Story Mode - How should it be done?
- Thread starter Nightpup
- Start date
Woozy
Member
I liked "pick a character and play through their story" in Soul Calibur when I played that as a kid, so naturally I'd prefer that over "You have to use these characters for a bit, then use these characters, then these characters". It let me use the characters I liked, and avoid the ones I didn't. Sure, from a storytelling standpoint, the latter is ideal, but who plays fighting games for the story?
Aven Kujo-Gin
Well-Known Member
You don't pick a fighting game for the story, but a lot of a people, and I mean A LOT, care about the story.
TLEE SAID THIS:
Active Member
I'm not a big fan of the MK format of storytelling in DOA5. It works for MK because of its lore, but for DOA, I prefer the traditional playing through arcade, getting a cinematic ending, and then piecing together the story from all the endings ALA Tekken. KI also has a cool story format where you get alternate endings based on specified conditions completed in arcade (e.g. perfect all opponents on all rounds and beat final boss with a power blow). But what I really want is the adventure mode from Soul Calibur 3.
Mayor-Of-Mustard
Well-Known Member
Why not both lol
prototypetom
Active Member
I've been thinking about this since the iteration of DOA5 came out. I felt he story was just horrible, barely a story at all, more a hodgepodge of obligatory and arbitrary appearances by everyone who needs to make an appearance. But I appreciate the problem - we expect 20+ characters these days, everyone has their favourites and wants a bit of back story to flesh them out a bit and why should anyone be left out? TN provided a solution, they ticked a lot of boxes... just not the one labelled "but is this all worth a damn?".
For DOA6 I hope they soft reboot the story, they've got into such a mess its the only sensible thing to do.I think a new and more holistic approach is needed. I think FG in general need to do a better job of drawing in casual gamers by giving them more substance beyond the fight, win/lose repeat cycle. Of course that's what it always comes down to, but you can cast a wider net to catch people who may discover they like fighting other people by first offering something they get their teeth into on their own.
I would like Story mode to be the first part of all characters stories - and make arcade mode the concluding part(s). I think just doing this would give you a basic foundation for a more robust story experience. Story mode is what brings a character to DOA tournament and dictates their motivations, sympathies and feuds in it. WITHOUT having to connect all characters to all characters or drag everyone down a huge meta story rabbit hole. The story only needs to be about who you're choosing to play with.
I would like the story mode to be played out around 5 or 6 fights, so it's short enough to play through with any character you want to, nor gets boring. Perhaps the fights could be handicapped or have unusual stipulations - but anyway...
I would like that between rounds there are story events which give you choices, some moral, so you can actually plot your way through fighting different characters - and this would help the player actually develop their character themselves. I watched a guy who worked on the walking dead game talk about the process they go through for multiple thread narratives. I think limited to 3 or 4 decisions it would be possible to do that in a short DOA story mode for each character. say 25 characters with 3 A/B branches with 1 or 2 fights between each would give every character the chance to fight almost any other character depending on choices and develop quite a lot. It would mean writing a lot of variations, but in total it wouldn't need to be much greater in volume than the current story if the story play through was only 20-30 minutes long including fights. the interactions don't all need to be exclusive either. If i start with Hitomi and my first choice takes me to a confrontation with Tina, much of that scene could be the same as if i started with Tina and made choices that took me to a confrontation with Hitomi. All roads lead the the DOA tournament, but who a character is when they enter could be down to the player!
That in itself would give story mode some replay value. but I would like to take it a step further. I think it would be possible that due to the choices you make you unlock custom accessories and appearance variations. But not traditional unlocks like costumes where you just make a wider things available for you to add or change. they're absolute. So say I take Lisa through her story, maybe one route where I make moral decision leaves her with a scar on her leg but another route hurts her eye and leaves her with eye-patch. another decision gives her a haircut variation while another a change of hair colour... when you finish story mode, MY Lisa will retain the evidence of the choices I've made her take. And those appearance things are permanent going into arcade mode and on-line. If you want to change them you could play through story again with different choices - and then your Lisa would then have that experiences appearance. Of course these things would have to be independent of costumes because you still probably need DLC costumes. But in various ways, your character would be more unique to you than they are now. On FSD people would post decision combinations to achieve certain looks 'A,B,B,A will give you red contacts, green lips and crucifix earings' etc. You would subtly customize your whole roster. In practice it might mean we don't get the Haircut A B or C choice we got now at the start of fights, but the choice still exists, just in a less arbitrary way.
If i'm not being greedy enough already - I would like whatever choices you make tip you one way or another on a moral scale - good or bad. And I'd like it if that actually gave you a different end scene on completing arcade mode (a good one or a bad one). This whole thing borrows a fair bit from the Infamous games I guess, but it's also inspired by the distinct good and evil conclusions to SC(3 it think?) - except you will see the one your character deserves.
