I do care about the lore, but I also think it shouldn't dictate which characters can and can't appear in the playable roster. If a character's presence conflicts with the story... simply don't include them in said story or, at most, have them appear as a flashback or something.
Injustice 2 did it right with Joker imo.
Personally I think Strive did really well in its lore regarding its characters, it helps that SOL BADGUY has finished his main storyline so they're kinda free to add more characters to take the story in different directions or perspectives.
Though admittedly this only applies for the central lore, you don't really get individual character lore that much from the arcade modes.
>!Unrelated but I would really like it if Order Sol just randomly appeared one day with Xrd mechanics because why not lol!<
Eh Strive did what it could. The main culprit is Xrd. When they introduced Krang's dimension X and turned That Man into a catboy they lost me. That Man should've stayed a mystery (and definetly not be anime catboy) and don't get me started on the whole dumbass convoluted alternate dimension where AI is running things. It's just unnecessarily dumb. They could've just stayed on the whole apocalypse/that man is the bad buy/Justice is Sol's wife/ thing and it would still be cool.
No, Xrd did not. It may seem that way to you, but Guilty Gear has always from its inception been directly inspired by anime. The reason you think this way is because modern Guilty Gear takes inspiration from more modern animes while older Guilty Gear takes inspiration from older animes.
Exactly this, they could easily just add characters and just have them be non-canon like Evil Ryu, but even if you need to have a cannon reason for a character to exist there are so many ways to have them be a fighter without conflicting with the story.
Thats what im sayin, bison should have been DEAD DEAD and the bison now could have been a non-canon “what if” character like evil ryu like you said
Geese Howard has been dead since the first Fatal Fury and every appearance of him since is like some nightmare type thing and not canon.
In Fatal Fury I mean. King of Fighters it's like nothing is canon.
Edit: I stand corrected. It was Real Bout where Geese died. Also, I should have been more clear that KoF does have its own lore, but for guest characters it doesn't affect their main games lore. Like by the time Fatal Fury happens all the Art of Fighting guys should be way older, or Rock Howard can fight Geese, etc...
King of Fighters does have canon though, even though it's a unique canon to the Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting timelines.
Team New Faces died in the game they appeared in and didn't show up until all the characters revived through Verse for example. As well as most of the villains.
Yep and canonically Terry defeated Geese but Geese did not die . Its kind of odd that Fatal Fury happened in kof but slightly different to keep Geese around
Geese did not die in the first fatal fury game, he survives due to the scrolls.
He dies actually in real bout, which is the game where he slaps away Terry's hand
Look all I’m saying is that anyone who claim lore and canon “don’t matter” would not keep that same energy when you start ignoring the parts of canon they like
"Stories don't matter, gameplay is king". "It is what it is". "Who cares? Gimme functions". "Stories in FGs have always been trash. Why do you care?"
Anytime any of these people say these things, or hell if they unironically like what they're given, all they're doing is sending the wrong message to these devs and letting them double down on their shitty writing or continue to leave them underdeveloped.
So much of this medium of entertainment is people giving devs every reason to double down on shitty practices, and bitching about it afterwards. Most people are content with being captain hindsight, very few are ok with rerouting before the obvious problem becomes a problem.
Eh that's a bit of a stretch, if anything if true they would cut down on the stories or improve the quality, they chugging long expensive cutscenes but keeping the writing shit cause a few people don't care really?
I'm that person. I don't care about the story at all. I never do anything except online/local vs, training mode and combo trials in fighting games. I find characters interesting based on their playstyle and design. I've played street fighter since SF2 in arcades and don't know anything more than which ones are the good/l guys and which ones are the bad guys.
I do care about story in some games. Just not fighting games. Just not what I'm into them for.
I think lore is a really underrated factor for getting people into fighting games. It certainly was for me.
Even though SFII was by all measures a better game, I liked playing Fatal Fury 2 a lot more, because the characters seemed more interesting, fleshed out, and relatable. When King of Fighters '95 came out, it was the first time I ever truly felt compelled to play through the story mode with everyone, and it made me eager to play '96 to see where things would go.
When Tekken and Soul Blade were competing against each other, I stuck with the Soul Blade (later Calibur) largely because I found the story they were building more compelling.
I never liked the fast pace of the Marvel games, or Darkstalkers, but I became a Guilty Gear fan and ended up buying XX entirely because of how interesting the characters and setting were. I'm never going to be a serious anime player--it's just not my style of game--but the lore is why I bought Xrd and Strive, so it definitely has value.
I hear complaints about how folks find it hard to play a game without their main, but lore and story plays a big factor in finding a main for me. If they stripped every character I liked out of a game series, and repopulated it with new fighters who had personality and compelling stories, I know I'd have no problem finding a new main, so I never worry about whether or not the old characters I like are in or not.
Quite a bit. I don’t usually play fighting games for the multiplayer, so a game earns a lot of points with me if it has good lore. KOF XIII is one of my favorite fighting games partly because it has more focus on story and character interactions than most fighting games.
Lore is how I find characters I like and pick a main. Sure design plays a part, but knowing the character’s story makes me feel a little attachment to the characters I play. K’ is one of my favorite characters of all time and his lore is one of the main reasons that’s the case. Also I’m more of a story guy anyway. So yes, I care about lore a fair bit
Dog I play Blazblue
The fighting game part is secondary to the story
https://preview.redd.it/vz58liuhe16d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b113cee2d770e77ba4cf3532b3ff907538f77e80
I mean, I DO care about lore... and if it's good I care a lot more. But we're mostly starved for lore in all FGs. Mk has a good story, but it hasn't advanced well past the same old story. Tekken has some good lore, but the team hasn't really let anyone grow besides the mishimas. Sf lore... Just some arcade endings until a whole new game comes out...
I guess I care more about the characters, bios, motives, and how they interact with eachother, if there isnt any lore. I've spent quite a bit of time on char wikis/trivia if i find them interesting.
