This blog will hold profiles and comments about my favorite fictional characters. This will include the work of others that I like and some of my own work.
In the spirit of Mugen (in that this was a passion project done as a hobby and for fun), but different, I present to you the recent Duel Toys 2 release by Diefox. This is a unique fighting game that has over 60 fighters from comics, video games, movies, and original creations. But that is not all. There are also RPG elements that blend together between the fights, along with numerous mini games (trivia, racing, etc.) Plus, you can alternate between fighting styles in an effort to collect all of the toys you will use to make your way to the end. Here is the trailer.
Here is a clip of some of what you will do between fights:
Chun Li is one of the best characters of video games ever. I've been playing with the character through several versions of Capcom's fighting game series. This character has been great in all of her incarnations. Fortunately there are several versions of Chun Li floating around for MUGEN. My favorite Chun Li move is her lighting kick. It's really fun messing up my opponents with it.
I have found a total of 4 versions of Chun Li for MUGEN. I enjoy using Chun Li. The two best versions I have are Dark Chun Li and Alpha Chun Li. If you know of more version or know who made trhese please leave a comment. Thanks!
Back in April, Favorite Fiction started a two part question and answer session on one of the very most anticipated characters in all of Mugen, Kratos: God of War. Then we spoke with Kratos who is in charge of the programming of him, which you can read here: WIP Focus: Kratos part 1. Due to real life, we did not get a chance to have part 2 with DooM until now. He is tasked with everything graphical on Kratos, as well as overseeing the website they have designed for the character.
1) Why did you personally decide to start work on this character?
Heh...actually, I have some question for you: do you know the feeling when you're at work and working really hard, and your boss is watching you only when you're taking some little break from time to time ('cause you're tired), and he's thinking that you're probably doing so all the time? You want to prove him wrong, that you're worth more than that, that you deserve more.
Well, it's almost like that with me in the MUGEN Community. I spent a lot of time in the community, not leeching but learning how to program and design stuff for it. Opened a couple of MUGEN related websites, started few projects and released some screenpacks and stages, but never characters. So people are always like: "Umm... you consider yourself as a MUGEN veteran. OK. Did you release any characters?" I didn't. Why? I have had some real bad luck when it comes to the long term creations. There were a few accidents when I've been working on some (IMO) real nice characters (DM-Akuma, DM-Chun-Li, DM-Saiyaman and Nappa for the DBZ/GT MUGEN Project.) and when I was 50% or even 90% done(!), I always lost it somehow. My HDD crashed or my computer was so virused that there was no other option but to format all the drives. I know that I could backup all of those, but I didn't back then, so it's pretty late for such sayings now. And starting over? Well trust me that it's really hard to work on something again with such attitude you had before.
Now, when I'm turning 35 this year, I plan to quit MUGEN for good. But for that last time, I want to leave some EPIC character behind, to prove that those who had doubts on how I roll, were simply wrong.
When I was thinking about some epic character I could Mugenize, Kratos (GoW) popped up in my head really quickly. I was like "Yeah. Now that would be epic for sure!" When I showed a sprite of him at MFG, Robert (Kratos) came online on my MSN messenger. I thought "Dang, long time no see. Maybe he, as a great fan of GoW series, (like me) can help me out somehow - give some ideas about the gameplay, etc." So we started chatting for some few hours and decided to work together. Me spriting and Robert programming, because I knew his programming kicked ass.
2) Glad you too hooked up like that as Kratos looks amazing, what bases did you use for the character himself? Was it difficult transitioning him into a MvC style look?
First of all, let me thank you for the compliment. It's always nice to hear that it's not just me liking the results of my work.
As for the base, I'm using Urien and Gill from Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, just reducing their color count so it fits my private favorite spriting style: MvC. I reduce the animations' frames count too, 'cause SF3:TS is too smooth sometimes.
Generally, Urien and Gill are very good bases for my edits. They're almost naked, so I don't have to erase any parts of their bodies. But they're not that perfect either - You see... sometimes people use bases that already got some parts which they need, like folded pants, high boots or long jackets. To edit Urien and Gill into Kratos, I have to draw all the clothes and other stuff all by my own. Though, I enjoy it very much to be honest.
3) Most of the fans know that his signature weapons are the chained blades attached to his arms called Athena's Blades. They are probably also dying to know what are the bases that you are using for the various attacks with them? Also, can you go more into detail about some of the attacks that are planned?
Not just Athena's Blades. Blades of Chaos were his signature weapons in the GoW1 series, and those will be available in our character too (just a palette matter, but it's still some kind of a candy thing for the hardcore GoW fans).
