A Missing Genre

I have been thinking and honestly the thought occurred to me a few years ago, but there is really no games that I would consider to be Kung Fu. Sure plenty of button mashing Street Fighter styled games. But I mean an open world RPG type of game with the main story arc similar to a Kung Fu film. Skill sets in various styles, adventures, quests, locations, chances to meet various real masters, traditional herbal medicine and so on.

I think if done right, it could be a big seller.

a reply to: Ahabstar

Check out Jade Empire, it's a bit old now but will scratch the itch...



The genre will be revived soon.. plenty of people feel the same.

Shhh... RS (I didnt say that)

originally posted by: Ahabstar
I have been thinking and honestly the thought occurred to me a few years ago, but there is really no games that I would consider to be Kung Fu. Sure plenty of button mashing Street Fighter styled games. But I mean an open world RPG type of game with the main story arc similar to a Kung Fu film. Skill sets in various styles, adventures, quests, locations, chances to meet various real masters, traditional herbal medicine and so on.

I think if done right, it could be a big seller.

From what I have seen of the Kung Fu genre (movies). It would be hard pressed to turn it into an RPG style of game.
RPGs deal with open world experiences with opportunities to train in skills.
Allowing them to train for multiple boss fights.
Kung Fu films are focused on the students interaction with their teachers culminating in a singular boss fight.

a reply to: Ahabstar


As previously said "Jade Empire" is a good one but kinda misses the mark. But still one of the greatest games IMO.


Another one that may be fun for you if you haven't already played it is "Shenmue" on the Dreamcast. Hard game to find nowadays but I kept my original copy. I even thought that maybe getting an emulator and using my own ISO to play would make for a better graphical experience. But nope it made it worse. Still a really fun game though. And there is a second one on original Xbox. I've been wanting to replay it but my disc is scratched to hell. I'm not going to point fingers but I know he has at least glanced at this thread.


You know who you are man......




Edit.....
The bad guy is that one thing I asked you about calling someone recently

Correct, shame really some of those were good games. I'm guessing a lot of the martial art orientated gaming has moved onto MMORPGs such as with Korean game company PVP favored releases, etc. Though, those seem to be stagnant as well.

Wonder what will be big next, perhaps more console game geared to be MMORPGs. The Cyberpunk2077 video game may go multi player but only as an option. It's still in development, maybe suggest to the official forums, read by Devs for suggestions, about adding martial arts as a fighting style.

Other than that would be interesting to see one of these classic martial arts or as similar too games as a multiplayer if not just rehashing it as a game genre for one player role-play.

2077 got me like

a reply to: Allaroundyou

Shenmue remastered 1 & 2 ...Shenmue

a reply to: Ahabstar

Check out Sleeping Dogs. Similar to grand theft auto with less emphasis on gunplay and more on hand-to-hand combat, has dojos where you can learn new moves, and i believe it even has medicinal plants to restore health. You basically play a detective that can fight like Bruce Lee.

I'd buy a game with a Carradine style Kung Fu element for sure.

There's been a few Kung Fu games over the years that took a modern, big city setting. They were good too. True Crime: Streets of LA and Stranglehold come to mind.

You're right though. Few and far between. I'd certainly go for something more traditional.

originally posted by: valiant
a reply to: Allaroundyou

Shenmue remastered 1 & 2 ...Shenmue

OHHH Wtf....dude thank you sooooo much! I had no idea. Life will be almost complete now!

originally posted by: Allaroundyou

originally posted by: valiant
a reply to: Allaroundyou

Shenmue remastered 1 & 2 ...Shenmue

OHHH Wtf....dude thank you sooooo much! I had no idea. Life will be almost complete now!

Guess you didn’t hear about the crowd funding campaign for a third Shenmue either eh? Fail

Coming out August 2019

Nioh sounds like it might be right up your alley... More Samurai than Kung Fu, but has a great combat system with unique skills based on your weapon, as well as magic and ninjutsu. It's more "mission" focused than open world, but has a lot of customization and loot to play around with.

Nioh Wiki Entry

The sequel has been announced but I don't think it has a release date yet.

There's also Sekiro by FromSoftware due out some time in 2019

a reply to: XXXN3O

$10 for an iPad port sounds very tempting especially since it was built on the same engine as KOTOR which has also been ported with controller support (nice). But I wonder why they haven’t ported KOTOR 2? Maybe not enough people wanted to drop $10 for a game they played to death back in the day.

The Apple store also suggested a complete Baulder’s Gate series for $26 and other Forgotten Realms games bundled for less than $40.

