2012: Should fighters have a good story?

[JC48573]

I just saw latest Soul Calibur 5 story trailer and it seems like CC2 is really doing their magic on the story. What do you guys think? Do you guys like how Namco is taking story a little bit more seriously this time?

[J T]

I think fighting games should take more cues from sports and focus on their competitive aspect. However, a little story ads some flair and fun to the events, especially where there are friends and rivalries and betrayals. I think they should be focused on technical skill and competition, but adding in a bit of story almost like WWF wrestling can add to the fun by providing you a motive for your battles. I don't think fighting games should attempt story as a main focus because it's not the right genre for that.

[harper]

Honestly what difference does it make? You're just fighting the whole time, there's no goal to work towards other than defeating each opponent. Yeah it might make it more interesting when the characters have some backstory but it doesn't really do anything for the game. This makes me think of Killer Instinct where the "story" and character info felt like a big fat afterthought.

[CD AGES]

Do you guys like how Namco is taking story a little bit more seriously this time?

I honestly think that other companies need to step up their game in this regard after MK came out with a flashed out and well done story campaign that many noticed as a positive to the overall package.

Honestly what difference does it make? You're just fighting the whole time, there's no goal to work towards other than defeating each opponent. Yeah it might make it more interesting when the characters have some backstory but it doesn't really do anything for the game. This makes me think of Killer Instinct where the "story" and character info felt like a big fat afterthought.

It does make a difference! It's actually one of the major reasons why I look forwards to installments of the Tekken Series and KOF franchise (Dream Matches need not apply).
These games follow a sort of story that gets fleshed out with every future installment which i think is neat and makes you look forward to sequels. Additionally, A story and motives to their actions give the character roster to a fighters some much appeal and perhaps further give you a reason to main a character

[Jontendo]

This topic inspired me to make a top ten list of game genres that (IMO) do just fine without a back-story. To be fair though, the last three could work with the right storyline in some cases.

1. Traditional (chess, checkers, mahjong, etc.)
2. Party games
3. "Exergames"
4. Music
5. Racing
6. Puzzle
7. Sports
8. Educational (except for history, I guess)
9. Fighters
10. Shooters

[8bit]

Blazblue tried to have a story for each character and IMO it fell flat on its face. I couldn't wait to get past the story screens just to get to the action. To me it made the game tedious and boring having to read the broken english and crappy story for each character.

I'll take the nice little sum up story endings of Street Fighter 2 any day over other fighting games that try to have a story right in the middle of all of the action.

[Korpi]

I like short and tacky story in a fighter. Enough to give you and idea why this guy wants to beat this guy's ass etc. Sets the mood well enough and doesn't linger on too much and doesn't need to be thought about much. It's just some nice fluff to add to the experience. Best is of course that there's different kind of games and modes, so one can have their good story if the want to.

How many people play fighters and wish for deeper story though? There's many other genres which are better suited for stories, fighters are usually short bursts action and that's what people usually want from them. Wasted development time in my opinion, might as well make that story for a RPG.

[Erik_Twice]

I just think that if you are going to include something it better be good.

[Bradtemple87]

Tekken was the only series that really managed to bring me into the world when playing through with multiple characters. KOF and SC just feel like screens of text to me. I think story is not too important, but Tekken brought a subtle surprise.

[isiolia]

Blazblue tried to have a story for each character and IMO it fell flat on its face. I couldn't wait to get past the story screens just to get to the action. To me it made the game tedious and boring having to read the broken english and crappy story for each character.

Eh, Blazblue has a proper Story Mode alongside Arcade, Vs., and so on. I'd actually point at that as a fairly good example of how story can be incorporated. I don't recall it doing more in Arcade mode than something like KoF tends to. The lion's share of cutscenes/dialogue/etc are relegated to Story mode, which plays almost like a visual novel punctuated by fighting. There's really quite a lot there though, including humor, though perhaps it's something that they intend for fans:



(the general Help Me Professor Kokonoe explains what you needed to have done in order to get the "true" end for whatever character's story path you were playing)


In general, I think a decently done story is welcome, but given that so many games fail to create a really compelling story for -one- character, expecting something great for 20, 30, 40+ characters is fairly ambitious. I don't think it's necessary to have one, but I tend to at least appreciate the little changes for certain matchups n' such that a backstory can add.