Concord vs Darkstalkers is the biggest example of how important character design is. One is an IP that died literally faster than a house fly not-exclusively-but-mainly because of its character design. The other is a 90's IP that's still widely known and beloved to this day for its characters that continue to receive fan art on the daily, despite its parent company refusing against all reason and logic to make more games for it.
The reason so many fighting game characters have such exaggerated proportions is actually for readability so you always know what’s going on in a match. It’s also the same reason that certain costumes get banned in tournaments such as Blanka’s Blanka Chan costume in Street Fighter because it obscures the limbs and makes certain animations harder to see.
Shoutout to Morriga's one and only game sprite for keeping the Darkstalkers franchise alive for *OVER TWENTY YEARS* almost all on her own until CAPCOM had to make 3D versions. (Which was a pretty lazy sprite in comparison.)
the first time Morrigan used something other than her old sprite was Puzzle Fighter, which basically just redrew her sprites with chibi proportions... the first time she escaped being a sprite was Tatsunoko vs Capcom
It's why Skullgirls is the spiritual successor to Darkstalkers (and why I'm actually kind of glad post-SF4 Capcom never moved forward with the franchise) because you simply can't do the gory, exaggerated, cartoon-esque aesthetic of the Night Warriors justice in 3D the way you can with 2D sprites. Even the cel-shaded style of ARCSystem 2D fighters still use 3D rigging and can't stretch or layer their models to achieve the fluidity the Alpha engine could back in the late 90s.
@@Rycel2001 Don't underestimate CAPCOM's capabilities. I guarantee that they can do it justice if they _"care enough"_ but therein lies the problem. That and after so many years the nostalgia will likely overshadow everything. People will simply be unable to judge any new Darkstalers game objectively. Since it has live to up to the absolute legendary status of the original and and today's expectations would never be met in people's eyes so people will likely be judging it negatively.
@@ProtonCannon Frankly, nostalgia is the only thing keeping to property alive within the player base, as well as the only thing CAPCOM cares to market toward (vis a vis character cameos and skins purchasable in other games). If another Darkstalkers/Vampire is ever produced, CAPCOM will absolutely hire on another dev studio to produce it since they obviously won't give it a budget to match their mainline franchises. However, that could work in the game's favor, since I don't worry so much about the new game's look as much as its feel. Too much of CAPCOM's design philosophy of their fighting titles are focused on gimmicky subsystems or layered monetization that I just don't trust them to deliver a tight, fast, streamlined fighting game which seamlessly meshes a darkly-humorous and diverse-yet-cohesive artistic style. AAA video game companies are so risk-adverse the atmosphere which enabled this franchise in the first place does not exist anymore, despite the monumental talent they can bring to bear which could certainly succeed if given the chance.
Just fyi: The Darkstalkers games are available in Capcom Fighting Collection with online matchmaking lobbies and some nice art galleries. Also, the DS games were made on the same hardware, the CPSII board, so all the characters were animated with the same technical constraints. A few years experience still helps get the most out of hardware, though.
Jedha canonically killed Jon Talbain's mom. Jon's whole arc is "I miss my mom, I hate being a werewolf and humans fucking suck!" He eventually sorted out the second and third things, but unfortunately Jedha is still alive!
honestly one of the cutest things about morrigan is that tidbit about her being able to feed off of stimulation being that she could just walk up to Peter and just grab a coffee and they chat for a bit and she's set for the day. I would 100% believe her being invited to be at Peter and Mary Jane's wedding since I bet she hands out with em so much she's a close friend to them
I really do hope they bring Darkstalkers back one day, because as far as I know there isn’t any other fighting game out there that’s themed around monsters like vampires and werewolves. The idea is already unique, and the characters are really fun too
@@taurist7421 Killer Instinct doesn't match that well to Darkstalkers even with the monsters. A misunderstanding of what makes Darkstalkers unique. Monsters are just a part of the pie that is Dark Stalkers, a single layer of what is enjoyable about the series.
A Martial arts Werewolf, Red Riding Hood with a TMP, A rock n Roll Zombie, A cat girl that becomes a Nun/Showgirl and for some god forsaken reason Capcom Refuses to give us a brand new game outside of a fighting game collection.
The Morrigan thing is true, but there’s a bit more to it. The devs were trying to figure out another character, but they didn’t really want to make another vampire. The American employee in the office said “What about a succubus?” To which the Japanese devs had no idea what that was and looked it up.
I've also heard originally Lilith was going to be an angelic character, and Morrigan's half sister, but they dropped the concept feeling too many games at the time were doing angelic characters.
@@Zretgul_timerunner That's very much a good point if they're surrounded by Fanboys of Darkstalkers. Oh! And while we're at it, we can imagine if those Bishoujo Statue Makers can do the same thing to Skullgirls, ARMS, maybe Pokkén Tournament
We're always looking to do more videos like these, so feel free to put any suggestions for design or outfit reviews here! Also make sure to check out our streams on here or twitch.tv/kinkymation. We're going over the designs of the Zelda Triforce Trio tomorrow at around 4 EST/1 EST PM, so pop on in and thirst along with us.
