Yeah, I always relate much to El Fuerte and Hakan, I want to be a crazy broken English speaking guy obsessed with Mexican antojitos and bathe in oil and shoot people from my ass.
Gotta say, SF characters have gone much more to the goofy cartoonish side lately and not much of a human background/storyline.
Mortal Kombat maybe not much depth to their characters but I think they’ve done a good job with the recent additions like D’Vorah or Erron Black as well as re-inventing guys like Noob Saibot.
Yeah, exactly. Even the most outrageous Capcom’s designs are still funny and charming. Some people might dislike the cartoony elements but the characters are still meant to be likable (the joke can fall flat, like with El Fuerte, but Hakan has already a bunch of people who genuinely liked him due to to his weirdness and his human side).
All Mortal Kombat characters are somewhat disposable due to the fact that the games make them disposable due to fatalities being a thing.
Well the relatable fact with Fuerte is that he’s a horrible cook who thinks he’s awesome at it. Hakan loves his daughters because they are so pretty and he has a hot wife.
Those are completely relatable human qualities to the characters even if they do come off as goofy and cartoonish.
Ryu left foot have more personality (and kicked more things) than entire MK cast combined
They put some serious effort at make a story for them, will never deny it, but turd characters still turd
SF ever been goofy in some way
Elf was’nt much worse than Mika, he get just less free pass due lack of boobs
As pure SF character design Elf was actually underrated af, a good SF concept with few marginal errors
I’m missing totally the problem with Hakan, he was 100% SF as a character can be
Netherrealm doesn’t create characters. They create character designs. All those guys look cool on paper, fit the universe well, they’re always unique in some ways… but try to put them into a story and they lose all steam. Just look how bad the reception to MKX originals was: none of those guys are terrible, but the moment you see them in the story you just kinda feel sorry for them. And that’s just the most recent example… when you throw in the mix guys like Mavado, Hotaru, Darrius from the PS2 era things get even messier. As soon as Tobias left Midway everything took a nose dive in that department.
While not SF level, most of the early designs where great and had personality: Liu Kang is obviously the hero, Scorpion and Sub-Zero are obviously in somekind of rivalry, Johnny Cage is a cocky asshole with a heart of gold, Kano is a bad guy, Kitana and Mileena are clearly related, Baraka is a dangerous threat etc. All those things can be seen from the first glimpse.
Erron Black is the only one from the modern MK days that follows suit, since he gives off the mercenary vibe in an instant. The others? Don’t know what they’re supposed to convey even AFTER seeing their stories.
It also doesn’t help the character redesigns of the fan faves don’t usually advance their story in any way, like Sagat’s scarring, Ryu’s headband changing, Akuma’s growing demonic look, Bison’s body-hopping and even recently Guile’s promotion, Nash’s zombie look… MKers are just wearing what’s cool in the moment. It’s the reason the gear and variation systems suck ass… they promote character costumization in way that assumes players have any taste or talent… which the majority don’t. So instead of creating unique iconic designs, they just slap plaques all over and call it a day.
The PS2 era, ironically, didn’t suffer from this. Zombie Liu Kang, evil Raiden, tattoo Quan Chi (retardedly retconed)… those designs always evolved nicely from where those guys are in the story.
The new MK9-X-11 for the most part do have a personality. It’s just one very low-key.
MK has always had their HUGE share of “mysterious badass ninjas” and monsters (Baraka, Reptile). But in characters like Cassie Cage, Kung Jin, Takeda, Jacqui you clearly can see their different attitudes and where they come from.
It’s only, for obvious reasons MK is something more akin to American superhero comics than manga/anime like Street Fighter. Their characters tend to be more gritty, serious and realistic in personality.
I agree the vibe of “cheesiness” and color from the original trilogy has faded maybe a little too much. But that’s just how the times change.
I don’t know, I would welcome something similar to Friendships to be back, to be able to showcase more of the character’s personalities and unique quirks. But the series seem to be doing fine. It’s just how it is and I don’t think there’s much reason to complain or compare with SF; they’re different natures, each one its style.
As for the designs, too many loincloths. Sometimes I feel the series should be renamed “Loinkloth Kombat”. Not practical at all in combat, BTW.
“the early designs were great”?
