| Original message (6605 Views )
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|  "Re(4):Fighting Game Thread Spring 2020" , posted Tue 28 Jan 14:28  
quote:
Finally, some good news for a change! First off, congrats to Fuudo and Yuka Kuramochi. The sight of that loving, improbable couple will always make me smile. Second, it's good to hear that Sakura got a big win under her belt. Between that and a character that wasn't Shizimaru winning SS it sounds like I have a lot of matches to catch up on. Finally, I'm impressed that Evo Japan appears to have been a middling success. That doesn't sound like much but considering up until now it had been a huge, embarrassing failure I would say it's quite the improvement.
Wait a minute. I hope I am not confusing this person with another,but isn't Yuka the twitter model famous for her constant butt shots?
The same! She’s also a pretty decent SFV player (far better than the Cafe, outside of Rugal  ), and a big R. Mika fan, as you could imagine.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| | "Re(5):Fighting Game Thread Spring 2020" , posted Tue 28 Jan 20:26
quote:
Finally, some good news for a change! First off, congrats to Fuudo and Yuka Kuramochi. The sight of that loving, improbable couple will always make me smile. Second, it's good to hear that Sakura got a big win under her belt. Between that and a character that wasn't Shizimaru winning SS it sounds like I have a lot of matches to catch up on. Finally, I'm impressed that Evo Japan appears to have been a middling success. That doesn't sound like much but considering up until now it had been a huge, embarrassing failure I would say it's quite the improvement.
Wait a minute. I hope I am not confusing this person with another,but isn't Yuka the twitter model famous for her constant butt shots?
The same! She’s also a pretty decent SFV player (far better than the Cafe, outside of Rugal ), and a big R. Mika fan, as you could imagine.
That's interesting! Is she a competitor in those SFV tournaments, too, or does she play just for fun?
Of course, playing just for fun doesn't mean the person couldn't play competitively; I still remember when Nintendo hired Utada Hikaru to have Tetris matches against a bunch of players and she managed to win against almost everyone... one more among several reasons to love her.
Maybe I'm this person right in front of you... nah probably not though.
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| | "Re(2):EVO2K20 line up" , posted Fri 7 Feb 00:32
quote:
Has there been any rumors as to why MK11 didn't make the cut? Was there some sort of disagreement with WB? Is this a similar situation to that brief time when DBFZ disappeared from tournaments?
There has been plenty of speculation, but I don't know of anything remotely official.
Speculation includes:
EVO hates Netherrealm and/or fans of NRS games. Several people cited vague claims of mistreatment of MK11 last year as evidence, as well as vague claims of previous disagreements between EVO and NRS. Because games with lower attendance and lower viewer counts made the 2020 line-up, Mk11 had to have been a victim of "politics"; no other possible explanation could exist.
In order to appeal to ESPN, MK11 was "core values"-ed out of the line-up.
Disney (which owns ESPN) objected to MK11 being promoted because it is heavily promoting DC's Joker as well as Image's Spawn.
Netherrealm decided it didn't need EVO, and will announce its own big plans for this year at Final Kombat next month.
On the other side, a few have said that while MK11 has higher attendance, viewer, and stream counts than included games, it is still a bit middling and interest had been dropping. (At least before the Joker reveal spiked interest again.) It wasn't a "must have" title in either viewer interest or actual game quality, and thus there needs be no conspiracy to explain its absence.
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| | "Examu and FK Digital closing soon." , posted Mon 10 Feb 19:17:
Examu and FK Digital are closing down soon.
Examu will cease operations at the end of the month. Meanwhile, development, operation, and support in progress have been already taken over and continued by Team Arcana.
FK Digital ceased all development and will close at the end of March. They even cancelled Chaos Code NEXT.
Apparently, one of the producers of Chaos Code wrote a message of what have had happened.
quote:
I truly regret to inform everyone of this bad news, despite tweeting last week that I will try my best to continue the development of Chaos Code Next.
Lack of human resources and budget were always the long-term issue for the company—however the real reason why FK Digital had to make this tough decision is because of my current mental condition to the level that I cannot continue this job anymore.
If you have been following me or Chaos Code for many years, you may know that this title was created by myself—Mickey, together with my younger brother—Michael. Back in 2016, we announced the very first trailer of Chaos Code Next at Toushinsai (a major e-sports event in Japan).
Unfortunately, my brother Michael then passed away on December 25, 2017, due to illness. And we never made this sad news public, not even to the employees of FK Digital.
After I lost my brother, who was also the main director and the main force of Chaos Code development team, there were many times I thought of giving up the whole thing, but Chaos Code Next was the complete version of Chaos Code, and it was always our dream, for both Michael and myself, to fully finish the development of this title. To achieve this dream, people I really cared and loved supported me, and gave me the motivation to keep up. But recently, I lost their support, too.
Two years ago, I made the difficult decision to continue chasing our dream. And it was even more painful decision today. This decision would have disappointed many people for sure, but I mentally really cannot hold anymore. From the very first fighting game Michael and I made—Fighter’s Kyodotai, then Fighter’s Kyodotai Flash, Super Cosplay War Ultra, and till Chaos Code, for 20-plus years we never stopped making fighting games, my brother already took rest two years ago, maybe it is time for me to take a break now.
Same words again, taking a break is for accomplishing a longer journey. Hope we shall meet again sometime.
—
I would like to thank my parents for raising me and supporting my career. Only with such enlightened parents I could realize my dream of making video games.
Then there is my Japanese friend Sakura, who I met during my schooling in Australia. He was the teacher, who was making his own fighting game as a hobby, and then influenced us to start making fighting games.
Next is Mr. Kidooka, President of Arc System Works. Without his support and guidance, FK Digital could not have achieved such success today.
And of course, thanks to all business partners and FK Digital employees who we worked together, and to the arcade shops and players who supported Chaos Code for many years.
And finally, to my dearest brother, Michael, who had been with me for 38 years, grew up playing together and chasing dreams together. I will always remember him.
I truly thank everyone from the bottom of my heart.
Mickey Lin
February 10, 2020
"Lasciate ogne speranza"
[this message was edited by Yuki Yagami on Mon 10 Feb 19:19] |
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| "Re(1):Examu and FK Digital closing soon." , posted Mon 10 Feb 21:43
quote:
Examu and FK Digital are closing down soon.
Examu will cease operations at the end of the month. Meanwhile, development, operation, and support in progress have been already taken over and continued by Team Arcana.
FK Digital ceased all development and will close at the end of March. They even cancelled Chaos Code NEXT.
Apparently, one of the producers of Chaos Code wrote a message of what have had happened.
I truly regret to inform everyone of this bad news, despite tweeting last week that I will try my best to continue the development of Chaos Code Next.
Lack of human resources and budget were always the long-term issue for the company—however the real reason why FK Digital had to make this tough decision is because of my current mental condition to the level that I cannot continue this job anymore.
If you have been following me or Chaos Code for many years, you may know that this title was created by myself—Mickey, together with my younger brother—Michael. Back in 2016, we announced the very first trailer of Chaos Code Next at Toushinsai (a major e-sports event in Japan).
Unfortunately, my brother Michael then passed away on December 25, 2017, due to illness. And we never made this sad new
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
This is all really unfortunate, especially about what happened with FK Digital. Putting aside the tragedy of losing a sibling, it's sad to see that smaller FG devs like Examu and FK Digital can't survive when they helped keep the genre afloat. I think these days, niche 2D fighting games are prospering, with the success of Under Night In-Birth and heck, can anyone really call Arc System Works niche at this time? SNK, while in some sense were never niche, are doing good, finally able to support 2 mainline games going with new KOF and Samurai Shodown games, and even Arika finally making their return to the genre with Fighting EX Layer.
It seems at least for Examu, there is still a different team that's relegated to working on Arcana Heart that'll seemingly still keep working on it.
http://100daysofmegashock.wordpress.com/
http://badoorsnk.wordpress.com/
pretzelmotion.com
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| | "Re(1):Examu and FK Digital closing soon." , posted Tue 11 Feb 07:37
quote:
Examu and FK Digital are closing down soon.
Examu will cease operations at the end of the month. Meanwhile, development, operation, and support in progress have been already taken over and continued by Team Arcana.
FK Digital ceased all development and will close at the end of March. They even cancelled Chaos Code NEXT.
Apparently, one of the producers of Chaos Code wrote a message of what have had happened.
I truly regret to inform everyone of this bad news, despite tweeting last week that I will try my best to continue the development of Chaos Code Next.
Lack of human resources and budget were always the long-term issue for the company—however the real reason why FK Digital had to make this tough decision is because of my current mental condition to the level that I cannot continue this job anymore.
If you have been following me or Chaos Code for many years, you may know that this title was created by myself—Mickey, together with my younger brother—Michael. Back in 2016, we announced the very first trailer of Chaos Code Next at Toushinsai (a major e-sports event in Japan).
Unfortunately, my brother Michael then passed away on December 25, 2017, due to illness. And we never made this sad new
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
This is all terrible news.
Am I being optimistic thinking the Examu=>Arcana is just a change of name and focusing on the project at hand? Are they going to be able to rebound and make a new game? Or are they just doing their best to honor the Kickstarter for the 3 people who care, and then finally go under for good?
In a just word, we would be getting a new game that would be as big of a jump as Melty Blood=>UNIEL was. After all, I can't imagine Examu to be that much bigger than French Bread... are they?
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| | "Re(1):Singing the Gran Blues" , posted Mon 17 Feb 14:52:
quote:
So what is the early consensus on GBFV? The few matches I've watched have been fairly straightforward affairs but I have heard that there are a host of option selects in the game due to attempts to make the inputs easier. Do people find the game fun to play? Is there going to be a competitive scene for GBFV? Are people treating it as an extension of the mobile game and waiting for their favorite characters to be added to the roster?
