Warriors Fate: Street Fighter story thread, revived

Since things are pretty quiet here, I figured I’d post something Dash no Chris wrote/posted in an SF-related message group. This was before SFA3 and Third Strike came out. I found it kinda’ interesting. I dunno. Enjoy…

"Prior to the release of Street Fighter ZERO (i.e., during the Street Fighter II Series’ run), all Japanese sources indicated one of two things: “Gouken was killed by Vega” (sources: the theatrical anime movie, Street Fighter II; the manga series, Street Fighter II RYU by Kanzaki Masaomi; etc.); or “Gouki killed Goutetsu, but we won’t mention who killed Gouken” (sources: various versions/updates of the official Street Fighter II Series character relationship charts).

With the release of Street Fighter ZERO, however, the story of Gouken’s death was changed. According to the ZERO Series (and related materials), Gouki killed both Goutetsu and Gouken, though apparently on separate occasions (sources: official ZERO Series character relationship charts; the manga series, Street Fighter ZERO by Nakahira Masahiko; etc.).

It has been argued that the ZERO Series represents an alternate past for the Street Fighter Series, with plot discrepancies between the SFII Series and the ZERO Series being cited as proof of this. It has also been suggested that the Street Fighter III Series is not based on the alternate past of the ZERO Series, but rather the original history described by the SFII Series. However, prior to the publication of Nakahira Masahiko’s manga series, Street Fighter III RYU-FINAL ~Tatakai no saki ni~, only ZERO Series materials depicted Gouki as the murderer of Gouken. RYU-FINAL depicts Gouki’s murder of Gouken in the context of an SFIII story. Now, while Nakahira’s work is not as “official” as materials that come directly from Capcom, his working relationship with Capcom has been closer than that of any other mangaka in recent years.

ASCII’s anthology manga, Street Fighter ZERO Comic, provides the only
Japanese timeline for the Street Fighter Series that I have found so far. Having been published in 1995, however, it only includes events depicted in the games released up to and including Street Fighter ZERO. This timeline indicates that by the end of the events shown in SFZERO, Nash and Rose are dead. Not “mostly dead.” Not “left for dead.” Not “fate uncertain because we don’t yet know whether there’ll be a sequel to ZERO.” They are dead. Period. Then Capcom released ZERO 2, with Nash and Rose having “nearly died” or having been “presumed dead” at the end of the ZERO events, but ultimately surviving.

With the ZERO Series changing not only the details of events depicted in the SFII Series, but events depicted within the ZERO Series itself – and now, apparently, imposing some of its history (the murder of Gouken by Gouki, rather than by Vega) on the SFIII Series – I find myself moving away from the theory that the ZERO Series represents an alternate Street Fighter timeline and toward the idea that the most recent game is the one with the most accurate recounting of the Street Fighter story.

Much like an essay, you only want your professor to read your latest draft(since, theoretically, it will be the best version). You would dismiss portions of earlier versions that conflicted with the current draft, saying “I didn’t like those parts, so I changed them.” I’m thinking Capcom may be indicating “the current version is the official one – nevermind if it conflicts and/or contradicts the earlier version; we changed some stuff and the latest game’s story is the way it happened. Forget the old version of the story. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”

Or – for those of you who support the alternate timeline idea – perhaps the Street Fighter ~ Street Fighter II Series history is the alternate timeline, and the Street Fighter ~ Street Fighter ZERO Series ~ Street Fighter III Series history is the “correct” sequence of events."

I have a quick question. In what manga or document do they show Ryu hitting Sagat witht he Shoryuken that scarred him. I know it was a cheap shot but i’ve never known where this info came from. Holla at me

Interesting points. I do have the anthology from ASCII that has the timeline mentioned. However, I disagree that all Japanese sources prior to SFZ maintained that Vega killed Gouken. Kanzaki’s manga shows it, but the SF2 Movie vaguely suggests it, and I’ve yet to see a character relations chart that even hints at it. Basically Gouken and Goutetsu show up in such charts once Gouki came around, and until SFZ all was said for them was Gouki/Gouken = younger/older brother, Gouki/Goutetsu = possibly murdered Goutetsu? and of course Goutetsu was master to both Gouki and Gouken. By the time SFZ rolled out, the question mark for Gouki murdering Goutetsu disappeared, only to reappear for Vega/Gouken = possibly murdered Gouken? And then with SFZ2 it changes again with Gouki killing Gouken supposedly. I say supposedly because the only printed evidence so far is Gouki’s battle with Ryu as a rival in SFZ2: Ryu says he’ll avenge his master, Gouki says he’ll follow him; which nothing of the sort is said during the should-be-true battle of Ryu vs. Gouki where Ryu first learns about satsui no hadou. Ah well, I’ve finally secured what’s probably the mother of all early character charts and the Gamest World with the Z2 side story so I’ll let everyone know about those once they’re in my hands.