THE NAMES, dude. Kung Lao. Shang Tsung. You can’t get any better than that _
But later. What’s a “Geras”? 
“Mavado”? “Taven”? “Havik”?
John Tobias’s departure was such a huge blow…
Mortal Kombat ultimately has one story, and nearly every character (outside of DLC special appearances) is tied into that story. Even as the bosses and threats change, every game continues the same story. Even as characters change between games, that change still feeds back into the singular story.
The singular story of MK rules that series even more than the stories of Soul Edge and Soul Calibur rule their series. At least Soul Calibur characters don’t feel like their lives are dominated by the main story of the weapons.
Even though Capcom keeps going back to Ryu and M. Bison as the centers of the SF universe, SF not only has multiple stories, but many of the characters have stories that are fairly separate from the “main” stories.
Even if SF2, Alpha, 4, and 5 were ultimately all M.Bison stories, SF1 was just a tournament and SF3 was the Illuminati. Sakura is just following Ryu. Mika is semi-following Zangief. Sean, Laura, and Rufus are all tied to Ken, while Ken is semi-tied to Ryu. The shoto family has its own overplayed dull-beyond-belief “epic” storyline outside of whatever the regular Big Bad is doing. The Final Fight characters have their own family stories outside of Bison’s story. Dhalsim’s sometimes just there, because Capcom doesn’t even seem to bother coming up for good reasons for him to appear anymore. SF1 Birdie was a street punk, SFA Birdie was involved with Shadaloo for power, SFV Birdie ends up working for Karin because he needed a job. G is a mystery. Cammy and the Dolls spawned out of Bison’s story, but have become something of their own thing.
Tbh i liked a lot some ideas on SFV Sim, too bad they never built anything on these good ideas
Him helping Ryu was cool, but did’nt followed
Him being one of the three ingredients Necalli needed was cool, but end up there
Him being able to stand his ground vs Necalli (when Nec still looked legit) was cool, but bad executed
Him being worthy of a converstaion with Oro was cool, but kinda pointless
For Sim i will have liked see him fight-off (backed by Ryu) Necalli throwing at him something gigantic… maybe have him throwing the CA to make Necalli flee angry as fuck, knowing he will not defeat both at same time
Then Sim being Ryu’s guide in that training (or at least the begin of it) to deal with SnH
If they did these two right, i will have been satisfied with his arc, just as they did good Gief one
Only part i found stupid was the interaction with Alex, felt random af
That was a perfect part for Menat if she was already in the game, but with Sim just looked like they wanted a random excuse to drop Alex in
At this point in ASF for Alex i will have preferred see his tag team match (vs Gief/MIka) or his escape from Fang’s labs
one thing that can improve SF cinematic story presentation is improve cinematic animations especially
facial animations.
The facial animation seems intentional to make it cartoony.
Agree with presentation that’s were MK and Tekken bested SF cinematic mode which is like game generic round battle.
These are some of the reasons I feel A Shadow Falls was neither a well-constructed story nor well-executed specifically as a video game story mode.
Alex either should have been there for more or not been there at all. Why weren’t the wrestling matches playable? They seemed tailor-made for some of the more extraneous characters to have playable parts, but Capcom squandered the opportunity. They could also have broken up some of the longer story-heavy sections. If it was because Alex wasn’t ready, then Capcom could have gone a few steps extra and left the hooks in place to add more Alex stuff when he was ready, even if it came after the initial release of A Shadow Falls. (Similar to how characters and nostalgia costumes get added to Arcade.)
Why wasn’t there more explanation for why the chess piece recipients were picked in the first place? It isn’t hard for the viewer to come to their own opinion, the kid knew about Alex because Alex was in televised wrestling matches. But directly addressing it in the story would give a better chance to promote an otherwise poorly represented character like Alex. (Laura could have benefited from such a boost as well.)
I’d say Dhalsim suffered because the whole Necalli arc was so badly handled, but I don’t see him playing a bigger part even if Capcom had shown any interest in Necalli.