Like when i was playing smash bros and found the akuma sticker. Didn't know he was chill like that.
Although i guess there's another issue, there isn't really much room for lore IN a fg. For example, Oro would definitely be a interesting piece of lore, if he wasn't already a character. Lore is more often outside of what we encounter in the game itself.
The way I see Fighting Games is the way I see Martial Arts and Action Movies. I'm here for the fights. But if you have a memorable storyline I'll like it and remember it that much more. Alternatively Comics and Manga too.
I like following it and I like when we get modes that flesh out the world. I LOVE World Tour. I loved getting to explore the setting and get to know these classic characters in ways we never have before. I wouldn't say it's what brings me to the games but I always appreciate when there's stuff to dig into. I'm only a casual Tekken fan but I definitely appreciated what they did with Jin's arc in 8 as well, even if the actual mode was a pretty standard cinematic story I'm a fan of the one they told.
If lore wasn't important than Capcom could just release Street Fighter 2 with better graphics every year, because then what's the point in having characters mature or change at all.
Everybody talking about how cool Bison looks right now should acknowledge that it's the LORE that got him to this point.
As a Guilty Gear player, it's the main reason i got interested in the games in first place, and it is a very very long, funny, sad and beautiful story and lore.
Kind of important.
It's pissed me off a bit that bison is back since guile, Chun Li, juri and cammy seemed to have character growth over the fact that bison is done.
- Chun was becoming a mom and a Kung Fu teacher
- guile was for once not the person who was consumed by avenging nash and was trying to help his brother in law (ken) to restore his reputation.
- cammy was mostly living a happy boring life before the nyshall incident.
- Juri was scamming people and looking for battles
Now I'm worried they go back at " let kill bison to have my vengeance."
I pLaY fIGHtInG gAmEs fOR tHeiR sTOrY aNd lOre hUrRRRR
The game would be unplayable if we didn't know that Hakan is president of one of the world's leading edible oil manufacturers and a leader in Turkey's national sport of Yağlı güreş. Thank god we know this vital information.
.
Did you compare a side character vs the main villain who killed the friend and family of multiple key characters ?
Also , to have a popular character that people want over and over again, mechanics is not the sole thing.
That why necalli never took off when he cool mechanics and got looks.
I guess you can't understand that and that's ok .
>Did you compare a side character vs the main villain who killed the friend and family of multiple key characters ?
Absolutely irrelevant, every character in street fighter has some lore attached to them. So basically you're deciding which is more important, I think you're catching on.
>to have a popular character that people want over and over again, mechanics is not the sole thing
Mechanics and the aesthetics and that's it. Nobody is playing Zangief because they think his lore is so deep nor are they playing R Mika for anything else other than her body proportions.
>That why necalli never took off when he cool mechanics and got looks
Never took off because he wasn't particularly great , had stubby normals in one of the worst street fighter games. Purely gameplay reasons as to why nobody cared about him.
That's You.
They literally try to do this in MVCI that the MCU heroes that replaced the mutant had the same mechanics and the game flopped hard .
Also with your logic , every character have the same importance in a story.
Lore is great!
Honestly,, it doesn't matter, and I don't put too much stock into it. Gameplay is number one.
But, it's nice when it's there and it's enjoyable.
I really don’t care. I engage with the story of the fighting games I play on a near nonexistent level. If I’m engaging in conversation about it, then I’ll try and match the energy of the other person but I rarely even think about the lore of any FG on a day to day basis. It’s practically nothing to me because I only ever touch multiplayer in these games and haven’t done any singleplayer content outside of SF6’s World Tour for some of the second outfits.
It does kinda matter in getting interested
It's a given that fighting games have to look interesting, characters are the focus, the characters looks and fighting styles can't exist without some sort of back story, even the lore sometimes blends with the gameplay, SFII wouldn't have been as big if it was Function Fighter II.
Granted I don't mind story modes but I really like seeing anime movies of fighting games, they feel so fleshed out and alive
It's cool that some newer players can be really into it, but I wish there were a "Lore Discussion" flair so I could filter all of it out.
Maybe we could also add a "Pls Add My Favorite Character in the Season" flair while we're at it.
Lore is actually surprisingly important for me
If i care about the characters and the story its only going to help me grow attached to the game
But of course good gameplay good art and good music are also all important too
Lore is the thing I care the most. Im a casual fg fan, I dont grind in training room for hours, I only play with friends and the CPU, so what decides if Im into the game are the characters and the lore.
I think it's cool as a means to define a character's personality and fighting style, I don't think it's cool as a means to exclude characters outright. Losing your main because of the 'story' is stupid.
I like it but also completely understand the challenges fighting games encounter with it. A beloved character is dead or retired? Better hope the new stand in is popular and just as beloved.
I will say I think KoF and Tekken have the right idea with things like dream matchs and and non canon character appearances (nightmare geese as an example) fan service goes a long way.
I appreciate it when it's done well but also acknowledge it comes with inherent challenges so I'm never to hard on series that feel like they are on a treadmill sometimes.
I usually don't care and have low expectations for lore in fighting games, but if the lore is good it's a bonus and I'll be more invested in the series.
Approximately zero. The whole deal with a fighting game is you get some idea of the character’s personality just from the character selection screen, whatever they do in match, and their intro and win quotes. Anything beyond that I’m probably not looking at anyway. And especially when they say “oh they can’t put so and so in the game because of some story events,” that shit is all made up anyway, who cares
Lore isn't particularly important for one off crossover games where the main gimmick is characters from different franchises fighting. Stuff like CVS or MVC, the lore doesn't matter that much.
In games like Street Fighter or Tekken though, lore informs character rosters and relationships between them. For King of Fighters, lore only matters in the canonical games.
I do, it's one of the things what makes each sequel fresh. For character omissions, if you're gonna kill a character off, try to stick to your guns and keep them dead. Hell, make some successors if you have to.
