Warriors Fate: Street Fighter story thread, revived

Wow, didn’t know that. That puts to rest any doubt I had that the Alpha and SF2 series aren’t connected storyline-wise. Still, Capcom says that each game takes place in its’ own universe. :looney:

Quick question:
In what official source is it stated that Morgan is Lucia’s last name??

Speaking of the Thunderfoot village attack, I’d like to clear up any confusion over the incident since I’ve recently learned the details of T. Hawk’s official SF2 series backstory. Shadaloo slaughtered the Thunderfoot tribe and destroyed their land/village. The surviving members fled/escaped and found somewhere else to live/went into hiding (this includes Arroyo Hawk and Thunder Hawk of course). Shadaloo didn’t willingly give anyone the choice to just leave. Arroyo, on his deathbed, informed T. Hawk of the events 30 years afterwards.

Now the details of the incident might’ve changed since the release of Alpha 3, but that is the official word on how the event went down before then.

Haha, I made you say Vega instead of the incorrect “Bison”! Sorry that was unprofessional.:sweat:

The Plot Guide provides 2 explanations why Blanka’s plane was sabotaged. First it says the plane was sabotaged because it was flying too close to a Shadaloo base.
Then a few paragraphs later it says Shadaloo sabotaged the airplane Jimmy (Blanka) was on because cabinet members from a country opposed to Shadaloo were on board. The latter is the correct reason, so Tiamat you may wanna remove the lines, “Blanka was the sole survivor of a plane crash that crashed in Brazil. It was too close to a Shadaloo base there so they sabotaged it.”

Hopefully aerialgroove can answer, he’s got the FF books.

Yep, that’s pretty much right on with what I’m translating right now, page 3 of 3 as we speak, hoping to post the complete account sometime tomorrow.

Also adding to AAC’s declarations, Vega offed by the SGS in SSF2X is in Gouki’s Z3 entry as well as Vega’s. The latter gives a little more detail: Vega’s taken from behind like Adon’s ending (as opposed to the face front beating if you get Gouki to appear in Super X), and the SGS (his weakness) easily defeated as well as ended the act of soul hopping.

Sorry I don’t have the FF3 book yet, it always went out for about 60 bucks and that was a little too much for a small guide book to me. But I’ll keep looking for it.

Ah, thanks Vasili. Guess that answers the question of if the SGS ended Bison/Vega’s soul hopping days, then. Keen.

I wish I could remember where the heck I got that last name for Lucia from. For all I know, maybe it’s one of the few remaining remnants from the days when the plot guide just wasn’t as strict as it should have been. Coulda sworn I got it from somewhere although I don’t recall doing any extra extreme verifications for it, either.

Hey, Tiamat maybe it’s on a FF3 flyer like Rolento and M. Bison’s full name.
EDIT:
I forgot that it was a SNES only game, anybody know if there are Japanese ads for the game in video game magzines?

In case it isn’t already mentioned in the Plot Guide, Sagat fought Go during an annual world Muay Thai competition (???). Sagat had recently become champion and his match with Go was his first title defense.

Vega’s/M. Bison’s match with Gouken is mentioned in Vega’s/M. Bison’s Street Fighter Zero 1 backstory. Of course, Vega doesn’t kill Gouken and only whups his ass. It appears that Ryu and Ken had completed their training and left the dojo by the time this fight took place. vasili10, could I post the details of the fight and you could translate it when you get the chance?? I attempted translating it myself, but there a few significant lines that I can’t make sense out of.
EDIT:
On second thought, it would probably save both of us a lot of time and trouble if I just posted only the said lines. The following lines are right after Bison defeats Gouken. From what I gathered, I think they explain why Gouken lost.

???
???
???
???
???
?

Gouken lost because he held back, unknowingly at the time but for his students’ sakes. It is said that with Vega and Gouken going all out against each other, they both perceived to be a dead-even match for power. Gouken didn’t use the shoryuken in their fight, lost the battle, and succeeded in keeping hidden the power of hadou’s strongest technique, of which Vega had demanded him to show everything. Full details forthcoming in Vega’s SFZ account.

