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Tekken Story and Lore Discussion Thread

The secrets of the god fist scroll stuff with Feng Wei in T5 was super interesting and just dropped.

I'd love to see Feng become the new successor after the fall of Heihachi. The story about Feng destroying martial arts masters throughout China and Japan is the kind of thing that a true boss character should be doing. Feng's character design and narrative has little equal in all gaming culture. Feng needs that "focal treatment" we have in fighting games where only one character can be treated with respectful narrative. Clearly I'm joking about focal treatment because we should have the same quality writing for all characters. Fighting games and their narratives would be better as a whole if they abandon the idea of a "face of the franchise" character. In Tekken's case a favorite family of the franchise. Street Fighter never intended Ryu to be the main character (well I don't think so). Every fighter that's released since has been stuck in the Street Fighter hierarchy character template. These character templates are hurting the games from a story development standpoint.

Edit: Ryu and Ken were the only playable characters in the OG Street Fighter. I was wrong.

tk7fr_12391133_10153716974122978_9197719257470937036_n.jpg


Character story hierarchies hurt character developments across all of gaming in general. You undermine great characters by over writing your focal character and under writing others. You may have a golden character that's left completely undiscovered.
 
Faces of fighting game franchises:

Mortal Kombat: Liu Kang
Street Fighter: Ryu
Tekken: Heihachi Mishima
Virtua Fighter: Akira Yuki
Killer Instinct: Jago/Orchid
Dead of Alive: Kasumi
Fatal Fury: Terry Bogard
Samurai Showdown: Haohmaru
Injustice Gods Among Us: Batman
Soul Calibur: Mitsurugi


All of these series would be better as narratives if they gave all their casts the same quality of plot development. I wish all fighting game characters could get that "focal treatment". Some of these characters just get way too much screen time at the expense of the others.

I'd like to point out that Mortal Kombat only became better as a narrative once they stop shitting the bed with Liu Kang every chance they got.
 

Degen

Member
Tekken's story:

Mishimas keep throwing each other from great heights, and no other character is supposed to be taken seriously
 

Playsage

Member
This thread reminded me of that Tekken CGI movie, is it any good?
Just watch the Mishima Triple Threat from that movie
unless you're in for more Nina vs. Anna and Xiaoyu stuff, then GO for it

I think T7 will feature a "story mode"
I expect Kazumi to be actually dead, facing her in Arcade Mode is only a what-if and part of the narrative takes place in a flashback were Heihachi is forced to kill her because of the D. Gene and he snaps because of it.
 

Goldrush

Member
Is the world a corporate dystopia or just a mirror image of our world with a large seedy underworld? Corporations are powerful enough to create a World War, but do they wield their powers behind the scene or more overtly?
 
A good writer could take a character like Ganryu and make him enticing. Why must he become a joke character or a character with no suspenseful development. I'd like to see him and Michelle have a heart to heart about Julia in mature adult fashion. Something simple like that would pay dividends for all three characters and their continued character development.
 

Playsage

Member
A good writer could take a character like Ganryu and make him enticing. Why must he become a joke character or a character with no suspenseful development. I'd like to see him and Michelle have a heart to heart about Julia in mature adult fashion. Something simple like that would pay dividends for all three characters and their continued character development.
I could see Harada giving a super serious story exclusively to Ganryu just to mess with Tekken fans because he's the least popular character lol
 

Creaking

He touched the black heart of a mod
A good writer could take a character like Ganryu and make him enticing. Why must he become a joke character or a character with no suspenseful development. I'd like to see him and Michelle have a heart to heart about Julia in mature adult fashion. Something simple like that would pay dividends for all three characters and their continued character development.

Instead we get amazing O faces, Devil Ganryu, and voyeurism.
 

Loona

Member
This thread reminded me of that Tekken CGI movie, is it any good?

It's 5% Nina and Anna fighting, 15% original character providing an excuse for the plot, 40% the misadventures of Xiaoyu and Alisa, and the remaining 40% is the Mishima men trying to kill each other.

