Savage Reign / Kizuna Encounter

[Discoalucard]

I've got like a hojillion other articles to format and things to write (including two that are 90% done) but I got this strange urge to play these again when working on ZZZ's upcoming mega fighting game piece. So I whipped this up real quick:

hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/fuun/fuun.htm

I had intended to cover this during the Summer of SNK last year (which will come again!) (maybe!) but got sidetracked. Maybe expect World Heroes at some point.

But yeah. Savage Reign is kinda meh. Kizuna Encounter is kinda rad. Most of this hinges on how awesome Rosa is. Discuss.

[zzz]

I was considering writing this, so you saved me from bothering with Savage Reign. I have actually never been a huge fan of KE, but it is definitely better than SR, and it is nice to see both of these games get representation here.

About World Heroes, have you started it yet? After I get finished with the beat-em-ups thing, I was considering starting on World Heroes, Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, and Ninja Masters. If you are interested in a Summer of SNK part 2, I would be down with writing these, or colaberating on these. I was also going to look for a colaberator for Samurai Shodown. I have like half of these, so I could not do it myself. If you are ever looking to start on that I could assist.

[YourAverageJoe]

Awesome article as always, Kurt! But there's one thing that bothers me:

"("Kizuna", the internet tells me, means "bonds" or "chains". Lord knows how this makes sense.)"

Why doesn't it? This game has a tag team element!

[Discoalucard]

youraveragejoe said:

Awesome article as always, Kurt! But there's one thing that bothers me:

"("Kizuna", the internet tells me, means "bonds" or "chains". Lord knows how this makes sense.)"

Why doesn't it? This game has a tag team element!

...I don't quite follow. You could say that two characters are "chained" together but that's really a stretch.

And ZZZ, I haven't started anything on World Heroes, so you're free to do if it you like. I bought the PCE WH2 a long time ago, so I can grab pics/etc for that. I'd say to not worry about Samurai Shodown though, because I know someone who said he'd be interested. He's the only guy I know that actually has a Hyper Neo Geo 64 along with the 3D SS games.

[YourAverageJoe]

I'm gonna use Epic-speak for this one:

And so, our heroic player chained together two unlikely fighters of justice, together, bonded as if they were one, they would rule this war-ridden world and reign supreme!

[ninjarygar]

I don't like the Fu'un games. Mostly because the characters are weak compared to your normal SNK crew. I agree with the article, where it says that the two new faces in Kizuna are much better than the ones dropped, but it's still a horrible cast all-around. And we all know SNK could do better.

Well... this ties together one of the few remaining loose ends in the KOF world. You've only got a few left... though I imagine they'll be pretty big.

[zzz]

Actually, forget I said anything about World Heroes.

So somebody is going to write about SamSho?

[Allie]

ninjarygar said:

I don't like the Fu'un games. Mostly because the characters are weak compared to your normal SNK crew. I agree with the article, where it says that the two new faces in Kizuna are much better than the ones dropped, but it's still a horrible cast all-around. And we all know SNK could do better.

Well... this ties together one of the few remaining loose ends in the KOF world. You've only got a few left... though I imagine they'll be pretty big.

So, I suppose that makes me the only one who was angry that Carol wasn't in the sequel?

Also, in the article, "Stationfar" should be "Stantonfar", a horrible mistranslastion of "Stun Tonfa"

[ninjarygar]

SNK RARELY drops one of their female faces. Whenever they introduce a female character... you know she's going to stick around. There were two women in AOF3 who never reapeared, (in fact the only AOF3 character to not be forgotten was a girl), a girl from Fatal Fury Wild Ambition, Carol and Rosa, and a few female faces from SS:Warriors Rage (the bad one). It's extremely uncommon that they completely drop a female character from a series... so you know the ones that don't make it, MUST be bad.
I have a hunch that Rosa and Kim su il are going to show up in KOF someday. Just a hunch. Carol, Lenny and Sinclaire could make a team... the "forgotten female" team.

[chaoticgood]

"killer two bladed sword."

Looks like a normal single-bladed katana to me. Also, Jyazu looks like Gozu and Mezu because (if I remember correctly, that is) he is their brother.

[Discoalucard]

This picture gave me that idea, but upon examining the animation, it's just motion blur.

[YourAverageJoe]

That looks more like a scimitar than a katana, either way they're both single-bladed.

[anothergamer]

If Kizuna Encounter has nothing else going for it, at least it has the best version of Houou Kyaku ever. Where's the damn phoenix in every other version of the move that's not from a Real Bout game or Garou?

[YourAverageJoe]

That bird took off to appear in Jam's super in Guilty Gear X.

[Neo Rasa]

Man I absolutely love Kizuna Encounter.

Everyone take another look at Mezu's helmet: Looks cool, but if he looks down he'll disembowel hismelf.

Rosa is totally Ralf Jones' long lost relative.

Interesting that you compare King Lion to Geese, notice how whenever King Lion loses (hit armor shatters) he has the same scars as Geese Howard.

If both of your characters have their life in the red, and you then beat Rosa with less than ten seconds on the clock her shirt rips open.

Whenever Joker does that jack-in-the-box special move, there's a 1/256 chance that a woman in a bikini holding a sword pops out instead the standard spread of bladed weaponry. This is similar to the motorbikes in Kim's stage in Fatal Fury Special (they're in FF2 but this bit didn't exist); there's a 1/256 chance that a woman in a bathing suit is riding one of the bikes by instead of an old man.

A more accurate way of describing the gameplay changes from Savage Reign to Kizuna Encounter is that the evasion controls were changed to be like Samurai Shodown III and IV. The sidestep, position change (forward+A+B), and overhead hop (B+C) behave identically to those two Samurai Shodown games.

One cameo you left out, Kim Sue-Il is in a background in King of Fighters 2002.