Some story modes can be done well in terms of story and gameplay like Mortal Kombat 9
but often they are not so great in the story department such as Street fighter 5, Mortal Kombat X, Season 2 rivals (don’t kill me) etc.
Arcade mode with an ending works fine as well…so long as the endings which are canon are confirmed as canon early on to avoid confusion (e.g. Street fighter 4)
Eh… I like to leave it up to imagination… ALA [spoiler] Banon’s fate in ff6 [/spoiler]
@DARKNIGHTSPIDEY
I looked it up. And It did explain what I was forgetting.
Blame it on bad memory on my part 
to be fair sf5 takes place BEFORE sf3 so its not like they could have really done much with the lore
The more story the better. That’s what video games are. Have been since forever( unless it’s a sports game but those are trash).
I’ll take more story over a competitive scene anyday.
What drives you to games? For me it’s characters and what the do in their worlds. Because reality is boring straight up compared to the fictional world.
What drives me in games that… I guess it depends on the game.
Exemple:
Narbash and his trailer was the sole reason I got Paragon and that game has little to no story that I know of.
For this I quote @TempusChaoti and Noble smith: I like a bit of reality in my fantasy and I like a bit of fantasy in my reality.
This is why I enjoyed season 1 because it had little to no story.
And that’s why I hated the fact it did not get better throughout season 2 and 3.
No seriously why is spinal even in the game?
Story wise? He was in the original KI because in the story he was part of one of ultratech’s experiments. He’s in this one because he’s from the original. But story wise in this new KI? No idea.
And that’s all he has going for him…
He literally is non existent at this point…
And I wouldn’t be surprise if they could remove him completely in the next one. 
An agent of Ultratech. ARIA promised him the mask once the deed was done for her. She stayed true to her promise and gave it to him. Where he is now…seeking the one who drained the energy from said mask.
Then you might as well have nothing then other then hit/hurtboxes hitting eachother without stages or character models and all that jazz.
i personally think not having a story mode of some kind is 100% dumb. Like brutal honesty i feel every fighting game should have a story if you dont give it one your just lazy…minus if the game doesnt have enough money to give it one then its fine.
Its like in the first injustice game people see joker fighting superman everyones first question was “how is the joker going to beat superman?” And story mode gives you the answer to that question.
or even look at SFV regardless of what people thought of the story mode people bought it for that, story and single player content not everyone wants to no life doing online everyday.
Story modes in fighting games suck.
There won’t be better invention than good ol’ arcade mode with ending, spiced with hidden boss behind special requirement.
But MK9 
And Injustice 1 along with MKX and Injustice 2 now 
But yeah… Story modes usually are bad.
They have gotten better. But yeah I still stand by my belief.
because game companies aren’t putting in the work to make most of them good or any at all cause they see they gave give gamers the bare minimum and you will pay $60+ for it, But atelast companies like Netherrealm know how to make every player base happy
