Stumblebee Cloud, Dante, and Bayonetta were all considered for guest characters but were scrapped for various reasons. Two of those three made it in Smash, and Dante was rumored to be included when DMC was announced for the Switch.
Since online the single player modes have gone to oblivion. Sadly games who depend so much on online are useless after their online community is gone. SoulCalibur 3 has a fantastic single player mode, I even continue playing that game nowadays. Chronicles of the Swords, best mode in SoulCalibur franchise.
I love how modern MK games handle the single player, and by modern I mean from the PS2 era onwards. MK Deception and Armaggeddon had their very own "adventure mode", which was like a complete separate beat'em up game of its own with its own original character, where only the boss battles were played in the actual fighting game engine. The armaggeddon beat em up game was surprisingly pretty decent. Say what you will about Armaggeddon, but it's probably the biggesr fighting game ever just from its sheer amount of content.
*I remember the time* Singleplayer was all there is. Until someone else inserts a coin and the game goes, _"HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!"_ (Edit: 3:30 Oh you experienced it too. I see you are a man of fighting game culture as well)
I'm feeling pessimistic about future single player content. Fighters will mostly focus on the competitive aspect of the game because esports makes money right now. These days, I usually ignore single player content for fighting games anyway and jump straight to online but if Motor Kombat or Tekken Force weren't around, I doubt I'd have the drive to play fightng games competitively in the first place. What I'm saying is that I am personally fine with no single player content but at the same time, I wish there would be some good stuff for people who doesn't want to jump into the competitive scene.
"who doesnt want to jump into competitive scene" Man, sfv is a scam if you dont have ps plus or someone to play with... It isnt what you think, I'm a fan of sf, but the history Mode is just too short for me, but anyway, we have arcade and survival so it isn't so bad ;^)
NetherRealm and ArcSys have story mode down for fighting games. It’s always a joy when they release new fighting games because the story and lore are integral, and not just shoe-horned. Nintendo does it to an extent with their Smash games. I thoroughly enjoyed Tekken Force too, and wished Bamco did something similar again for T7. Looking forward to part 2 of this series!
Single player lately has discouraged me from pre-ordering fighting games. I wait 6 months to a year for enough content to justify an 80$ - 100$ purchase! It took 2 years before I could even justify my 2016 purchase of SFV!!
i bought SSBU the day it came out and while its my favorite game of all time, it makes mad how little single content there is, and good one at that, ive had more fun with SSBB
Some of my favorites single player modes were the rpg modes such as Abyss mode, Tower of Lost Souls, Weapon Master mode, and the mission mode (Soul Calibur 6) in my fighting games. If there's any mode I would like to see more of in the future, it would be Tekken force in other fighters. Just because I love the idea of playing as my mains in a beat em up. Also I would like a separate single player modes like weapon master and Chronicles mode from the Soul Calibur series in other fighting games because it's not only a RPG mode, but it gives you as the player your own story mode. It's like a table top rpg where you interact with the characters as your own hero of the story. Which is why I enjoyed the Soul Calibur modes the most because they give a story mode for the roster and you as the main character of your own story mode. BTW I just found your channel and I love it. Keep it up.
Thanks! Looking forward to making more neat stuff. And yeah I'm a big fan of fighting game modes that take their mechanics and put them into new genres. Like Ergheiz's entire crazy dungeon crawler RPG.
The old SNK games may have been onto something with the way their stories were structured; cutscenes were very short and only occurred once every 3 matches or so, keeping the gameplay at the center. Blazblue is wonderful, but its story mode can be VERY tedious with 10 minutes to an hour of huge text boxes between fights. It's understandable that most devs can't provide the insane production values of NRS, but what they can do is provide something snappy, short, easy-to-follow, and fun to play - something like an SNK arcade fighter.
@Shaman X The most memory-intensive part of a textbox is putting the FONT into the game's memory. After that, you can show text all day for basically 0 CPU cost. I think they paced the stories to be fast-moving because the whole coin-op ethos was about getting people off the game and onto the next quarter as quickly as possible.
I think Blazblue has became my favorite story mode after I did a marathon of the story of all games and crying at the end of the CF. One that was not release in West that I think was promissing but they never did again was the Rival Schools one that you could create a character and choose routes,customize moves and dialogue aside from the main story of the arcade mode.
@@InternetNinja100 what is it? are you just a death battle / screw attacks fanboy who is too dumb to understand a plot more complicated than super mario bros for NES?
I remember enjoying BlazBlues story mode immensely, even though I did not understand what it was about at all. Those bad anime cutscenes were just so attractive!
My favorite single player content has be the stuff from the PS2 port of Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution, It has player rankings and stats, items battles, and a really big training mode with lots of features, a deep tutorial mode which explains all of the game's mechanics and another tutorial called Tactics Advice which shows the player important strategies and combos for each character, it even has an entire encyclopedia which explains the meaning of many VF gameplay terms. There's also this thing called Quest Mode which tries to simulate the experience of going to different Japanese arcades and winning tournaments all this is against A.I opponents based on real Japanese players later on you'll encounter A.I opponents based on Top players with very accurate representations of their playstyles. You can also unlock many menu wallpapers for defeating specific opponents. You progress in Quest mode by winning tournaments and completing missions which make you use the techniques you learned in training mode after completing these you'll be rewarded with customization Items to customize your character or in game currency to buy more items, VF1 skins, win poses, or mini combo videos. In this mode you can also unlock more stages for VS mode which make a total of 36 stage variations as well as unlocking extra vs game modes like one where every move combos into anything. Also in the US version of the game in options you can find the "special" game mode which is basically a remake of the first VF called Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary which uses VF4Evo's engine and characters but has VF1 inspired visuals, physics and mechanics. Originally in Japan this game was a standalone release. It's a shame future games in the series don't have as much content as this one.
Dude, as someone who’s new to fighters (about 6 months in now) I really appreciate this video. I seen a lot of comments on reddit that a fighter should focus on vs gameplay rather single player content because that’s where the longevity is. But I think single player is equally as important. For someone like me, who is new but wants to exceed casual play, SP can be a place of experimentation and warm-ups. It’s a little more high stakes than training mode but still low stakes enough that I’m not overly worried about performance like online. Like it’s a great middle ground for trying new things and getting comfortable with combos and match ups.
