SNK registers "KOF" trademark

Current Fighting Games Fighting Game Discussion
141

You could view some examples of hitbox comparisons here:

http://wiki.shoryuken.com/The_King_of_Fighters_'98/Kyo
http://wiki.shoryuken.com/Kyo_02
http://wiki.shoryuken.com/Iori_Yagami_(KoF_'98)
http://wiki.shoryuken.com/Iori_Yagami_02

And there are more.

It’s a really sticky situation for KOFXIII for me. I pretty much helped with large portions of the KOFXIII wikis and gave my full love to KOFXIII in the beginning. Ultimately, I was burned by how dumb the game was. I feel that it’s to the point that SFIV does a better job at being SFII/SFA2 than KOFXIII tries to be 2002. Of course each SFIV and KOFXIII are their own games and should be merited and assessed as each their own.

By my assessment and interpretation, I don’t like what the game did. It’s not a good game for me, I expect better from the developers. The neutral game looks sloppier, and what was regarded as bad habits have become the norm. The game is to the point that I don’t enjoy it, I won’t play a game that I don’t genuinely enjoy. If there is discourse about the game, I will honestly chime in about the game. I love the game so much that I expect a higher standard and a better product. How I support the game is play KOF in general, grow my local scene, support non-local scenes by doing write-ups/writing wikis/gathering information/reviewing match footage/giving player feedback/making videos/and among many other means.

If it weren’t for the fact that Ash became the messiah and was planning to sacrifice himself for his onee-chan, I’d say Shen would be a valid protagonist, or at least a character to view the entire arc from. He’s been consistently in each of the protagonist teams from 03, XI, and XIII. Duo Lon dropped out of Ash’s team in XI and Ash is Edit select in XIII. Shen Woo has been consistently there, and consistently drunk.

Technically, SNKP said that there were multiple protagonists for the Ash saga other than Ash himself as I recall. If I remember correctly, one of the directors/producers said that Adelheid is a protagonist of the arc. To some degree, Kensou could be viewed as a protagonist.

142

The new protagonist will be like Sagat, Dictator or Edmond Honda. Kyo is Ryu, K’ is Ken and Ash is Guile. SO it has to be an old SF character model. Krauser is already like Sagat though.

143

A protagonist Chinese team of Kensou, Duo Lon and Shen doesn’t seem that far-fetched, both for story reasons and real-world ones.

Outside the game’s story, KoF enjoys a fair amount of popularity in China, and Xiaohai managing an EVO victory helps. Some extra focus in the actual games would be a good policy.

Story-wise, Kensou has that dragon power story building up since 99, and Ron of the Hizoku has been keeping tabs on him but a while now (the XI Psycho Soldier ending comes to mind). Ron, in turn, is Duo Lon’s father, and they’re not on good terms, so Kensou and Duo Lon working together is reasonable and plausible. As for Shen, he was in Ash’s team with Oswald in XI because the only way for Oswald to get his hands on some dragon pills, according to the Ash ending, was to take down Shen, whom the chinese provider of said pills has issues with - if those dragon pills have anything to do with that dragon power, well, I guess Shen and Duo have another reason to team up without Elisabeth or Ash…

As for SNKP’s focus on story, I’d say it’s rather great still - just look at the pre-match dialogues in XIII’s arcade and story modes - these dialogues reference not only recent story events and character quirks, but also much older stuff like the cast of the original Fatal Fury (Hwa Jai’s reaction to Chin, remembering Tung Fu Rue’s transformation, or the attitude toward women competing, which didn’t apply in his original game), references to lesser known games like 3-Count Bout (the Kensou/Raiden dialogue mentions Red Dragon from that game), or even NPCs only mentioned in supplemental material, like Lee Gaksuo getting mentioned in the Takuma/Athena dialogue.
Take into account the story epilogue for KoF 2003 has Ash partially quote a poem that is completed in the real end of KoF XIII - over half a decade later.
Consider the console-original stage for Saiki, which changes every round to reflect story mode events.
Changes to the cast and fighting styles, mostly exemplified by Iori, go without saying.