So I've picked up the game and though I haven't had much time to play yet, it's pretty straightforward and simple. The big buzz right now is a proximitry option select that lets the player block or do a special/super depending on whether the opponent attacks, but that'll be deleted in an upcoming patch. There's also throw escaping option selects, but I can't think of many situations where they'll come to be abusable considering the game's system.
I think that all the characters in this game have their strong points and there's no characters deprived from winning. Right now the characters considered strongest are Gran, Feri, Katalina, Lancelot, the weakest is Bazaraga. Gran is like a Ryu on steroids, Feri is like a multi-function Dhalsim with cat ears and wearing more than just pants, Katalina is like the birthchild of Ryu and Samsho Charlotte, and Lancelot is like a Chipp with more durability and a strong rekka. Bazaraga is like an Abigail with a power wave. Charlotta and Metera were popular launch week characters but they're being sighted less from the game's second week I think.
Basically the game plays like a Street Fighter with a one-button block, and pressing it while holding back does a KOF94-style dodge which comes essencial to gameplay. Holding back can also block, just that the game was made for casual players in mind. The game also lets you do special attacks with just one button but there's cooldown time so it's not abusable. Doing special attacks with the traditional stick motion has less cooldown time, so normally that'll be the preferred method in normal situations for an experienced player.
Overall, jump-ins are slow and weak, so the gameplay is extremely ground-based; long-reach characters and projectile characters have advantage in that sense (also because EX moves in this game generally aren't projectile-invulnerable), which is why Basaraga is considered lower in the tiers. Matches are mildly paced but things can change very quickly because the combo damages are high. If you hit a jumping opponent with a grounded normal attack, you can juggle them into a combo for anywhere between 20-60% damage depending on character and screen location. It adds to the reason why this game is very ground-based, and you rarely witness air-to-air encounters like in KOF. For the same reason, this is about the only fighting game I can think of where it can be better to hit the opponent in the air rather than waiting for them to land when they've whiffed a dragon punch.
The throw system in particular is interesting; they're done with two buttons like most modern fighting games, and they can be done even while holding back-down on the stick, meaning you can try and block the opponent's move, and also go for both a throw or a throw excape while at it. As a countermeasure, the game features something akin to SF3rd's leap attack, which can be used as an answer to throws and also as an overhead; if it hits as a counter, you can go for a combo.
I think the ranking system in this game functions pretty well and keep players at the rank that they honestly belong to, reason being that it's easy to get downgraded. The ranking goes by Alphabets instead of points (SSS, SS, S, A, B, C), and each rank has 5 levels (SSS1-5, SS1-5, S1-5, A1-5, etc). Advancing a level requires 5 stars; you earn or lose a star for each match you win/lose, and winning 2 matches in a row seems to give you an additional star. So for example if you're at C5 and you want to advance to rank B(get to B5) , you'll need to earn 25 stars. And then you need to clear an advancement test where you need to win 3 of your next 5 matches. Once you're in rank B5, if you drop down to C1, you need to take the test again.
One point of appraisal for producer Fukuhara and the developers at Arc, while some characters received changes on their costumes from their original RPG, an unlockable option returns them to their authentic look. While it's unknown if the same option will be available in US & EU releases, it's certainly an idea to keep all fans happy. In a way, it feels almost like a callback to the B&B code from KOF94.
[this message was edited by Professor on Mon 17 Feb 17:06] |
| | "Re(3):Singing the Gran Blues" , posted Tue 3 Mar 10:17
quote:
Thanks for the thoughts! Now that everyone has switched over to trying to do weird Seth combos I haven't seen as much GB footage out there so it's good to hear a bit more about how the game is shaping up. The decision to make zoning characters so strong is interesting. For a game that's primarily built for single players it makes sense. The first instinct most players have is to run to the opposite side of the screen and toss fireballs. If the players who are primarily interested in the original GBF can get far against the CPU with those tactics they are going to be happy. I don't know if that mind-set will please competitive players but I suspect that ranked mode isn't as high on the to-do list.
Actually, the main mode for single player in GBVS is a side scroller action RPG so I'm not sure if general fighting game strategies come into use. What's more important is I believe you can do 2 players with it online! I still haven't played it to make any good comments, which I hope to do so soon.
There's also an arcade mode of course, but there's about 5 levels of difficulty to chose from when you start off, so it shouldn't be too hard even for non-competetive players.
That still leaves the question "why'd they make the fireball game strong?". This is answerable in three parts:
1/ In other recent fighting games, projectiles are weak because there's generally a lot of EX moves that can go through them with the use of a meter. However in GBVS, EX moves can be done for free without meter, albeit there's a few seconds of cooldown time. Ergo, EX moves can be used a lot more per round than other fighters, which probably lead the developers to not give projectile invinicibility to most of them.
2/ Fireballs can be air blocked. There's also KOF94 style dodging and KOF96 style rolling. (Note: that's to say, the rolling in GBVS is as useless as in KOF96).
3/ Dragon Punches can also be air blocked except when they're EX moves or they're still on the ground.
So today the first DLCs get released, and in about two weeks the Steam version will be coming. After that will be the real fun, as people datamine and figure out all sort of goodies.
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| | "Re(4):Singing the Gran Blues" , posted Sat 14 Mar 11:46:
quote:
in about two weeks the Steam version will be coming
Playing around with training/mission, I'm wondering how balanced the difference is between using simple and technical inputs.
My main concern is whether the devs even considered the differences between different technical inputs, particularly when nearly every character uses the same quarter-circles, dragon punches, and double taps. But two characters have charge moves, and charge moves are rather different in their up-front cost.
Standing out even more is Ladiva, who is given grappler inputs. There is relatively little difference between a single button input and a QCF+button input, but there is a pretty massive difference between a single button input and a 360+button input. Ladiva has exactly that option. While everyone else chooses between the "simple" QCF+button+button and the "technical" QCFx2+button for their desperation super, Ladiva's choice is between QCF+button+button and 720+button.
EDIT: Going into training, it looks like they both did and didn't think about it? There are balancing factors, but the effects appear to be blanket ones.
For (hold back/down) charge moves, there appears to be a blanket ~5 second penalty applied to the cooldown timer when using the simple input? Use the technical input and most charge moves have their cooldown end around the same time the move itself ends.
Projectiles deliver slightly less damage when performed with simple inputs. The technical input will net you roughly 15% more damage than the simple. (If you get 800 damage for the technical, you'll get 700 for the simple. If you get 350 damage for the technical, you get 300 for the simple.)
Ladiva's throws see much greater damage differences, +500 for specials and +1000 for supers. Perform the spinning powerbomb with the simple inputs and you'll get 1500/2000/2500 damage depending on which strength you use; perform it with the full 360 input and you'll get 2000/2500/3000. Perform Lavida's desperation super with the simple input and you'll get 4000 damage, but if you use the 720 input you'll get 5000 damage.
However, you can see that the throw damage difference was a simple blanket solution as it also affects the throw variation of Ladiva's super but not the regular hit version of the super, even though both versions use similar technical inputs. The "hit" version (QCF) does 3500 regardless of whether it is done with the simple or technical input. The "throw" version (QCB) does 3000 with the simple input and 4000 with the technical input, even though it is no more difficult to execute than the "hit" version.
[this message was edited by Baines on Sat 14 Mar 12:58] |
| | "Re(8):Singing the Gran Blues" , posted Tue 17 Mar 02:17
quote:
Has anyone picked up the PS4 ver yet? If so I am available for games. The Steam version is finally out, but unfortunately there is no crossplay.
I don't think I'll get Granblue, however I'm super happy to see that Uni[clr] will be released on Steam at the end of March instead of next year.
I've been trying to get into the game and force a friend of mine to learn it with me or face unspecified consequences, so that's just what I needed!
I haven't read the reactions of players to the [clr] revision, but I don't have much doubt it's going to be great.
Undernight is a title which I certainly enjoyed despite its complex combos, although unfortately I was too late to join the scene when its second release [st] came out. I do have it with [st>clr] update patch if anyone is interested in some matches, albeit on the PS4!
One thing that is very interesting about how UNI's combo damage scaling system works is that the highly flexible chaining system, big character size, and freeform juggling means that anybody can freestyle a combo, but also that the difference between optimal combos and beginner combos isn't too huge in terms of damage. A "good" combo that starts off a light hit will do 2500-3000 damage and give a knockdown or carry the opponent to the corner or both. A suboptimal combo done by flailing on the buttons will probably do 2000-2500 and not end with a hard knockdown. This is a HUGE difference compared to the likes of SF or other anime games or Tekken: in SF, a beginner to fighting games just pressing buttons will probably fail to do a combo at all!
In anime fashion, you can do combos that have looping sequences in them, but unlike other anime games re-use of the same move results in harsh additional damage scaling ("same move proration") across the board, whereas in most other anime games this usually only happens on particular moves. GGAC entertainingly had a move where successive re-use of the move worked in reverse, i.e. it did MORE damage with each usage to counteract combo damage scaling, in the form of Sol's Sidewinder!
The game has extreme lenience with picking people up off the ground, but has a strict limit on how many times you can do that or bounce someone off the wall in one combo. You can only jump cancel once in a combo, and quite unlike many other anime games, most moves can only be jump cancelled on hit and not on block.
I like how with Enkidu (or really anybody in the game) you can basically freestyle your own wallbounce loop!
