Playing Fighting Games For The Story
So I was obsessed with Tekken back in the day. I probably played just as much Tekken 3 as I did any Final Fantasy game, and that's pretty impressive considering the length of time it takes to complete a fighting game vs. the length of time it takes to beat a JRPG.
Anyway, I fell in love with Jin Kazama and I had to know the history behind it all. So I got Tekken and Tekken 2 and I kept up obsessively with the plot up until Tekken 5 when they just kinda stopped caring.
It's not the greatest story ever but hey it's enjoyable for me.
But just try to talk about the story with some of the more...enthusiastic (being polite here) fans who play it competitively or whatever. In fact just try to bring up the story of a lot of popular fighting games.
Odds are you're gonna get insulted or laughed at. An example that always sticks with me was when I was on another forum talking about how Asuka is an insult to Jun. Responses tended to be "big deal. They have the same moveset. Nothing else matters."
It really irks me because they act like caring about the plot is so crazy. I'm sure the developers cared about the story when they wrote up the mythology and gave everyone a personality. It might not be Shakespeae but they obviously cared about the story too so I'm not just being weird here in that I like fighting game plots.
Have any of you encountered this kind of attitude? Do you play any fighting games because you also enjoy the narrative?
I've found that old, Pre-King of Fighters SNK was pretty ahead of their time in this department. The actual stories might not be revolutionary but the storytelling, considering the medium restrictions and the time in which the likes of Fatal Fury and Samurai Shodown were relevant, is outstanding.
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