KOF XIII General Discussion/Rant Thread

[Anti-K']

More (disturbing) Character Dialogue:

Kula vs. Benimaru:






Missing the final quote where Beni realized how despicable he is.

[r3v3n4nT]

But I thought we are all pedo for Kula...? ...Or is it just me? O shi-

[Yuki Yagami]

http://game.snkplaymore.co.jp/official/ ... st_25.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just about Hidden Colors

[Kane317]

Arcade Infinity - King of Fighters XIII Casuals 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJgvw89xV_8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Arcade Infinity - King of Fighters XIII Casuals 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Duo89a1l9v8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Yuki Yagami]

Professor of MMCafe gave out some info from the Master Guide.

Guide is out.

Teamups with a special illustration after the credits
Already discovered:
Ash Kyo K'
Athena Yuri Kula
Elisabeth Mai King
Ash Duolong Shen

Not yet on Net:
Benimaru Robert Andy (Sub hero team)
Hwa Chin King (Booze team)
Goro Raiden Maxima (Giant men team)


Changing the stage music
In the beginning of the match, hold on the start button until the fight begins. The music will change to the opponent team's theme from KOFXI. Exceptions are Kim's team (KOF96 theme) and Female team (KOF2003 theme).


Last boss path
Score determines whether there's a boss battle after the 6th match during single player mode. Get over 2.5 mil points.

Apparently, K's Alternate Color is actually a homage to UNO.

Toxico (a.k.a Toxic Avenger)'s translation from MMCafe of this week's blog entry

Blog update... They basically talk on how they achieved the alternative color palettes and what led them to try that out in the game (basically, while the main programming team was working like crazy on finding bugs some time prior to the release, dotters that didn't belong to that team just happened to have nothing better to do). Quite an interesting report, maybe I'll get to it later.

Not exactly a precise translation, since you folks know already I'm an unbalanced indivual, hyo hyo. I also don't like words per words translations, unless it's for an opera or something. I didn't include some small details because they didn't interested me enough.

There is also the chance that I got some things backwards since I'm special


The answers come from Yamaguchi, the art producer of the game.

- What is the concept of "alternative character" (裏カラー)?

Alternative characters are in KoF XIII as part of some "gameplay elements" that I have been trying to include since long and is there only for fun, even though it was something a little unreasonable, I'm happy to say that it actually ended up being done quite satisfactory.

- How was this done?

The team responsible for the dotting are of the characters was more or less instructed to create several dot seccion areas for the characters, and the characters where more or less constructed by "leaving out" the color from the dot areas that don't belong to what you selected at that given time. This type of effect can also be reflected on the Special KO animations from Yuri and King

- And the idea behind the alternative color?

This idea has been in consideration since long ago. Initially we would have been happy only with Big Bear and Mr Karate. Eventually thoughts about Yuri's lost ponytail struck us and then a lot of another ideas started popping out. It was certainly a lot of work to achieve in so very little time, and it added a lot of work hour to the designers, that pretty much shows how we had a tight schedule until the end (har har)

- How was the fan reaction to this feature?

This little feature was pretty much thought of thanks to the fan reaction. When fans selected Joe or Ralf 10th colors at the location test I wanted to gather input, but having thought a 10th special color for these two very low usage characters was quite a miscalculation (har har)
During the Shinjuku location test several players where using Ralf in his carno pants, and when Joe's tiger pant where discovered, they started to show up all over the place.
At time time, the main producer was working like crazy in the reported bugs and testing the sturdiness of the game and increasing the programmers work hour at that time would have been difficult, as that the main producer Kikuno told me how the those 10th colors input was pretty much interesting, and that if I wanted to add more work to the team on that then it would be entirely my call. Yamaguchi being not a programmer but a producer, agreed instantly.

- Working as the producer may have been quite stressing... Any thoughts on the alternative colors?

Andy -> "That's definitely a ninja", it was carefully thought with darker palettes and a better variation of colors.
Joe -> "Just... What's with that color?" we wanted to give that expression

- One animal is creeping out in Osaka, lovely isn't it?

Raiden -> Big bear is it. During development there it was an argument over black basic colors or blue basic colors for this character, we had to go back to fatal fury 2 to check that one out.

- We can't possible overlook our main masked fighter

Takuma -> Mr Karate. Mr Karate and Big Bear where decided from the start since they are different set of characters. In order to achieve the frightening feeling of the color of a Tengu we choose really different colors for this one.

