| paleface [sys=PS4; cat=Fighting; reg=NA] |
| | | Code Mystics port of the arcade fighting game.
I was one of those who railed against the "interframe blending" or whatever you call it (I think the game calls it "Flicker Filter") where the game blends the previous frame halfway into the current frame; Code Mystics did this to prevent flicker of say the old on/off character shadows--but it also causes ghosting of everything. By the time they made this port they were making it an option you can toggle off.
These days though it actually helps my old eyes not get freaked out and migraine me from SNK's screen flashing FX. And even though this was the first KOF with the new, smaller hit FX, they went crazy with screen flash FX--on supers, on counter hits, on round end, on round end with super, etc--so it's still just about their flashiest game; it was the apex, right before that Pokemon episode that gave some 300 Japanese kids seizures and got SNK to give KOF games an option to toggle Flash off (which unfortunately nobody uses :PP), starting with '98.
The port probably adds a frame or so of input delay, like other Code Mystics PS4 ports I've crudely tested.
Oh and they added rollback netcode.
Anyway, with Flicker Filter on, I think I MAY be able to stand the flashing. You can't turn supers off either--this is a port of the AES version--so it's just gonna be wild on eyeballs, but in a sorta smooth way. Hopefully.
Code-unlocked characters are selectable by default from the character select screen here, which is handy. I see that Chinese tier lists ban O.Iori and O.Leona for being overpowered. ; ) (This game is reportedly to this day huge in China, apparently largely because it's so crazy and unbalanced.)
The maybe a tad too fancy high definition menus aren't quite as nice visually as their Garou and Last Blade 2 ports. They do have in-game move lists and all that stuff. |
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I had always turned off 97 GM's Flicker Filter option immediately because I didn't like the "frame ghosting" effect it produced, but now years later it suddenly occurred to me out of the blue that it would also mellow out the game's numerous flashing/strobing FX, possibly allowing me to play the game without getting a migraine--and so far, so good! ^ )^
97 is by far the craziest KOF and I think I might kind of love it. It was also the apex of their flashing FX, right before that Pokemon episode gave 300 Japanese kids seizures and they gave the upcoming KOF 98 a Flash=Off option and stopped adding red flashes to every single thing they could think of. ; )
Even the story here gets downright nutty and arcade mode seems to go on really long compared to 2000, too. Was worried about that darned Orochi boss guy (I knew I hated Chris ;P) but uh well on the default difficulty 3 at least he was surprisingly not too bad.
Sort of forgot I already have the Steam version of KOF UM FE; checked and it doesn't have a Flicker Filter option--the Steam version definitely pre-dates their PS4 SNK ports, so I guess they just hadn't come up with that option prior to that, or at least not when they were doing FE originally; and checking videos of the much more recent PS4 version, I don't see any frame ghosting in those, so the PS4 version probably doesn't have the Flicker Filter option either--unlike, as far as I can tell from videos, their PS4 2002 Unlimited Match port, whose videos on YouTube DO show frame ghosting; but they never did an earlier port of 2002 so for that one they'd have had to do new code, so kinda makes sense it would get their newer options. |
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I was whining every time I had to re-pick my team after dying like a chump about how the button set-up was messed up and how could they mess it up so bad and finally at the end I looked it up and yeah '97 actually only uses two buttons on the Character Select screen and oddly they're A (Light Punch) and D (Heavy Kick) and you only get two color schemes PER MODE which is to say if I wanted to use that crazy Extra mode for the other two colors I could but I'm not going to do that because I can't handle not having the roll that only comes in Advanced mode.
So Code Mystics didn't mess that up, I messed that up. Still, they should allow un-mapping all those darned macro keys. And remapping Taunt/Continue.
