Poll: Stories In Fighting Games

[Terramax]

If there's one aspect of fighting games that has always somewhat bewildered me, it's the amount of emphasis on the story for many of them.

Blazblue, for instance, appears to have a heck of a lot of backstory for each individual character, whilst Namco's Soul Caliburs and Tekkens now have a long history attached to them. I don't think either Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat cared to begin with, but with all the spin-off games, movies, comics, and other merchandise, they've gone very much the same way. And then there's Dead or Alive...

Thing is though, do many people really care for the plots?

And if so, please explain for which games, and why?

 

[-Seraph-]

I personally don't give much of a flying fuck about stories in my fighting games, though I have no real objection to them as long as such development doesn't compromise the actual game. Beyond some flavor text and bios to know something about the characters, I don't really touch the story mode at all aside from getting to grips with the game.

Story modes are glorified arcade modes to me really, and although they can be entertaining, I wouldn't miss them if they were taken out of the game. They are overall harmless though, and more power to those who enjoy them; I'm just not there to engage in story, I'm there to fight other people and engage in awesome battles. It's why I won't moan about a fighting games story being "bad" or whatever, because there are far more important things for me to be concerned about like...oh I dunno...BALANCE.

My only real peeve with story modes in fighters is that they probably delay the release of the console ports which is kind of annoying. Though I am not 100% sure about that, but at the very least it can feel like time and resources being put on things that really don't matter all that much.

 

[Mister K]

I do care about plot in this genre. I like when it is explained why characters fight, aside for the usual "big fighting tournament" reason. Their reason for entry? Their relationship with other members of the cast? I want to know it all.

Although, developers still should put more effort in gameplay and balancing with story being second in line.

Which story modes I care for? Well, Blazblue is an obvious choice, because there are only three (IMHO)"ongoing" fg's, that still care about it and those are BB, MK and Tekken.

 

[Harlemura]

I like a story to a fighting game, but I'm more interested in each character's background rather than some over-arching plot.
Generally when I'm choosing a character to play as in a fighting game, I end up judging it more on the character themselves more than how they play. If each character has their own little story you can find out more about them, like why they're fighting in this tournament or big brawl or whatever it is.

I'm not that fussed if a fighting game doesn't have an actual story mode though. After Mortal Kombat 9's, most other attempts at a story mode feel a bit tacked on. Or they're just really hard to follow. Lookin' at you, BlazBlue.

 

[Smertnik]

Sure, if it's done well. Story adds context and makes characters more interesting. Otherwise it's just some random dudes smacking each other. Skullgirls' campaign is pretty great, for instance, I enjoyed that one a lot.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I do care for them, though I'm willing to ignore story deficiencies if the game itself is fun to play.

The best ones are the fighting games that are fun and actually have some kind of coherent plot. Blazblue goes without saying, and Melty Blood probably should as well, though they focused more on the gameplay as the series progressed (the original MB was essentially just a visual novel where static choices were replaced with fighting gameplay).

 

[King of Asgaard]

I didn't... until Mortal Kombat 2011 came along and gave us a well-made, surprisingly lengthy single player campaign.
Now, a fighting game seems lesser without a good one.

 

[IllumInaTIma]

It's not that I care that much, but context and background may actually influence my choice of a fighter. Tekken for instance, I really enjoy playing as Lili or Asuka, because I love their characters and their rivalry. Or MK, my favorite is Scorpion, not just because he's a badass ninja, but because he's a badass ninja with tragic story and no definite allegiance.

 

[The Apple BOOM]

I love BlazBlue's and Soul Calibur's stories. Sure SCV was a bit of a wreck, but that was due to rushed development, not incompetent writers. Once SC6 comes along, as long as it isn't also rushed, it should be back to form for them.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I would if they had anything not gag worthy, the closest thing was Mortal Kombat 9 and even that covered up it's flaws by just being a real B movie cheese fest.

 

[Ryan Hughes]

There is ambiguity in the poll question. It could either ask whether one likes the stories in fighting games as they currently are, or whether one prefers to have stories in their fighting games at all.

My answer is "no" to the first and "yes" to the second.

 

[ImperialSunlight]

I love BlazBlue's and Soul Calibur's stories. Sure SCV was a bit of a wreck, but that was due to rushed development, not incompetent writers. Once SC6 comes along, as long as it isn't also rushed, it should be back to form for them.

I agree with you about Soulcalibur. V had a lot of potential, and there seemed to be interesting possible story paths with Raphael, Kilik, Yoshimitsu and Astaroth, but they never really explored them at all. The older games had really good story modes too, like II's Weapon Master and III's Chronicles of the Sword. I wish they would do something like that again, a fleshed out single player mode. They added a lot of gameplay to the game besides the multiplayer (especially good for people like me who have no friends xD).