MikeZ, the head engineer and gameplay designer of Skullgirls, said that "combos should be easy and reversals should be hard", which I don't entirely agree with, but UNI does a very good job of making combos very approachable and with more than just an autocombo button (though it has that, too, and it is actually important in higher level play). The one nuisance with this is that trying to come up with "good" combos is actually really tedious, since it's a lot of testing of many minor variations to come up with something substantially better than average.
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| PSN: Ishmael26b
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| "Re(1):The Kombat is back" , posted Thu 7 May 22:49
quote:
No, MK12 isn't coming anytime soon... instead, NRS will release an Aftermath expansion to MK11 this month.
What we know so far is that there will be a new Story Mode involving the DLC kombatants (well, the "kanon" ones), including Sheeva (who looks fantastic!) and Fujin, who will be added to the roster in this expansion. Robocop is also being included as a guest fighter, and Stage Fatalities are back... and so are FRIENDSHIPS!
I must say, it looks quite promising. And quite unexpected, too. If only Mileena was brought back as well... *sigh*
I do hope they can keep Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa around for future games because he's doing a great job of hamming it up. Between him and Peter Weller joining the cast MK 11 has fully turned into an interactive action movie from the 1980's. The Cannon movie logo should flash on the screen at the start of the game.
A minor thing, but in the trailer Robocop unholsters his gun from his left leg instead of the right on like he does in the movies. That annoyed me for some reason.
In other game news, Iroha is coming to SS. I'll be curious to see how she plays because this little teaser didn't make it look like she was doing much that Shiki doesn't already cover.
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| PSN: gekijmo
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| "Re(1):The Kombat is back" , posted Thu 7 May 23:48
quote:
No, MK12 isn't coming anytime soon... instead, NRS will release an Aftermath expansion to MK11 this month.
What we know so far is that there will be a new Story Mode involving the DLC kombatants (well, the "kanon" ones), including Sheeva (who looks fantastic!) and Fujin, who will be added to the roster in this expansion. Robocop is also being included as a guest fighter, and Stage Fatalities are back... and so are FRIENDSHIPS!
I must say, it looks quite promising. And quite unexpected, too. If only Mileena was brought back as well... *sigh*
It looks like MOST of those leaks from when the game came out were right. The lack of Ash Williams seems to be from a disagreement between Netherrealm and Bruce Campbell if social media is to be believed.
Robocop sounds fun in theory, but the guy just shoots his gun, stabs people with his spike/usb thing and throws people through windows. Gonna be a lot of weird animations to create to see Robocop fight. Him lifting his leg up to kick just seems wrong in my brain.
Also, they are going to have to be really creative with those customized costumes and move variations unless they really cut down on the amount for Robocop. Just off the top of my head it is just regular and battle damage, helmet and helmetless.
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| | "Re(1):Rage of the licensed Dragons" , posted Mon 11 May 01:17:
quote:
I don't know if this should go here or the SNK thread, but Pikointeractive, who I absolutely never heard before, has acquired IP rights for Rage of the Dragons
Piko Interactive is a name that you'll probably run into more in the future. They've been around for a few years, relying on Kickstarter campaigns to raise funding for various retro game-inspired projects. They started with a physical SNES cart release of some homebrew games, but quickly branched into physical re-releases and (legal) PC releases of various old games, some previously cancelled/unpublished games, and translations of some niche games. They did a plug-and-play system for Wisdom Tree titles, and are one of the companies that has joined in releasing games (compilation emulation carts really) for the Evercade console. Last year, they decided to expand into a retro action figure line.
I'm a bit divided over whether they are ultimately a good or bad thing. On the good side, they've been bringing attention (and legal availability) to old games that otherwise would likely remain forgotten.
On the bad side, they are a Kickstarter-reliant company that has been dipping their toes into a lot of ponds. While Kickstarter mitigates some of the risks, they could potentially crash and burn, and who knows where the rights they've acquired will end up. Or maybe they'll just lose interest. They've brought a bit of visibility and availability to some old titles, but what futures do those titles have with Piko Interactive? Will they return to obscurity while Piko expands into new efforts and newer rights purchases?
My guess is that you won't be seeing any new Rage of the Dragons games. You'll just see a legally licensed emulations such as a Steam release. Maybe a physical cart re-release, but there probably isn't enough of a market for NeoGeo cart re-releases.
[this message was edited by Baines on Mon 11 May 01:22] |
| |  "Re(6):Re(10):Rage of the licensed Dragons" , posted Thu 4 Jun 04:13
quote:
They've been making Street Fighter games, honestly. They were one of the main developers of SF4, and I believe they are also a key developer of SFV. The presence of the V-Trigger system in particular felt very Rumble Fish (what with TRF's separate offense and defense gauges), and I always wonder if that was more their doing than the GG fellow's doing.
Yeah, that was my question.
I wonder what exactly is their involvement in a game. Do they work on the foundation, and once SF4/5/SC6 are released, they move on to another project while a skeleton crew under the license holder pilots contractors to keep pumping new characters and costumes?
Or are they still actively involved in creating the new characters of SF5, SC6, and at the same time possibly working on SF6 or whatever Capcom may be working on for next generation?
So this is actually a place where the credits of a game are useful!
mobygames link
There's pretty much no doubt that primary direction comes from Capcom, but similarly there is also no doubt that primary development of the game in engineering and implementation and in-the-trenches design work is at DIMPS. There is like one software engineering/programming credit on the Capcom side, and many on the DIMPS side. There's a decently-sized artist team on the Capcom side, but again overwhelmingly the asset artists are external to Capcom.
I imagine that given the balance of knowledge and expertise, without looking at the current credits scroll of the game, additional game content is similarly structured: overall direction (e.g. character choice) comes from Capcom, implementation of it is done at DIMPS. I'm sure the total team size at DIMPS maintaining the game now is certainly less than for the development of the game as a whole, but being able to get things out at a regular pace wouldn't be really possible without having some it done by DIMPS staff. The leanest skeleton crew possible to get the content done would almost certainly consist of some engineers at DIMPS coupled with whatever outsourced artists they had.
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| PSN: Ishmael26b
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| "Re(2):Ultra Tiny Cabinets" , posted Thu 11 Jun 23:40
quote:
While I doubt I can handle 90 minutes of the most 90s American thing possible, it was less gory than other American offers like Mortal Kombat and managed to have a few attractive characters amidst the X-TREME 90s Fulgore types and raging church bell thumping megabass character select screen. KI2 had pretty neat music for Orchid's stage! In the minus column, it didn't have her famous striptease finisher that somehow worked on all the various non-human characters.
The documentary did do a good job of highlighting some of KI 2013's accomplishments, such as tying the soundtrack to the combo system and how Iron Galaxy's unique characters took the game into a more interesting, Darkstalkers-like direction. However, like most documentaries, it tends to overstate accomplishments. KI was one of the first to go with the à la carte purchasing system but DoA Core Fighters actually beat it to the market. Then again, Tecmo-Koei often forget about DoA so it's not surprising that no one else remembers the series either.
In other news, Arcade 1 Up -the Funko Pops of arcade paraphernalia- are releasing two mini cabs based around Capcom's Marvel games. For reasons I don't fully understand, one of the cabs features SFC game X-Men Mutant Apocalypse.
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| | "Re(2):Ultra Documentary" , posted Fri 12 Jun 06:55
quote:
Here's a documentary that's over ninety minutes long detailing the birth and rebirth of the leather-lunged shout-a-thon that is Killer Instinct.
It's important to yell ULTRA!!!!! ULTRA!!! ULTRA!! ULTRA! in descending levels of loudness whenever talking about classic Killer Instinct, the spirit of the announcer.
While I doubt I can handle 90 minutes of the most 90s American thing possible, it was less gory than other American offers like Mortal Kombat and managed to have a few attractive characters amidst the X-TREME 90s Fulgore types and raging church bell thumping megabass character select screen. KI2 had pretty neat music for Orchid's stage! In the minus column, it didn't have her famous striptease finisher that somehow worked on all the various non-human characters.
Heh, good point! It's particularly funny to remember that finisher didn't work if the opponent was another Orchid (I mean, Orchid would still flash her, but the other Orchid would just get angry), but it DID work on Riptor (who's actually female, even if she doesn't look very feminine)...
I was surprised to find out that Fatal Fury 2 and World Heroes were among the influences for KI; to me it always felt like a combination of Street Fighter's fluid playability (it even has three punch buttons and three kick buttons with different properties) and Mortal Kombat's violence and "edginess". In fact, this may be why KI succeeded; most MK clones put too much emphasis on the gore and too little attention on how they played, and ended up not being any fun to play. Killer Instinct, on the other hand, played better than MK, also bringing impressive graphics and fantastic music.
And it being less gory is something I actually prefer (as odd as this may seem, I like the MK franchise despite its violence, not because of it). Which is why I hope there will never be a MK/KI crossover; decapitations, dismemberments, eviscerations and such just don't fit with the more "subtle" (for lack of a better word) Ultimate finishing moves (which the developers even said that were done in a way to leave uncertain if the opponent really died or not).
Maybe I'm this person right in front of you... nah probably not though.
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| PSN: zonepharaoh
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| "Re(3):Ultra Documentary" , posted Mon 22 Jun 00:22
quote:
(as odd as this may seem, I like the MK franchise despite its violence, not because of it).