And I didn't feel like I was particularly sucking with Ryo Sakazaki, Kim Kaphwan, or Andy Bogard in The King of Fighters '97 Global Match but I sure in fact was because it took me forever to quarter-feed my way through on a mere 3/8 difficulty, guh-hargh. = P Serves me for spending the last month playing wrestling/puzzle/beat-em-up games. Oh yeah and I definitely don't feel like I have much of a clue on how to use Andy... And I suppose I just default to flowcharting special moves with Ryo. And heck with Kim I usually fall back to abusing his special dive kick as much as possible--although that usually works. So yeah it's probably a strong team I'm garbage with; no big shock there I suppose. ^ v^
I continue to be surprised by what a pushover the boss is after that darned Orochi team before him.
Thought Kim's air super was a qcfx2 move for most of this, then it stopped working for me against the Orochis, finally looked it up and it's one of them cf-cb or cb-cf or whatever thing. OH. Promptly tagged Yashiro with it 1:25:49 -- so that helped. ^ _^ |
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King, 94 Style Kyo, and Clark
YES another episode with me having real basic problems and a lot of crying!
How to select '94 Kyo? Unlike other secret characters, he doesn't have a quick select entry at the bottom of the character select screen. And the usual code, holding Start while selecting Kyo, doesn't work, because in this version, Start is hard-mapped to the Pause screen. ; [[[
So instead you press and hold whatever you have set as the Provocation button (default = touchpad : PPP).
(Related tip: You can view move lists for all characters on the char select screen by pressing Start and selecting Skill List from the Pause menu; this even works for 94 Style Kyo: highlight Kyo, hold Provocation, press Start.)
It took me forever to work that out because I'm a dimwit, and I was expecting the Kyo portrait to change or for him to look different on the next screen or something; the only way you can tell it worked is to Pause when playing him in the match and go to the move list, where his name will be printed as "94 Style Kyo" instead of regular Kyo's "Kyo Kusanagi"--or just to do/see his different moves, like being able to throw fireballs.
(Oh yeah and GameFAQ's Global Match Cheats page was/is redirecting to the game's Trophies page for some doggone reason. After recording, I did submit Cheat Code info to them for selecting 94 Style Kyo in this version, but I had to cobble together a URL manually in order to get to the cheat submission page for the game. : PPP Hopefully one there's a cheat entered for the game, the Cheats page for it will be accessible normally.)
Speaking of fireballs, King's fireball input is nutty. Not only is it either LP or HP plus QCF for her "Venom Strike" light fireball and either LP or HP plus QCFx2 for her "Double Strike" heavy fireball, which is just MESSED UP but actually the normal input for her '97 heavy fireball ; PPP (whyyyyy), but here at least (not sure if it's this way in the arcade etc), even her light fireball is really hard for me to do because the SLIGHTEST hint of any back motion AT ALL counts as half-circle-forward instead of quarter-circle forward, causing her to do her K plus HCF "Mirage Kick" move instead. The input motion window is INSANEly narrow. In fact, I finally worked out that in order to get her fireball to come out semi-reliably instead of Mirage Kick, I can't even do QCF, but instead have to do a truncated version with no Down motion, ie DF,F (or DF,F, DF,F for Double Strike)--and that works! Mostly. WHAT THE HECK.
Still terrible at it and ugh I don't know. Maybe it's good, maybe I should learn to play a King without fireball spam. Like, she's actually got a lot of other really good special moves. Or at least, they work pretty good on these lower difficulty settings; dunno about higher ones yet. Her DF HK command slide beat most of Orochi Team. = P
Speaking of Orochi, he (boss Orochi I mean) finally got mean against me at first here--maybe because I'd finally beaten Orochi Team ("New Faces Team" I suppose is technically their name, who calls them that though : P; oh well I did actually have to face their non-Orochi forms this time too, that was spooky; and Ralf on a team with Mai and Chin! The teams were crazy!!) with just 1.5 characters?
Clark has the mash punch that only Ralf has in 2000! Can't really do most of his throws but he was still pretty darned effective anyway; finally found a reason to use the super-charge (press three buttons together) move...
