There is no real set definition on how a catgirl has to look. I guess cat ears and tail is standard, but even the iconic Cat Girl Nuku Nuku lacks those features (only physical feature of a cat that she sports are tiny fangs). So long as you have cat-like mannerisms, I assume you are good to go.
As Cat Woman has shown, it doesn’t hurt to make tons of lame cat-puns, either.
I suppose another cliche for fighting games is the whole fact that many of these games have the whole tournament structure going on in them for no apparent reason. The original Fatal Fury, for instance, was all about the KOF tournament - yet it would have been a better story if, like the original Art of Fighting, it was just about Terry, Andy and Joe cutting a bloody swath through South Town and all the goons employed by Mr. Howard.
The original Darkstalkers had a tournament storyline behind it as well… they’re freakin’ monsters, they don’t need an excuse to beat the shit out of each other. Instead of having Shadaloo organize a fighting tournament, just give all the characters a personal reason to come after Shadaloo (God knows, there’s plenty of reasons) and have them beat up random folks along the way as a way of squeezing information out of them as to Shadaloo’s whereabouts.
I mean, shit, at least Dudley had his car stolen by Gill. As laughable as that is, at least it gives him a reason to want to beat down Gill. Chun Li was trying to rescue a girl who was kidnapped by Gill’s organization, Alex’s friend Tom was killed by Gill, etc. What was Gill’s reason for organizing a fighting tournament that would have him get his comeuppance by some many people out for his blood?
Forget the tournament angle. Just have it be people hunting down the final boss for their own personal reasons. That’s all it needs to be.
I guess BB did it right way - just a bunch of characters which have relationships between each other: love, hate, friendship, beef or whatever. All characters going for boss’ head is kinda boring. Same with “what I gonna do with prize money” thing >_>
Why does anyone need some deep interrelated story? Why can’t people just show up to fight because of the fight. Half the time, i don’t even know (or care about) the story of the character I’m maining in the first place.
Yeah, I personally prefer when each character has their own ‘final boss’.
It doesn’t need some deep story, but when central characters have no reasonable motivation, it falls flat.
Pyron, Bison, Gill, and various other tournament organizers have no real reason to organize the tournaments they hold. They just apparently do it for shits and giggles. If that were the case, fine, I can go with that, but don’t then make them out to be cartel-running drug-lords out to brainwash everybody in the world before destroying it.
Ryu’s story is basically about his internal struggle. He fights to become strong while sill staying on the rightful path, since the stronger he gets, the more his murderous intent grows stronger. That’s pretty much it. You have other characters for plots and stuff like Chunli and Guile.
KOF does the same thing, with one or two teams that are crucial to the story arc while everyone else are basically jobber teams.
Robert: "Lol, we lost again Ryo."
Ryo: "Dammit, I could have sworn we were stronger than this."
Yuri: "I’m sorry Father."
Takuma: "Lol, I’m not Father. I’m Mr. Karate. Look at my mask."
King: “This family sucks.”
Because it’s cool thing to have. Don’t tell me you’re not enjoying little things in life just because they aren’t mandatory =]
I really love SNK fighters for that aspect. There is some romance going on, some stuff happens between characters in various games - it just makes universe more lively, more realistic so to speak. And I really love character interactions in MOTW. Too good.
I agree with this to a fault - If I have to read the manual to figure out what’s going on and there isn’t any indication from actually playing the game, you effed up. How are you going to give someone an ‘arcade ending’ and they didn’t even know there was a story? I’m looking at you, Bloody Roar and GGXX
I like the Ryu/Akuma story. KOF has some interesting characters like Terry, Kyo, Iori. The whole clone thing is pretty old and I’m not a big fan of Ash though.
Any fighting game that has a cut-scene, of any sort, it obviously trying to tell an interesting story. They wouldn’t cut away from the action otherwise. They may not succeed, but that’s something else entirely.
I don’t see fighting games as being any worse for telling a story than platformers, beat 'em ups, shmups or anything else really. It’s all about how you go about doing it. A series of one-on-one fights is just as valid a vehicle for telling a story as fighting an entire army at once, plundering a castle or zipping through space. As long as there is conflict, there is potential for a story.
I’m talking logistically. The single player mode for fighting games historically has always been the arcade mode, which rarely lasts more than 20 minutes. To keep the pace of the game going, they can really only fit in maybe 3 minutes worth of story pertaining to the character you’re playing as, divided between the ending sequence, and whatever win quotes or special character intros. What kind of story is that? Even if you add in every playable character, you’re getting maybe an hours worth of story from the game. What kind of fucking story is that? You get more story from an episode of Seinfeld than an entire new SF release.
You need a new single player format if you want to tell a story that isn’t a new flavor of “all the greatest fighters in the world are entering a tournament.” Maybe that Weapon Master mode from SC2 would be a good start?
That most fighting games are either they are going to a tournament, fighting at a tournament, or they’re already at a tournament. What happened to the old school, you see someone walking the street that you didn’t like and fucked his shit up lmao
Well yes, Arcade Mode is going to be very light on story. As well it should be. It’s Arcade Mode. Arcade Mode is supposed to be as if the game was in the arcade, and the role of the single-player in the arcades was just to keep your adrenaline pumping until a challenger appeared.
There’s been plenty of games that have made some strides in presenting a story for a fighting game, even in the arcades. KOFXIII has one-on-one conversations that were unique to each matchup. SFA3 had a brief intro after selecting your character that would detail who your character was and what their current situation was. Plenty of games will interrupt the succession of matches to hint at who the boss is, what’s at stake, whatever.
I’m not saying that fighting games CURRENTLY provide ample story in their single-player modes - I’m saying that there’s plenty of POTENTIAL to provide story in their single-player modes. You’re talking about history, I’m talking about the future. I think the only reason that it hasn’t been taken further (with a few exceptions, like BlazBlue and Mortal Kombat) is that fighters are still being made as if they for the arcades rather than for home use.
I wish more single-player modes could be like Chronicle of the Sword from SCIII. Plenty of folks hate on SCIII, and for good reasons, but CotS is the main reason I can’t think ill of that game. Granted, that mode didn’t have a whole lot of story behind it either… but it had a lot of potential for story.
Yeah, I also like the Ryu/Akuma story… correctly, I liked the Ryu/Akuma story. Canonically bringing Gouken back from the dead was the worst thing ever, because now the Ryu/Akuma rivalry doesn’t have as much weight to it.
On that note, why even call it a tournament if no one’s getting paid? The only time I remember someone winning money from these fights are Dhalsim (SF, I think) and Ryo’s friend in KoF. That’s only two instances that I can remember
Why can’t you throw it out of the window? Namco and Capcom are doing crazy cinematics for trailers but can’t make some decent cutscenes? I sure they can they just don’t want to bother with story. Why? Because of FG traditions! It’s the biggest cliche of them all >_>