Oda Yasuyuki explains why developing fighting games used to be so much easier

Oda Yasuyuki has been part of video game publisher SNK since 1993. He has been with the company for almost 30 years and is a major contributor to The King of Fighters series, which was created in Japan after the games Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting. Since its early days with the Neo Geo and arcade halls has of course changed a lot. Although Oda-san is very enthusiastic about introducing the latest DLC, he also tells me how complicated game development in his genre has become these days. Before we get to what exactly he means by that, let’s take a look at what’s actually going on in The King of Fighters right now.

The final DLC for this year is coming soon with the team samurai. Although the date isn’t 100% certain yet, we’ve known since the beginning of the year that the new challengers will be coming in the fall. It’s also known that fan favorites Shingo Yabuki and Kim Kaphwan will appear in a new season next year. The content of the many DLCs is the decision of the director Eisuke Ogura, but Oda Yasuyuki assures us that character choice is an absolute strength of the latest game. “In the ’90s there was Art of Fighting and Ryo Sakazaki as the main character. There might have been Samurai Showdown and that was it. But now you can find almost all the characters from different titles in one big pool. That’s something special for us,” explains the producer. So KOF XV becomes a kind of crossover festival in its own franchise.

What’s currently going on in The King of Fighters XV and how Team Samurai performs in the game can be seen in the following trailer:

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That nostalgic yet modern feel was first sparked by the Team Southtown DLC with the introduction of a DJ station that introduced several tracks from old games. This is also the decision of Director Ogura. Music is an important part of video games, so I’m asking Oda how about fighting games? After all, this genre has its own dynamic in many ways. The lead producer tells me that the biggest challenge is the length of the tracks. You can only write short pieces, because the sections in which you move are often very short and have to fit together dynamically. “At the same time, the many characters need their own theme for their character types. You have to get extremely creative to create a lively and cool overall picture,” he adds.

The characters are not only numerous, but also diverse, otherwise the teams in the DLCs wouldn’t work either. When asked about the most iconic character of all, Oda immediately names Kyo Kusanagi without a second’s hesitation. He says he’s a real “poster boy”. And it makes sense, too, since Kyo, Iori Yagami, and Chizuru Kagura are the three main characters in KOF’s story. “All of the characters are based on Japanese mythology. Kyo represents a sword, which is just the coolest concept and has been well received by the community,” explains Oda.

But what has changed so much in development that it’s harder to create a game in the genre these days? “In the ’90s it was all about the local market in Japan, so the view of how you could develop your product was quite limited. Plus you only had the hardware from the Neo Geo, so you had to use the Move sets only adapt to one console. On top of that, there was no internet back then. Nowadays you need more modes and online features that make all fans happy at the same time. These include, for example, the rollback netcode or crossplay. The faster and further the hardware develops, the more important it is that the software keeps up. There are more platforms and generations of these, which is a challenge every year,” the leading producer describes us.

The many tasks also show that the focus for the franchise is no longer exclusively on Japan. Oda says that the international community has become more important. Since the championships, the KOF series has become more aware of “the rest of the world”. However, this development has only gradually emerged in recent years, although the local halls with their arcades have long lost their relevance.

Perhaps also to help with international reach, the SNK franchise never misses an opportunity for collaboration. For example, Fall Guys already has skins from Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui, and the team wouldn’t rule out a collaboration with Fortnite either. In general, Oda is open to sharing the IP with other games to make more fans happy. But in addition to the popular and well-known games, there are also smaller underdogs at SNK. Oda Yasuyuki is very excited about the revival of Fatal Fury. “Furthermore, I would like to Athena, Crystalis or Sasuke vs Commander see you again I played the latter myself as a kid,” he adds.

And to resolve my subtitle for the article: I spoke to Oda Yasuyuki while we were checking out the latest KOFXV DLC. However, we didn’t fight each other because I already proved to be rather bad in the practice rounds. As much as I’ve honed my button-mashing skills in other fighting games, I’ve found that The King of Fighters XV requires you to be tech-savvy and learn the character’s move sets to have a chance. We thank SNK for this entertaining interview!