My thoughts on KOFXIV (24 character build)

[desmond_kof]

I tried out King of Fighters XIV at Combo Breaker 2016 this past weekend. I played it all the 3 days it was featured at the event. There were 3 setups that were in all in a winner stays format (that I didn't quite agree with) and they had
the setups there for at least 10 hours a day. I also did commentary for two exhibitions (on a sore throat) Sunday
morning. https://www.twitch.tv/bgcallisto/v/69324885?t=7m48s

Movement: I felt that the jumps felt very floaty. I couldn't figure out if it was just less gravity or if they
were making the characters just jump higher or 3D graphics making the speeds look different. Because of that, it felt
pretty easy to anti-air jumping attacks while hops felt a little similar to past KOF games but still felt a tad bit
floaty. Iori's hop and jumps felt the same while other characters felt floaty. The different jump speeds in this game I
noticed created a lot of cross-under situations when someone got hit with an air-to-air attack at jump high range which I didn't see too much in KOFXIII.

I felt also that the walk/run speeds were VERY VERY slow. It made it very difficult to use normal throws while walking up to an opponent or to use them as a run grab. I felt that throws came out almost at random like playing GGXX.

Combos: Much more shorter in this game but more powerful damage wise. I don't know how I feel about super cancels
not using any extra meter like KOF2002 however, it seems too lenient and generous to me so far. I do like how they removed canceling specials into each by changing them into canceling supers but I hope they don't make the meter requirements too relaxed as they are now. Also, because the combos are much shorter, they make them VERY easy to do. The only reason I was dropping a few combos because I wasn't used to the new combo paths, but I feel with practice, they can be easy mastered. The short combos I feel are a complete contrast to the combos in KOF13 which I felt because of the Drive Cancel meter, they made character combo lists very long (even the non-optimized ones) and the length of the combos very long too.

Meter System:

The meter system is reminiscent of 02/UM by using levels, and a different kind of max mode that gives you access to EX moves. I didn't notice from what videos that activating into max mode by itself gave you a full bar, while activating it from a combo uses half of the meter, which I think is fair.

So the super cancels I noticed (from videos and playing) there are Super Cancels, Advanced Cancels and Climax Cancels.  I could be wrong about these because I do remember asking people a lot to confirm.

Super Cancels are specials moves cancelled into level 1 supers, or Climax Supers

Advanced Cancels are level 1 supers cancelled into Ex Supers or Climax Supers

Climax Cancels are level 1 supers cancelled into the Climax Super in Max Mode


Level 1 supers = 1 meter
EX Supers = 2 Meters
Climax Supers = 3 Meters

If you are in max mode, just add one meter to activate, with the cancel requirements but subtract a meter for EX supers and Climax supers; level 1 supers automatically turn into EX Supers.

Graphics: I said it a million times, the game looks much better in person ON SCREEN than on videos. Videos aren't properly showing the game at it's truest potential visually. A lot of people who were watching the game and playing kept
mentioning how good and better the game looks compared to how it looks on YouTube or streamed through Twitch (even at
high resolutions). You can see the details of the characters clothing clearly (like Kyo's studs on his jeans and shirt) and various visual effects are shown much stronger like heatwaves and sound waves (from Ryo's F+B when it connects).

Characters I picked: Throughout the whole weekend I played around with Iori, Kyo, Sylvie, King of Dinosaurs, Banderas, Robert, Mai, Kim, Athena, Billy, Nelson, Kula, Terry and Andy.

Iori: He felt pretty much the same as KOFXIII Flame Iori but with faster qcb+P rekkas. I did have some troubles getting his maxmode combos off the ground because I wasn't too used to the timings, so I just stuck to bnb combos and analyzed his movement compared to other KOFs. I didn't really get many chances to experiment around with him.

Kyo: Kyo is really powerful in this game. He has his confirms from KOF13, as well as his ex command grab (that didn't use much) but doesn't have his 2F alternate EX orochinagi. I didn't experiment with his other Ex moves. He was very easy to combo directly into max mode with to finish off with either a regular super or his Climax Super. His j.2C is still pretty nuts in this game, which provides a lot of weird crossups and side changes, especially if you hit them while they are hopping.

