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[Lights and Waves]

Why does every game that's come out since SFIII Third Strike (3S) take place before 3S instead of after? What is it about 3S that makes it the end-all of the Street Fighter story? Is it because Chun Li retires from fighting..?

I never understood why Capcom decided to make every new game a prequel to 3S rather than just continuing the story. Thoughts?

 

[KZXcellent]

They want to use M Bison and he's dead at that point.

 

[60EffPeeEss]

They consider 3S a commercial failure, due to too many new characters and gameplay that got increasingly more complex.

Its a no-brainer that they're using pre-3S as the story basis for every game after it, because there's more brand recognition in Zangief than in someone like Twelve or Oro.

 

[Alienous]

I expect it has something to do with the dramatically different roster in Third Strike.

I don't know much about Street Fighter canon but I'm expecting that change was explained away with a ton of iconic character deaths.

 

[atr0cious]

3rd Strike is the Tokyo Drift of Street Fighter. They reached the pinnacle of the series and know it, so now they must pay homage to it for bringing life back to the franchise.

 

[JayEH]

They wanted to go back to a time where the characters are still in their prime with 4 since 3 was supposed to be the soft reboot with a mostly new cast. 3 was also the numbered series that killed SF for a decade so they wanted to distance themselves from that.

Kinda like how DMC2 is the end of the DMC timeline but every game since is now before it. It's the way capcom handles things.

 

[swarley64]

I think it's because way too many characters get killed off before SF3?

Capcom should probably just do a full reboot of the canon. It's too complex for its own good and no one cares any way.

 

[Pyrrhus]

All the original folks are gone and the ones there now don't dare move forward from there, I guess?

 

[lucebuce12]

Mainstream people know E. Honda, Ryu, Ken and Chun-Li.

They do not know Alex, Q, Oro or Sean.

 

[Ginger Hail]

I guess they feel like they wrote themselves into a corner with it. The cast was mostly "new generation", slightly implying a lot of the other characters had retired or what have you. Shadaloo was also wiped out at that point, so no Bison and company requires a new, less familiar/iconic antagonist (Illuminati) as the focus.

 

[Sou Da]

Mainstream people know E. Honda, Ryu, Ken and Chun-Li.

They do not know Alex, Q, Oro or Sean.

3 out of those 4 are in SF3.

No one gives a shit about Honda.

 

[_Aaron_]

Do fans/Capcom actually care about Street Fighter's story? It's incoherent and full of retcons.

 

[DrFunk]

They're fighting for the future

 

[Neoxon]

Probably because it was too far removed from what people knew. Though at least with SFV, they bridged the gap between SFIV & SFIII so that they can actually move past SFIII in the timeline without having to do much explaining as to where everyone was during SFIII.

 

[Sou Da]

Do fans/Capcom actually care about Street Fighter's story? It's incoherent and full of retcons.

Even then there's no reason why ALL of the roster needs to be involved in the story, they could easily go the netherrealm route and just put all the iconic characters in as "non-canon".

 

[Jawmuncher]

But the world warriors aren't dead when SF3 happens are they (Outside M. Bison).
I feel like it'd be more interesting to bring back a lot of the old cast, but with a new design (Like we saw with Dhalsim in SF4). Unless there's some story stuff i'm missing. That way you can have returning characters and advance the story.

 

[NeonZ]

Why does every game that's come out since SFIII Third Strike (3S) take place before 3S instead of after? What is it about 3S that makes it the end-all of the Street Fighter story? Is it because Chun Li retires from fighting..?

I never understood why Capcom decided to make every new game a prequel to 3S rather than just continuing the story. Thoughts?

I guess it's because SF3 in general wasn't very successful, so they wanted to avoid strong ties with it. By making it take place after SF2 they could go straight from there again, so you get all the Shadaloo stories and other references to SF2 and Alpha elements.

