Max Impact is pretty nice 3D Fatal Fury, yeah.
That’s the thing. It’s kind of like a retrograde KoF, scaling the series back to its roots: two brothers in South Town, fighting against a gang leader. FF was already kind of like a 3D fighter, with its plane business, so it feels pretty natural.
Then there are all of these random KoF characters in there, for some reason – ones who have nothing at all to do with South Town, like Kyo and Iori, but who are so associated with the brand that you can’t leave 'em out.
I recently read a thing that stated, yeah, that was exactly what we were trying to do: make a new version of Fatal Fury. Felt a little vindicated in that moment. Yes, I can observe things.
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Seeing the characters in everyday situations aside from fighting is one of my favorite aspects of the KOF series.
It is not, however exclusive to Shinkiro. Many omake illustrations, extra galleries and in-game endings by other illustrators depict the KOF characters in mundane settings as well.
I never liked Shinkiro’s overly detailed, plasticky style, but he was THE SNK illustrator so he seemed to recieve praise all the time. I’m glad I’m not alone in not particularly caring about his illustrations.
Yeah, it’s not the situations themselves that are the problem – it’s more the way he does things than the fact of what he does.
Is there a good explanation for why the KoF translations are the way they are? I mean, it seems to be usually grammatically correct and all but some of the lines just seem to be too strange to be direct translations of anything. Is it really mostly the same in Japanese?
Jesus, Kim’s smile becomes downright disturbing with Choi’s quote there. NO KIM THAT IS NOT JUSTICE WHY ARE YOU SMILING LIKE THAT
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It’s kind of a classic SNK US thing. It was their house style for localization, for years. It really sounds like it was one guy, doing everything. KoF may be goofy, but it’s nothing compared to earlier games, like Fatal Fury.
This being the Internet, you have people doing literal translations, and often they’re very different from the English versions.
Though, SNK has always been pretty self-aware and eager to be silly. So it’s not like the localizations are an ill fit.
Shingo’s recorded dialogue:
“Kuuru ni ikou ze, Shingo.” - “Just stay cool, Shingo.”
“O-ichi, ni, san, shi. Shingo ichiban te ikimasu!” - “A-one, two, three, four. Shingo is going first!”
“Kotoshi wa editto janai ze, Shingo.” - “You’re not an edit this year, Shingo.”
“Ore no kachi da!” - “This is my victory!”
“Yoooaaah, shi!” - “Allright!”
“Heh heh, Moetaro?” - “Heh heh, feel the burn?”
“Body ga amee ze!” - “Your body is weak!”
“Kurae!” - “Take this!”
“Iguzeeee!” - “I’m comiiing!”
“Shingo keeeek!” - “Shingo Kiiiiick!”
“Otto!” - “Whoa!”
"Chi, cho-ma! - “Chi, get down!”
“Moero, Shingo!!!” - “Burning, Shingo!!!”
“Kusanagi-san, gomen nasai!” - “I am sorry, Mr. Kusanagi!”
“Arigato…soshite sayonara!” - “Thank you…and goodbye!”
I’ve only got the English here, but… Shingo. Win quotes.
'98: “Did you see me, mom?! I… I won! King of the world!”
‘99: "I just get tougher! Kyo, I’m comin’ for you!"
