The King Of Fighters Is SNK flagship 3vs3 fighting series that has been a fan favourite since the first game in 1994. The series’ latest title was the King Of Fighters XIV which was released in 2016 and still being enjoyed by fans worldwide.
During SNK’s IPO conference that was held in Korea last December in order to hype up the company’s entering the Korean stock market, it was revealed that SNK is hard at work on the next iteration of the team fighting series: The King Of Fighters XV. So what do we know about the title? Below is a rundown of all the info, leaks, slip ups regarding KOFXV and compile them in this video.
Graphics:
Let’s get this out of the way. KOFXIV’s graphics were not the best. Since its first teaser the title has been ridiculed, made fun of, and compared to PS2 titles. SNK would go on to upgrade the lighting and color saturation post launch, but the improvement was minor.
Luckily it seemed that SNK has learned their lesson, as it was revealed that The King Of Fighters XV will be using Unreal Engine 4. The same engine currently being used on most fighting games, including the upcoming Samurai Shodown. SNK chairman Mr Zhuzhi Even went on to say that KOFXV will look even better than Samurai Shodown as the company is learning more about the engine. Here is hoping some cel shaded effect is there to rival the gorgeous looking dragon ball Fighterz from arcsys which also uses unreal engine 4. This also might not be such a good news for people hoping that SNK would go back to hand drawn sprites a la KOFXIII, but we all knew that the time of 2D sprites is long gone.
Platforms:
How can we talk about platrforms when the game has not even been officially announced yet? Well we certainly can thanks to that same ipo. It was announced to investors that SNK is planning to have KOFXV available on all major consoles simultaneously, specifically mentioning PS4, XboxOne, Nintdo Switch, and Steam. If Sony’s Playstation 5 is released by then, then we can assume it would also see a release of KOFXV. This is major departure from KOFXIV which was time exclusive for PS4, before hitting PC a year later. Having the game available on all major consoles will help with the sales and brand recognition for the title.
Story:
The King Of Fighters series has always presented its fans with a coherent well written and exciting story line. The KOF lore is split in sagas. First we have the Orochi Saga, which spanned from KOF94 to 97 and dealt with the revival of the 1800 years old demon Orochi. Then KOF99 started the NESTS saga, where our heroes had to deal with a secret organization cloning powered people and transplanting skills on others. The NESTS saga gave us some great charactres like K’ and Kula, and would span until KOF2001. KOF2003 started the ash saga, the story dealt with the secret cult of “Those From the Past”, trying to revive orochi, the tale of this saga included time travel and time paradox, and ended with a sacrifice of Ash’s life. Now KOFXIV starts a new saga and one that we do not know much about. We do know that there are some a space anomalies, and Verse was a being made of many souls, and somehow he is related to Shun’ei. Then we know this death caused the revival of many deceased fighters like Shermie, Chris and Yashiro which was confirmed in the SNK heroines game. But besides that we do not know how this saga would go, and what KOFXV will be about. Well, thank to Azuma Kyotaro’s ongoing The King Of Fighters a New beginning manga, which adapts KOFXIV, we now know that NESTS is heavily involved. The secret organization, which we all thought was destroyed with Igniz’s detah, is still pretty much alive, and is infiltrating the KOFXIV tournament. These remnants goal is to revive Igniz, who’se soul seems to also be part of Verse. Their plan is to somehow use all the nests cyborgs, K’, Maxima, Kula, Angel, and silvie, who even though they defected, still have some sort of activated chip in their bodies that they do not know about. To what extent will NESTS be involved in kofxv remains to be seen, but at least we have a little glimpse about the plot.
Release date:
Well this is a short. KOFXV will be released on 2020, Moving on!
Characters?
Ok I know what you are gonna all say, I am just speculating now. And that’s true, however while we cannot know who is in the roster, a recent SNK slip up might confirm character that was not seen in KOFXIV that will be making his 3d debut next year. Who that you might ask? Raiden
Raiden , who is the lais for Big Bear, is character that made his debut in the first Fatal Fury game,a s Geese’s bodygoard alongside Billy Kane. Raiden will then turn a new leaf and become a good person taking the new alias of big Bear. Raiden made his KOF debut in KOFXII and KOFXIII.
In a recruiting area of SNk Japan’s website, SNk staff are interviewed and shown in pictures working on various things. In an interview with deigner and illustrator Tomohiro Nakata, it was shown that the artists is working on a illustration featuring Raiden that ahs never been seen before. And seeking that KOFXIII was finished a very long time ago, this might be an indication that Raiden is in KOFXV.
When will the game be announced?
The answer is sometimes around the end of May 2019. Since SNK has announced that KOFXV focused investors presentation will take place around the end of May. So we presume that the game will somehow be announced by then, maybe as part of a KOF 25th anniversary event? Since this year will mark 25 years since KOF 94 was first released. Oh god im so old!!!
Well there you have, this is pretty much all what we know about the King Of Fighters XV. Make sure to follow Neogeonow on twitter and susbcrivbe to our ever growing youtube channel now!
