KOF XV Review : P3: Content

  1. Graphics
  2. Gameplay
  3. Content
  4. Sound & Music
  5. Reception

Content

The trailer seems packed but in reality the KOFXV offers…. limited content, it’s really just a fighting game. But if you like that, you’ll be happy, very happy.

Think about how we became fans of this genre. It was at first, the fighting.  Then we fell in love with the characters. But once we got tired of fighting, it was game over, and then just collected pictures from the Internet.  The perversion began with the saturation of the market, there were too many fighting games, and the objective changed, we wanted to see the ending of a character,  then go to the next, rinse and repeat. Our skills were less honed, less focused. It was getting messy.  We lost the focus of fighting.  Then we had a fighting game crash, and life events also got in the way.  The scene went quiet until the revival around 2010.  That was a decade ago, yes, holy shit, indeed.  Zooming forward, games built up more content to satisfy gamers: peak content was customising your fighter, reading a good story and playing mini games. A fighting game with an arcade story mode isn’t enough, in terms of content for the average gamer; it’s in this area that SNK has excelled at in the past but hasn’t quite stepped up to the plate with KOF15.  However there are still some jewels to be found in the seemingly bare desert.

Update: There are character introductions, I just spotted Ralf vs Heidern!  Ralf vs Clark starts a dialogue!  This is great!

Did you know that around 400 people worked on KOFXV?  What did they work on?  It seems their focus was primarily the graphics, the sound and the programming for it to all come together, to make a premium fighting game.  What they didn’t have time for, or perhaps out of choice, was to make things for the player to do, aside from fighting.

It’s a fighting game, it’s about fighting, is that enough for a mainstream casual player? Well, if we look at other fighting games, there is usually a story mode… or just an arcade mode with a story.  Which is still light on story.  And that’s the problem with fighting games.  If you aren’t happy enough with fighting, there’s not much else to do, and after you watch the endings, it’ll be headed to the trade-in store (unless you bought digital, so uhhhh yeah hmm).

Time for a rant.

Some games had nothing but a fighting mode and managed to score a 10/10. Imagine that. Just imagine that. A fighting game so fun, you didn’t need any other content, not even an arcade mode, not even online, not even fighting someone else.  Do you believe it?  No, and you damn well shouldn’t.  A fighting game can be great playing on your own but the peak of your fighting game memories is when you played it with someone, with friends, with family, with anyone.  All games peak when you can play together.  Giving 10/10 for a fighting game where you didn’t even test the online, without any care for a story mode, means you are an absolute fighting game maniac and shouldn’t be writing reviews for a mainstream audience.

Fortunately, I’m also a fighting game maniac. And this review isn’t for the mainstream.  However, spoiler alert, KOFXV isn’t going to get 10/10 but if we go by the standards set by those reviews, KOFXV should get 11/10.

But let’s be realistic.  KOF fans are not all fighting game maniacs.  There are those who like story modes, galleries and stuff to do.  There’s a bit, but not that much, and SNK still has time to improve it. Other games did, and other games even charged people for it.

The player who loads the game up mainly to fight other players will be very happy.  Like other modern fighting games, SNK has focused on this content, the pvp section being the most supported, arguably I’d say that SNK is betting on eSports in the long term. However, in this mode, when you connect, they have favoured certain modes and regions over others which, in my opinion, is a mistake, if they wanted the online world of KOF to really flourish. For example, there is a fantastic mode called Party mode, but nobody will find it unless they actually change the default options.  These modes should be apparent and available immediately to show a variety of activities to the player.  Instead, it seems like SNK left players to reach out to others by themselves.  SNK is again focused on pure PvP, and that’s where we come to ranking.

Ranking mode is excellent, it meets all requirements. It has nice options to put player names on the screen, for example.  If you had a fun match, you can now ask for a rematch even in ranking mode, whereas before they would disappear, although they can still rage quit. Saying that, there is now a mysterious penalty if players rage quit too much, and it’s visible on their profile.  If I were to niggle pick, I would say the “same region” default is going to hurt them again. This function boxes up the players and should be removed completely – the game should list opponents simply based on their ping and proximity.  This goes hand in hand with their motivation for the player to go online with a grading system, which gives them a bonus for going online once a day, reminiscent of gacha games without the gambling – that’s very good!  What’s also good is that players can’t run away from a match, you are presented with a connection icon, with no identity offered.  Once you accept, you’ll have to fight!  This is scary but good for a proper ranking system to be fair.

Connections are great due to the netcode using rollback.  Yes, rollback, that magical hype word that brings hope and then teleports to your online experience.  Even at its worst, it’s still the best netcode.  KOFXV rollback development began in the summer of 2021… does that make anyone raise an eyebrow?  No?

Remember the Fighting Game Developers Online Roundtable where some were complaining that Rollback was too hard to do and too expensive?  It seems that some of the devs there kept their cards close to their chest.

In September 2020, SNK had already announced rollback was coming to KOF2002UM with the help of Code Mystics.  At the roundtable, KOF producer Yasuyuki Oda didn’t say anything about rollback for KOF15.  But the community was rumbling.  There was a rising call for better netcode.   Rumbling so much, that Oda finally responded that they were indeed working on it.

