The Inevitable Street Fighter V Story Thread: ARCADE EDITION!

[I_iShiDo]

Waiting for the day soomeone will slap Eliza or Mel and Ken will go apeshit.

SnH would look like a child play

[DarthEnder]

I’m also not basing my argument about who is the main character on a cosmetic trailer, but on the actual character prologues and what little we know about the cinematic story.

You really aren’t. Because you’re attributing Karin’s tournament as one of the “main” plots even though it’s mentioned for about 2 seconds in the prologues.

Bottom line, the clear primary antagonist of this game is Bison. And equally clear is that his nemesis in this game is Nash.

Sorry to chime in on the whole “Character should/shouldn’t die” discussion but I strongly disagree with this particular comment

You can. I can’t force you to not be wrong.

Example - let’s look at Dragon Ball Z.

Let’s not. DBZ is, first and foremost, a story.

SF is a game. The whole point is playing as the characters. If the story is written as such that you can no longer play as those characters, then your story is actively fucking up the game.

The problem is people misconstrue death for story progression. A character death itself is not an example of story progress. Killing Bison or whoever won’t magically make SF’s story a literary masterpiece.

Death is an opportunity for birth, for a new beginning. If you don’t make it count and work at the progression, then it was pointless and you just got rid of a much adored character for no good reason.

And this is why we have NPCs. So that you can kill off characters that can have a great impact on the story, without getting rid of a character that people actually like to play with.

That’s why it’s always infuriating when people request characters like Gouken(formerly), Goutetsu and Chun Li’s father as playable characters. Making those characters playable means undoing their deaths, which completely undermines the playable characters whose entire story arcs are informed by those character’s deaths.

[ES_Curse]

Waiting for the day soomeone will slap Eliza or Mel and Ken will go apeshit.

SnH would look like a child play

My money’s on Vega. We’ve been waiting for this fight since Street Fighter II V.

[Daemos]

The Street Fighter ‘story’ in 3 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K66QIcLhn_k

Pros-

Really nicely animated.
Didn’t mention any crap about Rose and Bison being the same person.

Cons-

The way he pronounces Ryu, Gouken, and Sagat
The relationship between Bison and Akuma, and having SF2 as a separate unique event that takes place between SFA3 and SF4.
BS like how Goutetsu did not train Gouken and Gouki on ‘opposite sides of the spectrum’ or that Seth didn’t create SIN after Bison died. It was going on in the background for many years.
The way he pronounces Ryu, Gouken, and Sagat - Seriously. WTF.

I’m also not basing my argument about who is the main character on a cosmetic trailer, but on the actual character prologues and what little we know about the cinematic story.

You really aren’t. Because you’re attributing Karin’s tournament as one of the “main” plots even though it’s mentioned for about 2 seconds in the prologues.

Bottom line, the clear primary antagonist of this game is Bison. And equally clear is that his nemesis in this game is Nash.

Nash isn’t Bison’s nemesis though. Bison doesn’t really have someone he regards as a nemesis. Many characters in SF5 are or will go after Bison after his plot for world destruction is revealed.

Re: the tournament

Based on precedence, the tournament usually is the main event or rather the central literary device that is used to bring all the characters on board and move the story. So it isn’t farfetched to believe that Karin, who is the host of this tournament and who is seen weaving together the plots of Dhalsim, Birdie, Ken, Oro, Ibuki, Mika, and Zangief in the prologues is getting a nice chunk of the spotlight. The truth is there are several equally prominent subplots all occurring simultaneously under the main ‘Shadaloo Arc’, and each will play a role. I’m not comfortable calling Nash’s the main one based on what we know so far, let alone calling him the main character.

[DarthEnder]

Based on precedence, the tournament usually is the main event or rather the central literary device that is used to bring all the characters on board and move the story.

Right, but you said you were basing your evaluation of SF’s story on the prologues and the trailer for the cinematic story mode. During which the idea of Karin having a tournament get’s all of one passing mention.

