How NOT to make a STORY MODE: Street Fighter 5 Story Revisited (Part 1)

#sf5 #streetfighter5 #story
With Street Fighter 6 and it's new World Tour story mode around the corner, Max decides to look back at Capcom's attempt at a cinematic "NetherRealm" story mode in Street Fighter 5, and why it was ultimately a bad idea.
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[@studi0651]

I feel like Fang was intended to be a crazy assassin who was full of himself and talked down to people, but then Capcom realized that Vega was right there, so they just had him say stupid shit and be annoying to make him different

[@ektran4205]

FANG is the first eunuch of street fighter

[@pastorofmuppets9346]

Fang coulda been such a fun character. A twisted, cold, but also goofy assassin guy. The writing is just shit, went overboard with the random annoying behavior. The artstyle doesnt do him any favors either

[@azurviper513]

@@ektran4205 c

[@TheHonorableRyu]

I felt like he was originally supposed to be both goofy and sinister (assassin, dissolving people in poison, design based of Japanese grim reaper) like Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? or something. But the visual style of the game didn't lend itself to the dark, sinister side so his goofy side took over.

[@Mr0901]

Could've just made him a Majima sorta style and would've been great

[@risel56]

The fact that Max is having more fun messing with the audio controls than from watching the cutscenes speaks volumes about SF5's story.

[@ThePhoenixScribe]

Quite literally haha

[@yeetabix8237]

@@ThePhoenixScribe 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😊🎉😂🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😮😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😊❤🎉😅😅😅😅

[@yeetabix8237]

@@ThePhoenixScribe 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉😢🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉😂😂🎉😂🎉❤🎉😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🎉😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🎉😂

[@yeetabix8237]

😂😂🎉🎉😂😂😂🎉🎉😂😂😂🎉🎉😂😂😂😂🎉🎉😂😂😂😂🎉😂🎉

[@yeetabix8237]

@@ThePhoenixScribe 🎉😂

[@jack-o-lanterns-dbdclips6995]

One thing that really rubs me the wrong way about this story: hackers dont build huge satelites, or little chess pieces to use as control keys... it feels like someone wrote the story in japanese and then used google translate to make it english and no one proof read it.

[@BknMoonStudios]

Capcom got all their knowledge of hackers from watching CSI.

[@thechugg4372]

oh god the control key shenanigans, somehow major characters have this for no reason, did they all have hacker friends? who knows??

[@DrMadd]

As someone who knows nothing about Street Fighter lore but does enjoy watching my brother play the Netherealm story modes I think what this story really lacks is a reason for me to care about these characters. Ryu’s first scene is him asking Dhalsim for help, Dhalsim agreeing and suddenly they fight for seemingly no reason. Now perhaps that made sense for Street Fighter lore veterans but all it does is confuse noobs like me who this story mode really should be made for in order for us to care about the characters. Now even if I don’t always fully grasp Mortal Kombat lore the story scenes are always well directed enough that even if I’m missing the full context of two character’s relationships I can still follow why they are fighting. Even Tekken 7’s story mode did a better job opening with the original sin of Kazuya getting thrown off a cliff and focusing the whole story around the repercussions of that. Street Fighter V’s story mode meanwhile seems to operate under the idea that I’ll care about the conflict just because “Look it’s Ryu and M Bison from Street Fighter!”

[@piorism]

Heya - the SF lore is all over the place because the official content falls into two categories : some weirdo scenarios (like this SFV story mode here, or even the 1994 anime) treating the characters as a bunch of action figures and painfully trying to link them together with absurd encounters and zero character motivation ; and then there are some much more focused stories, like the Assassins Fist miniseries doing a fantastic job at telling the youth of Ryu and Ken leading into the Alpha series of games. Ironically the best way to absorb the SF lore is probably not by looking at anime/movies/mangas. Instead you can just look a the ending cutscenes of the games from the pixel era, as well as the post/pre match banter. These things are the reason why people love these characters so much : not everything was explicit, and things were just suggested with great looking art and witty one-liners leaving a lot to the imagination. The Third Strike endings are really quite something, you might be surprised by how emotional some of them managed to be with just static images and text captions. The SF4 animated prologues and endings were also pretty good imho as they captured the tone of the original ending screens quite well. Also SFIII does some very subtle but extremely clever story telling with special character interactions before each match. Ryu and Ken fistbumping each other, Alex and Hugo chest slamming like Hulk Hogan/Andre the Giant, and so on.

[@TheHonorableRyu]

@@piorism You said it. Street Fighter characters just need animations & banter with personality and a few cut scenes to sell the character, leaving the rest to the imagination. Sakura's SFA2 victory dances tell you all you need to know about the character. Writing out elaborate plot-lines and dialogue could possibly work in theory, but SFV's attempts made most of the characters less likeable. I know lots of people were clamoring for a SFV story mode but I felt the time and effort could have been better spent on tlc on the characters from the get go. I always said it would be cool if Laura had a pre-battle animation where she plays a musical instrument, or takes off a colorful weighted shawl akin to Piccolo's weighted training clothing. Something to sell the "energetic" or "free-spirited" aspect of her character.

[@piorism]

@@TheHonorableRyu Yeah, I'd go as far as saying that who asked for a "story mode like MK/Injustice" are at least partly the ones to blame for the mess that is the SFV story mode - it was absolutely not needed and a complete waste of ressources. And in the end the fans didn't like it, and the casual audience likely didn't give a crap about it either... All that said SF6 seems to go in a good direction given how the recent presentation videos did a lot with just motion graphics. I just hope they will eventually ditch the trend of having a voiceover + huge ass cringe moving text repeating what the voice says. Heck, if anything I'd love for SF6 to have a short 15 seconds arcade-style attract opening video ...

