The Big ass Street Fighter IV thread

[BlackKnight]

they should've just called it street fighter ex 4

Why? Because it's 3D? This looks like it plays nothing like EX.

[BlackKnight]

Part 1 of a new Famitsu interview with Ono translated by Azrael at SRK.

 

Producer Ono's Passion is Here!

 

With the arcade version finishing up, the home versions of "Street Fighter IV" have been decided. We had an interview with him in the Weekly Famitsu June 13th version (on sale 5/30). Here we will bring you the full contents of the interview, including the parts we couldn't publish before.

 

We had a chance to play the arcade SFIV, and it felt a lot like slipping back into SFII without any major problems.

 

Ono: That's the best compliment you could have given me, heh. With SFIV we are mainly targeting adults in their 30's. Imagine Street Fighter is rated 35. What I'm getting at is, we have developed the game in mind for those who grew up playing SFII. So when you play, you don't think "Is this SF?" but "ah, I've come home" - that's what we are aiming for.

 

So when you were developing your primary image for the game was SFII?

 

Ono: That's right. When production on SFIV was decided, I didn't think to myself that I wanted to continue the SFIII series. If that means that SFIII is not a continuation of SFII, well, I was on the development team for SFIII, and at that time that was certainly accurate. It was just a time when everyone was more stoic and serious. Now, we want to go back to our roots of SFII and produce a title that those who played SFII will really enjoy. I think, if we were to try and continue SFIII, it would be like trying to take on the most difficult shogi player in a fierce battle. Should we try to do something so difficult? Rather than that, if we could make a game that was simple like challenging your grandfather on the porch, where you think "hey, this is interesting", then we could really make a lot of users happy.

 

Did you give any consideration to making a 3D game?

 

Ono: When development first started, there was an opportunity within the company to make a 3D fighting game. Other staff members on our team said "now's not really the 2D age anymore, isn't it?" But if you're talking about 2D fighting, well, then that's Street Fighter. So then we decided if we were going to make a 3D fighting game, it'd be better to just come up with something new rather than try to make SF 3D.

 

Ah, so that's how the game came to be played in 2D with 3D graphics?

 

Ono: That's right. It was a bit difficult, but the objective was to make the graphics look picturistic. I felt that the Street Fighter art designs and images of Akiman, Nishimura Kinu, and Ikeno should be respected. In other words, to take the drawings that were made by those artists using the most recent technology available at that time, and make them move inside of the game. So to get our art moving, we used a "3D-type brush" to try and recreate the impact of SFII.

 

Did you ever think about making the characters in 2D?

 

Ono: There were talks about drawing the characters in 2D cell animation. But if you're talking about cell or 2D dot, we really went all out for SFIII. We hit our limits there, LOL.

 

Did you decide which characters would be absolutely necessary?

 

Ono: Yeah...if it was all new characters, then that would be copying what we did in SFIII. First, we wanted to make a game that you could just start playing without having to look at a manual. The characters you could easily play from memory were the 12 from CE. Not even SFI or the Alpha series, these are the characters who were behind the fighting game boom that SFII sparked.

 

I see...did you make their move motions the same from SFII?

 

Ono: We made the motions after taking a look at the moves from SFII, SFIII, and Alpha. We tried to make move recovery and timing as close to SFII as possible. At the loketests, a lot of fans responded that the moves were too slow, so we made adjustments. So we tried to get it as close to SFII as possible to preserve that play feeling.

 

Were there any problems making adjustments to the moves in 3D?

 

Ono: There were. With pixel art even the smallest motions don't really stand out, but in 3D they do. So for the adjustments, the motion staff and the planners really gave it their all. Though we've improved the motions to be more natural, we don't really know what kind of impressions we're going to get when it hits the arcades, so I'd like to do a little more adjustments for the home version if I can.

 

Are the move hit properties exactly how they look?

 

Ono: At first, we thought to make them exactly how they look as per a 3D environment, but we quit with that halfway through, LOL. We decided to go back to the 2D hit properties. Made it so that areas that wouldn't ordinarily get hit would register, and then made adjustments. So those who are used to the Tekken or Virtua Fighter series may have a little trouble getting used to it. But for those who are familiar with Street Fighter, hopefully the hit properties will make them think "ah, this is Street Fighter."

 

I see...so the hit properties are not what you see, what you get.

 

Ono: That's right. You may not be able to understand just by looking at it, but the programmers have really worked to make it high-tech.

 

Which character was the hardest to translate into 3D?

 

Ono: That'd be Dhalsim, LOL. His movements are much easier to handle in 2D than they are in 3D. Chun-Li was also pretty difficult. The Chun-Li character has a beautiful profile face. But our designers aren't the ones who've drawn her at her most beautiful profiles. When we try to translate it into 3D, there were a lot of little areas that just didn't match up. Well, it wasn't just Chun-Li. But Chun's our female character, and a lot of people feel strongly about her. So that's why we had to do a lot of little adjustments like "wouldn't her cheekbones be better a little lower?", with everyone giving input to make the most beautiful face. But yeah...Dhalsim was the hardest, LOL.

