It's hard to see the unlockable "Ending" movie in 3tb on DC (was it in other versions, like 3 or the arcade 3/3tb?) as a story, exactly:



It isn't even really an "ending"; it feels more like "here's a bonus thingy showing wacky clips of the characters"; it certainly isn't what you could call a story mode, and it doesn't really follow the story blurbs for the characters shown in the game's manual, although it may kind of reflect a sentence or so from them.

The VFeS web site actually does have stories for each character: https://www.virtuafighter.jp/vfes/ps4/character . [Edit: ah, of course, VFDC already has these covered, with better translation, on the Wiki: https://virtuafighter.com/wiki/index/ ] For instance, here's Vanessa's, amusingly rendered from the Japanese by Google Translate ( https://translate.google.com/transl...ter.jp/vfes/ps4/character/detail/chara13.html ):

After learning that J6 was targeting Sarah, Benessa claimed to be guarding Sarah and infiltrated the 4th World Fighting Tournament as an SP.
However, at some point during the tournament, Benessa's income contact was lost and her whereabouts were unknown.
A colleague searched hard, but Benessa remained missing.
Everyone thought that they must have been involved in something, but there was nothing that could be called evidence.
Without any clue, one day after a few star frosts, Benessa was found lying unconscious in a room of the Bryant family.
There was nothing wrong with her life, but her memory was only halfway through the 4th tournament, and she had lost all memories after that.
However, Benessa's body was more beautifully trained than ever before, indicating that some sort of physical training was ongoing.
In the midst of suffering, unable to regain his memory, Benessa learns through the Bryant family that the 5th World Fighting Tournament will be held.
What happened at the 4th tournament, and by attending the 5th tournament again, some clues may be obtained, Benessa is puzzled by the dramatic improvement in her physical ability. As I remember, I decided to participate in the tournament.
​

That's the same blurb as on the VF5FS site; I guess it makes sense given eS is just a remake. It's about as much story as you get in a visual story mode in a Tekken or SF, but VF doesn't actually make them into story modes, just leaves them as text in the manual.

I'm glad you pointed out that Suzuki was involved through 4; I'd been thinking it was more like through 5, but I see what was only as an executive producer type or something, not actually as director.

That Vanessa story type ^ has been done all along in manuals or sites:

VF: https://www.gamesdatabase.org/Media...ual/formated/Virtua_Fighter_-_1995_-_Sega.pdf
VF2: https://www.gamesdatabase.org/Media...l/Formated/Virtua_Fighter_2_-_1995_-_Sega.pdf
VF3tb (different than "Ending" movie): http://www.replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.2816
VF4: http://www.replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.6141
VF4 Evo: http://www.replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.3286
VF5: http://www.replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.6892
VF5FS JP site: http://www.virtuafighter.jp/vf5fs/characters.shtml
VFeS (same character stories as FS, it looks like): https://www.virtuafighter.jp/vfes/ps4/character

So I don't know if it's "fallen away" since Suzuki stopped being hands-on--this is about the same level of story that it's always been; the FS/VFeS stories might actually be slightly more verbose.

I guess I should amend my earlier postulate to say that maybe Suzuki didn't want the *game* being affected by story--but he didn't have a problem with a story blurb per character in the console version manual, as was standard industry practice.

https://twitter.com/aokyseizy/status/1405914067253051394?s=19

Harada invited just today Seiji Aoki the producer of VF5US in his show ("Harada no Baa"), and he accepted the invitation.

I bet you Seiji Aoki will totally avoid the Netcode topic haha