I think Super Smash Bros has the most diverse set of single player modes and that's probably because it's a Platformer/Fighter, so it has alot more freedom to do things like Target Smash and a Adventure Mode that's basically a platformer with a fighting game combat system. The movement is Smash (being a platformer) gives it alot more freedom to do more thing with it's single player compared to traditional fighters. I guess what i'm saying is i would love to see fighting games blend with other genres to widen the horizon of fighters as a whole that would give us new interesting/fresh experiences.
@@mathunit1 What on earth? It's OK to disagree but you're being toxic. You're part of the problem. He's not even inaccurate, Target Smash and platforming levels are not in Ultimate.
Speaking of Smash Bros. from what I've seen, Ultimate's Single Player is the best one yet, my problem with Classic mode was that it was pretty much the same shit for everyone..... Fight a few characters, do a few solo challenges, Master Hand. but in Ultimate, they are well thought out which I adore
"Story mode without a Narrative" Really? Subspace Emissary told a perfectly solid narrative without any dialogue. World of Light is the one that doesn't have any kind of actual narrative or actual "story".
Then what the hell is The Outfoxies? Its a fighting game with a focus on platforming, stage hazards and ítems. Another one of a similar style would be SNK's Savage Reign.
No it didn't, you are just a fool who don't understand how storylines work and how MK stories work. You keep spreading your bullshit and lies at the expense of NRS/WB just to get the TH-cam profit. And you keep doing it for other franchises too and with not a shred of positivity at all, you are just praying on the negativity of others for cash, and that's pathetic.
@@RoyArkon Not seeing an actual argument to dispute my claims. You come off as just a butthurt fanboy over the fact that someone doesn't like the video game you do. Grow up.
@@The4thSnake You mean like how don't come up with an argument in both of your comments? All you do is just spitting lies and slandering, just like you do with your videos. Just by looking at the thumbnails of them it is obvious to see that you're praying on negativity, and in the one time that you tried to be "positive" with Liu Kang's MK1 Fatality video, not only you brought in Sugar Punch who is a fraud as well, but even from the title of the video you already used bullying tactics, calling everyone who didn't agree with you "stupid". I would like you to come up an argument of your own, since you are willing to counter mine, that is of course if you got any.
@@RoyArkon Well if you're going to start labelling people frauds without anything to back it up, it's clear you're not worth listening to anymore. Goodbye.
@@The4thSnake I brought more back up to my argument in my previous comment alone than you did to your argument in all of your 3 comments combined. All you did so far is self-projection on me and spewing lies on NRS/WB's story modes with no back up to it, and even when I challenged you to come up with an argument, you got nothing. You are the one who is not worth listening to, yet people still listen to you just because you pray on negativity just to get the TH-cam profit. End of story.
Great video. Very informative. Loved 16:00-20:00 and the conclusion at 26:12-26:30. Single player content is so important for fighters IMO if they are to grow or simply be financially viable. They have to appeal to the average gamer, not just the hardcore FGC. I'd love to see some data on what people spend most of their time doing in some of these titles such as MK11. Ultimately I want fighters to sell. I want them to be profitable. I want them to maintain a great core 1v1 experience for the FGC and competitive gamer. But it seems they will struggle with this alone. It seems to me simplest way to escape the niche tag and expand is by getting a little creative with the single player experience. As a bonus, I hope these games can then find interesting ways to funnel players into the 1v1 competitive experience that feels appropriately challenging and fun. That probably involves managing their expectations and educating them on what "improvement" as a player looks like, rather than just "you lost 30 in a row".
If I'm honest it bugs me the fact that Fighting Games totally made to be single player experiences like Red Earth/Warzard or The Ninja Master/Oni Yukihime didn't appeared in the video, but at the same time I can't think about when put them in the video, everything just works really well.
I think you missed Guilty Gear X2 and AC+ single player content. The story mode was ahead of its time. Using the visual novel style, branching part depending on your choice AND action during combat. It also had exclusive intro segment that affected the battles. Some battles even give you advantage like Sol vs I-no where Both Sol and I-no had Gold power. Guilty Gear also expend the RPG elements in M.O.M in X2 and then further expand it on Survival Mode in AC series. What you do was after a Dare Devil battle, you have an option to increase stats, give them special ability to your fighter. This will carry over to later ASW games like Blazblue, P4AU....
@22:10 StumbleBee: "The idea is to keep characters engaged" My friend I watched this video with: "Doesn't he mean players?" Me: "Nah he ain't wrong, I'm a bit of a character."
You know I think fighting game stories should take some inspiration from Until Dawn (if you haven't played it and like slasher movies I recommend it). Some light exploration, an emphasis on choices, and the idea that if you lose fights the story keeps going with that loss in mind. If it's a particularly violent franchise then they can have characters die horribly and stay dead when you lose. I also think it would cool to explore the area around a stage, maybe have some optional fights to find.
I loved sfv's arcade mode, even if the bonus stage is whatever, it's had so much beautiful art, and even remixed versions of the music from the older games.
Say whatever you will about the gameplay, the performance issues, or the style. SNK Heroines has by far the best arcade mode I've ever seen in a fighting game. Personalized routes for every every combination of characters in the cast, and some fantastic endings! Terry's ending in that game is the single greatest arcade mode ending I've ever seen.
Can you make more Guilty Gear content. That games my favorite fighter. Offers the best tutorial ever and probably the most complex storyline ever made in any game ever, it's like the love child of Final Fantasy and The Godfather.
"tekken 7 added additional modeS" ... NO they added just A mode. the worst mode of them all and also without multiplayer and also, those extra characters cant be bought with ingame money and cant train against them, basically forcing you to buy the dlc
Fighting games need strong single player content because if they only depend on online they will become irrelevant after the next game's release and the only people that will stick around will be veterans that will kick your ass the moment you press the "Search Match" button. Street Fighter V launched with no single player and now has more single player content than pretty much any game in the series before it combined. And very soon it's gonna have an even bigger character roster than Ultra Street Fighter IV. I definitely recommend it now for those that avoided it at launch because of how lackluster it was.
