One of the reasons that SoulCalibur became my favorite franchise was that it had A LOT of single player content, even since the first game SoulEdge. Soul Calibur 3 is for me the god of single player content. And the Chronicles of the Sword mode is the best mode from the franchise, we really need something similar in SoulCalibur 6. Single player content in a FG is important, sometimes you just want to get fun witb the AI or you don't have other people to play in the moment, also the feeling of accomplishment whenn ññ unlocking something was really good. Nowadays FGs depend so much on online that once the community dies the game becomes useless.
Tekken 3 was one of the games i most played on PS1 exactly because of how good single mode was. I spend hours of my childhood trying to unlock the secret characters (and i did)
Dude thank you so much for this. I totally agree. I hate when people disregard the story and lore of fighting games and focus solely on the competitive aspect of it. Going off of tier lists to decide who their favorite characters are etc. The story and characters come first for me no matter what game it is. Even Virtua Fighter haha.
I missed the times where fighting games catered to both the casual and competitive scenes. Now it solely focuses on the competitive side. Which is what made Tekken 7 and SFV a bit bland for me. Arc Sys games and Soul Calibur VI did this right.
Ngl this is why the fightan community to me are up there next to furries in terms of autism. Everything is competitive, nothing and nobody is allowed to be or have fun. Bro just sit down and play games for fun for once enjoy the lore like there's a reason devs go thru the process of like designing characters
It's sad that Fighting games have dropped unlockables in favor of DLC. I loved going through an Arcade mode to get a new costume, or a boss character (even if they were just clone characters) or beating everyone in survival mode, or time attack. Not to mention all the extra modes that used to be included that you've brought up :'(
I prefer arcade modes where each characters have their own ending, instead of a big and expensive story mode where everyone is forced to fight between cutscenes.
I personally find original Soul Blade weapon master mode better than any similar modes in any Soul Calibur. You had unique missions for every character, unique story and lots of weapons to unlock, each of those could help you with certain challenges. Many hours of content using original characters, not those silly creations which I never liked. I also miss the days of unlocking characters in fighting games. When we had no internet and after buying a game were so impatient to find out if our favorite characters are gonna make a return this time among all those question marks.. Good old times! Thanks for the video, great topic as usual, love you man xxx
Yeah I feel the same. I kinda dislike staying in the past too much, but having to buy characters in modern fighters feels like a big step back from unlocking them in game.
I'm not sure it's fair to say buying replaced unlocking. DLC characters are something everyone would have loved in the old fighting game era. We even see some games including dlc and unlocks, like smash ultimate.
Always happy to see more recognition for single player modes in fighting games. Feels weird that even modes like team battle and survival aren’t everywhere anymore. Feels ESPECIALLY weird that arcade modes with endings are a rarity nowadays. Like, even Tekken Tag Tournament 2, a game with an even bigger roster than MVC2, had arcade endings for every character but Tekken 7 doesn’t have em. Recently played through arcade mode in Granblue Fantasy Versus and the description said “finish a series of battles to get to an ending” So I beat them all and................a still picture of the character eating at a table with another one, drawn in that “ancient scroll” style filter? That’s it? That’s the ending?
When it comes to fighting games I usually gravitate towards single player content and if the single-player content is good then I'm keeping that game for a long while especially if the story mode is going to keep me invested. But truthfully good single-player content and solid multiplayer have to go hand-in-hand at least as far as I'm concerned.
every fighting game ive ever own ive put 30hrs-80hrs because of the single player! not one fighting game ive ever own i played online for! if those games didnt have single player content i will pass on it without even looking twice.
What an interesting and important thing you've made. You see, the vgc talks about this alot, but lacks alot of people like you. It's interesting. Edit: first to comment on my favorite channel. I did it ma
The worst think is having to buy then for no reason I can understand why i have to buy then in sf5 (because they want you to buy then with real money its bullshit but at least has a reason) but why do i have to buy the characters in dissidia if i can't buy then with real money? Why not hide then in extra dungeons in the world map?
@@valletas having to buy characters with real money is a shitty way of making games and has no place in gaming, it's greedy and anti-consumer, one should not have to "understand" why they do it, they shouldn't be doing it in the first place....it's a failure in business.... this whole era of DLC is the worst, if you aren't having mountains of DLC hoisted on you it's in game stores or lootboxes and sometimes it's you pay for the game and have a in game store and have to buy DLC's making it highway robbery and it's crap like that that kills gaming....
@@Red_Lanterns_Rage It sucks having to pay for characters but that's the reality of game design after the 7th gen. Costs are high and fighting games are niche. If you aren't Smash, Mortal Kombat, Tekken or Street Fighter, you're lucky to get a million in sales across all platforms.
@@lipailong2 meanwhile in the 90's KI stood up to MK and SF2 and did well in arcades and on a single console.... consider that, on SNES a bloody violent MK like game kinda beat MK on the SNES and even beat rival games on other platforms??? and MS thinks nobody remembers?? if we didn't remember the 90's SF4 wouldn;'t have been a thing last gen and Soul Calibur might have died out past PS2 same with Tekken.... if Sega dropped a virtua fighter now I'd buy it....if the business for it was acceptable that is wake up man, don't believe the company line, it's greed pure and simple and I won't have a part of it....
@@Red_Lanterns_Rage Look at the numbers dude. Soul Calibur and Tekken damn near did die post-PS2. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and Soul Calibur 5 sold a fraction of what their predecessors did, their sequels also have a noticeably smaller budget. As successful as Tekken 7 currently is, it's sold half as well as Tekken 3. The genre is not as popular as it was in the 90s.
HOLY FUCK YES! YOU COVERED EXACTLY WHAT I HAD IN MY MIND! I've been looking into the singleplayer fighters few months back and went into a rabbit hole. You've covered almost everything I found interesting. Only thing missing here is Bushido Blade's multiple storylines. I'll add two more. Bloody Roar is very Tekken-esque, with cutscene and all. But it has a very interesting mechanic of transforming mid fight. Naruto Ultimate Ninja 2/3 on PS2 are very decent fighters that are IMO very accessible, even if you don't follow the anime.
yeah it's a great hole to go in.I also haven't actually played Bushido Blade yet, but I'm definitely going to. Never knew it had a story line though. People tend to only bring up how interesting the combat it is (which it is).
Straight up only three minutes in and I can already say great work! Keep it up, Thor! I suppose single player has always been there alongside fighting games's VS mode, since they always had that arcade mode. I've spent more time trying to be that then throwing the smack down in classic fighting games. Probably my favourite single player fighting game mode would be Subspace Emissary from Smash Bros. Brawl. Although, Brawl lacked competitively it sure was a complete package in terms of content alone. PS - Soul Calibur 5 had a really good campaign too. Still just fight 'dude, hours of cutscene, fight another dude' formula but I wasn't too attached to the series but it straight up felt like a dark fantasy movie and I'd almost say I was invested in where it went.
People dont give Soul Caliber 3 enough credit. It is extremely underrated, has the most content for the franchise. Allows you to make a fighter based on the weapon instead of just borrowing a fight style of an original character. Has lengthy military mode and other modes.... I could keep going.
I honestly feel that Arc System Works could learn a lot from the single player modes in arena fighters. It's a shame that most fans and even devs underestimate the potential of single player modes in fighting games, even BBTAG didn't have an Arcade mode at launch.
thats sad that blazblue TAG doesnt have that many single player modes. like, all blaz blue game possess MANY different modes plus the two recent guilty gear aka, sign and revolution.
Well, if it makes you feel any better, ArcSys made Granblue Fantasy Versus and that game has a whole beat 'em up single player mode with bosses and RPG progression.
