المشاركة الأصلية كتبت بواسطة Penpen of the Orochinagi Forums
I bought this week's Game Next magazine (a local HK magazine which talks about...games), it turns out that during the comic festival last month the magazine interviewed with the SNKP Contents Head/Director/Some Guy Sitting In That Post. I don't know how to translate his name to English however, so please bear with me for the time being.
As per usual, my translation is NOT 100%. I'm prone to errors and there may be mistranslations here and there.
----------------------
(translation begins)
To give support to the SNK booth and the two KOF tourneys at the Hong Kong Comics Festival, the SNK Playmore Contents Head (Mr. IDon'tKnowHowToTranslateHisName) decided to visit Hong Kong. Game Next managed to get an exclusive interview with him, and got to know what's new over at SNK Playmore and the best news about KOF!
GX: Game Next
CH: Mr. IDon'tKnowHowToTranslateHisName
GX: Are you satisfied with SNKP's performance over at Japan, Asia, Europe and Americas?
CH: To put it simply, the old company is history, but as for the current company, our first priority is to protect the SNK brand name. And for the new company, at the start it was quite rough since we could not make large-scaled investments, and could only develop very few new games. And until these two years, the company is finally on track, and we can put more investment on developing new games, to give back to our fans expectations.
AOF and FF is Part of KOF: MI!
GX: NeoGeo used to have lots of popular works, such as "World Heroes," "Aggressors of Dark Combat," and "Buriki One," will there be a remake soon, or will there be a totally new game?
CH: Actually "World Heroes" is an ADK product, but we still hold the rights. As for these games we will consider doing a revival style and move these games to the PS2's NeoGeo Online Collection series. As for new works for these titles, we do not have a real plan thus far.
GX: What about "Art of Fighting," "Fatal Fury" and "Samurai Shodown?" Will there be sequels to these popular series?
CH: Let's talk about SamSho first, by the 6th episode (ed: the one currently being worked on the AW) it will be finished officially. And on this issue of making a new game, I am currently thinking if we should be making a 3D version of SamSho, but it is not decided yet. As for AOF and FF, as I said before, we will have a 'revival' version for the PS2 under the NeoGeo Online Collection series. For new works we have nothing as of now, but on the storyline issue, it will be extended into other series, such as KOF: MI, where AOF and FF will be combined together in the game. As you can see, AOF, FF and KOF: MI all happen in Southtown. As for MOTW, it also happens in Southtown, so we should not see KOF: MI as a 3D KOF, this should be seen as a continuity for AOF, FF and MOTW's background. There is a reason for putting the above works into the game.
The New Game Will Be A Card Game!
GX: Other than the above works, are there anything being planned?
CH: I have a new idea for the Nintendo NDS, a card game actually. But what the card game is actually about, for now it's not a suitable time to tell you. (GX: Is it a KOF card game?)
GX: When will you be announcing this new game?
CH: Around the September TGS I believe!
GX: What about the game's theme? Do you have any hints?
CH: Nope! If I continue talking about it, you will probably know what it is about! (ed: maybe Card Fighters' Clash...?)
GX: As for the NeoGeo Online battles (PS2 & Xbox), how is the response? Are you satisfied with the result?
CH: As for the PS2 online side, at first there were many players who didn't know how to connect and had many technical issues. But until now, the PS2 has 3 online titles, and the players are already getting familiar with it, and the online players are increasing. I am of course satisfied, and we found out that if the player can only play by themselves, it will be a boring thing. To thank the fans' longtime support, we provided an online battling service, and it doesn't matter even if we lose money.
No more Shinkiro!
GX: Any new coming works?
CH: We first announced KOF: MI2 to be coming out in 2005, but now it'll be in 2006. Therefore, we will have a lot of promotions and advertisiments planned, for example the game will have two different movies, one in anime style (ed: perhaps the one by Production IG announced earlier? Falcoon's appearance in the event perhaps makes this case stronger) and one in CG style. For the anime we will put it online for promotion, and the CG movie will be inserted into the game's opening and ending. As for events, the KOF 10th anniversary event last year was very successful, so we should be making something similiar by this year. These events are being planned for now.
(ed: shameless ad, but check out my Hong Kong Comics Fair post about Billy appearing in the next KOF: MI)
GX: Before, KOF's characters were usually drawn by Shinkiro, but as he joined Capcom, will there be any possibilities of having a cross-company styled cooperation and ask him to draw KOF characters for SNKP?
CH: Very likely no, because KOF needs to go forward and not going backwards instead. So the chances of cooperation is slim.
Answer To Why Mai Is Not In KOF XI!
GX: How long is KOF XI in development? And who is responsible for character design?
CH: The development started around 1 and a half year ago. As for the character design is done by Hiroaki. I would also like to take the chance and say that currently Nona is in the development department, and he is mainly doing work for drawing sprintes. As for the well-known Falcoon, he is moved from the arcade department to the home consoles department, and is now the producer of KOF: MI2.
GX: Why is Mai not in KOF XI?
CH: The reason why Mai isn't in KOF XI is not because she's not popular, but every year we will need to make some changes, some needs to be reset (ed: I'm not sure what this means), say we will need these characters for this year, and other characters for the next. And since NGBC and KOF XI are both same types of games, Mai appearing in both will feel like she's being repeated. So this arrangement will give the game some new things to explore.
Infinite Possibilities for the New KOF!
GX: Going on for so many years, will there be any improvements in KOF?
CH: The 2D KOF has been going on for 10 years, and the characters' art will always change, but no matter how things change, 2D KOF will always be sprites, and this will never change. Even though the game's board is moved from the NeoGeo to the Atomiswave, since the Atomiswave is basically Dreamcast's board exchanged (ed: I'm not sure on this either, but I think you get the idea), so graphically there won't be any remarkable improvements, and the 2D KOF will not turn into a 3D KOF (GX: he means the official KOF games but not 'side' games like KOF: MI), and we will keep on pushing it. 2D fighters in comparision is more focused on the tactic. As for real improvements, we are still working on it.
GX: Aside from KOF having the 2D version and a 3D version such as KOF: MI, will there be any other types of games? Such as an SLG like "Namco X Capcom?"
CH: I really had that thought, if we put all the characters together, we can try many different types of games, even MMORPGs, or perhaps something like "SNK Gal Fighter" or make a new fighting game by combining fighter characters along with non-fighter characters together such as NGBC. Or perhaps a party game, so there are many possibilities and ideas.
GX: Any actual plans or ideas?
CH: Telling you these is already the fastest news already, I can't tell you more! (CH: lolololol)
GX: As for the future consoles, the Xbox 360, PS3, Revolution, what is your view?
CH: As for now we have the most information for the Xbox 360, and since Microsoft is one of the most successful companies, and TV and PC games are getting more similar, so I believe that it is more actual (ed: direct translation...Xbox 360 sounds more 'real' I guess). As for the PS3 and Revolution, we do not have much information so I cannot comment for now.
GX: (blahs about anything to say to GX readers)
CH: (blahs about thanking HK players for supporting arcades and fighting games, is very happy, but since the market is shrinking, they will think about other routes)