It's kind of silly though, especially because we're talking about a fighting game that didn't even have a proper story mode at the time. Phoenix Wright is an actual story based game and easily continued after Apollo Justice even though they minimized the tie ins to that game in Dual Destinies, aside from Apollo still existing. SF4 easily could have taken place after SF3 while still mostly featuring the SF2 cast alongside some newcomers.

 

[SgtCobra]

To be honest, the whole Shadaloo thing has gotten uninteresting and played out as hell, it feels now like some sort of cartoon where the badguy keeps coming back after being defeated just to get his ass kicked once again.

Something totally new like in the SF3 series would be great, but that would probably mean that the roster would have to be revamped with lots of newcomers with the absence of the old favorites. I don't really think that would sit well with the public.
The whole SF2 roster has gotten boring as fuck for me and I'm saying that as someone who grew up with that game.

 

[Breads]

People like the streetfighter cast. Cast members tend to have finite ages/ life cycles. If you want more of them there is no time like the past.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

I think 3rd strike should be treated as a noncannon alternative story. I don't want Capcom to feel restricted by it.

 

[Neoxon]

But the world warriors aren't dead when SF3 happens are they (Outside M. Bison).
I feel like it'd be more interesting to bring back a lot of the old cast, but with a new design (Like we saw with Dhalsim in SFV). Unless there's some story stuff i'm missing. That way you can have returning characters and advance the story.

FTFY

 

[JayEH]

Do fans/Capcom actually care about Street Fighter's story? It's incoherent and full of retcons.

yes, every fighting game series' story is actually like this though. it's part of the charm.

 

[mindsale]

Street Fighter III is gorgeous. The newer games look atrocious by comparison. I say this as someone with a passing interest in the franchise.

 

[Salty Rice]

Because Capcpon is stupid and wants to do the same shit over and over again.

Its not like they are afraid of new characters but then do the full step and not make some shitty prequel.

 

[120v]

the roster reboot was pretty ballsy. but yeah they probably pulled that trigger a little too early

 

[vocab]

Street fighters story peaked with Human potato. It will never not be stupid.

 

[Eolz]

Bison is dead and most popular characters are retired.
Capcom can still introduce new characters before 3S.
Look at the demand in SFV for classic characters to come back, and SF3's sales flop, it's easy to see why Capcom prefers doing something before that in terms of lore.

It's not the only franchise that stuck itself in a corner, you can see that with Metroid and Yakuza too for example.

 

[Gekko87]

First post nails it. Well whatever they make next HAS to take place after 3 considering how the story went in 5.

 

[Neoxon]

To be honest, the whole Shadaloo thing has gotten boring as hell, it feels now like some sort of cartoon where the badguy keeps coming back after being defeated just to get his ass kicked once again.

Something totally new like in the SF3 series would be great, but that would probably mean that the roster would've to be revamped with lots of newcomers with the absence of the old favorites. Don't really think that would sit well with the public.

They already got rid of Shadaloo & Bison, though they seem to be establishing Neo-Shadaloo to fill the void left by Bison & possibly be the next big threat after the Illuminati (similar to how SFV is setting the stage for the Illuminati's status in SFIII, by having Urien & Kolin as playable).

That said, while SFIII is looked back on fondly now, (as you said) the general public wasn't too fond of the old cast getting nixed almost entirely in SFIII:NG. Hell, even in SFV where 3/4 of the base roster were veterans (& 1/2 being World Warriors) alongside all of Season 1 being veterans, some people are still mad at the character choices of SFV & the fact that most of Season 2 consists of newcomers.

 

[DryEyeRelief]

Why do you care about the story in a game that's designed for the multiplayer?

 

[Scotia]

There's a few reasons. A bunch of new characters with lots from SF2 and Alpha missing is a major part of it. The fact that SF3 didn't do well is another big factor. I had hoped SFV was going to move past 3S, but SF4 raised more questions that needed answering, so that wasn't an option. It's often been described that SFV is the bridge that's meant to connect SF4 to SF3, so hopefully SF6 will finally move on past 3S. If it doesn't, I don't think I can take another SF game tip-toeing around SF3. It's time to move on from Shadaloo as the main threat.

 

[Soapbox Killer]

It is the best game in the franchise and thus must be the finale. There is nowhere left to go after the beauty of parrying an entire super.

 

[Salty Rice]

Why do you care about the story in a game that's designed for the multiplayer?

Uhm Netherrealm games?

Theres a reason why their games outsell most fighting games multiple times.

There are many reasons but story is a huge part of it and people do actually care more than you think.

 

[Lights and Waves]

Why do you care about the story in a game that's designed for the multiplayer?

You: Why do you care about the game you're paying money to play?

Me:

 

[Augemitbutter]

they probably don't want to make their main characters old. people don't buy old people games i guess.

 

[Astral]

Despite being a commercial failure, SF3 is considered overall to be the best one right? And do that many characters die?

 

[Piers]

It's most annoying that they made the effort to design new looks for characters like Ken and Akuma, and now we're suppose to believe they went back to old appearances in SFIII.

 

[Lights and Waves]

It's most annoying that they made the effort to design new looks for characters like Ken and Akuma, and now we're suppose to believe they went back to old appearances in SFIII.

Ken doesn't make sense, but Akuma does look older in SF3 compared to SFV

 

[Scotia]

Despite being a commercial failure, SF3 is considered overall to be the best one right? And do that many characters die?

The only SF2/Alpha characters that have died before SF3 is M.Bison and Charlie Nash. Everyone else from those games are still alive.

 

[CanUKlehead]

I'd love for them to do SF6 (ha!) with a mostly new cast again, like they did with SF3 New Generation, but I doubt they'd take the risk again.

Maybe not ever again, even if there is a 6.

 

[LiK]

Because Capcom can't move on.

 

[foxuzamaki]

One fact is that their characters actually age, if we were to follow chun li from her birth date until now I believe she would be in her 50s I believe

 

[DrArchon]

Because most of the marketable characters (ie the ones from SF2) are gone for whatever reason, presumably either dead or retired. And the new characters for 3 didn't catch on for the most part, and judging by the newcomers for 4 and 5, Capcom can't seem to catch lightning in a bottle a second time by making new characters as popular as the ones from 2.

 

[Eolz]

Why do you care about the story in a game that's designed for the multiplayer?

Looking at your avatar, you won't mind if Capcom remove Chun-Li from SF6 right?
edit: or a better question, do you think nobody will mind?

Same thing happened with Soul Calibur 5, with a roster full of characters not on par with the classic ones. People pay attention to the story/lore, on a basic level. Unless you want your game to not even have a bit of mainstream appeal obviously.

 

[sixteen-bit]

It's like Fast and Furious. Only after the 6th entry will they progress the story past 3.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

This old answered-yet-not-answered line of questioning again...


Still, I'd love Old Hot Ryu, Old Dad Ken (and/or Mel), Cool Middle Age Chun and that kid she keeps having to save, post-college Ibuki and Makoto, Akuma again, some new characters, plus the rest of the OG cast ain't system sellers outside of existing for nostalgia's sake and don't whine at me the % played numbers don't lie and I'M a Sim player lifelong who loves 3.

 

[Rellik]

Why do you care about the story in a game that's designed for the multiplayer?

There's a thread on here showing more people play single player in fighting games, so I guess people do care.

 

[JayEH]

Despite being a commercial failure, SF3 is considered overall to be the best one right? And do that many characters die?

There's is no consensus on the best SF. 3 fans are just more vocal and its only looked upon favorably today.

 

[CO_Andy]

just watch Capcom remake SF3's story in SF6

 

[atr0cious]

One fact is that their characters actually age, if we were to follow chun li from her birth date until now I believe she would be in her 50s I believe

I would really like to see old grizzled Chun Li crushing some young newcomers.