Ralf : This camouflage patter game much more problems than what I originally thought, since the start this color was decided due to some amazing illustrations that Eisuke Ogura showed to us and right away we thought "that's cool".

- Desert partern camouflage If doing camouflage in hight def can be a pretty mean handy work compared to coloring him grey, that's what I honestly believe.

Yuri -> Her new hair cut was well liked, but in development many people made an statement on how it was missing and thus some different mindsets where created with like and dislike. We worked on including all of the 4 original AoF 2 color palettes.
K' -> Modifications made for him to be a masterpiece by the producer, that's what we thought when we saw him. His 10th color is an tribute to a popular card game. (Toxico -> so it's not a windows reference )

- Lastly a thank you.

As a developer, I expect that those 10 extra colors will turn characters into "unexpected" feeling. Extra coloring these 7 characters was quite fun... Now working on the other 24 on the other hand would be... (laughs)

- A big thank you for Yamaguchi, certainly I think that everyone thanks him for his work as well.

Yamaguchi: .... (laughs)

For those 10 colors we really wanted fans to "explore". Next update will be about the stages.

[Yuki Yagami]

Read this from Frankfurt at NeoGAF and SRK who saw the Master Guide:

The mook doesn't have Adel. There are however, flat, Rumblefish-like sprites of two unused characters (same way we saw Rumblefish-style sprites for everyone from XII in the Encyclopedia), both really cool.

One is a Yagami-team member that has a Vice-esque stance (her other stance) and haircut. He looks kind like K9999 dressed in a long suit (not him, though - he has a "Yakuza crossed with a J-Rocker" feel) and the other is a Magaki/Saiki-looking boss in a wedding-gown-like outfit. They're both very angular, pure Nona. Lots of personality.

This adds up to five characters that got into early spriting that got scrapped.

The original version of Kula has a flatter chest, sharper angles and her hair is bulkier/cuter. From waist up looks definetly better than what we got. Legs are exactly the same, though. Mai looks more agressive (sharper angles, asian eyes, same pose but leaning more to the enemy), and you see more of her breasts. She looks like she means business, not friendly like the final version.

UPDATE: Prototype designs

Picture provided by cactusmomma @ Cyberfanatix

So, who here prefers a Lady Gaga-esque boss design over the muscular naked one?

[Tel]

Hey everyone, it's been a long time since I posted. Been really out of the scene actually, and It doesn't seem like XIII will be available in arcades here (which is pretty much dead), and I don't own a console, so I don't know if I'll get the chance to play the game properly. Managed to take XII for a spin, but it was only for a few minutes and not enough to decide whether I like the game or not. So what's your verdict about this game?

[Yuki Yagami]

http://game.snkplaymore.co.jp/official/ ... st_26.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

About Stages...

Unused Stages:
2 Russia Stages
Early France Stage (w/ Eiffel Tower)
Early India Stage (w/ Taj Mahal)
Cambodia Stage
Kenya Stage
Grand Canyon Stage
Cruise Ship Stage
Middle East Stage
Forest Stage ???

[Gunsmith]

Hey everyone, it's been a long time since I posted. Been really out of the scene actually, and It doesn't seem like XIII will be available in arcades here (which is pretty much dead), and I don't own a console, so I don't know if I'll get the chance to play the game properly. Managed to take XII for a spin, but it was only for a few minutes and not enough to decide whether I like the game or not. So what's your verdict about this game?

Ello Tel!

XII? A lot of ppl here didn't like it. However, XII has a small following (including myself), but even they have discarded the game because of XIII's abandoning of the XII system. Just no point in playing it apart from .... er.... learning Shen Woo.

As for stages... Hello DLC!

[Tel]

Hello back Gunsmith!

XIII looks interesting, I'm pretty undecided if I'll ever get a console, but if I do, I'm definitely going to give it a spin. I'm more interested in getting a PS2 for the sake of playing 2k2UM, as my guide is in limbo, and I'd really like to finish it. But unless there's a major revival in the arcade scene here, I doubt I'll get to play XII or XII in the arcades. Good to see XIII has expanded the move sets (a little) from XII, which looked kinda anemic (especially Betsy and Mature). So Ash dies in XIII huh? That's a shame, I rather like using him and wanted to see him as a common fixture in upcoming KOF titles. I wonder if the next one is gonna be a dream match, since the Ash saga is over, but XII is a dream match anyway.