Single player content is so important to any game. Nothing kills my enjoyment faster and harder than knowing I'll have to play with/against some downright horrible people. I've met some awesome people, too, do it certainly cuts both ways
Dissidia and its sequel Duodecim kept me and a few others i know very busy. I enjoyed the hours put into that game. Melee took up a portion of my life too.
I always knew the name change lore between M.Bison,Balrog & Vega HOWEVER I didn't know anything about 04:56. From a totally different series, That shit was mind blowing.
Great video, I could play fighting games' single player content forever so I really like it Also at around 22:11 you said "keep characters invested" rather than players.
Really enjoyed this video as someone who has really enjoyed the way story modes have changed over the years. If there are indeed new episodes, I'd suggest having a look at how King of Fighters not only had arcs throughout the years, but also had characters completely change mechanically to reflect the story, like Kensou and Iori losing their powers and becoming different characters all together because the story demanded it.
Melee's Adventure Mode was great because of how it tried to reference or mimic the original games (at least, until the second half): Mario has a straightforward platforming stage, Zelda was based on Zelda II and was more mazelike, Metroid is based on the escape sequences, etc). Brawl technically had the more in-depth Adventure Mode, but I feel it's generic elements (the world, most of the enemies) hurts it and Ultimate's just feels iffy. As for unique fighting modes, The Tobal duology and Ehrgeiz (which you alluded to in the video) are pretty impressive in turning their games into dungeon crawlers. the obscure PS1 game "Abalaburn" does something similar, though less of a dungeon crawler and more of a level-based platformer.
This was a great video, glad I subscribed when I did so I wouldn't miss this. For me personally, I prefer the feel of a fighting game than mass amounts of content, but if you can do both (Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max) you're golden. Still play SfA3 Max today just because of how good the game feels and how much stuff there is to do.
Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V were and are an absolute disgrace. They took away the story mode from SF and the arcade mode away from Tekken and Tekken even had its team battle mode removed.... Why?! Also yeah there's a Tekken Bowl, but you have to pay for it. Ugh.
Exceptional video, this is some high quality content. Hopefully one day I'll be able to make something as valuable and engaging. Great job seriously you killed it
@@WikiHL wish more western FG youtubers talk more about SNK, really weird that arguably the most important fighting game dev alongside capcom is rarely talked about in the western side of the community
My guy, Soul Edge/Soul Blade was one of my first ps1 games ever, and one of the best ps1 games i ever played, hearing that opening cutscene song.... Good times Single player stuff in fighting games are awlays really good. Btw, whie you researched, did you find a cool single player mode in fighting game that you didn't knew, and it's actually really good single player stuff?
I'm content with an arcade mode that consist of more than 5 fights (Looking at you Tekken 7!). Cinematic Story modes hardly keep me interested. There's probably a reason why I'm firing up fighters on my AES system these days.
Persona 4 arena ultimax's golden mode was really cool as a game mode and fan service. Its levels were based on the dungeons of p4 and you even leveled up like you were playing a persona game
I love fighting games, but am usually disappointed with the single player content, especially with game like Smash bros. Mainly because it’s just modes where you play through it once and experience almost everything there is to offer. Kind of hope at some point, a game comes out where it could have a stupidly long story mode and other modes just for the heck of it.
Just discovered this 3 year old (as of today) vid, and man, that was great, very interesting! Also very comprehensive, great job. My ONLY complaint is that you used so much Ehrgeiz footage and didn't mention it by name once! The way it is it looks like that content was from Tekken. Oh well, still an excellent video, and I'm still super grateful for the reminder that game exists, lol.
I just wished MK11's single player modes weren't tied to being Online Only for no reason... I mean the game is essentially built off of Injustice's 2 foundation, yet in I2 *you can actually earn things offline* , unlike MK11. Hell, you cant even play the new Krypt offline anymore, and that mode is *100% SinglePlayer Only* ... Why the one from MKX can be played with no internet connection, yet this new one cant just shows a bizarre business choice from the exact same studio known for making good quality offline modes. Which I find a little ironic.
You can still player the story mode and the Klassic Towers (Arcade mode and Survival modes) without the need for online, you just won't be able to unlock stuff from them or be placed on the leaderboards. The modes themselves or offline, the unlocks are the ones that are tied to online. And the Living Towers in MKX also needed online connection just like TOT's in MK11 and the Multiverse in IJ2. And the Krypt in MK11 is tied to online so NRS/WB can use the Krypt events with golden spheres that allowed to unlock even more cosmetics and other stuff tooo, that feature would've been impossible if the Krypt wasn't online-only. All of those decisions are perfectly fine.
Blazblue Central Fiction has an outstanding amount of traditional single player modes and content. 1. Tutorial, 2. Training, 3. Challenge, 4. Story, 5. Arcade, 6. Vs cpu, 7. Grim of abyss (survival with rpg elements), 8. Score attack, and 9. Speed star mode. It's story mode is 10+ hours of content and is actually good. It's arcade mode is amazing, each character has 1 to 3 arcade mode acts, which also acts as a separate story from the actual story mode. There's tons of art, music, and character colors to unlock. A library mode that has 503 articles going over character back stories, organizations, terms, places, etc... It's essentially a Blazblue wikipedia. Central Fiction in total has 36 characters, 76 stages, and 94 music tracks to play around with. It baffles my mind that some fighting games can't even include a simple vs cpu mode, games like Tekken 7, mvc2 and umvc3, tvc, mk9, etc... have this problem. I mean the Capcom vs series didn't implement a vs cpu mode until infinite. Another problem is that while most fighting games include a vs cpu, training, and arcade mode, which is fine, they lack other modes like time attack, score attack, and especially survival mode. Some will include a survival mode but not a vs cpu mode, or it'll be a reverse situation. However Blazblue Central Fiction fixes all my gripes about singleplayer modes in fighting games. Other companies should follow Central Fiction's above and beyond example.
@@fusapplesjunkyard9723 No. Aside from the lack of english dub and the professor Kokonoe segments, Central Fiction is superior in every way to Chrono Phantasma. Central Fiction's roster feels as complete as smash ultimate's roster. I mean they have literally everyone. Jubei, Mai, Izanami, Nine, Es, etc... Everyone is here. Everyone also feels new with the overdrive gameplay addition.
