Community SSFIV Interview with Seth Killian

By Crimson Relic — February 26, 2010
Tags: interview super-street-fighter-iv xbox-360

A brand new interview with Seth Killian, answers some pretty good questions about Super Street Fighter 4.

First of all thank you for this great opportunity seth, i know you are a very busy man.

1- My first question will be about the state of SSF4 right now, how complete is the game at this stage?

Development on SSFIV has recently been completed.

2- How much did the game change since the latest fight club ?

Of course the three new SFIII fighters are big, but otherwise tweaks to the entire cast were ongoing up until the final build. There aren’t radical changes to the characters you’ve seen already, although even small changes can be significant. Just as an example, Juri’s dodge (QCF away + P) causes her to fly in one of 3 directions if you attack her during the move. In the builds we’ve shown so far, she absorbed the damage from the hit (as in a Focus Attack, or like Gouken’s counter move) before dodging. This has been changed to allow her to dodge the hit without taking damage from the first hit. That doesn’t make her a totally different character, but it does make the move a lot more viable, and changes her strategy a lot in certain situations. Every change in the game has an impact.

3- You guys have recently announced the 3s characters, a move that certainly pleased the sf3 purist, what was the reason behind including sf3 characters and what made you guys decide which 3 ?

The 3S characters were added based on a combination of their popularity with fans and their contributions to a diversity in fighting style. Ibuki and Makoto have a pretty unique style, and while you could say “Dudley is also a boxer,” his playstyle is totally different from Balrog’s, so we were excited to add him as well. He’s just cool.

4- was it difficult to include these characters since they came from a game with a different play system?

I certainly thought it would be. Integrating them turned out to be more a matter of subtle tweaks than a need to reinvent them, so I’m happy to say that their personalities came through very clearly. 3S fans should feel right at home, and they’ll probably rack up a lot of wins—Dudley, Makoto, and Ibuki are beasts.

5- A lot of people complained about Dudley’s english VA in ssf4, what does Capcom think about this?

I’m not involved with any of the voice recording work, and while 3S Dudley certainly has some of the games most memorable lines, all of the new voices in SSFIV grew on me pretty quickly. After you’ve been playing it for a while, the characters just sound like themselves. I find myself saying the new lines like “Keep it classy” a lot in casual conversation, even though pretty much nobody knows what I’m talking about.

6- What can you tell us about the old SF4 characters, how different are they from sf4 in terms of balance?

The addition of 10 new characters, new moves, and two Ultras for everyone obviously has a giant impact on the overall balance, so in a lot of ways it’s apples and oranges. There will definitely be some shakeups in the overall rankings from SFIV.

7- Does that mean that all characters have been rebalanced or just some?

Every character in the game was rebalanced over the course of development. You can’t think about balancing in terms of just some characters, as changes to any one affect their matchups against the entire cast. In the end, some have wound up being very close to their SFIV incarnations, while others are pretty different, and some (like Chun Li) can play in a very different style just because of their new Ultra combo. So while Chun Li didn’t get a ton of specific changes to her moves, if you’re up against a Chun Li playing Ultra #2 (Kikkosho), you have to play in a totally different way.

8- So Sagat is not going to be as dominating as he is now in sf4?

Sagat is still powerful—his techniques all still work, but I would say he’s going to face a lot of stiff competition from the returning cast and the newcomers. While he has more options in Super SFIV than he did in Super, he also has more tough matchups, and his ability for massive comebacks isn’t as strong. In SFIV, he could be essentially dominated for the entire match, and then make a huge comeback from one hit or even a trade. In Super SFIV, he’ll need to play well the entire match to win consistently.

9- Are all characters receiving new moves in ssf4 or just a few ?

Apart from the new Ultra combos for everyone and the new characters, just a few returning characters got other new moves. That said, changes to existing moves can also create a brand new role for an old move. It’s easy to understand this just by looking at SFIV Ryu—he didn’t get any moves you haven’t seen in previous SF games, but you’d get killed if you tried to play him the same way you had in earlier games.

10- One major complain i see online is about the motions shortcuts and how they mess up some of the inputs and timing. Does SSF4 still has the input shortcuts and if so can we disable them in an option maybe?