Contrasted to Bison’s new plot taking up multiple character’s entire prologues and most of the story trailer. And Nash’s prologue revolves around him taking on Bison.

Nash isn’t Bison’s nemesis though. Bison doesn’t really have someone he regards as a nemesis. Many characters in SF5 are or will go after Bison after his plot for world destruction is revealed.

I’m not basis who his nemesis is based on Bison’s evaluation, but the story’s.

And those other characters you mention that always go after Bison, like Cammy and Chun Li, even their prologues revolve around Vega rather than Bison.

[PVL_93_RU]

Example - let’s look at Dragon Ball Z.

Let’s not. DBZ is, first and foremost, a story.

SF is a game. The whole point is playing as the characters. If the story is written as such that you can no longer play as those characters, then your story is actively fucking up the game.

Well, the story is written in a way that I can’t play Goutetsu, or Ryu’s mom, or Chun’s father, or Adon’s grandad. You don’t see me being angry about that, right? Besides, I’m not asking Capcom to kill off every single character in the Street Fighter universe, I’m just asking for them to show the have the balls in terms of storytelling department and can actually kill one of the classic characters.

Namco, ArcSys and SNK had no issues doing that since the 90’s by slowly getting rid of certain characters like Jun Kazama of Tekken, or Geese of KOF, because they moved the story arcs forward or gave characters motivation for their actions (for example - Jin avening his mother’s “death” by killing Orge)

Capcom has done so with only two of its characters, who are Dan and Chun-Li, and their respective dead relatives weren’t even ever playable in a Street Fighter game

[DarthEnder]

Well, the story is written in a way that I can’t play Goutetsu, or Ryu’s mom, or Chun’s father, or Adon’s grandad. You don’t see me being angry about that, right?

Because you never COULD play against them.

There’s a huge difference between that, and taking a character that people have already been playing as, and taking them away because the story says they died. There’s just no acceptable reason to do that.

If Capcom wants to kill off Azam or Sarai or Zeku in order to make an impact on the story, I’m completely fine with that, because they aren’t playable characters.

[PVL_93_RU]

Well, the story is written in a way that I can’t play Goutetsu, or Ryu’s mom, or Chun’s father, or Adon’s grandad. You don’t see me being angry about that, right?

Because you never COULD play against them.

There’s a huge difference between that, and taking a character that people have already been playing as, and taking them away because the story says they died. There’s just no acceptable reason to do that.

If Capcom wants to kill off Azam or Sarai or Zeku in order to make an impact on the story, I’m completely fine with that, because they aren’t playable characters.

I’m not saying character deaths need to be exclusive to the playable characters though

[DarthEnder]

I’m not saying character deaths need to be exclusive to the playable characters though

Oh, well then that’s fine. As long as they are excluded FROM playable characters.

[Hawkingbird]

Waiting for the day soomeone will slap Eliza or Mel and Ken will go apeshit.

SnH would look like a child play

Ken went apeshit on Viper when she kidnapped a pregnant Eliza. He no sold her thunder knuckle. If she didn’t back off she would have been BBQ.

[mykka]

I’m fine with them killing off Bison eventually.

[The_Shakunetsu]

Funny thing about that, Thanos and Doom have stopped appearing as “villains” as of late. Even Galactus’ role has been reversed.

Yup they could do that for some moment.

You don’t have to kill off Bison and not have him in the game in order to tell a new story with a new antagonist.

Nobody ever complains that nothing Honda ever does is relevant to the main story of a SF game. There’s no reason why, after being defeated, Bison can’t just be doing things in the background to try and recover while some other villain pushes the main plot for awhile.

Agree. Just someone who appear to be behind the scene,
Someone that is not directly interested for a while in the latter conflict.
Someone that is just waiting for his opportunity to reign again?
Someone that is waiting a particular event… like availability power source, fall of a dominant figure or a growth of power from others…

Some villains in KOF universe from the nest saga didn’t die but their missing in action is okay and understood for the ash saga.

