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SNK fighting game history and character development: do you want some lore with that?
- Thread starter Loona
- Start date
I only wish those games weren't so ridiculously inaccessible and purposefully difficult.
If its over for these games than you can blame no one but SNK.
I tried getting into KoFXIII.The game was pretty unplayable to me.Extremely high execution bar coupled with highly convoluted and unneeded jump mechanics.
This will probably anger a lot of people in here but KoF games need to be made easier if they want to be(more) successful.
Everything else is beautiful from character sprites , stage design and music.
I have some trouble with higher-end execution myself, but XIII still gives me ways to make something with the available resources - hyperdrive combos feel beyond my reach, but with the same bar that allows those I can cancel specials into each other or supers, so at least that's not wasted.
Your comment on the jump mechanics does remind me of a difference I've seen pointed out between KoF and SF as far as controls go - each seems to focus more on one side of the controls than the other: SF focus on the attack buttons, giving you 6 of those (more than finger in a hand) and several of the game expect you to press 3 of those at the same time, KoF, on the other hand, uses fewer attack buttons, but lets you do more with the directions, mostly through more control of the jumps and running.
The problem with the SNK fighters is... information.
I was very happy playing KOF when I never knew about so many jumps ahahah
Also, it was easier to do combos in earlier KOFs - I don't know why they changed the timming so much, it's really more strict in XIII.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Isn't KoF technically a "canon" outside of "canon"?
Also what ever happened to Rock Howard at the end of Garou?
Also what ever happened to Rock Howard at the end of Garou?
Dr. Buni
Member
Yup. There will never be a fighting game series with such a great amount of great characters like KOF.
I know the series for what, 15 years and I still can't pinpoint my favorite characters.
And I am also still terrible at playing KOF after all these years
Kain promises to give Rock information about his mother if he joins him, so Rock becomes Kain's new partner.
It's a different continuity from FF/AoF, with the major differences being the ages of the AoF cast and Geese being alive - beyong that, most things are roughly the same.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Also apparently the characters have some weird age anachronism like we see Garou Terry but early FF Kim.
I wonder how would Terry feel.
Tizoc
Member
Terry does show up in Rock's ending in Garou and seems OK with it.
Dr. Buni
Member
Very mature of him.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Now I'm more saddened that we won't get another Fatal Fury game (Garou is part of FF right? Makes me wonder why it didn't have it in its title)
It did: Fatal Fury/Garou Densetsu/Legend of the Hungry Wolf -> Garou
They told the legend first, then the "present".
Terry's Garou ending seems like a meditation on his city and life: Geese is dead, Rock moved on in life without him, so it seems he has to find something else to focus his life on.
His life is heavily tied with his city, so it makes sense for him to think about it and where it seems to be going - maybe that can help him find new goals.
Love this thread! SNK's Memories of Stray Wolves should be required viewing for everyone here that is interested in the Fatal Fury series.
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU-3naxZheA
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIkbxLQoCRk
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU-3naxZheA
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIkbxLQoCRk
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
On a related note, are there characters in the modern fighting series (AoF, KoF, etc.) who are implied to be descendants of characters from the historical series (Last Blade and SamSho)?
Zantetsu > Eiji
The character Shiki, her origins and her backstory has some pretty strong similarities to Orochi, so I've always related her to being a predocessor.
In the game Kizuna Encounter there is a character called Kim Sue II, who is the great grandson of Kim Kaphwan. In SamSho Sen, Kim Hae-Ryeong is an ancient relative to Kim Kaphwan.
Here's something noteworthy--While Kyokugen-Ryuu is the more known martial arts school in South Town, Kim Kaphwan's school of Taekwondo has arguably more students/accolades than Kyokugen.
There's Kaphwan, Donghwan, Jaehoon, May Lee, Chae Lim, Jhun Hoon, Seo Yong Song, Kong Bae Dai, Choi and Chang, and Jhun Hoon. Not to mention Alice Chrysler is a student of Kim's school.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Ahh forgot about Eiji.
And yeah, that Kim was the one that stuck on my head!
With that said I thought Jhun Hoon was from a rival dojo?
And yeah, that Kim was the one that stuck on my head!
With that said I thought Jhun Hoon was from a rival dojo?
Kim and Jhun studied under the same master, but beyond that they follow very different methods: http://kofaniv.snkplaymore.co.jp/english/history/kof99_story/index.php?num=korea
thesolidshark
Member
When you played XIII, did you try referencing it to another fighter like SF4 or something else for how to play it?
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
There was some Kof Manga called Zilion, there is a fight between K' and Krauser, K' uses all his power and barely scars Krauser lol, dude was badass. Not sure if he is dead, I've heard about the suicide but i remember reading a while ago that he is alive just took a hard hit on his pride.