The story I released from SF2 Himitsu Hyakka long ago was the early version of the same account, trailing off with the possibility that Vega had killed Gouken, but that one still maintained that Gouken lost from having held back. When I start posting Zero series stuff, you’ll see both the originals and the rewrites found in the All About series and the mooks.

I haven’t been able to find any Japanese page mention Final Fight Tough’s female fighter named Lucia Morgan, only Lucia. Furthermore, none of FF3’s faqs on Gamefaqs or even Nintendo Power’s coverage of the game says Morgan either; so now really wondering where it sprouted from.

Sure thing Tiamat.:cool:

Alrighty here’s the first of the four Street Stories from the SSF2 pre-mook. Enjoy.

T. Hawk from Gamest SSF2

Story of T. Hawk

Clumps of red clay, the destruction exposed to dry winds.
Something narrowly withering an escaped highway along the river, that man was walking.
The dust dancing, the man covers his eyes. However his legs have come to rest.
On his back is a wooden box 1 meter square a large thing in itself, the man shoulders it and looks around a little.
A highway with no sign of life would make for a single person inconspicuous, for a man 2 meters in body height it would’ve far off crossed into that of a giant. For arms that ordinarily couldn’t carry an adult across a burly chest, he could sturdily.
The man’s name was known as Thunder Hawk.
He once a month, from his canyon home runs 3 times, walks downhill into town. For tourist opponents, he wood carves souvenirs to sell them.
For him and his father, besides making their living in forestry, such a side line couldn’t have arrived. His father as a wood carver commonly couldn’t help but hold him in his arms while running, here at an advanced age for several years of remarkably ill condition, he complained of his physical strength declining.
At the foot of the town there was a cart and an automobile, those “vehicles” which he disliked, with his own legs he migrated. As he would see it, even three times at that distance is nothing. That day going to return to his agricultural land he took the distance to his garden.

For Hawk, even so with such signs of having been tired, he stood still, leaning on the roadside’s megalith, he drank the bottled water. This vicinity was already a canyon he could quite associate with.
The right hand hill slightly elevated from the primeval forest’s overgrowth, he looked up at a precipitous bare rock. Experienced in tracking he climbs.
At the peak before long he climbed and broke off, he could peer at the steep canyon’s bottom.

For him, the heart of a scattered ravine was seen. And there for him, he could see his father’s dwelling. It can’t be something underneath the precipitous rocky mountain, a detour to the home before him as he arrives from here furthermore 1 time as such.
At the considerably sloped mountain’s western face, until sunset likely came around he wanted to have considered it was nothing whatsoever.
A steep shadow began to stretch lengthwise down the highway with many small feet stopped.
At that moment… for Hawk, a feeling of piercing-like indication, he stood still. What is this.
"… wolves?“
It began to storm within Hawk’s head. However, it was not for wolves. What in this way, he seemed to recall a chill, an ill omen he felt.
After a while of exchanging looks on the vicinity, taking care to once again take steps ahead in an instant, that’s when he stood before his eyes.
”!!"
It was a human man. However, he didn’t believe it was a very ordinary human. Just as if there was no life. That is, the vicinity of his skin was filled with the piercing ill omen.

The scenery was the thing that distorted as he was looking thus.
That man was with a jet-black cloak twined around his body. Eyes covered by a hat’s interior, two ill-feeling flashing pupils coming into view.
"… Arroyo’s son is it?" The man questioned. A seemingly chilling desolate voice.
“That’s right…who, are you?”
“Me, you don’t remember eh. Hmm…” The mouth of the man swerved, gesturing a laugh.
“Who are you? Why, do you know my father?“
Hawk tensed up. A strained air, made for a cruel warning with him. Instinctively he understood the man as an “enemy”. For him, at all times to eat up blows from thick arms would be loaded with power.
“Your father, was once a strong man…but how about now? Regrettably there’s nothing more to say.”
”?..what are you saying? Father, what did you do to him!?”
"Heh…still at any rate, you will come to meet him. At that time, it’ll be slightly entertaining…"
The man having spoken thus, all of the sudden he sprang amongst the rocks. A sign of disappearance, the man’s appearance also carried off.
Hawk in a daze for a little while, an intuitive of his father’s accident comprehended, racing towards their home.
"This man…"
While rushing to the man’s circumstances he was remembering. The mysterious man. Quite certain he was aged. And also, a seemingly familiar reverberating in his head, as a fearful tone. Did that seem to be a human?