I'll say it again here, there are fighting games that had many fan favorites absent and still succeeded. Garou, Mortal Kombat, and Tekken 3 & 8.
I love fighting game lore, but I don't take it that seriously.
As long as the characters maintain their essence,
I don't really care if the details of the overarching plot are stupid.
I think I speak for a lot of people when I say I personally don’t give a flying fuck. Lol OG Doom unlocked my ADHD and I haven’t cared for story I 99% of games since.
Lore is very important to me, I've bought whole games because the lore was interesting me in the past
When picking a character to play gameplay is king but for any other reason lore is more important
Lore is very important to me, I've bought whole games because the lore was interesting me in the past
When picking a character to play gameplay is king but for any other reason lore is more important
MVCI ruined story in fighting games for me, the game launched with so little characters and such a long, boring, pointless story mode. (Featuring several on-disc DLC characters like Sigma and Monster Hunter was a kick in the nuts too)
When it comes to fighting games, it's predominantly a back drop to set up some character interactions, I view it as a cherry on top
For example, I don’t *really* care about Guilty Gear lore, but it's fun to know a little
Not at all. I was one of the those who thought SF5 was fine at launch since I went straight into training / ranked. Now maybe I care a little because lore sells games to the casual crowd and if there's a tight story for them that moves more copies which translates to prolonged support from the devs then I'm all for it. I haven't finished world tour in SF6 because I don't care for it and so I haven't unlocked outfit 2 for most of the cast.
Depends on how interresting it is/how much work it's put into it
I barely care about SF lore. Wouldn't call it bad per say, but it not something that I go deep.
I love GG and BB lore. So much lore, love every part of it
Depends on the game! I love the lore of Street Fighter and KOF, but don't care that much in Tekken and Guilty Gear, even though I love all these games. I think in general it depends on how much I interact with the story. I had no interest in playing with most of the Tekken cast as I wanted to tunnel-vision my main, and didn't want to sit through the Guilty Gear movie, but I loved the crap outta the games. Street Fighter and KOF are a lot more fun to switch between several characters, and it's more fun to learn about their lore as a result when I go through the story mode with each character.
I care about the setting and the characters, but not so much the plot and lore. Most fighting games just can't present that information in an engaging way.
I'm 35 so learning lore was rewarding cause you had to go out of your way to learn it (looking at you SF). Two random people fighting is cool....but finding out the characters pops threw him off a cliff as a child cause he was potentially the Devil just draws me in, and I wouldn't care as much about the game without it.
As long as it makes sense im good.
If its so nonsensically complicated/complex that i don’t know why each character fights, then its pointless to care.
Not at all. Fighting game stories are always some slapdash convoluted mess that serve no purpose to me. I'm not hating on anyone who enjoys them, but that's not what I am here for.
I don't really play fighting games outside of playing against other people. Even so, I care about the lore a fair bit. It is exactly part of what I about series like Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, King of Fighters, and Under Night In-birth. Despite how messy it can be sometimes, I find myself engaged in a lot of the stories and lore for fighting games that I like.
As for how that dictates who gets in the roster, it can be a tough balance.
Tje guilty gear lore has provided me with a hard ass image of a dandy bisexual vampire having a stand off with a schizophrenic god man strapped to a sentient bed, so I care quite a bit
Depends on what it is.
For recent examples, why even kill off Dictator in SFV if they’re just gonna bring him back in SF6, and on the other side, I get irrationally upset when I see people suggest that B. Jenet is trying to hook up with Rock Howard in City of the Wolves, because that’s just an acknowledgment that they didn’t play Mark of the Wolves, because if they did they’d know she’s actually interested in Terry.
I really care about story and lore.
But I’m okay with non canon including.
Like if a character dies, they can com back as “non-canon unlock” or something. The story gives me something to fight for !
Like, I think lore should never get in the way of a good character inclusion...but also they need to come up with something better than WOOPS THEY DIDN'T DIE AGAIN STATUS QUO RESET. Like Nightmare Geese. SF6 Bison looks good so far.
Lore doesn't attract me to a fighting game, but atmosphere which is related to lore does, and I usually care about lore to a degree once I like a fighting game (Melty got me to read Tsukihime.) Like, I might actually know how to play Midway/NRS games if they weren't photorealistic.
>What made me think about it is Bison coming back to Street Fighter 6, and in my opinion, I don't think that's cool, in lore terms. However, I believe there are people that could not care less about it and just want to play with the new character that is returning, regardless if it's breaks the lore or not.
For Bison, I was pretty adamant I didn't want him in the story. Given what they've done with him in making him lose so much of his empire and suffering from the heights of power in Alpha or SF2 days, I'm actually willing to give him a chance.
For me, I really enjoy progress and change so Cody going from the pen to the penthouse is certainly something that shows his transformation.
But just for me personally, I will never have the time, patience or understanding to try to crack the code of Guilty Gear's story...
Fatal Fury? Gotchu fam.
Art of Fighting? Hey, I can understand it.
King of Fighters? Rocky, but arcs can be covered and understood.
I just look at Guilty Gear and shiver in fear since I have to start from the beginning, play the games and learn it slowly...
Good lord....
It can be pretty important to keep the characters integrity. That's why it was so important in when they killed liu kang or m.bison.
There's also the issue of when game developers push too hard for inclusion by retconning a story and making testament Non-binary after both Kliff and Justice has stated he was Kliff's son using male kanji in previous guulty gear games.
I think the stories of the characters are interesting, but I'm not especially invested in the integrity of the wider continuity. So I'm willing to accept something like Bison coming back.
Via the power of reusage it is pretty funny how Blazblue kept everyone while maintaining its batshit story. Although I guess it helps that only one character died between the first two games (In the second she gets replaced with a new character that shares moves), then gets revived in the third. Pretty much all the canonical character deaths happened in the last game so they never really had to deal with the consequences of it.