[Daemos]

I’m fine with them killing off Bison eventually.

Fine, I’ll entertain this thought. I can be fine with Bison being killed off permanently, **if and only if **it comes at a great cost. The moral of the story is never only that good can vanquish evil, because good will never vanquish evil without sacrifice. This is how the world works. Death cannot be meaningless.

So if you want to kill Bison, someone(s) will have to pay the piper and Zombie Nash (who is obviously going to die again) isn’t enough.

In the context of SF5 for example, I need that apocalypse to take place and those PSAs to go off. I need chaos, turmoil, and hundreds of thousands of people dead. A scar on Ryu or a lost limb here or there would be a nice bonus.

But this if the death is permanent. Which more likely than not, won’t ever be. Bison will return as many times as it takes.

[PVL_93_RU]

I could see Rose sacrificing herself to save Ryu from certain death by Bison’s hand until Ryu gets to 100% power level and beats the shit out of Bison forever, but that would literally be DBZ level of a battle

[The_Shakunetsu]

Well, the story is written in a way that I can’t play Goutetsu, or Ryu’s mom, or Chun’s father, or Adon’s grandad. You don’t see me being angry about that, right? Besides, I’m not asking Capcom to kill off every single character in the Street Fighter universe, I’m just asking for them to show the have the balls in terms of storytelling department and can actually kill one of the classic characters.

Namco, ArcSys and SNK had no issues doing that since the 90’s by slowly getting rid of certain characters like Jun Kazama of Tekken, or Geese of KOF, because they moved the story arcs forward or gave characters motivation for their actions (for example - Jin avening his mother’s “death” by killing Orge)

Capcom has done so with only two of its characters, who are Dan and Chun-Li, and their respective dead relatives weren’t even ever playable in a Street Fighter game

Tekken Tag was a spin off game, we know that Jun is a plot device and has a successor that is Asuka while they won’t do that to heihachi which is the pop culture equivalent of dictator. they turn heihachi to endings comedic or those that would do negative on him comedic to justify that everything happened to him not true. Namco is brilliant on that part.

Geese of Kof MI and fatal fury is a different universe than the usual KOF universe were Geese. KOF geese claimed that he have been an immortal to terry in KOFXI winquotes.

[mikros]

I always thought Sagat hosted the SF1 tournament because of video game logic. Usually the boss of a fighting game is the host if the game is using a tournament setting.

You cannot apply common details to a game that came out before said detail became common.

The first fighting game with an explicit tournament setting where the boss was definitely the host was “Street Fighter II”, then “Fatal Fury”, then “Mortal Kombat” if I didn’t forget any game in between.

“Street Fighter I” appeared four years earlier.

And, surprise: There is no indication whatsoever that “Street Fighter I” is supposed to be a tournament at all:

You can choose the stage where you want to begin.

When you lose, the opponent taunts Ryu with “Try again, kiddo”.

No spectators in any of the stages at all.

And when you win the game, the ending says: “But remember, you have no time to rest in your glory, for there is always someone waiting in line to knock you off the top”, indicating that the champion title is something that you can win and lose at any time and not through an organized tournament.

None of these things are in SF2 anymore. Instead, SF2 has an award ceremony.

So, SF1 is most likely supposed to be similar to the “Alpha” games where Ryu just traveled the world to find opponents.

Furthermore, while the SF2 tournament is prominently mentioned in SF4 and while the battle between Ryu and Sagat is still relevant to the storyline, they never ever mentioned a pre-SF2 tournament.

Not that I think you are right or wrong, but I’d take the cosmetic aspects from SF1 with a grain of salt. A lot of things are there just because thay seemed a good idea. There’s even a bomb in the continue screen!

(and, if I remember well, there are a lot of people in one of the bonus stages; we can also argue that SF2, SF3 and SF4 stages have no spectators either)

[Hawkingbird]

Well, the story is written in a way that I can’t play Goutetsu, or Ryu’s mom, or Chun’s father, or Adon’s grandad. You don’t see me being angry about that, right? Besides, I’m not asking Capcom to kill off every single character in the Street Fighter universe, I’m just asking for them to show the have the balls in terms of storytelling department and can actually kill one of the classic characters.

