Hello everyone! It's been awhile, and today I wanted to share my thoughts and impressions on KOF XIV at Playstation Experience.
I was one of the lucky few people to go and play KOFXIV at the Playstation Experience. Shoutouts to Sony and SNK Playmore for allowing the first ever location test to be held in the wonderful City of San Francisco. It was a great decision to make, lots of people came out to play it, and the game was generally well accepted by many people, even a few Capcom executives. In general, it left a really good impression on the people who came out and played it.
I have to agree with my friend Laban, the trailers don't simply do the game justice. You really had to come out and play the game in person to see what was truly special about the game! To me, the game felt like KOF; fast, offensive, dynamic, and very fluid! The game's pace and gameplay felt like a mix of XIII easy Light Chain confirms, 98 normals, 02 cancel mechanics. It doesn't mess around much with meter gain and new mechanics besides Max Mode and Ex Moves. As soon as you get into the action, all the combos and confirms you know how to do will come naturally the first few minutes of playing some matches. I was hitting Iori Rekka from lows and Kyo J.Dwn C into Kusogani chains in no time. People might be thrown off by the 3d models at first, but you get used to it.
Offensive pressure and active defense was also really good and responsive too. My frame traps felt tight like in any other KOF game, and interrupting people's tick throw setups with Cr. A and anti-airing hops with St.A felt responsive and quick. Don't let people toss you like old salad. Overall, the feel of the game was KOF, and that feeling was truly amazing. I really do appreciate SNK for taking the flow of the game into this great direction.
As far as characters go, everyone should feel right at home once you have a feel for the game. Doing Iori's taco cross-up was a bit weird for me at first, but then I got used to it and could do that with ease. Some of the new moves they added for the characters were actually really good and useful in my opinion.
Kyo's new QCFX2+P is the same as 02UM's, and was the same as I know it. Unsafe on block, unblockable fully charged, soft knockdown, fast enough to connect to lights. Kyo also got a new low rekka chain similar to heavy D's 1-2 Mixup, however I don't remember if any of the follows up or even canceling into that followup was particularly safe. Other than that, he played like Kyo, with better range on his J.D and great pressure strings.
Iori's new super is basically a mini Dark Angel that goes right infront of him and is stationary. You can charge it up for possibly extra damage, but no extra hitstun. When you EX it, it gives up to 8 hits with the same properties. You can't get anything crazy like Taco Crossups, but it will still be something to help him put on the pressure and apply fast high lows. His old DP+K from 98 is back, and the D version is the only one that cancel into rekkas. However, it is actually + on block on its own, so if somebody blocks it, you have an advantage. One of the versions/both versions is also an overhead, so it's really good! I haven't tested the EX version though.
Kula's new super where she charges at you full of ice could actually be used really well for Anti-air! Here's a video showcasing the new super.
So yeah, a lot of new or familiar things that work well for each character.
Another new mechanic was the addition of CD wall splat, where if your St.CD hits, you get a free splat to the wall ala Guilty Gear which you can combo off of. Now this new feature seems really mixed to me; I can imagine some characters with far reaching specials, like Terry and his C burn Knuckle, to convert off of it, but as far as other characters, I'm not too sure if they would benefit off of it. I do believe that maybe the idea behind it is too CD, Max Cancel, then go up and followup into whatever. It seems like a good addition for beginners and it actually makes St. CD's a worthwhile poke worth using now instead of reacting to counter hits.
Now let me get into Max Mode. Max Mode is similar to HD or Max Mode activation in where you go into Max Mode after you cancel a normal and confirm into whatever after that. Max Mode also causes a YRC like pause if you do it raw, so you can see someone hop, Max Mode, than DP them. Max Mode right now to me seems pretty weird, and the only reason you would ever go into Max Mode is if you wanted to do EX moves, extend for further damage or go for reaction shenanigans. They might change it, which I think they should, but I don't want them to have put drive cancels in the game, I theorize that there would be an exploit in the system like in XIII if they let that fly.
Rush combos were pretty useless to me as far as I saw, so I'm not gonna bother writing about that. It's just an autocombo that does low damage, so really there is no point in doing it. Super Cancel only took 1 stock, so canceling into them won't be as resource intensive as in 02UM with 2 stocks or XIII with a stock and a drive gauge. I think that's good, less worrying about meter, and more about dat hit confirming.
Just Defend seems pretty much useless at the moment. No health regain or Guard Gauge draining less, so it seems like a work in progress at the moment. However, I think that will make a good addition to the game.
All in all, I'm really impressed with XIV. The game runs smooth, the new system mechanics are interesting and fresh, and it was just a blast to play a new KOF that stays true to its root with some new mechanics for us to play with! I'm definitely picking this game up day 1 and can't wait for more information about it in the future.
But for now, as always people, keep playing KOF and show your support. The Future... is Now.