Hawk approached his home put together with logs. He’s in the state of being changed and about to go out into the garden. But, the door has opened.
"Father!"
While exclaiming he dashed in and, really his father, soon fell prostrate from the right side of the door.
Hawk hurriedly helped him to his feet. His father’s body confirmed to be breathing, the worst situation escaped and relieved. Grind, unexpectedly the state went to a worsening
condition, he breathed into his large shoulder.
"Mmm…you eh…"
Well having exceeded an ill body aged 70, the father ranking as taking 3-4 young men opponents to defeat was no more. Respectable with a long run beard and sharp insight, as a grand dignity, he could also drive away wild animals. That father on this day it seemed was met, already that cloaked man came to the dispairity.
"Father!, hurry and take this!“
Hawk now took out merely a tablet he had bought. It’s an internal medicine for moments of spasms. However, because his father looked at Hawk, his neck slanted to the side.
For Hawk, everything understood, he carried under his arms a loaded power. To be agitated here, his father’s every expectation.
Father Arroyo Hawk quietly began with the story.
”…did you, meet that man?"
Hawk nodded.
"That man…once, eradicated our clan, the man who led the massacre group called ‘Shadoloo’. A story from 30 years ago…"
Hawk was appalled. Here for himself a past livelihood since then and the like, to have considered it all.
"We, were people of the proud Thunderfoot tribe.
That night, in our village, the group named “Shadoloo” broke in. The abundant mine veins of ore there in the village, these are what drove many aimed sets. I believed those guys were companions of them.
However, it wasn’t the intentions of those guys.
They, had fall into their hands the elderly and the children one by one…set, fire…"
His father continued the story. Within that riot, fierce village youths were angered, merely a single slaughtering cloaked man.
Hawk became terrified. Wasn’t it the man from some time ago?
"That guy…soaks up a power of hatred, which I designated.
Before that guy’s demon commanded pale flashes, all my companions were defeated…
You the defending young, from a blazing hand flee from me, that man said.
'It seems I am hatred…hatred freely is excellent.
That power is strong to the extent of enjoyable.
You, should become stronger. Hatred. Request of me to be defeated.'
The time my flaming heart had grown hazy I heard the guy’s voice, myself and you, will fall down flat engulfed in walls of flame, tumbling into the pool below the waterfall…"
Occasionally his father came to perceive, the two of them father and child, knowing by sight how to say the earth flowed.
"I have thought it over. That guy, hopes I will retaliate on the matter. As with coveting a strong “hatred”. Snatching away my companions, the burned sacred ground will not attach to a toothed grudge. Grind…that’s how that guy thinks of it. If that’s the case, and…"
His father’s options did not become avengeful.
As a young child, he settled into the new sacred ground. Mourning his captured friends, that regret and resentment, it was for the proud clan’s descendants as the appropriate method of
refreshment.
"Hatred spawned of black power, in time will destroy the self. You were still little, that you seemed to not desire choosing that path. Therefore you have persisted in concealing everything. Son!..I desire you to forgive your continued deceiving father. And also, and perhaps what that man likely said, ‘you will be next’… Before that guy’s power, your great arms are still unable. Don’t settle on hatred. Also don’t harbor a grudge.
That’s what I wish for with that guy."
Father Arroyo’s eye, already came to not see Hawk. All that remained of his power concentrated in his right arm, piled on Hawk’s hand.
"Proudly our clan’s descendants!.. That blood, must not be stained with hatred. Attain the justice of oneself."
Hawk fully directly, was gazing into his father’s eyes.
"Our sacred ground?..continuing the searching for 30 years, not at all is this matter unable to be redeemed…"
For Arroyo, a thoughtful gentle face far away, died.

