It’s been quite a long time since the pioneering fighting game franchise Fatal Fury has seen a proper new installment. Yes, characters from the Fatal Fury series have shown up in other games, but the last proper Fatal Fury game, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, hit arcades all the way back in 1999. 25 years later, the Legendary Wolves are back in action in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, ready to captivate a new generation of fighting gamers and tie-up plot threads longtime fans have seen dangling for decades. 

To get a close-up look at Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, we sat down with director Hayato Konya and art director Yoichiro Soeda to discuss the game’s development, the new and returning faces, and what makes it special.

A continuation long in the making 

Fatal Fury is among the pioneers of the fighting game genre. The original game followed martial artists Terry and Andy Bogard and their friend Joe Higashi on a quest to avenge the death of their adoptive father. It emphasized story and cinematics, ending with a shocking climactic scene where villain Geese Howard falls to his demise from a skyscraper. From that point on, Fatal Fury’s gameplay would evolve greatly. Still, the emphasis on stylish and memorable characters, action-film-inspired stories, and its vibrant Southtown setting would continue.

“In the very beginning, we had the concept where Fatal Fury was like a movie, where the protagonists had to work up to fight the big villain,” Soeda said. “It was popular, and players wanted more, so we kept expanding with each game. At one point, Terry takes on Geese’s child Rock as his son. At the time, we didn’t know where that would lead.” 

Eventually, however, Rock became the new face of Fatal Fury.

These wolves pack style

One of the most striking elements of City of the Wolves is its bold, vibrant art style. The visuals were meant to evoke a mixture of American comic art and Japanese anime and appeal to both old and new players. 

“We wanted the characters to really ‘pop’ and be striking. We thought American comic books do that well, and we wanted to emulate that,” Soeda said. “Fatal Fury traditionally has an anime style to it. We felt that, for the modern audience, the blending of those two things would work well for the game. Now we have it, and it looks great.”

One of the newest additions to City of the Wolves’ gameplay is the Rev Gauge, a special meter tied in with new mechanics that allows for new attacks and movement techniques. The damage players can score off using Rev-boosted skills like powered-up Rev Arts special moves and Rev Accel to chain damaging attacks together is explosive. Still, the danger of using too much Rev and going into a fatigued Overheat state is also a concern.

“We want to give people the ability to use super moves, but not limit them to a single gauge,” explains Konya. ” So, we have two different bars, making it a lot easier. Originally, there was no Rev Gauge–just a power gauge. The idea came from Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, where you had a Heat gauge. We modernized and made it more flashy and easier to use.”

Coming home to Southtown

One thing fans are eagerly anticipating is character reveals of both old favorites and new faces. One example is the recent re-introduction of longtime fan favorite character Mai Shiranui, sporting a new look. But even the new characters have ties to old favorites: the spunky young martial artist Preecha is a disciple of the original hero, Joe Higashi. 

“Garou left us with a lot of homework,” says Konya. “What happened with Hotaru and her brother? What’s going on with Kain and Rock? We want to focus on telling those stories to completion and making sure that we’ve tied up all of those things. So we have a lot of work to do.”

SNK games also have a history of meshing gameplay and narrative together, with story events affecting characters’ skills and abilities that will continue in City of the Wolves.

“It’s been 25 years since Garou was released, and there’s a lot of people who are still playing that game now,” notes Konya. “But we consider the story very important. And if the story requires this person to lose powers, lose their arm, then so be it. Still, because this is a long-awaited game, we don’t want to change it so much that it becomes alien to people looking forward to seeing these characters again. It’s a balancing act.”

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves will mark the series’ long-awaited return on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on April 21 of next year. Fret not, fans of the Wolves. You won’t be hungry for much longer.