Nice ending moment from Heihachi. I just have very little tolerance for Alisa, since she looks like someone threw a whole pink shelf of girl toys and a couple of chainsaws into a human-shaped mold and that what came out.

IClearly I'm joking about focal treatment because we should have the same quality writing for all characters. Fighting games and their narratives would be better as a whole if they abandon the idea of a "face of the franchise" character. In Tekken's case a favorite family of the franchise.

Try telling that to a publisher's marketing department. I get what you're saying, but then you get covers like those of big crossover games like Smash Bros and Project X Zone, where there are so many characters it's hard to associate the game with a simple elegant design due to having to cram so many characters in to make sure all get properly noticed.

There are plenty of fighting games that manage to treat their non-main characters with respect and give them independent and valid story arcs. In King of Fighters, for example, you have Kensou working through some issues with his abilities that have been affecting his moves since KoF99, and are likely to be building toward something in a future game, considering all the characters that have been involved in his endings since, and how some of those have clear ties to larger events in the setting.
 
Just watch the Mishima Triple Threat from that movie
unless you're in for more Nina vs. Anna and Xiaoyu stuff, then GO for it

I think T7 will feature a "story mode"
I expect Kazumi to be actually dead, facing her in Arcade Mode is only a what-if and part of the narrative takes place in a flashback were Heihachi is forced to kill her because of the D. Gene and he snaps because of it.

Tekken 6's story mode was kinda cool (shout outs to the Heihachi bullet scene), but I hope that they go MK style with the story mode this time.
 

Creaking

He touched the black heart of a mod
Tekken 6's story mode was kinda cool (shout outs to the Heihachi bullet scene), but I hope that they go MK style with the story mode this time.

The worst part about Tekken 6's story mode was that it focused most heavily on Lars and Alisa, two subjectively dumb looking characters that didn't even exist until Bloodline Rebellion.

A MK style story where most characters get a fair share of screen time and are involved in something that actually matters would be the best.
 

Playsage

Member
The worst part about Tekken 6's story mode was that it focused most heavily on Lars and Alisa, two subjectively dumb looking characters that didn't even exist until Bloodline Rebellion.

A MK style story where most characters get a fair share of screen time and are involved in something that actually matters would be the best.
Actually, I could take anything as long as they give us some closure with the most "shamed" characters
Paul ;_;

I'm sure that both Kazuya and Heihachi will die this time, while Jin is kept in the background
 
King of Fighters wasn't on my "face of the franchise" list.
XMEN200.jpg


Tekken could learn something from ensemble comic book writing. They should also take a look at the marketing. The X-men movies are heavily criticized for focusing soley on Wolverine. Street Fighter wants to turn Ryu into Wolverine in its marketing, it's funny actually.


There are plenty of fighting games that manage to treat their non-main characters with respect and give them independent and valid story arcs.

This is all I really want from Tekken from a narrative angle. I think Tekken has to balance the writing so that it caters to its aging legacy fans, as well as offer something to the younger fans. I temper my own tastes/expectations because I know I might be in the older fan category. A character like Chloe will be great to entice younger fans. I just hope they write her character for the older fans. It's so hard to have the best of both worlds.
 
My favorite thing about Tekken story is the emphasis on family and generations. I kinda wish this would happen more with other characters besides the mishimas. Julia and King kinda did this but it just stopped.

The storytelling (besides the endings) in T4 was superb as well. I wish Tekken went back to that tone.
 

Playsage

Member
Tekken is one of the few fighting game franchises that continually introduce great characters in their later installments. I like some of the newer characters from series like Guilty Gear and Street Fighter but Tekken really outdoes itself.
Eh! Tekken 3 still has the best newcomer's cast, though... And I'm pretty sure a few people weren't that happy with Bob, Lars and Alisa (I thought of Bob as a cool joke character but grew tired of him being everywhere competitive-wise , but I straight rejected the anime duo of BR lol)
Now with Tekken 7 I'm happy with finally having an italian fighter, Claudio (aka "Male Rose") except for his Soul Calibur wardrobe
Harada please let him have some classy as fuck customization ok?
Shaheen has a really cool design
Katarina and Lucky Chloe... Are we really losing the capos for them? :(
 

Dereck

Member
It's 5% Nina and Anna fighting, 15% original character providing an excuse for the plot, 40% the misadventures of Xiaoyu and Alisa, and the remaining 40% is the Mishima men trying to kill each other.

