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| Iggy 8464th Post
 
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
     
     
     
     
     
|  "Re(1):Fatal Fury BA2" , posted Sun 20 Apr 07:25
I think at the time RB and RBSP had a reasonable success.
But RBSP was quite unbalanced, and RB2 fixed that (amongst other things and becoming a widely superior game) but by nerfing severely the most powerful characters. There was an uproar amongst those who used these characters, and most of them hated RB2 because of all possibilities they felt they had lost.
Players who began with RB2 didn't know about these nerfs, enjoyed the game and were really happy about it; but the schism was fatal to the immediate popularity of the game. Ironically, Geese is supposed to have lost many things between RBSP and RB2. Seeing how he's one of the strongest characters of RB2, I can't imagine how he was back in RBSP.
I think RB2 may be SNK's 3rd strike : one of the best games they ever created, a financial failure, and a popularity that grew so strong with the years that the unpopularity of the game at the time seems unbelievable.
Or maybe more like Vampire Savior : the game was actually killed by the bad business decisions of the company, while Third Strike was killed by the CPS3 itself to begin with, then by the neet who learned to parry on the first SF3 and prevented any new player from learning the basics.
But then, I wasn't much of an SNK fan at the time, so maybe I just misunderstood what I've heard.
That makes me think I need to do that Vampire appreciation thread.
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| Toxico 4385th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
|  "Re(2):Fatal Fury BA2" , posted Sun 20 Apr 13:18:
quote:
There was an uproar amongst those who used these characters, and most of them hated RB2 because of all possibilities they felt they had lost.
Not only the imbecile characters where nerfed, but due to a system mechanics change, players could no longer get 80% ~ 150% health combos from a low quick, and they felt that "it was ok before", thus most likely they switched to Guilty Gear right away  .
Real Bout 2 was more about working damage, instead of landing a short hop or a low kick near the corner; it was as if RB2 took the old garous as basis, and RBS took RB as basis 
Also, as a hidden boss; Geese not only had almost every move from his move list up to that date, but most of the moves where stupidly overpowered; add new moves to that and he enjoys the 'jab / low kick -> incredible damage' universal rule of the game.
quote:
while Third Strike was killed by the CPS3 itself to begin with, then by the neet who learned to parry on the first SF3 and prevented any new player from learning the basics.
The Sean bonus game was a stupid idea to begin with 
The only evil of the word; is the one in the heart of mens
[this message was edited by Toxico on Sun 20 Apr 13:31] |
| chazumaru 526th Post
New Red Carpet Member
| "Re(2):Fatal Fury BA2" , posted Sun 20 Apr 20:07
quote:
<Iggy's big post>
I think you wrote a fairly valid analysis.
The Real Bout trilogy was mostly eclipsed by KOF's "Orochi" period: strongest popularity period of KOF, growing fandom of specific KOF fans to the detriment of the original concept, growing feeling that one should rather wait for KOF to compile new interesting characters and gameplay gimmicks rather than invest time an dmoney in the other games, etc.
One should remember that Garou Densetsu / Final Fantasy was the Pepsi of fighting games prior to the 32bit era, then almost commited seppuku with Garou 3. The Garou team can be commended for saving their series after Garou 3's failure and creating such a unique but fun and accessible gameplay that it could find its own niche.
Regarding RB2's popularity in particular, it also suffered the fate of being the only Real Bout game that never got a console port until Battle Archives 2 came along (NGCD notwithstanding). Whereas RBS got the Saturn port and the PS special version. That probably played a role in the low popularity of the game in 1998-1999, until emaluation probably helped it as much as the Dreamcast helped Street Fighter III.
I also remember that the announcement of RB2 was met with a lot of disappointment by non-hardcore Garou fans (and even some Garou fans) as it seemed it did not bring much novelty (same engine as RBS, only two characters, no storyline development etc.). The nerfing probably got RBS fans to shit on the final version early on, which probably helped killing off the buzz around the game. And then you can add that it was released in the Heaven-or-Hell-Year 1998, so people had PLENTY of choice for their fighting tastes.
Regarding RB2's resurging popularity, I believe this always happen when a game is actually really fucking good and polished and deep enough that a small community can dig into it for years. The same happened for 3rd Strike, which is still played in both JP and US tournaments.
All of which is quite unbelievable when the more popular Zero series is now on hiatus. Ponder on the fact that Zero 3 PS版 was the last million selling 2D fighting game! Even the Jump games on DS did not achieve that. I am not implying that Zero3 is a bad fighting game, but I get the feeling it was more a vox populi kind of game, almost too popular and accepted to create a tight-knit community. I am sure a lot of core fans still pop up Zero3 from times to times, but it seems to me that most of its core fans drifted to Guilty Gear (at least this is what happened in Europe) while all the casual buyers simply quit 2D fighting games altogether.
On the other hand, I don't think anything replaced 3S or RB2 - or VS for that matter - in their respective communities. I mean, MotW is a completely different game (actually it almost creates a bridge between RB and 3S in a twisted way). So I think that is why the community is still there and active, and always eager to randomly promote the game's qualities (without even being asked to, as Toxico mentioned about me a few posts ahead). And as long as there is a community, there will always be curious newcomers.
The three RB games managed to have enough connections (so you don't feel lost) and differences (so you don't feel bored) between each other, while remaining insanely fun, that this is a very solid compilation in my book. I am still avoiding buying it because I already have all three on NEOGEO, but the cover is really nice too (although I have not seen the US one). I think I'll get it at some point.
IT'S THE BLACK PUDDING!
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