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The King of Fighters XV

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The King of Fighters XV
File:Kofxvcover.png
Developer(s)SNK
Publisher(s)
Director(s)
Producer(s)Yasuyuki Oda
Artist(s)Tomohiro Nakata
SeriesThe King of Fighters
EngineUnreal Engine 4
Platform(s)
ReleaseFebruary 17, 2022
Genre(s)Fighting
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The King of Fighters XV[a], also called KOF XV, is a fighting game developed by SNK. It was released on February 17, 2022 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. This is also the first game in The King of Fighters series created using Unreal Engine 4, and the first to implement GGPO rollback networking. Taking place after the events of The King of Fighters XIV, the narrative primarily revolves around two fighters with multiverse-related supernatural powers, Shun'ei and Isla, among other returning heroes facing revived threats. King of Fighters XV generally received praise for its character roster, team-based gameplay, and smooth online performance, but criticism for its story mode, complex tutorials, and mechanics.

Gameplay

Kyo (left) using Shatter Strike against Iori.

Like its predecessors, The King of Fighters XV uses a fighting system involving teams composed of three fighters. The parry system also returns under the name Shatter Strike. It also reincorporates the common MAX Mode system where fighters can use stronger techniques once energy bars are filled. The game features a wide variety of online modes, including Ranked Match, Casual Match, Room Match, and Online Training.[1]

The single button "Rush" from The King of Fighters XIV reappears and is updated to help newcomers perform combos and special/super moves easier. Destructoid compared it with a fully charged Focus Attack from Street Fighter IV.[2] Shatter Strike was designed mainly as a defensive system but it can be used offensively when making use of guard points. It will also be adjusted as it is apparently quite strong in the demo. In XIV, combos from quick activation were the main way max mode was used so the gauge consumption was increased from 1 to 2 to prevent players from being overwhelmed. Neutral state in XIV was not seen often so in XV attack power and guard crush are increased when neutral is activated. Since Max Mode activations in neutral were almost nonexistent in King of Fighters XIV, the developers are giving more incentive to players to not just use it as a combo extender.[3]

Plot

The story focuses on the next King of Fighters tournament held after the appearance and defeat of Verse. Following Antonov's early retirement, new tournament commissioner Anastasia sends out invitations to fighters to join the tournament; the mayhem caused by Verse's powers resurrects various long-thought deceased fighters from past tournaments as well. Chizuru Kagura gathers Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami in order to look after the seal of the snake demon Orochi.[4] Shun'ei, a teenager with mysterious powers resembling Verse's, enters the tournament again alongside Meitenkun and Benimaru Nikaido to better understand his powers, the Amplified Specters. During the tournament, they encounter a rival team led by a girl with similar powers to his own and also another Amp user, Isla. Isla is being mentored by a woman named Dolores who wishes for her and Shun'ei to stop the appearance of more Amp-related creatures like Verse, believing Ash Crimson's time-traveling in a previous tournament, which Dolores' disciple, Kukri confirms it to have caused their appearances and connected to distortions across multiverse. However, a new Amp creature born from Isla's Amp power, labeled as Re Verse manifests as the tournament progresses and targets the fighters, pulling them into another world. Following Re Verse's defeat, the mysterious goddess Otoma=Raga appears and attacks the teams. Upon Otoma=Raga's defeat, the fighters escape back to their world and are crowned the new King of Fighters champions, whereas Isla finally warms up with Shun'ei at the same time their respective Amps are fully under control, such as Shun'ei can finally take off his headphone safely. As confirmed by Kukri earlier, defeating Otoma=Raga and Re Verse does not erase the revived fighters’ existences once they survive the two entities’ rampages.

Characters

See also: List of The King of Fighters characters

The King of Fighters XV has launched with 39 playable characters (13 teams of 3 fighters), with 4 more teams of 3 fighters planned as paid downloadable content. Newcomers are marked in italics. Much like Samurai Shodown (2019) and SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy, the DLC teams' involvements in the storyline are canon. Two bosses are non-playable in this game, while Omega Rugal appears as a playable character and special boss via free DLC.[5][6]

Initial Roster
DLC Roster
Bosses

Development

Due to positive response to the marketing of The King of Fighters XIV, director Yasuyuki Oda said in August 2017 The King of Fighters XV was possible, but the company SNK also wanted to focus on other franchises.[7] Oda instead worked in a spin-off, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy, a female character-driven fighting game and a spiritual sequel of SNK Gals' Fighters.[8] In December 2018, SNK revealed the company was working on The King of Fighters XV, aiming to release it during 2020.[9] Feeling the previous title had outdated graphics for a 2016 game, SNK chairman Zhihui Ge said that XV will use the Unreal Engine 4 to provide a better presentation.[10] They decided to make XV while they were still working on XIV but only started development after Samurai Shodown was completed.[3] At Evo 2019, SNK announced that the game was in development.[11] The game's creative director is Eisuke Ogura, who has previously worked as an artist on the series, beginning with The King of Fighters 2001. Most notably, he served as the main illustrator for The King of Fighters XIII and XIV. The director of King of Fighters XIV, Yasuyuki Oda, serves as the producer for the title.[12]

