Dissidia NT Closed Beta Postmortem Thoughts

Last week, Square Enix launched a closed beta for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, the console version of their hot little arcade-only arena-fighter, and in the process gave thousands of players the world over their first chance to tear into the 3v3 brawler. Thanks to the heroic efforts of Jon "Slimy Klimy" Klimas at Evo, I was lucky enough to get a beta code and join in the fun of the beta. Although I didn't get to play as much as I would have liked (some of the reasons being detailed below) I spent a decent amount of time on the beta, and wanted to get some of my feelings on the game down in a more concrete manner.

FIRST, the bad...

 

Just to get it out of the way: the matchmaking, however the hell it works, is awful. Waiting on a game could take a very literal ten minutes before you were set up with your teammates, and even then there was no guarantee the match would actually begin successfully. I had a handful of experiences where after waiting for several minutes (and thinking the game had locked up) I would get a team/opponent only to have the game really lock up at the preparation screen. Alternatively, it would take eons only to pair you up with 5 AI controlled bots, the same as a "Practice" match.

The beta had no search options for refining your matchmaking criteria, though this was probably intentional to simulate the wildest of conditions for testing the game's netcode to gather data and make the necessary fixes. That, in and of itself, is fine, but it made investing time in the beta difficult for me, as I could sit down for an hour and enjoy maybe 5 or 6 3-minute games. Baaaad wait:play ratio. 

By itself, no search options for a beta is fine, really. They need to see how the game behaves under all manner of situations. What was strange about the matchmaking was instead that it really did take SO LONG to find a game or get the aforementioned bots. What was going on behind the scenes that made it painful and time-consuming for thousands of players to find each other? This was a huge and highly anticipated beta, so it's not like the game's population was dead. People were playing at all times.

Other than that, the biggest issue with the netplay was, of course, lag. In most matches, the game runs very poorly to only-sorta-poorly. Silky smooth connections that feel like offline were few and far between. This is something I'd attribute more to however the game handles six different users' connections, and the general problems that would present in any game, than a fundamental failure of the netcode... for now, anyway. Since there's no way to filter out players with slow/bad connections like in most fighting games, you're stuck with whatever the matchmaking service finds for you. 1-bar connection makes for a bad time no matter the game, and here it made for some VERY BAD times.

Lag was so severe that I would experience 15-30 seconds where although my character was moving and the world around him was full of danger, none of my button presses would ever go through, not even with a huge laggy delay like normal. The lag would simply devour my inputs whole. Failing that, the entire game could freeze or lock up while it was disconnecting you or another player. Thankfully, when a player was disconnected, the game tended to snap back to life pretty successfully and run a bit more smoothly.

Slow/broken matchmaking and laggy/shoddy netcode would be a death sentence for this game on release, so hopefully the developers use the info from the beta to iron out any problems on their end, then add in the appropriate options to help players craft the best experience on their end. These issues took some wind out of the beta's sails, but that could be a good thing as long as they're now able to catch the problems.

With that out of the way, let's move on to the good stuff.

3v3 and TEAM gameplay

In its previous PSP versions, Dissidia was a one-on-one 3D fighter. Making the move to arcades, it evolved into a three on three team-based affair, theoretically in an effort to emulate the core FF series emphasis on adventuring parties, but probably moreso to capitalize on the popularity of other games like Gundam Xtreme. Following the development of this game, and especially after confirmation of a console version, I wondered two things: 1- Would 3v3 "work" and be fun? and B- Would team composition matter?

My short conclusions are yes, very much so and yes, emphatically.

First, 3v3. I think like a lot of people I was initially skeptical about Dissidia becoming a team game, mostly because I'm always a huge fan of 1v1 fighters. Dissidia, however, has never really been a traditional fighting game, and expanding its battles to 6-person melees really helps to add depth to the game while evening out some of the weird faults of its core systems. The characters have been further refined from the old PSP games to better fall into specific roles in combat (Heavy, Speed, Shoot, and Unique) with each role and how that character fills it adding to their personal identity in game. For example, Squall and Tidus are both speed types, but the way they play and (more importantly) the way they help the team differ greatly.  

Squall has to get in close and be on even footing with enemies, but once he's in he's great at locking foes into his lengthy attack sequences, and is able to either push them to the wall and get a kill or keep the enemy locked down while a teammate moves in with their own killing blow.

Tidus, meanwhile, is constantly on the move and harassing opponents with a variety of dash attacks. He's a pest who's gonna hit you and run away only to come back and hit you again if you dare to ignore him.

3-player teams also lends itself to varying styles of play. Casters can behave like casters, moving around the field and looking for opponents to unleash devastation. They aren't forced to constantly dodge and run and zone because now they have allies to keep some of the heat off them.

And you need those allies, no matter what character you play. Because of the way attacks/damage work, it's almost impossible to fend off enemies when they outnumber you. You can't turtle up and block forever, and dodging an array of attacks forever is simply not going to happen. Attacks also have lots of recovery on a miss, and you're even wide-open to attack in the middle of landing your blows. There's danger all around, and you simply can't overcome it alone.

This creates a game where the ability of your teammates is just as important as your own personal skills. There were games I played that were over in under a minute because while I was handling one foe, my teammates were swiftly routed, and vice-versa. If there's a weak link on a team (like, say, a bot) it's all-too-easy to exploit that weakness for a win. Even more, the game rewards teams that work together and fight like a coherent unit. It's hard to land a slow HP attack when your opponent is focused on dodging it, but once they have to worry about shutting down someone else, it becomes much easier to snipe them and take them out of the game.

With that in mind, team composition is huge, and for a multitude of reasons. Teammates can help cover each others' matchup weaknesses (Squall can't fight Firion very well at all, but a magic-user can), create opportunities that play to each others' strengths (Warrior of Light using his taunt to pull enemies while a speed or shoot type brings the pain) and overall just help each other out. Each character also has a personal EX skill and two chosen ex skills that provide further utility to themselves and the team, with some characters (Ramza, Bartz) able to provide a bevy of buffs to teammates throughout the match.

So yeah, 3v3 works, team comp. definitely matters, and I'm not really going to be sad if there's no option for 1v1.

One other thing that was cool about 3v3 and random matchmaking: everything just feels relaxed and fun. If you lose because of your team or get carried by them, you don't feel bad or angry. It's kinda just out of your hands when the system is randomized like this. You can play a solid game and know you did everything you could even when losing, so a team loss doesn't frustrate quite as much as losing in a game like Tekken does in ranked. You can also have games where you get your ass kicked, manage not to die, and your teammates get all the kills. You still feel good and contributed by not dying and giving up a point. It's just fun. 

ON CHARACTERS-

14 characters were available in the beta: Warrior of Light (WoL), Firion, Onion Knight, Cecil, Bartz, Terra, Cloud, Squall, Zidane, Tidus, Shantotto, Vaan, Lightning, and Y'shtola. Going in beta, I had planned to play a little bit of everyone, but due to the matchmaking time commitments I kinda scrapped that plan and resolved to play a lot of Squall. That didn't go so well, so I wound up switching to Bartz, having a LOT more fun, and playing him for most of the week. I've got some thoughts on all of the characters, but I'll also talk at length about Squall and Bartz. K, let's go.

WoL- Didn't see him much, and don't think that will change with full version. I think he's good though. Basic, but strong, and his taunt ability could be incredible with the right team around him.

Firion- He was much more popular than I thought he'd be. Lots of internet people were buzzing about him being super strong because of his ground game, while ignoring that he can't do shit in the air. He's pretty hard to approach, his moveset is really cool, and I think his EX skill (Blood Weapons) is great. I wanted to play him but elected not to (for now) after seeing how often he was being played.

Onion Knight- He started to appear more as the beta went on, though I dunno why. He's a bit more advanced than some characters, but he seems cool? I think people taking the game seriously will like him a lot because he can contribute in a lot of different ways.

Cecil- Didn't see Cecil very much either, which was a little surprising. His Paladin form seems very good to me, but Dark Knight felt a bit lacking when I fought against it. I should have played him a bit, but I didn't. He's a bit odd, I dunno.

