Location Test Impressions

[Perfect Stranger]

So I dropped by HEY arcade in Akihabara yesterday and today to look at how the loke-test went. They set up 2 deluxe cabinets (If you've seen the high-def cabinets for VF5/TK6 etc you'll know what I'm talking about), 100 yen each to play, with the cabinet booting you out once you reached a limit of 5 wins. Over 2 days I tried 5 times and watched quite a bit more. I haven't really been keeping up with the news on XII so excuse me if a lot of this is known already.

General controls: 4 buttons, ABCD, each doing what you expect. Throws are still listed as + C or D (although I had problems actually throwing anyone -_-), CD is still the classic body blow attach, AB is still roll. I didn't try to guard cancel CD or guard cancel roll unfortunately, due to the shitty super bar system (more below).

Back + CD is one of the new systems where you flash a bit with autoguard frames before performing your CD motion. Note that this is by no way guaranteed to hit even if you guard your opponent's attack correctly - in fact unless your opponent is sticking out a strong attack you probably won't. I think I auto-guarded some one's jump attack only for them to land and block the CD motion.

Sousai is the system where you clash your strong attack against your opponent's strong attack. Unfortunately everyone at the location test was a noob like me so even when it did happen we were all like "Wha?"and didn't take advantage of it. Interestingly enough you can sousai in the air with your opponent on the ground and vice versa. I'm sure something tricky and unexpected will come out of that.

The final new system is the critical counter thing. I forgot what the conditions for this were (your strong attack vs their weak attack?), but basically when you land it your character goes into SFA2 Custom Combo mode. I forgot if supers were free or not in this mode, but if somebody lands this and knows what they're doing it will HURT A LOT. Like 1/3 of a bar a lot. This happened rare enough that I still don't understand what the implications for it are, and some characters seem to be able to take advantage of it more than others (who just mash C a couple of times and end with a special move), but overall I guess it's interesting enough.

One other new thing that seems to have been added is the ability to connect your CD attack from a C or D move. This does a lot of damage and knocks the opponent away, and some characters can follow it up for more pain e.g. Kyo's C, CD, k move (I think that's still the command for this move in XII). This definitely seems to do a lot more damage than it should.

General system impressions:
As many have already mentioned, this does indeed feel like KOF'94 all over again. Lots of people have very stripped down movelists: e.g. Kyo seems to have lost his firepunches, Ryo lost his k, Beni lost his p (sliding electric slash move thingy) and his k (shinkku kaketegoma? Break dance move), Terry lost his power charge, and power dunk, etc. This annoys me slightly since I started playing KOF relatively lately and find it hard to adjust to the lack of these moves.

The game itself also feels a lot slower. KOF XI was pretty damn fast what with all the QS combos and all but this feels a lot more sluggish. Moves just take longer to come out. The reverse side of this is that it seems like there are very few safe special moves any more - Terry's burn knuckle is slow, Duo Lon seems to have lost his a version of his rekka punches and the C version is mighty laggy, etc. To be honest I really don't like this change, but I guess it makes things easier to balance as opposed to letting every character have a safe block string.

Super bar system: I really hate this change. Basically we have 96 style charge as you fight bar, but then once it fills up we have 95 style slowly draining bar. I don't think you do any more damage in this mode (your character doesn't flash or anything), and you have about 15 seconds after that to actually make use of the bar and do a super. Combined with the lack of super flash and general sluggishness of the game it means its really really hard to make use of this at all. I think every character also has only one super, which means some like Terry's are *really* gimped (slow as hell and hard to set up even in a combo).

Crossups - it feels harder to cross up people in this game - other than Kim's jump a it seems like they toned down a lot of easy cross ups like Beni's Jump D and Ryo's Jump D.

Jumps - the KOF jump system is still intact, except that the trailing shadows have been removed. I guess it removes the warning to the opponent but I've also come to depend on that as an indicator that my hyper hop attempts succeeded.

Overall I really don't like this game play system. It feels like SF, not KOF. That, or a really early and crappy version of KOF. i.e. KOF 94.

Characters:
Over my 5 attempts I only tried playing as Terry, Ryo, Beni, Leona, Duo Lon and Shen Woo, in order of frequency.

Terry:
- Burn knuckle no longer safe. Takes a while to start the hitting frames, but travels a lot further. An interesting effect is that with the new sousai effect C burn knuckle from a full screen away is a surprisingly safe option, since even fireballs will be cancelled away.
- Crack shot also slower, stil juggles in the air. Not sure if it's still an overhead.
- Gained back Rising Tackle. I think you need to spam buttons to get more hits, which I kept forgetting to do.
- Power Geyser slow as hell.
- C, CD, Burn Knuckle combo hurts a lot.
- b, a, c, burn knuckle still good.