When I saw "Drakstalkers" I immediatly clicked! Also, for the next one, I suggest Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition. In terms of design, it's a MUST LOOK.
YES PLEASE! This, Skullgirls, and Guilty Gear where my top series of hope you’d cover for review. They have banger character designs I’d think you’d find interesting
Watching Lily going through designs is always mega interesting, and you learn a lot from listening to her. I also adore the whole "Friend-Shaped" term she has for characters with round, cuddly designs, as it's very effectively descriptive!
Fun Fact: Q-Bee isn’t the full sized woman you see, she’s really a two foot tall chibi version of herself with stilts in a suit/exoskeleton as seen on her electrocuted sprite and some entrance animations.
Darkstalkers needs to make a comeback, or maybe make a crossover with Skullgirls. But if you would like to review other fighting game characters, I'd recommend Killer Instinct.
Skullgirls is def heavily inspired by Darkstalkers. AlexAhad made tons of Darkstalkers artwork before making his Skullgirl's universe, and continues to this day. Though he's no longer on the GameDev side for Skullgirls after getting pushed out. DS had an announcement for a new game but got cancelled. The teaser video is up to see with crowd reaction. Classic Capcom.
Probably my favorite fighting game roster, design wise right next to BlazBlue. Unique, incredibly stylized, creative, it's amazing. Absolutely a crime that we don't have a modern interation of this series
Hey! Another BlazBlue enjoyer. That's kinda rare to see. I would love Kinky to do a break down for the franchise, but it would be too many characters to do one video. Also Guilty Gear would probably get more views, sadly
Been studiying Darkstalkers these past few days for a project. Told a friend this series is the perfect Series to study character design... I got this vid in my suggestions this appeared right when I needeed it! That's cool! Love you insight.
Kinkymation? That name sounds familiar. _Looks her up_ Ohh, so that's why. Nice😎 (I didn't thought that you would be so cultured. Also, I love your cats♥)
Something many of us forgot to mention is Felicia x Jo Talbain, game wise there ins't interaction but comics i reccomend checking beaucase there they are basicly married but without saying it openly, i know you like drawing ships in your arts soo theres a new option for you
@@Coramelimane The Fans Ship them On the Regular! And Hell, they even teamed up in the Capcom Approved “Darkstalkers: Night Warriors” 4 part OVA series! Honestly I’m ALL For this Relationship being Solidified, If Capcom Ever Decides to JUST MAKE THE NEXT GAME!!!
Lily. Given your love of great character designs/art and being a 'monster-lover'. How about doing a video on the fighting game franchise Bloody Roar? If you've never heard of it. The game's claim-to-fame are fighters that transform into a wide range of beasts. So each one would have two, or more, forms for you to judge.
I think the lore with Huizil is that they are extraterrestrial machines that came to earth before human civilization. They actually are the cause of dinosaurs becoming extinct. When the one that's playable in-game awakened, it was found in the Teotihuacan ruins in Mexico, hence the Mexican name. So it didn't originate from Mexico, but that's where it was named. From a character design standpoint, it is weird that they didn't follow the theming, almost like they decided it's origin kind of last minute
I love seeing design analyses like this that show how much nuance there is to a character’s looks (and in the case of a fighting game- or any game really, also feel). Or just the nuance is anything as a whole, like music or sound design (which is something I don’t ever really see). Would love to see you talk about either of ArcSys’s fighting games (BlazBlue and/or Guilty Gear), and/or maybe some weirder picks like Under Night In-Birth or maybe something like Idol Showdown? (And on that note, would be cool to see like a breakdown of some of hololive’s designs or just VTuber designs in general, though dunno if that’s considered not-okay to some capacity.)
Girl. I love Darkstalkers SO MUCH especially the character designs. My favorite characters are Morrigan, Talbain, and Felicia with Talbain currently being my main in VSav
Also, I bet no one will believe me when I say Raptor was a human who sold the souls of people who went to his concerts in order to gain the favor of a high ranked Darkstalker in the realm of Makai (the world the Darkstalkers are from) who turned him into a zombie and gave him powers as well as that little frog dude who’s actually supposed to keep an eye on him.
I'd still love to see you go through at least some of the characters in arknights. The biggest issue is that they're almost all just unmoving jpgs. But their designs are actual peak.
@@TheScreamingIdiot I’m with you on wanting to see lily review arknights designs. And she has some familiarity with it. But for ease of reviewing it I would imagine she would have to break down the roster. Maybe into first 6 stars, then 5 stars and so on.
Amazing analysis video of one of my favorite fighting game franchise's, also you are a super entertaining person. I've played a lot of Darkstalkers and my favourite characters are Hsein-Ko, Queen Bee and BB Hood so I was very happy to see them get so much love.
It's so weird how Capcom declares this a dead series even though in every Capcom compilation fighting game almost always has Morrigan and Felicia in it. Then again looking at Pyron's sprite sheet, the animators were probably like fuck it I'm done. No more over complicated monster animations, no more redrawing every frame from scratch, no more figuring out insane anatomy, no more DARK STALKERS!!! But keep Morrigan and sexy kitty 😺
What’s sad is that those are the only characters most non darkstalker players are most likely to know about unless they’ve played project x zone or MVCI
As much as we want Darkstalkers again, with the artist Akira "Akiman" Yasuda departing Capcom in 2003 and the later artists not capturing the same magic, the series might be forever attached to the Marvel vs Capcom games.
