Together Retro: The King of Fighters '98

[noiseredux]

Holy shit this game is hard. I'm playing the arcade version through FBA-XXX on Xbox. I played for about 3-4 hours yesterday. Made it past the first two battles fine, never got past the third. In fact, I only beat the first guy on the third battle once or twice. I took a bunch of notes on special moves, of course I can never execute them when I need them.

It's disheartening. I could credit feed all day and not get any further. Not sure what I could try differently to do better. It's like I hit a brick wall. What does one do in these situations?

I don't get it. I don't consider myself good at fighters at all, but I am having no problem with all the default settings getting to the last boss on the Orochi Saga version of the game, which I understand to be pretty much a straight arcade port. Can anyone knowledgeable speak to the differences in versions in terms of difficulty, arcade closeness, etc.? Maybe it is just the fact that I am using a stick?

I don't have Orachi Dave, but the Ultimate Match version seems to ramp the difficulty after each match. Like the first two are really easy, but by the third the opponents seem to start getting really cheap and aggressive and pulling out special moves and combo's way more. So I'm really not sure if the two ports are very different or if you're just fucking awesome. (I vote the former )

[dsheinem]

Holy shit this game is hard. I'm playing the arcade version through FBA-XXX on Xbox. I played for about 3-4 hours yesterday. Made it past the first two battles fine, never got past the third. In fact, I only beat the first guy on the third battle once or twice. I took a bunch of notes on special moves, of course I can never execute them when I need them.

It's disheartening. I could credit feed all day and not get any further. Not sure what I could try differently to do better. It's like I hit a brick wall. What does one do in these situations?

I don't get it. I don't consider myself good at fighters at all, but I am having no problem with all the default settings getting to the last boss on the Orochi Saga version of the game, which I understand to be pretty much a straight arcade port. Can anyone knowledgeable speak to the differences in versions in terms of difficulty, arcade closeness, etc.? Maybe it is just the fact that I am using a stick?

I don't have Orachi Dave, but the Ultimate Match version seems to ramp the difficulty after each match. Like the first two are really easy, but by the third the opponents seem to start getting really cheap and aggressive and pulling out special moves and combo's way more. So I'm really not sure if the two ports are very different or if you're just fucking awesome. (I vote the former )

Yeah, it def gets harder from round to round but I can usually beat the first few without even getting to the 2nd fighter. I agree round 3 gets tougher, as does 4, 5, etc. By the time I get to the second to last stage I am using all 3 fighters, but not really having much of a problem. I am pretty sure I could beat the final boss on a few credits if I wanted to credit feed, but for now I am trying for a 1cc. I'll play more later tonight and see if I continue to have success, but I was really surprised given the reputation of SNK. By comparison I couldn't make it past the first few stages of Fatal Fury last year, even with some credit feeding (http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... =8&t=21004).

[noiseredux]

hhmmm, interesting D. Too bad you don't have Ultimate Match. I'd love to hear how the two compare. Personally, I'm far too content with UM to spend money on another version though. haha. I'm not big on sticks for Fighters myself, so for now I'm just waiting on my Chun Li pad to show up, and we'll see if that makes the game noticeably "easier."

[Hatta]

I'm using my X-arcade actually. I know the experts don't like this stick, but would it make that big of a difference for a noob? I'll give it a try with a saturn pad on my PC to be sure.

I think what it really is is that I really, really, really suck at vs fighters. This is how my mom must have felt when I tried to get her to play Worms with me back in the day. Funny thing is, I love beat 'em ups. If they could make a vs fighter that felt like a beat em up I'd love that so much.

I'd really like to like this game. I know how highly regarded it is, and I hate not being able to appreciate quality. I dunno if I can do it though. If I had a partner that was somewhere near my skill level (slightly less than a mentally retarded watermelon), I might have more fun with it.

Edit: One of the more confounding aspects is, how do you practice? If you hit a tough part on a shmup, it's always the same. You can go back and practice the same spot over and over. With a vs. fighter he could pull out any move at any time. You can't plan, just react.

[dsheinem]

Ok, so apparently the "default" difficulty on OS is "1" out of "8". The settings are univerasl across the collection, not game specific which is why I wasn't seeing any options to adjust. There's nothing in the manual indicating what level = arcade difficulty. Anyone know? Is 1 arcade and each level higher? Is 4 arcade? 8? Do any of the other versions of the game have variable difficulty?

Any help would be appreciated. I've searched the web to no avail. I assume at this point that 1 =/= arcade, but who knows...

[alienjesus]

So, I'm kinda cheating for this one guys, since I picked up King of Fighters R2 on Neo Geo Pocket Colour to play instead - partially because my PS2 is broken, partially because I wanted more NGPC games and partially because I absolutely loved SNK Gals Fighters for the system.