@@fusapplesjunkyard9723 While it was neat to play with broken versions of the characters, you couldn't use it in some modes, I, myself and many others never really cared to much for it or cared about it getting cut. Some overdrives activate similar mars like gameplay like Hazama's, plus everyone gets a new super with it, so everyone feels a bit more fresh and revitalized.
@@gardevoirtrainer4526 I agree completely, even made a video about it titled "BlazBlue: Best Single Player Content In A Fighting Game?". Glad other people enjoyed it as much as I did.
Fighting Klassic towers on Hard mode is my fav way to play MK11. My win % is similar versus cpu on hard as it is in kasuals except way less jumping lol.
Neat video. I'd love to see someone try to do a full blown fighting game RPG single player mode like they did with Revengers of Vengeance/Battle Fantasy, only with a competent fighting game/RPG system. Guess looking back it was like World Tour mode from Alpha 3 on Sega CD.
The most recent version of Under-night In-birth has a story mode that's only written dialogue. Complete jump to the visual novel format. I've never played a BlazBlue game either, but I'm pretty sure that series is also known for its visual novel story format? The original Melty Blood also had a visual novel format for its storytelling- but the gameplay was extremely janky.
Original Melty Blood was more like a VN first and FG second. The story was an amazing entry into the Tsukihime franchise as a story but it also eventually turned into what we know today as Melty Blood as the gameplay got better, but the story never fell out of being a big part of the series. Actress Again's story is really good even if it isnt as straightforward as OG MB
Easily my favorite single player modes were the ones in the PSP games Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia Duodecim. Doing all the single player could easily take potentially hundreds of hours depending on skill and dedication.
1:26 You know what's weird and always bothered me a lot? The illumination in fighting games. Look at this shit. I can't even see what the fuck is going on. The only one who gets it right is the top right one
I remember watching a guy play 3rd strike and was playing the story run and fighting Gill......me being a young twat at that age saw that he was a round up and was going to win. I walked up and popped my dollar in......the face that I saw I will never forget. I got clapped by the way like the man was about to beat Gill on arcade
Great video. I'm surprised you didn't mention Tekken CGI endings and the later installments usage of interludes within the story modes(Ex. Tekken 4 and 5). Glad you mentioned SNK and Blazblue though. I'm always the type to enjoy both multiplayer and single player modes. I eel they offer a balance and I fuck with it. Much respek.
(p.s. I think my next video is gonna be about soul calibur guest characters so drop some of your favorite factoids about them right here)
Stumblebee Cloud, Dante, and Bayonetta were all considered for guest characters but were scrapped for various reasons.
Two of those three made it in Smash, and Dante was rumored to be included when DMC was announced for the Switch.
Dasaini water bottle
Two words
Character
Creator
When the next DLC for Battle for the Grid comes out you should do a video on it. It's the true successor to the 3v3 genre.
When asked why 2B use high heels yoko taro said and I quote " I just really like girls."
Idk how this got into my recommended 25 minutes after upload when I’m not even subbed, but I’m not complaining.
Probably because his views are stupidly high for someone with such a low sub count.
You don't pay for TH-cam premium. That's how
Since online the single player modes have gone to oblivion. Sadly games who depend so much on online are useless after their online community is gone.
SoulCalibur 3 has a fantastic single player mode, I even continue playing that game nowadays. Chronicles of the Swords, best mode in SoulCalibur franchise.
Chronicle of the sword is awesome
Games with really deep fun fun modes age like a fine wine (Soul Calibur, MK, etc.). Games that relies heavily on online community age like milk
Now if only Soul Calibur 3 didn't have the save corruption bug...
I love how modern MK games handle the single player, and by modern I mean from the PS2 era onwards. MK Deception and Armaggeddon had their very own "adventure mode", which was like a complete separate beat'em up game of its own with its own original character, where only the boss battles were played in the actual fighting game engine. The armaggeddon beat em up game was surprisingly pretty decent. Say what you will about Armaggeddon, but it's probably the biggesr fighting game ever just from its sheer amount of content.
26:31 Mentioning the "future" of fighting games while showing Heritage for the Future footage... I see what you did there
*I remember the time*
Singleplayer was all there is.
Until someone else inserts a coin and the game goes,
_"HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!"_
(Edit: 3:30 Oh you experienced it too. I see you are a man of fighting game culture as well)
I'm feeling pessimistic about future single player content. Fighters will mostly focus on the competitive aspect of the game because esports makes money right now. These days, I usually ignore single player content for fighting games anyway and jump straight to online but if Motor Kombat or Tekken Force weren't around, I doubt I'd have the drive to play fightng games competitively in the first place.
What I'm saying is that I am personally fine with no single player content but at the same time, I wish there would be some good stuff for people who doesn't want to jump into the competitive scene.
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max is still pretty much how single player content should be handled in my opinion.
Motor Kombat? Is that some kind of automobile fighting game?😂
@@SegaDisneyUniverse That's actually hilarious
"who doesnt want to jump into competitive scene"
Man, sfv is a scam if you dont have ps plus or someone to play with...
It isnt what you think, I'm a fan of sf, but the history Mode is just too short for me, but anyway, we have arcade and survival so it isn't so bad ;^)
@@X2011racer yes it is a masterpiece
NetherRealm and ArcSys have story mode down for fighting games. It’s always a joy when they release new fighting games because the story and lore are integral, and not just shoe-horned. Nintendo does it to an extent with their Smash games.
I thoroughly enjoyed Tekken Force too, and wished Bamco did something similar again for T7.
Looking forward to part 2 of this series!
It would be really cool if Street Fighter did something like Tekken Force, I mean Final Fight was originally going to be Street Fighter '89
FighterZ story mode sucked
yeah mk might have "story mode down for fighting games" but animation in mk garbage
@@o_oro-q1k the fan service was very fun to watch though and that was basically the whole story anyway which I dont really mind
@@WreckItRolfe it was bad but compared to ult, it was more fun
Single player lately has discouraged me from pre-ordering fighting games. I wait 6 months to a year for enough content to justify an 80$ - 100$ purchase! It took 2 years before I could even justify my 2016 purchase of SFV!!
i bought SSBU the day it came out and while its my favorite game of all time, it makes mad how little single content there is, and good one at that, ive had more fun with SSBB
It's kind of funny how similar yet different Killer Instinct and Mortal Kombat looked back then and still now of days. You can see this at 1:20
Some of my favorites single player modes were the rpg modes such as Abyss mode, Tower of Lost Souls, Weapon Master mode, and the mission mode (Soul Calibur 6) in my fighting games.
