The fight has changed, but not for SNK and its saga The King of Fighters. After a lack of spark in KOF XIV, the new installment is launched with the intention of prospering and becoming a product that extends its useful and playable life for years to come. Is it just the name or do you need something else? We reviewed it in the analysis of KOF XV.
KOF is not just another fighting game saga, but I don’t want to bore you with the “retro” spiel of what was and what is the SNK brand in these times. I want to talk to you about the current situation of the fighting genre. It’s not good or bad, it’s data: with numbers in hand, fighting has never been as profitable as it is now, and the quality of the products usually accompanies its good economic results. For this reason, the competition could not be fiercer between the main representatives of the genre, and all of them give their best and try to fulfill the wishes of their followers with chapters that are already numbered by mere tradition; they are games as a service that hope to extend their useful life with downloadable content for a good handful of years.
Let’s list the leaders. For many, Street Fighter V did not start well, but Capcom has been able to rebuild the experience and survive an entire generation with a game that today has nothing to do with what was launched in 2016. Tekken 7 has experienced an unprecedented phenomenon in the saga : It has continued to add players in stages beyond its premiere and adding content that allows it to be very relevant five years after its launch. Arc System Works, with BlazBlue, GranBlue Fantasy Versus, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Guilty Gear Strive have touched the sky visually and continue to dazzle their users. The success of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is inversely proportional to the care and attention that Nintendo gives to its professional player base. Meanwhile…What does SNK do with its main saga?
Well, in the vicinity of Esaka station, after a very creditable Samurai Shodown and a disturbing SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy, the Japanese firm is so confident in itself and in its previous video game, KOF XIV, that it has not been forced to rebuild practically nothing that was criticized in his day in this The King of Fighters XV. Of course, it maintains some playable bases that are undoubtedly “koferas” but little or nothing ambitious in its staging for the times that run and the competition there. Will it work for anyone other than King of Fighters enthusiasts? doSNK misses the shot with its sober approach?
Shun’Ei vs. Island
I try to understand what happens to me with the characters of the new arc of KOF, but it is inevitable for me to think that it is not something personal that I have against Shun’Ei or Meitenkun: the phenomenon has been repeated with Isla and Dolores, two of the new fighters in the installment. They are absurdly overloaded, they do not have a single aesthetic capacity that makes me consider playing them seriously. Something that has a direct impact on what I think is one of the main problems of the new installment: its extensive squad of fighters. What’s wrong with having a lot of options to choose from? Nothing at all, but that we are facing a disappointing roster does not go unnoticed by anyone. Any player would have bet on sending all the characters of the Shun’Ei saga to the trunk of memories along with the heroes of Maximum Impact and have created a better selection of fighters.
In these times you have to think templates with more care. Accepting that the job of moving the heroes from KOF XIV to KOF XV has been no more complicated than moving them from KOF 95 to KOF 96, I wonder: what was the need to leave out already made and beloved characters in the previous game to keep or add other worse to the template? To be consistent with the slogan that has been used throughout the promotion of the game, why not “exceed all expectations” with a squad and teams made up of the protagonists most loved by fans? Is there a single person in the world who prefers Ramon to Geese Howard? Someone who celebrates the encore of Luong and Antonov after XIV? What SNK is going to do with the already announced DLCs is very different if we compare it with other practices on the market: Capcom re-released Akuma and Sagat in Street Fighter V as DLCs, yes, but they were completely new characters that had nothing to do with them. do with the work of Street Fighter IV; getting Rock to KOF XV is going to cost little more than a copy-paste.
Not giving the best selection of fighters possible is something that plays against SNK itselfHere is a decision made deliberately not to give the best possible selection of fighters, and it is something that plays against SNK itself and the interest of prolonging KOF XV over time. It was time to gather the creme de la creme of the saga with what they already had in KOF XIV and spend their efforts to bring back characters loved by the community that are not in the base game. Who cares anymore about Shun’Ei’s story and Ash’s changes in the saga universe after the exceptional KOF XIII? It is surprising that in the SNK offices they are so self-confident that they all decisions revolve around a plot that should not matter to anyone.