Oh, I'm kinda glad to see Ash as a boss character. After XI and Regulation A, I always thought Ash would make a pretty good sub-boss.

[Tel]

Wow, I've been listening to his theme for more than half an hour and I'm not getting tired of it!

When does the CD "come out" again?

Kinda mixed about the tracks, some sound great, while some sound generic, but Saiki's track is very nice indeed. Though in the long history of awesome SNK music, Magaki's track is my personal favourite boss track. Real classy, that one.

[Tel]

Composers (They did a good job in pulling off Tate_Norio's sound style, IMO)
Tetsuhiro Ogawa
Iku Mizutani
Toshihiko Hiraguchi
Tomonao Niiya
Makoto Suehiro
Tasuku Mizutani

Ripped the music off the website and been giving them a good listen. The music arrangements are nice, but I found the electric guitars to be rather harsh. I find the tracks that don't have the guitars dominating to be a much more pleasant listen than the guitar-based ones, though it's not saying that I actually hate them (Ash's theme is cool, and Betsy's has the dramatic punch). Love the Psycho Soldier track, it's very reminiscent of the XI version. The Women Fighters and Yagami teams' have classy music as usual. AoF team music feels like a dash of Samurai Spirits, totally love it. Saiki's theme is grandiose and definitely a boss theme with the way how it progressively builds up, with slight shades of Magaki's theme in the pianos (which is a good thing IMHO). I may want to get the disc when it's out. It's not as diverse as the XI soundtrack, but it sure sounds good overall.

[Gunsmith]

Hello back Gunsmith!

XIII looks interesting, I'm pretty undecided if I'll ever get a console, but if I do, I'm definitely going to give it a spin. I'm more interested in getting a PS2 for the sake of playing 2k2UM, as my guide is in limbo, and I'd really like to finish it. But unless there's a major revival in the arcade scene here, I doubt I'll get to play XII or XII in the arcades. Good to see XIII has expanded the move sets (a little) from XII, which looked kinda anemic (especially Betsy and Mature). So Ash dies in XIII huh? That's a shame, I rather like using him and wanted to see him as a common fixture in upcoming KOF titles. I wonder if the next one is gonna be a dream match, since the Ash saga is over, but XII is a dream match anyway.

Oh, I'm kinda glad to see Ash as a boss character. After XI and Regulation A, I always thought Ash would make a pretty good sub-boss.

Depending on where you live, you should wait until XIII is released and find out if it has good netcode. 2k2 um is a great game, but it's (imo) going to be abandoned in favour of XIII. If you've a small budget, you should be able to get a really cheap fat 360 (although going online will then cost you) so I still recommend a fat 2nd hand ps3.

[SonicTempest]

I have, er, procured the KOF XIII OST, and the good news is the team theme tracks are longer than those on the XI OST! The bad news is that they're longer because they make the track loop three times and fade out at the end. :(

As for XIII replacing 2K2UM, I don't know about that - not unless SNKP patches out the bugs in the arcade version at the very least.

[The Master]

Hello back Gunsmith!

XIII looks interesting, I'm pretty undecided if I'll ever get a console, but if I do, I'm definitely going to give it a spin. I'm more interested in getting a PS2 for the sake of playing 2k2UM, as my guide is in limbo, and I'd really like to finish it. But unless there's a major revival in the arcade scene here, I doubt I'll get to play XII or XII in the arcades. Good to see XIII has expanded the move sets (a little) from XII, which looked kinda anemic (especially Betsy and Mature). So Ash dies in XIII huh? That's a shame, I rather like using him and wanted to see him as a common fixture in upcoming KOF titles. I wonder if the next one is gonna be a dream match, since the Ash saga is over, but XII is a dream match anyway.

Oh, I'm kinda glad to see Ash as a boss character. After XI and Regulation A, I always thought Ash would make a pretty good sub-boss.

Depending on where you live, you should wait until XIII is released and find out if it has good netcode. 2k2 um is a great game, but it's (imo) going to be abandoned in favour of XIII. If you've a small budget, you should be able to get a really cheap fat 360 (although going online will then cost you) so I still recommend a fat 2nd hand ps3.

there is a $199 360 S unit with 4GB of built-in flash. has the drive bay for when they finally get around to releasing the newer/smaller cased HDDs