Following the timeline, it seems that something happened. With my own experience of talking with developers, adding code like rollback has serious implications, with the potential to break other parts of code.  If they were working on rollback in February 2021, it’s interesting to note that Komi games (with Code Mystics) started / or continued work in the Summer of that year.  It may explain why the menu seems quite bare and lobbies seem so simple compared to KOF14.  This is just a pure guess, but I reckon they weren’t satisfied with their own work on rollback and ripped that whole chunk out of the code and then brought in Code Mystics and Komi Games.  In KOF15 the netcode is functional and connections are lovely, but the lobby itself doesn’t really look like it has a Graphical User Interface and can only hold one match at a time, where in KOF14 there were 6 rooms running at once, with an immediately visible chat room.  Perhaps there are limitations with rollback, but players cannot be blamed for feeling disappointed when we don’t get any explanations. Still, the game works online, a complaint that plagued KOF for years.  Running tournaments online will require a bit more organisation but ranking mode will be smooth.

For an arcade style fighting game, the content is standard, it’s a fighting game: versus mode, story mode, tutorials, galleries and the new DJ Station.  However, there were previous KOF episodes with much more content.  The casual player may find this content lacking until they stumble across the music, but if they are not a fan of good music or unlocking the gallery movies, then they definitely won’t be satisfied with KOF15.

Gallery

The gallery contains all the movies in the game and the voice clips, handy if you want to customise your phone’s ring tones or notifications!  Yes you may have heard that phrase before. Uncanny. Ok.  You can unlock more content by simply playing the game.  I’ll talk more about this in the sounds and music review but this is good, yet standard content.  We kind of expect this.  A lot of users won’t go through it more than once.  KOFXIV gave users all the classic artwork SNK had.  It was fantastic.  Now they can’t use it again. But that’s not strictly true, where’s all the artwork that we’ve seen for KOFXV?  That could have been added, it should be added. KOF97 had tons of fan artwork, and a lot of it was simple yet charming scrawls and doodles!  Why not get more of the same?  The community is huge!

SNK needs to start taking donated artworks from the community to boost their assets.  The artist gets credit and exposure, SNK gets material for their galleries… yes I know it sounds shady but I’m sure some artists would be very proud to have their artwork featured in a game.  It would probably be best if SNK agrees not to sell it on acrylic trinkets straight afterwards… Update: they ran a fanart competition on the 17th Feb but only to promote fanart, they wouldn’t even collect work to put on their website.  Oh well. Now, let’s talk about the best part of the game, after the fighting itself.

DJ Station

This is probably the most interesting part of the side game.  There are over 300 songs here.  These are OSTs however, and there is talk that there may be a rights problem for the ASTs as many were published by Pony Canyon or others.  Interestingly, looking up some ASTs, it still lists SNK as copyright holder, so the truth may be something different.  Anyway, still 300 songs to go through, and while you can casually flick through the tunes here, the real amazement comes from the custom settings.  Here you can assign your favourite tune to ANY of the stages.  That means the menu plays your favourite song, the Metal Slug stage will play your favourite track, if you really wanted, you could have your favourite track play through almost everything!  This is so great and hopefully will be the standard from now on.  When you play online you will hear your opponents choices too.  It’s just unlocking them which is a pain, even though they give you the first two characters, you need three to unlock and some combinations just don’t make any sense.  Once unlocked, players should be super happy.

Actually, what would have been better is a mini game, but then again, it’s supposed to be about fighting. But fighting with characters you don’t like takes the risk of boring the player, but if the game developer is lucky, the player might find something they like.

Please teach me!

They are the same as in KOFXIV – lacking. SNK knows how players feel from feedback to KOF14 and looking at other fighting games that actually immerse their players in real combat situations.  SNK has even done it before themselves (kof98um).  So why not now?  It may be that SNK is afraid of daunting and confusing the new player, and this is why we don’t have complex trials unlike the famous KOF13 ones that people still make reaction videos about. Ironically, those trials make KOF13 famous today, and make for better players.  KOF14 and KOF15 trials are just forgettable.  However, the new player will be able to complete them and get their platinum trophy without pain.  Don’t think I didn’t notice that Shun’Ei replaced Kyo and now we are all forced to learn him!

In fact, it seems that SNK has assumed that you’ve cleared the kof14 trials, so kof 15 trials are actually harder! That’s good but that’s also bad because now any new players find themselves just totally thrown in at the deep end.

And some of the trials don’t make any logical progression.  You go from taking 5 minutes to learn HP, fwd+P into special into EX and then the next trial throws you into by asking for a different move while pushing you to cancel and climax.  So you’ve already confused the muscle memory you just built. This is not a good learning curve, in my humble opinion as a teacher.

Simply, there needs to be more help for new players, always. An immediately visible demo button, while somewhat negating the concept of a challenge, would immensely help beginners; with options to display inputs, it would help teach them. What’s more important? Helping players get good or helping them just get a trophy? Some players are still struggling with trial number one.

The universal climax commands helps things somewhat. If they wanted to really dumb it down why not resign shatter strike to A+D? Why ask for a qcf motion? I suppose it’s difficult to strike a balance but it’s certainly confusing.

I still think there should be 5 easy trials that contribute to trophies and then 5 harder trials that don’t. Options, this is the key, in my opinion, to making everyone happy.  But of course, this takes time and development.  Once again, KOF15 was delayed and will always have to compete with some other title (fighting game or not) at launch.  They couldn’t keep delaying it forever.  Still, this content is not going to please a player who wants more than an arcade fighting game.  We are not in 1998, sadly, anymore.

THE NUMBERS

I need to go on about training mode.  They again try to make it simple while the casual player will probably wonder what all these numbers appearing on the screen are for.  This should be an option.  When they figure out that these are frames, then they’ll see these “plus” “equal” and “plus plus” indicators, to show frame advantage, but where did the numbers go here?  Why can’t they display “+3” in blue to show that the move has a 3 frame advantage?

