strong fighting system is more important to me its what keeps the game interesting and is the reason why I enjoyed Mortal Kombat (9) while it lasted but still keep going back to things like SCV and SF4 which have pretty crappy single player in comparison.

Some games do both and when I say some I am actually thinking of Blazblue (and hopefully the upcoming Persona Arena game) with a plethora of different modes which is always good, SC2 and 3 were also awesome on the single player side. For story well I really dont care (I need some backdrop though like fighting tournament or everyone wants magic sword) MK and Blazblue do it well but its not what I look for if it was SF would get an abyssmal rating from me, as long as the single player modes they do include are fun I can play for quite some time alone quite happily.

The thing that tends to kill standard arcade single player for me is the overpowered bosses its just not fun when you have to fight these goons over and over each time you play or cheating AI that reads youre buttons. I played SF 2 Turbo to death (and still play it on occasion) mostly single player because none of my friends could beat me and all because I found arcade mode great fun, same with Dead or Alive 2 hardly a plethora of singleplayer content but I played it so much because the fighting was great fun and the boss was fun to fight.

These days I tend to spend more time in the training room polishing my skills so a good training room is almost essential to me but I rarely do anything with my acquired skills I like playing my friends above playing solo but they get bored as I am much more practised than they are but I rarely venture online its too awkward to get a decent connection and then find someone of equal skill, its no fun winning by a mile and its even less fun losing by the same so single player is usually where its at for me.

In conclusion a strong single player is very important to me but a strong fighting system or core system is more important than that (I like to keep returning to fighters and savour them slowly improving my skills) unless its not designed as a hardcore fighter in which case the rest of the package must make it worth the time invested.

 

[AndrewF022]

Single-player story for a fighting game.. There is a tournament, prize money is big, you want the money.. All you need.

I don't think fighters really need to much in the way of a campaign, especially not a story focused one. Seriously, games struggle with narrative as it is, let alone trying to write one for a fighting game. But I think there should be a nice variety of game modes, some single-player, some multi-player.

The most important things are of course, a balanced and varied character roster for multi-player, slick and enjoyable fighting mechanics and a good tutorial or practice mode to help you adjust to all the characters before wading into the other more competitive modes.

 

[Zyst]

My opinion as a PvP and competitive play junkie is that the Single player is a complement to the Multiplayer, at least in most of the games I buy.

Now before I get some shit for that I wanna clear up that's just what I like, I'm not saying the single player should be bad or whatever, I just don't give a shit about it most of the time.

Anyway, when I got SS Bros Brawl (I literally only bought my Wii for that game) I exclusively played multiplayer, I mean, I literally never finished the story mode, hell I think I didn't even finish the arcade, I unlocked all the characters, everything only through multiplayer.

And in my opinion, if leaving the story mode out would have meant more characters/stage/balance, I wouldn't have minded for a split second if the story mode and arcade didn't exist, at all.

But that's my take on it.

Hell, only on games where I reaaally wanna know the story (Halo for example) I would play the single player, but for instance, in games where I absolutely don't give a crap (MW3) I never even started up the single player.

 

[SageRuffin]

Sorry, I forgot people take everything literally so if I don't type IMO people don't realize it's just my opinion.

Thinly-veiled insults aside, I'm well aware of this. It just like the people saying that fighting games need nothing more except Versus mode (and maybe Options for sound and button configuration). They're not wrong and neither are you.

So chill. I'm simply expressing my thoughts just like you're expressing yours. Why you feel the need to take this personal is beyond me.

 

[hoboman29]

I'm not a big online guy (too many spammers,ragequitters,and trolls) and it really sucks that no one has decided to make more single player content. I remember a game called Street Fighter 4 that had a lot of single player challenges and such to keep you playing. Single player in fighters would really benefit from the devs putting more stuff in single player like a simple gamemode or 2 and stuff to unlock.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

Eh, I really enjoyed Mortal Kombat as a fighter. The online was horrible though. The lag is game breaking for me. Most online fighters have this problem though, a fight doesn't work well unless the combat is fluid. Now local co-op action was great in the game, fluid, fun and action packed with great characters.

I think with pretty much any fighting game, *with maybe SSB brawl as an exception* single player will be boring after awhile and usually sooner, rather than later. A fighter isn't exactly my top genre, so my opinion can only go so far. I enjoy fighters, but unless I have a second player sitting next to me on my couch, I won't play any fighter for very long.

A shooter like Halo is similar. I play the single player of every Halo, but only once, then I play the multi-player for ages and get top ranks. I don't know if I would even purchase a Halo game without online these days even though there single players really aren't that bad. I'm sure CoD/Battlefield players feel the exact same, although I am not one. As a counterstrike player I am used to online play and love it.

Fighting games basicly made to play in the arcade with two friends fighting each other, I think to this day, that mechanic still holds as the true reason for playing a fighter for most people.

 

[UpgradeJ]

Going back to capcom and sega for a minute, remember that i said their single-player bits are about mastery as opposed to an experience. The reason i said this is because the single player in both MVC3 and Street fighter are almost entirely about learning and mastering difficult combos, and on the sega side the single player in virtua fighter (atleast the later installments) are about mastering a character (i.e VF evolution for PS2). Now take a look at Mortal Kombat (2011) for a second. It has a story mode that makes you play with most of the characters and a mode with 300 challenges that does the same and then you have training and online mode. What this does is have you get comfortable (to a degree) with a variety of characters before you even have the thought of wanting to "master" the game n take your skills online. An experience is only half of what a story or campaign mode is all about, they are also about gettin you acquainted with most or all the characters, and that works whether you have all the characters available from the beginning or not, however there has to be some sort of prize at the end of a story otherwise it will seem like a waste of time.

 

[TrevHead]

Fighting games really need a story. The combat is fun, but it can't support the game on it's own. I really like Blazblue for the fact it has a story and interesting characters along with the standard fighting game.

I think any fighting game is weaksauce if it has to rely on story rather than gameplay. Thats what makes arcade games so fun, its supposed to be a quick shot fast action gameplay no story needed. (Its my main gripe with the shmup Touhou which is so heavy on the text)

That said story does add to any game but it should be mostly backstory with ingame story kept to a minimum. Story modes are ok if kept in a seperate mode (which for what I understand is the norm in the fighting game genre)

However the beat em up genre can be more flexible with putting story into the main game mode. Treasure's Guardian Heroes which for those who havn't played it is a beat em up / fighter hybrid, is a great example of using story when tied into how it branches its levels (I wish more folk would play it rather than Castle Crashers)