Great video man! Glad you mentioned Tobal here too, been waiting to see this game get a remaster for years, much as I never expect it to ever happen sadly.
EHRGEIZ. This is the fuckin' game I played once at a friend's house when I was ten and tried to remember the name up until now, that I'm 24 and came across your video. Thank you so much!
i remember really loving the storymode in mortal Kombat deception. you had like a slightly jank open world where you'd do fetch quests and steal everyones move sets through training
The Budokai games were so good back in the day. Budokai 3 is still one of the most fun DBZ games. I'm not a big fan of FighterZ because I don't like team based fighting games besides MvC2, but it is a good game. Arc makes great games.
Im playing sc6 lately and ive been playing the oc story mode, mostly cos im not too confident to go online yet. (really wish my mutuals get the PS4 version.) Presentation is kinda hokey tbh. SC2's weapon master mode was weird but cool. It seemed like it had it's own story going on but it uses the main cast as avatars with the "characters" name displayed on the bottom. This was before custom characters. It had some stage conditions like slippery floors and mines that activate when knocked down. 6 was like a return to that, only you're part of the main lore and you get to meet (N' FVCK KINGDOM) the main cast. I didn't play much 3's tower mode tho, didn't care for those custom character classes, and the clothing sucked in comparison to the later games. I played Broken Destiny for the PSP, and it basically taught you how to play the game; how to fight against each character and to react to certain moves and stuff. It had a light hearted non canonical story to go with it, with the main cast acting silly, doing and stuff, like an omake episode or some anime's comedic spinoff.
Clothing stopped being good in SC V (or Broken Destiny if it came out earlier). They focused too much on silly items and the only pieces that looked good were skin-tight ones, whereas in SC III the armor looked at least decent and not like the remnant of a ghost floating on the character 20 cm apart from their body. SC IV had good looking items with a half-decent fit overall. It had some stupid things but not a whole third of it as far as I remember.
I'm so glad I'm not alone in preferring fighting games with tons of single player modes and in-game unlockables over esports bs, netcode rants, online grinds, and DLC I definitely enjoy playing older fighting games more than modern fighting games tbh
19:18 The fact that you referenced Battle Arena Toshinden, Killer Instinct and Bloody Roar in a single subtle paragraph is enough to make me subscribe to this channel Not that I wasn't subscribed already though, the Japan-only DS games and DUMB THORB already had me sold back then
Thor, I think you're my gaming soul-mate. Love every single video essay you've done so far and helped me explore even niche-er games as a result. Can't wait for your 1 million sub special.
Ever played story campaign in MK: Armageddon? It was the shit for me back on my ps2. It was a proper hack and slash with collectibles and shit. Still play it sometimes on an emulator.
Oh hell yeah, MK Armageddon as much as it's looked down on is absolutely packed with fun shit. I wish the newer games would bring back shit like Konquest, Puzzle, Chess, and Motor Kombat, as well as character creation.
the sp stuff in most of the mk games is really good,from the secrets you could get on the og mk games to the fucking chess mode from deception is the reason why the mk games are the most i have played out of any fighting game series edit: the def jam fighting games are also pretty good in this regard but they arent really traditional fighting games and more of wrestling games with xzibit
Nah, I've only played the first 3D graphics Mortal Kombat, and 2 weird ass spin off games. One was a game where you played as Jax, and the other was that sub zero platformer where I could never make it passed the first room lol.
@@thorhighheels wasnt that jax spin off called mk special forces,it was fucking trash,the epitomy of ps1 jank,ironically that piece of ps1 jank trash actually inspired a successor known as mk shaolin monks,the best way i can describe mksm is that its the ps2 mk games mixed in with power stone and the bouncer,its fucking weird and it has no right to be good at all and it also has coop,the only bad thing i really hate about it are the odd qte's,basically they are just rotating the stick for like 10 seconds and it really started to start damaging my skin and that actually happened so that's a memory
The reason for the interlacing on PS3 is because they are high-rez PS1 games. For some reason, when playing high-rez PS1 games on PS3 it has big interlacing issues. Tekken 3, Tobal, and Bloody Roar 2 all have this issue. Also, SC5 has better creation than SC6. SC6 just uses SC5's character creation but with half the outfit pieces cut out.
GELTONZ DUDE!!!! You’re the first other person I’ve met who feels that way! SCVI’s creation sucks ass. SCV was amazing. I could literally make anything that came to mind. Loved that.
The thing that hooked me about Budokai, was the capsule system... it was like a pre-cursor to gacha mobile games, but you didn't have to pay with real money, and could earn the money through the game.
Excellent video, as a massive fighting game nerd I greatly miss the more experimental and over the top games that came from the 90s, and always want to see new and better singleplayer content along side it. Soul Calibur 6 actually does a great job of this with Libre of Souls, so if you haven't played it it might be something you enjoy. Also you take that back, Sophitia is the best girl!
Good video! Also, while we're on the subject, tekken 7's story campaign was trash,man . Its basically 'arcade mode' but with a Shitty, convoluted, nonsensical story shoved in. Instead of that bullshit , the games single player mode should have just been a clone of soul caliburs brilliant 'mission battle' mode. Remember how much fun, variety and challenge that mode had? Well imagine that mode, but bigger, more expansive, and set in the tekken universe - thats the kind of single player experience tekken 7 should have had. I'm ranting here , but its gotta be said, tekken 7 really dropped the ball in the single player department.
I agree the DBZ fighting games were probably the best at giving great single player content most of the time. I avoided Super DBZ and Battle of Z because i heard they weren't too great. My favorites were Budokai 3 with the world map you could fly around and Xenoverse.
I really hate the notion that the only thing that matters in fighting games is online. If all of 'em had only that, I wouldn't be into fighting games, especially when many devs struggle to maintain a good connection across the globe so it's pretty burdening if you ask me. I've had the most fun in single player modes for SoulCal 2, Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 and even Skullgirls to an extent. Usually the better the single player content, the more I wanna get better at the game and have some mains down
Seriously Mr. thor, you should list all the bgms you used on the vid in the description. Really interested in them but i dunno the titles... Really like the vid!
@DejaVoodooDoll Didn't Fighter's Megamix come out before MUGEN and Smash Bros though? Either way, that game always gets a free pass for coolness in my book, just because you can fight as the FREAKING CAR FROM DAYTONA!
I actually love the quest mode in Ehrgeiz. Guilty pleasure for sure. Loved collecting weapons. Yu can do different combos if you're standing/walking/running/jumping/guarding. It's a lot of fun.
Great vid my dude. Lately I've been going back and looking up obscure/overlooked games of the PS2/XBOX/Gamecube era and I stumbled onto a neat looking title called Phantom Dust which I heard recently got ported over to Xbox One. I probably won't be able to play it, any time soon at least, but if you ever get the chance, I'd love to get your opinion on it as it seems up your alley.
I’ve never been a big fan of fighting games since I never really had any friends but I got super into Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring because of the roguelike rpg mode in it and obviously because of all the Final Fantasy characters. That was like the only fighting game I ever got into until Melee came out.
surprised you didn't mention anything from midway/netherrealm - they had some pretty awesome single player modes in the 2000s and are now pretty much the only mainline fighter with a large emphasis on story/single player nowadays.
the way people talk about sonic the fighters sometimesbtells me theyve never played Virtua Fighter or Fighting Vipers. Sonic the Fighters isnt a babby mash only game lol, its simpler than its relatives but the dodge mechanics and the barrier system make for an interesting game. also still good vidja, i play fighters mainly alone
I think the only things a fighting game single player mode need is: - A light story - The ability to pick any of the available characters - The ability to practice the game with the character of choice While games like Mortal Kombat and Injustice definitely do a good job combining a story with fighting game mechanics, I still prefer the old school way it is done. Tekken 6 and 7 both managed a single player campaign that 1. Didn't have anything to do with the actual tournament 2. Didn't actually allow you to properly learn the core games' mechanics 3. Was way too heavy on the story aspect If the main attraction, the story mode, does nothing to teach you the basic game mechanics, it's a failure.