Another thing they don’t teach you are the things that all players should know when it comes to execution.  If you’re trying to do a combo that used a forward + P or K command move, followed by a QCF 236 motion, you will often get a 623 dp motion as a result. To avoid this, everyone does 2369 QCF UF.  Telling the player would make them so much better and less frustrated. The website seems to have plenty of space for this, if they don’t want to patch the game.

I have to mention the notation graphics. They’ve left behind the NeoGeo notation of ABCD and due to various configs and languages LK HK LP HP has also disappeared!  The new notation is a punch or kick with a flash behind it.  The first time I saw them, I could not tell the difference between light and hard. Just looking at trial commands gives me a headache.  But I’m old, so who cares, that’s normal. After getting used to it, it should be great in the end.  Most agree.

So, what happened to survival mode? Time Trial? Bonus mode? Smashing up cars? SVC Olympics Mode? Rythym of Fighters?  Metal Slug Defense?  Arm wrestling?  These are all your own ideas and material SNK. With a bit of chop chop and recycling, surely you could add more content?

Well, there’s some nice artwork… while fighting, there are many nods to the history of KOF, it respects the lore, you’re gonna love unlocking the special stuff, although you might want to follow a list rather than trying to figure out the combinations between 39 fighters. I’m not sure whether it’s good or bad that the gallery unlocks are the same as the DJ station ones.

I actually laughed out loud when I saw this ending.  A bit cheeky to call it a movie, but there was actual voice acting for it too (with the sound design doing good work again).

It’s interesting to note that the official endings don’t have voice acting while the edit endings do. Why not both? Expense? It’s not consistent.

No sex please we’re brutish head exploders

There are some interesting points about the content too.  It should be fair to say that guns and gun violence is the norm in video games to a point where people are desensitised to head shots and exploding testicles.  Whether that is good for society is another discussion.  Concerning SNK, it seems they are still worried about Whip using a desert eagle, and violence in the game is quite stylish whereas there are still clothes being ripped off women and their boobs univerally jiggle, although I would say compared to other games, this is fairly tame. Note that the clothes being ripped off is a “time honoured tradition”, a nod to the original Art of Fighting where King was revealed to be a woman by accident (nonsense for Yuri though), and while some may get upset about it, SNK doesn’t seem bothered, so then why do they even care about guns?  The CERO ratings system in probably to blame (I’m not going down that rabbit hole)… but from this modern cultural standpoint, it’s weird.  Either go for full fanservice and please the male fans or make it moderate, as clothes ripping is not moderate.  Ez solution would be to have some men being stripped, why not Robert?

Social response to sexual and violent game content is quite volatile but in the end SNK has to consider its main audience and keep them happy, at the offset of not offending and not gaining more.  The two instances of clothes ripping are cringe by modern standards and will upset some, while the moderate boob jiggling should still be a crowd pleaser – overall KOF15 is nowhere as fanservice heavy or contentious as SNKHeroines and doesn’t have the gore and violence that is present in other games, which is frankly more concerning.

Character Customisation

There isn’t much here at all.  In SNK Heroines you could change the voice of your character, not to mention their outfit and add trinkets as you wish.  In KOF15, you can…. pick uh… a few colours.  Well, it’s an improvement over KOF14’s six colours, by increasing the palettes to EIGHT.  Well, choice is nice. Let’s not talk about other games that have a billion colours and costumes.  I will continue to harp on why Mai never got any skins or colours to buy in KOFXIV and I don’t even like her. I just figured it would make SNK some money, but hey, they keep refusing it and focus instead on making more games or something.

As for the colours of the characters, I really like them.  They seem to have a bit more flavour this time around and finally Athena has the option to change into a peroxide blonde Lady Gaga-esque idol.  And she’s hot.

However there are questionable omissions, no Evangelion or Iron man colours for Maxima.  Like, what’s the point if we can’t do that?  Where’s the Piccolo colour for Athena?  Lots of popular cultural references should be in the game, and I don’t see any legal issues there.

Story Mode

SNK have been building up this story with their trailers, and nothing got leaked until the shops broke street release date.  That’s pretty good going!  The story was predictable for me, but I’m old, I’ve seen too much anime.  Hopefully it will have more impact with others.  It’s ok, but there are some holes in development, again the official website seems to fill in more details than the game, plus we know that dlc characters will fit into the game too, that’s awesome.

I do like the character introductions, this is new, cheesy and yet awesome at the same time! The “outros”, which are new to kof15, are very dynamic.

You may notice taunts are back! This will certainly bring some hype moments, if the opponent really doesn’t want to use that time to attack! While I live SNK fort bringing these back, we still don’t have special introduction poses, ah well.  Clark and Ralf even refer to it. But… the new special intros have a great cinematic quality, I’m quite happy to see these are as a replacement.

One thing that is still missing is having your team mates in the background, but it seems the fans aren’t too bothered about it anymore.

Still some subs are missing (as Isla and Heidern go off while Delores is musing).. and Otomo-Raga is insensible on purpose, I suppose. I also spotted a typo in the CYS ending. Nothing serious.

The bosses

Both of them, and the stages, look really nice. The colours really stand out, and it is reminiscent of some Aztec style, fitting with the story of how this was all forewarned.