Ryo
- p has like NO range now. He sticks his palm out and no energy wave or anything travels in front. Interestingly enough it seems to have ok anti-air frames since I sousai-ed against air attacks often enough. Unfortunately it's very slow.
- Lost k
- a still good. Unfortunately still can't cancel from it it seems.
- Super is ranbu.
- Uppercut travels a fair bit horizontally now. Unfortunately it also starts up a lot slower. Not sure about invulnerability.

Beni
- Still good for scrubs like me. Jump D still good, Crouch D stil good.
- Fwd B still links from a strong attack, unfortunately doesn't seem cancellable anymore.
- Qcf p looks as crappy as it was pre-XI. I don't think C is diagonal anymore? Air p is also really bad. Slow, he stops mid air to do it.
- Dwn b, b, up b is still pretty good. Unfortunately not safe on block any more.
- k seems pretty fast compared to most of the other uppercuts.
- x 2 p is slow. You noticed how many times I've said a move is slow yet?
- Jump CD animation is changed. I think it's an upward pointing kick now.

Leona
- V-slasher still seems good. Not as fast as 2k2, but I think it has the invulnerability frames.
- Dwn b, a moon slash connects. Which is good since b a MISSES SO GAWDDEMN MUCH.
- Jump D still good.
- Jump CD is no longer glowing foot. She sticks her leg out slightly in a diagonal angle. Doesn't seem fantastic.
- Glowing ball of energy attacks pretty much what you expect. Can still hit opponents in the air after they bounce away from the move.
- Moon slash in general is slower. I been hit out of it way too many times by a light attack even though I started the move first.

Duo Lon
- No idea what the super is. I tried ghost super (hcb x 2 p) but it didn't seem to come out.
- Teleport is a lot slower, seems like it moves forward a fixed amount like XI instead of auto-crossup like 2k3.
- Seems like he lost the a rekka punches, which disgusts me quite a lot. C is slow but it seems like you can juggle with it(i.e. hit someone in mid-air with the first rekka input, and the 3rd rekka input still connects)
- Leg stab move still seems quick and good.

Shen Woo
- SHEN WOO PUNCH still does a lot of damage.
- Didn't seem very different from XI, other than being generally slower like everyone else.

Impressions from seeing other players:
Kim:
- MIght be too early but definitely seems top tier. k still seems safe on block. Has this ridiculous new move where he jumps really far forward with a kick (kinda looks like the C finisher to his old rekka chain, except low to the ground). If the opponent blocks, he bounces backwards safe from harm. Thing is after that if you try to chase him he can do either his air-stomp kick (again safe upon block) or his k move in mid-air. Pokes like a are still very good, and b, b, a, b flash kick is still good.

Kyo
- Qcf k, k move now does a lot more damage to compensate for the fact that you can almost never connect an Orochinagi after it anymore due to the stupid super bar system. Unfortunately no longer safe on guard, which means no more fancy corner trap tricks with it.
- C, CD, D move hurts a lot
- New motion for K.
- Didn't notice any auto-guard for his uppercut or any other move.
- b, b, a, D move seems pretty safe on block and does more damage than before (with the last hit of the d connecting and knocking down)

Iori
- No more fire moves. So weird.
- Upward claw thingy still seems like ok air defence
- I think what looks like his new rekka chain replacement is semi-safe on block.

Ash
- New kiss move acts like Orochi Shermie's kisses and takes about 2-3 seconds before the kiss becomes active.

Clark
- he's fat.
- Jump a, c, D, p does a LOT OF DAMAGE

Raiden
- Grabs do a lot of damage.

That's all I can remember for now. Hope that was helpful.

[Fuu]

Thanks for your impressions.
I thought throws were fwd A+C? Since they can miss and everything.

[SonicTempest]

Thanks for the impressions.

I guess I'm not really surprised that the game turned out that way...it really sounds like a half-finished product that they decided to push out for some reason. To be honest I'd much rather have an arcade version of 2002UM than this.

[Apathy Wind]

PS - thanks for the info. Quick question - is Terry's rising tackle a charge motion or f,d,df?

As for the system info:

Man, I hate to see this. After finally putting forth a solid effort on the series' presentation SNK is shooting themselves in the foot with the gameplay - the one factor that they totally had down to a science... Soooo frustrating.

The super bar system sounds really, really dumb - I mean in this day and age a single decreasing bar is totally unacceptable. The super bar system is IMO the one thing that's really advanced fighters over the the years - to have such a limited opportunity to utilize the options available from this resource just seems ridiculous.

