Exapanding a Thought: How would you have told the story?

SC4 created an interesting change of moral thinking as some stories suggested that the Soul Calibur sword was just the other half of the evil sword, the collected and manipulative side where as Soul edge was the raw power and the action, mmaking both supernatural swords dangerous and suggestiong that there was no such hing as perfect salvation - the theme that all the characters wanted in their own way. The only story I liked was the part about Omega Pyrha Dumas and Patroklos. Everything else didnt fit at all to me.

Personally, to keep the story how they wanted but still include everybody, I would have had a "Main Story" mode that's identical to the one in the game, and a "Side Story" mode with a shorter story for each character. At least the ones you don't control yourself in the main one.

*stares at Tekken 6 campaign mode*

Like that.

The thing about fighting games that tends to make a story mode useless is the idea that the plot centers around some kind of tournament in which there's one winner and a bunch of losers. And then every character has a different story mode ending as a sort of "what if," and later it's decided that only one of those endings is canon.

That always seemed a little counter-intuitive to me.

I think the latest Mortal Kombat gave us the best story of any fighting game ever, more or less. Even though it was only a rehash of the plots of the prior MK games and pretty contrived at times, I thought it did a good job of laying out the metaplot and introducing the player to everyone on the roster. The new player got to sample everyone's look, personality and fighting style and decide who they were interested in maining.

In the future I think that any fighting game with a story mode should follow MK's lead and give us an episode for each character, consisting of a handful of scripted encounters and fights, that contributes to an overall story arc with a single, definite conclusion. Not to mention giving the new player an excuse to try out every character's game mechanics so they can make an informed decision on who they like and, more importantly, who they have the potential to play well.

Basically, I would've told it through the eyes of each character, rather than just focus on Patroklos and Pyrrha. Here's some of the plot that would make since and still connect with the story.

-Patroklos finding Pyrrha but in a surprise twist, Pyrrha becomes the new Nightmare committing several atrocities while Patroklos vows to defeat his sister. By doing so, he becomes a "champion" for Elysium (who is Sophitia reborn as a goddess) who tells her to seek out Cassandra in Astral Chaos and bring her to "the light" as she will aide him in battle against the malfested.

-We kinda get some development about who ZWEI and Viola are. ZWEI ends up seeing images of his past life in Korea wielding White Storm while Viola starts regaining consciousness of her past life living with a French nobleman. As a result both ZWEI and Viola's amnesia spell starts to wear off as they look for answers as to who they really are.

-Maxi, Xiba, Natsu, and Leixia end up finding Kilik. Kilik, training to be the next EdgeMaster, happens to see Leixia wearing the Dvapara Yuga. Kilik asks her where she got this and Leixia says that her mother had kept this until she found it. The Dvapara Yuga glows revealing a spiritual connection between Kilik, Leixia, and even Xiba as it is revealed to Leixia who Kilik really is, as he takes off his helmet.

-While on the subject with Kilik, Leixia, and Xiba, Kali Yuga speaks to Kilik, telling him to hand him over to your successor. Kilik is confused by this but once he realizes that it is Xiba who his is successor, Kilik worries if the Kali Yuga will corrupt him. Xiba grabs the Kali Yuga and the weapon speaks to him that he is the one. Kilik, instead of being the new EdgeMaster, vows to protect Xiba and Leixia.

-Hilde tells Siegfried that she must return back to Wolfkrone, as it is under attack by the malfested. It is revealed that the malfested are lead by Tira and Pyrrha, who leads an all out assault controlling them under Soul Edge's influence.

-Ivy is confronted by Cervantes. She is surprised to see him in his human form and believes that it has something to do with Soul Edge and how it has weaken over the years. Believing that it is only temporary, Ivy battles Cervantes, using alchemy as her main weapon. Cervantes reveals that she carries the same curse as he does since they both have shards of Soul Edge embedded in them, causing both Ivy and Cervantes to live the rest of their lives as "immortals".

-The old Nightmare saw power began to wane in front of him. His power fleeting, he had no choice but to fight with Soul Edge one last time, fighting alongside the malfested. He needed to kill Siegfried or find a new host for Soul Edge, who Tira suggests it be Pyrrha. Nightmare is defeated in battle and is revealed to be Raphael, who draws his last breath saying Amy's name.

-Algol and Elysium open Astral Chaos, setting the stage for a final battle between the warriors trapped inside it and the malfested. Among those warriors are Mitsurugi, who manage to battle his way against both warrior and malfested. Mitsurugi finally battles Algol and manages to best him in battle. With Algol defeated, Mitsurugi believes that he is the strongest warrior in the world but is confronted by Elysium and is defeated.