Terra- Terra seems like you really need to have a good team around her to be successful. Her unique mechanic makes it so that she can't constantly attack or else she won't get her best spells, so she has to spend a lot of time waiting and that leaves her open to being hunted down by Speed types (like Squall). Every time I played Squall and saw a Terra I decided to go after her, and a lot of the time it worked out very, very well. So she's pretty weak when pressured, but if your team is good she's devastating. Her big spells are BIG, hit hard, and she can really just murder fools. She was popular in the beta, and I think she will be in full version as well, even with more mages in the game.

Cloud- He's everywhere, because of course he is. It wasn't uncommon to see 3 or more Clouds in games, which is funnier than I thought it would be. He seems really easy to play, too, which isn't a bad thing. He can strike from a lot of different angles, his attacks track pretty well, and he does exactly what you want Cloud to do, I guess. He's Cloud, I dunno man, get used to seeing him.

Zidane- Kinda popular, but I rarely saw him... do anything? It was weird. Like he was just zipping around and sometimes shit would happen and he would explode or kill someone but I don't really know anything about him. Whatever.

Tidus- He's annoyyyyying. Decently popular. Lots of bad players were using him and just spamming HP attacks. I think he's a good character though, and he seems like a lot of fun just with all his mobility. He makes a good teammate too because of that speed.

Shantotto- Nobody was playing her. :)

Vaan- He's supposed to be "that character" because he can spam HP attacks and go wild, but I didn't see him much. Here and there, some good players, but he's probably not seen much right now because 12 isn't one of the more popular games in the west. I'd expect that to change once people realize he's super unga.

Lightning- About as popular as Cloud and Squall, saw a good bit of her. As a character she seems okay? Her HP attack is really easy to dodge and people get a little greedy with it right now. I played against some good Lightnings and found it difficult, though. Don't know much about her.

Y'shtola- She was REALLY popular, which surprised me because I don't actually know anything about her role in FF14. She actually has like heals and stuff I think, which I'm sure contributed to people wanting to play her. I honestly think it'd be cool if they put more healers in... 

NOW THEN--

SQUALL

Squall was the character I played for the first few days of the beta, mostly because he's my favorite protag and FF8 was my first FF. His playstyle is also really in-line with what I like to do: go in and hit people. In fact, that's just about all he does, having very limited options whenever not right up in the opponent's face.

The good thing is that once he's in there, Squall is a devastating force, able to string together lengthy combos and push opponents to the wall where he can finish combos with the aerial version of Fated Circle for a kill. As mentioned above, his long bravery attack chains are also really good for holding people down and allowing your teammates to go for killing blows... unfortunately I rarely benefitted from this, as my allies were rarely aware of what I was doing.

He's great for hunting down enemies that have strayed from the group, as well as slower opponents like casters or whatever. However, he seems to struggle against characters that can attack him from different angles or keep him out. Squall's attacks are all really very "linear", he has to be more or less level with you to get things going, and he can't really drop in or rise up to meet you like Cloud or Tidus can, nor can he effectively fight from long-range like Firion or a caster.

I think he pairs really well with Terra, for aforementioned reasons. He can hold down enemies for her to kill, while also helping to keep the pressure off her. Similarly, the threat of Terra's magic creates openings for Squall to get in and go to work. It's ironic that FF's #1 lone wolf needs support to really shine, but I like it.

That's not to say Squall can't shine in a duel. He can still dodge and block and find openings on his own, it's just a bit tougher. His Thunder Barret attack is a decent combo starter on the ground, and he has nice ways of closing distance in midair that also lead to combos. Since he's such an offensive powerhouse once he lands a hit, Squall really only needs that one opening to make his attacks count. If you're able to find your mark and maximize his damage, you can very nearly kill in a single exchange (provided you're using Fated Circle as your HP attack, anyway.)

Speaking of maximizing damage, Squall has a unique "Trigger" mechanic that should be sorta familiar to anyone who played FF8. Basically, whenever Squall lands a hit, he has a window of ~3 frames to input his next attack, and if successful he'll trigger his gunblade and give the next hit +75% damage. With a series of successful triggers, Squall does obscene damage. Without triggers? Well... his damage kinda sucks.

And that was a big problem for me while playing him in the beta. I wanted those just-frame triggers and real manly damage, but due to the devastating lag it felt nearly impossible. Plus, the only way to "practice" getting triggers was to play a match against the AI, and even that didn't feel like much help. Learning timing for things like that is something I'd normally like to lab out in a dedicated training environment, and so I didn't really put much effort in yet. Hopefully in the full version I'll come back to him.

The other issue with playing Squall in the beta is that your team is very rarely going to cover his weaknesses and aid his strengths. Communication is nearly impossible, and a lot of people don't even fully understand how the game is supposed to work, so if you're getting dogpiled by Clouds from every angle, nobody's going to come to your aid.

Also, his other available HP attack (characters in the beta only had 2 to choose from) Blasting Zone, seemed underwhelming to me for what his character is supposed to be about. It's a big area attack for a character that specializes in combos, and it can't be used as a combo ender. I also didn't like the EX Skills that came with the Blasting Zone loadout. Overall, Fated Circle seems like the go-to (though Rough Divide and Ultima seem pretty cool in the Arcade).

Squall, ultimately, is probably going to be really popular, but a lot of people are going to be really bad at him because he actually has a learning curve. I still think I want to main him when the game is out, but I'm not so sure, mostly because...

BARTZ IS REALLY GODDAMN FUN

The reworked version of Bartz for the Arcade game is amazing. He's so good, and so much fun, and his unique mechanics are so cool. He's also reasonably versatile, unlike Squall, so when you're getting thrown into random battles it always feels like he's able to do his thing and help the team.

In PSP Dissidia, Bartz had weird/altered/mimed versions of other characters' moves, and fought by conjuring copies of their weapons. As cool as it was to see him waving around the Buster Sword and Gunblade and the like, he felt more like a mash-up of everyone else than his own unique character. All that's changed in NT, as Bartz now works on a system that pays great homage to FF5 and its kinda legendary job system.

Each of Bartz's attacks are based on a job from the game: Monk, Blue Mage, Dragoon, Ninja, Black Mage, Ranger, and Mystic Knight for his Bravery attacks; and Geomancer, Samurai, Knight, or Dancer for his HP attacks. Each attack starts out decently useful, but after using/landing the attacks a certain amount of times Bartz will master the job. Mastering a job upgrades the attack in some way (more damage/hits, faster, whatever) and also applies a passive buff to Bartz. He gets stronger, faster, or sturdier... he can triple jump, have more base bravery, all sorts of things. Basically Bartz goes from "pretty good" at the start of a fight to "REALLY STRONG" as the game wears on. He also keeps the buffs and masteries even if he dies, so you never get forced back to square one.

His EX Skill, Lucky Charm, sees him using his pal Boko's chocobo feather to share all that buffed-up goodness with the whole party. In previous Arcade patches he shared all of his unique buffs with everyone, but in the current Arcade build and NT, Lucky Charm simply gives buffs to ATK, DEF, and SPD... all at once. That's pretty cool, but the kicker is that Lucky Charm also levels up as Bartz masters jobs, and the buffs scale up accordingly. With maxed out Lucky Charm, and the proper summon, Bartz can give teams HUGE and FREQUENT boosts. Even in games where I wasn't able to get kills, it always felt like Bartz was able to contribute by buffing friends and pestering opponents with his versatile moves. I might not get those kills, but they couldn't put me down, either.

I don't know that he'd be as much fun if his moves weren't so versatile and cool, though. Bartz just feels good to play, and his moveset is an awesome homage to his original game, throwing in tons of little winks and nods to players who spent some time with FF5. I'm an especially big fan of the Samurai attack opening with Gil Toss, something I used constantly when finishing up FF5 last year. 

Mechanically, he really seems to have a tool for every situation. Dragoon is a great dodge/counter/gap-closing attack that does good damage and pushes to the wall. Blue Mage is great for whiff-punishing while airborn. Black Mage and Ranger let you trade pokes with casters while forcing melee fighters into bad situations. Mystic Knight is an amazing attack once mastered, with a huge hitbox and damage. Monk is more forgettable, but it's speedy and makes for a decent option on the ground to capitalize on mistakes and get some damage. I didn't use Ninja very much, but it's a solid attack from dash.

