What would you do with Story Mode¿

[TRI Mike]

I didn't want to keep going offtopic on Dogg's thread so I'm making a new one to talk about the single-player features of DOA5. Personally, I'd completely forget the story, it's not like it's any good. Fighting games NEVER have good plots. NEVER. Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Tekken, Soul Calibur, Killer Instinct, Virtua Fighter, Dead or Alive, Marvel vs Capcom, Blazblue, etc, etc, etc. I personally think that having retarded plots hinders the quality of the games and so I bring the example of VF5 which has no story but a great 1P mode that simulates going around arcades fighting AI people with all the characters.

Dumping the story mode doesn't necessarily mean the game would not have a good single-player focus, DOA has always had Survival, Team Battle, Time Attack and things like that. Adding a simple Arcade Mode where people go fight after fight against the AI would be the perfect solution against a crappy story about lesbian chicks fighting over a cabbage. Besides, new modes that focus on 1P could be invented and the new ones could have online rankings to motivate people to get better results instead of just button mashing.

If they did that, we could have a good fighting game with no crappy plot and that both competitive players and casuals who prefer 1P could enjoy. But anyway, what do you guys think¿ what would you do to the story to make it better¿

 

[Allan Paris]

I think without a story in a fighting game, you will end up with souless characters. The art may be great but a connection to the characters wouldn't be there, you'd just have shells. Even if a game has a terrible story, the story still needs to be there to give some type of personality to the game and its characters.

 

[Rikuto]

To be fair, Soul Calibur had a pretty cool plot until they ran it into the ground. Some of the "bad" character endings from the original soul blade were downright fucked up when I was a kid. Seeing Siegfried spaz out and turn into Nightmare for the first time got burned into my head for years.

 

[DriftSlave]

I think without a story in a fighting game, you will end up with souless characters. The art may be great but a connection to the characters wouldn't be there, you'd just have shells. Even if a game has a terrible story, the story still needs to be there to give some type of personality to the game and its characters.

VF does this, the game has a vague storyline but the characters have alot personality. Everything from their in fight quotes to pre/post-fight animations you relate to them.

As far as stories themselves go...it's hit or miss. I like SC and KOF's plot's and sub-plots, Tekken's story has it's ups and downs too but it's alot easier to know what is canonical then say SF series. MeltyBlood's storyline being good is due to it being part of Type-Moon's multiverse tying itself to Tsukihime and sister series Fate/Stay Night.

 

[KwonJigglypuff]

I didn't like SoulCalibur 5's story mode, I find it unnecessary, because we don't know much about Viola, for example, and the rest of the cast. It was a huge disapointment. I like how Mortal Kombat 9's story mode was written. It was nice and smart.

For DOA5, Team Ninja hinted that they wanted a "hyperlink cinema" story mode, which is great. I kind of liked DOAD's chronicle, except there was too much ninja's slaps and not enough (new) content for the others (except Kokoro, Lisa, Eliot who got new scenes, which was cool). But everyone was included and it was a nice recap overall.
We don't know what will happen in DOA5, we just know Bayman will have a war or something, Helena will certainly have to deal with that new sistah, the ninjas will have another war.. anyway, I guess everyone (I mean, at least the ninjas + Helena, Christie, Kokoro, Lisa, Bayman) will have fresh new content. Mila and Rig will certainly get included in the "main" plot too. At least one of them.
Now, what about Tina, Bass, Lei Fang, Jann Lee, Hitomi, Brad, Leon, Zack, Gen Fu and Eliot ? We don't know what will be Donovan's new project. If it interferes with these "secondary" characters, it will be easy to include them in the whole "DOATEC" storyline :
Eliot : "We must save Mei Lin who has been kidnapped by that evil monster".
Gen Fu : "No. Stay here, you must focus on your training. Blablabla".
Tina : "Lisa is an evil scientist. I must stop my friend before it's too late!".
Bass : "No b*tch, take care of your own business, it's too damn dangerous!".
Hitomi : "Hayate is so hot. I need to find a way to seduce him. I know, I'm going to help him with his -random- new mission. Oh wait, Ayane is jealous of our relationship. Blablablablabla -rivalry- blablabla."
Lei Fang : "I will beat you Jann Lee."
Jann Lee : "No you wont. Oh.. who is this terrible blond guy with this genra mask ? We should team up and kick his ass!"

I can see them as "extra helps", like with Kokoro in DOAD, when she helped Kasumi who was chased by Ayane. But I can't see a better way to include them in the main plot. For example, in one scene, Hayate could face Lisa in her lab, and Tina who was there could team up with her best friend. I think the "funny" characters should keep that tone. She should still dream for a new carreer (politics ? surfing ?)... while at the same time take part in the war in her own way.

Then we have Akira, Pai Chan and Sarah (rumour). Maybe Pai Chan and Sarah could respectively boost Lei Fang/Jann Lee's storyline and Tina/Bass's one.