Not always true. Many people do not want to be dragged into hand holding tutorials that you at times gotta slog through. Many people just wanna jump in and press buttons then figure stuff out. If they really really want to learn mechanics to git gud they would go to a tutorial mode and practice. A story mode has a main job, and that is be a good story in a fun game.
@@MH_Zard Tekken used to do just that, not hand hold you at all and allow you to play instantly. That's exactly what I was going for with the previous post. It's the later, story-heavy Tekken campaigns that you have to slog through, that do all in their power to get in the way of your fun.
Ehrgheiz is such a unique game i still consider it one of my favorites of all time. I actually sat down and beat it once I got older and found my copy I accidentally stole from blockbuster haha
I agree. I bought it for the FF7 characters, but I ended likkng the game a lot even the original characters from that game. But it really lacked 1p vs cpu.
I wish fighting games today focused also on the casual single player side. Too many fighting games today focus too much on the competitive scene. Which is why Arc Sys games and Soul Calibur VI are loads more fun for me.
I recently bought Virtua Fighter 4 cause I wanted to take a break from old Tekken games and I remember how everyone was calling V4 the greatest fighting game ever made when it was released. And like...the fighting is fine, the stages are nice, but there is absolutely _nothing else to do_. No unlockable characters, no side-modes (at least ones that feel like more than "arcade mode but with numbers), not a single shred of plot! You beat the arcade ladder and it's just an immediate cut to credits. Even the characters are dull (except Vanessa. She rules.) After Tekken 4 and Soul Calibur 3 it was a _huge_ let down.
a lot of arcsys games tend to have really good single player modes, most blazblue games even have a good 20+ hour story mode with actual writing and different endings, plus rpgish modes eith abyss in the later games, as well as score/time attack and a lot more, hell, chronophantasma extend even came with a fully translated light novel in its story area.
One funny thing regarding Ehrgeiz's Quest mode is the stat system. Depending on what you feed Koji and Claire, their nutrition will influence your stat gains each level. They actually show on the nutrition balance screen how eating meats of course increase your strength, vegetables increase intelligence, fish increasing defense (those oils for having nice skin eh?), and so on. It's a very interesting concept for an dungeon rpg by turning the stamina meter into a hunger meter that influences your growth.
@@thorhighheels just like you said around 13:50 how titles were seeking to reinvent the genre. Seems they were taking their own hand in dungeon rpgs too XD. Although, i'm gonna make a shout out to one game you definitely should try (but even more so it's sequel), Flying Dragon, it's sequel and twice as expanded game being SD Hiryu no Ken Densetsu. They are both on the 64, sadly the 2nd game never made it to america but I've done a big playthrough of it's story mode and some other stuff on my other channel Casual Combos. Sorry for the wall of text, uh....don't worry about reading it...just love this game a little too much, or experimental fighting games in general. Essentially, it's a Fighting Game RPG. You have dead or alive like combos and smash bros like special moves, it's all kept simple but you collect a lot of items that can be equipped or used which power up your character. And as you keep playing, opponents also come around with stronger gears which you have a chance at obtaining, and so on. It does get really insane and it's unbalance is also balanced in a very weird rpg esque manner but truly meant to be enjoyed as a fun experience rather than competitive, though there was an updated version of a 2nd fighting game from the playstation, Virtual Hiryu no Ken ported into the game that you can also play for yet another dead or alive-ish game with special moves and super moves you can cancel into. While the first game had extra unlockable super moves, the 2nd one just gave it all while using the story mode (retelling of hiryu no ken on NES) as a means to unlock the main character's final move and gain some sick goods. That game was actually balanced out to a degree in the way of having improved its engine to allow for sicker, longer combos and juggles, new moves, updates to every character (heck one character that sucked became the most deadly character), plenty of new characters and MORE crossovers from Super Chinese World (which you might know as Super Ninja Brothers), and a complete overhaul to items by adding upgradeable and level-able items via elemental spirits allowing not just greater stats, but special moves based on said elements starting with like, an uppercut for instance before turning into a projectile and then a full screen move and so on. Definitely worth trying X3. Jeez I am so sorry I went off about Hiryu no Ken on 64 but...it's definitely worth the look if you want a very awesome single player fighter. Sure, it gets a little repetitive here and there but it makes up for it with awesome unique characters, having items that even change the way you play (canceling into special moves, double jumps, etc), and having opponents that will piss you off with their gear setups (having ultra high defense or attack power, but that can be countered with them having a weak throw offense/defense or projectile offense/defense). You won't be disappointed....or you will I don't know.
Cool video for sure, but Mortal Kombat was conspicuously absent. I get it if you never gave the series a try, but you talked about other games briefly that you never played, so yeah... Mortal Kombat (and I guess Injustice) are THE games that push single-player content forward in modern day AAA-fighting games. So they should definitely have a place in such video. Also Mortal Kombat went crazy with its single player content back on PS2 with its own RPG-modes, kart racers, puzzle fighters, etc.
In the early 2 thousands me my brother were barely and years old we were breastfed on tekken and metal gear solid. Which honestly explains why I have such a deep love for narrative in my game and camp.
Hey, you leave Ehrgeiz alone. But every real fighter gamer knows that arcade mode is the real practice mode. practice mode to Learn combo's+juggles, arcade mode to effectively execute them.
Kensei: Sacred Fist (known as Bugi in japan) doesnt have a blocking mechanic; your character will completely dodge enemy moves instead also a cool extra mode where characters run on a "race track" on foot
Ah, Ehrgeiz, I used to love that game and the story mode too, but I never completed it. Fighting games were what I grew up with and I LOVED the ball game in Tekken 3. Dead or Alive is a good fighting game but they are lacking in other content. I've never played a DBZ fighting game and probably should due to how good it looks and Soul Calibur is always a good fighting game due to how fluid it is.
Playing fighting games for single player, spending a large time in Ehrgeiz's Dungeon Crawler mode but never beating it, Dragon Ball Z: Legends for PSX? Did we somehow have the same childhood?
Do esports actually do that though? I've always wondered about that. I realize that, for better or worse, the e sports scene has loads of sway regarding how fighters are designed these days (hell for Tekken 7 they were pretty much the bug/balancing testers) but it's not exactly a large group of people. I can't imagine that catering only towards the hardcore would be as lucrative as being able to reel in the casual players.
@@thorhighheels I don't have concrete numbers for this, but I think it functions like the Olympics or any national sport. Very few viewers play it professionally, but most of them watch or fund it in some way.
If you wanna try a fighting game with an interesting story mode, try Weaponlord. It also has some of the most unique game mechanics in a fighting game ever.
why do i remeber star gladiator being black and white i remember the conhead yoyo guy so vividly and the boss character from that game but its all in color 😂
Both are good. I'm rebuilding my old ps1 fighting game collection. Once Ehrgeiz lands they're next! But not psychic force. I really didn't like that game.
My main problem with fighting games is that there's barely any incentive to keep playing unless you have friends around, even with games that has an abundance of single player content. I just hope that Undernight Inbirth has good single player content otherwise I pretty much give up on fighting games.
Blazblue Central Fiction is king of traditional single player content and modes. 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.
@@SeventhheavenDK you are probably right, like, i would argue the arc system works added a lot of single player stuff in its recent game barring BBTAG while most other companies stripped that kind of content away sadly.
