#KOF XII

[viceandmature]

All of Vice and Mature in King of Fighters AllStar

[tampire]

Critical Counter in KOF XII / Advance Strike in KOF XV

[bison2winquote]

Terry Bogard to Iori Yagami, The King of Fighters XII (SNK-Playmore)

[r3djy]

I GOT KING OF FIGHTERS XII ON PS3 FOR MY BIRTHDAY SO NOW I'VE GOT A NEW HYPERFIX YAYY AND HERES A LITTLE MSPAINT SCRIBBLE WITH MY GO-TO TEAM

[gaymer-hag-stan]

On the 28th of July, fifteen years ago, "The King of Fighters XIII" was released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

"The King of Fighters XII" features a new, hand-drawn art style and redesigned characters. The game emphasizes simplified mechanics and a streamlined roster, focusing on high-definition graphics and animation. While praised for its visual presentation, it received mixed reviews due to its lack of game modes and features compared to previous installments in the series.

[pixelsproject]

『The King of Fighters XIII & Skullgirls』Alternate Costumes / Color Separation

One of the interesting aspects of HD fighting game sprites is the ability to recolor characters in more dynamic ways for their alternate costumes/palettes. In the past, games had restrictive color counts because of technical limitations, so that meant a character’s alternate palettes could only use the same number of colors as their default look. 

No longer weighed down by such restrictions, hard drawn 2D fighting games like The King of Fighters XIII and Skullgirls could change up how their alternate palettes were handled. 

Skullgirl's Brian Jun explains the process behind creating these complex alternate costumes over on their official website, if you'd like to learn more. I have to imagine that KOF XIII's designers utilized a similar process of their alternate costumes.

The first time I ever noticed this sort of technique being used was in the Street Fighter III∶ New Generation. Unlike his default outfit, some of Sean’s alternate costumes have pants that’re differently colored from his tops. Oddly enough, none of the other characters in the Street Fighter III series receive alternate palettes utilizing color separation.

This design technique appears to be pretty popular within the M.U.G.E.N. community and I’m almost positive that they’re responsible for coming up with the term “color separation”. 

--- SOURCES ↴

Fighter Factory Studio (PC) color separation tutorial (Mugen Fighters Guild) (Quick & Easy Color Separation Tutorial by Infinite Daze) The King of Fighters XIII (PC) Background sprite uploaded by supermashball (Spriter's Resource) The King of Fighters XIII (PS3) character costume sprites (Logical Bends) Street Fighter III∶ Third Strike (Arcade) Sean & bonus background stage sprites (Just No Point)

[they-have-the-same-va]

Teepo from Tales of Xillia 1 & 2 shares a Japanese voice actress with Athena Asamiya from the King of Fighters series.

Voiced by Haruna Ikezawa

[the-oasiris]

The only Duo Lon I care about is the KoF XII sprite... The 3d models don't eat the way his XII 2d one did. His swag was too different, his vibes too saucy.

[the-rosahaj]

Let's say songs that we think areCRIMANALLY UNDERRATED (and reveal our shitty music tastes)

1: 'your eyes glitter under the foam moon' - Maple

2: 'Dishes' - ElyOtto

3: 'gonna break u' - recovery girl

4: 'Each Promice' - KOF XII OST

5: 'Funky Dealer' - Jet Set Radio OST

[dangan-kagura]

Opinion About Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves Having an English Dub. Will People Use It?

So the newest, upcoming fighting game installment by SNK is gonna bring back the Fatal Fury series, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. And get this, the game is gonna have an English dub!

Exciting?

Well, I say “Exciting?” because I’m not even sure if people are gonna play the game with English voice acting, they might instead play the game in Japanese. The likeliest reason why anyone would want to do this is probably because they’ll think the Japanese dub has better voice acting. This would concern me a little bit, because if I watch people’s videos of the game on YouTube, a majority might prefer to play the game in Japanese and not English.

Now before I explain why this would concern me, what I want to talk about first are the past fighting games SNK made 20 years ago. I’m of course talking about KOF: Maximum Impact. It was a spinoff game that brought The King of Fighters to the 3D fighting game genre, and get this, it has an English dub.

Or rather, a really bad English dub, as in, either no one knows who the voice actors are, what other work they’ve done, or they’re not professional voice actors who have dubbed anime by Funimation. It was the mid 2000s, and at the time, not every Japanese video game series got to cast professional voice actors in the dubbing business. This playlist should suffice as evidence if you want to check out some character playthroughs of the game.