-EdgeMaster confronts Kilik on why he chose the path of being an EdgeMaster. Kilik mentions that it had something to do with his past but EdgeMaster convinces him that his past does not affect his future and that he should not live a life as a hermit like he has. EdgeMaster and Kilik battle with EdgeMaster gaining the upper hand. Before EdgeMaster could defeat Kilik, he is confronted by ZWEI and Viola as to who they are and why he gave them their identities.

That's all I got.

I always wondered why Soul Calibur fans craved better stories.

I mean, I don't think I've ever heard SF or Tekken fans complain about story.

Maybe Soul Calibur has more female players. Maybe it's because it draws fans of fantasy-genre stuff. CaS encourages creativity, which of course draws in creative types. Myself included. That might be a piece of the puzzle.

Not that I disapprove of the choices PS made during development. SCV has a well-deserved place in the pantheon of top shelf fighting games. I'm glad they decided to focus on delivering a good looking, mechanically sound game.

Do I think it's an excuse for delivering a sub-par story? Certainly. But it doesn't mean that the fighting game as a genre is incapable of supporting a compelling story. It just hasn't been done yet.

Neat idea. It reminds me of the girl in that Prince of Persia game, the last one that was on the PS2, who narrated the cutscnenes in the past tense. At the save menu she'd say something like, "We can continue the story later if you like."

SF and Tekken don't have a story. Just a reason. They fight for the same reasons why people duel in Yugioh. Not to mention, Capcom is crap with stories (but decent with backstories) and the Tekken guy barley looks like even gives a shit about anything at all. With them shades.Well-about the game outside it being a game. The fans ONLY play tekken competitivly, it never had an innovative story. I mean the "devil gene" thing is even more rediculous then the "evil sword" thing. (and evil sword at least makes sense.) Soul calibur was trying to go deeper into a reason, I mean its not that believable for a tournament to be held for the same reason here.

Not sure what I would change in the current story. I do like your ideas though, but I'm more leaning towards ideas for SCVI.

Honesty the story for SCV isn't bad. People are just mad about how all the characters aren't represented through the story mode. If it wasn't for that people might actually judge it as a standalone story.

SHIIIIITTTTTT SOOOOONNNNNN. How Would I Have Done Story Mode?
RPG! Open world. First you create your character. Body type/appearance/voice. Not clothes.
Boom, you are a merc who just joined Schwarzwind! You get regular armor that matches the group.
You are sent to a town that is revolting agains't Dumas and his allies. You Encounter Patroklos.
You battle him, and afterwards Zwei shows up and finishes him off, sending him back to Dumas.
Lots of fights agains't generic characters, after clearing areas you face the boss whom is a main character from the cast.
Different Areas like Ivy's tower, Yoshi's raft, Hilde's battlefield. There would be missions you could go on that would involve the Raft and enemies jump onto the stage, maybe 10 enemies in a row, maybe 100!. Climbing Algol's tower fighting 100 floors of tough enemies. Fighting Kilik as he takes you through his training dojo, switching weapons till you defeat all his styles, ending in his original staff style. Random encounter with certain characters like Aeon and Mitsurugi when you are high enough level and in the right areas. Towns of people to talk to and find out what rumors there are. In the end you can choose which sword you would take, or if you would destroy them both. Destroying them both would crack open a rift to where edge master is, Hardest level AI whom you have to defeat all weapon styles in a row to win.
This also would have let you learn about ALL the characters, and have hours and hours of fun, and defeating the cast would give you a sense of accomplishment. Plus traveling the world, visiting towns to buy new clothes, defeating hard enemies for new items. Have a Soul Edge/Soul Calibur/Ancient weapon for EVERY style. Hell you could even throw in online for story mode, and have your friends be able to tag in and out of fights with you. Because lets face it, if you could play Soul Calibur V Tag, you would right? They had tag in story mode in SCIV, so I am positive its easy to put into V.

Now if the question was how would I change the story? THAT is completely a different answer, but my idea for story mode for V is pretty awesome don't you think?

I would've included an interesting plot and fluid dialogue.

I'll admit, that sounds pretty cool, kinda like SCIII's CotS but not a shitty RTS with battles in between.