If there's any mode I would like to see more of in the future, it would be Tekken force in other fighters. Just because I love the idea of playing as my mains in a beat em up. Also I would like a separate single player modes like weapon master and Chronicles mode from the Soul Calibur series in other fighting games because it's not only a RPG mode, but it gives you as the player your own story mode. It's like a table top rpg where you interact with the characters as your own hero of the story. Which is why I enjoyed the Soul Calibur modes the most because they give a story mode for the roster and you as the main character of your own story mode.
BTW I just found your channel and I love it. Keep it up.
Thanks! Looking forward to making more neat stuff.
And yeah I'm a big fan of fighting game modes that take their mechanics and put them into new genres. Like Ergheiz's entire crazy dungeon crawler RPG.
Great job on this. Lots of fun to watch and very interesting to hear how some things went down.
The old SNK games may have been onto something with the way their stories were structured; cutscenes were very short and only occurred once every 3 matches or so, keeping the gameplay at the center. Blazblue is wonderful, but its story mode can be VERY tedious with 10 minutes to an hour of huge text boxes between fights.
It's understandable that most devs can't provide the insane production values of NRS, but what they can do is provide something snappy, short, easy-to-follow, and fun to play - something like an SNK arcade fighter.
@Shaman X The most memory-intensive part of a textbox is putting the FONT into the game's memory. After that, you can show text all day for basically 0 CPU cost.
I think they paced the stories to be fast-moving because the whole coin-op ethos was about getting people off the game and onto the next quarter as quickly as possible.
Kof 94 was the best/hardest game i played
I think Blazblue has became my favorite story mode after I did a marathon of the story of all games and crying at the end of the CF. One that was not release in West that I think was promissing but they never did again was the Rival Schools one that you could create a character and choose routes,customize moves and dialogue aside from the main story of the arcade mode.
also... gag reels and the phenomenal english voice actors.
@@sharzinlalebazri5673 Its really special hahaha I love the one with the love glasses.
@@Mclucasrv ragna is a goddamn harem lord (I.E an absolute pimp!!!)
I don't know what the hell you where smoking that made you like BB story mode but I would like some of that
@@InternetNinja100 what is it? are you just a death battle / screw attacks fanboy who is too dumb to understand a plot more complicated than super mario bros for NES?
Really glad this video started off with SNK stuff. Can never get enough of that.
I remember enjoying BlazBlues story mode immensely, even though I did not understand what it was about at all. Those bad anime cutscenes were just so attractive!
My favorite single player content has be the stuff from the PS2 port of Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution, It has player rankings and stats, items battles, and a really big training mode with lots of features, a deep tutorial mode which explains all of the game's mechanics and another tutorial called Tactics Advice which shows the player important strategies and combos for each character, it even has an entire encyclopedia which explains the meaning of many VF gameplay terms.
There's also this thing called Quest Mode which tries to simulate the experience of going to different Japanese arcades and winning tournaments all this is against A.I opponents based on real Japanese players later on you'll encounter A.I opponents based on Top players with very accurate representations of their playstyles.
You can also unlock many menu wallpapers for defeating specific opponents. You progress in Quest mode by winning tournaments and completing missions which make you use the techniques you learned in training mode after completing these you'll be rewarded with customization Items to customize your character or in game currency to buy more items, VF1 skins, win poses, or mini combo videos.
In this mode you can also unlock more stages for VS mode which make a total of 36 stage variations as well as unlocking extra vs game modes like one where every move combos into anything.
Also in the US version of the game in options you can find the "special" game mode which is basically a remake of the first VF called Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary which uses VF4Evo's engine and characters but has VF1 inspired visuals, physics and mechanics. Originally in Japan this game was a standalone release.
It's a shame future games in the series don't have as much content as this one.
Dude, as someone who’s new to fighters (about 6 months in now) I really appreciate this video. I seen a lot of comments on reddit that a fighter should focus on vs gameplay rather single player content because that’s where the longevity is. But I think single player is equally as important. For someone like me, who is new but wants to exceed casual play, SP can be a place of experimentation and warm-ups. It’s a little more high stakes than training mode but still low stakes enough that I’m not overly worried about performance like online. Like it’s a great middle ground for trying new things and getting comfortable with combos and match ups.
*Blazblue Cross Tag Battle: I don't need Arcade Mode.*
*Street Fighter V: Hold my Capcom Mug!*
I think Super Smash Bros has the most diverse set of single player modes and that's probably because it's a Platformer/Fighter, so it has alot more freedom to do things like Target Smash and a Adventure Mode that's basically a platformer with a fighting game combat system. The movement is Smash (being a platformer) gives it alot more freedom to do more thing with it's single player compared to traditional fighters. I guess what i'm saying is i would love to see fighting games blend with other genres to widen the horizon of fighters as a whole that would give us new interesting/fresh experiences.
This unfortunately is no longer true. Nintendo has discarded those great bonuses as if they were trash.
@@jokatech Fuck off.
@@mathunit1 What on earth? It's OK to disagree but you're being toxic. You're part of the problem. He's not even inaccurate, Target Smash and platforming levels are not in Ultimate.
Wyatt Overstreet they added home run and stage builder in an update. I’m hoping they’ll do the same thing with the other modes.
I honestly love the spirit battles, there are some challenging fights and you keep unlocking things.
Speaking of Smash Bros. from what I've seen, Ultimate's Single Player is the best one yet, my problem with Classic mode was that it was pretty much the same shit for everyone..... Fight a few characters, do a few solo challenges, Master Hand. but in Ultimate, they are well thought out which I adore
"Story mode without a Narrative"
Really? Subspace Emissary told a perfectly solid narrative without any dialogue. World of Light is the one that doesn't have any kind of actual narrative or actual "story".
@Shaman X It still has a better story mode than SFV
Shaman Xeed It’s a platform fighter. Deal with it.