2000: “I, I…won… I am suuuupreeeme!!!” (Win) / “One more time!!! I gotta try again!” (Lose)
2001: “I did it! I’m the victual! I owe my win to my master!” / “I don’t hold back! I’m always on the side!” / “Your efforts aren’t in vain! You just may win next time!” / “There’s definitely something really scary about that guy.” (Vs. K’) / “Master Kyo! I finally did it at last!” (Vs. Kyo) / “Apologize for troubling my master! Say you’re sorry.” (Vs. NESTS Team)" / “If ya got a pork with Kyo, ya gotta get through me first!” (Vs. Yagami Team)
2002: “Heey! I won! Mr. Kusanagi, did you see what I just did?” / “Even in the prelims, I never hold back. That’s the Shingo way!” / “Effort is always rewarded! Little by little, I will rule!” / “How about that, Mr. Kusanagi?! Who da man? Shingo’s da man!”(Vs.Kyo)
2003: “‘Feeling the burn?’ …I’ve always wanted to say that!” / “Ooh, ya! I feel good! Winning rules! Whoo-hoo!” / “Walk in the park…!!! J-just kidding. Medic!” / “What an amateur! I just get better every year!” / “I knew there’d be no flames! But I shot 'em, right? Right???” (Vs. Benimaru/Daimon) / “I’m used to shooting the flames… Ou-ou-ouch!” (Vs. K’) / “How 'bout that? I’ve gotten stronger, don’t you think?” (Vs. Kyo) / “Man, I thought that Maxima would have my butt! Word…!” (Vs. Maxima)
XI: “Awesome! I really do have talent, don’t I? This power, Mr. Kusanagi - dare I think it?” / “Flame! I shot flame, didn’t I? Hey there, pal. Wake up!” / “I did it, Mr. Kusanagi! Shingo Yabuki has triumphed!” / “That was one boss battle! I’m on my way to Victory Town!” / “You’re kind of stuck on yourself, huh? But real people should show a little humility!” (Vs. Gai/Gato) / “Wheeez, hack… OK. Go get me some chow mein bread!” (Vs. Himself) / “If I were a cyborg, I could shoot flames… J-just kidding, OK?!” (Vs. K’/Maxima) / “One more match, Mr. Kusanagi. …Mr. Kusanagi?” (Vs. Kyo)
this is the one KOF game that I own, and it was on your recommendation!
I played a good amount of it, I dug it
Shingo’s taunt in 98 is one of my favorite things. He forgets how to do a move so he starts quickly flipping through his notebook for where he wrote it down.
Bring back Shingo.
I also love how he randomly loses his balance doing one of his high kick moves, and can topple over and land on the opponent.
In later games that’s made more of a regular part of the move that you can rely on strategically. I think that kind of misses the point, though…
And in '99, that JOY on Shingo’s face when he sees Kyo again. “KUUUUUU-HUUUUU… SANAGI-SAAAAAAAANNNN!”
And Kyo is all, “Yeah, hi. Whatever.”
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The simplest way to catch up on KOF’s plot is to play Days of Memories. It’s totally canon.
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Shingo is great, in 98 he had a " shingooo" sfx instead of the DM effect
From 98 he wears gloves Kyo gave him, and they have been part of his character since then
And he’s pretty much a palette swap with minor editing? These little details make KOF great
Yeah, that’s really fun. Not that it matters, but he did get the K’ story a bit wrong. That’s not a robotic hand; it’s a control glove. And K’ was the original dude who they grafted with Kyo’s DNA. Krizalid was a clone of K’, where they perfected the experiment. So they gave Krizalid the memories of K’ (in the process, apparently, crossing out the original’s name as well – ergo K’), making Krizalid think he was the original the whole time.
Krizalid actually has a pretty sad, sympathetic story. And he’s by far the most fair SNK boss. I like Krizalid. Always found it weird he wasn’t a playable character in 2002. And now he is.
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I was working on a Fatal Fury screenplay for quite awhile that took place in the 80’s and this thread really wants me to revisit. It included a line that went something like “You’d better not hold back, Terry, If you do, I’ll be pissed when I watch this fight on pay-per-view!”
One of the changes I made was making Ryo Sakazaki Terry’s adoptive dad because it fits if you think about it.
I wanna finish it some day
Among the anime club types at my college there was a running gag where if anyone at any point said the phrase “are you ok” anyone else could yell “buster wolf” and punch you.
I think the thing that made KOF’s characterization so strong is that it’s had so many iterations and it welcomed change. It’s got character specific win quotes, and it’s got short stories for team bios, and it’s got other stuff like that but the fact that it was having yearly iterations for almost a decade gave it a lot of time to build a fairly decent amount of writing portraying character relationships. And it was not afraid to have the game’s plot move forward in time and affect the character roster, which integrated the storylines into the game design. Individually each game doesn’t do anything significantly different from other fighters; instead it got numerous games with a consistent continuity that built the characters across a span of time that not many other fighters can match. Even Guilty Gear, despite its many iterations on GGXX, never built its characters as strongly as KOF due to its dogged insistence on not moving characters forward in their plotlines.
I think Orochi is pretty well known. And personally I always loved Shion’s animations.
I think both Goenitz and Krizalid make it. No other major bosses, though, no. Even Orochi (in his final form) isn’t nearly as interesting as the lead-up. Most of the others are kind of generically fancy.
Sub-bosses are another thing. Shion really stands out (as above).
don’t all the dream match games take place in shingo’s imagination, dreaming up fights based on notes he’s taken during the tournaments?