It also would have made it a ton easier for them to just throw a buncha fighter styles in the game. like seriously since you are just an unknown soldier and don't need to copy someone elses style, they could have put in Hwangs, Mina's, Zas's, Rocks, and all those other styles people wanted. Could have had it so you could program Soul Edge and Soul Calibur to be random weapon for certain styles,s like if you main mitsu and sieg, you could have set it to only switch between those 2 every battle. I would have loved for random encounter while traveling by boat somewhere for Cervantes to show up, have to fight off a bunch of his skeleton and monster crew to have him show up, if he beats me, I wind up on the shore somewhere, if I beat him, I can take over his title of Dread Captain or whatever. Defeat Mitsu with his own style and get Legendary Swordsmen or whatever. Just a buncha crap like that.

I meant the story itself. Not the game's presentation. Did you read anything?

Thats exactly why it sucks. Patroklos is a bland and annoying protagonist. There, I said it. There’s nothing gripping about his personality at all. I like Pyrrha, but I’m not crazy about her. She spends most of story mode being Tira’s bitch anyway. And as I’ve already stated, I find sword-and-shield characters boring, and the fact that I had to play as one of them throughout almost all of story mode was pretty irritating for me.

What needed to really be changed about the story? Herp Derp, they let you use your imagination to make the pieces fit, as you know Kilik had a son with Xianghua, Xiba, he went to train with edge master, probably because banging the sister of his 'sister' who reminded him of his 'sister' was too much stress. Xiang had the kid and had to abandon him so she could be married, and hid it from her husband, had 2 kids with him. This is all on the website. So HERP DERP what needed to CHANGE was the presentation. The story was told in the eyes of the 2 Alexanders, herp derp, so I SUGGUESTED that it be made in a way where YOU COULD EXPLORE THE FUCKING WORLD and LEARN THE STORY AND LORE THE PROPPER WAY. HERP FUCKING DERP. The Cast being well known and talked about, since some of the cast members weren't even in the story, Mitsu, Cervantes, Aeon, Kilik, Algol, I SUG FUCKING GESTED HERP DERP An ACTUAL STORY MODE that would allow you to get to know the cast, and shape the world. HERP DERP, read my fucking idea and tell me that it wouldn't fix all the issues with the game. Jesus you are fucking dumb, I honestly didn't even read your post all the way through because it sounded stupid and now I just know you are dumb. Herp Derp, sorry that I had a better idea than you that would have made this game tons better and allowed for DLC characters to EASILY fit into the game as single player expansions AND fucking stand alone multiplayer characters. How fucking hard would it be to make a new area for people to travel to in the world, just an icon on a map is all that would need to pop up, instantly adding story for the korean characters, instantly travel to japan to fight taki's shinobis. Actually give meaning to characters like Astaroth and Voldo instead of just making them seem random and trashy. Give excitement about fighting cast members. I ass fucked and raped Voldo and felt NOTHING, same for Astaroth, same for everyone else in the game, Legendary souls is EASILY destroyed with Natsu and SIMPLY doing 6B+K B B B over and over... trust me it works... first try, beat it in 13 minutes today.

You can't just fucking change the story without completely changing story mode. The story was fine, it had twists, it involved cast members, nothing was wrong with the story. Nightmare was still trying to destroy soul calibur, nightmare was still devouring souls. Pyrrha got the soul edge and wanted to devour souls. Tira was still using soul edge as a family member to give her meaning in life. My idea fixxed everything from the story so if I ever hear an idiot say HERP DERP about dumb shit like that again I will flame you so hard! Because thats all I can do over the internet. Herp Derp motha fucka!

For those that don't know yet, there's a latest interview with Daishi - he revealed that the current SCV story is only one fourth of what they had actually planned overall!

Well that makes perfect sense. They were rushed, earthquake and all. They actualyl layed the character stories out pretty well and would have allowed it to link well. But the released game had what? 20 chapters and cut out a lot of the reasoning behind why everything had happened. They didn't reveal Raph at all even though hes a Dumas, obviously, if he isn't then they are lazy, and I don't see why they wouldn't just render him differently unless they wanted him to look the same, same as Viol/Amy. But the story that they made with the character backgrounds was good. I would have just prefered a story mode like I described. You could just talk to Zwei and learn about his past, gain a reason to destroy astaroth, ho on a hunt for Aeon, be Pirated by Cervantes, and all the other fun things. Maybe in SCVI.

Devil theres something about that faggotry about Viola and he being a good guy bad guy thing that makes me not be able to read your first post. I tried again and I can't get over it. It sounds so fucking gay. Would you have also made it so that Patroklos and Pyrrha fuck and have the ultimate soul decendant!?!?!? You sick fuck!