Concerning the bases for the attacks, all of the attacks that you know from GoW 1,2,3 are going to be seen in our character, and only Urien and Gill will be our bases. You may ask how is that possible, so let me stop you there and answer right away.
There is a good friend of mine, GODzilla, that is taking care of all the frankenspritings needed for our Kratos. He made Urien run and perform such poses that you couldn't imagine. He's doing some seriously great job, really.
Chains itself are very fun to animate for perspectives, and me, but not the blades all those angles. Still, once I'm done with each animation of the blades, I look at it and know that it was worth it.
4) Last time we spoke of a few weapons and magical spells that will be accessible. In your opinion, which of each will be the most fun to sprite? Which will be the most difficult?
They all seem like fun to me and I can't wait to get to work on them. As for now, Kratos and I are working on the basics - all the simple movements and gethits - that's pretty boring, I can tell you that. Actually, I can show you one of the weapons that will be available in Kratos' inventory:
It was a lot of fun working on it.
5) Also before, there was talk of QTE events for fatalities, can you go into more detail about what we might see graphically when they happen?
Sure. If you played God of War: Betrayal (2d mobile game), you probably have seen that action where when you beat some boss almost to death, some rotating circle button pops up under the opponent's head letting you know that you can finish him in some brutal GoW style. Well, our Kratos is going to have couple of those too.
When this button will pops up under the opponent's head, you will have to press a button that's typed in that rotating circle, and then a list of buttons you will have to press quickly will show up. If you're successful pressing them all in the limited period of time, Kratos will jump in slow motion and do something nasty. On another hand, if you'll fail pressing all the button quickly, Kratos will jump and then fall on his back loosing a little of his life.
6) Your teammate said you all will push the graphical limits of Mugen with this creation, can you be more specific of what all is planned of this nature?
I believe he didn't mean just the graphical aspects, but everything in general - Programming and graphics. Sony pushed PS2 console to its limits when making the God of War games, and that's what we want to do with the MUGEN engine. We wanted people to ask themselves: "Wait, wait... how did they do that? Was that even possible in MUGEN?! It's the first time I've seen such things!!" We want to shock and surprise, because only those things decide on how much and how long a specific character is going to stay in their minds, and rosters.
7) Can't Wait! As I understand it, the website that is dedicated to the MUGENized version of Kratos is primarily under your charge? The site looks great; tell us more please about the decision process to make such elaborate plans of this nature.
Yes, you're right. There was a day when Robert (Kratos) told me that we got some new posts in our WIP thread and I should check them. I went there and there were no new posts. Then I realized that I'm checking the wrong forums. We agreed that it's a bit of pain for us to check all the forums where we have our WIP thread for new comments from people that are interested in our work, and that there should be some one place where people can leave their feedback and we can leave some progress reports and ALL of the interested people can be sure they're having all the freshest news, without the need to check few forums.
Also, we wanted to show how serious we are about that project. Our character is not going to be just some another release that's going to get drawn in dust in people's MUGEN rosters. We can promise you that we're doing all that's possible to make our Kratos epic, as he is in GoW 1,2,3.
8) Speaking of the website, what updates can we expect to see in the future with each selection?
Recently, we added a FAQ where people can check all the common questions and answers that are floating around our work. As for the future, we plan to put more progress screenshots and videos. Nothing more on the website needs an update I think. Some people have been suggesting an official forum, but we think it would be a bit too much - as for now, the guestbook works fine.
9) Anything else you would like to share about this project?
Just like Robert (Kratos), I would like to thank all the people that are interested in our WIP for their support. We're receiving a lot of good comments, serious feedbacks and some great ideas. If I could ask for favors, I would like to say: Keep it coming people! Peace out, DooM
Team Omega Pwnage Supreme's Duke Nukem character for mugen has been released. It looks awesome and play better that I could have hoped. I like characters with ranged attacks and this character has tons of them in the form of guns. I really would like to see this character against some other mugen characters like Batman, Rorschach, and Punisher. Here is my test video putting Duke through his paces.
I have been pointed to BloodRayne character for mugen. I've never been sure what to make of the character. I mean there has been about 3 video games I think and two movies. And the only reasons I can think of why the character has endured more than a couple of years is due to the fact it's a half-naked, female, half-vampire running around taking out vampires in violent ways with bladed weapons. In other words...of course it was gonna be popular! Well, the creator goes by name Green.
