Shmups stories?

[goregoregoregoregoregore]

I always loved shmups but a conception that more or less has always been within the consensus among players is that "no one cares about the story" or "shmup stories are bad" or even the classic "they don't need to have a story" in an early John Romero quotes style.
Yeah, i experienced plenty of that, most shmups i've played focused very little on the story or when actually focused on a story, it was something very shallow and usually higher efforts of making something would end it up in a convoluted pretentious mess, and this is something i always found similar in fighting games too, although they are a more popular genre so there are some more good examples of games that have some very interesting lore. The only game with a more expanded lore and universe for me being Touhou, but to my experience, at least the early installments of it during the 2000s to 2010s have this little classic doujin game convoluted overly complex type of lore that tries too hard to look interesting and deep but end up not making sense(feel free to educate me if you don't agree)

But my opinion on the genre is based only on my limited experience, i haven't played that much shmups(for sure not nearly enough of many people here), so i want to ask more experienced people in the genre if they actually agree with this sentiment, and if not, to provide more examples and overall discuss about it.

 

[freebie#47]

There is always a story for every shootem-up. My issue is more how the story is translated overseas. I really dislike when they just rewrite it. That irks me a lot.

 

[Hikari.EXE]

ZerOranger has a pretty baller story, and Angel at Dusk has a pretty grimm story too but it's locked behind text scrolls from clearing levels, but the game does give you and option of reading them in the menu.

 

[goregoregoregoregoregore]

ZerOranger has a pretty baller story

This game has actually been in my wishlist for some time, i didn't know it had a good story too, more reasons for me to play it now

 

[bluerberryhat]

Zero Ranger is the winner, yes.

Natsuki Chronicles and Drainus are good games that definitely include story, but they'd be better without story, imo.

I personally enjoy the story in Mushihimesama, though it's definitely minimal.

Hazelnut Hex has a really FUN story, but it's maybe even less of a story than Doom 1 has... but you'll absolutely *notice* it.

 

[Hikari.EXE]

This game has actually been in my wishlist for some time, i didn't know it had a good story too, more reasons for me to play it now

Oh yeah, the story is actually told and it gives you enough for you to grasp what it's about, but leaves enough for you to figure it out and theorize on it.

 

[Megazao]

I haven't played that many shmups but I do like to try and piece together a story from what I'm shown or, at the very least, look up something like wikipedia to read the game's plot.
Maybe not the best, but the game with the craziest story I played was Donpachi. I was reading about it after playing and thinking there wasn't much of a story, when the wiki had such a crazy and plot-twist filled narrative that I thought I had played a different game. It and its sequels all have some crazy lore, but it's pretty hidden and to see what is there you need to beat the game while completing some unintuitive challenges.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Zeroranger got some endings that caught me off guard. Other than that, Drainus has a pretty good story. It has the cutscenes, dialogues, bad guys with an actual motivation and the plot is so mysterious that even the MC doesn't understand at first

 

[RageBurner]

I'm one of those people that think shmups don't need it, but I always loved the plot lines running in the background of R-Type, Gradius and Raiden even still.

 

[prnzo x BOOZE-o ka-BEER-o]

SILPHEED n FANTASY ZONE's STORIES ARE TH00PER-G00D AS THE MAD UNCOVENTIONAL NARRATIVES UNTWIST-A-FIZZLE n their METICULOUS PLOT THINZ oooo xD

no but Renovation/Wolf-Team sh'mups had good stories, ne? then again they must not be that great as I can't remember L-oh-weLL

 

[bjork]

I think it was Gaiares on the Genesis, that has like a six minute intro explaining what's going on. Not sure if there's more after that because I'm horrible at it, but they tried.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

I always loved shmups but a conception that more or less has always been within the consensus among players is that "no one cares about the story" or "shmup stories are bad" or even the classic "they don't need to have a story" in an early John Romero quotes style.
Yeah, i experienced plenty of that, most shmups i've played focused very little on the story or when actually focused on a story, it was something very shallow and usually higher efforts of making something would end it up in a convoluted pretentious mess, and this is something i always found similar in fighting games too, although they are a more popular genre so there are some more good examples of games that have some very interesting lore. The only game with a more expanded lore and universe for me being Touhou, but to my experience, at least the early installments of it during the 2000s to 2010s have this little classic doujin game convoluted overly complex type of lore that tries too hard to look interesting and deep but end up not making sense(feel free to educate me if you don't agree)
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But my opinion on the genre is based only on my limited experience, i haven't played that much shmups(for sure not nearly enough of many people here), so i want to ask more experienced people in the genre if they actually agree with this sentiment, and if not, to provide more examples and overall discuss about it.

The reason many don't have much of a story is mainly due to how they were originally meant for the arcades and how because of this, people stick to that same model. Despite this, there are a few that break that mold. Ginga Force and Natsuki Chronicles actually have a story, Donpachi has a series wide story that loops from Daioujou to Resurrection infinitely, R-Type has a shit ton of lore surrounding the Bydo, Thunder Force since 2 has had a story about stopping the Orn that canonically ends at V (VI takes place before), Graze Counter is about stopping a supercomputer that has trapped numerous people in a game, the Esp Ra De series (the two Espgaluda games are the other games in it) are about experimenting on humans to achieve the perfect being and how that is very much not a good thing to do, Ketsui is a post WWIII power struggle (sorta like Akira) where Evac just sells nuclear weapons like candy, etc

SHMUPs with interesting stories ARE possible, in fact many of the well known ones do, it's really just the mindset that a lot of people have that they shouldn't from what they're used to. Many of them not being officially translated doesn't help either, because a lot probably don't know Blast Wind is a re-telling of Noah's Ark. Theoretically, you could have a story based shoot em up game to revitalise the genre, bonus points if it's half RPG like Undertale or a Metroidvania like Rabi-Ribi. The revitalisation of Roguelikes is proof.

And also yeah Touhou stories are messy. Especially the newer you go, I find the earlier games have very short and sensible stories but the further you go, the more complex they get, the more vague they get, the less sense it makes. Currently, we're on 19 and 19 is a sequel to 17 and still there's a lot of confusing shit between the two.