Last Blade had an awesome plot too, thing is it does end after 2 and the majority of the characters get their retribution . That is why i want more a Garou 2, the first one basically was just a set up for 2 :/
The sad thing is that while Im sure sooner or later we will have another KOF,Im also sure all the other series are pretty much dead at SNK's current state
Last Blade had an awesome plot too, thing is it does end after 2 and the majority of the characters get their retribution . That is why i want more a Garou 2, the first one basically was just a set up for 2 :/
The sad thing is that while Im sure sooner or later we will have another KOF,Im also sure all the other series are pretty much dead at SNK's current state
Basketball
Member
Ah I see.
I guess that explains why Jhun is into idols while Kim is into JUSTICE
I'm not sure if Jhun is into idols in general, or just Athena in particular - but in the KoF setting the latter makes a fair degree of sense, she's a powerhouse in a whole bunch of categories: world-class martial artist, apprentice under one of the major sages of the setting (Chin - seriously, look into his KoF history and dialogues), capable of summoning a celestial being (the classic Athena in her supers), likely wealthy and socially influent from being famous.
If KoF didn't center so much on Kyo in one way or another, she'd be the setting's Mary Sue.
Still, Jhun got ran over by a car in the KoF 2001 story.
To be replaced with May Lee, who was initially meant to be a "Korean Athena" - even if she turned out a major tokusatsu fangirl, which sounds pretty Japanese to me despite the taekwondo.
Gotta love a character with a move like this though:
Nestunt
Member
SNK games have such a unique aesthetic to them. I've never played a good 75% of their games, but I love looking at the character art. Samurai Shodown has some of my favorite designs:
Ukyo:
Haohmaru:
Galford:
And basically mostly everyone else in that series all have really stand out designs. Oh, and the background art in every SNK game is downright amazing.
give me this in Full HD. They have already addressed KOF. Now its Samurai Shodown's time
No I didn't.
I played Tekken extensively for years and ,while Tekken is extremely difficult in its own right, at least the game has some things beginners can do consistently.
KoFXIII was a nightmare.Trying to do the trials was really crushing.
This is doesn't even come close to trying to implement things in a real match under stressful situations.
The game was made for the hardcorest of professional players and there is nothing wrong with that.But you can't expect that to succeed in today's market.
What ? you can't possibly compare MVC3(one of the most accessible modern fighters) to freaking KoFXIII.
I just can't...
Its no where near as hard as the jump mechanics imo.
Jumping leads to its own set of situations and mixups.So many variables and very difficult to execute on reaction in a real match.
Emperor Bohe
Member
![70017-Fatal_Fury_Special_(1994)(SNK)(Jp-US)[!][Garou_Densetsu_Special]-5.png](http://199.101.98.242/media/shots/70017-Fatal_Fury_Special_(1994)(SNK)(Jp-US)[!][Garou_Densetsu_Special]-5.png)
Fatal Fury Special will forever be my favourite SNK fighting game. It's basically SNK's SF2... on paper it's simple in terms of mechanics, but the footsies and mind games are next level. if anyone wants to run some games on GGPO, hit me up!
Bonus: here's a video of me and fLoe running some games on GGPO on his stream in 2012.... I was incredibly rusty at the time as I hadn't played the game in years
What language is Richard Meyer's theme in Fatal Fury sung in? I wanna say its Portuguese but it also sounds like something from East India.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXNrMoFPMoc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXNrMoFPMoc
shadowstar
Member
SNK games have such a unique aesthetic to them. I've never played a good 75% of their games, but I love looking at the character art. Samurai Shodown has some of my favorite designs:
Ukyo:
Galford:
And basically mostly everyone else in that series all have really stand out designs. Oh, and the background art in every SNK game is downright amazing.
I love Samurai Shodown designs (these two especially, my two mains). I would give any amount of money for a GGXrd style version of SS.
GhaleonQ
Member
Oh, I totally related. http://snk.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page is getting around to transition its sprite and art work, but I lost HOURS to reading every single entry for every single thing when I got heavily into S.N.K. I don't know; I love knowing my player-character's favorite food and how a certain martial art got passed down for over a century. It's not just a bunch of ethnic stereotypes fighting.
The trials aren't to be treated as pre-requisites, they're more like very advanced katas that show you some things the characters are capable of that might not have been obvious.
Performing them isn't really required to use the characters, although being able to pull them off is a good step towards being able to use them optimally - if you can do them all consistently you're probably at a highly competitive level.
They should have probably been prensented to in a way that made that more obvious, perhaps by making the actual tutorial a bit longer, or separating simple single move and basic combo execution trials from advanced combo trials.
I'm Portuguese and that sounds like giberish to me, but it's not surprising - early FF games kept misspelling "Capoeira" into things like "Kooperia", and early infamous localization efforts probably didn't help.