The single player is the worst part about DBFZ. The story mode is repetitive and it doesn't even have a proper arcade mode. The closest thing it does have to an arcade mode is a mode where you fight the exact same teams every single time. Its idea of raising difficulty is just giving huge buffs to the computer. It gets to the point where if you want to win you're practically required to score a perfect match.
This was much more of a brief retrospective of fighting game adventure modes than an actual explanation as to why they're valuable. For my money they're content I don't require an internet connection or current online multiplayer subscription to play. I echo the same sentiments about Soul Calibur and Smash Bros. that you did, and I'd also add that ArcSys has a history of including great optional offline content in their games, namely Guilty Gear's M.O.M. Mode which became Blazblue's Abyss Mode, which basically takes the fighting game combat that was already good and tacks on a loot system which unlocks stat bonuses and perks that can ultimately allow you to play the game on a whole nother level. Suddenly you can run twice as fast, quintuple jump, steal HP, inflict poison status, whip out your best supers mere seconds into a match, and all of this against enemies which are more than capable of the same thing. It is the biggest reason I go back to playing the game, and to think that games like Street Fighter V still manage to be successful with fewer characters, modes, and offline content with every new installment is baffling.
Well I tie it back together to serve to just that point in the end, but I see what you mean yeah. I went through loads of different titles for this one, and it's hard to find something that's descriptive, not too long wended or overly simplified, and also makes people want to click. I don't know a single thing about Guilty Gear btw, other then that Blue Water Blue Sky is a cool song, but I greatly appreciate the fact that it has something called ＭＯＭ ＭＯＤＥ.
@@thorhighheels Yeah, it's a weird name, it's short for Medal of Millionaires Mode since the loot in that game are "medals", Blazblue's Abyss Mode is essentially the same thing, but the idea here is that as you fight you're descending deeper into hell where the enemies get more powerful and the perks get better. Basically every 1-3 hits you land increases your Depth by 1 Level and every 20 Levels you fight a boss version of a character which drops loot, usually ranging from stat-ups, perks, to health recovery, or currency. Originally there were 4 "paths", Depth 100, Depth 500, Depth 999, and Infinite Depth. You begin encountering "Unlimited" versions of the character roster at 400, which are deliberately overpowered versions of the playable characters (slow characters are now fast, short range attacks now hit the whole screen, supers rip off over 50% of your health, and they basically have infinite power meter), but this was eventually replaced with "Grim of the Abyss Mode" where you unlock Grimoires (the source of the characters' powers) which are basically loadouts you can assign abilities to and have a Boss Rush Path you slowly work your way through where every playable character in the game has Grimoires which make their unique strengths even worse (Hakumen who's instant-kill is a counterattack can now spam it infinitely). It sounds daunting, and it is (GG and BB conventionally have steep learning curves to begin with), but it's lots of fun. If you haven't played BlazBlue yet (which is now basically GG with 10 years worth of improvements) I strongly recommend it. Don't start with the latest games, grab Continuum Shift Extend first, it's a much bigger roster than the original game, first introduces Abyss Mode, and features a multiverse-storyline (which rationalizes all of these ridiculous match-ups). My only substantial grievance with it is the Guard Libra system which is an unintuitive approach to Guard Crushing they eventually ditched in the third game which also introduces the Overdrive mechanic. Overdrive essentially grants the game those clutch comeback anime moments you see in DBZ and Naruto all the time; basically you have a Drive meter that when full awards you a "Burst", consuming a Burst in previous games either knocked back your opponent and interrupted their combo, or launched them into the air exposing them to your own combo depending on whether you were in the middle of being hit or not. In BB3 (Chronophantasma), the offensive form of this Burst was replaced with an Overdrive Mode which is a super mode unique to your character which has a duration inversely correlated to your remaining health. SO... what you end up with is a desperation/exploitation choice where you can consume a Burst to escape a combo or enter a powered-up state. The lower your health is, the longer you remain powered up, however you can still enter it briefly at maximum health. Now suddenly every battle can be that fight in an anime where the main character gets beat to shit, but can still eke out a win by going super saiyan at the last minute. I frankly love the mechanic and it's just another example of intuitive game design I see go completely ignored by the vast majority of games, both fighting and otherwise. Sorry to ramble.
i actually liked Enrgeiz, well mostly for the final fantasy characters, i wished they made a sequel with just those characters. I know we got dissidia but this game was fun.
What about Mortal Kombat Deception/Armageddon's Konquest mode? Deadly Alliance's mode was a glorified training mode for each character, arguably the same for Deception though tbh
You made me chuckle like crazy with Tobal's character Chuji. Because "chuj" means dick in polish. Completely immature, dumb and unintentional laughing material. Thanks (Also great video, as always)
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One of the reasons that SoulCalibur became my favorite franchise was that it had A LOT of single player content, even since the first game SoulEdge.
Soul Calibur 3 is for me the god of single player content. And the Chronicles of the Sword mode is the best mode from the franchise, we really need something similar in SoulCalibur 6.
Single player content in a FG is important, sometimes you just want to get fun witb the AI or you don't have other people to play in the moment, also the feeling of accomplishment whenn ññ unlocking something was really good.
Nowadays FGs depend so much on online that once the community dies the game becomes useless.
Tekken 3 was one of the games i most played on PS1 exactly because of how good single mode was. I spend hours of my childhood trying to unlock the secret characters (and i did)
SoulEdge single player was so much fun on PS1
I’ve spent sooooo much time playing Soul Calibur II by myself
Dude thank you so much for this. I totally agree. I hate when people disregard the story and lore of fighting games and focus solely on the competitive aspect of it. Going off of tier lists to decide who their favorite characters are etc.
The story and characters come first for me no matter what game it is. Even Virtua Fighter haha.
I missed the times where fighting games catered to both the casual and competitive scenes. Now it solely focuses on the competitive side. Which is what made Tekken 7 and SFV a bit bland for me. Arc Sys games and Soul Calibur VI did this right.
Rap Z.
Yes, precisely!
Becky C.
That’s cool! I need to check that game out. Hear a lot about it but never played it.
Ngl this is why the fightan community to me are up there next to furries in terms of autism. Everything is competitive, nothing and nobody is allowed to be or have fun. Bro just sit down and play games for fun for once enjoy the lore like there's a reason devs go thru the process of like designing characters
Joklet
Exactly.
The Ehrgeiz mode select... lol we all tried to spam that sound.
The single player quest mode in SC2 was my jam. Loved unlocking every character's huge selection of alternate weapons.
HELL YES
Single player modes in fighting games were rewarding and fun. Today not all games are making arcade mode a rewarding experience
It's sad that Fighting games have dropped unlockables in favor of DLC. I loved going through an Arcade mode to get a new costume, or a boss character (even if they were just clone characters) or beating everyone in survival mode, or time attack. Not to mention all the extra modes that used to be included that you've brought up :'(
wow i cant believe someone is actually talking about chronicle of the sword...
i used to love that mode
A lot of people talk about it, actually.
It was great and unfortunately never replicated in any mainstream game.
I prefer arcade modes where each characters have their own ending, instead of a big and expensive story mode where everyone is forced to fight between cutscenes.
Playing Tekken Force Mode with Hwoarang and Brayn 👌 Those where the good times
I personally find original Soul Blade weapon master mode better than any similar modes in any Soul Calibur. You had unique missions for every character, unique story and lots of weapons to unlock, each of those could help you with certain challenges. Many hours of content using original characters, not those silly creations which I never liked.
I also miss the days of unlocking characters in fighting games. When we had no internet and after buying a game were so impatient to find out if our favorite characters are gonna make a return this time among all those question marks.. Good old times!
