Text/Echo
"King of Fighters 15" is finally officially released, which is really thankful.
Nowadays, strange phases are frequent, the epidemic is raging, the world tension is rising, game manufacturers do not jump tickets more than a few times to appear to be faceless, I have imagined countless times that on the 17th day, SNK may issue an apology with yellow paper and black words, and then announce a debut character by the way - after all, even if he really does this, it does not matter, players who really love this series, whether it is loyal fans of the arcade era all the way, or the ignorant teenager who secretly practiced tricks in the computer room in the millennium, how to see it now has reached the age of establishment, right?
They look forward to the game and are not so expectant, they do not want to wait but do not necessarily want to get started themselves, their faces are full of the vicissitudes of old players, calm, and play and cherish. Therefore, as long as the IP remains unchanged, the old players who come along the way will also be loyal with unchanged loyalty, and the pricing of this part is a bit... Oh, too emotional childhood memories brushed into the same timeless special praise.
And there are too many things to change: from pixels to high definition, from 2D to 3D, even the overall style of character movements is due to the iteration of the times. Specifically, if we take the change of artists in the King of Fighters series as a clue, then this style change can be roughly divided into the following stages:
1. The personal legend of Sen Yi Lou
1994 《拳皇94（The King of Fighters '94）》
1995 《拳皇95（The King of Fighters '95）》
1996 《拳皇96（The King of Fighters '96）》
1997 《拳皇97（The King of Fighters '97）》
1998 《拳皇98（The King of Fighters '98）》
1999 《拳皇99（The King of Fighters '99）》
2000 《拳皇2000（The King of Fighters 2000）》
Shinkiro is a painter, manga artist, and illustrator born on December 14, 1962 in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. After graduating from art and design college, he built illustration designs for home appliances in his early years, and then completed a number of works as a freelance illustrator and manga artist, and his partners were many industry leaders such as Kodansha.
Of course, I believe that more people know SenqiLou should stem from its achievements after 1990. After that year, Mori Qi Lou, who joined SNK, has participated in or led the artistic design work of a series of game works such as Sengoku Heritage, ASO Fighter, King of monsters, Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown, Momoki Romance, MoonLight Swordsman, Legend of the Hungry Wolf, Fist of the Dragon and Tiger, etc., and because SNK decided to add the legend of the Hungry Wolf and the Fist of the Dragon and Tiger to the relevant roles of the King of Fighters series almost at the beginning of the establishment of the King of Fighters series, it formed an indissoluble relationship with the King of Fighters series:
The former's tough and flowing style of painting adds a bit of valuable heaviness to the latter's whimsical story, and the latter's magical but solid and stable moves also perfectly fit the sense of realism in the former's lines and colors, and the two complement each other to push each other to the peak of achievement, so that even after SNK went bankrupt, the King of Fighters series has continued to this day.
King of Fighters 94
King of Fighters 95
King of Fighters 96
King of Fighters 97
King of Fighters 98
King of Fighters 99
King of Fighters 2000
At the same time, Mori Gas Building, which was invited to join Capcom, can also continue to develop its own painting style in Dinosaur Crisis, Glass Rose, Demon Village, Kombat Whirlwind, Resident Evil, Life Elite soldiers and Monster Hunters - even today, Mori Gas Building will still use hand-painted on many background details such as hair long grass to highlight its unique visual experience, which is affectionately called "Mori Gas Building Rendering" by Capcom's members.
In addition, in addition to being good at "appropriate realism" in the works and highlighting the personality of the characters with relatively strong colors, Mori Qi Lou also likes to use the thick lines and shadow special effects of the American manga style, and naturally has leisure and leisure to be invited to draw the cover for the American manga of "Gen Zheng Miao Hong".
2. The era of Korean wind settlement
2001 《拳皇2001（The King of Fighters 2001）》
2002 《拳皇·2002（The King of Fighters 2002）》
2005 《拳皇XI（The King of Fighters XI）》
As mentioned earlier, in 2000, SNK declared bankruptcy, Senqilou switched to Capcom, and the King of Fighters series was naturally equally difficult to continue. Fortunately, the Korean game company Eolith recognized the high popularity of the King of Fighters in South Korea, and in order to please local players, he "borrowed the corpse to return the soul" to obtain the development license of the King of Fighters series of games, and then under the premise of retaining the basic framework of the King of Fighters series games, he carried out drastic reforms to other parts, especially the character action and style. And entrusted with this difficult task is the low-key, mysterious, and rather unlucky alternative genius painter, Nona Nokaka.
Regarding Nosaka Fumitsu, we first need to clarify that this painter who has been controversial for many years is not only an authentic Japanese, but also a SNK elder with considerable seniority, who joined the company in 1998 and worked diligently in the "Hungry Wolf Legend Group" until two years later, when he and SNK were reunited and freed in the circle.
In some legendary stories, SNK Playmore, who was reborn by Eolith, came all the way to India to recover the artist; and interestingly, in many forums, people do not think this statement is outrageous, after all, the strength of the painter is obvious to all, there are many fans, and its painting style is full of Korean flavor, which should definitely make (South Korea) domestic players satisfied... Right?
