Unpopular opinion 1: I think KoF XII/XIII looks absolutely horrible

DevilRedeemed

teh
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Yeah yeah, high Res hand drawn sprites (kind of, they are drawn on top of 3D models if I remember correctly).

The designs are ugly as sin, it's like a celebration of all the bad taste brought to the table post KOF 2K.

The highest point in character models apart from 94 was with KoF 96 where the cherry on top was Ryo's stance shift.
Fast forward to these high res games, what the fuck is going on?
Take Kim for instance. No personality, can't make out his face, just looks like a bunch of meat inside a taekwondo outfit.

I like the backrounds somewhat even though they are really cheesy.

But I am really taken aback how impressed 99% of the fanbase was with the look of the game (gameplay aside)


The most recent KoF is really boring to look at but at least it looks like KoF.
 
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munchiaz

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I don't agree, but I also didn't grow up playing the KOF games. I didn't play my first KOF game until KOF 99 came out on playstation
 

fake

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Yes, you're right about the sprites being puppeted by 3D models.

I go back and forth on whether I like the art style or not. I like that they took it in a new direction, but I generally dislike top-heavy character designs (like in Warner Bros / DC animations). I reviewed XII back in the day for a gaming website and the art style, shading, and zooming were all things that I criticized. Here's what I said about XIII in a review for a different site:

The graphics are on one hand great, but on another slightly disappointing. I’m personally not a fan of the freakishly-large-torse art style that XII started. It’s back in XIII, unfortunately. I’ve been able to look past it since the rest of the game is so good, but I really wish the game used the KoF XI sprite style. That said, the game’s 2D graphics are the real deal – no Flash-style characters here. They’re all super high res raster sprites, but they look so smooth it’s easy to mistake them for vectors. And you can actually see them in all their glory this time. In XII, the characters were often obscured by lame shadow effects.

But either way, the sprite work, while not classically animated, is impressive.

Street Fighter III will always be king.
 

DevilRedeemed

teh
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Yes, you're right about the sprites being puppeted by 3D models.

I go back and forth on whether I like the art style or not. I like that they took it in a new direction, but I generally dislike top-heavy character designs (like in Warner Bros / DC animations). I reviewed XII back in the day for a gaming website and the art style, shading, and zooming were all things that I criticized. Here's what I said about XIII in a review for a different site:



But either way, the sprite work, while not classically animated, is impressive.

Street Fighter III will always be king.

Aye aye I am of similar sentiment.

I feel SNK in general fucked up in never updating the look of their characters all through the 90s and early 00s.
When in 94 you where introduced to great part of the roster they where presented with care and criteria. Iori in 95 was perfect, the look, the way the character played, everything. 96 saw some updates. And after that it was rehash city time after time.

Kyo and Iori where characters reflecting the look and feel of the mid 90s, showed SNK had its finger on the pulse. I've always felt that keeping with the roster roughly the same made it redundant visually.

The thing was not to change the look of the characters 20 years on, but during the time KoF was relevant.
That's why SF Alpha/Zero and then sfIII was so great.
Also the FF series which evolved fom start to finish but always staying meaningful and showing care and attention to what was going on in that particular universe.
 

123►Genei-Jin

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I don't like certain character re-designs (Ralf and Clark come to mind) but I don't dislike it as a whole. At least it animates great where as the animation in previous 2D KOF games is very inconsistent (some characters have smooth animations while others have terrible looking jerky ones)
 

LoneSage

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The art style was a bold move and I'm glad SNK shook things up a bit. I'm happy KOF XII looks the way it does instead of looking closer to Maximum Impact. Crazy it's almost ten years since it came out.

I don't understand why people act like it's a negative about the sprites being on top of 3D models. The game is still hand-drawn 2D sprites.

edit: I have never felt that Kim had personality. To me he's always been one of the most boring characters. Just my .02.
 
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Ip Man

BBLLOOOO__HHAARRDDDDDD!!!!,
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never played any after kof 11, but loved the fact that they were re-doing the sprites in XII/XIII after over ten games of re-using sprites over and over again.

although i really liked how a lot of the characters looked, some of the sprites were questionable. my main complaint was towards takuma and the ikari guys. i loved the way ralf looked in the originals, but in XII/XIII his muscles was unnecessarily overly exaggerated.
 
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lordnikon

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The char sprites looked larger in XII than in XIII (possibly zoom factor?). I prefer XII's seemingly larger sprites, but... XIII is the more well rounded game with XII being a precursor.

The muscles in these games always seemed wierd to me, especially the biceps:

https://www.justpushstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/kof13-6.jpg

Daimon's arm looks so wierd!

Overall I enjoy the look of these games though. We may never get another hand drawn KOF game like this.
 

Ip Man

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Overall I enjoy the look of these games though. We may never get another hand drawn KOF game like this.

true. i was always saddened with the idea that the original snk game series is never going to be the same. but when you think about it, we have 9 great games from the kof series to choose from and more if you include kof11, neo wave and and the unlimited matches. i'm happy with what we have.
 

BlackaneseNiNjA

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...we have 9 great games from the kof series to choose from and more if you include kof11, neo wave and and the unlimited matches. i'm happy with what we have.

I agree that we already have a lot of quality titles in the kof series (even if fans don’t always agree on which ones). I’m not saying that kof has no more room to evolve, rather, it would be nice to see SNK explore and expand on their other non-fighting game IP’s sometimes.

An updated Magician Lord, Ikari Warriors, Nam, etc could be awesome. SNK should look at the approach of games like the updated Wonder Boy, Wild Guns Reloaded, Double Dragon Advance, Mega Man 11, etc. Those games expand on the design of the originals without losing the charm of what makes the gameplay unique imho.
 
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