For HP attacks, only Geomancer and Samurai were available in the beta, and of those I used the former much more, though I think Samurai is probably better. Geomancer lets you play Bartz more like a caster/shoot-type, and is actually composed of two different attacks. On the ground it caused a pillar of earth to erupt upwards to cause damage, while in the air it shoots a slow-moving wind projectile. When mastered, the Earthquake causes more/larger pillars of rock to attack, and the Wind Slash moves quicker. Both are good, but easy to dodge when the opponent sees them coming. I had a good bit of success with them when persistent, at least.

Samurai is a great HP attack if only because it can be lightning fast or delayed for more damage. Toying with the timing makes it easier to land in neutral situations, while also giving a potential combo ender (I think) with its speed. Really good move. I think mastering it allows it to charge faster.

The two absentee HP attacks, Knight and Dancer, seem cool, Knight especially. Dancer is a pretty standard multi-attack... kinda like Omnislash... where Bartz does a random number of hits then finishes with HP damage. Mastering it makes it do more hits guaranteed. I'm not too interested in using it.

NOW KNIGHT. Knight seems incredible. It's a counter-attack, so you can't exactly go to town with it, but it's arguably the best counter in the game because it counters HP attacks when mastered. I can't wait to try it out.

Bottom line is I think the team did an amazing job capturing Bartz and adapting him for this game. Right now he's my favorite to play for sure, and I can't wait to get better with him and buff everyone I play with. 

Stray Thoughts and a Wishlist

I wanna close with just a few random notions about the game as a whole, and then give a small character wishlist for shits and giggles.

+I didn't really talk about Summons, but they're also more important than a lot of people realize. Getting them and capitalizing on them is gonna be a big deal. I heard Ramuh is actually really strong in the meta but people weren't letting me pick him.

+ Communication is super important amongst teammates, so voice chat seems like a must. I'm curious how Japanese Arcade players are so coordinated if they aren't side by side.

+ Hopefully the full game has different online modes so you aren't ever stuck going against pre-made groups with a random group. You'd get slaughtered. There should be ranked PUG modes and ranked pre-made modes, imo.

+I hope there's an option to make matches longer. A 2/3 set or something would be cool, since games ending in 45 seconds is a bit of a bummer, and longer sets would let people adjust and learn.

+I neeeeed a practice mode or I won't be able to play Squall well.

+I'm also interested in playing Emperor, Firion, and Jecht in the full game. Maybe others.

+I'd buy all the DLC I could afford for this game.

+NT is really pretty, and very accessible, and I think a lot of people will find something to like.

+I got to like....Silver D or C rank before the beta ended. Like I said I didn't play a TON...

+Top 5 Characters I'd Like to See+

5.  Fran, or any ranged non-mage.

4. Aeris, or any dedicated white mage/healer (Rosa, FF1 White Mage)

3. Anyone from Final Fantasy IX

2. Zell Dincht, or any "Monk" (Tifa, Sabin, Amarant, FF1 Black Belt)

1. GAU

That's all, thanks for reading!

Chaos Sucks, Act II: Not so Fast, Lizard Man!!

Looks like we've got a series on our hands. Ok, so, last time we talked about Chaos himself and all the problems surrounding his normals, his force function, etc. That was a start, but since Chaos is a "puppet" character (possibly worst in THE HISTORY) his own diminutive body and tiny punches only tell half the story.

Azhi (Dahaka?), Chaos' lizard-dragon-devil-monster companion, makes up the other half of the character. In reality, all of Chaos' special moves are carried out by Lizard. Chaos can only flail about and throw his book if Lizard is incapacitated or otherwise unavailable. That means Lizard, and mastering the use of him, is possibly the most important part of Chaos gameplay.

Uh....sure. That's him. 

Before we talk further, though, we need to talk a bit about how Lizard works mechanically, since I've played a lot of people who yell things like "WAIT WHY CAN'T A HIT HIM" or "THE LIZARD IS OP WTF!?" and I think there's some real misunderstanding about our cuddly friend.

Lizard has numerous lunging attacks, a leaping tail swipe, an angled aerial fireball, and a "hide" ability where he disappears and attempts to ambush the opponent from a shadow on the floor. Each technique has a super version with different applications and utility purposes. Holding any attack button down will cause Lizard to walk forward, stalking the opponent. Release the button and Lizard will moonwalk back towards Chaos.

When neutral or just walking around, Lizard is invulnerable to attacks, a surprisingly good attribute, considering how badly French Bread seemed to want to doom Chaos. The only time opponents can hit Lizard is during the active or recovery frames of his attacks. If he's hit, Lizard will disappear in a puff of smoke and be unavailable for a short time.

As minions go in 2D fighters, he's very straightforward and simple, and that's not a cut against him. It allows for creativity with the basics and encourages solid play over gimmicks, which I appreciate. However, Lizard is still very weak. 

There are much better Pokemon out there.

Joking aside, why is he weak? Let's find out, Mr. Owl.

HE LOSES TO, LIKE, EVERYTHING

Like I said above, the only time Lizard can be hit is during the active and recovery frames of his attacks. This can be cool, but he runs into issues where his attacks will flat-out lose to most other moves in the game in the event of a trade. I was going to give examples of characters who can attack Lizard while he's attacking and win, but I quickly realized it's nearly the entire cast. Certain characters can just mash their biggest attacks at a distance, or mash 2A up close, and watch Lizard get poked and run away. His attack startup is surprisingly long on a lot of moves, and once players figure out the timing on hitting him and scaring him away, Lizard becomes harder and harder to pressure with successfully.

Once he has the first contact, Lizard can cancel his moves into each other for decent pressure, but achieving that first strike can be difficult when a gust of wind blows him off screen. Try lunging at Yuzu from a distance, I dare you.

THERE'S NO WAY TO SAFELY SUMMON HIM BACK

Once Lizard is gone, you'll obviously want him back as soon as possible because it's dangerous to go alone, and wild Pokemon lurk in tall grass. For some reason, though, there's no way to simply call him back to your side (something characters like Carl and Relius Clover can do with ease). Summoning Lizard back into our world requires inputting a special attack...see where we're heading with this?

Attacking always carries a very real risk with it, since any errant blow from the enemy can send Lizard right back to the void. Even worse, randomly attacking and missing your mark can leave you terribly defenseless as Lizard sails through the air and you're getting your lunch money stolen.

The best way to bring Lizard back, or at least the safest, seems to be using 22A; the light version of "Hide". He quickly dives into the shadows and pops back out, so it's almost like calling him to you. Unfortunately he has a long recovery animation after biting, so savvy players will just hit him then.

Why there's no way to simply re-summon Lizard is a complete mystery to me. Chaos gets a rare bit of intimidation just by having the silly monster on the screen and able to walk around freely. With him gone and only risky options available for bringing him back, strong characters are just given even more license to disrespect Chaos.

WHAT'S A MIXUP? WHAT'S OKIZEME?

Do you know what these terms mean? Your lizard pal sure doesn't. A lot of the time, puppet characters are able to set up terrifying mixup situations by attacking on different levels and multiple angles simultaneously. Zato/Eddie, Carl/Ada, and Ken/Koromaru are all scary as puppeteers because they can apply frightening offense that's hard to survive simply by blocking.

Chaos and Azhi cannot accomplish this. Though they can create extended blockstrings and some frame traps through clever use of alternating attacks, Lizard doesn't have an overhead attack, and he doesn't have a low. Chaos can jump in or sweep, but both are easy enough to stop simply because Lizard isn't going to make you think of blocking in a different way.

Crossing up and putting foes in a pincer has similar problems. You CAN get people sandwiched, but it can be difficult to set up, and it's easy to block. Chaos' roll force function can't really be performed while Azhi is attacking (unless you use Hide) so set ups can feel very limited. Lizard doesn't need overwhelming mixups and unblockables like Zato/Eddie...

Not that we'd mind...

But simply having an overhead or something to make people watch their dome would be nice.