About alternate timelines, I saw that Nakahira slightly changed his storyline going from SFZ to Ryu Final. When Ryu and Ken watched their master fall, in SFZ Gouki had his traditional appearance, but when the flashback is shown in Ryu Final, Gouki’s got a sloppy “mountain man” appearance, so I wondered if there was an actual universe difference or just a continuity error.

In Nakahira Masahiko san’s manga Street Fighter Zero, the first volume has one page and at the end another two-page spread close up. The canon proof comes from SnH Ryu’s SFZ3 ending, as a short flashback.

Fuckin’ sweet. You finally found a copy of that character chart?? Didja’ buy it online or something? Where? When are u expecting it. Oh yeah, thanks for your input. Peace.

Nakahira’s stuff has slight contradictions all over the place. In the Sakura Ganbaru! Manga, Ryu should be wearing the red headband, Ken should not. (Since this is how the SFZ Manga ended which was a preuel to Ganbaru.)But of course if someone actually got the headband deal right I’m sure the universe would cease to exist or something.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: Boy, what was I thinking?

Yes, Yahoo auction with a whole slew of other old Gamest posters and the SFII Complete File’s Shadoloo poster reprinted in Capcom Illustrations, don’t know yet, probably next month. No prob. I’ll report on the two pages you gave me to translate hopefully this weekend sometime.

Just marvelous! Can’t wait.

Great. Thanks.

I guess this is a useless question but since nothing is going on here, does anybody want to sell his “secrets of the hadoken” book?

I’m curious, does anybody else here have it?

I have been thinking(In connection with SF tiers). Shouldn’t Alex be put in Tier 4 since he did beat Balrog(M. Bison) rather easily?

Not really. Bison pwned Alex in the 1st round and during some of the second round. Don’t be silly.

Here’s some of the character blurbs from Capcom of Japan’s SF Anniversary page SSF2X side:

Ryu- Continues his fighting style through seeking formidable opponents to fight. That is his fight with himself, the result being the challenges are never over.

Ken- Having lived a life of loving and indulgent living, a burning spirit of a fighting style commanded him. Ryu’s worthy opponent.

E. Honda- Diligent from the effort and disposition being the creed of sumo’s training. A possessor of a one-track mind that hates to bend.

Chun Li- A woman in the narcotics investigations division whose father was murdered by someone. The gleam in her eyes pursuing the truth…

Blanka- With no memory of the time of his infancy, the jungle’s Mother Nature his mother, he fights as his means to live.

Zangief- The burning thought in the homeland, fighting is his drive. From the outer appearance the supposition wouldn’t be that he’s a kindhearted man.

More to come later.

Cool. I’m curious to see what they’ll say about Cammy, Deejay, Thunderhawk and Feilong. 2 don’t have that much story, the other 2 had stuff added to them in SFZ3. Let’s see if they reference Cammy’s new SFZ3 past or Thunderhawk looking for Noembulu/Juli in any small way.

Many many many thanks, vasili10. I appreciate it. Keep em’ coming.

I guess SFZ3 overrides Hyper Fighting eventhough it’s newer. Otherwise everytime a new version of SFZ3 is released the Zero story is official and when they release a new version of SFII the SFII story is official, or does Sagat’s bio say he’s not a Shad member?

I don’t follow. Those character bios are from the SSF2X sanniversary addition. What does Zero 3 have to do with it?

Here’s some CFE Sabakis (The Move where Anakaris turns you into a smaller thing) if you haven’t seen them already. These are of Zangief, Alex, Demitri and Rose!

http://www.dental.gr.jp/web/shq/game/JAM/sabaki.htm

And here’s a website on Yoshiji Soeno, the real life person Ryu was inspired by. Nothing about his rivalry with Reiba, Sagat’s inspiration though.

http://www.shidokan.lv/shido_en.html

Which is newer than SFZ3 still the story is the same as SSFIIX. I hope you can follow.