I'm so lost. We don't know anything yet. It's impossible to write something which is not fan fic. Sorry about all these theories. I just wanted to say it's possible to put everyone in the story (if Bayman recruits Brad or Leon for his war, if clans are formed, or if relatives get kidnapped).

 

[RoboJoe]

Shit you just reminded me that Daisuke Goro is dead. Damn, I'm going to miss Bass's ADABUDABUDA as well as his other hilarious sounding lines.

 

[CyberEvil]

You want to sell copies of a new game, you have to have a full feature set. The hardcore will buy regardless, since they're fans. Problem is that's not a lot of copies moved. Mortal Kombat consistently sold throughout the franchise because they were constantly getting their sheer amount of content talked up. New previews could come out weekly for those games and not cover everything. Go read the reviews for any of them and story and other single player distractions are brought up in great detail.

No go read any Capcom fighter review from the last three or four years. Guess what gets talked about as a negative?

Best believe reviews heavily influence buyers nowadays. Word of mouth does it too, but try telling your casual friend to buy a game because the netcode is good or the fighting is fun. That's like selling a car based only on how powerful the engine is or what kind of transmission it uses. People care about PERCEIVED value, whether they realize it or not, and also whether they'll ever touch the extra content or not.

If Team NINJA excludes story content altogether, we're looking at sales BELOW what SCV did. If they half-ass it, they'll be lucky to match SCV. That million copies goal simply will not be reached unless this game comes as a total package. Hopefully TN is fully aware of this; I'd have to imagine they are.

 

[Allan Paris]

VF does this, the game has a vague storyline but the characters have alot personality. Everything from their in fight quotes to pre/post-fight animations you relate to them.

If this all you need for the game to have life, that's what's up. The majority (casuals) who actually look for something more than a vague main story, and a 3.7 second quote before and after a match, would beg to differ. I honestly think this is why VF slacks the way it does. It's a great game but, the story behind it and their characters is not enough.

 

[DriftSlave]

If this all you need for the game to have life, that's what's up. The majority (casuals) who actually look for something more than a vague main story, and a 3.7 second quote before and after a match, would beg to differ. I honestly think this is why VF slacks the way it does. It's a great game but, the story behind it and their characters is not enough.

*shrugs* For characters with little or no story, I find them far more interesting then ones with ton of back story...like MK or even SF up to this point. SC and Tekken's stories have always been decent, but always get negative responses back when they listen to casuals....SCV story mode and T6 Scenario/Tekken Force mode. The reason why is most people want "their" favorite character to be the "main" character and that doesn't work out well...as the games have pre-set protagonist.

On average most fighting follow the formula of beat the final boss watch a 1 1/2 ending scene and be done with it...when this formula is changed people dislike it, but what better stories...
DOA even got heat for it's story mode in DOAD, even though it pretty much re-booted the storyline completely...

but w/e im not really going to debate about this....

 

[PhoenixVFIRE]

I don't know, to be honest, if the story mode was more like Mortal Kombat 9 where it was just a story which involved most of the characters and forced you to try different characters, it'd be a lot better. Because when you have a separate story for each character it almost never makes sense or is just so dumb.

Lei-Fang- her whole story is basically Jann Lee saved her and now she wants to prove she can handle herself by defeating him in a DOA tournament. So that's her story for 4 tournaments? Stupid. I don't even think she has beaten him until DOA4.

Even the stories that are more present are kinda what? I'm mean sure any idiot could follow whats going on or get the gist of it, but the stories would be much better even if they were a LITTLE bit more involved, with maybe more cutscenes explaining, instead a random cutscene every 3 random fights that give little to nothing. Kasumi and Ayane ALWAYS have a scene together on the third fight and it's basically the same shit every time. Maybe it's a little too much to ask, but I want a reason to be fighting said person rather than having it just be a random match up in a valley between Tina and Eliot(why are they in a valley/jungle/cave/snow mountain?)

 

[DyByHands]

I liked the DOAD style story mode But, I hate the writing-reasoning for their fights.
Hitomi: "Oh, you must be Kasumi?"
Ayane: "What..."
Announcer: "Ready... Fight"
Come on now,

 

[Tenren]

I didn't like SoulCalibur 5's story mode, I find it unnecessary, because we don't know much about Viola, for example, and the rest of the cast. It was a huge disapointment. I like how Mortal Kombat 9's story mode was written. It was nice and smart.

It was said after the game came out they actual wanted to give all the characters in the game a story mode. they just happen to run out of time. If I remember correctly there is even some left over code which pointed to this.

I didnt mind the what little story there was on DOA4. It still more then what you get in VF. Id like to see a story mode then just a arcade style option. Hell give me a story that takes 5-6 hours to play threw like SCV but with muti characters. Then if you add unlocks make it so you can play arcade to do so. I had to run threw SCV with out even reading the story to get ready for a tournament. Never went back threw it after words.