Something of a hot blaze, Hawk felt it.
From his father’s hair, a hair ornament’s red feather full-fledge extracted, he inserted it into his own hair.
"…Father!, I will take back the sacred ground for you. Together with me…"
Determination solidified in his chest, Hawk arose.
His blood is boiling. Feeling a welling-up infinite power, he for a while, roared. That voice migrated through the valley. As even to the world’s end it was received.

Next time Fei Long and naturally whatever else comes up, shoot just remembered I need to send Ramah a monthly “reminder.” Thanks for reading minna-san!:tup: :clap:

Awesome! So T. Hawk’s father has a beard? Is that even possible?
Oro’s sleeping bag looks a bit like the war god Oro http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h2/h2_1979.206.1481.jpg

Wow, sweet, Vasili. That’s really interesting. It seems like the whole “Bison’s power feeds off of hatred” thing came long before SFZ3 with this (Unless T. Hawk’s father was simply being metaphorical, I suppose). It also confirms that Bison personally led the massacre.

And that T. Hawk’s father didn’t die until shortly before SF2 and after SFZ3, come to think of it (since T. Hawk’s father says “30 years ago”, which is ST timeline). Hmm. Although he also apparently kept this all a secret (“Forgive your deceiving father”) until now, too, so SFZ3 had to have retconned it slightly so that he told T. Hawk about Bison a little earlier and also gave him Bison’s name. However, given that T. Hawk says to Bison in SFZ3 that Bison ‘drove his father away’ as opposed to killed his father, his father still didn’t die to Bison until after SFZ3 and before SF2 (again assuming no mistranslations).

Also, it shows that T. Hawk dislikes modern vehicles, making the trek and lugging the merchandise with his own two arms and legs. :stuck_out_tongue: And T. Hawk’s father used o be a great warrior and was about 70 years old when he died.

Why not? One of Mami Itoh’s manga stories shows old Arroyo with a beard.

Slightly mistranslated but still not much of a change for the story, rather than “drove my father away” in Z3 Hawk says “my father’s pretext”.

Sorry if I misquoted. However, given the fact that nothing is ever mentioned, anywhere, ever about Bison getting a new body at any point (and this was of course also the case at the time the AAC entry was written), that would make it unclear whether Bison ever got a new body.

This is my entire point. We know Dan likes karaoke and Ken hates soap operas, we know the names of Guile’s wife and daughter, there are not only locations for the stages in the games, but sometimes actual times of the day. But…there’s nothing about Bison ever getting a new body? Really?

Capcom does goofy stuff, sure, but do you think they’d actually leave that out?

How about Bidon doesn’t need a new body, because he didn’t die? If you’re going to link A3 to SF2 in any direct way, how about that? Just because it happened in someone’s ending doesn’t mean it happened. It’s just in the account for that one character, because it’s in their ending. I don’t see anyone insisting that Dhalsim or Honda’s endings are the way things happened.

That’s what I’m saying. The body-switching thing is unnecessary, and relative to any other plot point, rather unsupported.

~~

[rant=long]

Canon does not strictly exist in the first place.

The only reason people suggest that Bison switched bodies in A3 is because he’s in SF2 and therefore must have survived. That, and they’re used to the idea.

There are one hundred thousand ways in which A3 conflicts with SF2. Probably more. You have characters who have no business being there and/or who’s stories are different (Guile, Dee Jay, and in the handhelds Yun is a big “WTF”). You have things which happen in A3 which should not have happened prior to SF2- Bison dying or being defeated, Ryu destroying Bison in his ending, etc. Not to mention the fact that Balrog, Vega and Sagat all turn on Bison, but they’re all chums again a short time later…?

