That’s blasphemy against Alpha 3, Orochi Saga KOF, Guilty Gear, Darkstalkers, and Rival Schools.
And really…people DO care about storylines, as long as they’re good. Of course, nobody but anime fanboys are going to say that story >>> gameplay in a fighter, but there’s no reason for them to be mutually exclusive.
There’s nothing wrong or hard about liking a fighter for both.
I know PLENTY of serious Tekken players who occasionally love to talk a little about the storyline, and were excited back when T5 first came out to learn tidbits about the plot and watch all of the endings.
Unfortunately, while I think Namco does a good job of the character background stories, the main plot and storylines of Tekken have become complete crap now after Tekken 5 since they don’t seem to think anyone who has ever died should stay dead. And the whole plot is just a Mishima incestual circle jerk and with the occasional Jin emo outburst, only he shoots lasers rather than cutting himself.
Oh yeah, and now apparently anyone who isn’t a Mishima, Raven or Nina Williams is a joke character with no relevance to the main storyline and just does random shit for laughs and giggles.
EDIT:
To add to spudly’s post, Darkstalkers also works like that, because it doesn’t assume all of the DSers even MEET Pyron or Jedah.
Demitri defeats and absorbs Pyron in Night Warriors, Jedah kills Demitri in Vampire Savior, Donovan then kills Jedah, Morrigan and Lilith fuse together and become the new Queen of Makai in presumably a reign of peace.
The supporting DS characters have their own little subplots wrapped up in Vampire Savior (Felicia becomes a nun, Victor dies, Anakaris creates his own dimension…)
that’s the problem. forget about our little niche fighting game community and look at it on the whole gaming culture as a whole. yeah sure only one maybe 2 endings are the REAL endings. but you cannot know that by just playing the game. you have to find other sources for the real info like a canon or whatever. the stories arent very present in the games itself. most people just play the game, not read all this extra bullshit thats not even in the said game. thats very dumb to the majority. and with some games, like mk, you dont know which ending is the true ending til the next freaking game.
stories and fighters just dont mix. theres too many variations based on all the different characters and outcomes there can be. stories get mixed up cuz of too much false storytelling
I do enjoy Tekken storyline…when part 5 came out i beat the game with less main characters and saved the mishima family ones for last…I really dont get KOF story at all…i just watch the pictures…as for streetfighter…i stopped caring after Alpha3.
Well yes and no, usually the overall storyline of a game is weaker than it’s parts. The characters themselves tend to be more interesting than the story. Though most are rather straightforward, lacking in any real suspense, and really have nothing to offer in the way of twists.
So overall storylines can be good, but are often quite dull, while the ideas and storylines behind individual characters tends to be much better. A good storyline to me would be a story that could be held up told just as is, without the gameplay aspect. (Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver to me is a good story, heck it’s a better story than game to me. It has many twists, a good amount of suspense, and while a bit talkative, all the characters are distinctive.)
Of those mentioned for having good stories, Mortal Kombat, A3, Darkstalkers, Rival Schools are all games where the storylines are rather dull and predictable, but the characters in and of themselves tend to be rather interesting. (Mortal Kombat benefits from having backgrounds the extend prior to the games to learn about, while other games tend to only give you blurbs about where a character is from and their motivation for being at whatever fighting event is currently being held.)
The only storyline I’ve been interested in was the Soul Calibur one, which I thought was fairly good. Other than that I really couldn’t care less about the story.
Of course storyline is extremely important to fighting games.
Would you play a game with a bunch of wireframe boxes colliding with each other?
Because any kind of art design, any kind of characterization whatsoever constitutes a story. That said, I believe a strong core idea for a game will give it lasting appeal.
Take Ryu. Lots of people like to say he has no story. That’s not true, it’s just extremely simple. He lives only to fight. Sure their is more to that in endings and stuff, but the core story is only one sentence.
Fighting games don’t need elaborate RPG-like stories, but they do need strong themes that come out in the gameplay. They need likable character designs.
I think that is a total cop out. Its like making a game, realizing you didn’t make interesting enough characters, then having someone write a bunch of backstory for each of them to cover your ass. Of course you can’t understand the whole story in a fighting game, simply because the gameplay doesn’t allow it, so you read the rest to fill in the gaps, but backstory is just an entirely different chapter that can easily be written after the games have been made.
Having a storyline adds tons to a fighting game as long as it’s well done; I think it speaks of a job well done, if the storyline is well executed, it tells me that the game has also been taken care in other aspects.
But, it has to be done and presented in a simple manner, you don’t get much space in prefight texts and endings (which suck more everytime). So you have to stick to themes that take little space and give sense to the characters to help players identify, if only to a core level, with the character.
Yeah. That works.
But I still believe that elaborate stories just haven’t been done right in the FG kingdom. That’s why they’re frowned upon. There’s just so much shit to deal with. Between fanboy pussy gushing blood at the slightest breeze and the redundancy of almost EVERY FG-type story to date, it’s hard. Tournament, quest, etc. Almost all of it’s been done before… several times.
backstory is great for fighters. too bad nearly all the backstory for the games we play (fighters) is in japanese so we never really hear about it. (side novels, drama cds, comics.)
and yes i care about story. its the HOOK that gets alot of people to enjoy it THEN they stay for the gameplay. (though for some its the other way around)
Hm I think that this might be closest to the truth. To be sure, some ppl will care less or way more about a well-presented story, but I think that it is the general themes that almost everyone grabs onto. Every character has a certain theme, like duty to family, being the best no matter what, revenge, rebellion etc. A good story can do a great job of conveying a theme, making it easier for players to act out the theme of their choice.
the other problem i see with story (i think it might have been mentioned already in the thread), is that it can limit the sequels. characters die, so now they can never come back. who wants the sequel to not have their favorite characters, just cuz some basic silly story says he/she died? then you gotta worry about timeline, is this character too old now to fight, realistically?
basic story is good and all, gotta give the characters personality/motivation and all that, but there’s too many problems with having a fleshed out storyline
It more or less depends on you cup of tea really. The most hardcore of players
don’t particularly care for the character’s background/personality/etc., but rather
their gameplay capabilities.
As a casual gamer, I do think storyline is important. It gives the characters depth.