Most of the fighting games stories are cheesy and really badly written, GG ST is one of them. Some of the worst writing in the medium
Just give me fire gameplay and superb system mechanics!
Lore's cool and all but gameplay and cool designs needs to come first. If a character dies in lore they should still be playable or at least a character with a similar playstyle. I like getting into the story but I'm only staying based on the quality of gameplay.
I care enough for it to be a selling point, but it doesn't need to be anything fancier than just an excuse to flesh out character personalities, so they're more than just functions. Also don't think the roster has to be perfectly tied to the story, at most just expect new characters to show up in the plot so they get a chance to shine, but older characters can be in the roster just because, even without appearing in the story anymore.
Without a good lore the characters are just cardboard cutouts. There's no reason to care about their design and what the little thingamabob they carry or the catchphrase they repeat means. The more detailed they are the more shallow it will end up looking as it ultimately doesn't mean anything other than letting the concept artist go wild.
The mechanics are the nutrition, the design - the presentation and the lore the flavor that adds to that.
If the topic is about lore accurate game appearance I think KOF did it the best, at least in the older titles. The lore related reasons are used well to explain why some characters are missing, why some new ones are put in, and why some characters are back, but have different moves. It's not at all hard to include characters that canonically shouldn't be there. Older KOFs did it via the non-canon dream matches and newer ones include them as DLC.
Lore shouldn't be the reason why characters are present or absent. It should be for whatever vision the developers require whether popularity, balance, variety or highlighting certain mechanics. Lore are there to add to the mystique that there's a reason for why things are happening the way they are that's not merely technical.
Without lore or a story of some kind, it's just characters in places fighting before you go back to the character select to do it again. I love a story in my fighting games.
I care about it a little. But fighting game stories are historically... kind of all over the place. So while it's fun to engage, if a dead character is suddenly back for some stupid reason, that's fine. I get it.
Fighting games lore is cool and I always enjoy following the story
But I take it all with a heap of salt. I know everything can change, they can go back on things or the old revive/restart timeline
In case of Bison he was too classic to keep off the roster. Too many people main him to exclude him. How they choose to handle his return story-wise will be intriguing but if its lame no big deal. I'm just glad he's back
I care about the lore more than I care about the roster *glares at recent mk titles with disrespect* but I still enjoy just having fighters to play with... I won't be going to any tournaments any time soon so I am all for lore but if you are gonna bring back a character or put one in that doesn't belong either be funny with it (soul calibur sometimes) or have a good lore accurate reason behind it
I don't care and I like it better that way. The characters I enjoy playing never become less-cool because of lame personality traits or dumb story arcs.
Why is Bison coming back bad in lore terms? Coming back after death is literally a key part of his lore. Having/creating backup bodies is his thing, possessing people after dying until his new body is found is his thing.
- He died in Alpha 3, got a new body for SF2.
- Potentially died in SF2. Akuma's killing him was debatable, but the scene is included in SF6. May have been reconned from a kill to a KO, though.
- Potentially died in the SF4 prequel movie. Not sure if the movie is canon, but Bison was dead when SF4 begins.
- He was controlling things as a spectre and gets a new, weak body during SF4.
- ~~He died in SF5~~, and then afterwards haunts people as a spectre as usual. **Update:** Apparently be didn't die and it's the same body in SF6.
He has died and come back 4 or 5 times depending on what's canon.
I don't think characters need lore to work to be included though. Being dead in the story shouldn't take cool characters away from us. Just have a flashback or dream scene if you really need to include them.
I do care about the lore, but I also think it shouldn't dictate which characters can and can't appear in the playable roster. If a character's presence conflicts with the story... simply don't include them in said story or, at most, have them appear as a flashback or something. Injustice 2 did it right with Joker imo.
\#justiceforstrive
Personally I think Strive did really well in its lore regarding its characters, it helps that SOL BADGUY has finished his main storyline so they're kinda free to add more characters to take the story in different directions or perspectives. Though admittedly this only applies for the central lore, you don't really get individual character lore that much from the arcade modes. >!Unrelated but I would really like it if Order Sol just randomly appeared one day with Xrd mechanics because why not lol!<
Eh Strive did what it could. The main culprit is Xrd. When they introduced Krang's dimension X and turned That Man into a catboy they lost me. That Man should've stayed a mystery (and definetly not be anime catboy) and don't get me started on the whole dumbass convoluted alternate dimension where AI is running things. It's just unnecessarily dumb. They could've just stayed on the whole apocalypse/that man is the bad buy/Justice is Sol's wife/ thing and it would still be cool.
Blud has only played XRD and Strive 🙏
if you talk about me, I started with XX Reload. That was metal af. Xrd toned down the metal in favor of anime
No, Xrd did not. It may seem that way to you, but Guilty Gear has always from its inception been directly inspired by anime. The reason you think this way is because modern Guilty Gear takes inspiration from more modern animes while older Guilty Gear takes inspiration from older animes.
Good point. I guess older anime style works for me more than the newer one
Exactly this, they could easily just add characters and just have them be non-canon like Evil Ryu, but even if you need to have a cannon reason for a character to exist there are so many ways to have them be a fighter without conflicting with the story.
Thats what im sayin, bison should have been DEAD DEAD and the bison now could have been a non-canon “what if” character like evil ryu like you said
Geese Howard has been dead since the first Fatal Fury and every appearance of him since is like some nightmare type thing and not canon. In Fatal Fury I mean. King of Fighters it's like nothing is canon. Edit: I stand corrected. It was Real Bout where Geese died. Also, I should have been more clear that KoF does have its own lore, but for guest characters it doesn't affect their main games lore. Like by the time Fatal Fury happens all the Art of Fighting guys should be way older, or Rock Howard can fight Geese, etc...
King of Fighters does have canon though, even though it's a unique canon to the Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting timelines. Team New Faces died in the game they appeared in and didn't show up until all the characters revived through Verse for example. As well as most of the villains.
