Can a truly original story even work?

[Saiga]

Since most games have served the same Raditz to Boo story for years, I've seen plenty of fans wish the games included more original stories in them. It's something I want to see myself as well, but I've been thinking about how that would happen and I'm wondering if the fandom at large would even accept that.

Dragon Ball games seem to have fallen into a rut where roster size, and roster choice, can seriously hurt a given game's reputation before it is even released. Many times we see complaints about a single specific character being excluded, and a lot of the time it's reasonable to expect such characters when all games rehash the same story.

Even in the games that try something other than Raditz - Boo, we haven't had completely original stories but presenting an existing story with a new twist. Xenoverse injected some new content into Raditz to Boo (including Beerus), Shin Budokai did an adaptation of Fusion Reborn as the entire story, and Shin Budokai Another Road recycled the Boo arc in the future timeline. In the case of the Shin Budokai games, their plots were structured in order to include every playable character which made them extremely messy. The roster ended up shaping the story.

But if a game presented a truly original story, without allowing the plot to be shaped by characters considered to be staples in other games, it would mean a lot of fan favorites would no longer be a sure inclusion. Also, it could mean the roster is much tighter, as it doesn't need to represent all of Z + possibly movies/GT/DB. Given how quickly games are judged on these aspects, would fans even give this hypothetical game a chance? Do you think the fanbase at large, the majority that keep the games profitable, would appreciate the differences leading to previous staples no longer being necessary in the games?

I just don't think they would. I don't see fans taking too kindly to seeing characters they don't recognize taking the place of their old favorites, even if they wouldn't fit the story at all. Roster has become such a huge concern that I don't think the fandom can move past it.

Thoughts?

[VegettoEX]

Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans on the Famicom in 1993 was an original story. It can work just fine - they just choose not to, likely because of the modern day untested viability of "completely truly original" content. Overall, people seem to be fine with sequel after sequel that refines the same thing and same story over and over. Putting development time and creation resources into an untested, original story in today's gaming financial environment is likely just too risky of a move for them.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Those who live and die by the roster (AKA "Sub-154 characters, no buy") often come off as not understanding prioritizing in game design, and usually buy the game anyway. I would not worry about them.

VegettoEX is right, as rigid as Dragon Ball's story is, that has never stopped Toei from taking a time period, throwing in a new character or three and calling it a movie. It would be- and has been- no different for games. The question is if the developer can devise a game structure and combat system to suit it, which concerns me far more.

[FoolsGil]

Xenoverse had a semi original story, as did Ultimate Tenkaichi. I think we as fans are ready for a full on original special.

Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans on the Famicom in 1993 was an original story. It can work just fine - they just choose not to, likely because of the modern day untested viability of "completely truly original" content. Overall, people seem to be fine with sequel after sequel that refines the same thing and same story over and over. Putting development time and creation resources into an untested, original story in today's gaming financial environment is likely just too risky of a move for them.

I disagree. It would be different if the original story was for an RPG, or a QTE(like I want) where whoever's in charge would question if players would even want an original story with a genre that is experimental or won't make as much money as a fighting game. But rarely does anyone care about story in a fighting game. (Blazblue aside) Fighting is what matters, so they could go without a story, go with the same story, or give an original story and as long as the fighting aspect is top notch, profit will be made.

[JulieYBM]

I do wish we had a new, original story. Saiya-jin Zetsu Metsu Keikaku was a start and XenoVerse is getting closer. An original story would require a bigger marketing push, which might be a financial disincentive given how much games cost to make these days and the general climate around licensed games.

[MCDaveG]

It can, the trouble is, most of the original stories are bad writing work and end up like a boring filler in Japanese games.
I remember playing some Naruto on PSP with some 100 stories castle. At 27th floor, I thought I'll die from boredom.

I don't remember playing any other original story game, only heard about some, but I loved Saiyajin zetsu-metsu-whatever footage since I've downloaded it as a kid from Kazaa (In the most awful quality possible).
Xenoverse also had quite ''good'' (hell, it was like not mediocre, but close and fun for a DB fan) story and I won't be against something more like that.

[theoriginalbilis]

I'd be totally cool with an 90's Toei movie approach: "Screw continuity! New characters, settings, and attacks."

XenoVerse is a step in the right direction, it felt closer to a really fleshed-out fanfic than an brand new story though... However, I'd love the sequel to literally have us play through the DragonBall Online story beat-for-beat. Lots of interesting developments there, that we never got to see internationally.

[TokiTokiZobaZoba]

I think that Xenoverse 2 needs an original story, or at least content not covered in the original. The one thought that came to me after I completed Story Mode was "Okay, so what are they gonna do for the sequel?". I'm sure others aside from myself will be at least slightly perturbed if Xenoverse 2 goes back over the whole 'Raditz to Buu' thing for a second time. Even if the way it's done is different in terms of storytelling, at its core, it would still be the same thing we've had for years.

Boardgame aside, I thought the little story differences they added into Budokai 2 were interesting (Babidi reviving Freeza and Cell under his control, with the two of them eventually becoming absorption fodder for Super Buu), and the story concept for Shin Budokai 2 (Majin Buu arc in Trunks’ era) was really cool, unfortunately ruined by having to fit the roster into the story some way. Having Trunks just resort to bringing Goku and the others along from the other timeline was just lazy storytelling, in my opinion.

Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans on the Famicom in 1993 was an original story. It can work just fine - they just choose not to, likely because of the modern day untested viability of "completely truly original" content. Putting development time and creation resources into an untested, original story in today's gaming financial environment is likely just too risky of a move for them.

100% agree. My thinking is if the roster was built around the story, there'd be potential for backlash among fans as well for the game not featuring y character as a playable character.

[Hellspawn28]

When they do a new original story, some fans bitch about it not being faithful to the series. Some fans bitch about Xenoverse on not doing a proper story mode of the anime and manga. Shin Budokai try to do original stories, but they end up coming off as terrible in my opinion.

[ekrolo2]

If any series needs to start getting original content with its video games, its Dragon Ball. We've had how many games over the 15 years re-tell the exact same stuff from the anime now? At least 8 or 9 off the top of my head. With that many to pick and choose from, I think its fair if devs just said fuck it and went full Dragon Ball Online with their future stuff.

[Hellspawn28]

Xenoverse had a original story since the whole time travel stuff give it a new twist to the story.