@Shaman X what's wrong with being a man child, they're playing all the other fighting games why should smash be recognized less
@Shaman X lmao all of your videos are shitting on popular things, you're obviously a troll
Then what the hell is The Outfoxies? Its a fighting game with a focus on platforming, stage hazards and ítems. Another one of a similar style would be SNK's Savage Reign.
X-Men: Next Dimension did the cinematic story mode before MKvsDCU and did it better than any of Netherrealm's takes.
No it didn't, you are just a fool who don't understand how storylines work and how MK stories work. You keep spreading your bullshit and lies at the expense of NRS/WB just to get the TH-cam profit. And you keep doing it for other franchises too and with not a shred of positivity at all, you are just praying on the negativity of others for cash, and that's pathetic.
@@RoyArkon Not seeing an actual argument to dispute my claims. You come off as just a butthurt fanboy over the fact that someone doesn't like the video game you do. Grow up.
@@The4thSnake You mean like how don't come up with an argument in both of your comments? All you do is just spitting lies and slandering, just like you do with your videos. Just by looking at the thumbnails of them it is obvious to see that you're praying on negativity, and in the one time that you tried to be "positive" with Liu Kang's MK1 Fatality video, not only you brought in Sugar Punch who is a fraud as well, but even from the title of the video you already used bullying tactics, calling everyone who didn't agree with you "stupid". I would like you to come up an argument of your own, since you are willing to counter mine, that is of course if you got any.
@@RoyArkon Well if you're going to start labelling people frauds without anything to back it up, it's clear you're not worth listening to anymore. Goodbye.
@@The4thSnake I brought more back up to my argument in my previous comment alone than you did to your argument in all of your 3 comments combined. All you did so far is self-projection on me and spewing lies on NRS/WB's story modes with no back up to it, and even when I challenged you to come up with an argument, you got nothing. You are the one who is not worth listening to, yet people still listen to you just because you pray on negativity just to get the TH-cam profit. End of story.
Great video. Very informative. Loved 16:00-20:00 and the conclusion at 26:12-26:30.
Single player content is so important for fighters IMO if they are to grow or simply be financially viable.
They have to appeal to the average gamer, not just the hardcore FGC.
I'd love to see some data on what people spend most of their time doing in some of these titles such as MK11.
Ultimately I want fighters to sell. I want them to be profitable. I want them to maintain a great core 1v1 experience for the FGC and competitive gamer.
But it seems they will struggle with this alone.
It seems to me simplest way to escape the niche tag and expand is by getting a little creative with the single player experience.
As a bonus, I hope these games can then find interesting ways to funnel players into the 1v1 competitive experience that feels appropriately challenging and fun.
That probably involves managing their expectations and educating them on what "improvement" as a player looks like, rather than just "you lost 30 in a row".
We don’t talk about MK special forces...
About what? There was no Special Forces...
There was I even got liked by stumble bee that’s when u know it’s real
Mk special forces made me throw up 🤢 shoalin monks is better than that game
We also don't talk about about launch sfv...
@@Free-4554 or bio freaks
The little pause at 7:32 had me dead.
You channel is awesome! Keep up the good work!
If I'm honest it bugs me the fact that Fighting Games totally made to be single player experiences like Red Earth/Warzard or The Ninja Master/Oni Yukihime didn't appeared in the video, but at the same time I can't think about when put them in the video, everything just works really well.
I think you missed Guilty Gear X2 and AC+ single player content. The story mode was ahead of its time. Using the visual novel style, branching part depending on your choice AND action during combat. It also had exclusive intro segment that affected the battles. Some battles even give you advantage like Sol vs I-no where Both Sol and I-no had Gold power. Guilty Gear also expend the RPG elements in M.O.M in X2 and then further expand it on Survival Mode in AC series. What you do was after a Dare Devil battle, you have an option to increase stats, give them special ability to your fighter. This will carry over to later ASW games like Blazblue, P4AU....
Crazy to think many of us witnessed fighting game history unfold as kids and never realized it back then.
We were spoiled.
@22:10 StumbleBee: "The idea is to keep characters engaged"
My friend I watched this video with: "Doesn't he mean players?"
Me: "Nah he ain't wrong, I'm a bit of a character."
Lmfao pause the video on that timestamp and see if you can spot my 'correction' :p
Even in the early 90s, I saw a lot more single player mode on the cabinets in arcades than I did competitive 2-player play.
To me KI and Soul Calibur will always be one step ahead of all of the other fighting games out there. Great video!
This is becoming one of my favourite channels on youtube. Keep up the great work Stumblebee ^_^
Mortal kombat Shaolin monks was the best mk for single player
You mean adventure game, single player modes in fighting games isn't the same, and you could play MK:SM in Co-Op too.
Yuri is one of my favourite fighting game characters. Crazy that she started as a damsel in distress.
You know I think fighting game stories should take some inspiration from Until Dawn (if you haven't played it and like slasher movies I recommend it). Some light exploration, an emphasis on choices, and the idea that if you lose fights the story keeps going with that loss in mind. If it's a particularly violent franchise then they can have characters die horribly and stay dead when you lose.
I also think it would cool to explore the area around a stage, maybe have some optional fights to find.
I loved sfv's arcade mode, even if the bonus stage is whatever, it's had so much beautiful art, and even remixed versions of the music from the older games.
The original Killer Instinct is my favorite fighting game of all time
Say whatever you will about the gameplay, the performance issues, or the style. SNK Heroines has by far the best arcade mode I've ever seen in a fighting game. Personalized routes for every every combination of characters in the cast, and some fantastic endings! Terry's ending in that game is the single greatest arcade mode ending I've ever seen.
Every time I hear the ps1 start up sound , it takes me back to blowing hot air on a disk rubbing it and hoping the game starts
Subspace emmisary, so much memories.
Smash Ultimate, released in 2018, has A LOT of offline content as of the 5.0 update.
Can you make more Guilty Gear content. That games my favorite fighter. Offers the best tutorial ever and probably the most complex storyline ever made in any game ever, it's like the love child of Final Fantasy and The Godfather.