Originally, the game was set to be released in 2020.[13] However, in late December, Oda and Ogura revealed the game would see release in 2021 with more content yet to be explored. During these announcements, the two developers revealed sketches of Shun'ei, Kyo Kusanagi and Benimaru Nikaido, with the former being set to be the protagonist of the new game. Ogura called it "our most ambitious KOF yet".[13] An official trailer was set for January 7, 2021 but was delayed for unknown reasons alongside the downloadable content for Samurai Shodown.[14] The trailer was, instead, revealed the next day and included game footage of Kyo, Shun'ei, Benimaru, K', Mai Shiranui and Leona Heidern, while also confirming a 2021 release.[15] The team focused on improving the visuals and increasing the fast-paced gameplay by adding new elements.[12] The game was developed for PC and ninth generation of consoles, and supports ray tracing on these platforms. The PlayStation 4 version was also created with fans of The King of Fighters XIV in mind: SNK wanted to release the game while the console was still popular and expects this version to be used during major tournaments. Much attention to the character lineup was given due to the worldwide popularity of the series. In total, around 400 people were involved with game's development.[16]

In February 2021, Oda announced on his personal Twitter account that the team is working on implementing rollback-based netcode for the game.[17] The team aims to improve the gameplay and graphics while also providing a more interesting story than the one from XIV.[18] SNK later confirmed that they were using GGPO for their rollback implementation.[19]

In promoting the title, anime director Masami Ōbari (who previously worked on Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture and 1995 Technōs' Neo Geo fighting game titles Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer along with the OVA adaptation) created and directed a short anime based on the series, with his animation studio, G-1Neo, producing the short anime.[12] Yusuke Takeda and Hirotoshi Takaya have also worked on the short. In an interview with Famitsu, Ōbari has stated that he wanted this anime to be his best work yet, and that his team worked closely with SNK on the character design to make sure it has feature film level of detail put into every frame of animation.[20] The song "Now or Never" by Steven McNair plays during the short, and is also used as the main theme of the game.[21]

Cast and scenario

Character design is being handled by Tomohiro Nakata, who is also working on The King of Fighters All Star. Many returning characters received cosmetic changes. For example, Kyo Kusanagi was altered to overall look closer to his earlier appearances in the series, but different in other parts of his design like his jacket and gloves.[22][23] The decision to revive characters killed off in previous KOF games was made during XIV's development and was based off XIII's themes of energies connecting the past to the present through space and time and Oda wondering how that would affect things in the future. The deceased characters returning for XV were chosen based on fan requests and the aim of the roster was for it to have a 'fresh and festive feel'. They feel like the gathering of the KOF Heroes as well as the return of Team Sacred Treasures and Team Orochi helped them achieve this feeling. They brought back Clemence Bellamy, the story mode announcer from XIV, to appeal to the "tournament-likeness" of KOF and acknowledge that he was well received.[3]

Previous KOF heroes Kyo, K' and Ash Crimson have been more independent protagonists, but Shun'ei is a little bit younger than them and is more of a mentally unstable character. Oda has compared Shun'ei to Rock Howard, and says that his story could end up being as fun to write as Rock's. Oda feels that unlike the older fighting game protagonists, Shun'ei has a one-of-a-kind world view, and his values change as he grows older.[24] In regards to Isla, SNK wanted to introduce a rival to Shun'ei, so they let the design team to come up with whatever they could think of. The resulting draft had an impact on Oda, as it is very close to the final result, but he was initially worried about putting a character with that type of design into a fighting game. According to Eisuke Ogura, Isla is "not very much into actual fighting", and has a special and abnormal dance-like style.[25] Despite Shun'ei being the protagonist the story will explore Isla's character as well.