Similarly, Lizard and Chaos struggle to set up solid okizeme situations. Outside of the corner it's tough to get a FULL combo into a knockdown. You're almost always choosing between damage and (usually) very light fireball Oki. You can also do some things with 2C xx Hide, but it's rarely something that will make people think. Chaos damage isn't that high to begin with, and sacrificing 1,000 damage or more just to get another mixup feels like a pretty lame trade when you see Gordeau rattle off 3500 like it's nothing. Pink grabbing people amidst fireball pressure IS funny, but it's far from a top level tactic.

These are the big issues. There may be more problems with Lizard, but these are what I'd like to see addressed in any future updates or sequels. He doesn't need to be broken, he just needs to be a little better to help balance his perfectly fair faults that much more.

Or he can just Digivolve, I don't really care.

Chaos Sucks, Act 1: Put Your Grasses On

Let's try to get right into this without my usual long-winded introductory paragraphs. I play Chaos in Uniel. He sucks. He is probably the worst character in the game. Let's talk about why, let's figure out what should be done about it, and let's all cry when everyone beats us up.

All day, every day.

So the first thing we're gonna do today is analyze why Chaos sucks and establish just how badly he sucks. However, before all that, we need to talk a bit about Uniel as a game so we can further understand just how inadequate and undeveloped Chaos is as a character.

Uniel likes to flit about showing off its hot bod like it's a real anime game, but do not let the pretty hand-drawn anime sprites fool you, this bitch doesn't want you to have much freedom. In reality, Uniel is much more about spacing and frame traps (and endless block strings) than it is about rushing shit down and mixing shit up. Every good character has enormous attacks and solid (if seeable) mixup tools, be they overheads or command grabs. It's a game with huge attacks. That's the most important thing to know.

Right, so, ok....why Chaos sucks and is sitting ugly at the bottom of the tier list. Let's go.

THE OBVIOUS REASON

+No unique reversal move of any kind. This is the first, and possibly biggest, reason a lot of people would throw Chaos into the garbage without a second thought. In a game where dragon-punching your way out of a bad situation can sometimes be your best (only?) hope, Chaos has zero invincible or armored attacks. If you've got him pinned down he's pinned down, and you can punch and kick him with relatively little worry. Nobody needs to respect him. Not even Akatsuki.

Yes? Hello there.

Not even Akatsuki!! And he has to respect everyone! Because he sucks, too! But not as bad as Chaos! Here's the thing, though: not having a DP really isn't that big a deal. There are still universal system mechanics like Veil Off and Chain Shift to help you out of awful situations if you're smart about them, and you're gonna be getting killed so much you'll have just about as many chances to use them as you would a normal DP, so whatever.
Verdict: Whatever, plenty of characters in plenty of games don't have DPs. They do alright.

THE REAL SHIT

Bam. Alright, with that nonsense out of our way let's press on to some other business. Looking over Chaos' moveset (particularly meaning his normals, here) one can begin to really see where the young Harry Pottermon Trainer starts to unravel at the seams like a poorly constructed sock puppet. His normals are mostly crap, and even the good ones can barely do what they need to for him to fight successfully.

The only normal Chaos possesses that is remotely good for spacing is his sweep (2C). It's actually a pretty good move. Starts combos, hits low, and covers a good amount of space. The problem is that nearly every other character can control the same space with faster, BIGGER moves. So, hey, Chaos, you lose this round. SORRY.

Every other normal suffers from the same problems, except they're aggravated to a more ruinous degree. 2A has pathetic range, and is slower than a truckload of other 2As in the game, so if you try to mash out you're probably gonna die. Since your normals all suck, this means that even if you're awesome and block for days and true shield all sorts of stuff, you're still probably gonna get whacked when you inevitably HAVE to press a button or face holding down-back for 90 seconds straight. Chaos has stubby arms and legs that need to be just a little bit longer or a little bit faster. 2C is ok, though, I guess...

BUT WHAT ABOUT FORCE FUNCTION!?

Right, so, Chaos' Force Function is a forward-moving dodge roll. If French Bread were a just and fair God, this roll would have invincibility on startup, be throwable, and have recovery at the end. It would work exactly like the universal rolls in King of Fighters games. That's...almost how the roll works. All of that except the whole "invincible on startup" deal. Typically, trying to roll through well-placed attacks will get Chaos murdered. He can sometimes gamble on a roll and manage to escape pressure or close some distance, but it's a serious risk due to all the vulnerability the move brings with it. Please French Bread, please...give this damn roll startup invincibility. Make it a KoF roll. I'm begging. As is, this move just does not work like it should.

WHAT'S AN ANTI-AIR?

Moving on, we discover that Chaos does not possess any worthwhile anti-air attack options. Here, let the Mizuumi wiki tell you: "Chaos has the weakest anti air capabilities in the game, not only lacking a reversal or move with head invincibility, but lacking a one button move that even has an upwards hitting hitbox like Byakuya's 5B" See? Not just me. His one move that looks like it might work is his dashing B attack, but the input is too awkward, the hitbox not good enough, and any upper-body invulnerability missing altogether. Chaos' best bet is to pre-emptively zone airborne foes with his 6C or Lizard attacks, but those carry their own risks and are absolutely worthless once foes close in. The best solution is to change 66B's input to something like 6B or (preferably) 3B. Give it upper-body invuln. and make it work exactly like a 6P does in Guilty Gear. Chaos would become so much better with just this little tweak. And speaking of 6C...

LET'S TALK ABOUT 6C

I didn't mention it when discussing normals above, but 6C is one of Chaos' better attacks. Plus it's technically a command normal, so we're gonna talk about it separately. It shoots a magical barrier forward a little ways in front of Chaos. If it hits an enemy, they go flying across the screen and you can actually score a combo by rolling quickly enough. It's not bad! It also reflects projectiles, which increases the attack's range!

OK, so what's the catch? 6C doesn't actually become active until Chaos' thrown book (the source of the barrier) is a short distance away from his hand. What this means is that there is a dead zone between Chaos soft, squishy body and the projectile where nothing will hit an encroaching opponent. This neuters the move in ways that are easy enough to imagine.

It's horrible.

Let's say our dear friend Akatsuki is rushing towards you. The poor guy, it's all he can do, really! His arms are small too! You think "Hey! My magical barrier will show him!" and you hit 6C. Just then, Akatsuki assaults and sails into the dead zone. Magic bursts into existence from nothing behind him, and it is spectacular, but he doesn't care or notice because he's too busy breaking the nice glasses Mom bought you with his fists. This happens constantly, and it renders one of your finer zoning tools far, FAR less useful because, again, it carries much more risk with it than you'd like.

One could argue this is just another facet of learning the character, of mastering the spacing required to be a Pokemon Master. And if Chaos had more redeeming qualities they might just be right. But this is a game where top tier characters can reduce you to nothingness from full-screen. If Chaos wants to throw a magic barrier out, the goddamn thing should become active as soon as it leaves his hands. Let it stay super vulnerable on whiff, let it have the same startup, let it keep every other property it has but dear GOD, Garlic Jr., close that dead zone for good so people can stop assaulting past Chamber of Secrets when I throw it at their heads.

MOVING ON...

We're approaching the end of this Act, so bear with me just a little bit longer. Assault j.2C. It's a good enough move, and it's about all you're gonna get in the overhead department to start a combo. You can get a juggle and stuff from it. Unfortunately, using an assault creates some weird hit-stun, and you'll often be forced to end your combo prematurely to set up an okizeme situation. This isn't the worst thing in the world, but would it be so wrong to get a FULL combo from an assault? I don't think it would.

Anyways, that about covers everything for why Chaos sucks! I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope it taught you to never respect Chaos no matter how many times Gordeau tries to tell you he's tough! Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something, though...

Their souls! You forgot to feed me their souls!

Oh, right, THE LIZARD. The most important aspect of Chaos' entire gameplay. I've got plenty to say about our dear, monstrous friend, so we'll cover that in Act 2. Bye.

Complete KoF Timeline: How SNK Should Retcon Things to Unify their Fighting Game Universe



When story in videogames is brought up in conversation, people will typically turn to the epic sagas of single-player games with long, fleshed-out campaigns. Your Final Fantasies, Mass Effects, Metal Gears, and so on. Games where the primary focus is on the player vs. the game itself, and one of the biggest draws is the unraveling of an epic yarn.

