It should be obvious by now, but SNK is more concerned about making characters that will be featured in the next story-driven KOF and then staples such as Mai and King. Gotta be patient and just try to figure out who else plays an important role in the Ash Crimson saga that hasn’t been remade in HD yet. Chizuru?
I won’t argue that, they have never gone on record saying they haven’t killed babies…
but really this is not a fan boy thread, I don’t even use the fucking character. My question was her exclusion pre-meditated or intentional. If so I don’t care either way. It’s just cool to see the thought process and why these characters were chosen specifically.
I’m such an SNK fan I would still play the game if they replaced the whole KOF character list(knock on wood).
Personally I’m more upset of King not being there, I’ve played as her since the Art of Fighting days… but it is weird without Mai, kinda like in SFIII they weren’t going to have Ryu or Ken in trying to put more emphasis on Alex. But Mai isn’t as popular as they are, more among the likes of Chun Li. I think they could have sacrificed a little and put her in there.
Mai not being it this was a premeditated mistake? I figured they made the game and then said “…oh shit!”
Athena is the “Chun Li” of KoF, I wish the fanboys would accept that.
Mai is significant, sure, but I think, in recent years, SNKP is more interested in getting the insanely Moe girl characters out there, and not the blatantly sexy. It seems like Japan’s otaku culture is of the same mindset, and we can tell SNKP is for Japanese-priority first.
KoF XI didn’t have Mai in at first either, and I really think that just proves how much priority SNKP puts on having her as a playable character in EVERY KoF. Mai is an SNKP icon, not so much a KoF one. She WILL be represented, and will be with care when she appears, but she is not a REQUIREMENT.
They could moe up Mai prettty easily.
Step 1: bring back the RB1 outfit.
I’m not to sure about that. SNK wants Athena to be the “Chun-Li” of Kof but I really don’t think people have ever accepted her in that role. For whatever reason, SNK is unusually loyal to Athena despite her games being regarded as some of the worst of all time. They redraw her sprite every year(even though some of the other older characters desperately need new frames), hire new voice actresses just for her, give most of her themes vocals and she’s never been dropped from the roster unlike her various teammates.
Whether it’s true or not, you can’t blame people for thinking Mai is SNK’s main female, she’s always paired up with/against Chun-Li in all of the crossovers; by Capcom in their Capcom vs. SNK games and by SNK themselves in Match of the Millennium and SVC Chaos.
I don’t want to be a conspiracy theorist, but maybe K’ and Mai were deliberately withheld from the console version just to be offered as DLC knowing that their fans would shell out the cash to play as them in their shiny new copy of Kof 12. That would be a dick move on their part that would make me long for the 32-bit days but it would also make them alot of money.
Hell, the Blazblue guys are charging you money for extra colors:rolleyes:, something a simple color edit mode could take care of. These developers are not above doing something so underhanded.
I will wait until snk release some kind of KOF Xii plus plus core or some version and work out the balance and roster shortage, or KOF Xiii, either way, it is too early to tell.
I am really surprised that KOF Xii look so good with such dark sprites, i mean AoF3’s sprites were awesome but this is so much better and different.
So the balance i.e. Clark, bothers you NOW? So all the others were all fine and dandy?
Because at least one character has to work harder than the others it’s a problem?
Yeah, I don’t blame people for it, but it does get tiring to hear people talk up Mai as if SNK shows as much passion for her, as Capcom does for Chun Li. Mai is eyecandy, SNKP uses her as such, sure, but they don’t seem to do much with her, as a character.
I hope when we finally DO see her in XII style, that she’s evolved some. Chun Li had differnet outfits from Alpha to SF-proper, I would not mind at all, if Mai got an updated look. I also think it would hammer the “Rebirth” theme home, for a good amount of people.
On the topics of DLC, Blazblue, and the 32 Bit era… Eh, I’m a bit torn. I like the color customization of older games, sure, and SNKP’s has gotten better and better with it (Color Edit in XI and 98 is very detailed, with gradient options, and ability to color special effects), but the majority of online players would abuse the heck out of the options, and just make stupid, poorly conceived “Heh heh, look, she’s NAKED!” edits.
It’s like Cheat Codes of old, VS online games of now. I loved some fun cheats every once in a while back in the day (Like bighead modes, or the ability to grow your character to monsterous sizes back in Tobal 2), but no way should any of that make it online now-a-days, not by default. Hence, BB and any fighter could offer color edits in-game for free… if they let me turn off having them show in rooms. And then have paid ones able to appear publically by default, since they’ve already been “approved”.
Hence, I don’t mind something like BB, releasing “official” color mods. Maintains quality, and just adds to the visual variety. And it’s optional. I REALLY do wish there to be ways to preview this stuff, though. Even if they just linked to their official websites in product descriptions, with a simple “Check out the screenshots HERE!”
I don’t think the availability of DLC as an option changes what we get in games much, though. I think it just now keeps games potentially “open” longer, and allows them to be edited, when in the past, it woulda been closed from final disk printing. The Shift from KoF XII to KoF XIV would mostly be new music, characters, moves, and stages, right? If I can get a taste of that, for a few bucks, sooner, than back in the days were I had to wait a year or 2, and then pay for another full priced product… then I’m happy with DLC.
