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Fighting game lore...what's your opinion on it?
- Thread starter cordy
- Start date
goldenpp72
Member
Usually bad, often even hurtful if it effects the roster. If not, then it's welcome fluff I guess as long as it's never forced.
Cyber Caesar
Member
Another beautiful entry in the Virtua Fighter Lore Series from Oh So Jiggly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLCZ6fh-uBQ
The Last of Us
Neo Member
I feel like I'm absolutely alone here, but the only fighting game I've thoroughly enjoyed was the DOA series. Characters felt individual and their own. It had a funny theme at times and also the most fast paced connective combat in any fighting game I've played. Stringing combos together just felt really satisfying. And then beach vollyball came and kinda sullied the series for a lot of fans.
Bardiche
Member
I'm one of the rare fighting game fans who look primarily at lore, storylines, and single player content. King of Fighters and Mortal Kombat do these well. The rest of the fighting games, not so much, but Tekken did a decent job in the beginning before Paul starting fighting aliens.
Fug Slanderson
Member
It really has no bearing on my enjoyment of the game whatsoever.
Naked Lunch
Member
There was a time I would sit there and finish fighting games over and over to see all the different characters' endings.
I was always most intrigued by the Last Blade's story.
I was into Mortal Kombat as a teen - stuff is so silly.
Street Fighter always felt half finished - some of those endings where "thats it?", especially the Alpha series. Ditto for Tekken.
I was always most intrigued by the Last Blade's story.
I was into Mortal Kombat as a teen - stuff is so silly.
Street Fighter always felt half finished - some of those endings where "thats it?", especially the Alpha series. Ditto for Tekken.
Taliban Stan
Member
Fighting games to me are like Tetris. I don't really care about the story of why the L block is falling or what happened to the world to make connecting and destroying blocks so important.
That on top most fighting game stories being pretty stupid or non-existent. 99% of them are "evil baddie is has the army, money, influence, and infrastructure to take over the world but is willing to lay it all down if someone can beat them in a fist fight." Devs never really cared about the story and I followed suit.
The lore for Dhalsim in Street Fighter 2 is that he spits fire because he ate spicy curry. That's it. That's literally it. If you let it sit on the start menu, the only story you get is that some white guy knocks out a black dude in front of a building. It's hard for me to get any real connection to that. We're talking sub-Mario Bros 1 level story telling, pretty much across the genre.
Plus, there's no world to explore or really anything to help drive a story home in the actual mechanics and gameplay. It's just matches strung together, back-to-back. To me, they're like card games. Somebody probably could make up a cool story that explains Spades or Hearts or Freecell or Uno but I wouldn't care. I don't play those games for riveting story lines.
I remember beating Marvel vs Capcom 2, seeing the vignettes and being like, "oh shit, there's like a story for the game?!". I thought it was just crazy gameplay that Capcom thought would be fun and that what it.
That on top most fighting game stories being pretty stupid or non-existent. 99% of them are "evil baddie is has the army, money, influence, and infrastructure to take over the world but is willing to lay it all down if someone can beat them in a fist fight." Devs never really cared about the story and I followed suit.
The lore for Dhalsim in Street Fighter 2 is that he spits fire because he ate spicy curry. That's it. That's literally it. If you let it sit on the start menu, the only story you get is that some white guy knocks out a black dude in front of a building. It's hard for me to get any real connection to that. We're talking sub-Mario Bros 1 level story telling, pretty much across the genre.
Plus, there's no world to explore or really anything to help drive a story home in the actual mechanics and gameplay. It's just matches strung together, back-to-back. To me, they're like card games. Somebody probably could make up a cool story that explains Spades or Hearts or Freecell or Uno but I wouldn't care. I don't play those games for riveting story lines.
I remember beating Marvel vs Capcom 2, seeing the vignettes and being like, "oh shit, there's like a story for the game?!". I thought it was just crazy gameplay that Capcom thought would be fun and that what it.
Cyber Caesar
Member
Little Chicken
Banned
Absolute trash. MK in particular is some of the stupidest shit in any entertainment industry.
Absolver has some nice, understated lore.
At least that's my take on it. So it's kind of a mix of Dune and Dark Souls.
It revolves around a drug (similar to Dune)called Essence. The drug allows you to manipulate your body and the space around you, and most importantly can allow you to resurrect yourself (if you have enough on you, usually kept in the interior of an Absolver mask). This means you can duel without actually dying, which of course became popular.