Thanks for the video, great topic as usual, love you man xxx
And now you have to BUY the character to unlock him...Fuck this bullshit.
Yeah I feel the same. I kinda dislike staying in the past too much, but having to buy characters in modern fighters feels like a big step back from unlocking them in game.
I'm not sure it's fair to say buying replaced unlocking. DLC characters are something everyone would have loved in the old fighting game era. We even see some games including dlc and unlocks, like smash ultimate.
Great mode, a lot of content before the DLC era .
Always happy to see more recognition for single player modes in fighting games. Feels weird that even modes like team battle and survival aren’t everywhere anymore. Feels ESPECIALLY weird that arcade modes with endings are a rarity nowadays.
Like, even Tekken Tag Tournament 2, a game with an even bigger roster than MVC2, had arcade endings for every character but Tekken 7 doesn’t have em.
Recently played through arcade mode in Granblue Fantasy Versus and the description said “finish a series of battles to get to an ending”
So I beat them all and................a still picture of the character eating at a table with another one, drawn in that “ancient scroll” style filter? That’s it? That’s the ending?
People really pretending older FG had that great of a single player
@@captainmega6310 well, opinions about their quality are subjective, but you can’t deny that they had much more single player content
@@SOBEKCrocodileGod actually by much, if you're lucky
When it comes to fighting games I usually gravitate towards single player content and if the single-player content is good then I'm keeping that game for a long while especially if the story mode is going to keep me invested. But truthfully good single-player content and solid multiplayer have to go hand-in-hand at least as far as I'm concerned.
every fighting game ive ever own ive put 30hrs-80hrs because of the single player! not one fighting game ive ever own i played online for! if those games didnt have single player content i will pass on it without even looking twice.
@@thegamingspothd9557 you honestly missing out on most of the FG experience just focusing on that
What an interesting and important thing you've made. You see, the vgc talks about this alot, but lacks alot of people like you. It's interesting.
Edit: first to comment on my favorite channel. I did it ma
Kinda miss having to unlock my characters from playing, versus having them all or just having to pay for them.
The worst think is having to buy then for no reason
I can understand why i have to buy then in sf5 (because they want you to buy then with real money its bullshit but at least has a reason) but why do i have to buy the characters in dissidia if i can't buy then with real money? Why not hide then in extra dungeons in the world map?
@@valletas having to buy characters with real money is a shitty way of making games and has no place in gaming, it's greedy and anti-consumer, one should not have to "understand" why they do it, they shouldn't be doing it in the first place....it's a failure in business....
this whole era of DLC is the worst, if you aren't having mountains of DLC hoisted on you it's in game stores or lootboxes and sometimes it's you pay for the game and have a in game store and have to buy DLC's making it highway robbery and it's crap like that that kills gaming....
@@Red_Lanterns_Rage It sucks having to pay for characters but that's the reality of game design after the 7th gen. Costs are high and fighting games are niche. If you aren't Smash, Mortal Kombat, Tekken or Street Fighter, you're lucky to get a million in sales across all platforms.
@@lipailong2 meanwhile in the 90's KI stood up to MK and SF2 and did well in arcades and on a single console....
consider that, on SNES a bloody violent MK like game kinda beat MK on the SNES and even beat rival games on other platforms??? and MS thinks nobody remembers?? if we didn't remember the 90's SF4 wouldn;'t have been a thing last gen and Soul Calibur might have died out past PS2 same with Tekken....
if Sega dropped a virtua fighter now I'd buy it....if the business for it was acceptable that is
wake up man, don't believe the company line, it's greed pure and simple and I won't have a part of it....
@@Red_Lanterns_Rage Look at the numbers dude. Soul Calibur and Tekken damn near did die post-PS2. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and Soul Calibur 5 sold a fraction of what their predecessors did, their sequels also have a noticeably smaller budget. As successful as Tekken 7 currently is, it's sold half as well as Tekken 3. The genre is not as popular as it was in the 90s.
HOLY FUCK YES! YOU COVERED EXACTLY WHAT I HAD IN MY MIND!
I've been looking into the singleplayer fighters few months back and went into a rabbit hole. You've covered almost everything I found interesting.
Only thing missing here is Bushido Blade's multiple storylines.
I'll add two more.
Bloody Roar is very Tekken-esque, with cutscene and all. But it has a very interesting mechanic of transforming mid fight.
Naruto Ultimate Ninja 2/3 on PS2 are very decent fighters that are IMO very accessible, even if you don't follow the anime.
yeah it's a great hole to go in.I also haven't actually played Bushido Blade yet, but I'm definitely going to. Never knew it had a story line though. People tend to only bring up how interesting the combat it is (which it is).
Straight up only three minutes in and I can already say great work! Keep it up, Thor! I suppose single player has always been there alongside fighting games's VS mode, since they always had that arcade mode. I've spent more time trying to be that then throwing the smack down in classic fighting games. Probably my favourite single player fighting game mode would be Subspace Emissary from Smash Bros. Brawl. Although, Brawl lacked competitively it sure was a complete package in terms of content alone.
PS - Soul Calibur 5 had a really good campaign too. Still just fight 'dude, hours of cutscene, fight another dude' formula but I wasn't too attached to the series but it straight up felt like a dark fantasy movie and I'd almost say I was invested in where it went.
Thanks!
Whenever I get to the end of your videos I click away as quickly as possible just before the gunshot. Makes me feel like I dodged a bullet.
People dont give Soul Caliber 3 enough credit. It is extremely underrated, has the most content for the franchise. Allows you to make a fighter based on the weapon instead of just borrowing a fight style of an original character. Has lengthy military mode and other modes.... I could keep going.
I honestly feel that Arc System Works could learn a lot from the single player modes in arena fighters. It's a shame that most fans and even devs underestimate the potential of single player modes in fighting games, even BBTAG didn't have an Arcade mode at launch.
thats sad that blazblue TAG doesnt have that many single player modes. like, all blaz blue game possess MANY different modes plus the two recent guilty gear aka, sign and revolution.
Well, if it makes you feel any better, ArcSys made Granblue Fantasy Versus and that game has a whole beat 'em up single player mode with bosses and RPG progression.
@@gbrincks Yeah, but I hate Granblue Fantasy, so no thinks.
Great video man! Glad you mentioned Tobal here too, been waiting to see this game get a remaster for years, much as I never expect it to ever happen sadly.
EHRGEIZ. This is the fuckin' game I played once at a friend's house when I was ten and tried to remember the name up until now, that I'm 24 and came across your video.
Thank you so much!
SMT Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzonoha vs. the Soulless Army
eh, EH? *nudge nudge*
i remember really loving the storymode in mortal Kombat deception. you had like a slightly jank open world where you'd do fetch quests and steal everyones move sets through training
The Budokai games were so good back in the day. Budokai 3 is still one of the most fun DBZ games. I'm not a big fan of FighterZ because I don't like team based fighting games besides MvC2, but it is a good game. Arc makes great games.
Im playing sc6 lately and ive been playing the oc story mode, mostly cos im not too confident to go online yet. (really wish my mutuals get the PS4 version.) Presentation is kinda hokey tbh.
SC2's weapon master mode was weird but cool. It seemed like it had it's own story going on but it uses the main cast as avatars with the "characters" name displayed on the bottom. This was before custom characters. It had some stage conditions like slippery floors and mines that activate when knocked down. 6 was like a return to that, only you're part of the main lore and you get to meet (N' FVCK KINGDOM) the main cast.
I didn't play much 3's tower mode tho, didn't care for those custom character classes, and the clothing sucked in comparison to the later games.