"tekken 7 added additional modeS" ... NO
they added just A mode. the worst mode of them all and also without multiplayer
and also, those extra characters cant be bought with ingame money and cant train against them, basically forcing you to buy the dlc
Yea I figured that was the case
Tekken 7 is garbage as a single player game
Fighting games need strong single player content because if they only depend on online they will become irrelevant after the next game's release and the only people that will stick around will be veterans that will kick your ass the moment you press the "Search Match" button. Street Fighter V launched with no single player and now has more single player content than pretty much any game in the series before it combined. And very soon it's gonna have an even bigger character roster than Ultra Street Fighter IV. I definitely recommend it now for those that avoided it at launch because of how lackluster it was.
Single player content is so important to any game. Nothing kills my enjoyment faster and harder than knowing I'll have to play with/against some downright horrible people. I've met some awesome people, too, do it certainly cuts both ways
Dissidia and its sequel Duodecim kept me and a few others i know very busy. I enjoyed the hours put into that game. Melee took up a portion of my life too.
Unlockables will always be a huge deal to me. Especially in fighting games, since I’m a loner and don’t want to work super hard to get better
I have been meaning to watch this for a while now. I am glad I did! You transitions are flawless and presentation is on point. Thank you for this.
I do hope that Them's Fightin' Herds finds it's way into one of these videos after they release it's 1.0
I always knew the name change lore between M.Bison,Balrog & Vega HOWEVER I didn't know anything about 04:56. From a totally different series, That shit was mind blowing.
Great video, I could play fighting games' single player content forever so I really like it
Also at around 22:11 you said "keep characters invested" rather than players.
Pause it when I say characters :p
Almost didn't even catch it in editing
Pretty much every action behind Harada is ¨Yo, that sounded cool and i wanted to know how much bullshit i can pull out of it.¨
well written and well researched!
great stuff!!
The video was a lot more focused than the introduction of the guest character video serie...keep up the good work!
Konquest Mode in Mortal Kombat Armageddon for me is Best Single Player Mode for Fighting Game I Ever Seen
Really enjoyed this video as someone who has really enjoyed the way story modes have changed over the years.
If there are indeed new episodes, I'd suggest having a look at how King of Fighters not only had arcs throughout the years, but also had characters completely change mechanically to reflect the story, like Kensou and Iori losing their powers and becoming different characters all together because the story demanded it.
Melee's Adventure Mode was great because of how it tried to reference or mimic the original games (at least, until the second half): Mario has a straightforward platforming stage, Zelda was based on Zelda II and was more mazelike, Metroid is based on the escape sequences, etc). Brawl technically had the more in-depth Adventure Mode, but I feel it's generic elements (the world, most of the enemies) hurts it and Ultimate's just feels iffy.
As for unique fighting modes, The Tobal duology and Ehrgeiz (which you alluded to in the video) are pretty impressive in turning their games into dungeon crawlers. the obscure PS1 game "Abalaburn" does something similar, though less of a dungeon crawler and more of a level-based platformer.
This was a great video, glad I subscribed when I did so I wouldn't miss this. For me personally, I prefer the feel of a fighting game than mass amounts of content, but if you can do both (Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max) you're golden. Still play SfA3 Max today just because of how good the game feels and how much stuff there is to do.
Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V were and are an absolute disgrace. They took away the story mode from SF and the arcade mode away from Tekken and Tekken even had its team battle mode removed.... Why?! Also yeah there's a Tekken Bowl, but you have to pay for it. Ugh.
Exceptional video, this is some high quality content. Hopefully one day I'll be able to make something as valuable and engaging. Great job seriously you killed it
You're kind of like a budget Core-A-Gaming in the best way possible. Sub and liking when I can remember, keep up the sick videos!
He talked about SNK. That alone makes him better for me lmao
@@WikiHL wish more western FG youtubers talk more about SNK, really weird that arguably the most important fighting game dev alongside capcom is rarely talked about in the western side of the community
1:56
Duck Dub Dub
from Fatal Fury.
(Duck King's theme)
My guy, Soul Edge/Soul Blade was one of my first ps1 games ever, and one of the best ps1 games i ever played, hearing that opening cutscene song.... Good times
Single player stuff in fighting games are awlays really good.
Btw, whie you researched, did you find a cool single player mode in fighting game that you didn't knew, and it's actually really good single player stuff?
I'm content with an arcade mode that consist of more than 5 fights (Looking at you Tekken 7!). Cinematic Story modes hardly keep me interested. There's probably a reason why I'm firing up fighters on my AES system these days.
Dude, this was extremely well done. And quality scholarship. Thank you for this.
umvc3 is my favorite single player fighting game
It took me a second but I died laughing when I got it.
Another great video. Awesome work, my man. Love your channel. You're like the Norman Caruso of the FGC. (That is a compliment ;))
That's a huge compliment! The gaming historian is that dude. Love his work.
Great video
The change from Arcade to home console is always interesting to hear about
Persona 4 arena ultimax's golden mode was really cool as a game mode and fan service. Its levels were based on the dungeons of p4 and you even leveled up like you were playing a persona game
I agree, golden mode is addictive , and story mode is pretty good too (especially the P3 and Adachi's story mode)
I love fighting games, but am usually disappointed with the single player content, especially with game like Smash bros. Mainly because it’s just modes where you play through it once and experience almost everything there is to offer. Kind of hope at some point, a game comes out where it could have a stupidly long story mode and other modes just for the heck of it.
9:50 is amazing TO SHINE! Maximilian DOOD
I THOUGHT THE SAME
This is very cool
keep up the good work
Just discovered this 3 year old (as of today) vid, and man, that was great, very interesting! Also very comprehensive, great job. My ONLY complaint is that you used so much Ehrgeiz footage and didn't mention it by name once! The way it is it looks like that content was from Tekken. Oh well, still an excellent video, and I'm still super grateful for the reminder that game exists, lol.
Great video. I'd love to see something on the development of single player AI development over time.
Ggxxac+r has the best survival mode ever
I just wished MK11's single player modes weren't tied to being Online Only for no reason...
I mean the game is essentially built off of Injustice's 2 foundation, yet in I2 *you can actually earn things offline* , unlike MK11. Hell, you cant even play the new Krypt offline anymore, and that mode is *100% SinglePlayer Only* ... Why the one from MKX can be played with no internet connection, yet this new one cant just shows a bizarre business choice from the exact same studio known for making good quality offline modes. Which I find a little ironic.