[@fightingmedialounge519]

@wwemusicfanC wouldn't go that far considering all the re releases of old games.

[@fightingmedialounge519]

@@piorism eh, the lore of sf more so either individual character stories that give you some insight into their life, or larger scale conflicts that try their bets to connect most of them together. I wouldn't really call any of it brilliant. Even watching the ending cutscenes really isn't enough to grasp sf lore if you don't take the extra step to look into more of the characters history.

[@ajshiro3957]

Ken's son: can I go with you? Ken: Learn to fire a Hadouken first. *spends 4 years learning how to perform a quarter circle forward.* Me at 4 years old trying to beat my dad in SF2.

[@LeftStickGaming]

This is really relatable.

[@xacmashe3852]

Wow nostalgia, I have this exact same memory with my dad. I wish he still played video games.

[@JoeGodHand]

Chun li: "I won't lose!" Chun li proceeds to get her ass kicked until her only playable fight at the end of the story

[@Ghost_Gaming1899]

My favorite moment from this stream was a guy going “ Where the fuck is Ryu!?” and Max following it up with “ Yeah, where the fuck is he”. Ryu was legit gone from the story for like 80% of it solving his problems off screen.

[@sollato0293]

And then right at the end he defeat Bison, like that never feel earned. Even for the training they could have make sure he’s still involved while training at the same time, I mean he go to Dhalsim for help at the beginning, they could have like training together between missions.

[@InoMercy]

You do kinda have to ask the question, "Why are we not following the series protagonist in this game's story mode?" at some point.

[@blackout1524]

@@InoMercy Because he's not the protagonist. It's Rashid.

[@mychaeljones7526]

@@blackout1524 Yeah Rashid who's being replaced in Street Fighter 6.

[@justkosmo6806]

@@mychaeljones7526 what does sf6 have to do with anything? 5's story is pretty clearly fueled by Rashid's characterization

[@carbodude5414]

I have to wonder just what kind of moron would think that, after setting up an epic Winter Soldier-esque conflict with the return of Charlie, the absolute best way to start off his reunion with Guile would be _"Hey, I know! Let's have Rashid interject and have the focus revolve entirely around him!"?!_

[@speedy932key4]

Yeah,that didn't really make any sense to me. Rashid in general just seems to take away any seriousness away from this game from what I've seen

[@OwainBigGuy]

the alex and dhalsim cutscene makes me laugh every single time without fail. alex you are talking to a floating indian man, does he look like a car thief to you

[@SatisfactoryBro]

to be fair it IS New York.

[@DaviddeBergerac]

Alex is from New York I dunno if you want to ask his opinion on Indian men, floating or otherwise

[@gwen4557]

Alex: Looks dark enough

[@hamzahrahmanyar2840]

Anyone can and will rob you in New York bro

[@johnnydixon8772]

Much love to you guys G. Let's go. ⭐☀️🙌💪👑👍❤️

[@destructodude]

Me at the start: Can't wait to see who Chun-Li fights. Me a little later: Oh, I'm just fighting Chun-Li. Well, that surely won't be all there is to Chun-Li. Me halfway through: Wow, it'd be great to fight these Dolls as Chun-Li. Me nearing the finale: Okay, when do I get to play as Chun-Li? Me at the Chun-Li fight: Finally, I'm playing as Chun-Li... against the worst character in the franchise. And in a way that ruins the final action moments of two other characters. And I don't even kill him. Me in the credits: One Chun-Li fight, huh? A thousand DLC costumes and one story mode fight.

[@kadosho02]

Definitely felt like a one note character. She had a way more prominent role in other games. Just a head scratcher, with the decisions they made along the way with this entry. She literally became Kasumi with so many outfits, and had nothing to do. Instead Chun Li is treated as Helena, and set aside to just make appearances. A baffling and dumb decision.

[@GhostRiderLSOV]

Chun Li was done dirty. I don't remember her doing anything noteworthy and even when she kicks that huge steel door down later on, Karin immediately kicks the one opposite of her down as well, like it's nothing... -_-

[@ItsMarkava]

Literally the only significant thing Chun-Li does for the whole story mode is rush ahead and get her ass beat by M. Bison, then get saved/scolded by Cammy like she's some kind of little girl lol. Chun-Li SUCKS in this story mode. They did her so dirty.

[@leoluster5424]

Hay, put some respect to F.A.N.G the man is like, the only person how is really working of Bison's world domination goal

[@fightingmedialounge519]

@@kadosho02 really wouldn’t say way more when you go back to look at those games.

[@staticshock4239]

This just makes me glad Street Fighter 6 is going for the world tour mode. Also it makes me glad 6 is going with the stylized RE Engine graphical style.

[@metalgamer8179]

@AT Productions They aren’t hyper realistic though, they are heavily stylized

[@bucket9486]

@AT Productions the only way sf 6 could look hyper realistic to you is if you've never seen a real human being before

[@johnnydixon8772]

Let's go much love to the fighting game and it's hard work. 👑❤️💪🙌☀️⭐🙏🤚

[@christhenerdyderg3916]

Agreed

[@mindandbody7971]

@AT Productions I certainly still do wish we got an ArcSys VISUAL style game with Capcom mechanics. Graphically I still think it looks odd (Luke and Jamie look weird, idc), but at least the gameplay and AI opponent are worthy of my time.

[@riemaennchen]

Man this story jumps from scene to scene a lot.

[@SonofTiamat]

Worse than a JJ Abrams movie

[@CrimsonHero81]

Or Jurassic World Dominion. Shit just happens in this story mode, but apparently Capcom thought scenes happening just make a story.

[@Valvadrix]

Puts Advent Children to shame.