But… the final boss is a little underwhelming to be honest, not really introduced well and you have no motivation to fight it. What they should have done is have her beat up Isla or something. HOWEVER when you get to 2nd form it gets scary… but then you beat “it/her/them” up and uhhhh it seemed pretty easy on default. Too easy.  The Samsho final boss was more interesting…  This is the first time I’ve beaten a SNK boss first try.  I was mulling this over when I noticed some reviews about a cheap boss and unpleasant experiences by so-called journalists.  Reading around, it does seem like game companies have to coddle some of these absolute cretins who have no skill to actually play a game.  Even if you couldn’t beat the boss, the classic SNK options appear to help you with taking away her energy, maxing out your powers etc.  The boss could definitely wreck you senseless and perhaps that’s why she’s not selectable… yet.  Otomo-Raga and Re-verse are definite ban material, as should be the case for any SNK boss.   Do I want to turn up the difficulty and face them at full power?  Eh… not really!  If you’re looking for a challenge, be my guest!  I think Otomo-Raga has a shatterstrike type maneuver which she comboed into her (hair) and took 50% off my life bar.  That’s just two moves.  A modder of the PC version reported that her raw climax should take 150%! Oh yes, they have been hacked and you can find a triplicate team of her on ranking mode on Steam. Good luck!

DLC

We now know that Geese and his cohorts will arrive, plus the team Garou, with two other teams following.  That’s a healthy plan which will keep us busy and hopefully SNK in the green for at least a year.  Hopefully fans will like these choices enough to spend.  Survey evidence shows it should be accurate.  If not, I guess SNK will get back to work on the next Samsho or Fatal Fury title…

I can only hope that SNK can sell tons of costumes for their waifus and most popular characters.  They need to stop forcing Shun’Ei skins down our throats till he’s confirmed popular. The KOF14 skins were a waste of resources, apart from Angel’s, but in my estimation, Angel is one of those characters people can’t even play… I’d love to know the sales data for that one.  I’m expecting skin packs such as classic Kyo and Iori, Mai Mi2 (or anything), but now it’s a bit of a risk for SNK because while the model is recycled, the clothing has to be polished to match KOF15’s quality!

I noticed Kusanagi skin colour for Kyo but why not the character itself?  Why not Dark Ash?  Orochi Iori?  It’s easy money as KOFAS demonstrated. They did the obvious things,  the obvious recycles. They were popular as predicted, and while players cried, and still bought it! These characters destroyed the balance of the game and newer characters continued the spiral.  Now it’s up to SNK’s producer to decide if they want to follow this dark path and make lots of money – at the risk of alienating a greater audience and not making money but having a larger playerbase.

Soooooooooooooooooooooo

So we have a great fighting game, poor tutorial mode, great netcode, bad visibility for the other modes, tedious unlocking method for the gallery and dj station, but a great dj station with customisation, ok story with underwhelming boss, great story cinematics and character interactions, great lore references, with a website that isn’t referenced in the game but contains a whole lot more content.  Barely any character customisation….

KOFXV Content for the casual mainstream player: 6/10

Why did I choose a fighting game?  What can I do?  Why is it all so sparse? Tutorial is rubbish. I have to pay for more characters and there’s only one waifu there? What?

KOFXV Content for the average fighting enjoyer pvp ranking monster: 9/10

You don’t need anything else, just beat stuff up and get those ranking points. You can unlock some cool endings and music to kick ass to! Still , well, character customisation would be nice. I need to put addidas and gold chains on my fighter please… but overall I’m happy!!! I want to embrace my friends like in fight club, win or lose!!  It’s such fun! The gift, the gift!!!

Next we’ll talk about sound and music in more detail… This part will be short!

KOF XV Review : P2: Gameplay

  1. Graphics
  2. Gameplay
  3. Content
  4. Sound & Music
  5. Reception

Gameplay

Bruv, it’s KOF; that means a rushdown offensive style, focused on tricking your opponent into blocking in the wrong direction or simply hitting them before they can block.  However in KOF15, they’ve made it a bit more slow & accessible, and compensated for the global connection issues (finally working with the fact that the rest of the world doesn’t have Japanese infrastructure), which should be appreciated as players are often still trapped at home due to the pandemic (with wifi that can only transmit consecutive data packets)…. so anyway, the fighting should be easier to handle because it’s more neutral based rather than rushdown. There have been some changes that older fans do not like… Still, it feels great, online especially but adapting to the new timings may be difficult for those older players with muscle memory almost set in stone.  Either that or there really is an issue with the controls.

The Max Mode, which the more casual player used to dread, where your character sparks into a special mode to do unlimited combos for a short time, is even easier now, because they slowed it down by 200%. It’s so obvious, players should feel more comfortable and have time to think of lots of lovely combinations.  In KOF14 you could only do EX moves inside max mode, but now it’s back again like KOF13, meaning high tempo matches, with some new tweaks added on top!

SHATTERING YOU KNOW WHAT

There is  a new mechanic called Shatterstrike which is like the comboable CD blowback from KOF12 but now it has 1 million guard points!  It’s early days but it may well be the key to damage.  Right now I’m not even sure what the point of max mode combos are, as they seem to less damage… Too early to say, but it’s good to see that SNK are trying to refresh the style of play; this  is risk to upset the core players but this is good, because doing the same old thing is simply stale.  KOF15 is a familiar yet fresh loaf of bread outta the oven.  The potential for new ways certainly has some players salivating!

Wow that was some .. kind of writing there. Yeah anyway, In the clip below you can see both wake up priority and shatterstrike in action!

