Street Fighter V: Cinematic Story Mode

Street Fighter V released earlier this year, so I’ve already covered the basics of the gameplay. Part of being an early adopter was making due with a paucity of single player content, namely a bonafide story mode. Many players were none too pleased with it at the time, but we’ve received a couple new characters in the meantime and the cinematic story mode finally released last friday, July 1st.

Before I delve into SFV’s story mode, it might be best to take a second to talk about my standards. My gold standards for fighting game story modes are Blazblue Chronophantasma and Mortal Kombat 9. That being said all I’m really looking for are coherency and an interesting conflict.

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Street Fighter V’s campaign is no MK9 or Chronophantasma. Fortunately, that’s due to length and not quality. I doubt any fighting game short of Guilty Gear would match the all out marathon that is a Mortal Kombat or Blazblue campaign. The original story mode was more or less a teaser, introducing each character and outlining their relationship with other characters. It sets the pace for the main campaign, which wraps up the Shadaloo arc. All of the character dynamics familiar to veteran fans make an appearance (Ryu’s quest to get stronger without it consuming him, Chun Li’s quest to stop M. Bison, Guile’s search for his friend Nash, and more) with a few new ones introduced to the mix for good measure. The unification of the main cast for the final act and it’s resolution brought a fair amount of closure to one of the series’ most prominent story arcs.

I found it to be a satisfying experience. That being said, I do have one gripe. It’s understandable that everyone may not get equal screentime. However, there’s a limit to how little screentime or narrative influence you can give a character before you start to wonder what they’re there for (see “Matt” and “Jessica” from Until Dawn). It makes sense that characters like Alex or Urien get less screentime as their heyday comes in the next installment (SF III for those unaware). Unfortunately, Necalli one of the new characters, feels like he was relegated to being a plot device by which another character’s story arc is resolved.

Regardless, the cinematic story mode is definitely worth your time. I’m not quite sure if it was worth the wait, though. Street Fighter V is going to have a hard time living down the fact that it disappointed a sizable portion of its customer base at a crucial time in its life cycle. However, Capcom has done a decent job of delivering the content they promised. With story mode complete, 4 additional characters done and 2 more on the way, this is as good a time as any to purchase the game if you’ve been waiting for it to be “complete” before you you did.