[@angryboi595]

@@SonofTiamat ooh nah that’s the worse insult you can give to any type of media 💀

[@petersage8129]

He really just said in dialogue. " I don't expect you to believe me........but I need you to believe me" no sarcastic tone, it was meant to be dead serious lmao

[@aceofspades2221]

“We have phones in this world.” While that statement is true, that’s also assuming that Ryu has one.

[@thechugg4372]

It's so funny that SF6 confirmed Ryu never had a phone until now

[@azmodanpc]

D immortal reference?

[@LordryuRevived]

People like to poke fun at Dead or Alive for being horny sometimes, but I feel like Capcom was inching dangerously close to that same level with this game, just from certain characters like Cammy, Mika, Juri and Laura. That, even *before* taking into account the DLC costumes.

[@glacierwolf2155]

Cammy's Red Delta outfit and Rainbow Mika's wrestling outfit alone comes dangerously close to bumping the game to an M rating.

[@Darkkfated]

Capcom: We need a new villain for SFV! Intern: I got it! Bear with me here but... Wolverine... without claws!!!!! Capcom: Give this man a raise and start whipping up a character model!

[@kaioken301]

Necalli is pretty much just Santviento from JJBA. A mindless Pillar Man.

[@kadosho02]

@AT Productions and then poof, he just vanished into obscurity

[@BigEOT3]

If they ever bring Necalli back, they need to rehaul him in order to make him interesting. F.A.N.G never bring back. I’m excited for that SF6 character that may or may not be similar to him but we’ll get to her in the future.

[@Azteck9]

Intern: Oh wait, you want this Necali character to be Wolverines replacement when the new Marvel comes out? Capcom: WTF, get out my office with that bs

[@brandonspencer5594]

@AT Productions and yet he turned out so lame

[@RebelCityEejit]

Bison says "This is delicious" so this story mode is already an 11/10

[@bobafettna2074]

I must have a timestamp

[@RebelCityEejit]

@@bobafettna2074 27:49 mate

[@bobafettna2074]

@@RebelCityEejit LOL thank you

[@RebelCityEejit]

@@bobafettna2074 max was talking over the reference so I think he missed it haha

[@Gamersgoinblind]

My favorite M.Bison fact is that in SFxT he actually says "for me it was Tuesday", against Chun his win quote is the "I killed my father too" line and against Hugo he says "this is delicious"

[@NiohArcadia]

God this story is painful, also i also love the fact Ryu gets over the demons he's been fighting for decades later on...Off screen! 🤣 Street Fighter doesn't need to be the Zenith of storytelling but at the very make the story fun to play through and make the writing bareable.

[@Mr0901]

Somehow Ryu overcame the Satsui no Hado

[@TheMamaluigi300]

@@Mr0901 Not good enough. It needs to be told via white Arial text over a black background

[@Roof5tone]

This story mode is something else. It is so hectic and all over the place. It can barely focus on one scene for more than thirty seconds.

[@vsoco4921]

"There's a lot of butts, right?!" - Dood, Maximilian 2022

[@RTU130]

O

[@codenamekendall2780]

Necalli was then thrown in the pit of darkness….. never to be seen or cared about again 🤣

[@dropout818]

Were he belongs

[@MmmUbePandan]

I just wanna say that when Bison first shows up in the bank, all I can hear is that meme line from the 90s SF cartoon "This is delicious!"

[@kingdomkey92]

Something that NRS does really well that Capcom completely failed at when it comes creating story mode content is that NRS games story mode are constructed into character driven chapters. Each chapter the player plays as a different character and the difficulty of the CPU increases as the player nears the end of that character's chapter. This not only allow new players to get accustom to character that they are playing as oppose to SFV way of constantly switching characters. But it also allows the story to be constructed more cohesively, as oppose how SFV does it just jumping to random scenes that absolutely makes no sense.

[@mr.awesome6011]

The problems with that are that it limits who you get to play as, power levels are all over the place since when you play as someone they win every fight but lose almost every other time they appear non playable and villains don't get much play time if at all making them look like less of a threat outside of the final boss and also reinforcing my previous point about imbalanced power levels.

[@twgok3162]

Not really if anything it forces u to have characters only win in their chapter or not at all if they don't have their own and this is not something done better it's done differently. The story not having character chapters doesent make it confusing it's just the writing itself.

[@KingJinzo2125]

I actually argue the opposite. The problem with NRS story mode is that if you’re not the main character in that chapter then that character is a jobber. It leads to inconsistent scaling and out of character moments that messes up the plot. That also leads to every single villain outside of aftermath being an absolute joke cuz they lose every fight they’re in. And while nrs does do their plots and cohesion better, sfv strangely does better in story progression since everyone in the plays some sort of role. Erron Black has been in 2 games and hasn’t once been playable in story mode, yet scorpion gets 4 chapters dedicated to him? Not even Liu Kang and raiden has gotten that much focus, but that’s a whole different tirade of boon pushing scorpion and the cage family over his actual MCs

[@SonicMegaKing]

@@twgok3162 Yeah, and to add on, it's not like NRS stories are any good either. They just have better production values to trick people into thinking they're watching a good story. I at least appreciate SFV's story mode for not lying about how crap it is.

[@MisterJonesification]

I've said for years NRS makes a good games, but bad fighters, while Capcom makes good fighters, but bad games. Street Fighter V took way too long to be good and even with the finished product they are just bad at storytelling, and the artwork was terrible as well.

[@Greez1337]

I love it when characters all call something the same name prior to even meeting eachother or establishing an event that would make everyone refer to an object or event with the same name. Like "black moons" and "piece". The very best anime trite.