You can still player the story mode and the Klassic Towers (Arcade mode and Survival modes) without the need for online, you just won't be able to unlock stuff from them or be placed on the leaderboards. The modes themselves or offline, the unlocks are the ones that are tied to online. And the Living Towers in MKX also needed online connection just like TOT's in MK11 and the Multiverse in IJ2. And the Krypt in MK11 is tied to online so NRS/WB can use the Krypt events with golden spheres that allowed to unlock even more cosmetics and other stuff tooo, that feature would've been impossible if the Krypt wasn't online-only. All of those decisions are perfectly fine.
your videos are awesome
Thank you!
Smash single player is really fun. Spirits was cool but I wish it was a bit more like Subspace
World of Light was a disappointment.. should've been in the vain of Subspace
Can't wait to see how your channel is going to grow. Excellent content
To this day no FG can match the ingenuity of Project Justice's story mode.
RIval schools had more single player content first so much it needed 2 disc's my favorite was the soccer mode lol
It definitely doesn't have the amount of single player content SoulCalibur 3 has.
10:31 was that a wave dash to Spinning kick ?!
Ah, this is a very important topic IMO. Looking forward to watching!
eyy, it's BornFree! Thanks for checking the video out!
Blazblue Central Fiction has an outstanding amount of traditional single player modes and content. 1. Tutorial, 2. Training, 3. Challenge, 4. Story, 5. Arcade, 6. Vs cpu, 7. Grim of abyss (survival with rpg elements), 8. Score attack, and 9. Speed star mode. It's story mode is 10+ hours of content and is actually good. It's arcade mode is amazing, each character has 1 to 3 arcade mode acts, which also acts as a separate story from the actual story mode. There's tons of art, music, and character colors to unlock. A library mode that has 503 articles going over character back stories, organizations, terms, places, etc... It's essentially a Blazblue wikipedia. Central Fiction in total has 36 characters, 76 stages, and 94 music tracks to play around with. It baffles my mind that some fighting games can't even include a simple vs cpu mode, games like Tekken 7, mvc2 and umvc3, tvc, mk9, etc... have this problem. I mean the Capcom vs series didn't implement a vs cpu mode until infinite. Another problem is that while most fighting games include a vs cpu, training, and arcade mode, which is fine, they lack other modes like time attack, score attack, and especially survival mode. Some will include a survival mode but not a vs cpu mode, or it'll be a reverse situation. However Blazblue Central Fiction fixes all my gripes about singleplayer modes in fighting games. Other companies should follow Central Fiction's above and beyond example.
Not as good as bbcp's single player content
@@fusapplesjunkyard9723 No. Aside from the lack of english dub and the professor Kokonoe segments, Central Fiction is superior in every way to Chrono Phantasma. Central Fiction's roster feels as complete as smash ultimate's roster. I mean they have literally everyone. Jubei, Mai, Izanami, Nine, Es, etc... Everyone is here. Everyone also feels new with the overdrive gameplay addition.
@@gardevoirtrainer4526 >no unlimited mars mode
@@fusapplesjunkyard9723 While it was neat to play with broken versions of the characters, you couldn't use it in some modes, I, myself and many others never really cared to much for it or cared about it getting cut. Some overdrives activate similar mars like gameplay like Hazama's, plus everyone gets a new super with it, so everyone feels a bit more fresh and revitalized.
@@gardevoirtrainer4526 I agree completely, even made a video about it titled "BlazBlue: Best Single Player Content In A Fighting Game?". Glad other people enjoyed it as much as I did.
I heard that Glacius track you slipped in there.. you thought I wouldn't notice, but I did!
Fighting Klassic towers on Hard mode is my fav way to play MK11. My win % is similar versus cpu on hard as it is in kasuals except way less jumping lol.
Man, Melee and Soulcalibur 2 still prevailing as two of the best video game sequels of all time all these years later. Absolute legends!
Fighting games are historically really good with sequels. SSBM, SC2, Street Fighter 2, GGXrD Rev 2... seems to be a trend.
Stumblebee How right you are! Thanks for the incredible videos as well, Max sure unearthed a gem for us!
Neat video. I'd love to see someone try to do a full blown fighting game RPG single player mode like they did with Revengers of Vengeance/Battle Fantasy, only with a competent fighting game/RPG system. Guess looking back it was like World Tour mode from Alpha 3 on Sega CD.
I LOVED me some World Tour Mode in Street Fighter Alpha 3!
The most recent version of Under-night In-birth has a story mode that's only written dialogue. Complete jump to the visual novel format. I've never played a BlazBlue game either, but I'm pretty sure that series is also known for its visual novel story format? The original Melty Blood also had a visual novel format for its storytelling- but the gameplay was extremely janky.
Original Melty Blood was more like a VN first and FG second. The story was an amazing entry into the Tsukihime franchise as a story but it also eventually turned into what we know today as Melty Blood as the gameplay got better, but the story never fell out of being a big part of the series. Actress Again's story is really good even if it isnt as straightforward as OG MB
Easily my favorite single player modes were the ones in the PSP games Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia Duodecim. Doing all the single player could easily take potentially hundreds of hours depending on skill and dedication.
1:26 You know what's weird and always bothered me a lot? The illumination in fighting games. Look at this shit. I can't even see what the fuck is going on. The only one who gets it right is the top right one
I remember watching a guy play 3rd strike and was playing the story run and fighting Gill......me being a young twat at that age saw that he was a round up and was going to win. I walked up and popped my dollar in......the face that I saw I will never forget. I got clapped by the way like the man was about to beat Gill on arcade
You Chose some good ass Music for this video
Those Bushido Blade games had great single player material too.
I got irrationally pissed when I saw Monster Hunter World shown in the "Games as a service" section
Great & very well done video!
My favorite fighting game single player mode is either the subspace emissary or injustice 2. I don't really have a least favorite.
Great video. I'm surprised you didn't mention Tekken CGI endings and the later installments usage of interludes within the story modes(Ex. Tekken 4 and 5). Glad you mentioned SNK and Blazblue though. I'm always the type to enjoy both multiplayer and single player modes. I eel they offer a balance and I fuck with it. Much respek.
Chess Kombat is awesome! I played so much of that mode.