The Presentation of Street Fighter V - Should it change?

Street Fighter V
1

Hey guys,

This is a thread that the subject, which it is dedicated top, was in my mind for several days now. We’re all excited/hyped/disappointed/etc about the game itself ([mechanics](Improvements or changes you would like to see in SFV [character roster](SFV Character Request/Anticipation Thread and some [other smaller things](Cosmetics: Small touches that you think will make the game better but won’t affect gameplay but there is one thing that I think we’re all missing out on discussing properly.

And it’s presentation. By “presentation”, I’m not talking about the visual style or the art direction or the graphics. No, this is a topic about an entirely different thing.

Let’s look at the simplest example, a classic fighting game under the name of Capcom vs SNK 2:

Take a close look at how the things are presented in the game, from the intro to the fight transitions to the final battle with the boss to the ending and the credits.
The game gives you this feel that what is happening in the game is a giant worldwide event where two of the biggest Fighting Game franchises collide and this clash of two different universes is being covered by the mass media, reported by the News Channels, and the reports are given from the scene of action, especially right before the Rugal vs Akuma cutscene

It also gives you the feel that this isn’t just a game but an enourmous event catching the eyes of millions of people from around the globe, it kinda makes the game look bigger than it actually is

Now, let’s take a look at Tekken Tag Tournament 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UlCsUZdofE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_IDXKV6x-A

Notice what the game does right off the bat with the intro and straight into the main menu, to the character select and their pre-battle intros - the game gives you this feeling that this Tag Tournament is a big festival, an eye-candy for the crowd of the Tekken universe, that this is a big of all these weird and unusual creatures battling it out with more human fighters.

When you first enter the main menu - what does the game greet you with?
A camera pan as if you’re driving past these giant stadiums with big spotlights, there are big screens announcing the next fights, there’s fireworks, it’s all bright and covered in various neon.
It’s essentially a martial arts holiday, and the music only helps to establish this effect in both the main menu and the character select screens

It just encourages you to play and sucks you into this special event

Heck, even the intro of Tekken 7 shows you the logo of the franchise, outright says that this series is 20 years old, and put its motto (Pride / Will / Destiny) right in your face, then proceeds to show you this action-packed intro to the game (well, it always did this, but still).

Now, let’s move on to MKX

Just watch the trailer for the story mode. THIS is what you’re getting. Mortal Kombat X is essentially a big-budget Hollywood movie among the Fighting Games, and it’s presentation (many cutscenes, lots of content inside, unique dialogues, the way the story is structured (not talking about the quality of the writing, that’s an entirely different topic)) proves it so. This one sentence about the game pretty much sums it up, and how much publicity Netherrealm gave it, how much money was put into the promos (and the Chop Suey trailer), etc

As people have mentioned below - they have created the promo footage in a style of modern Blockbuster films, and MKX lives up to the hype in this regard. It’s like Avatar for FGC

And, finally, Ultra Street Fighter IV. You all know how it looks, you all know the style of the UI, the menus, the intro and its music, and, aside from SF5’s announcement trailer that serves as this throwback to how great the series is… there’s nothing that shouts “THIS IS STREET FIGHTER, THIS IS THE KING OF FIGHTING GAMES”, especially since this series will soon turn 30 and this is pretty much the oldest fighting game franchise in the world

And yet, the intro for USF4 only added some scenes on top of intro for Super SF4, accompanied by a pretty uninspiring music choice for the game (nevermind the fact that it’s also the main theme of the game and serves as the main menu music). It’s just so…boring, you know? You can;t help but think it needs something to spice things up

So, after all what I wrote above - here’s my question to you:

Considering the style and the presentation SF5 is giving us so far (also counting that we haven’t seen a single scene from the Story Mode, which is supposed to be better this time around), and the style of this “Defcon-1” main menu screen the game greets you with in the beta, do you think Capcom should really work on changing it? Should it change at all?

2

I couldn’t care less about the presentation of story mode. The only reason I played story mode in MKX was to unlock Shinnok, which was a huge PITA. The story mode itself was dumb and I just had it on while I did other stuff, then when the fights came, I just mashed buttons. I would be fine with them not even having a story mode or any kind of single player mode.

But I do agree that the presentation is very bland right now. From the announcer, to the vs screen with the generic globe spinning behind the characters, to the text overlays saying which round it is, it all just feels very generic/bland. The sounds of these text overlays sliding on/off screen also are extremely bland. The game has absolutely no personality.

I also noticed last night on the london stage, that the characters in the background just look awful. The animations look like they are 30fps and just aren’t smooth compared to the way the characters fighting look. I especially noticed this on the left side of the stage when that guy in the background falls over as you attack an opponent into the corner. It looks so bad.

I will say though, with the latest beta, the menus are definitely a huge improvement over what they were before.

3

D3v brought up a point that developers these days are trying to move towards minimalism when it comes to game overlays/HUD. The game may be jazzed up a bit once the game releases, but I say expect the game to have a minimal approach to its presentation like MKX. Which is fine. SF traditionally has never been known for being a super jazzed up game presentation wise. It’s usually only the VS games that try to put off the Saturday Morning Cartoon vibe.

4

I love the presentation

Simple and Elegant , not trying to fancy and shit

As d3v pointed out , feels like an evolution of 3S’s HUD

5

I love this post. Seeing the different intros and gameplay presentation just fascinates me.

I believe the reason why we haven’t seen much of any kind of trailer, cutscenes, or intro sample is because the release isn’t for another couple months. The story trailer for MKX was released about a month before the game’s release. So I strongly believe that as we get closer to the release date, the more footage we’ll see.