Nice ending moment from Heihachi. I just have very little tolerance for Alisa, since she looks like someone threw a whole pink shelf of girl toys and a couple of chainsaws into a human-shaped mold and that what came out.
Really mad that they didn't make a CGI movie centered around other characters.
 
Really mad that they didn't make a CGI movie centered around other characters.

I find it funny how he doesn't claim the animated movie at all when it's still better than the stuff he put out.
BV was basically the adventures of Xiaoyu and Alisa with some half baked story on the throwaway character Shin Kamiya.
 
I find it funny how he doesn't claim the animated movie at all when it's still better than the stuff he put out.
BV was basically the adventures of Xiaoyu and Alisa with some half baked story on the throwaway character Shin Kamiya.

What an awesome and memorable character Shin Kamiya was. What a guy.

Tekken's story was once a thing. It even became good. Then the cast inflation happened, and fuck knows what happened to the story since.
 
Do I care about Tekken lore?


I've written to Harada himself asking to be a scenario/story writer.

I still want to do it.

Yes, until 6, I've enjoyed the Tekken story.
 

cordy

Banned
Besides that, Heihachi's original VA passed years ago so it's only fitting that he meet his end here. Now given Tekken, I fully expect Heihachi to somehow some back as a future undead boss and be in future tag titles so he won't be gone all the time. Just for a bit.
 
Law and Paul have a twenty year old relationship that is ripe for exploitation. Namco has done their best to sabotage these two characters. The notion that these two would be in need of desperate cash has gotten old. I always liked the clips of Marshall and Paul together at the dojo in the original Tekken. Shouldn't Law's students be adults by now? Is Marshall not still involved in any of his students lives?

What about Paul? Why hasn't he settled down like Marshall and started a family? I'd like to see Paul & Marshall have that conversation. Does Paul wonder what life would have been like if he had put down roots and gave up the biker lifestyle? Can we see Mrs. Law talk about Paul and Law's relationship and how it has strained their marriage? We can still have these characters put in life and death jeopardy and still have comedy without corniness.

51PFgdk1O7L.jpg
 

The only person Ogre has tried to kill that survived is Baek. Wang has never been stated to be attacked.

I'm sure at some point they were considering having those characters be dead, but since they left it open, I guess they went back to just having all characters in the later installments.
 
The only person Ogre has tried to kill that survived is Baek. Wang has never been stated to be attacked.

I'm sure at some point they were considering having those characters be dead, but since they left it open, I guess they went back to just having all characters in the later installments.
how do you know for sure baek was the only one confirmed to just be attacked?

I know I cannot prove it but I am pretty sure all those characters were killed and retconned to just be injured, including Wang. Ogre inherited attacks from both him and baek
 

Playsage

Member
how do you know for sure baek was the only one confirmed to just be attacked?

I know I cannot prove it but I am pretty sure all those characters were killed and retconned to just be injured, including Wang. Ogre inherited attacks from both him and baek

Ogre, until further retcons, attacked Jun, Baek and the first King prior to the events of Tekken 3. Only Baek has survived.
In T3, Ogre has moves taken from characters that are playable in that same game, such as Anna.
 
No, but it is implied/theorized she was attacked by Ogre as he has some moves of hers.
Some think due to the encounter is why she has those scars on her face or she simply burned her face from learning the fire technique.

The truth about Tekken's lore is that there is about 50 great stories lurking behind the scenes that are never told. I'd love to see Kunimitsu trying to steal from Ogre's temple. That vignette writes itself.
 
Ogre, until further retcons, attacked Jun, Baek and the first King prior to the events of Tekken 3. Only Baek has survived.
In T3, Ogre has moves taken from characters that are playable in that same game, such as Anna.
The way I remember it was that he killed Jun, and Baek, and Wang, and King, with Bruce being the only possible survivor. All of this was forgotten and later retconned into all of them being injured and healing over time to give a bigger roster to Tekken 5.
 
