At Summer Game Fest 2024, Final Weapon had the opportunity to interview Yasuyuki Oda, Nobuyuki Kuroki, and Joshua Weatherford of SNK about the company’s upcoming release, FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves. Our interview dives into the return of the iconic franchise, the collaboration with Capcom on Street Fighter 6, new features for City of the Wolves, and more. A special thanks to Yasuyuki Oda, Nobuyuki Kuroki, Joshua Weatherford, and Brad de Ramón for their time. Please enjoy this exclusive interview!
Why bring back FATAL FURY now? It’s been decades since the last one, and as such a beloved franchise, this is an incredibly important return for many fans. What went into the decision to make 2025 the return of FATAL FURY?
Oda: The biggest thing is that we’re both part of the original FATAL FURY teams from back in the day, but we left SNK for a while and were working on action and fighting games all over the place. In 2014, we came back to SNK, and from there, one of our first goals was to bring back FATAL FURY and bring a conclusion to Mark of the Wolves especially. Obviously, some other things had to be created first, with The King of Fighters taking priority and other titles like Samurai Shodown. It took longer than we wanted to bring the series back, but it was only a matter of time. Going forward, the hope is to revamp and revitalize all of these classic and original series that acted as the building blocks of the original King of Fighters. This will allow us to build up the star power of all these different game characters and build upon the next KoF.
Very neat! It’s really exciting to hear that you had a vision coming back in 2014, and I’m so happy the team at SNK was finally able to realize this with these amazing releases over the past few years. Pivoting here to a recent announcement, we saw an incredible reveal at Summer Game Fest that both Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui are joining the playable roster of Street Fighter 6 in Year 2. What are you both most excited about with that collaboration and how did it come about with Capcom?
Oda: We’ve been talking with Capcom for two years since EVO 2022, where we had a fun collaboration that hit the news with the “Welcome back to EVO!” signs. We had a couple of dinners with their teams, and we obviously wanted it to happen. It took a while, but we’re so happy that they were able to announce it – congratulations to them. In general, we have a great relationship with their Street Fighter team in particular. We meet with them pretty often, having dinners and stuff. The more that these collaborations are successful for both companies and such, the more chance that the one thing we both want the most is going to happen.
FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves has captured a lot of interest from players in the fighting game community who might have first been introduced to SNK’s titles with KoF XV. Do you think that these players will have an easier time transitioning and playing a FATAL FURY title for the first time?
Oda: Obviously, they’re different series, with KoF offering 3v3 and FATAL FURY as 1v1, which can bring down the hurdle a little bit, but it does bring up the difficulty at the same time, as you really have to learn your character. This will play just like many classic SNK fighting games, so I think you’ll be able to run in and understand it. Also, it’s interesting because KoF has plenty of characters from the FATAL FURY series. I think players will appreciate getting to experience these characters in their original series if they take the chance to check out City of the Wolves.
I can definitely see that! I think players will love exploring the origins of characters like Terry and Rock Howard. Just to confirm, FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves will launch with both crossplay and rollback netcode, right?
Joshua Weatherford: Yes, we’ll have both of those features on day one for players to enjoy.
That’s amazing to hear. Now, more than ever, training modes have been a big focus for players to learn characters and practice in fighting games. What features is the team looking to implement? Is something like an online training mode where players can train with each other in consideration?
Oda: We don’t have any specific modes to talk about, but we’re watching the industry closely to ensure City of the Wolves is up to standards. We’re always trying to improve upon tutorials, training modes, and all other features that can help players begin learning the ins and outs of our games.
Speaking of ways to help players, one of the newer features I’ve noticed was in Tekken 8, which allowed players to view replays and hop right in and practice where they went wrong.
Oda: That’s a really cool feature. Replays are one area we’re definitely looking at, but I don’t think we have our own solution yet.
What’s one thing you all are looking forward to the most when players get their hands on City of the Wolves? I’m sure it’s very exciting that we’re getting closer and closer to Early 2025.
Kuroki: I’m looking forward to players who aren’t necessarily ‘pro’ fighting game players being able to jump in and enjoy doing some of the flashy combos and interesting moves and such. We added features like Smart Style this time, and we put a lot of work into the presentation and how it works together with the various systems in the game. Even with very small combos, like Rev Accels.
Oda: I’ve worked in the South Town universe for so much of my career, so I’m looking forward to everyone being able to experience that kind of atmosphere again, from everything to how the main menu is designed to the character select, the game modes, and more. It’s made to be a true love letter to South Town.
Note: This interview was edited for clarity.
For more on FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves, be sure to check out our preview of the game!