[@itsyaboijordan415]

Necalli to me is just the definition of wasted potential Capcom could've done something cool with him like make him a secret boss character or something but nope he's just another dumb jobber

[@shadowednight1600]

Capcom made him to prop up Ryu. He had potential and Capcom wasted it

[@TheRogueWolf]

It's like the visual design team and the story team didn't even talk to each other.

[@ratedr7845]

Yeah, it hurts to see that, I have a feeling that G replaced him as the boss

[@technogale]

Potential? Which potential? Necalli's design is the most dry and boring thing ever. He's easily the most forgettable SFV character to me, even F.A.N.G is more memorable because how weird he is.

[@BigLadStudios]

It's especially bad since he was pushed as the mascot foe too, he seemed like his role was going to be super integral.

[@AsianGM]

I can't wait for the zangief bicep sword catch, and when the ninja girl literally kills someone

[@kadosho02]

Maybe SF6 that might happen. Honestly I have no idea. They can go crazy

[@Zenju__]

27:49 I can't believe Bison quoted the infamous line from the cartoon

[@superbnns]

Something I couldn't help but notice when I played through this on release was that every time a character ran, they stopped after like 4 steps. It made it painfully obvious that their mocap area was only like 15 feet in any direction

[@ShermTank7272]

In my opinion, one of the main problems with this story mode is that it was bound and determined to have at least one fight with every (at the time) playable character, including the villains. Which led to even more contrived "we must fight" moments than one would usually expect from a fighting game story mode. Case in point - Alex and Dhalsim. Alex has literally nothing to do in this plot other than fight Dhalsim and hand over his plot macguffin. If they limited the story's scope to about half as many characters, it would have been much easier to write around.

[@CrimsonHybrid]

The fact that the asses are so prevalent that it has reduced Max to saying "Sheezus" every time there's ass on screen makes me laugh so much. 😂 Hell, even the guys aren't safe; Charlie's ass showed up a lot in the intro, too. And F.A.N.G. smacked Rashid's twice, LMFAO.

[@RandoChrisYT]

I think one of the bigger problems with this story mode, along with some other ones, is something that Max brought up. Nobody talks like humans. But that's because they're there to recite the plot. I do think people want to learn more about their favorite characters, see them grow and develop, do badass things, or just relax and have fun. See what they're like outside of fighting. But instead we just get characters we want to learn about or see do cool things become talking points about why things are happening, how to stop the thing, etc. Nobody really gets a chance to show off their personality and when they do, it's jammed into "TALKING ABOUT THE PLOT" moments that doesn't do them any favors. That being said, we need more Peter in our fighting games.

[@roxtechs]

It got that early 2000s Final Fantasy talk

[@ВладимирЛестра]

For those who want to understand the story mode Cammy 32:27 32:37 32:58 33:22 34:09 52:12 54:26 57:20 R. Mika 19:07 51:57 54:03 (also includes very important story shot) Laura 19:13 Juri 39:07 40:30 41:14 41:51 (oh yeah) Urien 42:50

[@meganinten0078]

I am still upset of how Capcom censored Cammy and R. Mika in SFV I will miss Laura, Kolin and R. Mika. The main outfits for the female characters in SF6 look not sexy :( It is like SF6 is more censored compare to SFV I hate that.

[@phase_1471]

@@meganinten0078 you'll grow out of your horny years soon buddy 🤣

[@SunyataManji]

@@meganinten0078 I love that

[@mydrillasanjay5397]

@@meganinten0078 good

[@zach_ncheese]

thanks for the urien timestamp

[@Zansatsu-0379]

The only semi-compliment that I will give FANG is that he has possibly inspired Capcom to take another stab at the assassin with poison concept in AKI who may be his apprentice.

[@joedatius]

AKI is very clearly just a full retry of FANG with the intent of "okay guys lets do that again but not make it butt ugly"

[@Pinkanator]

Guys you know FANG is SUPPOSED to be ugly and weird right? He's a creepy kooky kung-fu henchman from chinese fight-movies lol, he's a trope in the same way most of the cast are tropes.

[@blyat8832]

Like, this story mode did have good moments tbf, like Ryu finally surpassing the Satsui no hado, Juri defending Cammy, Cammy fighting peter... Just sucks that these moments were so rare and the main story was full of shit lmao

[@SuperFusionAJ93]

It's a shame Ryu conquered it off screen

[@natelecarde962]

Don’t forget Nash finally “defeating” Bison.

[@SonofTiamat]

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I always thought Evil Ryu was stupid in execution. The whole tempted by the darkside thing only works if there's an external factor or fear. Like Violent Ken in the Street Fighter II movie being driven by a nascent inferiority complex and desire to surpass his friend which Bison manipulated. But in the Street Fighter Alpha movie, Ryu just randomly acts nuts for no reason For what reason would he give in to the dark hado? Dude just wonders around with little to no worldly attachments In the Street Fighter II V anime however, Ryu and Ken start out as rambunctious punks and undergo character growth. Probably the only time Ryu appears flawed and three dimensional

[@zousui7238]

None of those 'cool moments' were earned. I felt nothing while playing.

[@ethanhinton4549]

Pity the former was based on character development that happened OFF SCREEN.

[@CanalBillCast]

Story Modes like this always remind me the reason why I like Def Jam Fight for NY and made me interested in the SF6 World Tour mode: the gameplay seems fun, with great re-play value and it doesn't function like filler moments in the plot.

[@JojoDigitalArtist]

I forgot how many fights in this story mdoe were just "Hey we have to let them play as this character but don't know how to put them in the story"

[@TheRealTHD]

Love how Rashid goes through the entire story mode trying to rescue his friend and yet somehow neglecting to mention this friend's name AT ALL. I'm going to assume it was a girl he was trying to bang. Also, what a letdown on Guile's interactions with Nash. Guy was dead for years and is back as a zombie and Guile is just as flat as a brick about it. I appreciate the attempt but this story mode really needed some work.