So yeah, some people at SNKP clearly do care about story, and they make themselves heard there - it’s easily one of their greatest assets, since gameplay changes (I miss different bars for defensive and offensive skills in XI; regular drive cancels in XIII are nice though), but characters and their stories tend to stick around (even if some die along the way).

144

What if SNKP simply ports King of Combat to consoles by the end of the year and they say: “Er… This is King of Fighters XIV, guys”.

By the way, I’m no longer expecting the story to continue or a “new saga”, I think KOF is pretty much dead and the next games will be all dream matches. Perhaps they could incorporate new bosses and characters (like Ron and his people, Misty or the Saiki guys left) to catch up with the remants of the NESTS and Ash Sagas, but that would be all.

145

What is your reasoning for this?

146

I hope KOFXIV isn’t Xuandou Zhiwang. It’s an alright game but the game feel is a bit wack, frame rate on models/sprites are overly throttled, and normal throws aren’t good because they’re done KOF12 status and having whiff animations makes them bad command throws especially when alternate guard is in the game.

It has potential but comes off as a cheap knockoff of the product it tries to emulate. Playing it makes me just want to go back to 98 or 02um. It does some cool things with some of its original characters like El Blue, but other characters not so much for me. If anything, it’d be better to make KOFXIV then guest some of the Xuandou Zhiwang characters.

147

I’d say make the next game a dream match, to bring some of the characters back as well as some new ones who can’t possibly be in the story (Rock and some of the other MOTW characters, SamSho characters).

148

Nah, that would be NGBC, not KOF…

149

Yes yes yes, let’s go!!!

150

I’d prefer them to integrate some World Heroes and Fighter History characters permanently into the roster.

World Heroes team could be Ryoko, Fuuma and Dragon. Not too goofy.

Fighter History team would be Mizoguchi, Ray and probably Liu or Feilin (with redesigns).

151

Although I generally didn’t like Falcoon’s work, it was thanks to Falcoon that he even attempted to bring MIzoguchi into KOF, although through KOF MI Regulation A. Although he’s not there anymore, hopefully there is staff there that has the same love for those old titles to put them in future KOF titles.

152

What I like about XDZW is that it somewhat works to “replace” the KOF characters. I mean, this could easily be a “new generation” roster, like what Garou MOTW was to Fatal Fury/KOF for in which they replaced Andy and Mai for Hokutomaru, Yamazaki for Freeman, Geese for Rock, Kim for his sons, Takuma/Ryo/Robert for Butt, etcetera.

If the “next KOF” was XDZW, you wouldn’t be missing that much some characters.

For example, they could finally get rid of Ralf, Clark, Maxima and Tizoc, since their gameplay is pretty much revived with a twist in the characters of Ray and Shanwoo.

Prayuth has Joe’s normals but otherwise a completely new gameplay, that by the way reminds much of Gai Tendo who was praised in KOF XI.

Brazel is a cool mix between K’, Iori, K9999 and Nameless, and Shirley is the same for B. Jenet, Goenitz and Mature.

Legend could be the alternative for the ones who like Ryo and Takuma, Linn for the ones who play Yuri, Lee for the ones who play Kim, and so on and so on… And there’s also some cool new characters like Wuxie, Jack, Ell Blue, Long, Ruriy, Cloud, Panda…
Not to mention characters like Claire and Arashi are like evolved versions of Kula and Freeman, with interesting twists and probably even more effective.

While they could keep in the game some “veteran” characters, like Iori, Kyo, Terry, but I like the idea of start dismantling the old dinosaur roster that has been dragging so much (it’s like "oh, we can’t make this game so big because there’s at least 30 characters that NEED to be in every KOF game, then there’s little space to innovate in the roster) and replace them with these new characters that could be like their succesors… I mean, what’s the sense of keep on playing with the same characters over and over and over for 20 years?!