I almost wonder if SNK decided to 'sandbag' XII once they realized that they wouldn't be able to finish it as originally intended. I mean maybe they opted to nerf character movelists, system features, etc so things will seem that much better when they are properly implemented in XIII. I find it hard to believe that any developer would do this but it just seems so unbelievable that SNK would neuter the best part of their flagship property. Or maybe it's just another function of the 'back to basics/more accessible' movement that casual gamings' wrought...

[BP]

I'm still maintaining my train of thought that they'll change even more stuff by the final version.

Still, I have a feeling that people like PS who got into the KoF series in it's later entries will definetely be put off by this game. Heh, kind of like how SF3 players were initially (and probably still) were turned off from SF4. The parallels between both games grow even bigger!

I suppose things didn't turn out the way SNKP wanted seeing as to how this is what they've got for after 3/4 years of development, plus the costs (it is quite a small company after all).

Thanks for the impressions, PS.

[Yuki Yagami]

Thanks for the impressions, PS.

Though it's half-disappointing (no boss battles, short single player mode), I just hope that game will be successful in a way. So that they can apply the battle system and the graphics to future games.

I kinda agree with SonicTempest, I'd much rather have an arcade version of 2002UM than this.

But I think SNKP is too afraid to release this one in the arcades because they think it will steal the attention of KOF XII. SNKP, we need 2002UM for the arcades as an alternative.

Kinda Ironic that '98 UM is released in the arcades while a well-polished 2002UM isn't.

[Dody]

Well, Im really-really prefer this game and almost never really care with 2K2 UM. Since this is the time that KOF are finally back to "what it was".

Power meter are drained by the time??? What's wrong with this??? We allready experience this since KOF 94-96 (and maybe 97-98 too if you like EXTRA System) right??? So, its no new.

Altough I will cry a lot if they really doesnt put a Boss......................

[BP]

SNKP, we need 2002UM for the arcades as an alternative.

Yeah, that's nice. I'd bet you 99% of the players will probably forget XII existed (even if the final product turns out to be solid) and will play 2k2UM instead - which means that the fans are pretty much telling them "Hey guys, you can keep rehashing the same sprites for the next 20 years as long as the gameplay's still the same and all my favorites are there!".

Which in turn causes SNKP to drop their hi-res efforts and focusing on pulling off more rehashes. Where you'll find the SAME people who'd rather play 2k2UM instead of XII now complaining later on how SNKP isn't trying anything new and regurgitating the same crap.

What they're doing is fine. It's not like there's a mass shortage of PS2s everywhere in the world.

[Fuu]

I don't think the game is laking per se in the gameplay department - What i see are systems that all work in a "catch the momentum" sense, right now they have yet to apply this efficently in practice certainly but they already made considerable changes from the latest loketest, and the release is still a long way from now. Given that yes, they had gameplay down to a science with XI, i don't see why this new direction can't get a similar treatment considering that the time they are dedicating to tune KOFXII is cosiderable - i remember older KOF getting what, 2 months of tests?
My only fear is that since the systems are all based over sorta rare occurencies they might be hard to test fully. Still ehi, i appreciate the risk and everything, life is boring.

[Toxic Avanger]

What they're doing is fine. It's not like there's a mass shortage of PS2s everywhere in the world.

As a company, it's stupid that the main competition 'per se' for your flag game would be another iteration of that very same flag game. In a business perspective is better to release one game at the time, to get the most money our of each. It's obvious.

Also, SNK has been a complete klutz when it came to home ports, having their DS l·o·l·i titles outdo in profit every KoF game sales since long ago (and yea, even the 'precious' 98UM for home also is like this, it seems that the true & loyal fans play games in nebula or back up DVDs). In other to boost up their crappy sales, they chose to make a game that everybody will like to play, but nobody will be able to play unless it's the homeport. Also, it's hard to foretell how much profitable the PS2 will one or two years from now on, so it's better to strike with profitable games now, when the iron is hot.

And who knows, perhaps they'll make a "regulation A" 02UM and will be exclusive to the arcades, with playable Ash Crimson and with more tweaks & fixes than the regular 02UM

[Perfect Stranger]

PS - thanks for the info. Quick question - is Terry's rising tackle a charge motion or f,d,df?

Charge motion.

Fuu - I thought I remembered reading that the throw motion changed but the info sheet on the cabinet itself clearly said + C/D.

[Toxic Avanger]

Fuu - I thought I remembered reading that the throw motion changed but the info sheet on the cabinet itself clearly said + C/D.

--> source <-- They said so since the beginning I suppose that the beta cabinet might be misprinted