I played Broken Destiny for the PSP, and it basically taught you how to play the game; how to fight against each character and to react to certain moves and stuff. It had a light hearted non canonical story to go with it, with the main cast acting silly, doing and stuff, like an omake episode or some anime's comedic spinoff.
@Simon Vermette I meant tower defense.
Clothing stopped being good in SC V (or Broken Destiny if it came out earlier). They focused too much on silly items and the only pieces that looked good were skin-tight ones, whereas in SC III the armor looked at least decent and not like the remnant of a ghost floating on the character 20 cm apart from their body. SC IV had good looking items with a half-decent fit overall. It had some stupid things but not a whole third of it as far as I remember.
I'm so glad I'm not alone in preferring fighting games with tons of single player modes and in-game unlockables over esports bs, netcode rants, online grinds, and DLC
I definitely enjoy playing older fighting games more than modern fighting games tbh
Beach Ball mode was amazing in Tekken 3 ! Such a fun time ! Bring it baaaack !
19:18 The fact that you referenced Battle Arena Toshinden, Killer Instinct and Bloody Roar in a single subtle paragraph is enough to make me subscribe to this channel
Not that I wasn't subscribed already though, the Japan-only DS games and DUMB THORB already had me sold back then
Loved Evil Zone and Destrega as a kid. The stories were so fun to experience again and again.
Thor, I think you're my gaming soul-mate.
Love every single video essay you've done so far
and helped me explore even niche-er games as a result.
Can't wait for your 1 million sub special.
Ever played story campaign in MK: Armageddon? It was the shit for me back on my ps2. It was a proper hack and slash with collectibles and shit. Still play it sometimes on an emulator.
Oh hell yeah, MK Armageddon as much as it's looked down on is absolutely packed with fun shit. I wish the newer games would bring back shit like Konquest, Puzzle, Chess, and Motor Kombat, as well as character creation.
the sp stuff in most of the mk games is really good,from the secrets you could get on the og mk games to the fucking chess mode from deception is the reason why the mk games are the most i have played out of any fighting game series
edit: the def jam fighting games are also pretty good in this regard but they arent really traditional fighting games and more of wrestling games with xzibit
Nah, I've only played the first 3D graphics Mortal Kombat, and 2 weird ass spin off games. One was a game where you played as Jax, and the other was that sub zero platformer where I could never make it passed the first room lol.
@@thorhighheels wasnt that jax spin off called mk special forces,it was fucking trash,the epitomy of ps1 jank,ironically that piece of ps1 jank trash actually inspired a successor known as mk shaolin monks,the best way i can describe mksm is that its the ps2 mk games mixed in with power stone and the bouncer,its fucking weird and it has no right to be good at all and it also has coop,the only bad thing i really hate about it are the odd qte's,basically they are just rotating the stick for like 10 seconds and it really started to start damaging my skin and that actually happened so that's a memory
Character creation would be really cool.
Holy shit, Crimson tears actually exists? I couldn't remember the title and was half convinced I'd dreamed it
The reason for the interlacing on PS3 is because they are high-rez PS1 games. For some reason, when playing high-rez PS1 games on PS3 it has big interlacing issues. Tekken 3, Tobal, and Bloody Roar 2 all have this issue.
Also, SC5 has better creation than SC6. SC6 just uses SC5's character creation but with half the outfit pieces cut out.
That would explain a lot. On my old TV they would display normally when on PS2, and (tobal especially) would look REALLY sharp for PS1 standards.
GELTONZ
DUDE!!!! You’re the first other person I’ve met who feels that way! SCVI’s creation sucks ass. SCV was amazing. I could literally make anything that came to mind. Loved that.
Soul Blade/Caliber has so much potential for the RPG single player, that viruta fighter attempted to use.
I think Tobal Quest mode needs more credit. It tried something brand new and I really enjoyed it. Great video btw
The thing that hooked me about Budokai, was the capsule system... it was like a pre-cursor to gacha mobile games, but you didn't have to pay with real money, and could earn the money through the game.
My favorite memory from soul calibur 3 is when I lost my entire game file from that bug and cried
Chronicles of the sword in SC3 was great....I also like the current Mortal Kombat/Injustice story modes
Competitive scenes were a mistake, that's what killed these modes in a lot of series.
Oh no! Devs are focusing on... What fighting games "fighting games"!
Shoulda played story mode of Rival Schools.
That game had two story modes; the arcade story mode or the School Simulation mode that was in the Japanese version.
i shall do just that
Anyone remember the sumo wrestler character from Ehrgeiz who’s ending was just him repeatedly eating ramen until you skipped it?
Excellent video, as a massive fighting game nerd I greatly miss the more experimental and over the top games that came from the 90s, and always want to see new and better singleplayer content along side it. Soul Calibur 6 actually does a great job of this with Libre of Souls, so if you haven't played it it might be something you enjoy.
Also you take that back, Sophitia is the best girl!
Any fighting game I buy needs a decent amount of singleplayer content, since I dont enjoy mulitplayer.
Even something as nice as an endless mode goes a long way.
Good video! Also, while we're on the subject, tekken 7's story campaign was trash,man . Its basically 'arcade mode' but with a Shitty, convoluted, nonsensical story shoved in. Instead of that bullshit , the games single player mode should have just been a clone of soul caliburs brilliant 'mission battle' mode. Remember how much fun, variety and challenge that mode had? Well imagine that mode, but bigger, more expansive, and set in the tekken universe - thats the kind of single player experience tekken 7 should have had. I'm ranting here , but its gotta be said, tekken 7 really dropped the ball in the single player department.
I'm glad Harada saw this video and listened.
I agree the DBZ fighting games were probably the best at giving great single player content most of the time. I avoided Super DBZ and Battle of Z because i heard they weren't too great.
My favorites were Budokai 3 with the world map you could fly around and Xenoverse.
Battle of Z is trash, Super DBZ is pretty cool. It's like Budokai by way of Street Fighter. Also Chi Chi's a playable character.
I really hate the notion that the only thing that matters in fighting games is online. If all of 'em had only that, I wouldn't be into fighting games, especially when many devs struggle to maintain a good connection across the globe so it's pretty burdening if you ask me. I've had the most fun in single player modes for SoulCal 2, Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 and even Skullgirls to an extent. Usually the better the single player content, the more I wanna get better at the game and have some mains down
Seriously Mr. thor, you should list all the bgms you used on the vid in the description. Really interested in them but i dunno the titles...
Really like the vid!
This reminded me of a dream I had a while ago that Arc System Works wanted me to fix their games’ stories. That’s all the detail I can remember.
I remember Fighters Megamix. I played it in a hotel in Athens in 1998. It was shit, give it a try.
It seems like my kind of shit though.
@DejaVoodooDoll Didn't Fighter's Megamix come out before MUGEN and Smash Bros though?
Either way, that game always gets a free pass for coolness in my book, just because you can fight as the FREAKING CAR FROM DAYTONA!
@DejaVoodooDoll Did you forget Fighting Vipers exists
I actually love the quest mode in Ehrgeiz. Guilty pleasure for sure. Loved collecting weapons. Yu can do different combos if you're standing/walking/running/jumping/guarding. It's a lot of fun.
They should rename Soul Calibur to Sole Calibur!
Great vid my dude. Lately I've been going back and looking up obscure/overlooked games of the PS2/XBOX/Gamecube era and I stumbled onto a neat looking title called Phantom Dust which I heard recently got ported over to Xbox One. I probably won't be able to play it, any time soon at least, but if you ever get the chance, I'd love to get your opinion on it as it seems up your alley.