Often omitted from such discussions of spellbinding storylines are the plots and backstories of fighting games...and for good reason, really. While Metal Gear Solid as a series is an intensely story driven game (to the point where it's accused of being more movie than game) with countless twists and revelations every ten minutes, games like Street Fighter or Tekken treat the storylines of various characters as an afterthought. The story is there to set up the action, typically a fighting tournament, and give it a fitting resolution. Stories involve such martial arts movie tropes as revenge, honor, and being the number one man.

Still, this is not to say there is nothing positive about the stories of the genre. Since characters in fighters must be colorful and interesting in order for us to want to play as them, we are often presented with massive casts with myriad, often overlapping, backstories. Character X killed Character Y who was Character Z's father, but Character Z is friends with Character A who learned from Character B who now works for Character X, whose brother just so happens to be Character Q. It makes for an interesting "universe" setup where the viewers are given but small glimpses into any concrete happenings other than "This is how we got here" and "This is how it ended up". Stories are very rarely shown on screen, with most backstory told in brief still-image cutscenes or, better yet, the game manual itself. The player must fill in the blanks of this character's life, taking tips from their playstyle or character bio (Favorite food, Hobbies, and more are routinely listed) in order to reach a fuller understanding of the character. Not at all like watching ten hours of cutscenes.

While there are several fighting games with intriguing and mysterious universes to analyze and explore, for my money none is more interesting than the multi-game, multi-genre spanning universe brought to us by Japanese game company SNK. Yes, Street Fighter, Tekken, Guilty Gear, and others have fascinating stories of similar fashion. There's no denying that. What makes the plot of the SNK universe so interesting and appealing to me is the way that almost every fighting game produced by the company can potentially be woven together into one ongoing story within the same fictional SNK-verse.

This concept is nothing new, and is something that SNK has openly promoted since Geese Howard appeared in Art of Fighting 2. Of course the ball really started rolling when The King of Fighters '94 was released, featuring fighters from all manner of different games, including sports games, sidescrolling shooters, fighting games, and bizarre arcade platformers like Psycho Soldier.

The King of Fighters series has only expanded since '94, and today incorporates dozens of characters from perhaps close to a dozen different franchises. I say perhaps because I just don't have the time to check that claim. What I'd like to do today is showcase and illustrate just how interconnected the majority of SNK fighters are by establishing a solid timeline of the games' events.

This too is nothing new, and an SNK timeline has been established before here: http://meh.brpxqzme.net/timeline.html The author of that piece posits that the only games that can be definitively linked to one another are The Last Blade, Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, and strangely enough Savage Reign/Kizuna Encounter. The author claims that other series such as Samurai Showdown, Buriki One, and especially King of Fighters create too many contradictions and plot holes to properly integrate and must be treated as part of a separate timeline.

I take issue with that assertion, and so today I'm going to attempt to show how through a series of almost-established retcons and a few liberties, SNK could very easily realign their entire fighting universe to neatly fit into one solid timeline with the KoF series as the base reference point. Let's get nerdy.

For starters, I'll establish a few ground rules and explain the key changes that must be made (or confirmed) in order for this crazy unification scheme to work.


1. Each game, KoF included, takes place during a different year
For its first ten games, King of Fighters utilized a unique naming scheme that likened it to sport simulators by using the year of production in place of a numeral. For example, the second King of Fighters was called The King of Fighters '95, not The King of Fighters 2. Using this as a standard, we can determine when exactly every KoF game takes place, starting in 1994 with the original. Things get fuzzy after 2003, when the series switched over to numbering its sequels instead, but the same rule can apply. Basically: KoF11 takes place in 2004, while KoF13 takes place in 2005. KoF12 had no story and sucked, so we can basically say it never happened and place 13 in 2005.

This same logic should then be lifted and applied to the Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury series. Now, Fatal Fury 1 already canonically takes place in 1991. This allows room for its two numerical sequels to take place in 1992 and 1993, finishing Terry's story just in time for KoF '94. Strangely enough, Art of Fighting 1 takes place in 1978 for some bizarre reason. This would put Art of Fighting 3 in 1981, a full thirteen years removed from KoF, which is far too many for this to work. As a result, we should instead consider that...

2. Art of Fighting 1 takes place in 1988

Honestly, there is ZERO reason for AoF to have taken place in 1978. Zero. It just makes no sense. The first game was released in 1992, a full 14 years after the setting of the game. Nothing in the game requires it to take place in '78, and I feel that the later changing of characters' birthdays reflects that SNK at least considered a retcon to this, moving Ryo's year of birth from 1957 to 1967 so that he wouldn't be old as dirt in Buriki One, which takes place in 1999. Moving the action forward ten years to 1988 and following our first rule allows Art of Fighting 3 to finish sometime during 1990, right before Terry's story begins in 1991.

By moving AoF forward ten years, we must also adjust the birthdays of all the characters in that series as necessary, especially those characters that appear as far in the "future" as KoF13 (2005). For example, Ryo's father Takuma should now be born in 1944 instead of 1933. Playing with and retconning ages becomes important for multiple characters if they are to make sense in established and future releases. Hence, we go to...

3. 18 is the Age of the Hero

In SNK fighters, there are three primary heroes who could be considered a sort of "big three": Ryo Sakazaki, Terry Bogard, and Kyo Kusanagi. While the KoF series would see new protagonists in K' and Ash Crimson in later years, it's hard to deny Kyo as KoF's main character. In the canon of all three key series (AoF, FF, KoF) the characters are the following ages at their debut.
Ryo- 21
Terry- 20
Kyo- 19
While it's interesting to note that they each debuted one year younger than their predecessor, it's important to see that these ages make each character a bit long in the tooth by the time 2005 would roll around. Like so.
Ryo- 38
Terry- 35
Kyo- 30 (!!!)

These ages, particularly Kyo's, are just too old to make sense in KoF13. While Terry and Ryo are certainly in their 30s by then, I wouldn't consider Ryo to be pushing 40, and Kyo is just too youthful looking to be any older than 29 (his age by my new, retconned birthdays).

So, in order to counter these bizarre ages, let us instead declare that each character was 18 at the time of their debut. This means Ryo was born in 1970, Terry in 1973, and Kyo in 1976. Characters with birthdays close to theirs should also subtract the necessary number of years. AoF characters like Robert and King get three years younger, Fatal Fury characters lose 2 years, and KoF characters lose 1 (or 2, if desired).

With this principle, we can also comfortably decide that K' is 18 years old when he appears in KoF'99, making him 24 in KoF13. Still, at the very youngest he's 16 at his debut and 22 in 2005, which is perfectly acceptable.

Interestingly enough, Rock Howard is 17 in Garou, but if made the hero of the next KoF game would also be 18.

The only other age anomalies in KoF '94 who are not adjusted by their relation to these three heroes are the Ikari Warriors: Ralf and Clark. Their given ages are 38 and 33, respectively, which makes at least Ralf old as dirt by the time 2005 rolls around. Instead, they should both be retconned to be in their early 30s during '94, which allows them to be rugged and middle-aged by 2005 instead of old. Oh yeah, there's also the problem of...



4. The Yuri Sakazaki Dilemma (and other "young" girls)
One of the most common "jokes" amongst SNK fandom is that while she appears to be around 17 years old, Yuri Sakazaki is actually pushing 40. This is often seen as one of the most glaring problems of including AoF and KoF in the same timeline without considering one to be an alternate universe. Now, we've already removed 10 years from Yuri's age by retconning AoF1 to take place in 1988. With that in mind, we see the following scenarios with her age.
AoF1 (1988)- 17 years old
KoF94 (1994)- 23 years old
KoF13 (2005)- 34 years old
Now make no mistake, 34 really isn't THAT old. However, it does seem a bit much in comparison to most of the cast, especially considering how young Yuri looks compared to other females she should actually be older than. Plus, 17 just seems awfully old for her to be completely helpless and kidnapped by Mr. Big in AoF1. Thankfully, by applying the three year subtraction to her like we did with Ryo, we're left with a Yuri that is 14 years old when abducted in 1988...if not younger. This means by the time KoF rolls around she's only around 20...the exact age she's officially listed as in KoF-centric materials. Eleven years later in KoF13 she would be 31, still plenty young and beautiful, particularly if we compare her to current actresses around that age. It really isn't unheard of for her to look like she does.