SLOWLY BUT SURELY

While they have slowed the game down somewhat, it’s necessary to retain players in an ultra competitive market. Other fighting games aren’t really the competitors here, it’s the mobile games, which are super simple and yet as frantic and satisfying. To help players, there is more buffer on moves, meaning that they are easier to execute by simply holding down the button – the system will hold it in memory for at least a second. This greatly helps your execution for  online fighting, where any input delay can mess up the timing of your combos.  However, at time of writing some players are questioning their timing as they believe some inputs are being eaten.  Either that or the game is strangely strict.  This is a reversal in trend as KOF has become easier and easier.  Is it stricter? Is it just that the timing is different?  But what about the buffer?  Or is it the netcode which is incorrectly predicting inputs?  There is also some weird command throw mis-detection. This remains a question, but SNK usually addresses these types of issues with a patch, but right now we are still waiting for some communication.

Shall we … mix it up?

Some changes will definitely not be patched.  Some controls have been significantly changed for some characters. Sliding kicks that used to be on the B button are now on the D button. This is great as it will avoid accidental command moves when you’re crouching and trying to do light hit combo starters. It’s quite hard to adjust after 20 years of pressing that button. Overall, it’s welcome and actually overdue.  Again, SNK responding to player feedback is great to see.  

Characters like Ralf have had mashing moves changed into motions.  I’m totally shocked but it makes things easy on the fingers!  Yeah, it’s good!  And it hasn’t stopped players creating Joe stun combos at all! I wonder if they were trying to stop the kara-cancel…

I’m assuming, due to his title, Game Director Kaito Soranaka is responsible for these changes (btw it should be stated that being “responsible” doesn’t mean that it was his idea). When Neo G (Hidetoshi Ishizawa, an essential battle developer for Capcom’s SF3 3rd Strike, SNK’s MOTW, SNKH, Samsho and KOF14) departed from the company, there were quite some shoes to fill. SNK declined to give interviews during the development, likely saving them for Famitsu etc., so perhaps we’ll hear more later but I think, so far, Kaito has pushed in the right direction to refresh KOF controls and at the same time make it more palatable for the mainstream.  This has had some resistance in the community, however.

IT’S NOT FAIR THAT MY ADVANTAGE WAS TAKEN AWAY

All this accessibility sounds great until you realise what they’ve done in regards to the high level ability players. We all love watching these high execution matches but we hate trying to replicate them. SNK has tried to please the crowd and remove the advantages that the super players have and level the playing field into a more “fair” neutral game. Instead of back-turned cross-up how-am-I-supposed-to-block-this set-ups, there are more pure “reads” and honest punishes.  You have to make an intentional mistake in order to get hurt.  Some players hate losing their advantages, and some believe the gameplay is worse. However, looking over social media, the majority are very happy and players from other games are loading up the game; thanks to the netcode, they don’t have much to complain about, at all.  Some haven’t noticed, but this is a significant change to KOF.

Kazunoko is certainly famous for playing SF, here he has a ranking match and annotates the video! We need more of this from English speaking players!

Nobody has complained about the meter bonus that a losing opponent gains, carried over from KOFXIV.  This was a sore point as a reversal mechanic that some players thought was too much.  It’s been accepted now and makes the final rounds almost guaranteed to have a big explosion of some sort!

Oh another thing, the tutorial sucks, but we’ll talk about that in the content section.

Another advantage that “pro” players had was alternate guarding, where the opponent presses down rapidly to become invincible against your command throws while looking like they are insulting you; this has been removed. Ohohoho, said Shermie, but while this seems like good news for grapplers, grapplers can’t wait with gleaming eyes hidden behind bangs, readying attack formations as their opponent gets up, as the chance to turn the tables is with the knocked down player: a normal throw has utmost priority.  That means players have to back off or try to jump.  Plenty of characters have an anti or even EX anti air so usually the oponnent has to back away after knocking over, so the game is more drawn out to a standing cat and mouse game, footsies, or neutral, if you like.  While this may stink of a more simple (and arguably boring) gameplay, the bigger brain will win and I think it will be just as pleasant to watch.  Anyway. there are ways around this, and I’ll try to collate the best info in our KOF XV pages.

Other reductions in advantages for those big brain kids are seen with the quarter circle forward up forward (or tiger knee) motions, where players could do an airborne move just off the ground, are much much harder to do, although more insane kids are finding ways around it, I’m sure SNK is trying hard to stamp it out.  They have also changed the reverse dragon punch (rdp) command to back, quarter circle back (4214).  This has been explained by SNK, again in response to player complaints in the first place.  This is another change that players are struggling with, but it’s better for them in the long run and less prone to giving certain characters advantages (option select blocking).  While the communication over these changes seems a little thin, SNK have made lots of changes to make KOF fighting as enjoyable as possible for everyone.

Speaking of advantages for everyone, that personally pesky auto combo remains in KOF15 with no option to turn it off.  Many players have adapted and don’t feel there is a problem with it.  Good, they don’t mash buttons like I do.  I suck.  SNK has improved the system so that you can mash LP three times and then choose your finisher with LK, HP or HK!  This is nice and all, but I don’t see how anyone who mashes can stop mashing the same button.  For intermediate mashers, if that even exists, it’s nice to have.  Still I would say an auto combo per button would be better or allowing random bullcrap to happen with different button presses would make KOF super fun for casuals.  Why do it this in half measures?  Make it a fun party game!  Eventually they will get tired and learn to block.  Or not.

The community is responding with guides and tutorials for these players to learn, so again I don’t think SNK will make any major changes to the system, apart from the odd frame or invincibility here and there.

To note, while it’s early days, nobody is complaining about character balance, apart from Robert’s 5 bar kill combo, but frankly that only happens once a game, at the same time it was very long to wait through and not impressive, while Ash can do the same thing but requires a lot more skill.  If you get hit by this, you should be impressed, not angry!