Is there anyone who will argue that SFA2 doesn’t lead up SF2 better than A3? No Psycho Drive which magically disappears and is never mentioned again, the SF2 characters mostly don’t show up until SF2, Nash killed, Chun Li finds out about her father, Sagat hanging out with Bison, etc. There is a reason for that- it was written with SF2 in mind.

A3 was not. A3 is a game where they through all of the Alpha characters together, and all of the SSF2T characters together, and they all fight, and there’s some cool story going on about Bison. And there’s Final Fight guys, too. That’s basically it. It is much more of a sequel to A2 than a prequel to SF2. This is clear if you actually look at the game.

However, it maintains the same art style as A2 and takes place during roughly the same time period. Which is confusing to some people. It has to directly tie into SF2, because it takes place before SF2, right? Not so much. There is overlap, but there are many elements which are different (a few of which I have already mentioned).

Ever wonder why there are no post-A3 accounts? No official source explaining what happened between A3 and SF2? Not a coincidence. Why would you ever think that we would know minor details like Ken’s birthday being on Valentine’s Day or character weights and hobbies, but absolutely nothing explaining the 15 or so characters that don’t show up for SF2 and why? There is a reason. Even ruling that out as being a gameplay issue, there are plenty of things that could use some explaining.

There are 2 options you’re left with: #1, ignore everything and rule the game out as not being “canon,” #2, try to play connect-the-dots and think of reasons why stuff happened.

There is a third option, which is to not explain it at all. A3 is it’s own game, and does not NEED to tie into SF2 directly, because, as CAPCOM said, each game is it’s own entity, and may or may not tie into the next game in the series, let alone a different SERIES.

In comic books: The Ultimates and The Avengers share a lot of the same characters, and both versions of characters have a lot in common…but they are different books. Adam West Batman is different from Michael Keaton Batman. Same character, different takes. Smallville changes a lot of the Superman backstory relative to the Superman movies. Anime- Tenchi Muyo is different from Tenchi in Toyko. Full Metal Alchemist manga is different from the anime. 90s X-Men series is different from X-Men: Evolution. Dragon Ball/Z movies (OVAs) share characters with the main series, but are sorta their own thing. Etc. None of those things necessarily invalidates the other(s).

This is one of those things.

With A3 -> SF2, you can pick and choose what happened and what didn’t, if you want…but certainly everything couldn’t have happened, and there are entire characters and storylines which are incongruent with SF2. This is incredibly clear if you’ve played the game a lot.
[/rant=long]

TS:

> Is there anyone who will argue that SFA2 doesn’t lead up SF2 better than A3? … There is a reason for that- it was written with SF2 in mind. A3 was not.

Irrelevent. Two words: Retroactive continuity. Look it up.

> This is one of those things.

No. This is more a X-men: Deadly Genesis kinda thing.

Great stuff on T.Hawk vasili10! I’ll scan Itoh Mami’s T.Hawk manga next on Saturday so everyone can see it. Can’t wait for you to post up on Feilong vas!

The Rival Schools comic #1 comes out today, get mine in an hour. :tup:

For Marvel comparisons the SFZ3/SF2 ordeal seems like how Marvel changed how Iron Man became Iron Man by removing him being in the Korean War. Or how the Fantastic Four originally was in a rush to go to outer space in issue one to beat “the commies” in the space race. As the first X-Men/Fantastic Four limited series reveals that it was Reed Richards plotting for them to obtain super powers because with all of the super powered people and Mutants that were coming up he felt the world would need them. Of course the Iron Man one is a more blatant retcon while the FF one can use both explanations without too many exceptions(but the commie space race ordeal is never mentioned). To me Deadly Genesis seems it can actually fit into the storyline if you take the obligatory grain of salt that goes revealing this back story, like Cassandra Nova and other things X-Men seems to pull out of nowhere. Unlike, say, Toxin’s origin which still doesn’t make too much sense - Venom has had other children so Toxin being the next symbiote after Carnage is wrong unless this occured long ago, Black Cat has met both Venom and Carnage on various occasions and even met Venom before Carnage was born unlike the Toxin series states - but Marvel has embraced him into their continuity, with his Marvel Encyclopedia entry removing what # symbiote he was to not conflict with Venom’s Marvel Encyclopedia entry.

