King of Fighters XIV: Feel the burn.

KOF14, Retro now.

The trailer is an odd mix of fair and bad renderings!
So the PlayStation Experience event is happening in California right now, and a demo featuring all the characters up to trailer 3 + Kula are playable.

- KOF14 will have a mashable easy-combo system. Like Persona 4 or Undernight InBirth, the game lets you do a combo by just mashing one button (the weak punch button). Apparently there's some attacks that are exclusive to this system, and likewise to Persona and undernight, it'll even do a super at the end if you have enough meter.
- Jumps in general are slower, which is probably good for new players but will certainly get complaints from old schoolers.
- The combo-heavy HD system from KOF13 has been replaced with "Max Mode" from the past series.
- Basically when you have 1 bar of meter, you can go into Max mode with two button presses, and you can do infinite EX specials for a limited time. (EX specials are more powerful versions of special attacks, fireballs, uppercuts and whatnot)
- You can only do EX specials during Max mode, which is a pretty big difference from KOF13 or even SF4/5.
- There's the "Just defense" system from Garou:Mark of the Wolves where you get some advantage compared to blocking normally, which you can do by blocking at the same time when an attack is coming your way.
- There's guard cancel evasion/rolling but there may not be guard cancel CD/thrust. This could be the reason why Just defense is in the game. (Personally I'd much rather prefer the contemporary guard cancel thrust since it can be used for offense as well as defence.)

... The Neogeo versions of Last Blade 2 and KOF2000 are coming to PS4 as well, which is kind of an odd decision.

Btw, here's a list of photos and videos which I've compiled with a Japanese site.

Videos：
Shakycam stream archive from venue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej0Zdjk_Im0
Top players Xiaohai and Dakou gameplay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZATQmeDg88
SF4 player Nemo's gameplay　https://twitter.com/KingsofCO/status/673281587325198336
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0KHYG85ENI
https://twitter.com/KingsofCO/status/673268030822998017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlAuSdXu5fQ
https://twitter.com/KingsofCO/status/673302186164555776
https://twitter.com/KingsofCO/status/673353216529068032
New Trailer　https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmS63iQqdr4
New Trailer (w/o login)　https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQMYnI5rPhM


Screenshots：
Collection of screenshots
https://www.facebook.com/TeamChaosL.A/photos_stream
character select screens
http://www.eventhubs.com/imagegallery/2015/dec/05/king-fighters-14-character-select-other-menus/1/
http://www.eventhubs.com/imagegallery/2015/dec/05/king-fighters-14-character-select-other-menus/4/
http://www.eventhubs.com/imagegallery/2015/dec/05/king-fighters-14-character-select-other-menus/6/
http://www.eventhubs.com/imagegallery/2015/dec/05/king-fighters-14-character-select-other-menus/7/
https://twitter.com/skullokei/status/673320533371453440
https://twitter.com/skullokei/status/673288040857530368
https://twitter.com/skullokei/status/673366343320657920
Stage select, victory screen, etc
http://www.eventhubs.com/imagegallery/2015/dec/05/king-fighters-14-character-select-other-menus/2/
http://www.eventhubs.com/imagegallery/2015/dec/05/king-fighters-14-character-select-other-menus/3/
http://www.eventhubs.com/imagegallery/2015/dec/05/king-fighters-14-character-select-other-menus/5/
Misc stuff
https://twitter.com/tonpy_/status/673286867215773696
https://twitter.com/tonpy_/status/673285590264102913
https://twitter.com/tonpy_/status/673285093352275968

Gameplay instructions
https://twitter.com/skullokei/status/673322361349791744
https://twitter.com/KingsofCO/status/673254498245042176

Producer was at event.
https://twitter.com/1itzentl/status/673232913652039680/


quote:
No, the roster doesn't match the rumor and that rumor was supposedly disproved already (source credibility is 0%).