Like you said before, MKX and Netherrealm is extremely hollywood. Their character reveals look and feel like a blockbuster trailer. It shows not only gameplay, but story mode scenes that give their character a little context, history, and personality. Where as SFVcharacter reveals are all about the gameplay (plus their intro and victory pose).

The final point I would like to make is that when it comes to fighting games, i have enjoyed Street Fighter’s gameplay the most. On the flip side, the fact that Netherrealm’s block buster story mode feel has got me to replay the MKX story mode over, and over, and over again. I know that copying other’s ideas and styles is frowned upon, but I’m really wishing for something where we get the best of both worlds.

6

I like the presentation for the most part. I think the CFN page with the globe needs to go through a color change though.

7

That’s not what the TC is talking about though.

As for the whole big “event”/“tournament” thing, that’s actually never really been felt in Street Fighter’s presentation.

Even in CvS2, where the game does have it, it’s more or less copying it from KoF.

As for Street Fighter V, from what we’ve seen of the in game menus and the CFN, it seems that it’s more focused on being a “dashboard” of sorts for getting people to play the game, either online or offline. IMO this is a step in the right direction since this is what eventually matters the most in a fighting game.

8

Whilst it’s not 100% to my tastes, I think this game looks much better than SF4 in pretty much every way. I definitely prefer the simplistic approach to the menu bars and hud. If the art direction was down to me, I would’ve gone with something that looked and sounded more like the SF2 manga series. Would people have been happier with something more like that?

9

the UI looks great, honestly. I get that some people don’t like minimalism, but SFIV was so busy and ugly with its UI and most of its presentation. it was like 'hey remember this thing from the 90s you liked??/ well here’s kinda it except with weird flourishes and strange iconz!"

like just take a look at the character select screen next to the fight UI in SFIV vs SFV. I love the way the CSS looks in SFV, and it fits perfectly with the presentation shown in battles. SFIV on the other hand, is just incongruent from one thing to the next.

that being said, the trend that SFIV seemed to start(?) of having only one intro and outro ‘cutscene’ for characters in fgs, is actual bullshit. it’s very disheartening to see SFV continue with it, and honestly is my top change for improving the aesthetics. because all characters have a single same intro/outro, they feel like they don’t really exist outside of the bounds of a fight. they don’t feel like real, breathing characters existing in this absurd world we love. just looking back at the character specific intros in CvS2 and 3S, the characters feel so much more grounded.

and while you can say it’s because they want to show off the game’s 3D graphics, just look at Battle Fantasia, the game that SFIV couldn’t have existed without. it has so many character specific intros and tiny little animation touches (try Marco’s throw on Face). the primary way we know these characters is how they move, speak and look; when the characters don’t get to do those things with respect to specific characters, they just feel lifeless.

10

it feels way too early to comment on this to me. we don’t have any idea what the story mode is gonna be like, or the opening cinematic or whatever. i don’t like the character intros though; the camera angles changing and all that shit feels really jarring and annoying, never really looks that good either. wish we had the older style where it stayed zoomed out and they’d do their little animations and stuff from more of a distance. you can keep that really short too, instead having to skip a cinematic at the start of every single game. agreed 100% with Link above me; it’s the subtle stuff that really gives characters personality.

though tbf i think it’s more of an issue with capcom just doing this poorly rather than a fault of the “style.” look at r mika’s intro/outro for instance, it’d probably look just fine if it weren’t for all the stupid and goofy looking cuts that make the scene confusing, like a bad michael bay movie.

11

We have no clue what the presentation of the story mode is going to be. All we know is that Capcom is putting more importance into it this time around. So to make such a thread is just way too early in my opinion.

12

If we’re talking purely about things like healthbars and EX meters I’m a big fan. It looks really clean and sleek.

13

I think one thing that can use some work is your title/emblem above your health bar. The text inside of the emblem is barely legible with the font being so small

14

I’m not talking about the battle interface though

15

CVS2 had incredible audio. So did Alpha 3.

I liked when you would walk into an arcade where multiple cabinets were playing either of those games. You knew for sure “Fighting games are definitely being played right now, I should check it out.” Especially when you’d hear the SCHWING! custom activation for V-ism/A groove multiple times when you were at a place where a major was about to take place and people were playing casuals. =P

16

I like the current presentation. It is simple and less cluttered, and it is not too overpowering.

17

I feel like some of the fonts are a bit bland…but… it’s fucking fonts lol

18

It’s Vanilla. Simple, safe, and missing something. It’s just okay.

On a related note, as much as I understand the use of the 3D models on the character select screen (for the alternate costumes), I fucking miss 2D art there. Please Capcom, more 2D art. :frowning:

19

I miss the 2d art too for character select, however if you are going with models Capcom, then get rid of of the cheap looking red and blue filters on the character faces.
Rather wish the character select screen zoomed out more on the characters. MKX presentation of character select screen, stages, UI, mode selection etc is very well done.

Nothing about the UI of SFV says “Street Fighter”, it’s safe but also bland. It doesn’t have its own unique style. I really hope attention to detail is given near the end of the game development, it’s the small touches that scream quality and shows the devs have taken great care into developing this game.

The popup messages during gameplay, such as “crossup, reversal,technical, reversal etc”, it always bothered me they were so far to the side and having to tae my eyes of characters.

UI is very clear and user friendly though, if anything that’s already big step up compared to SFIV.

20

I like how the TC says he’s not talking about UI, then everybody else talks abut UI.