I am super-interested in this opinion! Just A Person, I am genuinely, non-sarcastically curious about what you like best about the series, and the Cafe is the only place where I ever peripherally encounter the to-me mysterious world of American-made fighting games. While these things don't do it for me, I could imagine the very 1980s-90s Mad Max extreme American action-violence design that would be fun for people, or maybe even the cultural curiousity of the "Asia as misinterpreted by Americans" designs, but it sounds like there's something else there? Has the gameplay gotten a lot better? In 16-bit days, I had the impression MK was mostly a button-masher.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| | "Re(4):Ultra Documentary" , posted Mon 22 Jun 09:48
quote:
(as odd as this may seem, I like the MK franchise despite its violence, not because of it). I am super-interested in this opinion! Just A Person, I am genuinely, non-sarcastically curious about what you like best about the series, and the Cafe is the only place where I ever peripherally encounter the to-me mysterious world of American-made fighting games. While these things don't do it for me, I could imagine the very 1980s-90s Mad Max extreme American action-violence design that would be fun for people, or maybe even the cultural curiousity of the "Asia as misinterpreted by Americans" designs, but it sounds like there's something else there? Has the gameplay gotten a lot better? In 16-bit days, I had the impression MK was mostly a button-masher.
It was, and I'd say its gameplay only improved by the time MK 2011 (or MK9, or MK Reboot) came out.
As for what made me interested in Mortal Kombat, I'd say it's a combination of factors. First of all, the nostalgia: back when I was a kid, the only fighting games accessible in Arcades or places to rent videogame cartridges were SFII and MK (SNK wasn't really popular until KoF'95, from what I remember, and attempts from other companies were even less likely to appear on these places), so I got attached to both. And while SF got to be my favorite fighting game series ever, for a long time it only got updates rather than proper sequels; meanwhile, it didn't take long for MKII and MK3 to appear.
Then, there's the storyline. Thanks to MK's popularity in Brazil (which came from its violence, yes), video game magazines would often publish many articles about it - and sometimes they would tell its plot (back then I didn't understand English, so these articles helped a lot). And as a kid, I was fascinated by it; while SF's characters would usually each have their own independent plot, the first MK already established two big rivalries (Scorpion vs Sub-Zero, and Sonya vs Kano). And as the new games came, the story also moved forward: the old sorcerer was actually a servant of a tyrant from another dimension, Liu Kang became Earthrealm's champion and defender, Sub-Zero returned from death - only for us to find out this was actually another person using the same name, with a noble heart, changing Scorpion's opinion... even kombatants who were dropped from game to game would leave some impact, like Sonya and Kano being chained in a coliseum in MKII (which made me wonder what happened to them and if anyone would rescue them), or Johnny Cage having a tombstone with his name in MK3's Graveyard stage indicating his death, or Kitana being mentioned on both Liu Kang's and Sindel's MK3 endings, and so on. It was sort of like a 1990s comic book.
Finally, there was the surprise factor, as each game seemed to have its share of secrets, from Reptile's random appearances between fights in MK1 to the "Kombat Codes" on MK3 allowing to change conditions on matches or even fight hidden kombatants. And since there was no Internet back then, most of the time we'd be caught completely off-guard whenever one of these secrets appeared.
Looking back, MK's story wasn't really anything special, the gameplay was bad (though at least it was playable, unlike most games that tried to jump on the violence bandwagon like Way of the Warrior), and most of its appeal (other than the violence) came from tactics that we'd consider cheap nowadays. But, well, it worked on me, and thanks to the story progressing from game to game, I remained interested in it until today.
Maybe I'm this person right in front of you... nah probably not though.
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| PSN: zonepharaoh
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| "Re(5):Ultra Documentary" , posted Tue 23 Jun 10:05
quote:
Then, there's the storyline. Thanks to MK's popularity in Brazil (which came from its violence, yes), video game magazines would often publish many articles about it - and sometimes they would tell its plot (back then I didn't understand English, so these articles helped a lot).
Thanks a lot! This makes a ton of sense about enjoying the story and worldview. Even though Street Fighter has really well-defined characters, it's always been at its best when it has only the vaguest outline of a cheerfully stupid story (Zero, SFV), while it's been dreary (SSFIV anime) or completely uninteresting (SFIII) when it actually goes into detail. Sounds like MK has a lot of fun with its sort-of-Asia world, and what a blast to have something engrossing like a game world to learn English from!
Unrelatedly, I've been meaning to mention for a long time that I really love the "I could be anyone, even someone right next to you" theme in your signature. It's true, in a mysterious and kind of uplifting way!
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| | "Re(6):Ultra Documentary" , posted Tue 23 Jun 12:40
quote:
only the vaguest outline of a cheerfully stupid story (Zero, SFV),
I actually think that SFV attempts to have too much of a story in its Story mode, and this is part of why it's so dumb and ineffective! While it has a few choice jokes in it, I had a hard time really enjoying it even as an SF fan. It has a great deal of story that it wants us to care about, but it's hard to care about it when it's told so poorly, and with so many story moments that rather than making us go "oh how mysterious" instead leave us going "well that was pointless" what with how much dialogue and exposition it does.
SF3 I think is much more in the vein of Zero and SF2 in that there is some vague bad guy and you don't even really know why he's a bad guy, but otherwise you get a story moment in the end where you learn roughly why the person who you just made beat up all sorts of people in the streets may have done so and what they care about. If anything SF3 has a lot less story than SFZ3/SFA3, where you actually got a big text introduction at the start of each character's arcade mode, in addition to some pre-boss dialogue, in addition to the closing scene!
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| | "Re(7):Ultra Documentary" , posted Tue 23 Jun 20:15
quote:
I actually think that SFV attempts to have too much of a story in its Story mode, and this is part of why it's so dumb and ineffective! While it has a few choice jokes in it, I had a hard time really enjoying it even as an SF fan. It has a great deal of story that it wants us to care about, but it's hard to care about it when it's told so poorly, and with so many story moments that rather than making us go "oh how mysterious" instead leave us going "well that was pointless" what with how much dialogue and exposition it does.
It really depends on everyone, but I think one of the most important things in fighting games for me is: if a character is on the character selection screen, that character is "the hero".
Yes, you can tell me that Ryu and Terry and Kyo are more "the hero" than Hakan or Xianfei or Chin canonically, but as far as my personal experience of the game is, there is nothing to prove that until you start digging into extended universe stuff. And even the extended universe of old KOFs had short stories in Neo Geo Freak for each team, explaining what the team is looking for in this tournament, why the AoF team or the Women team's composition has changed this year, or why the American Sports Team isn't part of this tournament yet again. They flesh out all the characters equally.
I guess canonically Orochi was banished in 97 by Kyo, Iori and Chizuru, but if I want to think the Korean Team's ending of 97 is what really happened because that's the one I really like for some reason, nothing is going to contradict that in the game.
Which is why the story mode of SF5 is so bad: it suddenly forces you to acknowledge that your favourite character is actually not that important. On top of being poorly written and doing a terrible job in pushing the characters who were supposed to be the main focus (especially Nash and Necalli, but I can't say Ryu, Chun-li or Cammy are gaining anything out of this mess). I think the only character that comes out well from that mess is FANG? Maybe Juri and Rashid? And then Zangief has a memetic moment?
Compared to MK's attempts at having every character involved in the story and having their time to shine, the SF5 story is pretty terrible. And even MK's unlimited budget is not enough to create a cinematic story mode where each one of the 30 characters feels important, as seen in complaints from fans of Reptile, Kotal Khan and a few others. It really is a losing battle.
On the other hand, the character stories of SF5 work really well (butchered Bengus art aside). They are a tailored short story exactly at eye level with the character, and they flesh them out by giving them something to do with their lives. Even if nothing happens with them, something still kinda happens. Sagat is lured to the dark side and resists it. Dhalsim is doing work with his community, which is something we knew he was doing in-between games but now we actually see it. Sakura is having an adulting moment. And yeah, maybe Honda is not saving the world by head-butting into a nuclear reactor this time, but he's protecting the sanctity of good public bath manners, and from the character's point of view, I'd argue it's almost as important. You also get to see some characters from the point of view of someone else, even for minor characters such as Cody, who's shown through the lens of Lucia and Poison. There's nothing immensely groundbreaking in these interaction, and that's precisely the point: it's normal everyday stuff in characters you are familiar with, and that's good.
The first batch of characters have it worse because there were not enough characters in the game at that time to give them something meaning meaningful to do (and also the art was particularly bad), but as the seasons go on, that was the thing that I ended up looking forward to the most.
A similar thing happened in Skullgirls: the base roster was uneven, but as the kickstarter characters came out the scenarios became better and better until I ended up really caring for that world.
All in all, each character being the hero and each story being somewhat canon within itself is one of my favourite things in fighting game, and having one big cinematic canonical scenario mode detracts from it far too much. I hope SF6 goes on with the same per-character structure as the latest SF5 seasons, and uses the money wasted in the cinematic story mode in somewhere more meaningful, like more characters, more backgrounds, or a lewd Cody dakimakura.
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| | "Re(8):Ultra Documentary" , posted Wed 24 Jun 21:11
quote:
It really depends on everyone, but I think one of the most important things in fighting games for me is: if a character is on the character selection screen, that character is "the hero".
Yes, you can tell me that Ryu and Terry and Kyo are more "the hero" than Hakan or Xianfei or Chin canonically, but as far as my personal experience of the game is, there is nothing to prove that until you start digging into extended universe stuff.
(...)
All in all, each character being the hero and each story being somewhat canon within itself is one of my favourite things in fighting game, and having one big cinematic canonical scenario mode detracts from it far too much. I hope SF6 goes on with the same per-character structure as the latest SF5 seasons, and uses the money wasted in the cinematic story mode in somewhere more meaningful, like more characters, more backgrounds, or a lewd Cody dakimakura.
Agreed! I don't hate cinematic story modes, but I do prefer this structure of choosing your own protagonist, no matter if each character is only the protagonist in their own canon (like Killer Instinct's Season 1 - by the way, the multiple endings there were a nice feature as well) or if all stories can coexist in the same canon (like Killer Instinct's Season 2). Hopefully the success of MK and Injustice won't make all fighting games adopt the single cinematic story mode from now on.
