Game:

The King of Fighters XV (2022)

Duration: 12:06

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1

Originally streamed at:
twitch.tv/yuugijoou

My beta isn't nearly this polished, let me tell ya:
twitter.com/yuugijoou
discord.gg/bKT9pRW

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As is hopefully clear by the running time, this is the last one of the set. I'm eventually going to have to come up with an incredibly clever and not-at-all-laborious means of breaking down multiplayer into episodic chunklets like so.

Back in ye olden days, when Tatsunokos and Brawl videos and Clash-y Ninja roamed the earth freely, I would curate every single match by hand, my critical eye tossing back everything that I felt didn't really qualify as "interesting to watch" and all that jazz.

Honestly, it was a lot of extra effort, involving multiple watch-throughs of every single session I ever had (really gets in the way of playing MORE, which you'd then have to review meticulously, which would then get in the way of play yet again...oof), detailed honest-to-goodness spreadsheets of the action (yes, I know. and I agree. "NEEERRRRD!"). I'd try to qualify AND quantify each segment's particular applicability, usefulness, describability, and the difficult-to-measure "will people actually want to bother watching this?"

This was also back in an era when YouTube would only allow 10-minute(-and-59-second) and eventually 15-minute(-and-29-second...bwuh?!) videos...everything topped out at 480p30 (eugh!), and compromises were not only commonplace, but absolutely necessary. I'm also a strong believer that seemingly unrelated limitations breed creativity... even in the realm of curated content.

The Internet was also not quite as voracious as it is now, so there's no way I could have dreamed of just using it like a big ol' repository for audiovisual AND textual nonsense that just happens when I'm given access to technology. (If only the descriptions weren't specifically tied to a 5000-character limit. Not even comments have apparent limits when it comes to length anymore?!)

Likewise, the idea that content could be STREAMED for excessive durations in their entirety, thereby short-circuiting the whole notion of "curation"... the world is a scary and impressive (and scary) place in a lot of ways.

So... how on earth do I justify these things existing alongside, much less in direct "competition" with one another? If someone wants to pluck hours of KOF Beta footage off the digital shelf and just start cracking away at it, they can!

It's not "fair" to those who would prefer, as I would, the non-commentary, gameplay-only version! That version comes with waiting, editing, more waiting, and what if I went and curated out the match they really wanted without all the blather?!

It's not "fair" to the people who want to watch a thing complete with commentary that's been carefully trimmed to only the "best" parts either!

All I can really say is that I'm doing the best I can. Trying to please the neurotic monkey on my back first (her name is also "Jo"... weird, huh?) in a tireless quest to "give the people what they want"... when I only asked myself, and no "people"... and in the absence of such "people"... you're stuck with me and my insanity. (Good luck with that!)

This has been your peek behind the development curtain, and I'm sure you'd like to draw it shut, run away, and never think of the horrors you've beheld this day ever again.

Huzzah!

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Match #1 -- Pao Pao Café
Antonov, Meitenkun, and Blue Mary (YuuGiJoou)
vs. Ryo, Meitenkun, and Terry (xB-Squaredx)

I think at this point, it should be pretty clear where I've thrown my allegiances within this particular slice of the final game's roster. The real struggle is to figure out who should round out the team! ...maybe I've been given too much power and need to relax a bit.

Antonov is so big that Meitenkun's high projectile hits him even at mid range! For all my misgivings about Terry in his natural environment versus the Terry I know better, I don't handle him well.

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Match #2 -- Training Stage
Krohnen, K', and Blue Mary (xB-Squaredx)
vs. K', Krohnen, and Isla (YuuGiJoou)

I vaguely and perhaps fancifully remember being asked "are you just always going to put Blue Mary on your team, or what? ...along with the insinuation that perhaps I was somehow being less than sporting.

This instead got me thinking that I was limiting myself in this very important, foundational moment in my KOF experience, and I should probably be branching out anyway.

But, more important than any of that... it was brought to our attention that there's a special throwback theme if you have K' and Krohnen face off. So we hedged our bets and made it happen. No matter the cost!

...also, if I'm not allowed my cake, I can totally just throw a paint can tantrum instead!

... ... ...wait, even more importantly than any of that... is this really the only match we had where Isla was the one who finished?

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This time, I had TWO punching bags lying around! ...but one of them got away super quickly...
B-Squared
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