King of Fighters 2001
King of Fighters 2002
Of course, we already know that this cooperation has not achieved the expected win-win situation.
The King of Fighters 2001 and the King of Fighters 2002, who are in charge of No naka fumi, have been spat at by many players because of their strange movement distortions and painting styles, and the artist himself has also carried some disgraceful names because of this, and soon has to wave goodbye to the King of Fighters series. But even so, the resurrected SNK still has his own absolute core members in the vision and has cooperated with him for more than a decade, and has continued his own painting style in the later "King of Fighters XI", and we have to admit that this artist has indeed kept pace with the times to inject some popular elements into the King of Fighters series that were popular in East Asia at that time, and has successfully made the "New King of Fighters" at least in terms of painting style and the previous works of the introverted and realistic series have a clear distinction.
What is even more precious is that Nokaka Fumitsu actually did not take a full picture of the enchanting Hallyu - see for yourself, although the characters of the two works are more feminine like cool dancers on stage, but this femininity is by no means equivalent to the ethereal femininity, on the contrary, the character's white and handsome beauty has become a footnote to its sense of strength, showing the players perfectly what is heroic and compelling, so that the "handsome and flowing fighter" created by Nokaka Fumi is at least not logically generated any strong sense of violation.
3. Struggle to try
2003 《拳皇2003（The King of Fighters 2003）》
Joy or regret, after a chaotic iteration of two games, in 2003, the King of Fighters series welcomed his third artist, Falcon (Tatsuhiko Kanaoka). To some extent, Falcoon is more mysterious and low-key than Nonaka Fumi, but everyone pays more attention to the specific spelling of the big guy's name, and what is wrong in the end to make the unhappiness disperse, but they are also quite tacitly silent about it.
But before that, Falcoon was also a new generation of main artists who entered SNK in 1998, and a professional from a science class, after graduating from Kyoto Seiki University, he traveled to major Game Companies in Japan as a fan artist, fully appreciated the unique charm of two-dimensional art such as King of Fighters Street Fighter and JOJO, and thus laid his own unique style of wild and uninhibited painting, in The words of Wiki, "Its emphasis on male and female muscles and weight is recognized." And shadow with sharp gradients and highlights.
His designs were influenced by Japanese street fashion clothing "and all of this "has no reference materials, relying entirely on strong images from memory"—to some extent it can even be considered a continuation of Nokaka's painting style, and further exaggerated his posture to the extent of JOJO, although it is indeed unique, but it seems that the new SNK, who has suffered from "innovation", is considered incompatible with the style of the series of canon paintings.
Therefore, if you look at the main story of the series, only one Falcon of "King of Fighters 2003" seems to be less popular than Nokaka, but this big guy is actually the core of the new "King of Fighters: Extreme Shock" series of games after that - it should be, anyway, we only know that no matter what, when the Falcon boss decided to leave, the "King of Fighters: Extreme Shock" series was completely canceled by SNK Playmore, and before that SNK finally discovered this "rebel road" If you want Make KOF Great Again, in the final analysis, you still have to ask someone else who will be the great god or "happens" to be very close to his painting style.
4. The era of famous teachers and disciples
2010 《拳皇XIII （The King of Fighters XIII）》
2016 《拳皇XIV （The King of Fighters XIV）》
2022 《拳皇XV （The King of Fighters XV）》
In fact, the first to appear in this period was Hiroaki, Mori's apprentice, who was also an experienced and talented painter who had drawn illustrations for The Evil Gear, Iron Fist and VR Warrior 5, and also designed clothing skins for the characters of Super Street Fighter 4. In the King of Fighters series, he was mainly responsible for completing "King of Fighters XI" with Fumie Noaka, and then went back to study the classic remake of the series, and incidentally gave Falcon a beating assist.
Therefore, when we mention several works of the new boxers today, the first thing that often comes to mind is Eisuke Ogura, another high-ranking disciple of Sen Yilou. From 2010's "King of Fighters XIII" to the most recent "King of Fighters XV", the artist - in his own words, fully absorbed the characteristics of his predecessors, and on this basis, in order to match the deeper and deeper story, the overall tone of the game was darker, and by the way, the image of the characters appeared more grandfatherly.
King of Fighters XIII
King of Fighters XIV
King of Fighters XV
In addition, we also need to talk about Yukazu Nakano, who led the artistic design of "King of Fighters Neoave", with clear lines and sharp lines, clear characters, and a clear stream in an era when the king of fighters painting style is difficult to feed back to the truth.
But in any case, the simple era that belonged to the great god of sen yilou has passed.
Will the future King of Fighters series move towards a new golden age in Eisuke Ogura's brush? At least from the perspective of recent works, both SNK and Eisuke Ogura, their techniques have become more and more skilled to the point of being visible to the naked eye, maintaining the glory of the past, and preparing to decouple from them.
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