Takamura-San
Member
If only we could have drunk homeless Terry be on a game and officially cannon. 
Yes! Lucky and Heavy D! are awesome. (Brian's rather meh.)
This thread made me dig out my SNK Characters All About Illustrations volumes and flip thru them again. Man, the fighting games really define the Neo Geo for me. Sure, I love me some Magician Lord, Metal Slug, Last Resort, et al., but the fighting games are really where it's at!
What Fatal Fury games are even on GGPO? All I know of is Mark of the Wolves. They really need to put some Real Bout 2 on that ish.
Ooo, I love art books (bought many of Capcom's translated and untranslated ones over the years as well)! Pray tell, which of these books would you recommend to a casual SNK fan, despite them not being translated? I might pick up a few for the images alone. (Pictures of their cover, if possible, would be appreciated.)
Yes! I'd love to see less KOF and more Fatal Fury / Garou myself. A real shame they were even working on Garou 2 (which would at least be featuring a pupil of Joe, a beach stage and Ryo as the new Mr. Karate I believe) but then shelved it. A new traditional Fatal Fury set in South Town and featuring classic Terry would be fantastic as well.
While I somehow never really got into KOF (possibly due to the frequency of new games being released, not having access to any arcades back then, and in general never really liking teams in fighting games) I do love the overall atmosphere, world building and lore SNK puts into their games for sure. I'd love to see more of them, especially outside of KOF.
Some time ago I tried to expand an article in the SNK wiki with some links to that character's profile and prologues in the official anniversary site, along with Youtube endings - that got reverted by the admin.
I found today that the excuse was that there's already a page there with that sort of thing - separated by general SNK stuff and series, but as far as I know, nothing else in the wiki links to it - so here it is: http://snk.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_references
Also, new SS pachinko, although it's licensed by a company called Excite, so it's not SNKP's effort being put into that - the 3D's not bad though:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqIa6UVtaF4
On a lighter note, a reminder that since KoF 99, the Psycho Soldier team endings have been building toward a plot with Kensou at its center which isn't resolved yet - so that's over a decade in the making, the whole Ash saga happened between it, and it's giving protagonist to player 2 of one of SNK's oldest games... an interesting storytelling effort, I'd say...
I found today that the excuse was that there's already a page there with that sort of thing - separated by general SNK stuff and series, but as far as I know, nothing else in the wiki links to it - so here it is: http://snk.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_references
Also, new SS pachinko, although it's licensed by a company called Excite, so it's not SNKP's effort being put into that - the 3D's not bad though:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqIa6UVtaF4
On a lighter note, a reminder that since KoF 99, the Psycho Soldier team endings have been building toward a plot with Kensou at its center which isn't resolved yet - so that's over a decade in the making, the whole Ash saga happened between it, and it's giving protagonist to player 2 of one of SNK's oldest games... an interesting storytelling effort, I'd say...
Tbh I would prefer a new protagonist (like we have been getting up to now with each new saga).
About time we got a flame wielding female lead imo.
I had always hoped for a story line of shingo developing flames somehow. Somehow kyo's power transferring to shingo ala bao or iori losing his flames. So you'd have shingo with a more Kyo like moveset, but he'd fuck himself up more often than not. Then Kyo just rocking shingo's moveset.
Brian does suck the most... but his quickjump->qcf+p is hilarrrrrious.
Yuri has a classic lose pose where her outfit gets ripped if you end with a special move. Robert and yuri kinda have a flirty thing going, so I think it's a joke about her losing pose + angry daddy.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
secret tizoc thread
In his last appearances Shingo did develop the ability to bring out flames though, though couldn't really control it so the fire would just come out at random when you did his rekka-like moves. But yeah, here's hoping he makes a comeback.
Interesting. I kinda started losing interest in the series after 2000. 2001 was such a let down to me.
Elisabeth was almost a lead in XIII - she's listed first everywhere in the GUI except the select screen, and she was the closest to Ash - although I'd be OK with a clearer lady lead.
No real reason to toss even more fire users in the lead roles though... It's getting a bit tiring to see, which is part pf why the gradual Kensou build-up is interesting.
thesolidshark
Member
Ash came close (kidding)
But honestly, I thought the next (Dragon) saga was supposed to be or have Kensou being sought after for his hidden power. It would be interesting to have a long-time mainstay become a hero suddenly.
Building up a new protagonist for 15 years hardly counts as sudden IMO, but I'm curious to see if that's how it'll turn out. It was already pretty neat that they revised his original Psycho Soldier outfit into its current form and made it look kinda cool.
I found this article in french about secondary characters in the games - it's nice to find stuff like this in a single place: http://neogeospirit.pagesperso-orange.fr/dossiers/second_plan/dossier_second_plan.htm