Anyhow, that last point doesn't seem to have much relevance any more, because even after a breif play, I can see that the two games are nothing alike. Gals Fighters was incredibly fast paced, a little over the top and kinda crazy, but KOF R2 seems much slower paced and a more thoughtful fighter. Its taking me a little while to get my head around it.

Anyhow, I havent quite picked my team yet, although I'm using Yuri because she ended up being my best character in Gals Fighters, so at least theres an element of familiarity there (although she onloy has about half the special moves she had in that game). The NGPC version isn't bad for characters actually - there are 14 characters by default, with 9 unlockable characters who are all alternate forms of characters in the game (except for Rugal) unfortunately. Still, a cast of 14-23 characters for a portable fighter is pretty solid!

Edit: That HG101 article noise posted seems to think that KOF Round 2 is basically a port of sorts of KOF 98 anyway, so I guess I'm not really cheating after all

[noiseredux]

BTW, I got my copy of UM brand new, and what's awesome is that it included a poster along with a bonus disc that has KOF game trailer videos and desktop wallpapers on it. I found this especially cool because I have a habit of using TR screens or related material as my desktop background from month-to-month.

[benf]

I'm using my X-arcade actually. I know the experts don't like this stick, but would it make that big of a difference for a noob? I'll give it a try with a saturn pad on my PC to be sure.

I think what it really is is that I really, really, really suck at vs fighters. This is how my mom must have felt when I tried to get her to play Worms with me back in the day. Funny thing is, I love beat 'em ups. If they could make a vs fighter that felt like a beat em up I'd love that so much.

I'd really like to like this game. I know how highly regarded it is, and I hate not being able to appreciate quality. I dunno if I can do it though. If I had a partner that was somewhere near my skill level (slightly less than a mentally retarded watermelon), I might have more fun with it.

Edit: One of the more confounding aspects is, how do you practice? If you hit a tough part on a shmup, it's always the same. You can go back and practice the same spot over and over. With a vs. fighter he could pull out any move at any time. You can't plan, just react.

In KOF the best way to practice is pick the same team or a very similar team each time. Learn some of the easier combos for that team, and then keep playing that team.

People say bad things about the X-Arcade but honestly it isn't bad. The main gripe is that it uses imitation HAPP parts, when HAPP parts are already some of the cheapest on the market...


Recommended beginner characters for '98:

Old Ryo (Hold start when picking Ryo. Air fireball all day everyday), Saisyu, Kensou (easy combo into super, good fireball, good sweep...), Terry (simple combos, good moves).

Even though it appears to be down right now, the shoryuken wiki has some really good pages on about 2/3 of the '98 cast.


IMO don't bother playing UM. The speculation is already everywhere that UM final edition is on its way...

[NebachadnezzaR]

Just picked up KoF: 98 UM PS2 from Amazon.com.
I'm looking forward to playing and joining in the discussion this month. It will also be the first time I'll be participating in Together Retro.

welcome! I showed up for Castlevania in the Nov 2008 Together Retro and never left. This is a great place to be.

I, on the other hand, joined the very first TG and kept participating for a while, but for some reason stopped around the Toe Jam & Earl month (yeah, I know, it was ages ago). You know college, it sucks your time like a black hole. But now that I'm back let's see if I can keep up.

This month's TG, I gotta admit, is not my cup of tea, but I think I'll give the UM version a try.

[the7k]

I'm using my X-arcade actually. I know the experts don't like this stick, but would it make that big of a difference for a noob? I'll give it a try with a saturn pad on my PC to be sure.

I think what it really is is that I really, really, really suck at vs fighters. This is how my mom must have felt when I tried to get her to play Worms with me back in the day. Funny thing is, I love beat 'em ups. If they could make a vs fighter that felt like a beat em up I'd love that so much.

I'd really like to like this game. I know how highly regarded it is, and I hate not being able to appreciate quality. I dunno if I can do it though. If I had a partner that was somewhere near my skill level (slightly less than a mentally retarded watermelon), I might have more fun with it.

Edit: One of the more confounding aspects is, how do you practice? If you hit a tough part on a shmup, it's always the same. You can go back and practice the same spot over and over. With a vs. fighter he could pull out any move at any time. You can't plan, just react.

I use the X-Arcade myself. Hell, it's the only joystick I'll touch - even having all those fancy SF4 sticks and what not, I can't use a single one of them. I have to use those types of controls.

As for practice, it's not about learning patterns or anything. It's about knowing what move beats another, it's about knowing your hitboxes and invincibility frames, it's about knowing the strengths and weaknesses of both your character and your enemy.

It's also just as much about forcing your enemy to react as it is reacting yourself. This is the whole reason you'll see some pro players just throw fireballs over and over - they aren't trying to kill them with the fireballs, they're trying to force the enemy to take to the air where they will be far more vulnerable (in most cases. Know your match-up so that you'll know when you'd prefer to keep them away from the skies.)