They spell his name "Clark Steel" (@45:05) in the menus instead of "Clark Still," sheesh. Apparently https://snk.fandom.com/wiki/Clark_Still it's a common misspelling "in many translations." |
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Korea stage oh yeah it even says KOREA in big letters right at the start (1:18). Then again it calls the Hong Kong stage (that's what the Wiki calls it, anyway) CHINA--oh '97 WAS the year the British left, huh, politics. And supposedly this game is big in China.
AI had a lot of trouble blocking Benimaru's bug-zapper moves so I just spammed 'em. ; D Even got in a couple super-duper ones (three buttons to go into powered-up mode, then super) to take out Orochi Yashiro!
I'd stopped playing Chin in 2000 but in '97 he has the qcf,K rolling punch which the AI has trouble stopping, and he's got a much better costume, so I'll keep working at him. ^ _^
Mary looks way too much like Mark of the Wolves Terry in her win pose (21:15). : P
Note to self: triangle button to see the relationship faces on the order select screen. |
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Well finally noticed Goro's pants sprout out over his belt potato sack style in the actual sprite, so Shinkiro's illustration of him shown on the main menu screen was just being faithful to how the sprite wears his pants...and I can only guess they're sewn into the belt or something 'cause otherwise I dunno how the heck they stay up!
Mai took out the whole Orochi Team herself! And then I kept getting Orochi down to like 5% health with her and he would go on to annihilate Goro and Kensou. = o : P Finally tried jump kicks with Daimon, somehow that worked. ; )
After recording I did go check out the ACA NEOGEO PS4 version of '97 (see entry 1568) and wouldn't you know it, you gotta skip the down part of King's fireball motion in THAT version too. Huh! You don't in 2000...and I don't remember her motion being that confuzzling in '98. So maybe '98 is the one where they fixed it. |
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Kensou kinda dominated early on, that was surprising. That dive kick of his has lotsa pushback. Some trouble dealing with Orochi Iori's speed, and Shermie's special moves--gotta be patient there and time rolls around her energy balls; she punished jump-ins with super energy balls! Terry was able to handle Orochi Yashiro with Burn Knuckles okay, but Orochi himself decided to be real mean for a while; Kensou and Ralf's sweeps just miss his floatiness--finally got a Terry sweep in. |
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Was getting whupped by O. Chris and Shermie, couldn't lay a finger, until I just got sick of it and pressured them and boy that worked a treat actually. O. Yashiro still dangerous with those super grabs of his.
Still don't have the boss fight figured out at all; going straight at him failed; turtling failed; finally sort of waited out some attacks, tried to get a bit of a feel of his timing, then tried rolling in or something...anyway I dunno, sheesh! |
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| | | There are conflicting accounts of whether PS4 and up consoles output at 59.94 or 60 fps; I tried recording GM at both, but shadow flicker (with flicker fixer off) is just about non-existent in both; if anything, 60 was maybe a hair better? Anyway, may as well leave PS4 capture at 60 until I get some more precise way of testing it.
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| | | | Oh, well NEOGEO ran at 59.19 fps anyway, not 59.94. So...hm. I'm thinking maybe the game was adjusted to run at 60 fps anyhow, and that scales down better to 59.94 than 59.94 scales up to 60? (That got shadow flicker with DC KOF 2000 in Flycast.) |
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| | | Kind of dreading the boss battles here; sometimes they aren't too bad, but other times, they are. = o
That and the Dreamcast version of KOF 2000 (see entry 139) has turned out to be so shockingly sharp and low-latency in Flycast.
With deciding to stop antagonizing my weird old shoulder by trying to play DualShock4 games, 97GM is the last non-Arcade Archives game I have installed on my PS4. I'd have switched to the Steam version but I don't want to give money to MBS. |
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| | | | Also the character artwork at the end of 97 is really bad. : PP |
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