[@LazurBeemz]

They don't say the name, talking around it like it's gonna be a big reveal, and then it's just some random scientist who dies off screen. So weird.

[@MusicInMe754]

Minor spoilers, but it makes me think of Yakuza: Like A Dragon, which does the same thing with one of it's heroes whose brother turns up missing and it's a thing for a whole chapter. And when that plot point is resolved, the brother is rescued off screen with no visual reveal and no name mentioned, either. A pretty glaring story blemish in an otherwise amazing game.

[@thechugg4372]

I'm thinking this was supposed to be a play on social media, Rashid is always online, so of course he wouldn't know his friend's real name.

[@calypso4882]

It's not like the recent MK games are some masterpiece in VG storytelling but they do enough to make it good enough, especially for a fighting game. The difference between them and this is stark.

[@TenshiCat]

Which is appropriate, since Capcom decided this game needed a cinematic story mode as a direct answer to MK doing it

[@fightingmedialounge519]

Wouldn’t really say "good enough". There are some really poorly thought out and reductive decisons made with their stories, but they don't look as bad on the surface because they follow a more conventional story format.

[@vocalcalibration8033]

I completely forgot that Decapre just shows up and then dissapears and no one brings it up again.

[@glacierwolf2155]

For a character that was hyped up as being the last DLC character for Ultra Street Fighter 4, that was disappointing, to say the least.

[@dillongeorge5866]

I’m excited for Rashid to return and I hope they get Ian Sinclair to voice him again because he absolutely killed it as the character. Rashid is probably one of the best new characters they added in SF5

[@realtchallamama]

All I can add is I definitely agree, and I am so glad he's returning for street fighter 6, from what I can tell, at least.

[@mr.awesome6011]

At first I thought he was voiced by Jerry from Rick and Morty

[@cgk1276]

I hope his old costume is available

[@Beatdoof]

I have some great news for you on what will happen on SF6 3 days later

[@derago-dev]

Fang's sleeves are a cool concept terribly executed, but i kinda wish they try it again with any other character just to see what kind of amazing feature, or monstrosity, they'll end up with...

[@cthulhu888]

I dont think the unreal engine was equipped to handle the amount of sleeve power fang had, especially at the 16 minute mark haha! 🤣

[@derago-dev]

@@cthulhu888 Exactly, i can see someone at Capcom greenlighting this saying "Meh, leave it like this, no one's gonna notice some clipping...". Imagine if they could make this a joke in the game, like, Fang moving his head to the side because his sleeves are blocking his sight xD

[@Hydrogue]

He flaps them like a chicken and it's irritating. Especially when his design is so fun.

[@Persephone_07]

I love how there’s a cutscene of Bison talking to the bad guys about the plot. Then, Chun-Li, Guile, and Cammy happen to just be walking through destroyed New York. They fight then run away. Then talk about the exact same plot that Bison was talking about. 2 minutes ago.

[@axelwust9376]

"The dialogue is made by a robot" is the most accurate way to describe SFV's dialogue!

[@shining-wizard37]

I'll always put mcvi over this because of that one bit where iron man is like "Hey Frank West, go fight Thanos" and Frank is like "dude what are you talking about that's insane he's just gonna kill me"

[@worsel555]

I find it funny how many butt shots are in this Story Mode yet Capcom censored R. Mika's super where she slaps her butt at the start of it.

[@fireandthunder9862]

The main problem is that they wanted Ryu to do everything. There was no reason he had to take down Necalli AND Bison. There were like half a dozen characters in SFV who had more beef with Bison than Ryu ever did. Necalli should have also been a mounting threat, maybe you get to see him disappearing with the bodies of the Shadoloo grunts you beat and for a real mind fuck let him devour a main cast member like Ken. Having Ken seemingly (No way Capcom would ever let him go for real) die would actually justify Ryu struggling with the Satsui no Hado again as he'd be pretty pissed at the lost of his best friend. Let Guile and Nash wear Bison down (I considered Chun-li, Cammy, and Juri too, but they have their own plot points even if they're poorly implemented) and Nash can sacrifice himself to leave Bison on Death's door. That's when Necalli swoops in and eats him to achieve his Super V-Trigger form. Now that Necalli is near unstoppable and everyone else is exhausted then you can have Ryu come in and play the big hero and rescue Ken in the process.

[@SPACECOWBOY705]

I like this

[@gtsavestheday6569]

Man…everything about this mode was awful. The story made no sense whatsoever, the plot was nonsense, characters served no purpose and just lead to nonsensical plot holes and the fights were a waste of time. Looking back I’m glad we never got the story expansion that we were supposed to. Not sure if anyone remembers that was a thing

[@KTH96]

Wasn't this the story expansion? SF5 didn't launch with a story.

[@lukejones7164]

At least it wasn't as bad as MK11 🤣

[@mr.penguindrewmateo8146]

Source of a story expansion being considered

[@gtsavestheday6569]

@@KTH96 no there was another one mentioned that was supposed to add more context to the scene we saw at the end where its revealed Kolin was working for Gill. It was only ever mentioned like twice, then it just kinda disappeared from the conversation.

[@gtsavestheday6569]

@@mr.penguindrewmateo8146 Are you asking for a source? Because that was like 5 or 6 years ago and something that was only mentioned in brevity. That's gonna be tough to find again.

[@zousui7238]

Having Nash be a significant character and barely having Guile in it is a fricking crime. Also, like Max says the pacing and the dialogues are terrible.

[@keystrix3704]

Speak for yourself, Maxiboi! I've always wanted a Street Fighter story-focused experience. But... you know... a good one! 😅

[@5-Volt]

It's so weird going back several years when Capcom didn't seem to give any shits about what's going on in this story when everything they've done since has been amazing.