Tekken's story is multifaceted it just has the problem of not delivering on these narrative set ups. These character arcs always seem to ring hollow. The only story element that really made a big impression on me was the Nina & Steve relations reveal in Tekken 4. That was a real moment. I realized at that moment Tekken was going places with these characters. For a brief moment I cared. She had to get her shit together.

Tekken golden moment

The Syndicate's additional information revealed that Nina was in fact Steve's mother, who was created through in-vitro fertilization without Nina's knowledge. Nina is ready to assassinate Steve (via sniper rifle), but finds it very difficult for her to pull the trigger as she feels guilty of murdering her only child. Lei Wulong busts open her door, yelling "Freeze!" Nina does not adhere and fires two shots at Lei (which he dodges). She quickly escapes through the window and runs across the street to where Steve is. The two share a moment together, until it is interrupted by Lei. Lei fires two shots at Nina, but Steve protects her by knocking her over. Nina gets up and runs, thanking Steve for his help, but is still pursued by Lei as Steve watches. -Tekken wiki
 

Playsage

Member
The way I remember it was that he killed Jun, and Baek, and Wang, and King, with Bruce being the only possible survivor. All of this was forgotten and later retconned into all of them being injured and healing over time to give a bigger roster to Tekken 5.

Yeah Tekken 5 is the "worst offender" when it comes to retcons.
The prologues pretty much state that:
- Wang never met Ogre and he returned just to meet Jinpachi who invited him to the Tournament
- Bruce retired from a mercenary's life after Kazuya's death and opened a Survival Training School. He returns because he heard that Kazuya is fighting in the Tournament
- Baek is the only one of the returning characters to have been attacked by Ogre in canon and he recovers from a comatose state before T5's events to free Hwoarang and train him
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Jun had never died to begin with. Even in the T3 manual, it was only what Jin had thought because they were attacked, he was knocked out and woke up to have both of them gone, and so assumed she had been killed.

But Harada has stated she's always been MIA...her time to return is coming soon, i can feel it.
 
Ogre, until further retcons, attacked Jun, Baek and the first King prior to the events of Tekken 3. Only Baek has survived.
In T3, Ogre has moves taken from characters that are playable in that same game, such as Anna.

Yeah Tekken 5 is the "worst offender" when it comes to retcons.
The prologues pretty much state that:
- Wang never met Ogre and he returned just to meet Jinpachi who invited him to the Tournament
- Bruce retired from a mercenary's life after Kazuya's death and opened a Survival Training School. He returns because he heard that Kazuya is fighting in the Tournament
- Baek is the only one of the returning characters to have been attacked by Ogre in canon and he recovers from a comatose state before T5's events to free Hwoarang and train him

The fact that Anna alone was in Tekken 3 (she was even in the Arcade version of Tekken 3) shoud've automatically made the theory that "Ogre attacked the fighters & gained their special moves" null & voided.

The only people that Ogre had encountered, were Baek, Jun, & King I. That's it, bottom line. And even there, there's no proof that Ogre had even killed Jun or Baek at all.
 
The fact that Anna alone was in Tekken 3 (she was even in the Arcade version of Tekken 3) shoud've automatically made the theory that "Ogre attacked the fighters & gained their special moves" null & voided.

The only people that Ogre had encountered, were Baek, Jun, & King I. That's it, bottom line. And even there, there's no proof that Ogre had even killed Jun or Baek at all.

It's stated in the Tekken 3 booklet that he attacked various fighters, known and unknown.
Anna's moves being used was probably a way to add to Ogre's movelist but it's more than a theory on him attacking the Tekken characters.

It could be possible they did retcon things but yeah there's no proof he killed Baek it's never stated he was killed.

In the booklet it was said Baek was attacked never killed so that could have been left up to interpretation.
 

Pachimari

Member
If Jun is to return from her MIA, then it better be in Tekken 7. We have been waiting long enough. Just use her Tag 2 character model, that design was super fine.

Oh, and I want the lore to write in Law's mustache again, it has a place in this tournament.
 
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