The DLC characters specifically seem to be very similar to 14, They did improve her face and the textures on the model but yeah I guess they didn't see much need to overhaul the DLC characters (a big speculation was that the DLC characters weren't planned and were characters that were originally gonna be in 15 but they got them done early coz they saw an opportunity).
While I understand that the jump is not as big as people expected but saying the game looks bad is such a weird take. Some of the effects look jank I won't argue that point, shit like terry's specials and Joe's tornadoes look awful, but you can see that they are improving things as time is going by. Its still very much a work in progress. Mai from the first reveal trailer and her trailer is the best example of them constantly improving things.
The delay is also a good sign, they'll have more time to polish the game up and refine things.
You gotta also understand that SNK is not a big company, you say the 4th game but SNK Heroines was just a copy paste of existing assets and a very obvious cash grab, they didnt even pretend there.
They won't be doing big jumps like NRS or Arcsys. I'm sure theyre doing what they can and I'd concede that the game doesn't look next gen, but it doesnt look bad.
The compromise will be the insanely huge roster I guess, instead of getting 15 characters on launch like Strive we'll be getting 50-60 characters at launch.
I'm fine with saying it is progress for them and be understanding the development is on going and could improve. I am willing to be understanding of what their capacity is, and of the extra challenge of having to create 50+ character launch roster which nobody else would have the guts to do. However, I'm not really interested in those concessions meaning I have to grade the quality of what I'm seeing differently or retract saying "the game does not look at all good " which it my head at least is slightly less severe than "looks bad."
There are plenty of examples of characters and graphics getting refined by release like IJ2 Aquaman's face, the recent Halo stuff. WIP Dev stuff. I'm a dev, I get it. That said, I don't think what they have built really supports any significant improvements over what we are seeing in the more recent trailers.
What they are trying to do with the effects system isn't ever going to work and isn't anything remotely competitive. The effects are the notable weak point of what they have and it's hard to give any kind of pass on that stuff. More generally, they pulled some very well animated and personality infused characters into the 3D world in a very sterile and utterly basic way. It's the best they could do starting over. I'm ok with going zero to that while climbing out of a grave. Now though, it's like they are trying to take a bad base and see if they can clean, refine, and anime it up a little. It's kind of working. It looks better, more evolved, but also kind of weird. Like it doesn't want to look like anything or maybe isn't sure what it wants to be. It's very hard to see the characters as they were before the 3D transition in the 3D versions. That may be a me thing and I just don't like the "Style" of it, but I'm kind of unsure there is one. Not an intent driven one at any rate.
Outside of the effects, which are way under bar, It's Ok. It's passible in a way that it's not distracting, but that's such a disappointing thing to have to say when SNK games have artistically lead the pack at times, when there are repeated examples in other games what the characters could look like, and when they are almost certainly going to be charging the same amount for this that Strive is asking.
I haven't played a lot of actual KOF, but I've bought them all up over the years, I have 3 copies of 14, and did spend hours just doing combos in it while watching TV. The franchise has some wonderful characters in it, and I do want it to do well. I don't really expect more from them than what they have shown. I wouldn't want telling it like it is to hurt any SNK feelings or make them feel like they have to get the thing to compete with Strive. There is no ask here. I'm just saying, objectively, for what has been shown, it's quality is behind and very uneven in several ways.