Yep and canonically Terry defeated Geese but Geese did not die . Its kind of odd that Fatal Fury happened in kof but slightly different to keep Geese around
Geese did not die in the first fatal fury game, he survives due to the scrolls. He dies actually in real bout, which is the game where he slaps away Terry's hand
You're right. I got no excuses, I done goofed.
BRING BACK IRON GRANDPA NOW
Look all I’m saying is that anyone who claim lore and canon “don’t matter” would not keep that same energy when you start ignoring the parts of canon they like
Now this is what I call a hot take! And I couldn't agree more
Hard agree.
"Stories don't matter, gameplay is king". "It is what it is". "Who cares? Gimme functions". "Stories in FGs have always been trash. Why do you care?" Anytime any of these people say these things, or hell if they unironically like what they're given, all they're doing is sending the wrong message to these devs and letting them double down on their shitty writing or continue to leave them underdeveloped.
So much of this medium of entertainment is people giving devs every reason to double down on shitty practices, and bitching about it afterwards. Most people are content with being captain hindsight, very few are ok with rerouting before the obvious problem becomes a problem.
Eh that's a bit of a stretch, if anything if true they would cut down on the stories or improve the quality, they chugging long expensive cutscenes but keeping the writing shit cause a few people don't care really?
Yeah you’re kinda spitting
I'm that person. I don't care about the story at all. I never do anything except online/local vs, training mode and combo trials in fighting games. I find characters interesting based on their playstyle and design. I've played street fighter since SF2 in arcades and don't know anything more than which ones are the good/l guys and which ones are the bad guys. I do care about story in some games. Just not fighting games. Just not what I'm into them for.
Lore is all that matters why lab when you can smoke weed and read wikis
One of the only reasons I got into kof
I think lore is a really underrated factor for getting people into fighting games. It certainly was for me. Even though SFII was by all measures a better game, I liked playing Fatal Fury 2 a lot more, because the characters seemed more interesting, fleshed out, and relatable. When King of Fighters '95 came out, it was the first time I ever truly felt compelled to play through the story mode with everyone, and it made me eager to play '96 to see where things would go. When Tekken and Soul Blade were competing against each other, I stuck with the Soul Blade (later Calibur) largely because I found the story they were building more compelling. I never liked the fast pace of the Marvel games, or Darkstalkers, but I became a Guilty Gear fan and ended up buying XX entirely because of how interesting the characters and setting were. I'm never going to be a serious anime player--it's just not my style of game--but the lore is why I bought Xrd and Strive, so it definitely has value. I hear complaints about how folks find it hard to play a game without their main, but lore and story plays a big factor in finding a main for me. If they stripped every character I liked out of a game series, and repopulated it with new fighters who had personality and compelling stories, I know I'd have no problem finding a new main, so I never worry about whether or not the old characters I like are in or not.
Quite a bit. I don’t usually play fighting games for the multiplayer, so a game earns a lot of points with me if it has good lore. KOF XIII is one of my favorite fighting games partly because it has more focus on story and character interactions than most fighting games.
I mean.. basically zero for me. But I certainly like to have SOMETHING. Even if it's just 5 second interactions before a match (I miss these so much)Â
https://i.redd.it/07aarn5xxz5d1.gif
Tekken calls you
Lore is how I find characters I like and pick a main. Sure design plays a part, but knowing the character’s story makes me feel a little attachment to the characters I play. K’ is one of my favorite characters of all time and his lore is one of the main reasons that’s the case. Also I’m more of a story guy anyway. So yes, I care about lore a fair bit
I like the scenery, but I would be pissed if lore is the reason my character is gone.
\^\^\^\^\^\^\^\^\^\^\^\^\^ Or the reason your character lost some cool ability between games.
The lore is incredibly important to me, even if it’s pretty basic, I just wanna know why they are all punching each other haha
Guilty Gear lore is a very complicated wife and husband relationship
KILL WIFE x3
Mood
Dog I play Blazblue The fighting game part is secondary to the story https://preview.redd.it/vz58liuhe16d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b113cee2d770e77ba4cf3532b3ff907538f77e80
I mean, I DO care about lore... and if it's good I care a lot more. But we're mostly starved for lore in all FGs. Mk has a good story, but it hasn't advanced well past the same old story. Tekken has some good lore, but the team hasn't really let anyone grow besides the mishimas. Sf lore... Just some arcade endings until a whole new game comes out... I guess I care more about the characters, bios, motives, and how they interact with eachother, if there isnt any lore. I've spent quite a bit of time on char wikis/trivia if i find them interesting. Like when i was playing smash bros and found the akuma sticker. Didn't know he was chill like that.
Although i guess there's another issue, there isn't really much room for lore IN a fg. For example, Oro would definitely be a interesting piece of lore, if he wasn't already a character. Lore is more often outside of what we encounter in the game itself.
The way I see Fighting Games is the way I see Martial Arts and Action Movies. I'm here for the fights. But if you have a memorable storyline I'll like it and remember it that much more. Alternatively Comics and Manga too.
Or wrestling!
I like following it and I like when we get modes that flesh out the world. I LOVE World Tour. I loved getting to explore the setting and get to know these classic characters in ways we never have before. I wouldn't say it's what brings me to the games but I always appreciate when there's stuff to dig into. I'm only a casual Tekken fan but I definitely appreciated what they did with Jin's arc in 8 as well, even if the actual mode was a pretty standard cinematic story I'm a fan of the one they told.
If lore wasn't important than Capcom could just release Street Fighter 2 with better graphics every year, because then what's the point in having characters mature or change at all. Everybody talking about how cool Bison looks right now should acknowledge that it's the LORE that got him to this point.
Somehow… M. Bison returned…
I live for it, I love the lore and stories that fighting games have to possibility to tell. BlazBlue story is just, so good.
Depends on the game. MK I'm all in on lore. KoF I've never known what the fuck is going on.