It is a shame that the individual stories appeared to try to weave the start of an encompassing tapestry, but A Shadow Falls largely ignored such stuff in order to tell a Bison story (with a bonus unnecessary Ryu power-up session). Necalli was made for SFV to be a Big Bad of some fashion, and he really didn’t even get a story. Nash has a story, but it fizzles out as if Capcom lost interest halfway through, which probably also wasn’t helped by Necalli being an almost immediately dumpstered idea. Laura was introduced in SFV, only to get Sean’s story. The Illuminati seem to get a visible story presence, but it ultimately doesn’t amount to much as it is still just the regular heroes against Bison.
Shadow falls has been discussed so much, Everyone has their own thoughts and opinions. I have also my own before.
That’s why I’m not into than another cinematic mode but preferred a director’s cut with several alternate endings, slight alteration on encounters, updated character model, used character alternate costumes, battle with ed and preview of different characters from other season(Zeku, Menat and etc) like how they included Alex, Urien, Laura and Gill in cinematic mode, So it won’t be disastrous including them
I think we should abandon already on making Necalli something else. Kage already fixes the job on the path which Ryu and Akuma should lead more into their SF3 counterparts which is the better of both of them.
Akuma can appear in a directors cut just by destroying Necali in the end like he did in his individual storymode.
I think SF has had enough naked bosses already. Let’s do something else.
Sooo, best story in fighting games then.
Hugo: “Wait, Gouki?”
Gouki: “What?”
Hugo: “Thought that was you. Spar with me. Let me show you my god-tier wrestling! I’m numbah one!”
Gouki: “Right. And, I’ve transcended humanity.”
Hugo: “Oh wait?”
Gouki: “Witness!”
Hugo: “What in the holy fu-”
Gouki: “Immaculate! Magnificent! The netherealm awaits!”
Hugo: “What the fuck are you doin’?”
Gouki: “I’m glitching the hell out of this match with immeasurable strength. This is the Satsui no Hadou.”
Agree. That’s the problem nowadays some fans just wanted to written cool and appealing for a momentary trend or to be similar to other fictional and non-fictional character they find currently appealing but at the expense of losing there character identity.
Some fans wanted SF character to act or lived like anime characters in other popular media or fight like other fighters from either real life or another current popular fictional character, rather than the character to act, play and lived exactly to their original SF mythos.
MK now just look appealing to current trends that are ever-changing in design and character but they loss entirely the individual intended mythos.
We can all agree that SF has heavily influenced by other anime in visuals, especially in SF2 and SF1 but they are not intended to lived and written the same way, because SF character mythos was established and well written already in SFZ, where everyone is flesh out not in SF2 and SF1.
SF characters should never be undergo radical change far away from it’s current. Characters individuality should reconcile with their SF3 counterparts.
Yeah ASF has been a nice surprise but also a wasted opportunity
In some cases it looked about limited time/$$$, but in some others just dumb decisions and focus on wrong things
It also did some things good though, example sold well to people Rashid and Fang
I’ve always liked Street Fighter better than MK, but at the same time, I always had fun with it. I liked some of what MK did with 9 and then on and feel they could improve on things lorewise, while Capcom could improve presentationwise.
I will always appreciate ASF, but I feel that, with SFV in general there’s been an element of rushing towards a goal. I had fun and loved a ton of character moments, but I feel that the next SF should continue on with a storymode, but, do some deep soul searching for their general approach to story and aesthetics.
I’ve said this time and time again, they need to have either a mode or an intro movie that catches players up to the latest story and fills in the blanks. MK X’s opening narration by Johnny Cage worked great. The beauty of SF is you have a variety of ways that this could be done;
Random, omnipotent narrator that runs down the plot, but not actually a character
Rose, easy and probably the best choice, running down the known and unknown history of the SF universe and dishing on her and Bison’s role in the series
Ken doing the narration, accompanying footage, and it nicely fades into modern day and it turns out he’s either doing an interview or, he’s talking to Mel. You could launch this as him moving towards whatever role in the game he’s doing, etc.
Another thing that should be worked on is the playable sections. I like the different roster options we could choose, but I’d like to see special conditions as well.
I think that overall, Capcom should plan SF6’s as being an important piece of the game, a tool to transmit the lore and storytelling to the audience and not rush through as dlc. They’ve got the pieces available, they just need to properly string them together.
Yeah, special conditions will have spiced up things a lot
Some random easy things i ever thought they could have added to ASF on that vibe
FANG
Mini survivals
Shin Bison