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« on: April 27, 2011, 03:42:28 AM »
Hi all,
Short version:
Long time fighter fan, dropped out of the genre from about 2003 to 2010, but getting back into it now.
Wall 'o text version:
This will be long *laughs*.
I started playing fighters back in the early 90s with Street Fighter 2:Champion Edition. Toyed around a bit with the later incarnations of SF2, as well as Mortal Kombat 2, before coming across my first SNK fighting game, Samurai Shodown. Had fun with it and all, but didn't think too much of it at the time, honestly. Then came Samurai Shodown 2, which was a totally different experience. Somewhere between Charlotte, Jubei, Genjuro, Ukyo, Cham-cham, and Galford, my interest was piqued. I noticed that same SNK logo on Fatal Fury 3, and that's what really blew me away. Not only did it have some great character designs (obviously I have a thing for Yamazaki, but Geese and Mary and Terry were all cool, too), but the stuff like command chain combos and plane shifting was just too fun. So, I tried looking for what all else SNK had made and stumbled across KoF 96. Admittedly, I initially played it because it had Geese and Terry, but it didn't take long for me to find out the awesomeness that were Iori, Vice, Mature, Kyo, Leona, and Ralf. Played every KoF I could after that, along with Vampire Savior, Capcom vs SNK 2, and Guilty Gear XX (and a little bit of Marvel vs Capcom 2, but not as much as the rest). Dabbled a slight bit in other games like Street Fighter Alpha 3 or Garou: Mark of the Wolves or Soul Calibur, but those were my main interests.
Unfortunately, just as I was getting to GGXX and KoF2002, I got really sick. Had to be heavily medicated for most of the next three years, during which time I was in too much pain and was generally too mentally unstable from the drugs to keep up with gaming. Once that passed, I was kind of lost. Felt like I was too far behind to jump into any of those games again, and hadn't heard anything about newer series like Melty Blood or Arcana Heart. Ended up just sort of falling out of the fighting game scene (didn't like what I tried of Street Fighter 4 or Soul Calibur 4, either) until around last fall, when a friend (who I met through our mutual love for Shin Megami Tensei, of all things *laughs* ) mentioned Blazblue to me. Checked out some videos and thought, "Hey, that sort of looks like GG". Of course, anyone who's had that same line of thought can probably predict what came next, but I tried BB:CS with the expectation of something like GG and came away thoroughly disappointed. It wasn't really a bad game in and of itself, not really, but playing it just made me wish I was playing GG instead. Discouraged, I tried 3rd Strike as well since I'd missed that when it was new, and while it was also okay, it just didn't have that extra zing of the games I'd really liked around 1998-2002. Marvel vs Capcom 3 came out, and I tried to get into that, but too many of the design choices in that game just repulsed me. Found out about an arcade near me that had GG and KoF98, but in the times I went there, there was never anyone else playing them (plenty playing SSF4:AE, but I'm not going to play a game that I don't like just because it's popular). I mean, even just playing with the AI in those games was the most fun I'd had with fighters in the past 8 years, but it's just not the same.
Then, as chance would have it, things got interesting again. I heard that KoF was still going on, and when I checked out some videos of KoF13, it looked fantastic. I heard about some little project that Arc had their name on called Chaos Code, and the latest loketest videos of that made it look like a cool little mixture of elements from KoF and GG (plus I'm a huge fan of Lovecraft's writing, so Cthylla's character design stole my heart as well). Unfortunately, all of that was still a question mark as to whether or not I'd ever get to play them.
The real reignition of the old spark in me, though, came when I saw Arcana Heart 3 on a stream (West Coast Warzone 3, I think), and something about it caught my eye. Looked into it more, and as I read further, I got more hyped. Picked up the PSN version before its recent trouble struck and have been having an absolute blast with it. Finally, a game that gave the freedom I loved with GG and KoF, without all of the "Why, why, WHY would they think this was a good decision?!" moments of MvC3. Even found some local scenes for it, so really excited about that.
Still, while I do like AH3 now, my fanboy heart still sits split between Arc and SNK. While BBCS2 doesn't look like enough of an improvement to get me excited for that series, I'm definitely happy that Ishiwatari said there will be more Guilty Gear in the future. When I heard the recent interview with Frionel about KoF13, I damn near flipped out from joy. Probably will not play any old KoF games in the meantime because I'll be focusing on AH3, but 13 will be an immediate purchase for me whenever it comes out, no doubt. Iori, Ralf, Duo Lon, Vice, Kyo, Shen Woo, Leona, Mature, and Elizabeth all look too tasty to ignore.
So, yeah, I guess that about sums up my history with fighting games. Y'all seem like a nice bunch from what lurking I've done. Hopefully I'll find some way to join in and contribute once 13 comes out.
Oh, and quirky fact: I was looking idly at my shelf of PS2 games a couple of days ago and saw that I actually had KoF XI. Must've saw it somewhere during my sick years and decided that SNK could use the money more than me *laughs* . In trying to do my part to promote KoF, though, I will try bringing it to a AH3 casual meet-up in a couple of weeks, since there are usually some random PS2/3 side games. Never played it, but the general opinion here seems to be that it's a lot of fun, so why not, right? *laughs*
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