Eisuke Ogura on bringing his 90s experience to The King of Fighters 15.
There’s something truly special about SNK games.
“It was basically fighting game mania.”
What was it, I ask Ogura, that made SNK’s games stand out?
A lot of the SNK characters and their fighting gamespop.
Take an example like Terry Bogard - they don’t look like your average fighter.
With Capcom at the time, with Street Fighter, these are like traditional fighters right?
The way that they’re wearing clothes, they’re like traditional garments.
“In SNK’s case the people are more casual the way that their clothing is, right.
And that’s one of the, that’s one of the things that really sets them apart.
And even now, it’s the same thing and nothing really has changed.
But that’s because back then that was something unique.
But now that’s more mainstream.”
The reason for this is that the characters look more anime.
“The older games were limited with the amount of colours in their palette.
With Mark of the Wolves, though, we were able to add gradients.
It just looked a lot better!”
“So, this is interesting,” he says.
My job, at the end of the day, is to draw right for the company.
I’m really glad to have that experience again."
It’s a challenge he’s enjoyed, pouring all of that experience into the game.
“I’ve been working at the company for a very long time!
That helps a lot!
Before if it was a drawing that needed doing I would just do it!
“That was kind of difficult to work our way around, to have that in 3D space.
So you have an issue where there are some effects that just aren’t possible to achieve.
But at the end of the day, we have a model for these characters.
You know, they have been done in 2D.
“There are things kind of tinkering in the back of my mind,” says Ogura.
But it comes down to the timing.