Of course I haven't got the time to sit and work through the granular logistics of all of this, story-wise. And there might be technical considerations i'm just unaware of - but this what I would like to see DOA6 look like If it could work.
Short, rubust and custom story for every character.
Personalised character rosters based on story actions.
Story and arcade mode connected in a meaningful way.
Lots of reason to replay single player modes due to seeing different story developments, re-customising characters and different ending scenes available to unlock.
For DOA6 I hope they soft reboot the story, they've got into such a mess its the only sensible thing to do.I think a new and more holistic approach is needed. I think FG in general need to do a better job of drawing in casual gamers by giving them more substance beyond the fight, win/lose repeat cycle. Of course that's what it always comes down to, but you can cast a wider net to catch people who may discover they like fighting other people by first offering something they get their teeth into on their own.
I would like Story mode to be the first part of all characters stories - and make arcade mode the concluding part(s). I think just doing this would give you a basic foundation for a more robust story experience. Story mode is what brings a character to DOA tournament and dictates their motivations, sympathies and feuds in it. WITHOUT having to connect all characters to all characters or drag everyone down a huge meta story rabbit hole. The story only needs to be about who you're choosing to play with.
I would like the story mode to be played out around 5 or 6 fights, so it's short enough to play through with any character you want to, nor gets boring. Perhaps the fights could be handicapped or have unusual stipulations - but anyway...
I would like that between rounds there are story events which give you choices, some moral, so you can actually plot your way through fighting different characters - and this would help the player actually develop their character themselves. I watched a guy who worked on the walking dead game talk about the process they go through for multiple thread narratives. I think limited to 3 or 4 decisions it would be possible to do that in a short DOA story mode for each character. say 25 characters with 3 A/B branches with 1 or 2 fights between each would give every character the chance to fight almost any other character depending on choices and develop quite a lot. It would mean writing a lot of variations, but in total it wouldn't need to be much greater in volume than the current story if the story play through was only 20-30 minutes long including fights. the interactions don't all need to be exclusive either. If i start with Hitomi and my first choice takes me to a confrontation with Tina, much of that scene could be the same as if i started with Tina and made choices that took me to a confrontation with Hitomi. All roads lead the the DOA tournament, but who a character is when they enter could be down to the player!
That in itself would give story mode some replay value. but I would like to take it a step further. I think it would be possible that due to the choices you make you unlock custom accessories and appearance variations. But not traditional unlocks like costumes where you just make a wider things available for you to add or change. they're absolute. So say I take Lisa through her story, maybe one route where I make moral decision leaves her with a scar on her leg but another route hurts her eye and leaves her with eye-patch. another decision gives her a haircut variation while another a change of hair colour... when you finish story mode, MY Lisa will retain the evidence of the choices I've made her take. And those appearance things are permanent going into arcade mode and on-line. If you want to change them you could play through story again with different choices - and then your Lisa would then have that experiences appearance. Of course these things would have to be independent of costumes because you still probably need DLC costumes. But in various ways, your character would be more unique to you than they are now. On FSD people would post decision combinations to achieve certain looks 'A,B,B,A will give you red contacts, green lips and crucifix earings' etc. You would subtly customize your whole roster. In practice it might mean we don't get the Haircut A B or C choice we got now at the start of fights, but the choice still exists, just in a less arbitrary way.
If i'm not being greedy enough already - I would like whatever choices you make tip you one way or another on a moral scale - good or bad. And I'd like it if that actually gave you a different end scene on completing arcade mode (a good one or a bad one). This whole thing borrows a fair bit from the Infamous games I guess, but it's also inspired by the distinct good and evil conclusions to SC(3 it think?) - except you will see the one your character deserves.
Of course I haven't got the time to sit and work through the granular logistics of all of this, story-wise. And there might be technical considerations i'm just unaware of - but this what I would like to see DOA6 look like If it could work.
Short, rubust and custom story for every character.
Personalised character rosters based on story actions.
Story and arcade mode connected in a meaningful way.
Lots of reason to replay single player modes due to seeing different story developments, re-customising characters and different ending scenes available to unlock.
d3v
Well-Known Member
If anyone's watched Durarara, then you'd realize that DOA's story mode was trying to do the same thing. Instead of just showing a linear progression of events, it was trying to show multiple events and story arcs from multiple character angles.
Now while the implementation in 5 could have been better, I'd like to see them try this again in 6 since it does make sense when trying to tell a fighting game's story.
Now while the implementation in 5 could have been better, I'd like to see them try this again in 6 since it does make sense when trying to tell a fighting game's story.