---
quote:
Unrelatedly, I've been meaning to mention for a long time that I really love the "I could be anyone, even someone right next to you" theme in your signature. It's true, in a mysterious and kind of uplifting way!
Heh, thanks! Originally I did intend to portray myself as a mysterious figure (hence the signature)... nowadays the idea is really to be "just a person", as in just another guy in the board.
Maybe I'm this person right in front of you... nah probably not though.
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| PSN: zonepharaoh
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| "Re(10):Ultra Story Mode" , posted Fri 26 Jun 10:17
quote:
And yeah, maybe Honda is not saving the world by head-butting into a nuclear reactor this time, but he's protecting the sanctity of good public bath manners
Dictator has probably been NEETing it up with all his realdolls
This reminds me that while we all know that Sodom's heroic kamikaze ending is the only true ending of SF Zero 3, Honda's heroic headbutt ending where he teaches dolls to sumo wrestle is the second most important and likely possibility!!
Now that I've heard these good points from Just a Person, Spoon, and Iggy, I'm totally on board with future Street Fighters (and other games) only doing character-specific mini-stories and scrapping the main cinematic story modes, even if SFV's was so hilariously dumb and Zangief's scene was so joyfully magnificent (the most I'd laughed at a SF game in nearly twenty years, since Zero 3) that I'd forgotten it was mostly not very good and completely ignored Nash.
It's totally true that everyone should feel like the hero, even if the next entry in the series chooses one of the (inevitably least interesting) character's story to follow. SF Zero 2 actually did it best with character-specific mid-bosses and final bosses, but SFV's character story mode almost gets it perfect, as Iggy says, if only they'd stuck these segments in an actual arcade mode instead of structuring them around some mindlessly unloseable single-round battles.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| | "Re(3):Re(10):Ultra Story Mode" , posted Sun 28 Jun 04:54
To add another stone to the list: I think Tekken truly lost me when they decided the scenario should stop being silly-fun and should become silly-dead-serious.
I loved the silly rivalries, the telenovela aspect of it all, and while characters in 6 still had a story, the fact it happened during world war 3 because Jin something something demon from outer space and millions of people had to die in the background (literally, in the fighting game meaning of "background") made it all a bit... vain. Of course, people did die during the previous ones, I'm sure Brian probably killed a few thousand people with his bare hands one day he was bored, but it was less "this is actually seriously happening right now you know". It really doesn't help to focus on the whereabouts of some lovable kangaroo divorcee.
And then Tekken 7 decided to focus the scenario on a different character who's not even playable and if they're not even trying neither shall I.
On the other hand, the Soulcalibur writers have been trying their best to keep doing their own thing with the miserable budget they've been given since 2, and while they've been constrained by their lack of funds (everything happening in side-novels, or not at all in the case of 5), 6 finally allowed them to tell their story properly. It might not be a great story, it's still heroic-fantasy schlock with living swords, and young kids fighting gods with the power of friendship, and a super-intelligent alchemist needing months to figure out that the guy who sacrifices children every day for breakfast might actually be the bad guy, but it's well told, fun and Azwell is the FANG/Shang Tsung the series lacked.
It might be the only series that didn't even try to tell a non-canon "this is what would happen if your character was the hero" ending for everyone, and instead insisted on tying every character to the story (even the guests), and yet they managed to make it so that everyone get their time to shine.
Except Mitsurugi.
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| | "Japanese characters in Street Fighter" , posted Mon 13 Jul 23:48
After another tired discussion about representation, I started thinking about representation in Street Fighter. Not about minorities or rare nationalities in video games, but "majority" representation: Japanese characters (since the series is still developed by a mostly Japanese team).
Ryu is our normal point of view character. Cliché, shônen hero, few characteristics besides being black belt in ganbaru. Retsu and Geki were tropes, but the main point of the game was for Ryu/the player to get out of the archipelago, travel the world, and beat the strongest people from the strongest country (Thailand). He's similar to Hayato in Star Gladiator, Justice Gakuen's Batsu, Soulcalibur's Mitsurugi, KOF's Kyo, etc. He's the character that has to be there for anything to start.
I'm not sure how Honda was seen by Japanese people in 1992, but I suspect it was a much more favorable view than in the west "LOL naked fat dude". Sumo as a sport is still regarded positively as far as I know, and while the mix "Sumo+Kabuki+Onsen" might have been a bit weird, nothing about it is particularly offensive, and I would even expect older players at the time might have favored Honda over Ryu. Gôki is technically Japanese, though he's barely human so I'm not sure how much he counts in term of "representation".
Next one is Sodom Guy, who, again, stoic cool dude, very anime, easy self-insert if you're a tryhard teenager. I won't count Satsui Ryu (and Oni) for obvious reasons.
Then things change radically. All the following Japanese characters are cute underage girls. Maybe Sakura's overwhelming popularity at the time is to blame, but after 6 Japanese adult dudes (two of whom didn't really stick, so only 4 mainstays), we have 5 Japanese girls in a row, all of them popular (except maybe Mika? She was dealt a bad hand in Zero3 and is much more interesting in 5, so I wouldn't be surprised she joins the top 20 when they ask "who do you want us to call back in SF6). They're all very different and I don't want to sound like I criticize any of them (they're all among the most interesting characters in the games they were introduced), but the shift is... interesting. Even the new background characters are all women: after Gôken and Gôtetsu during the "male" period, we have Satsuki from the dolls, Sakura's best friend, Mika's teacher...
Then the series died, 10 years pass, everyone stop playing videogames to get a job, and then Street Fighter 4 happens. Among the 10 dreadful new characters, only one Japanese: Gôken (not even a real new character, but rather someone from a half-forgotten setting being retconned). SF5's new characters are immensely better, but again, only one new Japanese character, also resurrected from FF2's background: Zeku. Two of the oldest guys of the entire franchise, two masters, but falling a bit on the side, both being without students (Ryu has long surpassed Gôken, and Guy has taken Zeku's mantle). Zeku's desperate act to remain relevant can also be read in this light (do you think the striders of the future still use fax machines?).
I'm not sure where I'm going with that. This is obviously not the reason why SF fails to attract a young audience in Japan, the issues are far bigger than that and Capcom seems to have decided they are far too big to bother fixing. Street Fighter has always been international after all, it just became so international Japan stopped being part of the conversation even though they were the ones initiating it.
But I find interesting that the new popular girls introduced in this new period (Juri, Hakan, Menat) are knee-deep into Japanese anime clichés. They could have been the new Sakura or Ibuki... and yet neither of them are Japanese. Instead, Japan got old washed-out dudes, both being very obvious one-offs that are not expected to appear in any future game except as cameos.
If that's how Capcom views their domestic audience, no wonder they're entirely focused on the west.
On the other hand, the US, Capcom's main market, was graced with Rufus and Ed during that period, so maybe I'm reading too much into all that.
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| | "Re(5):Re(10):Ultra Trailer Mode" , posted Tue 14 Jul 02:13:
quote:
Millia is everything I hate about ArcSys animation in one package.
I couldn't help but to notice that her coat looks like saran wrap around her stomach area. The artistic expression just looks very odd.
quote:
After another tired discussion about representation, I started thinking about representation in Street Fighter. Not about minorities or rare nationalities in video games, but "majority" representation: Japanese characters (since the series is still developed by a mostly Japanese team).
Ryu is our normal point of view character. Cliché, shônen hero, few characteristics besides being black belt in ganbaru.
<snip>
I'm not sure how Honda was seen by Japanese people in 1992,
Honda was ok, not really popular compared to Ryu but people did use him. To give a little background on when the game came out, there was a huge Sumo fad in Japan during the early 1990s and that may have been one of the contributing factors to Honda being in the game. Of course though, the fad didn't seem to help Honda getting used more often; super-casual players picked Chunli over Honda since she looked better and likewise had a button mash move, but players that got more used to the game picked Honda because of his headbutt invincibility. Players in Japan didn't really care too much about character nationality, the same way so as when they're reading a manga. Of course people neither hated or laughed at Honda-- after all who can hate a sumo wrestler that's into Tiramisu which was the big thing covered by magazines back at that time? That, and he had that bear hug.
As for Capcom only coming out with old Japanese characters for the past decade or so, I think the bigger underlying point is that they haven't really made any original male Japanese fighter, period. The later characters in the series were all legacy designs by the time they were implemented into the game. The reasons might be worth some speculation.
[this message was edited by Professor on Tue 14 Jul 02:44] |
| | "Re(1):Big in Japan" , posted Tue 14 Jul 16:37
quote:
When was the last time KoF introduced a new Japanese character? Hein? It's a good thing SS is so focused on its historical anime aesthetic so Yashamaru could be added to the roster.
But as for SF, has any SF game really focused on the shonen trope of "young Japanese boy goes out into the world and makes a name for himself" since SF1? When Chun-Li became the biggest thing in video games Capcom apparently decided that the World Warrior subtitle of SF2 was the way to go. Having SF be a Japanese perspective on an international adventure was such a successful formula that its never changed course since. The characters in the ansatsuken storyline (plus the occasional ninja) serve as the Japanese focus of SF but they aren't the overriding main plot. Is the international focus of both the game and marketing the reason that there haven't been a lot of new, young Japanese guys added to the game? Is it Capcom's reluctance to use the SNK formula of periodically replacing their protagonists with newer, even skinner guys? Is Capcom saving all its designs for young Japanese fighters for a new Justice Gakuen game? Who knows?