Very tempting considering I have been playing Kefir’s Last Day on Earth an insane amount over the past year. Grinding resources for a 3x3 metal room before starting player base raids.

a reply to: randomtangentsrme

Well you could follow the arc of good among friends, get beaten, find a master and train, master gets killed and avenge the master. Wash, rinse, repeat a few times; but that would get Skyrim boring quick.

Storylines and side quests akin to David Carradine’s Caine in Kung Fu would be better. Or even expand out to Japanese film for story arcs like, well anything from Kurosawa‘s library of film. Worked pretty well transposed to Westerns and a little franchise called Star Wars.

All I know is if there was a good gaming engine paired with a GECK styled tool kit for iOS and Android, there would be an explosion of game development for mobile that would rival and possibly eliminate console gaming. Because mobile devices are kinda the best of both world between computer and console in that hardware is fixed but the device itself more open like a computer.

a reply to: Ahabstar

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned dragonball games, not that they are purely based on martial arts. However what they did, in my opinion, is open up the possibility for open world kung fu games to exist on a level that would be enjoyable.

It lacks a lot of the elements I'm sure your looking for but it is certainly fun to be able to fly around the map and swoop in for a martial arts style attack.

a reply to: threeeyesopen

Also another old game that focused on martial arts for the fighting was def jam, you guys have to remember that one. It was hella dope back in the day (I'm old) hahaha.

a reply to: Ahabstar

For the PC market it would have to use scripted fight moves and for the Consoles good old fashioned crazy button bashing but the general idea is very cool.
An open world RPG maybe something like this.

Set in China, Tibet and India in the distant past our protagonist could be either gender but being an orphan from a raid upon there village they are taken in by a hermit monk whom then decided to take them to Lhasa or some other Tibetan city maybe even the mythical shambala to join the monk's, monk's whom practice both arcane art's and martial fighting style's.

There over the course of several lengthy character creation mission's and exploration of caves, climbing to abandoned monastery's that are now too dangerous for the monk's to live in - tomb raider style - to recover mystical scroll's and various weapon's such as staff's, bow's etc our character could then shape the path they are going to take through the game world, mystic, scribe, warrior or outcast (for breaking rules over the course of the missions and letting the various monk teachers down gently).

Cue a quest perhaps based loosely in the same world as the Journey to the west with a war between demon's and heaven raging while a cameo of the characters from those story's may or may not make an appearance.

But your character has other concern's and something just as important to accomplish though your tale will be lost to the ages, a journey that would take you through ancient India at a time of turmoil with warring state's and invaders tearing into the kingdom's, to ancient China and back to forbidden and hidden places in and under the Himalaya's as well as perhaps to the far north to the forgotten kingdom of Hyperborea a dying land fading into the mists and being consumed by the ice giant's were a mystical artifact that may save the world resides waiting to be recovered by our wandering monk - or bandit from the east.

XXXN3O love that game, Jade Empire while dated is still a great game today and there is even a mod page on the Nexus Mod's site for it.
There is a coming game based on a mod - the author was given funding in China to turn it into an actual game on using the Unreal Engine but it was originally a very ambitious mod for Skyrim that sadly was never released since the mod was never completed but the project based on it is ongoing.



www.moddb.com...
So though that total conversion mod was VERY far along it look's like we will now never see the skyrim version of it but it is very far from dead, in fact it is being made as a stand along game in the far more capable unreal engine.
Currently Scheduled for 2019 release and no longer being made by a single mod maker but by an entire professional team.
Here is what it now look's like using the Unreal Engine.



And there are also other's.


There are also a growing number of MMO's though to be fair I personally prefer single player.

originally posted by: Absinth3
a reply to: Ahabstar

Check out Sleeping Dogs. Similar to grand theft auto with less emphasis on gunplay and more on hand-to-hand combat, has dojos where you can learn new moves, and i believe it even has medicinal plants to restore health. You basically play a detective that can fight like Bruce Lee.

That was a great game... I liked it better than gta.

a reply to: Ahabstar

I hearken back to a discussion Lys and I had earlier this year on just how awesome it would be for Rockstar to give us a 1970's blaxploitation style open world game with everyone in bell bottoms, afros, and busting out the kung fu moves at every opportunity.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

Sound's cool, the problem is that most studio's would be terrified of stepping into that territory in case they were accused by the PC crowd of some infringement of there right's.
Still a Blackula crossed with big trouble in little china RPG would be both very funny and very cool.