[@dnmstarsi]

And if they did (or the writer(s) actually cared which they might), they didn't know how to write a good story in terms of structure cuz what we got was unfocused and unimpressive compared to the more modern stories.

[@thechugg4372]

@@dnmstarsi fun fact: there were no writers for SF 5

[@coreywilson7326]

No they didn't

[@FransenYT]

Something I do like about the story is you get to play as basically everyone, even the bad guys, giving them genuine wins. The pacing and editing tho yeah that's all over the place

[@drpac9164]

The Cammy shots were god-tier. Thats the one thing the devs got right with this story, lol

[@RTU130]

O

[@GhostRiderLSOV]

Necalli was advertised as this cool new menace, but in the story mode, he was such a jobber.

[@InoMercy]

Okay, so I went to mobygames to check Street Fighter 5's credits, and there are no scenario writers or scripters credited to this game. There are scenario designers, but it feels like no one wanted to take responsibility for the overall plot of the story mode or the dialog. Or Max is right and the story mode was AI generated. The scenario designers just feed the AI plot points and characters, and let it run.

[@OmegaGlops]

Its a shame that those NPC character battles don't even put up a fight, especially considering some of them actually have cool designs. Big Yellow showed that a few of them had some sauce when being properly controlled by a human player!

[@thechugg4372]

They were reused in extra battles

[@VNSnake1999]

The only good thing about SF5 story mode is you can change characters' skins and they show in cutscenes.

[@thechugg4372]

But you need to replay it for that, is it worth it? no

[@herosshade2247]

From the perspective of someone who has worked behind the scenes with animators, it seems like they might have had a Story Mode specific outfit for the characters, like a jacket with pockets or something, or at least normal street clothing when they're not in their butt floss fighting gear but they couldn't finish the fabric animations in time so they just said "fuck it, just keep them in defaults, we gotta ship it" Hence the sweatfroggy camera angles, Cammy's literal asspull, and the later scene where Zangief pulls something out of his chest hair.

[@Kango234]

I'm just going to come out and say that the only Fighting Game story mode I liked was MK9 and parts of MK11. I just think that even if you can pull it off (which most of them haven't) it's just way to limiting for a genre all about having a crazy cast of characters. If Necali was in an older game, hearing lore that he is a monster who appears at the end of days to devour strong enemies would be a sick bio with a cool arcade ending cutscene. But in here they can't just have him kill the main characters so he spends the whole story doing nothing but losing. I really hope we move away from that. Edit: Just want to clarify I meant the "cinematic" MK Story modes that everyone tried last generation.

[@utarefson9]

What are your thoughts on the Blazblue Storymode?

[@Kango234]

@@utarefson9 I actually have no experience with it so I can't really say, but I actually did like P4A's story since it was basically an arcade mode with more cutscene. I should clarify the "cinematic" MK story everyone has been trying to do is what I think should stop.

[@Bloodletter8]

Within the first 4 minutes we have Nekali trying to vore Zombie Nash followed up by Zombie Nash chasing Bison's force ghost around whilst shoving aside his caretaker with the rough Russian accent. Can't imagine why people weren't entertained.

[@gilbertodepauladapaz]

I liked how Rushia saved Nash in the beginning and all the "art angles", especially when Cammy is in the scene ;)

[@Azurada23rd]

The cow goes moo. The pig goes oink. The sheep goes *_DEVOUR_*

[@angryboi595]

The sudden cut from Alex knocking a dude out to Karin in a restaurant made me bust out laughing 😂

[@MKF30]

If Capcom does a similar to NRS storymode thats not a bad thing. They've already taken the Konquest idea which I'm not complaining. FGs need to expand to more modes imo otherwise they're one trick ponies compared to other genres.

[@bigredradish]

the biggest issue with this one is that because it's a midquel then literally nothing can get done besides bison dying and even then they seem like they don't really want to commit to it? basically if you're not ryu or nash you're just there to be there yknow

[@MKF30]

@@bigredradish Yeah, I've noticed some SF games aren't all sequels or prequels but midquels lol which makes it tougher for story in general unless you're movie or show or comic. Those you have more time than a video game timeline not just in the games few hour story mode but time restraint to get the game out you know?

[@frankhorrigan1508]

And they can't take risks because Fighting games aren't exactly at the top when it comes to revenue and popularity, so a fake step and they can lose it all

[@kadosho02]

@@bigredradish I never understood V's actual purpose. It should have been what VI is pushing for. Adapt after 3. Let Bison rest once and for all (he's a turd in the wind). Let the characters grow. Why we were stuck between 2 and 3 for what felt like forever. I have no idea

[@schemar17]

@@kadosho02 its because they released 3 wayyyy to earlier all the old characters are much older so they wokd rather keep them young by making the games take place before 3. With 6 they still are using the sf2 cast and not the 3 cast

[@specter_of_thestars2500]

At first I thought he was editing some things but no the games breakneck pacing was that obtuse. My word

[@Ridghost]

Cammy's outfit translates hilariously badly to anything approaching real life. It's so revealing it's bordering on banned material hahaha

[@tylerrose9758]

Max promise me you will never change that intro music it hypes me up EVERY time

[@EliteFourChad]

Im still mad that instead of chun li guile or Cammy fighting bison it's ryu and i never understood why they made him fight bison but alex thinking dhalsim is a car Thief best sh** in this story mode

[@bricky7081]

Wasn't it because Bison was trying to steal Ryu's body??

