>>272321
>something that is possible to be done that isn't reinventing the wheel
If you want to have cool sprites without bankrupting yourself, the Guilty Gear Xrd style of using very stylized and deformed 3D models has proven to be the most practical. Back when I first saw Punch Planet (and it still had people who gave a fuck about it), I truly believed the characters were 2D drawings. It wasn't until I saw one of them walk near a dynamic light source on a stage and have gradient lighting applied dynamically that I realized they were 3D.
You weren't being a dickrider about KoFXIII, but I think that game and 3rd Strike are the two big ones for being considered "DA GWEATEST" by people who don't play FGs. I've put a small amount of time into KoFXIII, and while I appreciate what the art style does right it's far from perfect. The reuse of assets and animation frames, and every female character having the same uguu bobble head also makes the characters look cheap, despite how much time and effort I know they took to create.
>workflow
Yeah, the actual methods they used for creating the sprites. IIRC, they made 3D models for each character and then went: pose 3D model > draw full 2D illustration overtop of the pose > draw sprite overtop of illustration > polish sprite for lighting, etc. I think the exact number I always heard was "one sprite frame takes one artist one week" which is why they had to reuse so many of them for clone characters, cut special moves, and make every idle animation so stiff and plain. Fidelity is not always the best possible thing.
>acknowledge the player's actions
Poor wording by me. I meant that the player should be able to earnestly choose any individual style or mode within the game and get the feeling it's at least as meaningful as other modes. Having a token arcade mode with still images instead of cutscenes and a token endless mode fighting against shitty bots isn't acceptable anymore.
Frankly, as silly as a lot of recent games' photo modes are, it's good to have them because they let people engage with the game in a way that doesn't involve hardcore competition and it's nothing but free publicity and happy fans (unless you do what Strive did and censor the mode 2 years after they added it). If I had to rate the SNK games I've played (XIII, XIV, 02UM, SamShoVsp, SamSho2019, MotW) I'd put them all like this:
Core gameplay - ranges from functional to nonfunctional depending on how the netcode was implemented
Standard stuff like combo trials - functional in games where they exist
Extra mode fun - mostly nonexistent. XIII's palette editor is the only extra mode/feature I can think of in any SNK game.
I always harp on about Soul Calibur 2's Weapon Master mode because it was enough to satisfy me as a kid just playing the game by myself. The same is true of Super Smash Bros Melee and Brawl (although Brawl was like 20 games crammed into one disc). It's like the game is saying "yes, if you pick this mode then that's okay. go have fun." In so many fighting games you can feel this hidden sentiment that technically you can pick any mode, but only the core VS mode is what matters and that's what you paid your eye-watering entry price for. When I was exploring the genre back in 2017-2019 I felt like every arcade mode ending in every game had some neat little tidbit at the end, but these days I just don't give a fuck because I know the devs don't either.
>ronaldo
SNK is owned and bankrolled by a Saudi company. Ronaldo plays for the Saudis. Najd, the Saudi character added to KoFXIV, will be in every KoF game from now until the end of time.
>I wouldn't say that I liked it, but it didn't bother me.
Then you're a genetic freak or something because KoFXIV is one of the ugliest games I've ever seen in my life. It looks significantly worse than multiplatform PS2 games.