Other key Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury females are saved from aging in a similar manner. The age subtraction method sets it up so that by 2005, Mai Shiranui and her legendary cleavage have just hit 30, while the less provocative King is a respectable 34...perfect for finally getting hitched to Ryo. Finally there's Blue Mary...who after losing 2 years is 21 and able to drink in 1994, making her 33 as of her "latest" cameo appearance in Garou (2006).

Females who appear exclusively in KoF do not need to have their ages adjusted at all, though Athena could handle having a year or two removed to make her schoolgirl attire a bit more believable in later games, even if Kyo already makes fun of her for it.

5. The Life and Times of Geese Howard

One of SNK's most iconic villains, Geese Howard plays a major antagonistic role in all three of the key series discussed here. He is the man behind the man in Art of Fighting, and the final boss in Art of Fighting 2. He's Terry's greatest enemy and the man who killed his adoptive father in Fatal Fury. He practically invented the King of Fighters tournaments, and is constantly scheming behind the scenes and watching over things like the Orochi power. Plus, he's Rock Howard's daddy.

Geese and his constant evildoing and even more constant dying and resurrecting would first seem to create several plotholes in our big timeline. After all, he appears, super young, as the boss of Art of Fighting 2 and as his normal middle-aged self in Fatal Fury...and supposedly he visited Japan somewhere in between. Not to mention he's dead in Fatal Fury and alive in King of Fighters.

Well, again, moving AoF forward in time has a wonderfully coincidental way of making things work out for the best. The timeline later will showcase Geese's actions more clearly, but dig this, alright? Rock Howard is 17 years old in 2006, which means he is born in 1989. He never knew his father, Geese, because Papa Howard abandoned Rock's mother after he was born....in 1989. Art of Fighting 2, after our retcon time move, takes place...in 1989. Ryo Sakazaki defeats Geese Howard, who flees from Southtown (supposedly to Japan)....IN 1989. Ryo is potentially directly responsible for the absence of Rock's father, and everything that goes along with it.

Now, Geese is said to have fled from Southtown following AoF2 and gone to Japan. It's likely he would make a return to town sometime in 1990 after healing and training. In 1990, Ryo and Yuri were in Mexico helping Robert in the events of Art of Fighting 3, so Geese would easily be able to resume control of the underground with no heroes to stop him....right in time to host the KoF tournament in 1991 and lose to Terry.

Finally, note that Geese still kills Jeff Bogard in 1981. The only difference is that everyone involved (Terry, Andy, Geese) are younger. Jeff and Tung Fu Rue could still be the same age.

The only remaining anomalies with Geese’s personal timeline involve his status as living or dead in the two series (alive in KoF, dead in Garou) and the events of Real Bout Fatal Fury (FF4) in the timeline. I’ll be addressing both of these issues in part 7.

6. Buriki One, KoF '99, and Mr. Karate II Issues

One of the more minor hiccups in this unification of timelines involves the lesser-know game Buriki One, in which Ryo Sakazaki makes a cameo appearance. He appears older than in KoF games and is called Mr. Karate II, a play on his father Takuma's secret identity as Mr. Karate.

The Buriki One tournament also takes place in 1999, which would seem to overlap with KoF'99, where Ryo also participated. The "older" Ryo and year of the tournament would seem to indicate that something is amiss, but these issues too can be easily resolved. For starters, Buriki One officially retconned Ryo's birth year to 1967, making him 32 at the time...already 10 years younger than his Art of Fighting birthday. If we go a step further and use our new birth year of 1970, we're left with a Ryo that was 29 in 1999.

Now, Ryo is considered to look "older" because he's sporting some facial hair and the Mr. Karate II title. There's no reason to believe someone as rugged as Ryo would be incapable of growing facial hair at 29, and there's also no reason that being Mr. Karate has to be a permanent change. Both of these "aged" features could simply be Ryo trying something new. Maybe he wanted to keep his identity more secretive for this tournament, so he entered as Mr. K. The facial hair is also explicitly brought up in B1's story, with Ryo wondering if he should shave it, since his friends and family complain about it.

Ryo is clean-shaven in KoF'99.

This would indicate that the KoF tournament takes place later in the year, presumably closer to the end of the year. Obviously he decided to finally shave the facial hair and enter KoF under his real name, as per tradition. Whether or not Ryo won the Buriki One tournament is unknown, but there's a good chance he did. If not, Gai Tendo was probably the winner, though this isn't really important.

One final plot point involving Ryo takes place in Garou: Mark of the Wolves where Kyokugen fighter Khushnood Butt states that Ryo has retired to the mountains to live as an ascetic and train. This would create a problem if SNK had shown us anything that happens after 2005 yet. As far as the KoF series is concerned, there is no reason Ryo can't be training in the mountains following the events of KoF13. For all we know he'll change his mind in 2007 and return to the tournament. Possibly with the Mr. Karate 2 persona intact.

7. Real Bout Repurcussions

I said earlier that the last remaining problem with Geese’s personal timeline involves the events of Real Bout Fatal Fury and his final defeat and “death” at the hands of Terry Bogard. Initially, I had planned to address this by claiming Real Bout took place near the end of 1993, not 1996 as the other timeline indicates. However, it would also be possible to retcon the events of FF4 so that they coincide with KoF96 properly.
In both timelines, 1996 marks Geese’s last official tournament appearance. Though he appears in later KoF games, he is only playable in the dream match installments of ’98 and 2k2; neither of which have actual stories. 1996 is also listed as the year Rock Howard visits Geese and yells at him or whatever.

If we want to accept both the events of KoF’96 and Real Bout as happening in ’96, we have to address that there should not have been two tournaments in the same year, hence the apparent plothole. There are a few ways to look at this. Either…

A-    Geese’s tournament in Real Bout was not actually a King of Fighters tournament, but something else. Garou featured the Maximum Mayhem tournament, and it is possible this was the tournament’s predecessor ten years earlier. This tournament is held at the end of the year, after Geese and the rest of the cast enter KoF’96 and Kyo fights Goenitz. Terry defeats Geese here once and for all. Alternatively…

B-    The events of Real Bout and KoF’96 are concurrent, and Geese never really hosted the tournament. Any Real Bout characters not present in KoF could be handwaved as having failed to make it past preliminaries. Terry fights and defeats Geese at the same tournament where Kyo defeats Goenitz.

Neither explanation is perfect, and both require some degree of real retconning by SNK, but neither is an overwhelming stretch. Like a lot of the proposed changes, this is something SNK could believably pull if they wanted to.

8. Mark of the Wolves and Onward

This section might not be necessary, but I think it bears mentioning that following the conclusion of the NESTS Arc (1999-2001) SNK began to drop more and more bits of story that related to Mark of the Wolves. Characters like Gato, Tizoc, and B.Jenet are playable in 2003 and XI, while Andy is mentioned as missing a KoF tournament because Hokutomaru is sick, Ryo states that Butt is a green belt, and Terry sports his Mark of the Wolves attire in 2003 and 2004. With the Ash Saga ending in 2005, the slate is clean in time for Rock, the Kim twins, and the newly Black Belt Butt to make their big debuts in Garou in 2006, and for the story to continue on in KoF14 (2007).

9. Maximum Impact Series

These games and their events simply did not happen, and are not canon. At best, they can be treated like an OVA or alternate universe to the main KoF/SNK timeline. The same can be said of any bizarre spinoff like the GBA KoF titles or other expanded universe games.




Without further ado, here is the timeline as best as I can currently revise and see it.

1786-1811: The events of the Samurai Shodown series take place. Since these games have a ton of established lore on their own, we'll leave it at that. Mai's ancestor Gen-An participates in some of these things.

1863-64: The events of Last Blade. Eiji Kisaragi's ancestor Zantetsu takes part. The Bakumatsu rages.

-TIME SKIP!-

1944: Takuma Sakazaki and Saisyu Kusanagi are born.