Meanwhile, the character of Krohnen has been noted to have multiple similarities with K9999 from The King of Fighters 2001 and The King of Fighters 2002 due to his similarities with the character of Tetsuo from the manga Akira and had to be removed from the franchise based on copyright issues.[26][27] Although SNK did not confirm his identity, artist Hiroaki was more open about it, calling him the revival of K9999.[28] Among other characters, the previous subboss, Antonov, became a playable character as a regular member of the cast. Oda stated that he was further changed based on the team's idea in regards of a manager.[29] The series' official website was updated with story prologues during development of the game.[30] Although the game gave closure to Shun'ei's character arc, SNK is not satisified with the result, believing they could still focus on the his role again.[16]

Release

In June 2021, SNK announced that the game would be delayed to the first quarter of 2022, due to rising cases of COVID-19 in Japan.[31][32] In July 2021, SNK announced that the game would be released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Microsoft Windows via the Microsoft Store, Epic Games Store and Steam.[33] The game's worldwide release is handled by the Embracer Group's Koch Media companies.[34] A demo became available in Tokyo Game Show 2021 featuring a total of eight playable characters.[35]

Downloadable content for the game include Terry Bogard's design from Garou: Mark of the Wolves and Leona Heidern's classic look from The King of Fighters '96 to The King of Fighters 2003. Other releases of the game include a two disc soundtrack and a 119-page artbook.[36] Oda claims the game is being developed in order to be enjoyed for years after its release.[37] As such, additional characters are planned to be added as downloadable content, with four teams set to be released in 2022.[38] The first, Garou Team, was released on March 17 for most platforms, but was delayed until the next day on Steam.[39] In addition, a free update on April 14 added Omega Rugal as a playable character to the game, and introduced the new Boss Challenge mode. Players who beat the stronger boss version of Rugal are rewarded with music, alternate costume, and a new stage.[40]

Reception

The King of Fighters XV received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[41][42][43][44]

Destructoid gave the game an eight out of ten and wrote, "With fantastic fighting action, a compelling roster, splendid visuals, and revamped online options, KoF XV is a treat for both series veterans and the fighting game community at large, though newcomers may still find themselves dizzied by its myriad mechanics and steep learning curve."[45] IGN praised the game's character models, rollback netcode, and roster, but heavily criticized the lack of content, insubstantial tutorialization, reused six year-old animations, and called its story mode "utterly bare bones."[50] Shacknews similarly lauded the visual redesign, netcode, training modes, gameplay mechanics, music, and existing roster while panning its inaccessibility, overpowered mechanics, and the absence of major characters in the roster.[55] GameSpot praised the distinct playstyles, team-based gameplay, large roster, new modes, and the online play, and criticized bad AI and the lack of substantial iteration over The King of Fighters XIV.[47]

Producer Yasuyuki Oda believes that the players’ response to the game was overwhelmingly positive, which allowed them to properly work on early issues such as the online play.[58]

The PlayStation 4 version of KoF XV was the 8th bestselling retail game during its first week of release in Japan, with 9,062 physical copies being sold. The PlayStation 5 version sold 2,414 physical copies in Japan throughout the same week, making it the 22nd bestselling retail game of the week in the country.[59]