Where did the tekken retrospective go. I have spent forever looking for it thinking I was insane. To the point I started to doubt you made one
I’ve never been a big fan of fighting games since I never really had any friends but I got super into Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring because of the roguelike rpg mode in it and obviously because of all the Final Fantasy characters. That was like the only fighting game I ever got into until Melee came out.
surprised you didn't mention anything from midway/netherrealm - they had some pretty awesome single player modes in the 2000s and are now pretty much the only mainline fighter with a large emphasis on story/single player nowadays.
the way people talk about sonic the fighters sometimesbtells me theyve never played Virtua Fighter or Fighting Vipers. Sonic the Fighters isnt a babby mash only game lol, its simpler than its relatives but the dodge mechanics and the barrier system make for an interesting game. also still good vidja, i play fighters mainly alone
I think the only things a fighting game single player mode need is:
- A light story
- The ability to pick any of the available characters
- The ability to practice the game with the character of choice
While games like Mortal Kombat and Injustice definitely do a good job combining a story with fighting game mechanics, I still prefer the old school way it is done. Tekken 6 and 7 both managed a single player campaign that
1. Didn't have anything to do with the actual tournament
2. Didn't actually allow you to properly learn the core games' mechanics
3. Was way too heavy on the story aspect
If the main attraction, the story mode, does nothing to teach you the basic game mechanics, it's a failure.
Not always true. Many people do not want to be dragged into hand holding tutorials that you at times gotta slog through. Many people just wanna jump in and press buttons then figure stuff out. If they really really want to learn mechanics to git gud they would go to a tutorial mode and practice. A story mode has a main job, and that is be a good story in a fun game.
@@MH_Zard Tekken used to do just that, not hand hold you at all and allow you to play instantly. That's exactly what I was going for with the previous post. It's the later, story-heavy Tekken campaigns that you have to slog through, that do all in their power to get in the way of your fun.
23:14 they are dabbing. Change my mind
Ehrgheiz is such a unique game i still consider it one of my favorites of all time. I actually sat down and beat it once I got older and found my copy I accidentally stole from blockbuster haha
I agree. I bought it for the FF7 characters, but I ended likkng the game a lot even the original characters from that game. But it really lacked 1p vs cpu.
I wish fighting games today focused also on the casual single player side. Too many fighting games today focus too much on the competitive scene. Which is why Arc Sys games and Soul Calibur VI are loads more fun for me.
"Stiff and Hard Physics" was my favorite '80s porn VHS
I recently bought Virtua Fighter 4 cause I wanted to take a break from old Tekken games and I remember how everyone was calling V4 the greatest fighting game ever made when it was released. And like...the fighting is fine, the stages are nice, but there is absolutely _nothing else to do_. No unlockable characters, no side-modes (at least ones that feel like more than "arcade mode but with numbers), not a single shred of plot! You beat the arcade ladder and it's just an immediate cut to credits. Even the characters are dull (except Vanessa. She rules.) After Tekken 4 and Soul Calibur 3 it was a _huge_ let down.
the adventure mode in mortal kombat armageddon was so fun
a lot of arcsys games tend to have really good single player modes, most blazblue games even have a good 20+ hour story mode with actual writing and different endings, plus rpgish modes eith abyss in the later games, as well as score/time attack and a lot more, hell, chronophantasma extend even came with a fully translated light novel in its story area.
But online came to live and everything went to shit.
Not really
One funny thing regarding Ehrgeiz's Quest mode is the stat system. Depending on what you feed Koji and Claire, their nutrition will influence your stat gains each level. They actually show on the nutrition balance screen how eating meats of course increase your strength, vegetables increase intelligence, fish increasing defense (those oils for having nice skin eh?), and so on. It's a very interesting concept for an dungeon rpg by turning the stamina meter into a hunger meter that influences your growth.
That's so cool! I never knew any of that.
@@thorhighheels just like you said around 13:50 how titles were seeking to reinvent the genre. Seems they were taking their own hand in dungeon rpgs too XD. Although, i'm gonna make a shout out to one game you definitely should try (but even more so it's sequel), Flying Dragon, it's sequel and twice as expanded game being SD Hiryu no Ken Densetsu. They are both on the 64, sadly the 2nd game never made it to america but I've done a big playthrough of it's story mode and some other stuff on my other channel Casual Combos. Sorry for the wall of text, uh....don't worry about reading it...just love this game a little too much, or experimental fighting games in general.
Essentially, it's a Fighting Game RPG. You have dead or alive like combos and smash bros like special moves, it's all kept simple but you collect a lot of items that can be equipped or used which power up your character. And as you keep playing, opponents also come around with stronger gears which you have a chance at obtaining, and so on. It does get really insane and it's unbalance is also balanced in a very weird rpg esque manner but truly meant to be enjoyed as a fun experience rather than competitive, though there was an updated version of a 2nd fighting game from the playstation, Virtual Hiryu no Ken ported into the game that you can also play for yet another dead or alive-ish game with special moves and super moves you can cancel into.
While the first game had extra unlockable super moves, the 2nd one just gave it all while using the story mode (retelling of hiryu no ken on NES) as a means to unlock the main character's final move and gain some sick goods. That game was actually balanced out to a degree in the way of having improved its engine to allow for sicker, longer combos and juggles, new moves, updates to every character (heck one character that sucked became the most deadly character), plenty of new characters and MORE crossovers from Super Chinese World (which you might know as Super Ninja Brothers), and a complete overhaul to items by adding upgradeable and level-able items via elemental spirits allowing not just greater stats, but special moves based on said elements starting with like, an uppercut for instance before turning into a projectile and then a full screen move and so on.
Definitely worth trying X3. Jeez I am so sorry I went off about Hiryu no Ken on 64 but...it's definitely worth the look if you want a very awesome single player fighter. Sure, it gets a little repetitive here and there but it makes up for it with awesome unique characters, having items that even change the way you play (canceling into special moves, double jumps, etc), and having opponents that will piss you off with their gear setups (having ultra high defense or attack power, but that can be countered with them having a weak throw offense/defense or projectile offense/defense). You won't be disappointed....or you will I don't know.
Cool video for sure, but Mortal Kombat was conspicuously absent. I get it if you never gave the series a try, but you talked about other games briefly that you never played, so yeah... Mortal Kombat (and I guess Injustice) are THE games that push single-player content forward in modern day AAA-fighting games. So they should definitely have a place in such video. Also Mortal Kombat went crazy with its single player content back on PS2 with its own RPG-modes, kart racers, puzzle fighters, etc.
How about BlazBlue with it's full on Visual Novel with occasional fights approach? loved that shit
In the early 2 thousands me my brother were barely and years old we were breastfed on tekken and metal gear solid. Which honestly explains why I have such a deep love for narrative in my game and camp.
Hey, you leave Ehrgeiz alone. But every real fighter gamer knows that arcade mode is the real practice mode. practice mode to Learn combo's+juggles, arcade mode to effectively execute them.
There's an NDS Bleach ( Bleach Dark Souls, sadly not a souls like )game that had a very fun offline story mode.
jojo herritage of futer has one of the best single player on ps1
Kensei: Sacred Fist (known as Bugi in japan) doesnt have a blocking mechanic; your character will completely dodge enemy moves instead
also a cool extra mode where characters run on a "race track" on foot
SMT Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzonoha vs. the Soulless Army
eh, EH? nudge nudge
The Ehrgeiz mode select... lol we all tried to spam that sound.
KOF have a pretty good single player content too. The story mode and trial mode are fun challenge although they can be frustrating at times.