 

You've said that you're modeling SFIV after SFII, but are you also looking to make the characters strength and attributes the same as SFII?

 

Ono: Yes, we're trying to retain the sense of strong and weak points. In Street Fighter, its not interesting if the strength of every character is evenly balanced. Especially for the bosses, at that time they were plenty strong, right? So they should get a little boost in SFIV as well. So for the people who think "This guy is using Bison, but I'll take him on with Zangief" - you can take a lot of pride in taking down a strong character with some other character. Of course, we are making adjustments so that there are no "unwinnable" situations, LOL.

 

Are you using ST as the base for the character strengths?

 

Ono: Yes, ST is the base. I believe that ST was the most balanced of all the SFII games. But I really wanted to make CE the base. There are people who will say that the balance in CE was terrible, but I felt that the roughness, or what makes a game feel like SF, came out the most in CE. So maybe I'm aiming for CE with the base feel of ST?

 

The new characters of SFIV are pretty individualistic.

 

Ono: Yes, but we haven't made any characters who don't fit in with the Street Fighter fighting style. In a fighting game, you can't win by just memorizing your character. You have to be able to know and read your opponent's movements. We haven't had characters like this before, so you might be a little surprised at first. But if you play as them you'll find that sense of familiarity, so you can play as the new characters and still enjoy SFIV - that's what I'd like. There were members of the staff who really wanted to make them more flashy, but as the producer, I think we were all able to come to an agreement on these.

[BlackKnight]

And some character select screen caps; this seems like the final roster for the arcade version, apart from Akuma and Seth. I wonder why they never got round to adding in the 4 New Challengers from Super SF2... I guess he must have really liked the CE feeling seeing as the bosses are actually stronger. Here's hoping the console ports get more than just Gay Long and Dan. DLC characters would be the sweetest thing at this point methinks.

[Alpha]

D`oh! Character select screen is a major spoiler. That's like my favorite part of the game.

[L.S.D]

So, no Cammy, Dee jay and T-Hawk then? I was hoping for some time released characters? And no one confirmed about Akuma either apart from report, is there some actual screen?

[BlackKnight]

He likely won't be playable in the arcade release.

 

We already know they plan to offer a lot more content in the ports. Fei Long and Dan at the very least, but I bet Cammy will at least return and maybe Guy or Alex or something.

[L.S.D]

Guy? Alex? If they stay true to SF2 material, these characters will not be even considered. They already have 4 new characters anyway (not including Seth).

[Inky]

I remember Ono saying something to the effect of "women will be well represented in this game" not a direct quote but it was something like that. now there are only 2 female fighters..... I expect cammy to be either a time release or secret character.

[BlackKnight]

Guy? Alex? If they stay true to SF2 material, these characters will not be even considered. They already have 4 new characters anyway (not including Seth).

But they have already exhausted the entire SF2 roster. Fei Long is confirmed and Cammy is almost a given... I think the more prominent characters from the Alpha and III series are fair game for the console ports.

[Sybarite Paladin AxL]

Guy? Alex? If they stay true to SF2 material, these characters will not be even considered. They already have 4 new characters anyway (not including Seth).

But they have already exhausted the entire SF2 roster. Fei Long is confirmed and Cammy is almost a given... I think the more prominent characters from the Alpha and III series are fair game for the console ports.

 

You didn't mention T-Hawk or Dee Jay. At least Dee Jay has to be in for the console ports. He's awesome.

To me, I wouldn't mind having every SF character ever in it. Would make me consider this game a must-buy tbh. Course, I wouldn't mind if they didn't add the more idiotic characters from SFIII. It has never been one of my favs.

[Wishdokta]

I wouldn't mind having every SF character ever in it. Would make me consider this game a must-buy tbh.

Same here. The new characters aren't ingenious at all so far. There had to be much fresher characters to get my attention. Even the bosses (Vegas special move, ouch) or Akuma can't bring some joy while thinking of idiots like him:

 

 

thoroughly ridiculous. He anyway seems to be stolen from Fatal Fury 2;

 

 

 

Abel looks like a Guy-copy in additional suit. For the rest, except of the girl(who really "looks new"), and nearly every face expression I gotta say, no Capcom, many thanks, no.

 

 

 

If it stays like that, SNK got a new follower (> KoF XII , that's what im talkin about concerning characters and FX ) .

SF4 is a good Arcade Game, that's why I keep reading details from it. Button smashers ahead. But nothing that enjoyable for the home screen. It's ok for the action lovers, focussing on shaking screen and more FX than anything else.