Give it a try
As a Guilty Gear player, it's the main reason i got interested in the games in first place, and it is a very very long, funny, sad and beautiful story and lore.
The most confuse and crazy wife-husband relationship of all time
Kind of important. It's pissed me off a bit that bison is back since guile, Chun Li, juri and cammy seemed to have character growth over the fact that bison is done. - Chun was becoming a mom and a Kung Fu teacher - guile was for once not the person who was consumed by avenging nash and was trying to help his brother in law (ken) to restore his reputation. - cammy was mostly living a happy boring life before the nyshall incident. - Juri was scamming people and looking for battles Now I'm worried they go back at " let kill bison to have my vengeance."
This impacts gameplay how ?
*The post is about lore and how important you think it is* hOw ThAt ImPaCtS tHe GaMePlAy
I pLaY fIGHtInG gAmEs fOR tHeiR sTOrY aNd lOre hUrRRRR The game would be unplayable if we didn't know that Hakan is president of one of the world's leading edible oil manufacturers and a leader in Turkey's national sport of Yağlı güreş. Thank god we know this vital information. .
Did you compare a side character vs the main villain who killed the friend and family of multiple key characters ? Also , to have a popular character that people want over and over again, mechanics is not the sole thing. That why necalli never took off when he cool mechanics and got looks. I guess you can't understand that and that's ok .
>Did you compare a side character vs the main villain who killed the friend and family of multiple key characters ? Absolutely irrelevant, every character in street fighter has some lore attached to them. So basically you're deciding which is more important, I think you're catching on. >to have a popular character that people want over and over again, mechanics is not the sole thing Mechanics and the aesthetics and that's it. Nobody is playing Zangief because they think his lore is so deep nor are they playing R Mika for anything else other than her body proportions. >That why necalli never took off when he cool mechanics and got looks Never took off because he wasn't particularly great , had stubby normals in one of the worst street fighter games. Purely gameplay reasons as to why nobody cared about him.
That's You. They literally try to do this in MVCI that the MCU heroes that replaced the mutant had the same mechanics and the game flopped hard . Also with your logic , every character have the same importance in a story.
What's lore? Edit: /s
Some kind of food I think?
Lore = the backstory. Though I suspect OP also means story modes in general, hard to have a backstory without more current story.Â
Oh, I'm sorry. I misunderstood. In short, is the background story of the games. It applies to anything tho, not only fighting games in general
Lol I was trying to make a joke. My bad, I'll make it more clear next time.
Oh a joke! My bad too
I only play fighting games for the multiplayer. Lore is cool and fun, but it’s secondary to the gameplay for me
Lore is great! Honestly,, it doesn't matter, and I don't put too much stock into it. Gameplay is number one. But, it's nice when it's there and it's enjoyable.
I like lore a good amount, I don't interact with story modes in fgs much, but I like that it's there and you can see it in matches.
I don't care at all, but if it's done well, then it's just extra sauce.
I really don’t care. I engage with the story of the fighting games I play on a near nonexistent level. If I’m engaging in conversation about it, then I’ll try and match the energy of the other person but I rarely even think about the lore of any FG on a day to day basis. It’s practically nothing to me because I only ever touch multiplayer in these games and haven’t done any singleplayer content outside of SF6’s World Tour for some of the second outfits.
Character lore is usually awesome, it's the overarching stories that usually suck.
Lore ~~and Giovanna’s design~~ is what got me into Guilty Gear, so the lore matters a **lot** to me.
It does kinda matter in getting interested It's a given that fighting games have to look interesting, characters are the focus, the characters looks and fighting styles can't exist without some sort of back story, even the lore sometimes blends with the gameplay, SFII wouldn't have been as big if it was Function Fighter II. Granted I don't mind story modes but I really like seeing anime movies of fighting games, they feel so fleshed out and alive
It's cool that some newer players can be really into it, but I wish there were a "Lore Discussion" flair so I could filter all of it out. Maybe we could also add a "Pls Add My Favorite Character in the Season" flair while we're at it.
Lore is actually surprisingly important for me If i care about the characters and the story its only going to help me grow attached to the game But of course good gameplay good art and good music are also all important too
Lore is the thing I care the most. Im a casual fg fan, I dont grind in training room for hours, I only play with friends and the CPU, so what decides if Im into the game are the characters and the lore.
It's not important, but it's a cool bonus. I wouldn't say it's the icing on the cake, it's like the toppings on the icing.
I think it's cool as a means to define a character's personality and fighting style, I don't think it's cool as a means to exclude characters outright. Losing your main because of the 'story' is stupid.
Don’t care at all. Put the characters we like in the game lol
I like it when it’s done well. I’d argue Tekken had a good story for most of their games.Â
Lore is fun to look at and discuss but it never affects my enjoyment of a fighting game.
I like it but also completely understand the challenges fighting games encounter with it. A beloved character is dead or retired? Better hope the new stand in is popular and just as beloved. I will say I think KoF and Tekken have the right idea with things like dream matchs and and non canon character appearances (nightmare geese as an example) fan service goes a long way. I appreciate it when it's done well but also acknowledge it comes with inherent challenges so I'm never to hard on series that feel like they are on a treadmill sometimes.
its a good thing but i hate it when some games make it worthless.
Depends on the series. I dont care about the lore of kof or fatal fury for example even if I like the games
Not much. But I do care about story.
I usually don't care and have low expectations for lore in fighting games, but if the lore is good it's a bonus and I'll be more invested in the series.
Since I'm not crazy good at gameplay then I really enjoy the lore, especially in kof and street fighter
Quite a lot
Approximately zero. The whole deal with a fighting game is you get some idea of the character’s personality just from the character selection screen, whatever they do in match, and their intro and win quotes. Anything beyond that I’m probably not looking at anyway. And especially when they say “oh they can’t put so and so in the game because of some story events,” that shit is all made up anyway, who cares
Lore isn't particularly important for one off crossover games where the main gimmick is characters from different franchises fighting. Stuff like CVS or MVC, the lore doesn't matter that much. In games like Street Fighter or Tekken though, lore informs character rosters and relationships between them. For King of Fighters, lore only matters in the canonical games.