[@EliteFourChad]

@@bricky7081 he has taken interest in that but idk how he would activate ryu's satsui no hadou

[@frankhorrigan1508]

@@bricky7081 ah yes the whole, "mhhhh Ryu body as my "host", yeah, i still remember that aftermatch Dialogue in alpha 3 after bison defeats akuma. And his Alpha 2 ending with ryu bare-headbanded

[@BknMoonStudios]

@@bricky7081 Yeah, but that plot point was resolved in both Alpha 3 and SF2. It would've been far more appropriate to have either Charlie Nash or Guile take on Bison for the last time.

[@thetoondevil]

@@bricky7081 in SF Alpha yes, bit after that I feel Bison kinda ignored Ryu afterwards

[@trevorghalt1881]

I remember Kenny loved this story mode, he couldn't get enough😂😂

[@gregwilliams4926]

It's really rough looking back at this era in a few years and remembering so many games going the story mode route, sacrificing arcade mode endings just to one up NRS besides Arcsys and SNK. Including NRS, 4 games later and they still can't one up MK9's story.

[@Shahars71]

All of these characters look like they're just normal people in mascot costumes over-acting anime characters in a semi realistic setting. This reminds me so much of Sonic Adventure 2 it hurts.

[@daimionhollins528]

I saw what you did there in the sound options display... DJ Max 🤣

[@KraggFair]

8:55 my man Dhalsim just teleported himself five feet to the left when he could have just taken like two steps

[@fool8304]

People can really talk about SFVs story mode and what they did wrong with it to death, but the short answer is that it was rushed. And when you're already trying to beat the clock getting the game in a playable state and coordinate a live support model, story dialogue, cinematics, and plot are second priority. A lot of the dialogue was definitely butchered in translation too, I'm thinking especially so with Rasheed.

[@TheTrueProdigy101]

*cammy hands chun li the box* Max: You might wanna wash it first Me: I’m not washing it🙂

[@NateVHVT]

I really wish Necalli hadn't turned out to be a weird, stuttering, ineffective goop monster.

[@NurseValentineSG]

The dialogue feels like the first draft was translated once. Through google translate.

[@AdaWongLover5]

The main thing I'm taking away from this is that Karin is a wrestling fan.

[@Saxdude26]

27:50 I am so glad we got to hear Bison say "THIS IS DELICIOUS" outside the cartoon. SFV has its problems, but this is one of those PERFECT references.

[@toonman5099]

My biggest confusion at least for Helen is this: why did they give her such a different outfit for her fights? I KIND OF get it, but I feel like you could MAYBE still work with her original design, at the VERY least still let her have her side hair bun bump thing. Also, if she simply has ice only powers, I feel like we should have gotten another complement character that acts as somewhat of the "ken" version of her where she focuses on fire attacks, maybe also another one that focuses on electricity to kind of round out the element powers between Gill and Urien? Idk. Also, Necalli. The way his "stutter" is used feels weird to me. Granted I have no clue if this kind of stutter exist, but I knew someone who had a stutter, and that does not sound like a natural stutter. *Googles* So it's meant to be that there are multiple souls grappling for control in him? Ok, why isn't that shown better? You know how you do that? Add a ghostly echo in his voice, that would at least help sell his "stutter" better. 14:35 - 17:25 Oh god Fang...if he DOES come back for 6, he needs a MAJOR OVERHAUL. Like, I appreciate trying to bring a little more of the Darkstalkers vibe in (and the general idea of trying to tie all the capcom games into one universe), but Fang feels like he's kind of pushing it both in characterization and design. Or at the very least, he feels too god damn goofy compared to all the other characters in 5 which just makes him stand out way too much. He feels like he's that character who was a fan of the bad guy, got promoted to being a top dog way too early, and is now having way too much fun with it. Plus, the way he acts when he moves makes him feel like a fucking chicken, meanwhile we're meant to take him seriously as a "regular person"/assassin. Like I'm pretty sure the design he has and is MAYBE referencing is meant to give off the idea that he's more calm and reserved, yet he acts erratic and flippant in the story. Like for fuck sake, he's simply walking and for some god damn reason he's flapping his arms like he's a bird or a fucking 5 year old in his intro scene and comes off as a regular jobber. How the hell am I meant to take him seriously as a MAIN BOSS? Also these scenes feel like they were NOT gone through for review, like for fuck's sake Fang's design was NOT taken into consideration for the costume he has, like his sleeve covers up his entire face before the fight and he's in a completely different pose right before the round starts which makes it feel EVEN MORE jarring when you realize you're playing as him. 17:47 - 18:41 God, Birdie and (as we'll see later) Sean got the fuckin' short end of the stick in 5, one's a down on his luck slob and the other is touted as just the kid who gets being set as the butt-of-the-sibling-rivalry-joke trope. Like legit I feel like Birdie just simply replaced Rufus as far as design in this. Which is funny because due to the concept art I'm seeing, Fang surprisingly was going to POSSIBLY originally be the "Rufus" of the game in design. 18:43 - 19:48 God, the blocking in this scene is honestly pissing me off with how they're having the announcer just randomly walk around in front of the camera, plus he just feels out of place having a megaphone instead of a proper mic in what looks like a professionally made wrestling ring. Also realistically, it would have made more sense to put in Alex's previous scene at the start of this one to make it feel more cohesive between Fang & Rashid's fight to Karin. (Granted this entire story needs a rewrite/rework to make it more cohesive between scenes) (I already feel like Alex at the end of this scene) 21:39 - 21:43 Damn, that woman in the red dress is BUFF. 24:12 - 24:15 Says the man that's prancing around like one. 39:24 ...I just realized, she's also in Russia, and it's snowing outside...she TRYING to get hypothermia? XD 50:48 Also, the Kanzuki family is weird to me. Like, Karin remotely doesn't look like a ninja, she looks like the typical "rich blonde", yet she has a whole ninja clan on her payrole? I mean it would make sense if it was that Ibuki's clan were working together on her behalf due to being friends with Karin, but other than that, I don't know why they would give her a bunch of ninjas as security. 55:32 Why is Karin acting like she has military background? "Anything else to report?" That is NOT what a general person says. Granted this game is full of anime robots. 58:00 - 58:29 EXACTLY. She literally has a private squad that acted as the closest thing to a family she could get after freeing herself from Bison.

