The first mainline KOF entry to not be associated with the original SNK branding, KOF 2001 is often regarded as one of, if not the worst entry in the series. Literally nobody cares about this game. Like nobody. Regardless, I still wanted to give a little spotlight on this entry as its placement in the series and development is quite fascinating.
After the original SNK went bankrupt, development of KOF was handed to a Korean developer Eolith. They would handle the series for a measly two entries before former SNK employees would form Playmore and buy back the license. As a result, the Eolith era of KOF is the shortest and most bizarre in the series. The first giveaway being the presentation. Coming off of the heels of KOF ‘00, ‘01 is amazingly unpolished in the presentation department by comparison, delivering some of the worst graphics and music in the franchise. Most of the character portraits in the game are drawn horribly, having rather odd expressions or lack of proportion or anatomy. Of course, overly-exaggerated character art isn’t inherently bad, but it just looks so ugly here. Once again, compared to the delicious ‘00 character art this looks like a rough sketch and not a finished drawing. Now, I will say that the promotional art drawn by Nona is very solid, and the PS2 port gave it the proper spotlight by replacing it over the arcade artwork. It doesn’t hold a candle to the charm and surrealness of Shinkiro’s art, but it offers a different interpretation of these characters and I greatly appreciate it.
Music-wise… Jesus Christ. It’s not my least favorite OST but most of the tracks are either bland or annoying in the arcade version. They don’t share the creativity of previous soundtracks in the series, by being super repetitive and overly similar in instrumentation. Now some of the instruments and samples chosen are very punchy, and they have potential, but the tracks are just not making good use of them. The arranged OST, which is exclusive to the Japan only NESTS saga PS2 collection, is… still meh. It’s literally the same tracks but with CD quality instruments, so I’d say it is better, but it doesn’t fix any of the music compositionally.
Moving to the gameplay…. eh? It’s fine. The striker system in this game is sorta interesting and it does have a similar appeal to ‘00 in how broken they are, but the charm is lost when all of those extra strikers were removed. The game’s attempt at a CVS1/2 ratio system is also neat, but overall kind of forgettable. Overall, the game is pretty fun on a casual level and nothing else. Definitely not helped by being sandwiched in between ‘00 and ‘02, both being games that exude more creativity.
I don’t talk about story much but the NESTS saga is my favorite in the KOF series because of its original characters and atmosphere, so it is a bit unfortunate that the third and final game of the arc doesn’t have what I liked about its older siblings. The whole idea of the tournaments in this arc being shady underground fights are removed when the stages mostly compose of giant crowds cheering in broad daylight. Not helped by the fact that narratively, everyone is supposed to hate the tournament at this point, so why are these people here? Igniz is a funny villain. I like the note that the ending leaves on with K’ and Kula. That’s it.
If I had a way to describe ‘01, it’s that it has so many elements I enjoy, and it was clearly made by people who wanted to care. Not to get deep into discussing the development cycle but the tl;dr is that Eolith told BrezzaSoft to make the game in like, a year, while also having a ton of control over what was and wasn’t allowed, mostly enforcing a lot of fanservicey elements. It does lead to some cool stuff, like Angel and May Lee were suggested by Eolith, both of which became fan favorites, and it was pretty neat seeing the Orochi saga Japan team come back together for the arc finale. The game has attitude, it’s got spunk, cool aesthetics (especially through its UI) but not the time or budget to make it fully realized. Not terrible by any means, but it’ll always be disappointing that this game didn’t get the development resources it deserved. Luckily, Eolith would drop one more KOF game after this, and while it does suffer a similar “not getting the resources it needed” problem, it’s one of the best entries in the series, and I plan on writing up on it next.
After the original SNK went bankrupt, development of KOF was handed to a Korean developer Eolith. They would handle the series for a measly two entries before former SNK employees would form Playmore and buy back the license. As a result, the Eolith era of KOF is the shortest and most bizarre in the series. The first giveaway being the presentation. Coming off of the heels of KOF ‘00, ‘01 is amazingly unpolished in the presentation department by comparison, delivering some of the worst graphics and music in the franchise. Most of the character portraits in the game are drawn horribly, having rather odd expressions or lack of proportion or anatomy. Of course, overly-exaggerated character art isn’t inherently bad, but it just looks so ugly here. Once again, compared to the delicious ‘00 character art this looks like a rough sketch and not a finished drawing. Now, I will say that the promotional art drawn by Nona is very solid, and the PS2 port gave it the proper spotlight by replacing it over the arcade artwork. It doesn’t hold a candle to the charm and surrealness of Shinkiro’s art, but it offers a different interpretation of these characters and I greatly appreciate it.
Music-wise… Jesus Christ. It’s not my least favorite OST but most of the tracks are either bland or annoying in the arcade version. They don’t share the creativity of previous soundtracks in the series, by being super repetitive and overly similar in instrumentation. Now some of the instruments and samples chosen are very punchy, and they have potential, but the tracks are just not making good use of them. The arranged OST, which is exclusive to the Japan only NESTS saga PS2 collection, is… still meh. It’s literally the same tracks but with CD quality instruments, so I’d say it is better, but it doesn’t fix any of the music compositionally.
Moving to the gameplay…. eh? It’s fine. The striker system in this game is sorta interesting and it does have a similar appeal to ‘00 in how broken they are, but the charm is lost when all of those extra strikers were removed. The game’s attempt at a CVS1/2 ratio system is also neat, but overall kind of forgettable. Overall, the game is pretty fun on a casual level and nothing else. Definitely not helped by being sandwiched in between ‘00 and ‘02, both being games that exude more creativity.
I don’t talk about story much but the NESTS saga is my favorite in the KOF series because of its original characters and atmosphere, so it is a bit unfortunate that the third and final game of the arc doesn’t have what I liked about its older siblings. The whole idea of the tournaments in this arc being shady underground fights are removed when the stages mostly compose of giant crowds cheering in broad daylight. Not helped by the fact that narratively, everyone is supposed to hate the tournament at this point, so why are these people here? Igniz is a funny villain. I like the note that the ending leaves on with K’ and Kula. That’s it.
If I had a way to describe ‘01, it’s that it has so many elements I enjoy, and it was clearly made by people who wanted to care. Not to get deep into discussing the development cycle but the tl;dr is that Eolith told BrezzaSoft to make the game in like, a year, while also having a ton of control over what was and wasn’t allowed, mostly enforcing a lot of fanservicey elements. It does lead to some cool stuff, like Angel and May Lee were suggested by Eolith, both of which became fan favorites, and it was pretty neat seeing the Orochi saga Japan team come back together for the arc finale. The game has attitude, it’s got spunk, cool aesthetics (especially through its UI) but not the time or budget to make it fully realized. Not terrible by any means, but it’ll always be disappointing that this game didn’t get the development resources it deserved. Luckily, Eolith would drop one more KOF game after this, and while it does suffer a similar “not getting the resources it needed” problem, it’s one of the best entries in the series, and I plan on writing up on it next.