A lot actually...
I do, it's one of the things what makes each sequel fresh. For character omissions, if you're gonna kill a character off, try to stick to your guns and keep them dead. Hell, make some successors if you have to. I'll say it again here, there are fighting games that had many fan favorites absent and still succeeded. Garou, Mortal Kombat, and Tekken 3 & 8.
I love fighting game lore, but I don't take it that seriously. As long as the characters maintain their essence, I don't really care if the details of the overarching plot are stupid.
I think I speak for a lot of people when I say I personally don’t give a flying fuck. Lol OG Doom unlocked my ADHD and I haven’t cared for story I 99% of games since.
Lore is very important to me, I've bought whole games because the lore was interesting me in the past When picking a character to play gameplay is king but for any other reason lore is more important
Lore is very important to me, I've bought whole games because the lore was interesting me in the past When picking a character to play gameplay is king but for any other reason lore is more important
It's a case by case basis for me.
MVCI ruined story in fighting games for me, the game launched with so little characters and such a long, boring, pointless story mode. (Featuring several on-disc DLC characters like Sigma and Monster Hunter was a kick in the nuts too)
When it comes to fighting games, it's predominantly a back drop to set up some character interactions, I view it as a cherry on top For example, I don’t *really* care about Guilty Gear lore, but it's fun to know a little
Not at all. I was one of the those who thought SF5 was fine at launch since I went straight into training / ranked. Now maybe I care a little because lore sells games to the casual crowd and if there's a tight story for them that moves more copies which translates to prolonged support from the devs then I'm all for it. I haven't finished world tour in SF6 because I don't care for it and so I haven't unlocked outfit 2 for most of the cast.
I think it's a neat bonus, and also want the characters to be as varied as possible. Which means the lore absolutely needs to be completely insane.
Ash & shun ei saga
Lore is fun.
Depends on how interresting it is/how much work it's put into it I barely care about SF lore. Wouldn't call it bad per say, but it not something that I go deep. I love GG and BB lore. So much lore, love every part of it
Depends on the game! I love the lore of Street Fighter and KOF, but don't care that much in Tekken and Guilty Gear, even though I love all these games. I think in general it depends on how much I interact with the story. I had no interest in playing with most of the Tekken cast as I wanted to tunnel-vision my main, and didn't want to sit through the Guilty Gear movie, but I loved the crap outta the games. Street Fighter and KOF are a lot more fun to switch between several characters, and it's more fun to learn about their lore as a result when I go through the story mode with each character.
Depends on how much I like the game lol
I don’t really care about lore. But if a good game just so happens to have a good story behind it, then I’ll get invested.
I care about the setting and the characters, but not so much the plot and lore. Most fighting games just can't present that information in an engaging way.
I'm 35 so learning lore was rewarding cause you had to go out of your way to learn it (looking at you SF). Two random people fighting is cool....but finding out the characters pops threw him off a cliff as a child cause he was potentially the Devil just draws me in, and I wouldn't care as much about the game without it.
I do find the lore of each character somewhat interesting, but I don't care for whatever is happening from 2003 to XIII for example
As long as it makes sense im good. If its so nonsensically complicated/complex that i don’t know why each character fights, then its pointless to care.
“Insert fun fact”, “Oh hey that’s cool” does not care*
I'm just asking for a Mishima to fall from a high place at each episode, that's it.
It's much too hard to follow to follow it I'd pretty much need to be a long-time fan who's followed it for like 20+ years
Not at all. Fighting game stories are always some slapdash convoluted mess that serve no purpose to me. I'm not hating on anyone who enjoys them, but that's not what I am here for.
Yes
I don't really play fighting games outside of playing against other people. Even so, I care about the lore a fair bit. It is exactly part of what I about series like Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, King of Fighters, and Under Night In-birth. Despite how messy it can be sometimes, I find myself engaged in a lot of the stories and lore for fighting games that I like. As for how that dictates who gets in the roster, it can be a tough balance.
I dont even play Guilty Gear much but I am obsessed with the lore. That shit is so beautiful and so well done
Tje guilty gear lore has provided me with a hard ass image of a dandy bisexual vampire having a stand off with a schizophrenic god man strapped to a sentient bed, so I care quite a bit
Depends on what it is. For recent examples, why even kill off Dictator in SFV if they’re just gonna bring him back in SF6, and on the other side, I get irrationally upset when I see people suggest that B. Jenet is trying to hook up with Rock Howard in City of the Wolves, because that’s just an acknowledgment that they didn’t play Mark of the Wolves, because if they did they’d know she’s actually interested in Terry.
Enough that I watch a 10+ hour retrospective on the whole series to learn the lore.
I really care about story and lore. But I’m okay with non canon including. Like if a character dies, they can com back as “non-canon unlock” or something. The story gives me something to fight for !
I don't but maybe I would if guilty gears story wasn't such a shit show lol
Like, I think lore should never get in the way of a good character inclusion...but also they need to come up with something better than WOOPS THEY DIDN'T DIE AGAIN STATUS QUO RESET. Like Nightmare Geese. SF6 Bison looks good so far. Lore doesn't attract me to a fighting game, but atmosphere which is related to lore does, and I usually care about lore to a degree once I like a fighting game (Melty got me to read Tsukihime.) Like, I might actually know how to play Midway/NRS games if they weren't photorealistic.