The rumored list sleeps deep within the BBS threads!
http://www.mmcafe.com/cgi-bin/forums/bbs/messages/13494.shtml#69318

Team 01 : China Team (?? / Tung Fu Rue / ?? ) ~ Possible Characters ~ ( Jin Chonshu / Jin Chonrei )
Team 02 : Japan Team ( Kyo Kusanagi / Benimaru Nikaido / Goro Daimon )
Team 03 : Fatal Fury Team ( Terry Bogard / Andy Bogard / Joe Higashi )
Team 04 : Art of Fighting Team ( Ryo Sakazaki / Robert Garcia / Yuri Sakazaki )
Team 05 : K' Team ( K' / Maxima / Kula Diamond )
Team 06 : Kim Team ( Kim Kaphwan / Kim's Master / Myeng Swuk )
Team 07 : Criminal Team ( Chang Koehan / Choi Bounge / Newcomer Prisoner )
Team 08 : Women Fighters Team ( Mai Shiranui / King / Alice )
Team 09 : Ikari Team ( Ralf Jones / Clark Still / Leona Heidern )
Team 10 : Psycho Soldier team ( Athena Asamiya / Sie Kensou) / Chin Gentsai )
Team 11 : Yagami Team ( Iori Yagami / Mature / Vice )
Team 12 : Mexico Team ( Ramon / Angel / Tizoc )
Team 13 : Palace Wan Team ( Acting Mask Girl / Teenage Girl Singer with Electric Element / Mysterious Hooded Man )
Team 14 : South Town Team ( Geese Howard / Billy Kane / ?? )
Team 15 : South America Team ( Brazilian Ninja / Handicap Boxer / Pretty Latin Girl )
Team 16 : Alternate World Team ( Nakoruru / Love Heart / Mui Mui )
Mid-Boss : ( Russian Billionaire )
Final-Boss : ( Non-Human Species )

The list is supposedly fake, but little by little it's starting to look legit. Coincedence or smoke of truth?
- Prisoner Chang
- Angel is in the game
- Total 50 characters (48 + 2 bosses)


Regardless of the rumor, I can't imagine 50 characters playable at launch. I'm naturally assuming they'll come gradually.

Producer Oda gets interviewed by Famitsu.
http://www.famitsu.com/news/201512/06094695.html

Rough synopsis:

- The Game's development is about 70% complete.
- Aside from supers, there's also MAX supers and Climax supers. Supers will automatically turn into MAX supers when you're in MAX mode.
- Producer Oda: "Climax supers are the biggest moves in the game and they take 3 bars. They're like the NeoMax supers from KOF13 but since not all the characters had it in the game, we'd decided to add it to everyone for KOF14" (Note: Everyone actually had it in KOF13. The producer probably didn't play the game that much)
- There's no Drive meter this time around, only a power meter. The devs decided to simplify things. EX specials can only be done during MAX mode which takes a bar of meter to activate.
- Producer Oda: KOF13 was a so-called combo game because of the drive cancel and EX special systems. There were people that liked it, but also those who didn't. This time, we decided to take a step somewhere inbetween those two kinds of players.
- Because a lot of people play at home on console nowadays and there's a wide range of players, the devs want to keep the controls simple but the game to have depth so you can keep playing and make new discoveries.
- The CD attack/thrust system now makes the opponent hit the wall and crumple for followup attacks.
- The devs don't want to add in too many new systems because KOF has enough as it is. They want to keep tuning/tweaking stuff though.

Overall, I have really enjoyed playing KOFXIV at Playstation Experience. The more I played, the more I wanted to play. I was all smiles and feeling good about the potential of KOFXIV. It does have its few nuances that I don't like, but I feel those could be easily remedied. The graphics look better when played in person and when touched up and polished up. Most players I spoked to had overall positive impressions of the game. The first trailer made many bad first impressions, so KOFXIV might be an underdog sleeper hit because right now it's a diamond in the rough just waiting to become Q-carbon.

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

SNK actually stepping up their quality.

I'm impressed!