[@dariogonzalez8989]

Multiple souls inside a single body grappling for control of said body? That almost sounds like Ermac from Mortal Kombat!

[@toonman5099]

@@dariogonzalez8989 Exactly. It could have been such a cool idea but they barely utilize it in any fashion. The most you get is his alt outfit you get from his short story mode along with his regular outfit, but the way he's portrayed just makes it seem like he's an Evil Blanka.

[@ShockWithoutFear]

I never noticed how horny the camera angles really were in the story mode, feels like watching a tame Senran Kagura

[@vapersmith7859]

Somehow Max made this fun to watch because believe me back when I used to play the story mode in SFV it was...less fun when I realized this is what I purchased for over 60 dollars with THIS story mode..

[@Hexyvexy]

The character switching almost reads as a misplaced critique of the MK story modes the devs were probably told to emulate. In MK, you stick with a single character for a few fights (and those fights have multiple rounds). You also play fights where you win, and the lose by the story. By switching there was an attempt to have you always play the victor in any encounter. It doesn't work and just leads to a disjointed mess where sometimes the camerawork means you start on the right hand side.

[@michel0dy]

The best thing about this story mode is that it made me appreciate Rashid a lot. He's just the coolest guy.

[@RotaAbyssian]

As much as I like Rashid, I will never forgive the creators for crowbarring him into the reunion of Charlie and Guile.

[@SirLightsOut99]

I know a common criticism of this story mode is how all the fights are only one round, but I think what doesn't get enough of a highlight is how most of the music doesn't even add hype to those rounds. It all sounds like stock generic fighting music. There's no energy, so even the gameplay portions are dull.

[@cosmiccopy112]

Ngl if the Air Force was teaching sonic booms and flash kicks I’d join immediately 😂

[@dingob9637]

Gief should have the power of different bears from around the world. This is a part of his World Tour. The black bear, grizzly bear🐻, polar bear🐻‍❄️ and the most feared, the Panda Bear 🐼. Plus the ultra secret, Koala Bear 🐨 for Zief.

[@JBlazinVA21]

I'm sorry but the way that Urien just shows up behind her always makes me laugh 😂😂

[@killerzer0x74]

Rashid is like...the only normal speaking and expressive person in the whole story

[@nadiasolano504]

Last time I watched this story cammy was wearing an extra tiny micro bikini. Zero suit samus was in here as well as some KOF girls wearing absolutely no clothes. Somehow seeing the actual cast of this feels kinda weird to me.

[@rainierzx9677]

Coomer take

[@jorgeandresyanezcabiedes1119]

Wait what?

[@SonnyBCreative]

My favorite thing about this was finally being able to see characters interact with one another. It brought so much life to them. Dhalsim, Karin, Chun, etc became so much more likable.

[@rock85cool]

It should be pretty common knowledge at this point that most gaming publishers are paid off by developers. This has been a thing since the inception of Gaming News in the 80’s and 90’s.

[@lepusheart7857]

Rashid is so painfully shoved into every single dramatic scene and it makes the story even WORSE.

[@cthulhu888]

Especially when they tried to make him the comic relief for no reason, also his butler just hangs around but with zero explanation lol xD

[@prof.laytonfan764]

A shame because he’s a cool character but like 90% of the cast in story mode he’s just sorta…there.

[@firefly56embers33]

I like his character but they didn't need do him like that in the story

[@Kataxu]

If he just had a whole new personality and acted seriously, then he would be fine, but instead he is a cartoon character.

[@Hydrogue]

Guile is confronted by the revenant of his best friend, something with years of history and dramatic possibility, and Rashid just tears it apart in about two seconds with his clowning. The whole thing goes up in smoke. And hell, I like Rashid a lot, but there's no excuse for that sort of tonal whiplash.

[@MrBjnelson]

Max's reaction to this horrible story and glitches are the best. LOL

[@okapi_q]

Idk if this is an unpopular opinion but I really like the way Ryu looks in this game. I feel like the art style of SFV was made specifically for him, and almost everyone else was an afterthought.

[@FALL-LAFF-7477]

I kinda agreed tho. Clayfied figure like character designs are looks intentional for that one...

[@LazurBeemz]

Some characters look great in SFV. Ryu, Zangief, Dhalsim, Guile, Urien, Cammy, Chun, Bison, Laura, Balrog... Honestly a lot of the launch and S1 cast. But a total whiff on some other characters...

[@TerceiroMundista]

​@Max ⁺⓵⓻⓼⓵⓷⓸⓻⓪⓺⓪⓸ nigerian maximiliandood is real

[@lordvega3112]

15:00 this scene was censored in the final version. Originally, it would show Rashid's friend melting.

[@anonluxor470]

I'm so glad they gave Ryu a different look in street fighter 6

[@Malastare258]

The story is somehow simultaneously zipping from place to place in a lunatic fashion and glacially slow.

[@ComptoneroRifa]

That Cammy Thooooooooooooooo

[@krome4284]

"nobody talks to eachother like they are humans" Idk FF7R, and anime just in general, has this problem as well

[@assassin8636]

Uh that's how it is in the Japanese culture so it's not a problem including with FF7R

[@lovepotiondrunk]

Omg the dream sequence already had my cackling!!! 🤣🤣🤣