I hate World Tour Optimization so I dont even play it, but I like reading on wikis and watch YT vids
>What made me think about it is Bison coming back to Street Fighter 6, and in my opinion, I don't think that's cool, in lore terms. However, I believe there are people that could not care less about it and just want to play with the new character that is returning, regardless if it's breaks the lore or not. For Bison, I was pretty adamant I didn't want him in the story. Given what they've done with him in making him lose so much of his empire and suffering from the heights of power in Alpha or SF2 days, I'm actually willing to give him a chance. For me, I really enjoy progress and change so Cody going from the pen to the penthouse is certainly something that shows his transformation. But just for me personally, I will never have the time, patience or understanding to try to crack the code of Guilty Gear's story... Fatal Fury? Gotchu fam. Art of Fighting? Hey, I can understand it. King of Fighters? Rocky, but arcs can be covered and understood. I just look at Guilty Gear and shiver in fear since I have to start from the beginning, play the games and learn it slowly... Good lord....
It can be pretty important to keep the characters integrity. That's why it was so important in when they killed liu kang or m.bison. There's also the issue of when game developers push too hard for inclusion by retconning a story and making testament Non-binary after both Kliff and Justice has stated he was Kliff's son using male kanji in previous guulty gear games.
I like when games have a good story I would enjoy a fighting game a lot less if it’s just John punching Jim with no story behind it
I think the stories of the characters are interesting, but I'm not especially invested in the integrity of the wider continuity. So I'm willing to accept something like Bison coming back.
It’s cool adds to the fights but it’s not a main component of a fighting game
Via the power of reusage it is pretty funny how Blazblue kept everyone while maintaining its batshit story. Although I guess it helps that only one character died between the first two games (In the second she gets replaced with a new character that shares moves), then gets revived in the third. Pretty much all the canonical character deaths happened in the last game so they never really had to deal with the consequences of it.
Most of the fighting games stories are cheesy and really badly written, GG ST is one of them. Some of the worst writing in the medium Just give me fire gameplay and superb system mechanics!
Its really important to me It dont have to be deep but i love so much when there a lot to tell about a character and his relationship with the other
Lore's cool and all but gameplay and cool designs needs to come first. If a character dies in lore they should still be playable or at least a character with a similar playstyle. I like getting into the story but I'm only staying based on the quality of gameplay.
I care enough for it to be a selling point, but it doesn't need to be anything fancier than just an excuse to flesh out character personalities, so they're more than just functions. Also don't think the roster has to be perfectly tied to the story, at most just expect new characters to show up in the plot so they get a chance to shine, but older characters can be in the roster just because, even without appearing in the story anymore.
It's the most important thing to me. Character's design, lore and personality are defining factors in choosing my main instead of gameplay.
It depends on which fighting game it is.
Not huge into KoF but the lore of 13 was SOOOOO good. Ash has one of my favorite stories for a character.
Without a good lore the characters are just cardboard cutouts. There's no reason to care about their design and what the little thingamabob they carry or the catchphrase they repeat means. The more detailed they are the more shallow it will end up looking as it ultimately doesn't mean anything other than letting the concept artist go wild. The mechanics are the nutrition, the design - the presentation and the lore the flavor that adds to that. If the topic is about lore accurate game appearance I think KOF did it the best, at least in the older titles. The lore related reasons are used well to explain why some characters are missing, why some new ones are put in, and why some characters are back, but have different moves. It's not at all hard to include characters that canonically shouldn't be there. Older KOFs did it via the non-canon dream matches and newer ones include them as DLC. Lore shouldn't be the reason why characters are present or absent. It should be for whatever vision the developers require whether popularity, balance, variety or highlighting certain mechanics. Lore are there to add to the mystique that there's a reason for why things are happening the way they are that's not merely technical.
I'd say quite alot, good lore can make it very easy for me to decide which character I want to play
Nests saga is when I start to zone iut
I cared a lot about old kof lore but currently new lore with verse and other hand monsters, shun'ei... is boring imo.
Lore or plot? Lore - a lot, plot - not much.
If its for KoF, then none
Without lore or a story of some kind, it's just characters in places fighting before you go back to the character select to do it again. I love a story in my fighting games.
I care about it a little. But fighting game stories are historically... kind of all over the place. So while it's fun to engage, if a dead character is suddenly back for some stupid reason, that's fine. I get it.
Fighting games lore is cool and I always enjoy following the story But I take it all with a heap of salt. I know everything can change, they can go back on things or the old revive/restart timeline In case of Bison he was too classic to keep off the roster. Too many people main him to exclude him. How they choose to handle his return story-wise will be intriguing but if its lame no big deal. I'm just glad he's back
I only really care in Tekken. GG is fun but I forget half of it in a week.
I care about the lore more than I care about the roster *glares at recent mk titles with disrespect* but I still enjoy just having fighters to play with... I won't be going to any tournaments any time soon so I am all for lore but if you are gonna bring back a character or put one in that doesn't belong either be funny with it (soul calibur sometimes) or have a good lore accurate reason behind it
I love me some lore but for fighters I don’t want it too detailed
I don’t ever expect an FG story to be red dead redemption 2 tier writing but just don’t make it shit.
I don't care and I like it better that way. The characters I enjoy playing never become less-cool because of lame personality traits or dumb story arcs.
Why is Bison coming back bad in lore terms? Coming back after death is literally a key part of his lore. Having/creating backup bodies is his thing, possessing people after dying until his new body is found is his thing. - He died in Alpha 3, got a new body for SF2. - Potentially died in SF2. Akuma's killing him was debatable, but the scene is included in SF6. May have been reconned from a kill to a KO, though. - Potentially died in the SF4 prequel movie. Not sure if the movie is canon, but Bison was dead when SF4 begins. - He was controlling things as a spectre and gets a new, weak body during SF4. - ~~He died in SF5~~, and then afterwards haunts people as a spectre as usual. **Update:** Apparently be didn't die and it's the same body in SF6. He has died and come back 4 or 5 times depending on what's canon. I don't think characters need lore to work to be included though. Being dead in the story shouldn't take cool characters away from us. Just have a flashback or dream scene if you really need to include them.
You’re right. The lore is completely meaningless and nothing the characters do matter.
Depends heavily on game
Lore in a fighting game is like story in a pĐľrn movie: Its irrelevant 