I will say that while there is some positive reception with Maximum Impact (like in the 7/10 range) the game’s bad English dub is probably the reason why no one would want to play it. If I remember right, in IGN’s review of the game, they described the English dub as “piss poor”. And worst of all, the PlayStation 2 version of the game doesn’t have the option to switch between English and Japanese dubs, although the Xbox version has this issue resolved. So if you went to a store that sells used video games and wanted to try out Maximum Impact (if they have a copy) I’d recommend playing the Xbox version if you don’t want to deal with its bad English dub.

SNK even ended up making a sequel, KOF: Maximum Impact 2, although the localized version is titled as The King of Fighters 2006, which is weird since 2006 was when The King of Fighters XI came out on console. SNK even made a third game, KOF: Maximum Impact Regulation A, which was released in Japan only. My guess is that because the first two games had bad English dubs, SNK probably figured that Regulation A wouldn’t sell good outside Japan.

But it doesn’t end there, well, maybe for Maximum Impact. In 2009, SNK released The King of Fighters XII, and I’m sure not many people know this, but the game does have an English dub!

But there is a problem. While the voice acting in KOF XII is better than Maximum Impact, the game doesn’t credit which voice actor voices which. The game now remains as probably one of the most underrated installments in the series, seeing as how the game can be seen as sort of a beta version of what The King of Fighters XIII would be like. I’m not sure if there was a majority of gamers playing the game in Japanese, but from my experience, I chose to play the game in Japanese out of concern that the game’s English dub would be just a lame as Maximum Impact.

The King of Fighters XII ended up being the last game in the series to try out an English dub. When The King of Fighters XIII came out in 2011, that game didn’t bring back the English voice actors from KOF XII, whoever they were. Interestingly enough, it’s one of two KOF games (the other being KOF XIV) where Atlus got localization rights (I think) and even though they’ve made English dubs for some of their own games (e.g. Persona) I’m guessing Atlus chose not to give KOF XIII & XIV English dubs. Or it could’ve been SNK’s decision, thinking back to the bad English dubs the Maximum Impact games had, they probably couldn’t afford to hire professional dubbing voice actors.

For this new Fatal Fury game, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, it does look like this is SNK’s first try to cast professional dubbing voice actors. Unfortunately for me, I don’t know who they are, and I’m too lazy to even look them up. I mean, my generation of dubbing voice actors might be different, so I doubt this game is gonna cast any voice actors I’m familiar with. For all I know, my favorite voice actors are probably retired at this point.

But now I want to talk about why it concerns me that a majority might prefer the Japanese dub over the English dub.

It’s silly I know, but I’m actually worried that people would think the game doesn’t have an English dub if a majority play the game in Japanese. Then again, with all the English trailers, I’m sure people will know the game has an English dub, but I’m worried that people won’t actually care for the English dub, no matter how famous the voice actors are (if they’re famous).

And it’s more than just thinking back to the bad English dubs the Maximum Impact games had, if anyone today remembers those games. I remember 9 years ago when Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- came out. A lot of people were playing that game in Japanese despite the game having an English dub with professional anime voice actors. Back when I used to be a Guilty Gear fan, I did play this game in Japanese, thinking that maybe Aksys Games didn’t have the funds to hire professional voice actors like with SNK. But it’s only until a few months back I got to learn a little more about Aksys Games, namely the fact that they originally localized the Zero Escape series by Spike Chunsoft, and that series has the same kind of voice actors from Spike Chunsoft’s more familiar series, Danganronpa, and they’re the same kind of voice actors used in the Guilty Gear Xrd games.

I ended up learning a year after Xrd -SIGN- came out that the game has, well, I’ll try not to say it multiple times. I found out for example that Tara Platt ended up voicing both Millia Rage and I-No in the game, which surprised me since, at the time, I knew her as the original English voice actress for Vert in the Neptunia series (before being replaced by Carrie Keranen) and in that series, there were plenty of familiar voice actors to me and lots of people were playing that series in English. Vert is my favorite Neptunia girl, and back when I was a fan of Guilty Gear, Millia was my favorite, so I guess it was like… destiny or fate? Or maybe just a big coincidence? Despite this, it did bother me a little to see a majority play Guilty Gear in Japanese and not English.

But Guilty Gear aside, I’m not sure if other Japanese fighting games like Street Fighter and Blazblue are like this too, where there’s a majority of gamers playing them in Japanese despite these games having, again, professional dubbing/anime voice actors. When I did try out Street Fighter IV and the first Blazblue game, I chose to play them in Japanese. But I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of either of these games, I thought Guilty Gear was cooler looking than Blazblue, and Street Fighter IV felt like a piece of shit game (but that’s a different story for a different time). I will say that I do see a lot of people play Soul Calibur in English (myself included) but I’m not so sure about those other games.

