It has been over a year since the release of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. At launch, the game received high praise from veteran fighting game players and professional competitors for its deep system, extensive mechanical depth, and fast-paced combat. Professional tournaments have remained highly popular, with major events like EWC, EVO, and SWC attracting fighting game fans from around the world.
Unlike most fighting games, every offline tournament for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves offers audiences a fresh experience. Last month, the meta might have favored long-range characters like Billy Kane and high-burst damage dealers like Jamin; this month, the answer could be new characters like "Mr. Karate" and "Kenshiro." The viewing experience is rarely repetitive.
This is largely thanks to the incredibly fast update frequency of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. While similar games typically release one new character per quarter, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves achieved monthly new character releases during Seasons 2 and 3, a speed that is astonishing.
Taking advantage of this ChinaJoy opportunity, we interviewed Tamaki Nobuya, the current producer of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. He joined the team late in development and became producer after the official launch. His contributions played a part in the game's current rapid update pace.
Below is the full interview transcript:
Q: Hello! It's a pleasure to interview Producer Tamaki. Could you introduce yourself to the players?
A:Hello, my name is Tamaki Nobuya. I have been with SNK for 19 years. I previously worked on Metal Slug, starting in game planning and design. Currently, I am the producer of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves and also serve as the update producer for The King of Fighters XV.
Q: You served as the update producer for The King of Fighters XV and took over as producer for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves after its release. What is it like being a producer for an already launched game, and what specific responsibilities does this role entail?
A:I mainly handle broader strategic matters, such as overseeing development direction, scheduling, and budgets, without intervening too much in specific content details.
Regarding serving as producer for an already released game—I believe that for long-term live service projects like Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves and The King of Fighters XV, which have accumulated a stable user base, the main challenge and priority is listening to user feedback and demands to optimize the product. This is the direction we are currently focusing on.
Q: Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves has seen remarkably fast DLC character updates. Between Season 2 and the current Season 3, almost releasing a new character every month. How did you achieve such a rapid update speed while maintaining character quality?
A:Releasing a new character every month is extremely challenging for the entire industry. In fact, this update speed wasn't part of our initial plan. After launch, hearing the strong demand from players for new characters, we made the decision to accelerate. To achieve this, we optimized our development workflow to make character production more efficient, ultimately enabling monthly releases.
Q: Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves has a fairly complex system. Was it challenging to equip characters with feints and Break cancels, and design REV skill cancellations?
A:Actually, systems like Heat Gauge, cancels, and feints in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves weren't designed to make the game more complex. Our design philosophy aims to appeal to general players, allowing them to participate easily. We considered simplifying controls, such as introducing the "Simple Input Mode." However, we also designed deeper systems to provide players with a clear sense of progression—from beginners learning the basics to mastering various systems, each stage offers its own enjoyment.
Q: Have you considered making large-scale changes to attract new players or bring back older players who were discouraged by the complex systems?
A:We release small patches once or twice a month to continuously optimize the game, but we currently have no plans for major system overhauls. Instead, we will enhance features like tutorials and practice modes to help new players get started and improve more quickly.
Q: Although the general player count isn't huge post-launch, the game is very popular among high-level and professional players, with a thriving competitive scene. Does this influence the direction of character balance updates?
A:In conclusion, we do not adjust balance solely based on professional players' performance. Instead, we comprehensively consider feedback and performance from new players, skilled players, and professionals while maintaining each character's unique identity. However, we certainly place significant importance on feedback from professional players during this process.
Q: In recent versions, Mr. Karate's overpowered parry move has sparked much discussion. Is it intentional for designers to give these characters signature powerful moves that are difficult for opponents to counter?
A:It wouldn't be accurate to say there was no intentional design involved. The strength of a character's moves is part of their identity. When designing characters, we don't deliberately force all strengths to the same level; we respect each character's setting. Consequently, this may result in some characters or moves being stronger or weaker than others.
However, we will continue to adjust the balance of specific characters and moves based on community feedback. We strive to modify and optimize characters while preserving their unique personalities and traits.
Q: Since taking over updates, which character design are you most satisfied with? What features of this character satisfy you?
A:Saying "most satisfied" might not be appropriate. If we change it to "most memorable," it would be Mr. Karate. Since Mr. Karate originates from the earlier Art of Fighting series, his appearance and characteristics had to change when appearing in Fatal Fury.
During production, we not only respected the original character's personality but also considered how this character would fit into the Fatal Fury worldview. We underwent extensive polishing to successfully integrate Mr. Karate into the game.
Q: I personally play Ken in Street Fighter 6 and Terry in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves—these happen to be the first wave of crossover characters for both sides. How do you evaluate Street Fighter 6's recreation of Terry from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves?
A:In fact, developers including myself often try out our company's characters in the other game. They did an excellent and accurate job bringing our characters into Street Fighter 6, preserving their original traits very well. We were all very excited and thrilled.
Including the atmosphere Terry displays in Street Fighter 6 and the accurate recreation of his moves, the essence of the original was well preserved without being compromised. I believe players are very satisfied with this as well.
Additionally, I am very happy that this collaboration allows more players to experience Fatal Fury characters within Street Fighter.
Q: Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves achieved a high degree of accuracy in recreating Ken and Chun-Li from the Street Fighter collaboration. What do you think contributed to this high fidelity, and what efforts did you make to achieve it?
A:Our developers are also fans of the Street Fighter series and conduct in-depth research on its characters. In actual production, to ensure player satisfaction, we expanded the content significantly—such as creating character-specific stages and refining detailed character animations. We put considerable effort into these areas.
Q: Will future DLC character updates follow a specific direction? Will you further explore legacy characters, seek internal crossovers from other SNK titles, or collaborate with more external IPs, similar to the new character "Kenshiro"?
A:Regarding direction, we can't reveal too much. But generally speaking, while we consider the popularity of the collaboration IP, our higher priority is how well the collaborating character fits the Fatal Fury worldview—whether adding this character brings fresh energy to Fatal Fury.
Q: In the future, will we see other real-world collaboration characters similar to "Cristiano Ronaldo" and "Salvatore" included in the base game of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves?
A:(Laughs) We can't disclose that either. However, it shares some commonality with the previous question. For instance, community feedback for Cristiano Ronaldo and Salvatore Ganacci was quite positive, offering players a fresh experience, which aligns with our direction. That said, we cannot confirm at this time whether we will release new real-world collaboration characters.
Q: The Chinese fighting game community has always shown great enthusiasm for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves and The King of Fighters XV, maintaining high attention on related tournaments. Do you have any words for the Chinese fans who have consistently supported SNK?
A:Thank you very much to Chinese players, fans, and the community for your strong support. We feel your enthusiasm, which has greatly encouraged our development team. We will continue to incorporate community feedback into actual game development. Game development isn't just about our team working in isolation; players are an important part of the process, and together we will make the game better.
Therefore, we hope Chinese players will continue to actively voice their opinions in the community, allowing the development team to hear your requests. We will do our best to bring you better game updates. Thank you!