@@brettwood1351 Amingo, Cactus, was never confirmed as a Darkstalkers asset. Ruby Heart was a rejected Darkstalker concept since it didn't fit the crazy themes as it was too... normal and not as iconic.
well the main artist of darkstalkers 3 and xmen up to marvel vs capcom 2 was Bengus (who also did the poster cover for capcom fighting collection) although theres no art for the mvc colelction he still can make more with darkstalkers.
this was a really enjoyable stream, so much fun watching so much material. I wouldn't mind another yap stream checking all the silly frames they did for the characters, like how Qbee has an electrified frame where you can see a smaller Qbee controlling the bigger Qbee body
They essentially said: "If this collection sell we'll revive the IP" It's was a bunch of old games with unlockables so they sold nothing and it's still dead
The Darkstalkers games are currently available in Capcom Fighting Collection, just fyi. It's sold decently afaik but not enough to turn corporate heads.
@@BrassMountainLion the creators of the collection said that enough copies didn't justify that any new release, it must've did good in sales as its part of the capcom fighting collection series, additionally in thorgis arcade talking about the mvc collection he mentions that the ace attorney games always get collections but doesn't mean we are getting a new game, darkstalkers resurrection was in 2013 during capcom's "dark ages" so hopefully that sheds light on the subject.
Ain't really Capcom who declared the series dead, but the fans. For how much everyone loves to say they want a new Darkstalkers, they never sell. Capcom keeps putting up bundles to gauge interest and it never works. The Capcom Fighting Collection was literally over half with Darkstalkers games and that didn't do much. 1:15 The gimmick is that this is all the classic Universal horror movie monsters and then some being slapped on the Street Fighter frame. 49:51 Her sister turns into the talisman. 54:23 One of her win poses is singing karaoke and another is a businessman who hired her shows up, gives her the money for completing her job and she starts couning it, smoking a cigar.
Thinking of fighting games that are basically dead, hope you give some love to killer instinct Edit: wow speaking of forgotten, i just tried to find stuff on killer instinct in the site you were using, and there's basically nothing, especially for killer instinct (2013), and that game has the best versions of those characters
I cannot express how much it inores me that people call jacked muscle bound toned characters twinks when they're just not hairy. Talbain is NOT a twink
When I first heard about the roster of these games (via a review of a really meh Darkstalkers ova) I was so sad this IP was effectively dead save cameo-ing in other games. And it should be able to carve out a healthy niche in the fighting game scene without stepping on too many other toes. And they could absolutely add new character designs if they tried. You've already got a punk rocker zombie who skims the souls of his audience, so there's room to play and go hog wild!
The girl on Demitri's Midnight Bliss on Ryu is the milk girl from Street Fighter 2 the Animated Movie. Ryu accidentally bumped into the girl making her spill the milk, so he apologized to her by giving her money to get more milk.
Yeah... most people would gravitate towards Mori, Felicia, and Hsien-Ko (myself included), but I like Donovan and Tailbain. Jedah ad B.B. Hood are just insane! Everyone just animates well in their own way. I feel there could be more characters since Darkstalkers 3/Vampire Savior has 2 unique random select interactions: a looming "Shadow" that controls the random selected character and possesses the loser if it wins leaving the previous character a lifeless husk, or a "Marionette" who controls a lifeless duplicate of your opponent at the start of each match (only mirror matches). Honestly Red Earth would be in a similar vain to Darkstalkers kinda like how Final Fight and Street Fighter are.
@Kinkymation 30:16 I also see Ikkakumon with his face in that image (Gomamons Champion form) Also think Sasquatch in that image looks cute too, eyes are done in a way to give that vibe which is cool.
I would like to make a game suggestion for you to look at a few of their characters. "Destiny Child" So frankly weird character designs to be seen in that one.
I recently saw fanart of Spider-Man with Morrigan and Lillith on each arm and they're wearing shirts that say "HAWK tuah" Also, the "head in torso" is very reminiscent of some of the major demons in the Ghosts 'n' Goblins series, which was also made by Capcom. I wonder if Bishamon's designer worked on those games.
Also there are two secret characters I don’t know if you covered marionette and Shadow dear mostly just a random select but they do have there own art.
I will say that I think if you like the designs of the Darkstalkers cast, I think its hella worth it to check out the games. The last game the series, Vampire Savior, is so fast and frantic without seeming like too much is happening that I think you and anyone reading this would get a kick out of it. Not to mention that every character is so unique from on another, and not like in most fighters where some characters have one little unique thing about them, like every character has completely different movement styles and special effects that just add to the characters charm and designs that its just fun to mess around with or is really fun to try and learn a little deeper
Favorite Characters: John, Dimitiri, Felicia, Morrigan, and Bee Fun Fact: Morrigan actually got split into three pieces. Lilith was the second one. We never officially learn who the third is, but we're all pretty convinced it's Anita.