Volzzilla has done it again. He has shared another interview with a very talented creator in the MUGEN community, Kratos. The best thing about Mugen is the wide variety of characters available from very different universes so that battles that we always wanted to see can finally be done. I'm really glad to see a character based on Kratos. Volzzilla's comments and questions are bolded and Kratos' are unbolded.
Hold onto your chains ladies and gentlemen, I just sat down with lead programmer and gameplay designer, Kratos, for an exclusive interview about the upcoming God of War Mugencharacter.Check out the article to see what's in store for this vengeful Spartan.
1) Why did you personally decide to start work on this character?
There are a couple reasons for this. One is that I'm a huge God of War fan (haha, that's obvious). Another is that I was going to work with DooM on a Kratos character about 2 years ago, but it never took off. It wasn't until recently that I learned that he was going to start spritingKratos again. I saw the sprites on MFG and it was a major overhaul. They were bigger and better. So I contacted DooM through msn, we got to talking and before you knew it, we were partners once again. But this time we're in it to finish.
2) Why are you primarily drawing from GoW 2 and 3 for inspiration for this character and not the first game and the PsP versions?
We feel there is much more potential for gameplay and story if we focus the character on GoW 2 and 3. GoW 1 is a great game, but we feel that 2 expands upon it and really breaks into Kratos' persona. The story is deeper, and we get to see much more of Kratos’ abilities. We haven't learned much about GoW 3 besides what's available for public knowledge, but what we have seen so far is very interesting and could make it's way into the character.
3) I've been reading your WIP threads about how the weapons system will be an accessible inventory system you can switch on the fly. Can you go into more detail about this system please? What weapons will you be using?
Right, the weapon system will be on the fly. That means no graphical inventory. Kratos will use a weapon button. That means you can setup for some pretty sick combo's by weapon switching during them. I won't go into full detail right now about what weapons you'll see, because surprises are good. But here are a few that we have planned:
Typhon's Bane - A magical bow and arrow-like weapon that allows Kratos to fire rapid blasts of wind.
Blade of Artemis- This is a large, curved, cumbersome blade given to Kratos by the goddess Artemis. It is quite slow, but also does more damage to enemies than the Blades of Chaos.
Barbarians Hammer- A slow but powerful close combat weapon originally wielded by the Barbarian King. With it, Kratos can deliver powerful slams and smashes, and also summon legions of souls.
4) Considering he was a pretty significant component of GoW2, will we see Pegasus implemented in any way?
Yes. I think one of the greatest parts of GoW 2 was the Pegasus ride. We probably won't be seeing Pegasus in the combat aspect of the character, but actually in the intro and/or outros.
5) Magic was also one of Kratos' main attacks, what spell concepts are you planning to use in the MUGENized version of him?
There will definitely be magic abilities. These are only some of what's planned.
Atlas Quake - A wide area ground pounding attack in which Kratos summons earthquakes and rocky debris.
Head of Euryale - The severed head of Euryale, which can be used to turn enemies to stone (similar to the Medusa's Gaze from the first game).
We will reveal more magic abilities later as the character progresses.
6) Any plans on implementing fatalities? If so, can you please go into more detail about that?
If Kratos does have any fatalities, you won't see an actual Fatality screen. This isn't Mortal Kombat and I don't think it would go with him very well. Much like the original games, fatalities would most likely be in the form of QTE Finishers. Though this is all still being worked out. If we include them, we want to make sure it's done right.
7) What's been the most challenging part of your project so far, and what challenges do you think you will encounter as you continue the character?
So far the challenge is making everything look right. DooM is an amazing spriter, and when I code the animations, they also must look fluid and natural. We don't want the character to just play great, but look great as well. God of War pushed the PS2 graphically, and we're looking to do the same in Mugen.
I would say overall this would be my most challenging project. This character is going to be more complex than anything I've worked on. We're setting the bar so high I'm going to have to learn a thing or two about things I never coded. And lastly, the AI of the character…I haven't coded AI before. So this will be something new to me. Though I am looking forward to it. It's going to be a challenge not just because I haven't coded an AI before, but also because the AI I want to code has to be perfect for this character.
8) Anything else you would like to share?
I'd like to thank the community thus far for the support we've received on this character. DooM and I are always open to questions and suggestions. After all, this is a character made by the fans for the fans. Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for more news. And for all those who don't know yet, God of War: Mugen Carnage - The Official Site is the dedicated site for our character. See y'all around...in Hades!
Thanks, Kratos! All right, so that wraps up the interview with Kratos. Stay tuned for part 2 when we interview lead spriter and website designer DooM. Are DooM and Kratos planning to unveil something new? Find out next week.
To follow their progress, take the following links:
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