KoF XII does appear to feel like an “incomplete” console release compared to other fighters, but I don’t think it’s because of DLC possibilities. If SNK is sitting on content NOW, when their game looks more bare-bones than any of their competetion, in terms of 1p modes, bonus materials, unlockables, etc… then they really have no business sense. It’s not like it’s free for them to put up DLC, and for a Niche title like KoF? It would serve them WAY better to just bolster the initial offering.
KOFXII only appears “incomplete” from a mainstream casual point of view.
yeah, people can say SNKP could have waited until they were able to add like 3-6 more characters, but I think after all those years and money spent of the sprites, they need to start making money NOW, since originally KOFXII was supposed to continue the story, but they need more time to add all the needed teams, cutscenes, bosses, etc.
So I believe, releasing KOFXII with what they completed and tested so far, is a desperate move to start making money, and I don’t blame them. They took the brave and riskier route with these quality sprites than just recycling sprites, or using MI 3-D models, or doing simple line art.
**KOFXII will still be addicting online, and overall the bright people will realize it will be the gameplay and competition that will keep things going, not a bigger roster, or a boss or a story, or stuff that only distracts single players for an extra 5 minutes.
**
when KOFXIII comes out, people will look back and thank KOFXII for taking this path.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid22879226001?bctid=23960019001
King isn’t in the game either.
I can only assume one thing for this.
Expandability, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. I would not be surprised if characters like King, Mai and Blue Mary, very popular characters are not slated for future releases.
Bringing back Mature really opens up the door on revivals. You also got an assortment of new age KOF characters like Vanessa and Garou characters to play with.
In other words, SNK knows wtf it’s doing. Just because WE don’t doesn’t mean they don’t.
(This doesn’t forgive them for it’s weak console offerings. These aren’t the Neo-geo days. Arcade Mode, Training and Versus with no Trials, Challenges or Story mode or anything of the sort? LoL, Blazblue had more in it’s initial go than a game with a pedigree like KOF has to offer in its latest release.)
people play KOF98 and and KOF2k2 a lot and they don’t care about not having a story. they don’t even play it for the broken boss, that’s just side distractions for loners.
**the heart of fighting games is the human competition. If a fighting game has that with good online play, then it already has everything it needs to be fun. **
**things like challenges and story mode is just for people who only play by theirself, but they are not playing a fighting game properly anyway and they won’t get better at the competition learning the story, or playing tedious challenges and time trials.
**
but ya, SNKP sounds like they are saving Mai and the others for DLC content since they know people will pay for more characters.
^I disgaree, the (character) trials in SFIV are incredibly useful especially for people who don’t even post on SRK or lurk around on the Internet, besides that everything else sounded legit… story mode is nice but I only found that stuff cool in anime games… go figure
agree with affinity and krazykone123 on story lines.
On trial thing, SF4 did their research this time and actually get top players to lay out the possible combos.
On the other hand, snk had no such luxury, since i haven’t found a snk sponsored world champ yet.
SNKP is far behind in the fact that this is their first next gen game, too.
Most other companies ALSO had slim modes and functions on their first “current gen” releases. It’s just taken SNKP THIS long, to get to where other companies were 3 or 4 years ago.
Every company does this. Compare the early RPGs of PS2, to the later ones. The length, polish, quality of CGs, Textures, character models, etc… it all got so much better, it barely looked like the same system.
I really wish SNKP would release some high-profile digital games. Seems like the perfect thing to assist them in funding future releases. Imagine a Sengoku with Castle Crashers levels of polish. “KoF: Skystage” is at least going in this direction.
If they had some more experience, I’m sure we’d have more “bonus” with this KoF XII. Even if they didn’t farm out the XBLA releases, and instead worked on them as if they where PS2 ports, and really shined them up nicely, they’d probably be in a better place for working on this stuff.
If only KoF could get to a place were it could pile on features like Tekken, or even Maximum Impact 2. Presenting that “You’re getting a LOT of game for the value!” feeling really helps get a game in the hands of people.
I see it being likely that Mai, King, etc will be downloadable characters, just like Darth Vader was for the 360 SC4. But they say the sprites took like ten to fourteen months to make a piece, so that’s something to think about. But the extras like trials, challenges, etc. some people can live without. I like them alot actually but we’ll see what happens when the game comes.
@SAB-CA: I see your point. I can’t imagine all the nude Taokaka’s, Litchi’s, and V-13’s you would see online.
So far, Capcom and Namco haven’t given me a reason to warm up to DLC. It’s awesome to be used for what you described but having to pay for stuff that’s already on the disk like Street Fighter 4’s extra costumes that were in the arcade version and Yoda or Darth Vader Soul Calibur 4, things that were developed months in advance is not cool.
**I’m starting to see viral marketing starting to take place for KOFXII’s Mai Shiranui!
**
yes it’s all starting to make sense.
^
I’m sorry for dashing your dreams bro but that’s just a french magazine. Until SNKP announces something or shows us shiny screens of her in action against the rest of the roster(not those misleading portraits on the official site:wasted:) then she and K’ are still out.