1954: Geese Howard is born.

1960: Wolfgang Krauser is born.

1964-1969: These five years can be assumed to be Takuma's "glory days" which he spends fighting the notable martial artists of the time and developing Kyokugen Karate, much like his real-life inspiration Mas Oyama. Confirmed to have defeated Ryuhaku Todo and to have at least fought the sennin Li Gakusei. Probably encountered Saisyu in his travels. NOTE: This would be an awesome period for SNK to explore in a new series, where we could see young versions of older fighters and their glory days in the wild '60s. Geese travels to Europe and loses a fight against the 9-year-old Wolfgang Krauser.

1970: Ryo Sakazaki is born to Takuma and his wife. Robert Garcia is born.

1973: Terry Bogard is born.

1974: Andy Bogard and Yuri Sakazaki are born.

1976: Kyo Kusanagi is born. It can be assumed Iori Yagami is born around this time, possibly as early as 1975.

1977-1979: Around this time it can be assumed that all the major heroes and villains of the next two decades are steeped in training and other unknown battles. Takuma is in his 30s, Ryo and Robert are nearly 10, Terry, Andy, and Yuri are 5-6, Kyo and Iori are toddlers. Geese is 24 in 1979.

1980: Ronette Sakazaki dies in a car accident, Takuma leaves home on the pretext of vengeance. Ryo is 10, Yuri is 6.

1981: Geese Howard kills Jeff Bogard, orphaning Terry and Andy, who at an unknown time embark on training journeys despite being REALLY young.

1982: Gai Tendo is born.

1981-1983: Somewhere within this span, the boy who becomes K' is born.

1987: Ash Crimson is born?

1988: Yuri Sakazaki is kidnapped. Art of Fighting 1 takes place. Ryo and Robert defeat Mr. Big, his syndicate, and Mr. Karate, who is revealed to be Takuma. Sakazaki family is reunited.

1989: Geese hosts the first recorded KoF tournament, and is defeated and driven from Southtown by Ryo. Rock Howard is born and abandoned by his father, which is further compounded when Geese flees town.

1990: Ryo and Yuri go to Mexico to help Robert (Art of Fighting 3). After spending time in Japan (training?), Geese returns to Southtown and assumes control of the underworld near the end of the year.

1991: Terry Bogard, along with his brother Andy and friend Joe Higashi, enter the latest King of Fighters tournament and defeat Geese Howard, supposedly killing him. Fatal Fury 1. Kyo Kusanagi becomes the head of the Kusanagi clan at age 15.

1992: Fatal Fury 2. Terry and friends defeat Wolfgang Krauser.

1993: Fatal Fury 3 and Real Bout Fatal Fury potentially both take place this year.

1994: The King of Fighters '94. Rugal Bernstein hosts. Kyo, Benimaru Nikaido, and Goro Daimon defeat him. Rugal self-destructs his airship and is presumed dead.

1995: KoF'95. Rugal returns as host and Iori Yagami makes his KoF debut. Rugal powers up but is defeated by Team Japan yet again. Rugal attempts to unleash his full strength but cannot handle the strain of his power and is killed for good.

1996: KoF '96/Real Bout Fatal Fury(possibly, see Section 7 above). Prior to the tournament, Kyo is defeated by Leopold Goenitz. He devises new punching techniques following the defeat in hopes of becoming stronger. Geese, Krauser, and Mr. Big enter the tournament, though their placement is unknown. Kyo eventually becomes the champion after defeating Goenitz with the help of Iori and Chizuru Kagura. Goenitz commits suicide after his defeat.

1997: KoF '97. Chris, Shermie, and Yashiro enter as the New Face team to get revenge on Iori and are revealed to be servants of Orochi. Kyo, again with help from Iori and Chizuru, is able to defeat them and ultimately put a stop to Orochi. Orochi Saga thus ends.

1998: There is no tournament this year. It could be assumed that Kyo is abducted and experimented on by the NESTS syndicate. Kyo clones are created, and K' is infused with Kyo's DNA.

1999: Spring: The Buriki One tournament is held. 29-year-old Ryo Sakazaki and 18-year-old Gai Tendo participate. The winner of the tournament is unknown.
Late '99: KoF '99 takes place. K' and his partner Maxima join with Benimaru and Shingo to defeat Krizalid and thwart NESTS schemes.

2000: KoF2K is held. K' and his team track down and defeat the evil “Zero”, a former member of NESTS. The Zero Cannon is fired and destroys Southtown, but is in turn destroyed by Kula Diamond and her team. K' and Maxima spend the rest of the year attacking NESTS bases across the globe.

2001: NESTS Cartel hosts the 2001 tournament in order to eliminate all of their enemies at once. K', Maxima, Lin, and Whip reach the finals and defeat Original Zero and NESTS true leader, Igniz, who wished to become a god. K' saves Kula and she joins the group. Kyo, Benimaru, Daimon, and Shingo enter as Team Japan but apparently do not reach the finals.

2002: There is no tournament again this year. Kyo has still not graduated high school. :)

2003: KoF2k3. At the request of Chizuru, Kyo and Iori team up to investigate mysterious happenings regarding Orochi. Dubbing themselves "Team Sacred Treasures" they reach the finals and defeat the monstrous Mukai. In the aftermath of the fight, Ash Crimson ambushes them and steals Chizuru's powers. He escapes, taunting that Iori will be next. 2k3 marks the first appearance of Ash, Shen-woo, and Duo Lon.

2004: KoF11. Kyo, Iori, and Shingo team up to take down Ash, who steals Iori's flames at the end of the tournament. Elizabeth Blanctorch, Benimaru, and Duo Lon also team up. Shen-woo and Oswald fight to an unknown outcome. Magaki is slain by Shion following his battle with Kyo’s team. Before losing his flames to Ash, Iori falls into a Riot of the Blood fit and badly injures Kyo and Shingo, hospitalizing them both.

2005: KoF13. Several classic teams reunite to find and defeat Ash and “Those From the Past”. At the tournament’s climax, Ash erases his evil ancestor, Saiki, from history. Ash, in turn, disappears from existence. Iori regains his flames and begins to fight with Kyo. Hoahmaru’s ghost appears on a statue in Tokyo. J

2006: Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Rock Howard and Terry Bogard enter the Maximum Mayhem tournament in Second Southtown, hosted by the mysterious Kain. Rock leaves with Kain after the latter is revealed to be his uncle and alludes that Rock’s mother is alive.

2007: The setting for any future KoF game. Could potentially start a completely new story or continue Rock’s story from Garou.

Which brings us to the end, I suppose. Please keep in mind that almost nothing you’ve just read through is considered to be valid SNK canon at this time, but is instead merely showcasing just how with a few simple retcons and changes the company might be able to completely unify their games and proceed with any character arcs with the KoF series as the focal point. For my money, this is the actual canon I want to believe in.

I hope you enjoyed this or found it useful. If nothing else, maybe it will help people to appreciate the depth and scope of the SNK fighting game universe.



Retrospective JRPG Countdown: #8- Final Fantasy IV

My first exposure to RPGs came in the form of a Final Fantasy VIII demo that existed, bizarrely, on a demo disc a friend of mine obtained from Pizza Hut of all places. Yes. Pizza Hut. It's crazy, I know. I played it and was blown away not only by the visuals, story, and character designs...but even moreso that games like this existed. It was a surreal experience I'll talk about more in depth later, in a certain other game's entry.

Now, this demo only covered a very brief portion of FF8, and without the money (I was 11, for God's sake) to buy a full copy of the game, I was forced to turn to other places to satisfy my newfound RPG cravings. This is where wacky coincidences start to come into play.

Somewhere in the months before exposure to FF8, I came into possession of a shoebox full of SNES games a cousin of mine no longer wanted. He, in turn, had obtained them when another cousin, much older and wiser in the gaming world than us, had for some unknown reason given them away. The box contained a wondrous assortment of classics including Super Street Fighter II and Samurai Shodown. However, most important of all were the beautiful cartridges for Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III...those of course truly being the American versions of IV and VI, respectively.