As an aside, in the 90s, there were anime movies based on the Fatal Fury series, and they got to have English dubs made by Viz Media (the same people who made the English dubs for Bleach and Inuyasha) and they do have some pretty good voice actors. For example, I remember reading that they casted David Kaye to voice Kim Kaphwan (surprisingly, I know him as the voice of Clank in the Ratchet & Clank series). If Kim does return for this new Fatal Fury game, I highly doubt SNK is gonna recast David Kaye to voice him.

I mean, I can’t say for certain if the Fatal Fury anime films were any good, I’m not one for anime reviews, and this is a 90s anime we’re talking about. There’s also an OVA based on Art of Fighting, but it wasn’t that good despite having an English dub too.

I’ll admit that there are some games where I’ve chosen to play them in Japanese despite the opposite, where a majority might prefer to play them in English.

For example, I play Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and even Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity in Japanese, but a majority seem to prefer to play them in English. It’s not that I think the English dubs are bad, though I admit that I’m not big on Princess Zelda having a British accent or Matt Mercer voicing both Rauru and Ganondorf (I think Jamieson Price would’ve been a great casting choice for Ganondorf) but they’re one of those games where the lip sync during cutscenes is based on the Japanese dub. That, and I only know a few of the voice actors, more specifically, I only know that Kate Higgins voiced Purah, and Cherami Leigh voiced Riju. Another example is Dynasty Warriors 9, I play that game in Japanese since the English dub didn’t recast the original voice actors from the other games and the English dub is, well, just as bad as Maximum Impact I guess.

So with the upcoming Fatal Fury game, how are people gonna play the game voice acting wise? Will they actually try out the English dub to see if their favorite characters are voiced by their favorite voice actors, or will they stick with the Japanese dub thinking that the English dub might have some lame voice lines or bad translations like with Maximum Impact. In my case, I’m curious to try out the English dub. It’s the first time in 15 years since SNK gave one of their games an English dub, and it looks like this game is gonna have some very professional voice actors. I highly doubt I’ll recognize any of them, but I’ll still play the game in English to see if I’ll like it.

I hope I made some sense with this blog, and I apologize for how long it is if you made it this far.

[edireviews]

A subutilização dos personagens da SNK nos jogos de luta

Estava refletindo hoje cedo sobre essa questão. Algumas franquias da SNK acabaram por entrar no limbo, muito em função do extremo sucesso da série KOF, pois, como acabou se transformando incontestavelmente em seu carro chefe, seus esforços foram todos concentrados ali, por isso mesmo séries aclamadas como Fatal Fury acabaram por entrar na geladeira, entretanto, mesmo KOF acabou por ser responsável por trazer muitos personagens dessas séries de volta.

Quando KOF XI foi lançado, parecia que uma nova direção seria tomada, e vimos personagens como Gai Tendo, Sho Hayate, Jyazu, Silber, Duck King, além do retorno de Eiji Kisaragi e etc. No meu ponto de vista, foi uma esperança de ver personagens de Savage Reign, Kizuna Encounter, e talvez de franquias existentes no crossover que não foram aproveitados, como o próprio Art of Fighting 3 e talvez outras franquias que pudessem casar com KOF, além de personagens da própria saga que se perderam no caminho, como o American Sports Team. O próprio NGBC sinalizava essa possibilidade, afinal, temos personagens exclusivos da versão PS2 que vieram desse jogo, porém, isso não aconteceu.

Uma coisa que era padrão na série KOF, é que a cada nova saga, o jogo mudava drasticamente trazendo novas mecânicas, na Saga NESTS contando com quartetos, e incialmente Those from the Past com o novo sistema de trocas em tempo real com um líder de time. Pode ser que essas dinâmicas de jogo e alterações não tenham agradado a todos, mas pra mim, essas características sempre deixavam em evidencia que a série estava sempre inovando e se reinventando.

Pois bem, KOF XII veio como um spin-off adiantado, pois, a saga Those from the Past não havia sido concluída, indicando o caminho que seria tomado em KOF XIII, e infelizmente, as mecânicas que haviam sido implementadas em KOF 2003 e KOF XI, foram abandonadas. Aquele DREAM CANCEL escrito gigante na tela era lindo de se ver. De fato, o jogo é excelente e os gráficos são lindos, mas no meu ponto de vista, KOF XII deveria ter saído seguindo o mesmo sistema de KOF XI e concluído o enredo ali, trazendo mais novidades como personagens esquecidos, o que talvez KOF XI indicava. Pelo menos temos aqui Hwa Jai e Raiden. Remover Oswald foi sacanagem, sem contar a Malin, Momoko, e outros personagens excelentes inseridos em KOF XI. Ficariam animais com aqueles gráficos.