Another way to look at it:
If you were to just evaluate the cast based on the vague criteria of "high school age or younger", the last time SF added a new character that was "young" was in SF3 with Elena, Ibuki, Makoto, and Sean. We'll omit the labgrown fellows like Tweleve because youthfulness is not a significant element of their character. Yun and Yang run a restaurant and seem like they'd be at the lowest high school senior aged.
In SF4, all of the newcomers are adults, and some of them are outright parents of children.
In SFV, the newcomer Ed is ostensibly a teenager. He didn't arrive until Season 2, so in the base game, none of the characters are high schoolers. Probably the youngest character is Karin, since she and Sakura recently finished high school.
I think this is in sharp contrast to KOF, which often introduces new characters who deliberately have youthfulness as a primary character element in each new revision. SF since SF2 has basically always been grown-ups, with youths being the outliers. KOF has plenty of adults and elderly, but youthful characters seem to always be a sizeable chunk of the roster, if not story-central characters. KOF certainly also has little-kid type characters, like Bao, which SF has really only had as non-playable characters (e.g. Necro's partner Effie).
Perhaps this is the true story that SF has made for itself in this post-arcade landscape:
No Cabinet For Old Men
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| PSN: Ishmael26b
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| "Re(2):Big in Japan" , posted Thu 16 Jul 01:01
quote:
I think this is in sharp contrast to KOF, which often introduces new characters who deliberately have youthfulness as a primary character element in each new revision. SF since SF2 has basically always been grown-ups, with youths being the outliers. KOF has plenty of adults and elderly, but youthful characters seem to always be a sizeable chunk of the roster, if not story-central characters. KOF certainly also has little-kid type characters, like Bao, which SF has really only had as non-playable characters (e.g. Necro's partner Effie).
It's odd, characters like Abel and Rashid are probably the same age as, say, Benimaru but they come across much differently. Not only is a good portion of the KoF cast young but the way the characters are drawn and presented emphasizes their youth. In contrast, even the high school girls in SF5 such as Ibuki and Menat are built like Tetsuo Hara protagonists.
quote:
That would probably be Momoko from KOF11
Wow, Momoko was so bad that Japan has been banned from having any new participants in KoF!
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| PSN: zonepharaoh
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| "Re(8): Setsuka Calibur" , posted Mon 3 Aug 11:17
quote:
/unlurk self
No, it was all destiny in order to summon you to the next lagfest (see SFV thread now printing), a tale of swords and sou...anyway.
As for Setsuka: there's a lot going on here. If like most sensible people you ignored the detailed backstory for Soul Calibur III, it was more or less possible in-game to forget Setsuka was supposted to be a Westerner taken in by a Japanese master, or whatever it was. I don't recall her having a foreign accent in Japanese, and she didn't look any less Japanese than, say, Taki. The blond hair was a more obvious signal for that character design point, and since III had already introduced the awful pastel-neon green-pink color palette garishness into the series, IV didn't have much problem amping it up in IV.
For better or worse, the new character designer for VI could mold Setsuka's fairly weak original design into something more typically "anime," so you could read it as trying to salvage a character who was pretty low-profile. All it does for me is remind me of how whereas Soul Calibur II's only bad character designs were due to the inexplicable inclusion of the Spawn guy, Soul Calibur III is where new designs jumped the visual shark with both distinctive-looking mistakes like Tira and undistinguished mistakes like Setsuka.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| | "Re(2):Re(10):Fighting Games Roundtable" , posted Thu 6 Aug 02:54
About Setsuka: yes, she died her hair in 3 because of xenophobia (her whole scenario was always "Japan is racist as fuck", which is... interesting!). It shows in one of the (excellent as always) Hiroaki portraits in 6.
Her scenario in 6 is really, really good, and I encourage anyone with the spare change to play it. They took a boring one-note character and made the best classical samurai story in a video game this year. They had a shoestring of a budget and it's basically glorified VN, but this might be my favorite story out of the fighting game with the best stories. Nothing original, just tons of samurai clichés, it's just really well done, well written and well acted.
As for Akira, she's the best choice not named Kyôko! She even balances Dan being there!
The timeframe, though... all these leakers are basically dead, no one else was planned after Seth for sure. Ono getting the boot and Covid sure messed things up.
For the 5th character, everyone assumes it's going to be a guest and it's going to be terrible, so I'm going to go with something optimistic for once: what if it's... King Kobra's return? As a tie-in with SF6?
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| PSN: zonepharaoh
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| "Re(4):Ono leaving Capcom soon." , posted Mon 10 Aug 10:43
quote:
His unceremonious departure from Capcom probably has something to do with those rumors from earlier in the week about how SFVI started rough and as well as the failure of Deep Down
I guess Tsujimoto Jr. started pushing him out some time ago, and I guess having been the producer for both initially-unsuccessful SFV as well as whatever that sad Marvel game was whose name I've literally already forgotten didn't help.
Actually, I never had a strong opinion on Ono (other than him being a seemingly delightful person) because I never knew what to make him, which in turn is because I never have been sure just what a producer does as opposed to a director. I do know that Capcom Fighting Jam is a horrifyingly inauspicious way to start your producer career, but on the other hand, even if SFIV is an aesthetic cyber-criminal, it did launch the 2D fighting rennaissance so I can't help but appreciate Ono, whatever his producer role actually was.
Agreed that a new direction from whoever is the next producer could be a good thing for Street Fighter...although I still can't shake the suspicion that Tsujimoto is going to go full-on Konami on us and make sure Capcom stops publishing anything other than Monster Hunter, ever, except for pachinko games.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| PSN: zonepharaoh
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CFN: zonepharaoh
| "Re(6):Ono leaving Capcom soon." , posted Tue 11 Aug 12:12
Baines is right that Capcom basically obscures the directors in favor of Ono as the face of fighting games...it's ridiculous that I don't know my favorite fighter directors. Can we separate the people who did acceptable work on SFIV and SFV from those involved in Capcom Fighting Jam and that new Marvel game and SFXTekken, all under Ono? You'd better believe I'm not going to take the time to look it up, but I'd sure like to know!
However inconsistent Ono's games are, I think this 2012 bit on Ono gets at what 2D fighting fans owe him through such an improbably important game like SFIV---a game that on the face of it is maybe the least appealing out of the entire series besides SFI, but without which we'd be stuck with only 3D fighters and fiddly, irritating Arc games and doujin fighters:
Ono's calls for Street Fighter's revival were ignored by the company. He was forced to leverage fans and journalists to force Capcom's hand. Even then, nobody at Capcom believed in the project but him. That's why he identifies with the fans so much: they share his passion, a passion that his company long lost. That's why he worked himself into a hospital bed: not for financial gain, but because the fans are his community, his people, and if he doesn't take his games to them, nobody will.
"What fuels my passion is the community. In my philosophy, Street Fighter is a game, but really it's a tool. It's like playing cards or chess or tennis: it's really about the people. Once you know the rules it's up to the players to put themselves in the game, to choose the nuance of how they play and express themselves. I think fighting games flourish because it was this social game. If it had been a purely single-player thing, it would never have grown so popular.
And this made me think twice about the initial appeal of a new producer following him who can bring something fresh to the series rather than basically stacking new systems on top of Zero 3 and 3S: what if after Ono, instead there's nobody at all?! And on that cheerful note:
quote:
While I doubt that will ever happen, a DMC pachinko machine would be pretty insane.
Oh, you'd be surprised at what Capcom could become. Konami has shown us that an undying hatred for video games makes anything possible.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| PSN: Ishmael26b
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
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CFN: Ishmael26b
| "Fantasy Strike Roundtable" , posted Wed 26 Aug 01:55
Thanks to Fantasy Strike going free(ish) to play I finally got around to trying the game out. What an odd game it turned out to be.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the idea behind FS is to create a simplified fighting game that is easy for a new player to pick up and play? If so, some of the design decisions in the game are baffling. First off, there is no crouching and jumping is handled via a button press. Movement in 2D fighters always struck me as the easiest part to understand. Push down to squat, push up to jump; it's very straightforward. I can't remember the last time a fighting game featured a jump button so the entire control scheme felt alien.
While crouching is too much for FS, the game is full of command normals. That seems like a much more confusing concept to try and teach someone unfamiliar with fighting games. Again, the concept of stand and punch or crouch and kick your opponent's feet out from under them seems like an elementary concept. The scrubbiest of Ken players immediately grasp that jumping HK into crouching HK is an effective attack. But in FS you might trip someone or do a long punch depending on whether you are pushing forward on the stick. It feels unintuitive.
This is a matter of personal preference, but I also found the health meter to be a mistake. Ever since at least SF2 the health bars have cheated to make the fight more tense. For example, you have two bars in the Real Bout games but that initial yellow bar is probably only a third the size of the red bar. Veteran players will be able to the mental calculations to approximately guess how much damage they are going to do while new players will be thrilled to stay alive through the last few magic pixels. But with FS the life is segmented and attacks will always take off a known number of blocks. There's no tension about whether an attack will kill or not, which makes everything a bit dull.
When playing through the roster I began to wonder how many of the characters were designed around the game engine and how many were there as an homage to a pre-existing character. Some of the characters had interesting ideas -such as the one that could do a powerful uppercut at the cost of health- but too often I was playing "spot the reference" with the characters instead of treating them as their own thing.
I admit I'm probably being too hard on FS. Its heart is in the right place and it is trying to do something new. However, I do find it interesting that the game is built around the idea of commenting on other fighting games and in doing so it creates a whole new set of issues. So while I may not have found FS to be the greatest new thing ever it is good to see another small passion project fighter like Skullgirls.
Conclusion: I still want a sequel to Dead Dance.
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| | "Re(1):Fantasy Strike Roundtable" , posted Wed 26 Aug 02:40
quote:
Push down to squat, push up to jump; it's very straightforward. I can't remember the last time a fighting game featured a jump button so the entire control scheme felt alien.
