98 was the year and my second brush with SNK. Before that, I was taking on FF 2 in 1994.
I really wouldn’t go about comparing the two because they were made in different time periods of the SNK’s life. Putting these two games side by side would only bring about the SNK in the Work era as a rival to the SNKP of the Lazy era arguements. Also, the faction is much more different than before.
Between these two games, I would have to say Garou only because SNKP screwed in a majority of the KoF fighters of yesteryear(ahem Mai, Iroi, Chizuru). XI may be flashy and under the Sammy touch, but can it stand on two legs without knees or even the original brain that has conceived fighting systems that is glorified to this very day?
I suppose another reason i prefer Garou is that from what ive read kofXI seems to have the same problem 3s does in that only 3 characters r ever featured in competitve play. I know Kevin and Kain r pretty good in garou but i dont think its to the point where they r the characters being used in the game. Ive kind of gotten a bad impression about IX from every forum and thread i visited…it seems like that game is SNK’s awnser to MVC2 in that only some of the cast can compete.
I think KoF XI is a bit more fun to play, I think Garou matches would have benefitted greatly from longer health bars. Either that or let just defend give you a little more health back than it does, to extend the otherwise short fights. (Even in high level play the fights aren’t all that long.) I’m not saying it needs to be KoF/MvC length, but double the length of bars would probably be nice.
I like it in some games, most of my friends who play refuse to play 3D fighters because they complain “All the moves do too much damage, it’s like two combos and your dead.”
So I like Bushido Blade, but the healthbar (or lackthereof) was pretty much the point to the way it’s engine worked.
And you can’t really compare Garou to KOF XI on equal levels.
One was made by the classic pre-bankruptcy SNK during their prime in 1998. It introduced just defence, is a one-on-one fighter, with a very small but balanced cast.
The other was made by Playmore years after bankruptcy, just when they’re starting to get in their groove in 2005. It introduced saving shifts, is a 3-on-3 tag fighter, with a large roster with definite tiers.
Make JD give you back more life? It already is easy to do and it gives you way too much life back and multiple JDs are even eaiser (takes no timing). This is one of my biggest problems with Garou (and the slow speed of the game). With that said, it’s still a much better game than XI.