Namco, ArcSys and SNK had no issues doing that since the 90’s by slowly getting rid of certain characters like Jun Kazama of Tekken, or Geese of KOF, because they moved the story arcs forward or gave characters motivation for their actions (for example - Jin avening his mother’s “death” by killing Orge)

Capcom has done so with only two of its characters, who are Dan and Chun-Li, and their respective dead relatives weren’t even ever playable in a Street Fighter game

Tekken Tag was a spin off game, we know that Jun is a plot device and has a successor that is Asuka while they won’t do that to heihachi which is the pop culture equivalent of dictator. they turn heihachi to endings comedic or those that would do negative on him comedic to justify that everything happened to him not true. Namco is brilliant on that part.

Geese of Kof MI and fatal fury is a different universe than the usual KOF universe were Geese. KOF geese claimed that he have been an immortal to terry in KOFXI winquotes.

Namco still got rid of Jun. While Harada won’t confirm her death she still hasn’t been in a main game since T2. Geese has skipped a few Fatal Fury games like FF2 and still hasn’t appeared canonically in that series after Real Bout. Guilty Gear has only brought back Justice as a plot device and never the main villain. Those do a good job of replacing their villains with other characters. Capcom pigeonholed themselves in their over reliance on Shadowloo.

[mykka]

I’m fine with them killing off Bison eventually.

Fine, I’ll entertain this thought. I can be fine with Bison being killed off permanently, **if and only if **it comes at a great cost. The moral of the story is never only that good can vanquish evil, because good will never vanquish evil without sacrifice. This is how the world works. Death cannot be meaningless.

So if you want to kill Bison, someone(s) will have to pay the piper and Zombie Nash (who is obviously going to die again) isn’t enough.

In the context of SF5 for example, I need that apocalypse to take place and those PSAs to go off. I need chaos, turmoil, and hundreds of thousands of people dead. A scar on Ryu or a lost limb here or there would be a nice bonus.

But this if the death is permanent. Which more likely than not, won’t ever be. Bison will return as many times as it takes.

I want Bison to die at Chun Li’s hands.

[Hawkingbird]

I’m fine with them killing off Bison eventually.

Fine, I’ll entertain this thought. I can be fine with Bison being killed off permanently, **if and only if **it comes at a great cost. The moral of the story is never only that good can vanquish evil, because good will never vanquish evil without sacrifice. This is how the world works. Death cannot be meaningless.

So if you want to kill Bison, someone(s) will have to pay the piper and Zombie Nash (who is obviously going to die again) isn’t enough.

In the context of SF5 for example, I need that apocalypse to take place and those PSAs to go off. I need chaos, turmoil, and hundreds of thousands of people dead. A scar on Ryu or a lost limb here or there would be a nice bonus.

But this if the death is permanent. Which more likely than not, won’t ever be. Bison will return as many times as it takes.

I want Bison to die at Chun Li’s hands.

Nash deserves the kill more.

[Daemos]

I’m fine with them killing off Bison eventually.

Fine, I’ll entertain this thought. I can be fine with Bison being killed off permanently, **if and only if **it comes at a great cost. The moral of the story is never only that good can vanquish evil, because good will never vanquish evil without sacrifice. This is how the world works. Death cannot be meaningless.

So if you want to kill Bison, someone(s) will have to pay the piper and Zombie Nash (who is obviously going to die again) isn’t enough.

In the context of SF5 for example, I need that apocalypse to take place and those PSAs to go off. I need chaos, turmoil, and hundreds of thousands of people dead. A scar on Ryu or a lost limb here or there would be a nice bonus.

But this if the death is permanent. Which more likely than not, won’t ever be. Bison will return as many times as it takes.

I want Bison to die at Chun Li’s hands.

Then you better be okay with her losing a leg.