I think now that the third saga is closed, KOF needs a change for a new era, just like Fatal Fury did with Garou: MOTW. It would be a good breath of fresh air. And that’s exactly why I call XDZW a KOF spiritual successor…

153

See, the thing that bothers me personally is that I just dont want a ‘‘legacy’’ character replacing a certain character if I dont like them as a character. Let’s say the next game takes place 20 years in the future and you can play as Andy and Mai’s son or something. He plays the same as Andy but his look and personality is DRASTICALLY different from him. Even though he plays the same I would not enjoy him since, well, he is just not Andy.
I subbed Kilik in SC and then they replaced him with Kiba(who is completely lame compared to his predecessor).

Of course, alot of people would not give a rat’s ass about that but as I said it’s just a personal thing.

Personally, I want the next game(If it’s not a dream match) to go back to giving us interesting canon teams like KOFXI like the Fatal Fury team, Rival team and Ikari team.

154

I loved what they did with the KOF XI roster. Too bad they gave a big step backwards after that.

So you didn’t like Hokutomaru, Butt or Rock? I think SNK did a great job with the new generation they introduced in Garou.

They could do something alike with KOF. I mean, I like to play Goro and Clark and Kensou as much as you, but why not to try something different? It’s been like 20 years, if I want to play with them again there’s like 30+ games I can pick up and play!
I think KOF needs fresh blood again, to bring a new experience.

155

I see where you are coming from, brother.
Rock was fine and I didnt care about Butt but yes, I did not like Hokutomaru.

The problem with your reasoning is that if the next game’s is to be seen as a sort of ‘‘reboot’’ or ‘‘next era’’ of the franchise and revamp the cast they run the risk of alienating the current fanbase and disiterest new players who only know the old cast. Case: The next KOF is in the future and feature legacy characters. Mai, the most iconic female character, is replaced with a new female character that is not as appealing as her. GGS but no.

And to be clear, I am not against them replacing the current cast or whatever. It’s just that I want the replacement characters to be as appealing as the original ones, if not then why bother?
Let’s go back to my Andy analogy to show my point:
-In the next KOF Andy gets replaced with his son:
Unacceptable change: He is a lame, stereotypically dumb loudmouth character ala Kiba.
Acceptable change: He inherits Andy’s quiet confidence and mixes it with Terry’s cool charisma.

As for your other point, yes, they took the cool teams and made them back a more iconic status for KOFXIII. THis was partly because XIII was supposed to be a ‘‘new era’’ for the franchise but the sprites are no longer economical. I wanna see something like:
New Ikari Team:
-Heidern
-Leona
-Whip
Dragon Spirit Team:
-Kensou
-Bao
-Duo Lon
Boss Team:
-Geese
-Krauser
-Kain
-Heroes Team:
-Kyo
-Chizuru
-Reiji(Yes…I like this character)

156

Also, I think people also need to learn a little to let go: Andy was not in Garou, KOF 2003 or XI, he only came back in XII because they practically rebooted everything to a classic status quo. But it was more likely a fact that Andy was not going to come back.
However, I don’t think Mai or Kyo will disappear from the series, but there are many KOF characters, like Kim, the Ikari Warriors or the Psycho Soldiers, that could have really cool replacements.

Honesty I would prefer someone like Grant or Silber taking the place of Krauser. Whatever, different tastes.

157

Remember SF3? Third strike is legendary now, but back then the fact that SF3: NG abandoned the former characters almost entirely except for Ryu and Ken really hurt its popularity. SF3 was financially a massive failure. I love the out with the old and the in with the new idea, but from a business perspective it is a recipe for disaster. You have to have certain iconic characters. Kyo, Terry, Mai, Kim, etc. Most players will expect them to be in the game. While there are probably a few lesser staple characters that aren’t very popular and can be dropped, it would have to be done very carefully.

158

Well, I did pick Andy as an example.XD.

159

And what about Adelheid Bernstein? Kasumi Todoh? I think SNK is great on designing the characters’s “succesors”, I have no doubt they would do a great job :slight_smile:

160

Adel is not as brutal as Rugal. That’s the one thing I can’t stand about his design. When Adel hits you, it feels weaker than when Rugal hits you.