We’ve discussed a change, but nothing has been altered yet. We do know that input shortcuts have bothered a particular range of traditionalist players (which would include me) in some specific situations. The intention with shortcuts was to make some of the difficult motions more accessible, so a good effect of the shortcuts is to help newbs and help to get more people playing, and it’s definitely easier to pull off these moves than it was in the older games. On the other end of the spectrum, the very best players are able to play around the shortcuts and not let it affect their game. For some people in between those guys, who have been playing for a long time and can pull off a shoryuken in their sleep, the shortcuts can sometimes cause trouble. The fate of shortcuts is still TBD.

11- What is the possibility of SSF4 getting a patch balance post release?

We’re confident in the balancing work, but of course the competitive community of players will have the last word on the results. A patch is possible, but we’re not planning on one apart from the free Tournament Mode DLC update.

12- One area that has not been discussed yet is the netcode. does SSF4 has the same netcode as sf4 or is a completely different code?

The backend has been reworked extensively, primarily to accommodate all the new online modes (player lobbies, tournaments, etc.), but it will function along the same core principles. We have added a greater degree of control in your matchmaking preferences, so it’s easier to find the best quality connections when you’re online, and I think that will also make an important difference. I don’t play online yet regularly (outside of our tests), but the reports from the press who have review copies (and play each other online) are that it’s gotten even better.

13- SSF4 has only 4 new different stages, and while they are all a welcomed addiiton to the game, i can’t help but feel that 4 stages are a low number. Could SSF4 be getting additional stages via DLC ? and is it technically possible?

There’s also a new version of Seth’s stage, so I’d put the number closer to 5, but I hear you. I understand that players always want more of a good thing, but keep in mind that the team has been working extremely hard to complete the game on schedule. Stages are important, but with all of the new modes, characters, balance, bonus stages, and more, there’s a lot to get done in order to make the Super SFIV package as great as we can make it. Many of the core group rarely even leave their desks—the team has been working extremely hard so please understand that. I’d also add that the new stages aren’t just new–they’re pretty great. The African eclipse is my favorite SFIV stage ever. There are no plans for DLC stages right now, although we have tried to create the backend hooks to make changes.

14- speaking of DLC is capcom planning more DLC contents besides the announced free tournament mode and Alt Costumes?

The costumes and the free tournament mode are the only plans for additional content right now.

15- One thing we have heard from Ono san, is that SF4 was not built to receive online updates and expansions and that was one reason why ssf4 is a stand alone game. Is SSF4 being built the same way or will it be possible for the title to be updated later on to become ssf4 hyper turbo remix via an online expansion ?

This should be technically possible, though there are currently no plans for anything like that.

16- A welcomed addition to SSF4 is the re-done animated prologues and endings by studio gonzo. will the old animated sequences done by studio 4C for sf4 still be included on the ssf4 disc ?

All the animated sequences have been redone. It’s a new story, so the SFIV sequences are meant for the SFIV story, and the new SSFIV sequences tell the Super story.

17- Will there be an option this time around to play all prologues and endings in a sequence rather than clicking on each one by itself?

Interesting idea. I’ve actually been playing the game itself so much that I don’t know off-hand, but not that I recall.

18- Xbox 360 owners in Japan will be treated to a downloadable SSF4 anime movie focusing on Juri, will we get that same movie in NA and EU, and if so, is it going to be exclusive to xbox 360 as well?

The X360 exclusivity is only for the Japanese territory. There hasn’t been a decision made yet on how the anime movie will be used outside of Japan.

19- Since the box art for SSF4 has been revealed, a large number of fans (including me) have requested the boxart to be changed and match the excellent Japanese boxart. Knowing that this happened with sf4, can we expect Capcom to listen to us fanboys one more time ?

The marketing department certainly spent a lot of time looking at all the feedback. We’ll see shortly which direction they take as a result, but rest assured that they’re aware of the reaction.

20- SF4 will be making its way to the portable realm by having an iphone port. what are the chances of a future sf4 or ssf4 psp version ?

If it were solely up to the team, I’m sure SFIV would be on every platform imaginable. Those kinds of decisions are made by the strategy group, however, which has to take into account the port dev costs and time investment vs likely profits.

21- Last question, we were told on several occasions that people who kept their sf4 copy will be treated to a bonus when they purchase SSF4, can we get a hint on what this bonus might be?

The marketing team would probably kill me for letting that out of the bag, but I’ll say it looks pretty cool.

Thank you Seth.

Source: http://www.hadoken.net/?p=1306

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Community SSFIV Interview with Seth Killian

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