Oh and did you know just defend is in the game? No, it’s not surprising you forgot, because it’s not mentioned in the game. It can help you build meter…

Just quickly regarding PVP content, SNK has done something special with their draft mode. Here, much like sports teams, players have to pick from the roster one by one, not able to pick a duplicate.  This is a very entertaining way to run tournaments, but as it’s early days, it remains to be seen if there is a character that towers above the rest and simply nullifies the fairness of this mode, although so far it seems fine.

Now here’s a nice fun thing with Liz:

As for combos, the creative part of fighting games, players will be pleased to see properties have been mixed around, certain moves juggle anywhere, do there’s a nice freshness to the game, even though some classic combos are still the same, other combos have been changed. I felt absolutely stupid when I tried Benimaru and couldn’t do any nice combos (yes I was just recently playing kof98), until I discovered a video that showed his new combo route is simply fwd LK after EX rajiinken (qcf+LPHP)!  This is what fighting games should be about: learning how to fight, making nice combos and then actually using this against either the CPU or another human.

If you’re one of those players who are low on time and can only learn one or two characters, SNK got you covered.  Ralf doesn’t need combos, he can survive just pressing two buttons. This must not be patched.

For those who thirst for incredibly difficult combos, SNK also got you, have fun putting all the system features together to create some craziness!

The fighting system itself, which is a significantly new variant of the tried and trusted KOF gameplay, with less attack options and yet still feels like high offense, a more accessible combo mode, the return of high octane EX moves plus a shatterstrike reversal, plus of course with-who-knows-what sacrifices were made to get the online to work with rollback, the online experience is excellent and most importantly FUN.  SNK deserve mad props for this.

Gameplay: 9/10

Doesn’t get 10 because I like 3 hit combos that kill and some timings are hard for me and I like to complain instead of practicing plus honestly, not everyone likes the changes.  It’s really a first impression, and that is that it plays like KOF; I’m really happy to get online with an updated system and look, which is more or less the same old KOF that I like.  The tutorials to help you learn how to be a good fighter are non-existent but we’ll talk about content in the next part. Meanwhile, people are playing this game hard. Really hard.

Now let’s end with watching Score playing in Japan and you can tell me if it’s boring or exciting.  Reynald, Xiaohai and ET are also in training, watch out!  You can find more recommended KOFXV streamers on our streamer page.  Tomorrow we’ll look at content, and this is SNK will start sweating, because …. you know.

PART 3: KOFXV REVIEW: CONTENT

KOFXV Fan Review : Part 1: Graphics

THIS IS FOR THE PLAYERS. If you are still on the fence about buying KOFXV, here are some points you will want to know.

  1. Graphics
  2. Gameplay
  3. Content
  4. Sound & Music
  5. Reception

Update: the concert models look better now, and now I can’t find the ring girls… but that Road Warrior looks great!

The King of Fighters XV is a worthy successor to the series; it didn’t have any glaring negative community response at launch, unlike other titles (cough cough) but it does have some minor problems. It should be a success, however there are some issues which may affect its longevity in the mainstream, and this is a universal problem for all fighting games.  As for actual fighting game fans, with its strong netcode, array of characters with a minimum 12 more in the pipeline, it is the de-facto KOF of 2022 and the community will be playing it for a good few years to come.

The graphics are much improved, the gameplay is more accessible, the content is as expected for a fighting game while the netcode needs visual polish and, annnnnnd the sound and music is fantastic.  The wider community reception has been 98% positive, and media reviews have been overall positive too, which is surprising when you dig deeper, because there are definitely some issues.  Let’s break it down:

Graphics

SNK isn’t going to tell you which artists they outsourced for which character but there is a definite difference of style in the faces of the characters. Some seem a lot more natural than others.  Some don’t seem to have made a good transition into 3D like Maxima and Kyo, while others just look amazing such as Iori, Andy and Mary.  Andy gets a special mention after becoming the most memed face of KOFXIV, his look being more fit for the cast of Tekken 2.  With the launch of KOFXV, his redone face made people meme him into shampoo commercials – he’s just that pretty now!

While other fighting game companies worked on model faces due to response (for example MVCI Chun Li and SFV Sakura), there hasn’t been any outrage over the character graphics in KOFXV.  That’s not to say they are perfect: personally I prefer the old Maxima and I think the new one looks too much like a monkey but I guess there won’t be any improvement because he’s simply not a popular waifu that the majority will be fussed about. And here is the point, the waifus in KOFXV look great: Vanessa and Elisabeth look absolutely lovely and when you see some freeze frames for Blue Mary close up, she’s extremely pretty.  Athena gets a new costume every episode but this time, perhaps it’s just me, but she actually looks sexy, like, 18+ sexy, Lady Gaga sexy, none of that ambiguous loli filth, and now you really understand how Kensou gets a nosebleed, and you’re trying to respect that she’s the descendant of a goddess, but the impure thoughts… anyway, I know I’ll upset some fans but this is the best update Athena has had and in my opinion that obsession with school girls was getting a bit old in the tooth, was it not?   Still I won’t be surprised if SNK brings out a school uniform dlc skin like they did for Nakoruru in KOFXIV. I’d love to know how many fetishists actually bought it, or didn’t, and taught SNK another lesson: some people cry but don’t buy.

Now, 3D models, like real people, can look ugly depending on the angle on which they are seen, but KOF15’s creative director Ogura, working with Yusuke Amano, the art director, are likely responsible for the look of the game and it seems that they has chosen to go with the trend of having a roster of beautiful or cool characters: the cute (Chris), hench and handsome (Ryo, Terry), sexy and strong (Shermie & Luong) but there are still gorillas (Yashiro & Maxima) and uhhh facial hair (Maxima again and Antonov).  There isn’t anyone who is really ugly in the game, and even with the upcoming DLC, that’s pretty much a constant.

ryo and maxima
Who is supposed to be bigger here?

