Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

I think FTG heavily rely on esports for popularity but most casual viewers aren't going to understand the ins and outs of technical aspects. Super moves adds spectacle that gets average people's attention.

Even if 2D costs less the benefit of spectacle in PVP/esports genre is just too important for this genre to expand the market. To the point that 3D style is hard to avoid imo.

I was having a discussion on a game forum about why traditional RTS died as a genre. One common answer was "it is a more PVP/esports genre but it is less fun to watch than FTG". FTG is lucky that at least it has a mechanic (super move) that makes the game fun to watch. Of course every FTG Dev will embrace it.

King of Fighters had "cinematic supers" where the player loses control and a lengthy flashy move plays long befor they moved to 3D, as did other 2D fighting game series.

I'm not sure but I believe a chines investor stepped in and made the decision to go 3D in order to cut costs.
KoF 13 was arguably one of the most beautiful 2D fighters ever made. Compared to KoF 14 I think it shows they made the transition for cost cutting reasons, they went for a plasticy look that kind of reminds me of dead or alive 2 from ps2 era and the animations don't live up to their 2D counterparts either imho. KOF 15 is only a small improvement in terms of graphics and animations, if any at all. If you look at Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves teaser material it looks more like marvel vs capcom than KoF.

Translating good 2D to good 3D is pretty hard, regardless if it's ment in the spirit of a "remake" or a "reimagine" kind of way. Apparently you can't go the extra mile necessary to make it work if you make the transition in order to cut costs.

SNK Playmore is not quite the same thing as SNK, in similar fashion to Square and Square Enix. The design aesthetics and quality have changed over the years because it has completely different people running the show.

Most fighting games have transitioned to live service model where you have seasons with new characters/content, but it is still relatively new to the genre.

Recently I saw Mortal Kombat 1 rumors were that it will be ending service after this year, Warner Bros is pulling the plug. So much for flashy violent supers holding people's attention.

Just some random FGC thoughts

Occasions like that can be quite amusing as well as a great source for blackmail opportunity.

Set phasers to record....

Yeah, but I meant it in the sense that Afania described: different camera angles, special effects, etc

I personally prefer the old-style Desperation Moves (with the classic SNK flash effect - I hated how the crappy PS1 ports didn't have the flashbangs haha). Ryuuko Ranbu, Ya Otome, and Kyo's Orochinagi and Mu Shiki were very memorable, even if they were mostly a collage of preexisting animations strung together. Thankfully, they still somewhat exist in KOF15 in the form of Lv1 & 2 DMs.


I strongly disliked that transition. KOF was dead to me by 2003 lol. Despite KOF13 looking very good & costing a lot, it was mostly a miss for me, because I still strongly disliked the art style & how stylized some characters started to look, departing from Shinkiro's original style. I'm glad that the new SNK is going back their original style. KOFAS (mobage by Netmarble which ended its services 1 months ago) produced so much cool KOF art that gives classic vibes as well.

Imho the impact of esports is overrated. Average joe doesn't watch tournaments live, they mostly stick to combo videos and maybe sick moment or beef compilations.

Average joe wants to play himself and in fighting games he'll quickly get humbled when he joins a online lobby even if he previously had the AI figured out. These games are harder to pick up and even harder to master than most genres and that apparently repulses the casual crowd.

Makes sense, it's sad when it happens though.

Selling Character DLCs is pay2win cancer and It's baffeling to see it fly in competitive games like tekken 8.

Because $$$ and what better way to make more money than to force tournaments to have to buy new characters every 6 months.

Fixed.

Somehow, my dog sense just started to chime.

...like crazy!

To give them credit, I think animation-wise KOF15 is big improvement over 14. I believe they did a good job recreating the old sprite animations. The 3D models improved too, but they're still cheap-looking & nowhere near anything the industry giants (Tekken and Arcsys) produce lol


That's one major reason I couldn't get into anything from the SF5 era onwards, despite being a big SF4 fan who followed the game closely & played it for long hours

USF4 was so hype as a fan, hasn't been quite the same since. I think there are more overall sales and players for SF6, but viewership of tournaments hasn't really increased substantially despite more esports money being available now.

Today i worked a damn lot so i really could use some

speaking of beautiful 2D fighters, just came across Diesel Legacy: The Brazen Age, looks interesting. Wonder where it stands in terms of execution.