References

  1. ^ "The King of Fighters XV launches February 17, 2022". Gematsu. 25 August 2021. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  2. ^ "The King of Fighters XV: Impressions on a fast, faithful, and solid slugfest". Destructoid. 23 November 2021. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c "「THE KING OF FIGHTERS XV」開発者インタビュー。アッシュやオロチチームなど意外とも言えるキャラたちの参戦経緯を聞いた". 4Gamer. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  4. ^ "Prologue". SNK. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
  5. ^ "KOF XV TEAM STORIES". SNK (in Japanese). Retrieved February 19, 2021.
  6. ^ "KOF XV". SNK (in Japanese). Retrieved February 19, 2021.
  7. ^ Moreno, Tania (August 18, 2017). "Yasuyuki Oda y Hayato Watanabe hablan sobre el Desarrollo Y Futuro de KOF" [Yasuyuki Oda and Hayato Watanabe talk about the Development and Future of KOF]. IGN (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 20, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2017.
  8. ^ "Yasuyuki Oda on SNK Heroines' Sexualization, Accessibility, And Competitive Audiences". Game Informer. February 9, 2018. Archived from the original on February 10, 2018. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  9. ^ "SNK, 사무라이 스피리츠와 'KOF XV' 개발 진행 중" [SNK, Samurai Spirits and'KOF XV' in progress]. Ruliweb. 5 December 2018. Archived from the original on December 6, 2018. Retrieved December 5, 2018.
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  13. ^ a b Sato (5 December 2018). "The King of Fighters XV Is Being Planned For A 2020 Release". Siliconera. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
  14. ^ "KOF XV and Samurai Shodown Announcements Delayed". Siliconera. 6 January 2021. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
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  16. ^ a b "KOF XV Developers Shared More Insights on the Game's Development". Siliconera. February 17, 2022. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
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  21. ^ SNK GLOBAL (February 17, 2022). "Steven McNair, the producer of KOF XV's main theme, NOW OR NEVER, also produced music for KOF XIV! Take a trip down memory lane with KOF XIV's main theme FOLLOW ME!". Twitter. Retrieved February 20, 2022.
  22. ^ SNK Global [@NvKknpbmkIbDg6m] (February 18, 2021). "【KOF XV】" (Tweet). Retrieved February 20, 2021 – via Twitter.
  23. ^ SNK [@SNKPofficial] (February 18, 2021). "【KOF XV】 SNK dev for [KOF XV] shares their thoughts on KYO KUSANAGI. The character designer for KYO KUSANAGI goes a bit in-depth on his design process! #SNK #KOF #KOF15" (Tweet). Retrieved February 19, 2021 – via Twitter.
  24. ^ "『KOF XV』は何が"新鮮"なのか？新キャラ・イスラのこだわり、新システム、ネットコード…その全貌を開発陣に訊く【TGS2021】". Inside Games. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  25. ^ "King Of Fighters XV Director Dishes On The Series' New, Possibly Best Girl". Kotaku. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
  26. ^ "New King Of Fighter Character Looks Like Fighter That Vanished Mysteriously". Kotaku. 10 December 2021. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  27. ^ "KOF XV Krohnen and Second Open Beta Announced". Siliconera. 10 December 2021. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  28. ^ @SUPER_HIROAKI (29 December 2021). "『 K9999 』(2012年)ずいぶん前にカードゲーム用（？）に描いたものです。先日のKOFXV「クローネン」の公開、長い間「K9999」の復活を待っていた皆さんには嬉しいサプライズでしたね。#KOF" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  29. ^ "『KOF XV』クリエイターインタビュー。シリーズの集大成ともいえるクオリティーとボリュームで展開する最新作かける想いを訊く". Famitsu. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
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  31. ^ "Versus Battle Fighting Game THE KING OF FIGHTERS XV now slated for Q1 2022 release". SNK. June 2, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
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  34. ^ Romano, Sal (6 July 2021). "The King of Fighters XV confirmed for PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, and PC". Gematsu. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
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  37. ^ "New Retro Gamer discusses Yasuyuki Oda's big plans for The King Of Fighters XV". GamesRadar. 9 July 2021. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  38. ^ Smith, Sean (February 1, 2022). "The King of Fighters XV DLC has been detailed". God is a Geek. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  39. ^ @SNKPOfficial (17 March 2022). "The Steam launch for DLC Characters TEAM GAROU has been met with a delay. We are terribly sorry, but please wait a moment until it is able to be downloaded. Thank you" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  40. ^ Bonthuys, Darryn (March 21, 2022). "King of Fighters XV Adds Omega Rugal As Free DLC In April". GameSpot. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
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  42. ^ a b "The King of Fighters XV for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 19, 2022.
  43. ^ a b "The King of Fighters XV for PlayStation 5 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  44. ^ a b "The King of Fighters XV for Xbox Series X Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 19, 2022.
  45. ^ a b Moyse, Chris (February 11, 2022). "Review: The King of Fighters XV". Destructoid. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  46. ^ "Famitsu Review Scores: Issue 1736". Gematsu. 9 March 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  47. ^ a b Kemps, Heidi (February 16, 2022). "The King Of Fighters XV Review - Wanna Play Some KoF?". GameSpot. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
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  49. ^ Quesada, Daniel (February 14, 2022). "Análisis de The King of Fighter XV - La lucha se actualiza y luce mejor que nunca" [The King of Fighters XV Review - The fight is updated and looks better than ever]. HobbyConsolas (in Spanish). Axel Springer SE. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
  50. ^ a b Saltzman, Michael (February 11, 2022). "The King of Fighters XV Review". IGN. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  51. ^ Ayden_ (February 21, 2022). "Test The King of Fighters XV : Bien loin de Street Fighter 6, un retour remarqué pour la saga phare de SNK" [The King of Fighters XV Review : Far from Street Fighter 6, a remarkable return to SNK's flagship saga]. Jeuxvideo.com (in French). Retrieved February 24, 2022.
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  58. ^ Makar, Connor (February 17, 2022). "King of Fighters 15 devs talk about the struggles of creating the latest game – and their favourite characters". VG247. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
  59. ^ Romano, Sal (February 24, 2022). "Famitsu Sales: 2/14/22 – 2/20/22 [Update]". Gematsu. Retrieved April 7, 2022.

Notes

  1. ^ Japanese: ザ・キング・オブ・ファイターズ XV, Hepburn: Za Kingu Obu Faitāzu XV
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