Yeah, Marvel’s continuity has some glitches, but at least lately they’ve been trying. DC sort of gave up on it, and just point to either of their 'Crisis" stories to explain any changes. Even the DC Encyclopedia says, “Continuity is what you make of it, believe what you want!” Something to that effect. So much so that they can introduce Supergirl twice in the same new continuity, because she wasn’t popular the first time they brought her out they just brought her out again in Superman/Batman and since she was popular there that was the legit explanation. But in DC’s defense, it seems like they are sticking to their guns with their new/third continuity going on now after their latest crisis.

Even Marvel and DC’s attitudes towards revamps is different. Marvel calls Ultimates a new continuity, while DC refers to their All Star comics as a new way to tell older stories. But it is a new continuity, funny, they just don’t want to sound like they are jacking Ultimates… :sweat: but I read All Stars and not Ultimates, 'cuz I just can’t start Marvel continuity over again in my head, DC no prob…

Both DC and Marvel are great though, or cause an equal amount of headaches down the line… :rofl:

Because Native Americans from the Rockies don’t have beards.
Well, just like the world record for keeping your breath underwater is less than 9 minutes and Sagat can go 20 and that beans don’t give you the power to spit fire…

About Zero 3, I think they didn’t spend too much time on the story, it’s a gameplay game like MVC2 with lots of characters and game modes. I think there is a possibility that they exaggerated the story so much (Vega being atomized instead of just dying, Sagat’s statue being a giant robot, which is just impossible, all the characters meeting and working together while they’re not shown together in SFII,…) just to show that it shouldn’t be taken too seriously and that it’s basically just the typical Capcom way to show HOW characters are. Just like they don’t worry too much about a SF movies story as long as the main characters are depicted correctly. I’m not sayin none of the SFZ3 events happened, I’m just saying most of them don’t matter and some are intedned nonsence.

It isn’t hard to figure out that lots of Z3 events are intended nonsense if you’re taking from the game. Charlie’s ending (AKA Kenny’s Revenge), for example. Some endings contradict others as well (Juni’s vs Juli’s). But even after you weed out all the nonsense ones and use the left overs to determine which endings are probably what-if (example: Juli’s ending taking precedent over Juni’s due to basically just being an alternate depiction of Cammy’s), nearly every character becomes accounted for (not including SFA3Max). The main points of contention thus must be whether the ones that aren’t obviously nonsense happened at all (and within those, the ones that anyone actually gives a crap about like Cammy’s, Guile’s, Ryu’s, Rose’s, and any related ones like Sagat and Sakura. I don’t think many people care about whether or not Balrog’s ending happened).

Getting to the main point in question, I think that if Capcom really REALLY meant for absolutely NONE of SFZ3 to lead into SF2, they wouldn’t have included things like Cammy losing her memory or Charlie dying in SFZ3. There isn’t much point to doing an alternate universe if you aren’t going to actually make things ALTERNATE. Sure, there were some discrepancies like Fei Long and T. Hawk, but both of those are minor characters (and Capcom went out of their way to change Fei Long’s SF2 Revival ending anyways). Well, I guess Sagat wasn’t exactly a minor character, but his plotline started to deviate ever since SFA2, really, and for sense or for nonsense, they decided to resolve his SFA2 plotline with what he got in SFA3 (…and he too had his ending changed in SF2 Revival anyways. Actually, it’s possible that he was dropped off of Shadaloo’s roster ever since SSF2X). Regardless, if they had intended absolutely none of SFA3 to have happened regarding SF2, they wouldn’t have had Charlie die or Cammy split off from Shadaloo.