The women of KOF always spark a more complex discussion.  There are also some strange visuals in the game, like how does Shermie’s spine actually work?  Some people have even wondered why Mai appears so fleshy and thicc, prefering her to be skinny (albeit with big boobs).  Angles again and in this particular case, shadows, at some points it looks like Mai has rolls of cellulose, but it’s in fact the shadows of her huge chest! This seems like an oversight.  Mai’s breasts actually changed shape during development, from triangular to round, and the movement from jelly to something more… realistic.  In my opinion, Mai looks great as she is right now, and there’s more lovely ladies to come.

For Mary fans, her ‘noodle’ arms will always be a point of contention and if I’m honest, all the women have big busts with a range of other body parts, at least they aren’t all the same.  At least I’m not hearing any other complaints.  Let’s finish off talking about appearances. So, everyone is pretty or has huge muscles?  I guess that’s what entertainment is about?  What happened to the freaks and geeks?  The less attractive fighters?

Well, gone are the real ‘eyesores’ of the game (Chang, Choi, Chin, Xanadu), and it’s kind of sad because they still have their charm, but we have to face facts, they just are not as popular as the rest, and in a time of reduced capability due to covid (which caused a halt of at least two months), it’s hard to argue they should have been kept. SNK gave players 50 characters for KOFXIV, in the face of complaints about dlc and small rosters, at the cost of a poor reception due to the graphics (ignoring the more important gameplay, of course).  What would have happened if SNK had produced KOFXIV with 12 highly polished characters and two seasons of DLC?  While enraging fans, they would have done much better, critically and financially.  Sadly, SNK is probably done with listening to these particular fans and will follow the industry standard.  It’s a shame really, but they  did try.  What was very surprising was the omission of Kim Kaphwan, which personally I don’t care for, but as the resident Korean representative and seemingly popular in the last tournaments, it was simply surprising.  It’s interesting to note SNK has data on which characters were played, so they could see through any social media protest (which tellingly didn’t really happen for Kim). With hard evidence SNK won’t have to try hard to know which characters to keep, or which to sell as DLC…   Something else they tried was bringing back anime to KOF.

It seems that KOFXV’s Producer, Yasuyuki Oda, seems to be quite the fan of Masami Obari, who directed the Fatal Fury movies and also did work on Gundam, not to mention Battle Arena Toshinden and Voltage Fighter Gowcaiser plus, in 2019, Pop Team Epic.  Finally onboarding the director for the KOFXV project must be quite the personal achievement for Oda, and the old school fans were delighted.  There was concern that the old school style wouldn’t win over younger fans, but Obari has treated the cinematic introduction piece with care, allowing more modern styles to come through, alongside his trademark style of line flecked cheeks and flowing drapes of hair or cloth with shard edges.

The tweet below is in Japanese but it shows how the team were given some freedom to draw while considering the wishes of fans, and some of the team were fans as younger people themselves!

Heaven knows what was researched in many of the pitifully-thin-on-knowledge-yet-high-scoring reviews of KOFXV, but fans are now finding attention to detail that shows love and care in not just the sound but the graphics too.

The hit effects of KOF15 were initially of some concern, but generally approved in the community. KOF15 has three lanes of graphics. It places the hit effects in front, the character models behind and the huge super move graphics at the back.  While the character model is sandwiched between these effects, some players didn’t like it, but with this it is easier to track the fighter and is better for positioning.  From development, we could see the liquid fire style of special attacks become more solid, although Joe’s short hurricanes will take some getting used to (they could have simply lowered the hitbox but eh, SNK being friendly to players again).

The stages are very nice, especially the dragon garden. Not surprisingly, when fans asked for day and night renditions, people countered to say these are just recycled and we should have more different stages.  Can’t win eh?  Ignoring that, the stages are very nice but some of the background models look a bit too fuzzy, for example the band in the concert stage (trivia: which is actually made up of the prisoners from KOF14).  The Esaka stage is a nostalgia trip!  There are probably more easter eggs to find in the stages too.  Yikes, I totally forgot to mention the amazing Metal Slug stage (but no MS characters?).

While the age of 3D graphics is here, there’s a lovely amount of 2D artwork around the game, by artists Tonko, Tomohiro, Ogura and don’t forget there is a KOFXV manga too!

Don’t mind me, I’m just gonna slip in a criticism here about the graphical notation which is hard to read at first but will be universally understandable in future. Good move, SNK.  I feel sorry for videos and websites, that notation is gonna still be a mess.

Let me also just slip in here to talk about the clothing textures which are unecessarily amazing like Angel’s boots, Iori’s coat, Maxima’s new RGB LEDs, K’ new leather outlines, Whip’s detailed canvas material and stitching but weird headshape.  Yes, the clothing has really improved from KOF14, it’s impressive!  And the idle animations! Sorry, I forgot to mention the care and attention there.  Some really cool ones, like Antonov raising his hat, and Shun Ei exercises his neck and just looks at you for a while with those silly arm bandages, his buckles glistening.  Can there be too much detail?  No. It’s great.