 

[madwarper]

No, I don't care whether or not a fighting game has a plot, I'm playing it for the fighting.

Therefore, if the game has a bad plot, then meh. If the game has a good plot, then that's just gravy.

 

[mitchell271]

If it's there, it's a nice addition and can be central to the game à la BlazBlue or MK9. If it isn't there, no big deal.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

I've found I do prefer having a story in my fighting games. Even if it's a bit of a barebones story, it's better than none and definitely helps give a sense of fighting for something. That might sound a bit nebulous, but whenever I've played fighters with no story - like the Darkstalkers game for PSP - there's never been any real reason to keep playing after you've tried out the different characters. At least with something like Tekken, or Soul Calibur, or Guilty Gear there's a narrative reward for beating the game. It might not always be a great story, but at least it's there giving a reason to keep playing after you've tried out the fighters.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I care that they explain enough about the actual characters to give them a reason for doing what they are doing and ideally little bookend scenes at the end of arcade as a sort of little bit of a reward.

As for over-arching stories I am not to bothered MK9s was fun shame about the fighting tho Blazblues is good but a little complex for my tastes actually I much preferred the joke endings if I am honest DOA5s was nonsense but fun for what it was.

Its usually the characters that I am interested in I like them to have a personality while a good story is a bonus often I find keeping it simple is a good choice as otherwise you run the danger of actually weakening the background. Street Fighter is a great example here when it was just Shadaloo as an evil organisation with some fighting tournament to see who was the best fighter in the world it was great everyone has their own reasons for entering and that was that the story was mostly in the background but my god have you seen some of the attempts to flesh the story out? its pitiful and dilutes the original simple tale imo.

Soul Calibur did a great job imo plot is magic sword everyone ants magic sword yup sounds good to me obviously theres a bit more but not much even 2 and 3 had little story it was all on the modes and how you fought under different conditions in short gameplay devices rather than story. 5 had a story mode but the less said about that and the new characters the better, shame really as the fighting, online and character creation were great.

Yeah in short snippets are good enough to wet my appetite and give purpose to what I am doing a proper full fledged story mode is preferable but only if its not shoehorned in otherwise a barebones story that takes place largely in the background is preferable as it adds a mystique that covers the large holes it has in it.

Darkstalkers does brief story well (no the animation didnt happen) while UMVC3 dosent that was a little too brief SF4 does it badly as well I just dont know what to say about those terribad end sequences, Skullgirls was good as a short story as well it hints at a larger background but dosent dive to far into it. MK9 is my favourite story in a fighting game its just that usually I stay around for the combat despite or rather than the story while with MK9 I stayed around for the story, challenges and vault unlocks (cemetry? cant remember) in spite of the combat.

I have recently written a fighting game story drawing on my love of mythology legends and dreamworlds and... its bloody hard my draft is very long, rushed and in need of serious editing. It will also never see the light of day but maybe I will finish it one day for my own gratification. If I become a millionaire though I am funding it that will set the forums ablaze.

I can see the thread title now `wurst writng ev4`

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

I'm with the majority (or in this case the minority), I really don't like fighting game plots.
I like backstory for characters, I like knowing the unique rivalies between certain characters, but everything else always seems... unneeded, you know?
Granted the only fighting game I play is Mortal Kombat but from what I hear, not too many other fighting games have good stories anyway. I'm sure not ALL of them are bad though, so if you have a good example please present it to me.
Although I do have to thank MK9's story for a few things:
- It makes you play as almost every character
- It unlocks the only unlockable characters
- It's LOADED with koins (that's not a typo, "Kombat" remember?)
- Johnny Cages dialogue. I'll admit, a lot of what he said was pretty funny.
"I'm taking YOU down, I'm taking YOU down, I'm taking YOU out, I'm taking YOU out, and I'm taking YOU out... for dinner."

 

[SweetShark]

Yes, I really like for a fighting game to have a solid story.
Sure, I know it is not so important when you have a fighting game with very good gameplay, but I will love a fighting game more if it had a story that explain with a good reasons why so many different characters fight each other.

A good example is the Soul Calibur 5.....my god I hated this game for the story.....and it is also very creepy when you see the two main protagonies together.....eeewwwww....

Skullgirls on the other hand, it is a glorious game with a very interesting story to tell.

 

[Soxafloppin]

I'll just leave this here.

Seriously I cannot WAIT for this game, I don't really under stand the fighting game fans who think a fighting game should just have Arcade, practise and versus we're not in the 90s anymore.

 

[blackdwarf]

I like the backgrounds of the characters and enjoy the relations they have with each other, but I never play the singleplayer part of a fighting game. this has mostly to with the fact that maybe one character's story is canon in a game and I don't like to play with all the characters just to see a cutscene. That is not the reason I play fighting games.