It’s been quite a long time since the pioneering fighting game franchise Fatal Fury has seen a proper new installment. Yes, characters from the Fatal Fury series have shown up in other games, but the last proper Fatal Fury game, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, hit arcades all the way back in 1999. 25 years later, the Legendary Wolves are back in action in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, ready to captivate a new generation of fighting gamers and tie-up plot threads longtime fans have seen dangling for decades.
To get a close-up look at Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, we sat down with director Hayato Konya and art director Yoichiro Soeda to discuss the game’s development, the new and returning faces, and what makes it special.
A continuation long in the making
Fatal Fury is among the pioneers of the fighting game genre. The original game followed martial artists Terry and Andy Bogard and their friend Joe Higashi on a quest to avenge the death of their adoptive father. It emphasized story and cinematics, ending with a shocking climactic scene where villain Geese Howard falls to his demise from a skyscraper. From that point on, Fatal Fury’s gameplay would evolve greatly. Still, the emphasis on stylish and memorable characters, action-film-inspired stories, and its vibrant Southtown setting would continue.
“In the very beginning, we had the concept where Fatal Fury was like a movie, where the protagonists had to work up to fight the big villain,” Soeda said. “It was popular, and players wanted more, so we kept expanding with each game. At one point, Terry takes on Geese’s child Rock as his son. At the time, we didn’t know where that would lead.”
Eventually, however, Rock became the new face of Fatal Fury.
These wolves pack style
One of the most striking elements of City of the Wolves is its bold, vibrant art style. The visuals were meant to evoke a mixture of American comic art and Japanese anime and appeal to both old and new players.
“We wanted the characters to really ‘pop’ and be striking. We thought American comic books do that well, and we wanted to emulate that,” Soeda said. “Fatal Fury traditionally has an anime style to it. We felt that, for the modern audience, the blending of those two things would work well for the game. Now we have it, and it looks great.”
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