KOFXV Mary close up
The difference between KOF14 and KOF15 is night and day

After the frankly just-bearable graphics of KOFXIV, some people are still complaining, but if put side by side, KOFXV’s graphics are on par with and in some instances, better than Street Fighter V character models.  This may be a moot point, however, as SF6 may be announced very soon and will no doubt up the ante (update: it was and ooof it did).  To be fair, it’s unlikely that either can look better than Tekken, DOA and Strive (update: wellllll we’ll see).  KOF could have just looked like another ASW joint, which would be cool, but at the same time, a bit … samey.  In fact, SNK has listened to the clamour for a more anime look, rather than realistic.  You can see this with the face of Luong in particular, her face is more flat and her character seems more sultry in general. In KOF14 she had this unique melancholy look, but to be objective, the KOF15 look will be more appealing.  This blend of realism and “anime” will work well for SNK as they go on to compete with other fighting games as it will boil down to a visual preference.  Don’t forget, there’s a freaking dinosaur in the game.  The girls are cute and the boys are cute too, it’s pleasant on the eyes and that’s all we need really.

GRAPHICS: 8/10

The game looks great but if you look closer, some of the models look off and there is some debate about the effects. If we compare to other fighting games and consider the improvements since KOF14, KOF15 can hold its own, for now. Ralf’s climax super is even better and still steals the show.  There’s honestly books to write about the little touches but it’s time to stop.

After the graphics and lovely art, at this point you, as a player, have to focus on what looks good to you and then what type of fighting style you enjoy playing. That’s all.  So what does KOFXV offer players, new and old?

Tomorrow on Orochinagi: KOF XV Review: Gameplay

KOFXV Early Access Best Bits Day 2

It’s more or less KOF day!  Happy day from Chiiro to start with!

Now, the veteran Oyaji-G is back again with some tips and tricks for you intermediate fighters, with some things that will help beginners too!  Check out the wonderful highlights and there’s many more if you follow these people on their twitter!

Continue reading “KOFXV Early Access Best Bits Day 2”

KOFXV Best Bits Day Early Access Day 1

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Hello KOF fans, it’s Gunny here again with some choiciest morsels for your KOF hunger.  Perhaps you haven’t yet got access as today is a festival of KOF love only for those who pre-ordered the deluxe edition, but don’t worry, I won’t post any story spoilers, just combos and tech to whet your appetite for the grand feast that’s coming Feb 17th.

Some things have been nerfed, it seems Yashiro has less juggles as some predicted but there are still certain characters who can juggle your ass for a whole minute.  However, let’s remember that these combos are 5 bar, and only done once a match, so it’s not like you’re going to suffer this every 30 seconds…. Well, not so far…

Here are THREE variations of the Ash stun combo

Btw I have my review code, but as I’ve already bought the game twice, I’ve passed on the code to someone who’s going to start training to wreck the opponents in our name ohohohoh… well, hopefully it works as the code may not be region free. Ha….

Interestingly, PC owners did not get early access and it’s quite the debate.  Why? Is it to stop leaks? Most things have been leaked already… doesn’t seem fair.

Interestingly KOFXV features in the top global sales on Steam… cool, right?

Not to be outdone by his teammate, Kukri has also a stun combo, demonstrated here by Piyokei

fans of the third member, Liz, should be happy with a nice 4 bar combo, and I still can’t see if those new fireballs are part of it…

Here’s a lovely safe jump by Cristina, so if you’re planning on playing Chizuru, pay attention!

Ok, Joe is back! Although the combo starts with a CD, like Kukri’s, it’s still a stun! Nice job by DC

Here’s lightning’s Shun Ei Guide Combo Video

Speaking of guides, Dandy J, the author of the famous KOF guide for beginner, made a new video about neutral. Share this with your friends who want to do more than mash!

It’s a hard life being a big body.  But Iori’s kinda tall so what gives…

Check out this awesome counter combo for Ralf by Oeppu, and just wait till you see his Climax on your own screen!

K2 cosplayed as Heidern, and killed as Heidern

His adopted daughter has a few tricks up her sleeve, as SR will show you

Athena’s 5 bar by Hntati doesn’t quite do 100% but it’s…. nice?

Backdashes, part of the “slowing down” trend in KOFXV, have been nerfed. Alternate guard has been disabled too.  QCFUF motions are harder.

Frionel has a one meter combo for Vanessa and look at that damage!!

Wauhti shows what you can do with one EX bar, this is important because it seems there is less emphasis on using Max mode in this iteration.  Still early days tho.

and here’s a 2 bar combo

The new mechanic of Anti-throw and anti roll is being studied right now, here’s one solution by Kusanagi

Aroo has an OS for rolls here

My goodness Clark has some nice new stuff, thank you Abao!

SR has been working on Luong and look at that damage for 2 bars!

Not practical but something you could try with Terry, we’ve seen quad power geyser combos but how about the magical SIX?

El Rosa has a nice stun for Ralf!

El Rose also points out something that may or may not be changed

How about one more Ash combo but no stun, just 100% with 5 bars?  Not exactly practical but if ASh is your anchor, then if you leave yourself open to a heavy, then RIP!

Vanessa stun? Surprise? Not me! Here goes DC!

Pretty sure this is 2 bar, but more importantly this is Misterio playing one of his favourite characters… which means players are in big trouble

https://twitter.com/MisterioFgc/status/1492839410160705537

Hey it’s me, ranting about the music, it’s good, it’s really good

Heidern’s projectiles don’t knock down in this game, which means…

Throw tech, it’s been in KOF13 but more relevant now due to priority on wake up

Mai’s 3 bar that turns into 4 bar combo!

You’re gonna get robbed by this Luong crossup by Badoor, but at least she provides some fan service afterwards

Olaf’s 5 bar for Mary

Display lag PS5 vs PS4… this was rumoured before release, during the beta, and that PS5 might globally have more lag than PS4.

That’s enough from me, perhaps later we’ll organise this into a resource ohohohoho

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