Though some argue it isn't a fighting game, Smash Bros always included a jump button.
Fantasy Strike may have been trying to reduce the impact of bad controller inputs. It is pretty easy for a beginning player, or even a moderate player with a bad controller, to accidentally jump. Assigning Jump only to a button prevents that issue.
Crouching introduces a few issues. The most confusing for a new player is probably high and low blocking. Honestly, I'd always felt how blocking was traditionally handled was a bit broken anyway (crouch block stops all grounded attacks), which has only led to various complicating "fixes" becoming standard fare (overheads, unblockables, etc).
Command normals are mitigated by the reduced number of attacks (no crouching attacks) and the reduced importance of direction input in general (jump via button, no crouch).
To me, the segmented life bar is one of the better innovations. Moves do take a known number segments, but that number isn't constant across all moves. There is still variety. The segmented life bar also arguably helps restrain allowed combo damage. It simplifies remembering move damage. It also removes "magic pixel" moments.
That magic pixel moment is a big deal. It is easy to forget just how much of a kludge damage scaling is, yet it has become pretty much a standardized element of traditional fighting game health systems. Miscalculating that last bit of damage is frustrating for everyone on the bad side of the equation, but it is even more confusing for new players. (The damage scaling in some games end up introducing new balance/design concerns as well.)
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| | "Re(2):Fantasy Strike Roundtable" , posted Wed 26 Aug 03:01:
quote:
Push down to squat, push up to jump; it's very straightforward. I can't remember the last time a fighting game featured a jump button so the entire control scheme felt alien.
Though some argue it isn't a fighting game, Smash Bros always included a jump button.
Fantasy Strike may have been trying to reduce the impact of bad controller inputs. It is pretty easy for a beginning player, or even a moderate player with a bad controller, to accidentally jump. Assigning Jump only to a button prevents that issue.
Crouching introduces a few issues. The most confusing for a new player is probably high and low blocking. Honestly, I'd always felt how blocking was traditionally handled was a bit broken anyway (crouch block stops all grounded attacks), which has only led to various complicating "fixes" becoming standard fare (overheads, unblockables, etc).
Command normals are mitigated by the reduced number of attacks (no crouching attacks) and the reduced importance of direction input in general (jump via button, no crouch).
To me, the segmented life bar is one of the better innovations. Moves do take a known number segments, but that number isn't constant across all moves. There is still variety. The segmented life bar also arguably helps restrain allowed combo damage. It simplifies remembering move damage. It also removes "magic pixel" moments.
That magic pixel moment is a big deal. It is easy to forget just how much of a kludge damage scaling is, yet it has be
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
I think for the current generation of game players raised on a variety of first-person shooters, third person adventures, and indie platforming games, having a separate button for jump is pretty alright. That's how it is in those games, and pressing A to make Mario jump has never felt too weird to me, even if Dana in Solomon's Key would jump with Up.
I personally like the idea of being able to change stance by crouching, but I agree that too many games plainly copied from SF2's high/low blocking without really thinking about it. Tekken represents one of the actually more thoughtful takes on high/low blocking without using a Guard button.
I think having combos as part of the game means some mechanism for limiting the damage of combos inevitably needs to happen as people figure the game out better. If you boiled the game down into "how many opportunities do I need to defeat the opponent", things like damage scaling make it so that single opportunities don't become too disproportionately affecting. If everybody is fine with an HnK-style "one touch = death all the time" then it's ok, but otherwise it can feel "unfair" in a different way when the effect of combos is too great. Different games have different approaches to it, and while I'm all on board for having small chunky numbers rather than 1,200,000 HP, even in a game of small chunky numbers I can see the value of having combo-limiting mechanics, whether it's in a juggle limit or a stun limit or whatever. One of the things about Fantasy Strike is that just because each hit does 1 damage doesn't mean that a move can't hit multiple times, or that a combo will only have X number of hits in it! So I'd say that there's still an onus on the people playing to be aware of how much damage the characters are capable of doing, it's just that the numbers are easier to remember. Personally, I think having less granularity can sometimes make the game harder to balance, because you don't have much in the way of intermediate values to go to, especially when damage is the one particular knob that needs to be turned on a move.
[this message was edited by Spoon on Wed 26 Aug 07:47] |
| | "Re(5):Fantasy kurabu" , posted Mon 31 Aug 14:57
quote:
I am unironically hyped for this dumb game.
Too bad it will mean dealing with the Switch's dreadful online.
Why do people here always talk as if the Switch has bad online? I never had problems with Splatoon, Mario Kart or even heavier games such as Warframe or Rocket League.
And we all know Smash has horrid netcode.
A lot depends on your region. If you're in an area where there's a lot of nearby opponents (often helped by the game being popular, such as Mario Kart or Rocket League), then things aren't quite so bad.
One of the inherent problems is that the Switch relies on wifi unless you go out of your way to get an ethernet adapter for it. The technological limitations of wifi means that there's just a higher frequency of packet loss, as well as the general half-duplex limitation (which is sometimes not that bad, a lot depends on the game!). In some games that are coupled with less-than-great online implementations, this sort of stacks the badness. There's some infamous Smash for-fun tournament where the tournament was open to all regions and mandated that nobody was allowed to use ethernet adapters, with the goal being the most lag-filled circus of a tournament possible.
It was probably more entertaining than the average competitive Smash tournament.
On top of that, the overall player matching and partying features are not as robust as that of the other major platforms (e.g. Steam, XBL, PSN).
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| "Re(6):Fantasy kurabu" , posted Mon 31 Aug 15:26
quote:
A lot depends on your region. If you're in an area where there's a lot of nearby opponents (often helped by the game being popular, such as Mario Kart or Rocket League), then things aren't quite so bad.
One of the inherent problems is that the Switch relies on wifi unless you go out of your way to get an ethernet adapter for it. The technological limitations of wifi means that there's just a higher frequency of packet loss, as well as the general half-duplex limitation (which is sometimes not that bad, a lot depends on the game!). In some games that are coupled with less-than-great online implementations, this sort of stacks the badness. There's some infamous Smash for-fun tournament where the tournament was open to all regions and mandated that nobody was allowed to use ethernet adapters, with the goal being the most lag-filled circus of a tournament possible.
It was probably more entertaining than the average competitive Smash tournament.
On top of that, the overall player matching and partying features are not as robust as that of the other major platforms (e.g. Steam, XB
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
I get that the wifi might be an issue, but that applies to all games that use wifi, and as I've mentioned, Smash has some terrible netcode. I manage to score some sessions of Mario Kart (randoms) and Warframe while playing in a waiting room lobby (pre-pandemic) using nothing but the guest wifi and it still worked out pretty well.
Though personally I use a LAN adapter and it's easy to just purchase on of those on Amazon and use it on the Switch dock, and matchmaking was never an issue I've had provided the were online and were also playing the same thing as I was (though why they went back to using friend codes especially considering how they managed to do away with those during the Wii U era still beguiles me).
But yeah...Smash is well known for having...less than stellar netcode, although as of late Sakurai seems to have taken notice and mentioned how the latest patch has improved one-on-one matches. It's still not indicative of Switch online experience as a whole as people here make it sound like it's a terrible thing, which is far from it.
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| PSN: Ishmael26b
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CFN: Ishmael26b
| "Re(3):Tekken 7 question" , posted Wed 7 Oct 22:38
quote:
I honestly haven't looked at it since around Season 2, but I haven't seen any indication that more single player content has been added.
You've got more parts for customizing outfits, which I guess is enough of a single player mode for some people. You've still got the Vs AI mode where you can earn some of the customization parts, and earn money to buy them. You've still got the play-it-once Story mode. If you have the Season 1 pass, or for some inexplicable reason buy it directly, then you have the disappointment that is Tekken Bowl.
Yeah, I'm still annoyed that the "extra mode" in the Season 1 pass was Tekken Bowl. And still surprised that Namco figured it was worth selling on its own for $14, even if they tried to lure in additional customers by throwing in swimsuits and Idolmaster tie-in outfits.
You can play the attacking/defending mode where you can pretend you are playing Flying Dragon on the NES
Good grief, I forgot that the return of bowling was touted as something amazing. I'm certain that the cost of making a game like Tekken has gone up while their budget has not but two character slots for the bears and bowling isn't hype inducing. Sadly, it sounds like if I don't go online T7 is going to give me about as much bang for my buck as the old PSX demo disc of Tekken 2.
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| | "Re(4):Tekken 7 question" , posted Thu 8 Oct 03:22
quote:
Good grief, I forgot that the return of bowling was touted as something amazing.
Perhaps what truly annoys me about Tekken Bowl is that, other than the cosmetics of the bowler, it has nothing to do with Tekken the game.
Tekken Ball wasn't a good beach volleyball game. Tekken Ball was unbalanced, a bit clunky, and just a novelty. But you play ball with the actual Tekken fighting game movesets, gameplay was tied directly to the fighting game Tekken. You could say something similar about Tekken Force. Force was janky, and felt a bit limited with its lack of character choice, but it at least was the devs trying to recast Tekken as a beat'em-up.
I can see why the developers might have been proud of Tekken Bowl. It was arguably the most solid Tekken bonus game. But in the end, it is just a bowling game that has been skinned with Tekken characters.
Which gets back to the price as well. Tekken Bowl was a decent enough bonus when it first appeared, even if it didn't remotely tie into Tekken's gameplay. Sure, it was a budget bowling game, but it was effectively a free budget bowling game on a console that didn't offer cheap alternatives. Tekken 7 is pretty much the opposite. Now you have to pay budget game prices to get a Tekken-themed bowling game, at a time where you can probably find comparable bowling games for cheaper and/or free. (Certainly you can on PC.)