The problem is that exposure to it can drive you insane if you don't have enough willpower to fight it. After discovering Essence, society became completely obsessed with it, forming a religion around it, and eventually collapsed. The people didn't die, however, if they were able to use essence. They do eventually fall into madness and obsess over continuously fighting. The world is in ruins and littered with insane drug addicts that will fight anyone who crosses their path.
The only way someone can truly be released from their torment is to be defeated completely, i.e. Absolved.
The problem is that exposure to it can drive you insane if you don't have enough willpower to fight it. After discovering Essence, society became completely obsessed with it, forming a religion around it, and eventually collapsed. The people didn't die, however, if they were able to use essence. They do eventually fall into madness and obsess over continuously fighting. The world is in ruins and littered with insane drug addicts that will fight anyone who crosses their path.
The only way someone can truly be released from their torment is to be defeated completely, i.e. Absolved.
At least that's my take on it. So it's kind of a mix of Dune and Dark Souls.
FF:Enhanced_Reality
Member
Quite honestly, I love it. People who say 'you shouldn't play fighting games if you're playing it for the story,' are some of the most annoying gamer's there are. Nobody should be able to dictate to a person what kind of games a person should love or hate.
I enjoyed the story of Tekken thoroughly, each character story and the overall story until Tekken 6 where shit went down hill pretty fast and Tekken 7 hasn't made any kind of improvement.
Mortal Kombat is another great series with deep lore and made the story work. Mortal Kombat 9 and Mortal Kombat Deception have amazing story modes that I can go back to and play any time. Mortal Kombat X sadly, was quite poor story wise. Well it was worse than quite poor but never mind.
Fighting games don't always get a long legacy though. Psychic Force on PlayStation 1 and Psychic Force 2012 had great characters and stories to tell.
I enjoyed the story of Tekken thoroughly, each character story and the overall story until Tekken 6 where shit went down hill pretty fast and Tekken 7 hasn't made any kind of improvement.
Mortal Kombat is another great series with deep lore and made the story work. Mortal Kombat 9 and Mortal Kombat Deception have amazing story modes that I can go back to and play any time. Mortal Kombat X sadly, was quite poor story wise. Well it was worse than quite poor but never mind.
Fighting games don't always get a long legacy though. Psychic Force on PlayStation 1 and Psychic Force 2012 had great characters and stories to tell.
Love fighting game lore because it makes you want to play the characters more.
I wish more games would do story the way Mortal Kombat 9 did, or Soul Calibur 1 with mission mode, because they do a favor of introducing you to a majority of the game's roster.
MK9's story gave you enough time with each character to figure out how he/she played, and also challenged you enough times to the bad characters for you to figure out if they were worth your curiousity.
Soul Calibur 1/2 used the story to introduce gameplay situations to introduce quirks like fighting on low health or poison etc, which kept gameplay interesting. The overall works map was also an interesting way to show how the characters fit in the lore.
I wish more games would do story the way Mortal Kombat 9 did, or Soul Calibur 1 with mission mode, because they do a favor of introducing you to a majority of the game's roster.
MK9's story gave you enough time with each character to figure out how he/she played, and also challenged you enough times to the bad characters for you to figure out if they were worth your curiousity.
Soul Calibur 1/2 used the story to introduce gameplay situations to introduce quirks like fighting on low health or poison etc, which kept gameplay interesting. The overall works map was also an interesting way to show how the characters fit in the lore.
Cyber Caesar
Member
I got to get around to reading those interviews on the Tekken Gamer website with the comic writers. I want to know why Namco decided to get an american comic book writer to work on there stories and if these comics are considered canon. So yeah I need to read these comics from Titan on Tekken. I just found out these exist.
The comic covers are very uninspired because they focus on the main characters in the series. We know too much about these ass hats already. SMH
The comic covers are very uninspired because they focus on the main characters in the series. We know too much about these ass hats already. SMH
tkscz
Member
What was wrong with MKX's story? I enjoyed it. Very campy and fun.
But Tekken does have the best story in fighting games. Street Fighter has elements I like but doesn't feel like it knows where to go. It keeps doing expansions which retcons each story rather than adding on to it. Strangely enough, the Marvel vs Capcom games have the worse stories and really shouldn't.
Outrun
Member
The Hermit
Member
Street fighter could have an amazing lore, but sf4 fucked everything up, so whatever.
Mortal Kombat lore is amazing, and the way they rebooted is even better
Mortal Kombat lore is amazing, and the way they rebooted is even better
Cyber Caesar
Member
Cool concept that needs to be further fleshed out.
Hashmal_Bringer_of_Order
Member
I like that it's there but I think it's silly to take it very seriously.
Cyber Caesar
Member
Walt was serious about his mouse. Is this a video game forum or what?