Also, if they really intended on Bison/Vega’s death in everyones’ endings to be indisputable proof that SFA3 were alternate from SF2, they wouldn’t have inserted all those lines about him returning someday. Typically, a storyline writer doesn’t do stuff like that unless the villain will actually, you know, return, and of course since SFA3 is was directly stated to officially be the last SFA game (barring retcons), the only place Vega/Bison can return is SF2.

On a side note, I imagine you don’t see any characters together in SF2 because SF2 is practically storyline-less besides the endings. It’d be interesting to see what they came up with if they ever remade the game to have mid-boss dialogues and character-to-character intros and win quotes but I think we’ve had enough SF2 iterations already :lol: But anyways, just because characters don’t interact doesn’t mean the connections didn’t exist. Lee and Gen had a storyline connection yet no one has ever shown me a time when they interacted in SF1. Adon and Sagat had a storyline connection yet I certainly don’t see them talking to each other in SF1 either. Chun-Li and Yun storyline-wise know each other yet their interaction within the actual game of SF3 is dubious at best. Ken and Ryu never say one word or even MENTION each other in their SF2 endings yet they had storyline-connections. Therefore saying that SFA3 (or most of SFA3?) should be discounted just because none of the characters in SF2 are shown interacting with each other doesn’t make very much sense. SF2 is a game without mid-boss dialogue and where they could only cram in brief endings. SF1 was the same thing. Yet the latter had character connections that were never shown in game, so why would the former not be the same thing? Especially when there’s already one concrete example (Ryu and Ken, whom were never shown interacting with each other in-game during SF1 either, for the record).

Really though, why is the plot guide so adamant about M. Bison getting a new body?? Why do we still consider that official when it’s completely unsupported? Haven’t we come to realize that sometimes Saiki’s word isn’t enough?? Now don’t get me wrong. After reading M. Bison’s Z3 entry in AAC, I believe now more than ever that SFA3 and SF2 are connected storyline-wise and that M. Bison survived the events of SFA3 somehow. However, I’ve never understood why M. Bison getting a new body was considered the official explanation for his return in the SF2 series when we have found absolutely nothing to support it. Why is everyone so quick to accept that as fact?? Wouldn’t that be a perfect example of a remaining remnant from the days when the plot guide wasn’t as strict as it should’ve been?

I’m not quick to accept that as a fact.
Tiamat, what I meant about the charaters appearing together is not that I think they don’t have anything to do with each other in the other games. But they are each shown separately, like in Tekken and other games with importance on storyline and events. Beating a game with a character is like watching a movie about just this character and of course he meets and talks to others. But in SFZ3 they build strange teams and duos to destroy the psycho drive and the unique character gets less important, that’s why characters like R. Mika seem so boring and undeveloped to me, they are only sharing their storyline with others. Ryu had his owns story in SFII and Ken had his (marriage), he didn’t need Ryu in it. I see the SFZ3 events as “what crazy stuff can we stuff in between SFZ2 and SFII to throw all the characters into a story?”. The whole psychop drive thing can only exist because it gets destroyed at the end, so it doesn’t show up in SFII, yet that’s not a connection to SFII to me. It’s just a way to stuff things somewhere. I do think the game is inteded to take place in the same universe, it’s just that most of it doesn’t take place at all or doesn’t matter and since SFII is so old and all the desginrers are gone nobody told them to do it better. The main goal was to sell a game with many characters and game modes, who cares about the story (see Ingrid, Yun,…)?

I think the story is mostly built on SFZ2, SFII and FF1 and all other games are just there, too but have no real importance. SFIII for example doesn’t have a storyline as reasonable and thought out as SFII and that’s why the characters will probably not come back. By trying to make sence of Capcom’s latest moves and to make up why and how things of SFZ3 happened when SFII happened too, you’re doing the same thing as the story writers of SFZ3. You stuff things in wherever there is room just to somehow make it look like a story, the difference is, that you try hard and they just didn’t.