Ah, Ehrgeiz, I used to love that game and the story mode too, but I never completed it. Fighting games were what I grew up with and I LOVED the ball game in Tekken 3. Dead or Alive is a good fighting game but they are lacking in other content. I've never played a DBZ fighting game and probably should due to how good it looks and Soul Calibur is always a good fighting game due to how fluid it is.
Playing fighting games for single player, spending a large time in Ehrgeiz's Dungeon Crawler mode but never beating it, Dragon Ball Z: Legends for PSX? Did we somehow have the same childhood?
Okay this is the first time in my entire life (31) I hear someone else mention Destrega!
Remember when fighting games cared about story mode? Also what happened to unlocking characters?
It's probably because of esports. It drives the revenue of a lot of games now
Do esports actually do that though? I've always wondered about that. I realize that, for better or worse, the e sports scene has loads of sway regarding how fighters are designed these days (hell for Tekken 7 they were pretty much the bug/balancing testers) but it's not exactly a large group of people. I can't imagine that catering only towards the hardcore would be as lucrative as being able to reel in the casual players.
@@thorhighheels
I don't have concrete numbers for this, but I think it functions like the Olympics or any national sport. Very few viewers play it professionally, but most of them watch or fund it in some way.
I don't
Tobal was actually one of my very first games and the first games I ever played
I couldn't even read yet lol
If you wanna try a fighting game with an interesting story mode, try Weaponlord. It also has some of the most unique game mechanics in a fighting game ever.
why do i remeber star gladiator being black and white i remember the conhead yoyo guy so vividly and the boss character from that game but its all in color 😂
I really need to play Destrega and Evil Zone. Specifically the former is like a little more indepth and 3d(movement) psychic force.
Both are good. I'm rebuilding my old ps1 fighting game collection. Once Ehrgeiz lands they're next! But not psychic force. I really didn't like that game.
11:15 Also did that as a kid.
My main problem with fighting games is that there's barely any incentive to keep playing unless you have friends around, even with games that has an abundance of single player content. I just hope that Undernight Inbirth has good single player content otherwise I pretty much give up on fighting games.
I dream about those Shaolin dummy fighters.
Give me your money!
@@beat-man5167
"no u"
This is it,chief
Blazblue Central Fiction is king of traditional single player content and modes. 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.
I don't think it beats SoulCalibur 3 to be honest.
@@SeventhheavenDK you are probably right, like, i would argue the arc system works added a lot of single player stuff in its recent game barring BBTAG while most other companies stripped that kind of content away sadly.
The single player is the worst part about DBFZ. The story mode is repetitive and it doesn't even have a proper arcade mode. The closest thing it does have to an arcade mode is a mode where you fight the exact same teams every single time. Its idea of raising difficulty is just giving huge buffs to the computer. It gets to the point where if you want to win you're practically required to score a perfect match.
Evil Zone is an unappreciated gem...
This was much more of a brief retrospective of fighting game adventure modes than an actual explanation as to why they're valuable. For my money they're content I don't require an internet connection or current online multiplayer subscription to play. I echo the same sentiments about Soul Calibur and Smash Bros. that you did, and I'd also add that ArcSys has a history of including great optional offline content in their games, namely Guilty Gear's M.O.M. Mode which became Blazblue's Abyss Mode, which basically takes the fighting game combat that was already good and tacks on a loot system which unlocks stat bonuses and perks that can ultimately allow you to play the game on a whole nother level. Suddenly you can run twice as fast, quintuple jump, steal HP, inflict poison status, whip out your best supers mere seconds into a match, and all of this against enemies which are more than capable of the same thing. It is the biggest reason I go back to playing the game, and to think that games like Street Fighter V still manage to be successful with fewer characters, modes, and offline content with every new installment is baffling.
Well I tie it back together to serve to just that point in the end, but I see what you mean yeah. I went through loads of different titles for this one, and it's hard to find something that's descriptive, not too long wended or overly simplified, and also makes people want to click. I don't know a single thing about Guilty Gear btw, other then that Blue Water Blue Sky is a cool song, but I greatly appreciate the fact that it has something called ＭＯＭ ＭＯＤＥ.
@@thorhighheels Yeah, it's a weird name, it's short for Medal of Millionaires Mode since the loot in that game are "medals", Blazblue's Abyss Mode is essentially the same thing, but the idea here is that as you fight you're descending deeper into hell where the enemies get more powerful and the perks get better. Basically every 1-3 hits you land increases your Depth by 1 Level and every 20 Levels you fight a boss version of a character which drops loot, usually ranging from stat-ups, perks, to health recovery, or currency. Originally there were 4 "paths", Depth 100, Depth 500, Depth 999, and Infinite Depth. You begin encountering "Unlimited" versions of the character roster at 400, which are deliberately overpowered versions of the playable characters (slow characters are now fast, short range attacks now hit the whole screen, supers rip off over 50% of your health, and they basically have infinite power meter), but this was eventually replaced with "Grim of the Abyss Mode" where you unlock Grimoires (the source of the characters' powers) which are basically loadouts you can assign abilities to and have a Boss Rush Path you slowly work your way through where every playable character in the game has Grimoires which make their unique strengths even worse (Hakumen who's instant-kill is a counterattack can now spam it infinitely). It sounds daunting, and it is (GG and BB conventionally have steep learning curves to begin with), but it's lots of fun.
If you haven't played BlazBlue yet (which is now basically GG with 10 years worth of improvements) I strongly recommend it. Don't start with the latest games, grab Continuum Shift Extend first, it's a much bigger roster than the original game, first introduces Abyss Mode, and features a multiverse-storyline (which rationalizes all of these ridiculous match-ups). My only substantial grievance with it is the Guard Libra system which is an unintuitive approach to Guard Crushing they eventually ditched in the third game which also introduces the Overdrive mechanic. Overdrive essentially grants the game those clutch comeback anime moments you see in DBZ and Naruto all the time; basically you have a Drive meter that when full awards you a "Burst", consuming a Burst in previous games either knocked back your opponent and interrupted their combo, or launched them into the air exposing them to your own combo depending on whether you were in the middle of being hit or not. In BB3 (Chronophantasma), the offensive form of this Burst was replaced with an Overdrive Mode which is a super mode unique to your character which has a duration inversely correlated to your remaining health. SO... what you end up with is a desperation/exploitation choice where you can consume a Burst to escape a combo or enter a powered-up state. The lower your health is, the longer you remain powered up, however you can still enter it briefly at maximum health. Now suddenly every battle can be that fight in an anime where the main character gets beat to shit, but can still eke out a win by going super saiyan at the last minute. I frankly love the mechanic and it's just another example of intuitive game design I see go completely ignored by the vast majority of games, both fighting and otherwise.
Sorry to ramble.
Wait,,,, what happened to the Tekken retrospective?
Psst also if you like dissidia NT, dissidia 012 is gonna make you cream rainbows
I dunno if I like NT cuz I haven't played it, it's just the one game I already had some footage of, so I used that. I like the PSP ones though.
The problem with nt is that they removed everything that made 012 great and instead they put the single player behind a pay wall...why?
i actually liked Enrgeiz, well mostly for the final fantasy characters, i wished they made a sequel with just those characters. I know we got dissidia but this game was fun.
What about Mortal Kombat Deception/Armageddon's Konquest mode? Deadly Alliance's mode was a glorified training mode for each character, arguably the same for Deception though tbh
You made me chuckle like crazy with Tobal's character Chuji. Because "chuj" means dick in polish. Completely immature, dumb and unintentional laughing material. Thanks (Also great video, as always)
Very good work
Weird question lol but was that "water" effect at the beginning made using nodes in Blender? It looks so familiar to me haha
nah its a weird default effect in sony vegas lol
"Archaeologists"
I guess that explains their very appropriate archaeological fighting stance.