Recognizing the franchise title with a mixture of bewilderment and frantic joy, I remember trying both games out in the same day. My older cousin had several advanced save files on both carts, and these I eagerly jumped to with absolutely no idea what the hell I was doing. I saw all sorts of colorful characters and beasts, and though I was initially moreso drawn to VI's higher quality visuals and varied cast, it was FF4 that eventually won the day in my heart, and I started a new game for it.

Right from the start, the game gripped me in that way that I think any nostalgic fan of the first ten Final Fantasy titles will perfectly understand. You're thrown right into the action following the protagonist, Dark Knight Cecil, as he flies about the sky commanding an airship, battling monsters, and for some unknown reason attacking what appears to be a harmless village and stealing what can no doubt be a magical crystal. All the while THIS music is playing.

That's all it took and I was sold, ready to follow Cecil and his badass-dragon-looking-buddy Kain on their adventure to take a package to a nearby village for some unknown reason. Now, of course, that is only the setup for what becomes a much more grandiose affair spanning three different worlds, but I was eleven and I had no idea what was coming.

If I had to pinpoint why FF4 captured my heart the way it did, I would want to say it's because while the game is alarmingly simple compared to future FFs, or even future ports of FF4, it is in a way the first Final Fantasy that I think really exemplifies what made the series so special for a time, albeit in its most simplistic form. Consider this my thesis statement or something.

First, take a look at FF4's hero, Cecil. Seen here in all his beautiful splendor as both a Dark Knight and a holy Paladin warrior.

Though he begins the game as a totally badass Dark Knight with menacing armor and an intimidating presence (for a 16-bit sprite) we quickly discover that Cecil may in fact be the first concrete instance of an effeminate Final Fantasy hero who is melancholic and taciturn all the while going about with enormous melee weapons stabbing freakish monsters in order to save the world. Before he even leaves the castle to go on his journey proper, Cecil is already bemoaning his actions as a Dark Knight and his inability to disobey what he feels are unjust orders, as they come from the King of Baron. We also see that he has an attractive female lead ready to throw herself at him, but he is, of course, not at all interested.

Now, I think this is important in the grand scheme of the series because it obviously establishes a pattern that, while often mocked today, was a huge departure from the norm for quite some time. Before Cecil, two out of three FF protagonists were faceless "Light Warriors" whose personalities were more or less defined by their Job Class and any imaginary roleplaying the player may have done. The only other named protagonist before Cecil is FF2's Firion, who as far as I can tell is a standard fantasy hero who tries to be courageous and chivalrous in his fight against an evil empire.

 

Even his Amano sketch is masculine.

Cecil's thoughtfulness and tortured moral stance help set him apart in a role that is generally occupied by hot-blooded, battle-hardened warriors or eager, plucky boy adventurers. He's seen some shit, and he's done some things he isn't proud of. His conflict between his conscience and his duty to the crown brings up some interesting questions, and really pulls us into the story. We want to follow Cecil and see where he takes this drama. We want to see him stand up for what he believes in and defy the king.

The rest of the cast is similarly colorful and memorable, each with their own small dramas that play out over the course of the rapidly escalating conflict between good and evil over the power of the ever-important crystals. These characters also each embody one of the FF series' classic jobs, from Monk to Mage to Dragoon, eschewing the job systems of earlier titles to give players a more simplistic, yet constantly changing, party of fighters.

Speaking of fighters, and in turn fighting, FF4 is also the first game in the series to introduce Active Time Battle, or ATB. Before FF4, battles were standard turn-based affairs where you chose everyone's moves and then things happened all in a row. ATB changed all of this by forcing players to make decisions on the fly as characters got their turns in real time, indicated by a small gauge next to their name. Enemies would not cease their attacks and wait for you to make your moves, so take too long and it would easily be game over.

"Hey guys, aren't we all just...beautiful?"

And those game overs would come a lot, too, depending on the version, because FF4 can be brutally difficult at times. Tons of enemies in the game, from lowly Needle Rats to mighty Behemoths, brought deadly counterattacks to the table, enabling them to attack out-of-turn if struck with the wrong move. This is introduced as early as the first boss fight, the Mist Dragon, where striking the creature while it is in "Mist" form causes a deadly counter that hits the entire party.

Between the newly implemented ATB and the extensive counterattacks from enemies, battles in FF4 became a fast-paced and tactical affair where you were constantly confirming the next healing spell or attack before your party dropped dead, but also trying to figure out the exact attacks to use that wouldn't get you murdered inside of two turns. Though it can be severely frustrating later in the game when enemy strength and difficulty suddenly ramp up, the battles feel rewarding and exciting in practice, and once you discover how an enemy fights it does get easier. ATB would of course remain in the series right up until FFX, though the rampant counterattacks would see considerable scaling back in future games.

Of course, it's hard to talk about battles without mentioning the skill system, and in that respect FF4...well, it doesn't really have a system, per se. Characters learn new spells as they level up, and that's about it. I think Edge and Tellah learn spells through a few mandatory story events, but other than that it's just leveling and learning. Similarly, other than one sword that involves a sidequest, all of your equipment is obtained either through treasure chests in dungeons or through shops in town. The best weapons in the game are all simply in treasure chests in the final dungeon, or guarded by bosses in that same place.

Under today's circumstances I might consider this simplicity a problem, but for the time and for the way the game plays out it works and makes sense from a design standpoint. FF4 is constantly shuffling characters in and out of your party with the one constant being Cecil, whose only change is transforming into a Paladin just a few hours into the game. There's little point in extensively customizing these characters' skillsets when they're just going to leave again in a few game hours to be replaced by a completely different class of character. While you are eventually left with the same five characters no matter what (outside of future ports) I like that there isn't much customizing or game breaking to be done with them. Being forced to work with what you're given makes the player learn the strengths and weaknesses of their final team, and you can then find and use the best strategies to win those fast-paced, counter-heavy battles.

Other than its bishounen characters, Final Fantasy is often lauded for Nobuo Uematsu's masterful soundtracks, and of course 4 doesn't disappoint there. From the opening scene with the theme of the Red Wings right up until the final battle the score almost never fails to impress and immerse, using that new-fangled SNES technology to produce sounds that are significantly more pleasant than 8-bit NES tunes.

One of three.

What else? Oh, how about the game featuring three entire world maps, which we touched upon earlier? Sure, the Underworld and Moon aren't exactly huge and overflowing with places to go, but they really add a sense of grandeur to the story. Players are also gifted with numerous means of transportation from a hovercraft early in the game to a damned spaceship by the end. The world(s) are also brimming with sidequests to undertake, which reward determined players with powerful weapons and summon magic...which I totally forgot about earlier. The final trek to find and defeat Bahamut and earn his summon is especially epic, as players fight through a lunar cave and down countless Behemoths before fighting the big dragon himself.

The story itself is, again, simplistic in its beauty. On the surface its a quest for magical crystals while fending off attacks from the big mean people. Lying just underneath all that is a plethora of betrayals, dramatic last stands, and familial reveals that (like the three worlds) help to give the simple good vs. evil plot the gravitas it needs to keep players hooked. That said, it's hard to feel surprised when your ninth friend heroically sacrifices themselves to save you. Spoilers?

Things get a bit odd towards the end as super-advanced technology starts to crop up in an otherwise entirely medieval universe, but I guess this is handwaved by the reveal of Moon people...as weird as that sounds. There's also the reveal of a new Big Bad in the 11th hour, but I guess that too has become a hallmark of the FF series, and at least Zemus gave us a little more warning than FF9's Necron.

I could probably go on for several more pages about this game, but I think I've already risked rambling so I'll try to wrap this up with a pretty, melancholic bow. FF4 is a game that I have no shortage of nostalgia for. It's the first FF I truly played (technically) and even today when I reach certain moments (You spoony bard!) or hear certain songs from it I get all tingly and a big smile pops to my face. It's comforting in that way. It's an old game, and it lacks some of the technical features that prove so popular in future entries, but it has a wonderful cast of thoughtful characters, a quality story with just the right twists and turns to stay fresh, exciting battles, and an expansive world to explore and conquer all while listening to music that is just a joy for the ears. It's everything a Final Fantasy game needs to be, in my opinion, and it ends on a perfect high note.