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| PSN: zonepharaoh
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CFN: zonepharaoh
| "Re(4):Tekken 7 question" , posted Fri 9 Oct 12:46
quote:
it sounds like if I don't go online T7 is going to give me about as much bang for my buck as the old PSX demo disc of Tekken 2.
I remember that demo disc! It just had Jun and maybe one other person, and people sure could jump high. For months after I'd bought a PSX for FFVII, it was just that and the Crash Bandicoot demo when I needed a break from FFVII, which was often.
Tekken 7's nickel-and-diming of people for dumb gameplay modes reminds me that I wonder how budgeting for modern games works, and fighting games are sort of at the forefront. For all these annoyances, it's amazing that games are basically pegged at Sony's $50 PSX standard from 1996 and haven't even adjusted for inflation, let alone the 11200 Yen (100+ dollars) we were happy to pay for RPGs with big storage costs the generation before! It's striking that Capcom used to be able to charge the modern equivalent of $80-90 for the small, small adjustments of SFII non-sequels like SF II' Dash or even SSFII, when today even major overhauls in say SFV are a pittance. Meanwhile, consoles are fantastically expensive today, so it's really just the games that are priced artificially low, presumably putting fighting games at the forefront of downloadable stuff to recoup costs? I'd really love to see a Gama Sutra-type article on the economics, with fighting games as the best case study. Sadly, I'll probably be stuck reading about freemium gacha games instead!
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| PSN: Ishmael26b
XBL: n/a
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STM: n/a
CFN: Ishmael26b
| "Re(5):Tekken 7 question" , posted Sat 10 Oct 01:19
quote:
Tekken 7's nickel-and-diming of people for dumb gameplay modes reminds me that I wonder how budgeting for modern games works, and fighting games are sort of at the forefront. For all these annoyances, it's amazing that games are basically pegged at Sony's $50 PSX standard from 1996 and haven't even adjusted for inflation, let alone the 11200 Yen (100+ dollars) we were happy to pay for RPGs with big storage costs the generation before! It's striking that Capcom used to be able to charge the modern equivalent of $80-90 for the small, small adjustments of SFII non-sequels like SF II' Dash or even SSFII, when today even major overhauls in say SFV are a pittance. Meanwhile, consoles are fantastically expensive today, so it's really just the games that are priced artificially low, presumably putting fighting games at the forefront of downloadable stuff to recoup costs? I'd really love to see a Gama Sutra-type article on the economics, with fighting games as the best case study. Sadly, I'll probably be stuck reading about freemium gacha games instead!
It would be interesting to see how fighting games have changed over the years in order to turn a profit. Do DLC costumes and characters generate that much income? How well do games sell over the long haul? The focus is usually on the initial sales but how much money are these games generating a year or two down the line? Were strange stunts like Tekken 7 being initially arcade exclusive helpful? I'm certain game companies have reams of data on this stuff so it would be great if someone filtered it down into one easy to read article.
Speaking of fighting games as a service, MK11 announced that it will become even more ultimate and make the jump to PS5 and XBox Series X. I'm not certain if it is due to COVID-19 or the constantly changing video game landscape but this is the longest NR has kept one of their games going for some time. To kick this "new" generation off, Rambo is being added to the game. MK11 continues to be the most awesome game of 1986. At least Mileena is back to being a gnash-toothed weirdo instead of having those ridiculous lips she somehow grew in MKX.
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| | "Re(3):Mortal Kombat '86" , posted Sat 10 Oct 22:07
Honestly, I'm tired of guest fighters in fighting games now (and I think SFV is the only current game that still hasn't ruined its roster with one - then again, Capcom didn't reveal who will be the 45th fighter...), and if there's one franchise who's been abusing this trend, it's Mortal Kombat. Rambo does look nice, but... he just doesn't fit in the MK world. Neither do Robocop, or Terminator, or Joker (Spawn actually does).
On the other hand, I'm really glad Mileena is back, even though I doubt that NRS will do yet another cinematic story mode to feature her (unless there will be a fourth DLC pack later on with more kombatants, but NRS usually doesn't keep their games alive for many years, preferring to jump to the next project). And it's a nice touch that her facial features resemble Kitana's, unlike her models in MK9 and MKX.
As for Rain, I wonder why NRS chose him over fan favorites (Reptile, Ermac, Cyrax, Sektor) and kombatants with more relevance in the plot (Shinnok, Quan Chi)... he looks cool, but still not enough to make me interested in playing as him.
Maybe I'm this person right in front of you... nah probably not though.
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| | "Re(5):Mortal Kombat '86" , posted Mon 12 Oct 20:03
quote:
I'm not certain NRS really knows what to do with Reptile. They have turned him into a silly looking full lizard and then further mutated him into another character altogether. While he went back to being himself, the last time he showed up he looked like a random mook from the snake temple level of a barbarian game. It probably doesn't help that Reptile's most defining move is his ability to spit really well. Rain may not have much going for him outside of Prince references but at least his water bending is more visually interesting.
Good point, but still... Rain has always been a minor character in MK, both in popularity and in plot relevance. From all the "klassik kombatants", I think only Motaro may be below him.
Ironically, Motaro would have also been a much more interesting choice (yeah, his centaur body is a huge factor for him being left out of the recent games, but NRS could have him fighting with the Armageddon body and only morphing into a full centaur for X-Ray moves, Fatalities and battle intros).
Still, Mileena is in, so everything is fine again in MK11.
Maybe I'm this person right in front of you... nah probably not though.
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| | "Re(6):Mortal Kombat '86" , posted Thu 15 Oct 08:26
quote:
I'm not certain NRS really knows what to do with Reptile. They have turned him into a silly looking full lizard and then further mutated him into another character altogether. While he went back to being himself, the last time he showed up he looked like a random mook from the snake temple level of a barbarian game. It probably doesn't help that Reptile's most defining move is his ability to spit really well. Rain may not have much going for him outside of Prince references but at least his water bending is more visually interesting.
Good point, but still... Rain has always been a minor character in MK, both in popularity and in plot relevance. From all the "klassik kombatants", I think only Motaro may be below him.
Ironically, Motaro would have also been a much more interesting choice (yeah, his centaur body is a huge factor for him being left out of the recent games, but NRS could have him fighting with the Armageddon body and only morphing into a full centaur for X-Ray moves, Fatalities and battle intros).
Still, Mileena is in, so everything is fine again in MK11.
I literally had to open a wiki to find out if Rain was the red ninja, the purple ninja, or one of the colorations of Kitana.
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| | "Re(8):Mortal Kombat '86" , posted Tue 10 Nov 22:44:
quote:
Mileena Thee Stallion trailer. It's fascinating how fighting game characters become so associated with their moves that they can never fully get rid of even the weirdest attacks. For a character that looks like a monstrous kunoichi you would never imagine that her signature attack is rolling around on the ground like a ball.
Mileena looks great! I'm glad NRS returned her to her "tarkatan" look, and it's nice that she shares some facial features with Kitana - it's still hilarious to remember the scene in MK9 where Kitana looks at Mileena and says Mileena looks like her, when even if we cover her tarkatan mouth, their facial features still look very different there.
Speaking of Kitana, one of her variation styles involve using Mileena's sais and special moves, right? Using this variation in a match against Mileena may be... odd.
Nevertheless, finally NRS brought back an interesting kombatant, after so many guests no one asked for. It's a shame she won't be in the cinematic story, but at least we'll get an Arcade Mode ending (and considering how MK is now a messy multiverse, who can say the cinematic story is even the canon one?).
---
EDIT: I just saw her ending in Arcade Mode, and well...
Spoiler (Highlight to view) -
...while I understand that the Mileena/Kitana rivalry is a staple in MK, it felt like a wasted opportunity to show her getting revenge on D'Vorah; Kitana herself barely interacted with Mileena in the MK9-11 timeline. But Mileena becoming a couple with Tanya of all people, now that's a shocker (I mean, maybe things are different in this timeline, but in the original one Tanya had a reputation of backstabbing everyone... watch out, Mileena, you may be the next one.
End of Spoiler
Maybe I'm this person right in front of you... nah probably not though.
[this message was edited by Just a Person on Wed 18 Nov 02:41] |
| | "Re(1):Christopher Lambert Kombat '86" , posted Thu 26 Nov 21:29
quote:
More actors from the 1995 MK movie are being added to the game.
I haven't picked up MK11 yet since even the Ultimate version is still getting updates. But adding a DLC that allows you to circumnavigate Rhonda Rousey's voice shows that NRS is committed to continually improving this game.
To be fair, I liked Ronda's voice acting for Sonya.
Nevertheless, this is a great inclusion, but it's kinda odd that NRS specifically chose Raiden, Sonya and Cage rather than Liu Kang and Kitana, considering how Christopher Lambert, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras and Linden Ashby left after the first movie while Robin Shou and Talisa Soto reprised their roles in Annihilation... well, considering how Annihilation is despised, maybe that's the reason. Still, Robin Shou is pretty much the ultimate Liu Kang.
But it's interesting to see how NRS keeps updating MK11, as they used to release a game, maybe release a DLC pack, then abandon it and jump to the next project. From what I read, most of Capcom's profits with SFV came from their upgrades (in fact, hadn't it been for these upgrades, SFV would be pretty much a major loss for them); considering how MK11 had huge sales from the start, I assume NRS must be having huge profits with all the additional content they've been releasing.
Maybe I'm this person right in front of you... nah probably not though.
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"Re(5):Rage of the licensed Dragons" , posted Wed 27 May 07:26:
