Cloud vs Link? Megaman vs Kos-Mos? Can do.
 

So I just heard about this indie PC game called Card Sagas Wars which is in development. Apparently it's made with the free fighting game engine MUGEN, and it looks beautiful. The game features spiffy 2D graphics which I know some of us has come to love during the years, and also what looks like a huge library of popular video game characters. Everything from Chun-Li to KOS-MOS.




Apparently a beta release with four playable characters was scheduled for release before Jan 2008, but I don't think they got around to make it.

I'm personally very hyped about this, from the graphics and playable characters alone. I can also imagine this being eternally fun in multiplayer. This is more awesome than Brawl :tpg:

More screenshots and a little info can be found at IndieGames.com.

:gonk:

Oh god, more MUGEN shit. We outlawed this for a reason.

Hmm... I've seen a couple of those backgrounds before. I can't put my finger on it exactly. If they're aiming for profit in this, I hope they've "PREPARE THEMSELVES....." for multiple lawsuits by the owners of these backgrounds/characters.

But it looks really good. I'd play it, if it ever gets released. The sprites look fantastic and I'd love to play this game. Normally I hate MUGEN-esque titles but there seems to be a solid combo system in play, and overall, it looks well made. I'll be keeping an eye on this.

Looks like all they've improved upon is a standardized sprite style for all the characters.
The style of which, reminds me of Tales of Phantasia.

Also as others pointed out: MUGEN THREAD = STYPHOWNED.

Well, fuck the haters. I think the sprites are really awesome, polished work for what I think is a collaborative effort.

They have a site here, which has sprites of a ton of different characters and shit. To say that they'll eventually make enough sprites for each character to put them in a fighting game is ambitious, but the one-offs are still pretty sweet.

You know, as long as this doesn't become a I INSERTED MY OWN BROKEN CHARACTER HAW HAW OH BTW YOU CAN'T HAVE IT CREDIT ME CREDIT ME then I think besides the initial game engine this isn't the Mugen that we have outlawed here. Here we have some genuine guys making a standardized sprite style and some actual fucking balancing and combos that make sense in an overall game focused context. So for now I'll allow this thread to be.

NOTE: THIS DOES NOT MEAN WE ARE ALLOWING ACTUAL MUGEN THREADS. WE STILL AREN'T.

Hey, hey, mr moderator.

Why do you think Mugen games are original?

ACERBANDITO, YOUR RESPONSE GOES HERE

nyoro~n

What?

Wow, this is actually pretty impressive compared to other Mugen projects out there. The character sprites look pretty sweet. I hope the levels are going to be changed.

Agreed. I'm glad they seem to like KOF stages alot more than the others. I think there's also a Tekken 5 stage (church stage) . Anyway, I doubt they'll get a lawsuit or whatever. There's also KOF Zillion >.>;.

Well its looks cool, unlike most MUGEN vids I've seen this one ISNT all glitch-tastic and crappy looking. This looks like it really is well done, BUT, and this is the kicker, we won't know how broken it is 'til it is released, plus fighting games on the PC usually areant worth buying usb controllers in my opinion.

Either way, still is a cool idea, bringing the MUGEN idea and polishing it up. Can't hate, can't hate.

If my memory serves me correctly, I think I see X-men: Children of the Atom, Samurai Showdown, Marvel v. Capcom, Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves backgrounds. Not completely sure, but they do look very familiar.

I really enjoy the sprite work they've done, but the gameplay looks a bit suspect. I think I see a ton of endless combos, which are no fun for anyone. I don't want to lose a fighting game because my opponent managed to get in an 342 hit combo after I missed a block.

Yeah, go check out their website like lurker said. The amount of sprites that they will be creating is absurd and the quality is amazing for such a project. If they can do this then bravo.

And yeah for their promos the backgrounds are ripped from games. I have no idea if they'll eventually recreate background or make their own original backgrounds. Wouldn't surprise me if they went and made new ones eventually. There's a lot of good sprite work being done here.

I realized there was an English FAQ and they said that they'd focus on backgrounds later. Character creation is their priority.

And if you understand some Spanish, they have a pretty interesting guide to making sprites: Tutorial Their card gallery is pretty amazing with such a large breadth of work.

Yup, just read their FAQ myself. Characters first and then they'll go and make original levels. Sounds good.

What was shown in OP was the second trailer. Here's an earlier trailer with more gameplay (how much has been changed I dunno).

YouTube Video

Anyway, it's looking good. I hope they also release an English version of this game (for menus and any other misc text).

I was all about ready to condemn this based on the iffy looking videos, but then I saw these:

http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card485.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card709.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card740.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card658.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card503.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card380.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card130.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card067.gif

My inner faggot can't help but be hopeful, although xiao has a point. There's not a lot here that's overly interesting looking as far as the actual fighting goes, and there's a bit of the whole endless combo faggotry going on too.

I've been thoroughly sick of Combo/Guilty Gear-esque fighting game, especially considering that right now I haven't seen a character with anything that really stands out. I mean, if you watch most Fist of the North Star videos, the fighting generally just isn't fun to watch or participate in. Most people don't realize that what made Marvel vs. Capcom 2 stick out in the US is because the top tier characters in that game are all radically different from each other in terms of how you're going to play...

And games like these are the opposite end of the coin, with an endless streaming river of homogeneous crap. I mean, Mega Man X doing close up combos like a pro? Someone ran out of gameplay inspiration. This isn't to knock their hardwork, but I'd like a good game as well as that kind of roster variety they're going for.

Some of thoes stages are direct rips of KoF stages.

KoF STAGES
Adell's airship from 2003
Magaki's area from KoF XI

Tekken STAGES
Jin's cathedral from Tekken 5
The wilderness stage from T4
Also the outdoor daytime cathedral from Tekken 5: DR

SNK VS Capcom STAGES
Burning city stage (SNK VS Capcom 1 -PS1 version) [second trailer]

As for this free game itself. I'll save the verdict for when I play it. But at least it's interested me in actually playing it however. Hopefully they're music isn't as ripped-off as their stages.

I doubt they will release this for commercial use, that is charge money for it, if MUGEN is a free engine. Let's just hope they won't face the lawsuit.

Holy shit Vyse? And Fei? And PHOENIX? :O

EDIT:
WHAM
http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card314.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card554.gif
Epic battle ensues.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ne/card044.gif

I was sold the minute I noticed Lina Inverse. Plus characters from Breath of Fire 2 and Valkyrie Profile?

That card list was awesome. I noticed characters from so many games and anime. I really doubt they'll incorporate that many people though... how could they? The game looks nice for a freeware mugen based game (lol, just repeating what other people said!) so I'll definitely keep an eye on it.

Most lol character on that list was the Robotrek robot+main character. I had almost forgotten about that game. Eheh.

It looks alright thus far. If they do something great with the fighting system, then I'd, er, download it, hands down. Even if they don't, it'd be interesting to play for a little bit. I'd have to try that Phoenix fighter out.

As interesting as this is, it makes me wonder if the various companies have bothered to study the demand for such games. Given how widely distributed MUGEN and its ilk are, I suspect that a 'legitmate' version would be snapped up like the proverbial hotcakes, meaning dead presidents for everyone involved.

True, but you're talking about a "must have" title for what is considered a niche market.

But who knows. If this new Street Fighter craze turns out to be serious with people actually becoming willing to buy fighting games again and turns into a profitable genre, perhaps the fighting crossovers like CAPCOM VS SNK will return. We can only hope.

I think they're popular because of how you can mix so many different characters from completely different properties though. The problem with making such a game a reality as a legitimate game is just too impossible. Too many companies would be involved that would want a peice of the profit. You're about as likely to see this as you are to see a WWE vs TNA video game.

Unless you're talking about a legitimate make your own fighter game type thing. They tried that already and did terrible at it because the game essentially should have been called Move Maker because that's all you could change in it.

Fighting looks a tad broken (I'll use my same kick move over and over and over and over and over and over) and my face was eating itself as I scrolled down the list looking at all the bloody RPG characters, but damn you obscure website..

http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card495.gif http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card495.gif http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card495.gif http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card495.gif http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card495.gif http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card495.gif http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card495.gif http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card495.gif

http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card650.gif http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card623.gif http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card736.gif http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card675.gif http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card544.gif http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card369.gif http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card346.gif http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card119.gif

Damn you <3

All of the sprites look good. I really hope this is released.

I always dismissed MUGEN as being a case of too little for the amount of effort required. Half of MUGEN's appeal was hunting down and swapping rare characters, or creating your own. Both of them took work and there was no guarantee that they'd be balanced or move with any sense of fluidity.

However, if this is an all-encompassing MUGEN-like package, where all characters are the same size and move with the same framerates, I'd at least give it a try. There's still a thrill to be had by whipping Squall's ass with Simon Belmont. All MUGEN ever needed for to be interesting was some uniformity.

I'll bet that many of the characters are essentially palette swaps. What I mean is, that there will be a limited number of movesets existent within the game and each character will have their animations based around one particular moveset. In the end, it wouldn't be about deciding whether Kratos is strategically better than Ky Kiske, but whether Moveset X is consistently better against Moveset Y. All characters using Moveset X would have an advantage over all those assigned to Moveset Y. Once you know which moveset you prefer, any character using that set becomes instantly playable and all further choices would be purely cosmetic, if this makes sense to anyone.
With so many cards and sprites, this would seem to be the simplest method of designing gameplay. As long as the movesets are fundamentally balanced, the whole game could be fun.

Of course, if it leads to any amount of popularity and praise, the infringement lawsuits will be staggering.

Also:

It seems really interesting, but going through that list, I saw quite a few characters that, while some are awesome, have no place whatsoever in a fighting game.

http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card013.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card073.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card185.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card198.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card314.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card347.gif
http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card352.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card384.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card485.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card503.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card541.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card639.gif
http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card658.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card735.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card913.gif

Are you serious.

What's wrong with Pac Man? He can eat you!

Imagine this on the DS, released as a commercial game. No MUGEN or anything but a professionally created game. Like Jump Superstars.

:psyduck:

It wouldn't be happening then.

It's fine to hope & dream. But then you have to think about the praticality, and when you do it's hard enough to get 2 companies to collaborate to make a VS game, nevermind a game where so many companies all face one another. Therefore if it were on the DS... well it would never happen.

Plus after what happened to Guilty Gear on the DS, I never want to see another fighting game on the DS again.

Well, DS does already have MUGEN, so there's a slight chance.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y13...ort/MUGENJ.jpg

.. oh.

I thought the DS version was lacking somehow. I mean, the novelty of having characters like 5, 8, and 9 in the same game is cool and all, but I thought the developers could have played to each of the series' strengths a little better. 4 and 2 were essentially the same fighters, and I couldn't find anything notable about 3. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but putting so many odds and evens together is just too wacky to take seriously.

Someone told me 10 was a hidden character, but I don't see how that could work.

If at the very least this game leads to a more uniform and balanced MUGEN experience I'd say it was worth it. There's already a ton of possible characters on the site, but if anyone else wanted to add more in the future they'd already have this working template to go by.

http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card182.gif
Also, Will.

Epic Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Negi Springfield fight? (well, I don't see him yet as I'm typing this but I see Asuna) I'm in.

Well, I didn't mean it like "That could happen".
I said imagine, I am fully aware of the possibility of it happening is 0 :P

Poliwag & Max = <3

This game looks sweet...and those sprites look awesome.

lol wtf is mugen

Even if they only wound up doing a TENTH of the characters on their card website, yeah, you're probably right. But since Mugen is open, can't people code their own move sets for characters? I guess that would break the game entirely though..

I don't know, I just think the concept of revisiting a bunch of characters in a uniform art style is neato. That's why when I saw the trailers, I wasn't bothered by the gameplay, I just figured the designers were trying to show off all the neat stuff the characters could do rather than show off how actual gameplay would look like. :dover:

It's a free 2D fighting game engine written in C.
Basically, it means that anyone could create their own fighting games by using the MUGEN engine and then creating their own character sprites, sounds and so on.

And because it's free, you don't create closed source fighting games and try to sell them or use them commercially ;)

Yeash, over 600 characters already? In my opinion that's nuts...really too much to choose from but I can see the replay value in making all of those characters.

Also the lawl factor comes into play when going through those lists.

http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card732.gifhttp://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Blue/card743.gif

I have to admit, seeing FFIV characters in there kinda blew my mind.

http://cardgallery.tales-tra.com/Red/card016.gif BWUAHAAHHA

Honestly, I don't think they'll have ALL those characters done anytime soon... maybe they will release updates and stuff as time goes on? That would seem much more reasonable than making everyone wait for them to program 700+ characters.

But, then again, I don't know how the MUGEN engine works, so it might be easier than I think.

Oh they've pretty much said they won't be doing them all. And definitely not most of them at once. They'll probably show it off with 4 characters first and then boost it to ten and perhaps updates with one to five characters now and then. That would be the way to keep it going if I were to do it.