But not everything is bad in the decisions made in the KOF XV squad: It’s a polka dot fighter template, but It is wide and offers a wide range of possibilities.. The sudden returns of CYS from the Orochi saga, K’9999 from the NESTS saga or Ash from his homonymous saga are great news. Also the meeting of Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami and Chizuru Kagura or the inclusion of Athena Asamiya in the women’s team with Mai Shiranui and Yuri Sakazaki at the helm, but it’s a shame to see characters like Andy, Joe, Ramón, Luong and so many others that could have been replaced by some of the most interesting proposals that they had already made from the previous software.
And yet… it’s a KOF
It may be that questionable decisions have been made when selecting the squad of fighters and it is no less true that, perhaps, it does not look as good as we would like and no song is going to ascend to the sky of the great hits in history from KOF, but in the playable it is sober but pleasant. The playable base is a direct heir to what was started in KOF 2002 and continued in KOF XIII and KOF XIV, with the MAX bar at the disposal of the combo and the execution of the most painful chains of blows that experienced players are capable of. to combine It’s demanding at high levels, but rewarding at low levelswith players who can do great damage as soon as they give their team a few hours in training.
The main playable novelty is in a new hit called Shatter Strike that has become an interesting weapon to counter enemy moves and do a lot of damage. Its attack mechanic is reminiscent of the Focus Attack from Street Fighter IV, but it consumes a super bar and its damage can be greater than that of Capcom’s proposal. It remains to be seen what acceptance it has among the most enthusiastic community, but it is a tool that can change the way in which the most offensive aspect of the new The King of Fighters is faced. How could it be otherwise, The EX attacks that have been giving so much play return in the latest installments of the saga and the Climax are maintained, which for three super bars do abysmal damage to enemy defenses… although the vast majority have been recycled from XIV.
The easy way to fit them into combos? With the Dream Cancels, an ability that was released in the days of KOF XI and that has lasted in the contemporary part of the saga. The difference between the great players of KOF XV and the mediocre ones will reside in the good use and specialization of the Max Mode, something that has already been common in previous installments in which this function has been chosen in the saga. It’s early to say, but it seems to present an optimal level of balance and in the first rounds there are enough reasons to be satisfied with the work that SNK has done in this field.
Another great point: developers’ commitment to netcode rollback, which should guarantee good online games for years to come. The awareness of Japanese developers with this matter is, without a doubt, one of the best news with which the new generation of consoles has begun. It has not yet been able to play online, but the foundation and promise is solid. On the other hand, in terms of solo game modes, the typical arcade mode with different sections in which its (grotesque) story is told and in which we are introduced to its two final enemies, at the antipodes of charisma of any enemy remembered from the KOF saga. Nothing new under the sun, but it is no less disappointing, of course.
Keep your expectations somewhat low
It must be recognized that, visually, it wins on the screen. The static images that accompany the analysis do not quite show all the graphic work of SNK in the fifteenth installment of the saga, but it is not that the game reaches high levels worth mentioning, even less when compared to current references of the genre. The dedication to presenting fighters worthy of 2022 would be welcome news for any fan of the saga, especially coming from a company capable of doing so much with so little. As was the case in KOF XIV, the punches don’t look as forceful as I’d like: Perhaps a visual alternative to the crash box or a harsher sound could have been chosen, but this was not the case.
It is inevitable to think that decisions have been made that, far from adding, have subtractedIn fact, it is surprising how reluctantly the introductions or videos of special battles have been made. It is paradoxical that, having a technology light years away from sprites in two dimensions, none of the intros is capable of up to the classics. The same can be said of the sound: totally innocuous melodies that will not remain in the subconscious of any fan of the saga; the good news is that online you can pull the classics of the best deliveries of The King of Fightersso it is not a problem that you have to worry too much about if you are looking to put down roots in the competitive game.
I can’t fool you: the feeling I have at the controls of KOF is not the illusion or enjoyment I had with past deliveries. And not, It’s not a matter of nostalgia or closure: It is a question that the developers of the latest KOF, luckily or unfortunately, are very anchored in themselves and their few virtues. It saddens me to see how conformist we have all become with the three most important letters of 2D fighting. But nevertheless, KOF XV is not a bad gamebut it is inevitable to think that completely surreal decisions have been made that, far from adding, have subtracted.