Sylvie: I felt Sylvie was very slow and had very stubby normals, so I felt that her special moves worked out a bit better in regards to creating space and anti-airing the opponent. I feel that SNK needs to tweak her more to make her a bit more user friendly.

King of Dinosaurs: Very, very slow in movement, and slow normals, slow command throw, slow qcf+P slash move, and he also had a qcf+K jumping attack that I couldn't figure out how to use properly.

Banderas: He seemed pretty fast from what I noticed while playing him and he has a wall jump too, and a command dash that uses a dp+K input and as a counter move that has the input of rdp+K. I thought it was interesting that he was giving a charge command throw similar to EX Robert in 2002UM. I did feel like his normals could have been better, so I hope they try to tweak him more for the final release.

Nelson: I tried out Nelson very briefly, he definitely seemed like a character that I needed to sit down and figure out because of his movelist.

Robert: I liked Robert in this game, he has a good fireball, good dp for anti-airs and to end combos or use super cancel into, and his normals were pretty good both in speed and range (like st. C, st. B and far D). He does have his f+A overhead but I couldn't and didn't test if it can be cancelled into anything during a blockstring like in 98 ie. cl.C, f+A, air hcb+K. Speaking of his air hcb+K, I couldn't really get too much out of it as far as if it was safe on block or how fast it was. He has his ground hcb+K hurricane kicks moves that I seen players use in combos quite a bit and it seemed very fast and hard to punish. His command throw hcf+K got some mileage out of some players, but I couldn't figure out how fast or slow the startup was or if it was invinicble or not.

Mai: Like always, Mai has good normals, good speed and mobility etc. Her movelist is pretty much the same as KOFXIII not as robust at KOF02UM.

Kim: Kim from what I felt is slightly different right now from his KOFXIII version. His hit confirms are much shorter, so it is now not possible to do cr.Bx3, st.B, ff+A into whatever anymore. His annoying far D (that does 2 hits) is now nerfed, it resembles 02/UM now that you can't hit confirm it into any other normals (if im not mistaken). You can confirm it into max mode from what I've seen but I didn't try it. His air qcb+B doesn't hard knockdown anymore, but his air qcb+D does but you can combo into it which weakens his oki game from light normal confirms. His super cancels from what I tried in battle is cr. B, st. B, ff+A, air qcb+B, SC qcb~hcf+K and you can super cancel from his heavy kick flash kick (charge down, up+D). I had trouble crossing up opponents with Kim, so hopefully I can figure out some different setups when the game is finished.

Athena: Athena is my favorite character so far. Because the game now is a bit more grounded-based, her fireball-dp game is much more stronger than before. I did have trouble finding a proper super cancel from her heavy kick Phoenix Arrow, so I just saved 3 meters to just Climax Cancel that caused a lot of damage. It also seems that her light kick Phoenix Arrow is very hard to punish, but if you throw out a few crouching light kicks when you exit block stun, you can stop any follow ups the player might try. Her ex psycho ball from what you seen in videos is pretty good but I couldn't find many legit setups to properly use it to its full potential.

Kula: I tried Kula a bit on Sunday, and she seems pretty much the same as her 02/UM version superficially, I didn't get much of a chance to dig deep into if any of her special moves were punish-able by any means. Her st. B is still good, and I do remember using jumping D has an instant overhead on an crouching opponent (i forgot who).

Billy: I don't normal play Billy, but I noticed so that his cr.A is really short. I also had trouble finding a proper super cancel with him. I do like his auto combo though. I like how they brought back is two hit (that doesnt combo) crouching D from past games. His j. C and jump CD are still good. I remember trying to use j. B as an instant overhead but couldn't.

Terry: Terry seemed pretty powerful, especially since his burn knuckle (qcb+P) felt VERY hard to punish if blocked. Many people noticed his target combo from KOFXIII (cr.B, cr.A, cr.C) is gone but you can use df+C instead of cr. C but its distance dependent, and works better against a cornered opponent. His st. D is a good poke to use as a jump-check, his j.CD is now is more horizontal and his f+A overhead punch from 02/UM returns!