 

[TRI Mike]

5-6 hours¿ I finished SCV's story in 1:45-2 hours.

But that's not the point. DOA5 is looking to be much more serious to the previous games. The characters don't look like anime people anymore and if they want that feeling to be perfectly set, they need to change the entire story. As I said, I'd personally remove it completely, at least from the game itself and then make a manga or some shit with the story but I know that won't happen.

The non-ninja/non-Helena stories will feel completely out of place when thrown inside DOA5. Bass trying to stop Tina from becoming a pornstar, Leifang trying to marry Jann-Lee now that she beat him, Hitomi throwing her breakfast away again and especially Zack doing some retarded thing.

This is definitely another thing that has me worried about the game, I'm tired of having to play fighting games with horrible plots and I don't want DOA5 to suffer from that.

 

[Raansu]

5-6 hours¿ I finished SCV's story in 1:45-2 hours.

But that's not the point. DOA5 is looking to be much more serious to the previous games. The characters don't look like anime people anymore and if they want that feeling to be perfectly set, they need to change the entire story. As I said, I'd personally remove it completely, at least from the game itself and then make a manga or some shit with the story but I know that won't happen.

The non-ninja/non-Helena stories will feel completely out of place when thrown inside DOA5. Bass trying to stop Tina from becoming a pornstar, Leifang trying to marry Jann-Lee now that she beat him, Hitomi throwing her breakfast away again and especially Zack doing some retarded thing.

This is definitely another thing that has me worried about the game, I'm tired of having to play fighting games with horrible plots and I don't want DOA5 to suffer from that.

Too bad for you its going to be a pretty crappy plot.

 

[DriftSlave]

the aesthetics change is one thing, the narrative is another...the main characters have always been ninja, Helena is important enough to be considered a main character at the point of DOA4...but still. DOA5 will start with the aftermath of DOA4....the towers being blown up. there are minor sub-plot going on(Everyone who is not a Ninja or Connected to Helena) but the main plot is how the Ninja characters are going to handle Alpha-152 and the remnants of DOATEC....

What I had just described was the main plot to a fighting game...simple, and can be executed well if they do it right. It's fine if Arcade Mode had the non-canonical endings(CG or not), while the liner DOAD styled story mode will have the true ending...hopefully it will tie up loose ends and it will end the story arc, then if there is a DOA6 they can start from scratch.

 

[KwonJigglypuff]

Well, I was hoping DOAD could do that job, reboot the storyline, not continuing it with that cliffhanger. I can't how Tina, Lei Fang and the rest could contribute in the whole story. They will certainly be fillers. At least, with the old story modes, there was no favouritism (well, some scenes were pointless -the T-rex, the cabbage-), but it was nice to give them equality. Hmmm.. they should tease what they have in mind with their new storyline. We know too little about it for now.

 

[d3v]

Story mode is actually an interesting way to help newer players learn the game. Make it so that running through story mode teaches them the ins and outs of the system.

 

[DriftSlave]

DOAD attempted to do that, however you seen how bland that was. For DOA a VF4EVO tutorial suits it best, learning the basics to high level techniques is how VF went and it is why it's praised as the best tutorial on the market.

I think Story mode should try to be it's own thing, I know that's not what people like T6/SCV, but lets be honest...the reason anyone enjoys story mode is the see the interactions between characters they like, this is why story mode is a problem if it's liner....because people get alienated. however to solve this, they would have to do a MK9 style story mode...but if not done right, it'll be all over the place with sub/minor plots masking themselves as major events because it's from that characters perspective and is not the overall problem or plot. A good example would be a chapter devoted to Hitomi and she interacts with Hayate at the end, she wants him to go back being Ein but he has a Ninja village to lead and a plan to finish off DOATEC. From Hitomi's prospective, DOATEC and the whole major plot line is irrelevant. This example is mostly true for cast members who are not ninja or connected to Helena.

To be frank, I just want to have a clean cut story mode. 9-13 chapters long, having a decent opening movie, after every fight there is a cutscene, multiple fights in a chapter, a boss with SNK boss syndrome, and a ending to tie up loose ends. The story mode doesn't have to give any incentive to play it(costumes/characters) but it's welcomed.

Seeing every character do something important and involve themselves in the main plot is what i want to see...it's hard to see that happening though...new characters can go either way(Lisa is important enough to the plot).

 

[DyByHands]

To be frank, I just want to have a clean cut story mode. 9-13 chapters long, having a decent opening movie, after every fight there is a cutscene, multiple fights in a chapter, a boss with SNK boss syndrome, and a ending to tie up loose ends. The story mode doesn't have to give any incentive to play it(costumes/characters) but it's welcomed.

I have to Agree with DriftSlave here, I like this.

 

[d3v]

Might as well make every girl either a ninja or Helena's half sister.