Pois bem, seguindo a linha de raciocínio sobre personagens subutilizados e deixando minha opinião sobre Those from the Past de lado, devo ressaltar que não joguei KOF XIV, tampouco KOF XV, e acredito que como sempre, a jogabilidade seja incrível, porém, no meu ponto de vista leigo sobre os jogos, tá cheio de personagens sem graça, inclusive seu protagonista. Não sei se o jogo é canônico de alguma forma, mas ao invés de criar uma cacetada de personagens novos sem graça, poderiam reaproveitar personagens dos grandes clássicos como citei acima.

[kof-xiii]

IT'S SADDDD HOW HOLLOW XII IS!!!!! LIKE IT'S A SHAME the music and the stages are so nice, i actually like the more vibrant art style a lot more in comparison to xiii, and it plays so smooth i feel like, but it's a HUSK OF A KOF GAME AND IT'S SAD HOW AMBITIOUS THEY OBVIOUSLY WERE BUT NEVER GOT IT UP THERE. YK???

[bison2winquote]

Robert Garcia aftear defeating Iori Yagami, The King of Fighters XII (SNK-Playmore)

[pixelsproject]

『The King of Fighters』 Athena's Attire ('94 to XII)

I haven’t checked, but I’m pretty sure Athena Asamiya has set the record for having the most default designs in a fighting game franchise. In nearly every King of Fighters game (there’s twenty-four!), Athena receives a brand new design. Excluding re-releases, revisions and games with 3D graphics, there’s 15 entries in the franchises that utilize hand drawn pixel art.

From 1994 to 2003, SNK released a new King of Fighters game each year. And while Athena appears to wear the same wardrobe for The King of Fighters ‘94 and ‘95, her outfit was slightly altered and she uses two different sets of sprites for each game.

After The King of Fighters 95’, she received a new costume in every mainline entry. As you can imagine, this is no small feat for a yearly series that uses hand drawn graphics.

In addition to the yearly releases from 94’ to 03’, SNK was also releasing spin-off KOF titles, and when Athena appeared in those, she typically re-used a design from the series' most recent release.

After The King of Fighters 2003, the franchise stopped doing yearly releases, but the series continued to use hand drawn graphics until 2010.

To reference her arcade origins in Psycho Solider, Athena's outfit in XI is a traditional Japanese school uniform.

The last two entries in the series to use pixel art, The King of Fighters XII and XIII, featured some of the largest and most smoothly animated sprites you’ll ever see in a fighting game. Each character took over a year to design. It's highly unlikely we'll ever see another project like these.

In these two games, Athena would continue to wear a sailor uniform, and for the first time, she'd utilize the same base sprites for two games in a row. In XII, Athena's uniform has a dark palette, while XIII's uniform has a lighter palette.

On a technical level, these sprites are quite impressive, but I’m not the biggest fan of them. Athena and the other KOF characters ended up losing far too much of their personality with these new sprites.

It’s interesting to note that Athena and some of the other playable characters looked bit different at one point in the XII’s development.

One interesting note about The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle, Athena's "Psychic 9" technique has her showcasing her previous looks and some new ones as well. This technique is seen in many of KOF 2002's sequels too.

Finally, I should probably acknowledge that Athena Asamiya is the modern reincarnation of Princess Athena who also appears in a few SNK fighting games as either a playable or helper character. Sorry, but I’m not covering Princess Athena here!

And that's that! I've certainly written more about school girl uniforms than I would've ever liked... All kidding aside, I had a lot of fun putting this together. The only other fighting game character with this many default designs would have to be Tekken's Yoshimitsu, and he's almost exclusively in games with 3D graphics.

---

SOURCES ↴ Athena (arcade) screenshots (Killer List of Video Games) The King of Fighters XII (arcade) sprite concept artwork (Thoughts on XII's original sprite designs and scrapped characters? by MetAigis (Reddit/r/kof) The King of Fighters '94 (Neo Geo) Athena concept artwork uploaded by Saxophone Blessings (SNK Wiki) Psycho Soldier (arcade) screenshots (Killer List of Video Games)

[they-have-the-same-va]

Luise Meyrink and Mature from the King of Fighters series both share a voice actress in Japanese.

Voiced by Hiroko Tsuji