Andy: I didn't play with Andy TOO much but I did like how he felt in this game which was pretty similar to his KOFXIII version, his target combo is intact (I didn't get a fair chance to combo it into any specials or into max mode) and his normals are pretty much the same.

Auto Rush Combos: Auto combos are performed (so far) by mashing standing light punch (A). If you have no meter, it will just end an a regular knockdown (different kind per character), but if you meter, it will end in a level 1 super, that does around 250/300 damage. If you are in max mode, the auto combo will end in a EX super and cause a bit more damage. I noticed you can stop the auto combo early if you don't want to end it in the super or special move finisher if the opponent blocks the first hit. I also noticed you can combo into it from hop light normals. I did try ONCE to see if you can combo it from a crouching light kick into stand A or crouching A into standing A but I didn't get it work. I used auto combos if I wanted to punish the opponent easily that whiffed a special or super move without much effort. I think they will be used just for easy, close punishes at a high level. I didn't test the auto rush combo with every opponent, so hopefully when I get the game, I will test them more vigorously.


Guard Cancel CD/AB: Going from what Frionel posted, I did notice firsthand that in this build that you have to press left or right in block stun to be able to Guard Cancel which I found a bit annoying. Someone even asked if they were still in the game, lol.

Overall, I feel that a lot of people will like this game when it comes out, they just need to tweak a few things with some of the characters that I feel are lacking some things. Now, regarding the jumps, slow walk speed, the damage and the meter requirements, I'm not sure how I feel about them at the moment, I think SNK wants the game to become more ground based while rewarding more offensive play, and keeping the combos shorter to make the execution requirements more easier on everyone. I can't put by finger on it, but I do know that they will tweak one of those aspects of the game that a lot of people are noticing more strongly than others.

[ottomatic]

Not sure if they took it out but I recall seeing someone hit Kyo's rush after a cr.B in the 6 character build all that time ago. Aside from that thanks for the overview, it's always nice to see first hand impressions.

On other items, did you try to Alt guard at all during your time with the game? I know that's something Frionel said was gone, and it's absence could be very helpful to characters such as Clark and KOD, so I'd like confirmation from other players before I write it off (some players at the first showing said there wasn't GCCD's in the game when some of the early vids showed otherwise).

Lastly, on KOD, his qcf+k seems to be similar to the Garou active tupon (Tizoc's lands on the foe then back flip throws them) which had to land right on the opponents head, the only things I can think of for it's use are to go for it while resetting the opponent (not sure how his break works on his swipes but if he can jab them in mid air he should be able to follow with it), or after forcing a block (IE cr.D 1st hit blocked, qcf+D, it seems slow enough to reach them after they're no longer throw invincible).

[Custle]

How was the sound department? Did the musics fit to the game? How did the voice acting sound or could you hear anything, considering it was quite large event?

[Shiranui_ninja]

When I knew for first time KOF XIV was not going to have drive cancels and EX moves were limited to MAX mode I thought it was a good idea. KOF XIII was too much about insane combos and HD was not required at all. But seeing that KOF XIV is very bar free, MAX mode is very cheap and damage is so high, I think is just more or less same as XIII but with easier combos. I'm not really OK with this...

Also only 4 colors, no alternate costumes, no color edit, only 1 victory pose and no taunts is quite disappointing.

I didn't tried out the game yet, but so far these are my complains about. (Well, a Mai more like in 97 and less like in XIII would be cool, too. And same for King)

[Diavle]

Thanks for the impressons Desmond, and great job on the commentary.

It's strange to hear that running is slower when it has looked much faster since day 1. Iirc even Xian mentioned in his interview that the ground movement was faster in XIV.

Also, Kim hasn't lost his hit confirms off of low B. During the Stunfest stream people were doing 2 to 3 cr.B's before st.B into ff+A.

Overall Kim has received adjustments to some of the things that made him a menace in XIII but all of that is getting offset by XIV's core mechanics. He's going to be damn good again.

I'm also sort of glad to hear that the throw game is being nerfed, in particular due to the over-reliance on throws in SFV.

[The Good Loser]

Yea, it becomes a apparent that something can't be right if in 13 where the ground run / dashes are supposedly faster, you don't see that many under dashes. (Contrary to XIV where the speed and seeming floatiness of the jumps allows for more)