There may still be many veteran players of King of Fighters who are still opposing the 3D of King of Fighters.
Compared with arc system works industry's unique three-tone two technology, more "soft" "dead or alive", SNK's technical strength is obviously somewhat unable to look up, the strong contrast between the model and the stand-up painting, the obvious wearing model in the battle, have made the previous game "King of Fighters 14" receive a lot of bad reviews, when announcing that "King of Fighters 15" will also be a 3D King of Fighters, there are also many players who feel a little uneasy about its final quality.
Fortunately, after opening the official version of "King of Fighters 15" and playing for 15 minutes, I did feel the progress of SNK in the 6 years from "King of Fighters 14" to "King of Fighters 15", the game enabled unreal 4 engine, the character model looks more refined, and it is no longer a cheap 5 cent special effect, thanks to the advancement of rendering technology, the character performance of "King of Fighters 15" is between 2D and 3D, both three-dimensional and animated, and the action and small expression close-up when the killer technique is close-up are also quite natural.
In terms of gameplay, "King of Fighters 15" also inherits the core battle system of the series 3V3, with single-player battle, story and practice modes, ranking, leisure and online practice modes of online combat.
I think there are many people like me, after the transition of "King of Fighters 14", they have been able to accept a king of fighters with a different appearance, after all, the soul of the king of fighters will not change because of the 2/3D of the game screen.
It's still the "King of Fighters" I'm most familiar with.
In today's increasing cost of game development, more and more fighting games such as "Street Fighter 5" and "Tekken 7" have begun to adopt the operation strategy of "starting a small number of characters + subsequent DLC update characters", which can not only return to the market profitably sooner, but also effectively maintain the freshness and viscosity of players by continuously adding new characters.
The same is true of "King of Fighters 15", there are a total of 39 characters that can be used in the current version, which is not much in the series, and there are no old popular characters such as "Golden Curator" returning, for comparison, "King of Fighters 97" has 36 characters, "King of Fighters 98" has 51 characters, and "King of Fighters 14" also has 58 characters after the update.
Of course, compared with the fighting games of these years, 39 characters is already a very impressive number, "King of Fighters 15" has also announced that there will be 12 DLC characters in the first year before the release, I believe that soon everyone's favorite characters can return.
Not to mention, although the number of characters is not large, the linkage between the characters in the current version of "King of Fighters 15" is also sincere enough, such as the gameplay of teaming up with special members in the story mode to trigger a special ending has been preserved and expanded.
With Kusanagi Kyohachi Shinan Kagura Chizuru can form a three-artifact team, once again sealing the great snake to usher in a peaceful ending, the pseudo heroine Kagura exited the scene very sensibly, the two good friends naturally began the fateful battle of "love and kill each other", and Kyo's apprentice Masaru Yabuki and his father Kusanagi Shibafu appeared, I don't know if it is a trailer for DLC;
The Big Snake team composed of Chris, the Seven-Blade Society and Shermi also formed the rock band "CYS" again after winning the Championship of Fighters, living a leisurely daily life that did not need to complete the KPI of the big villain Big Snake, but at the end of the ending, the Red-Eyed Seven-Blade Society appeared, which may be the foreshadowing for "King of Fighters 16";
Depending on the original work, we can form the Hungry Wolf Legend Squad and the Dragon Tiger Fist Squad, Athena can form a Super Heroine Squad with Dance and Lily, and we can also form a new JK Team with Lily and is new to isra in this game (?) ), 39 characters can form more than 30 specific teams to trigger the corresponding proprietary ending.
If you are an old player of the series who has not returned for a long time, then before starting the network battle to a small rehabilitation in the story mode, you will be able to recover the original intention of practicing rubbing on the simulator in the coin arcade hall from the interaction of the new and old characters of these series.
▲The game's story, levels, and scenes are also buried with many small Easter eggs from other SNK games
It is probably the most balanced "King of Fighters"
Compared with the "Street Fighter" series that pays more attention to Li Hui and "indistinctly ascends a dragon", but will lead to a relatively poor sense of the game, the advantage of the "King of Fighters" series is undoubtedly that it is very "cool", whether it is a more fashionable persona or can light fire and freeze ice, exaggerated with a little magic color of the must kill / super must kill / ultimate must kill, of course, a variety of ignoring the balance of the role of the infinite "migrant worker company" can also make the players of the move and the audience watching the game have a very good game experience.
I can also tell you very responsibly that "King of Fighters 15" is even cooler.
For example, "King of Fighters 15" takes care of the game experience of novice players, specially designed a set of RUSH system, does not require the player to recite the original text of the joystick and light / heavy punch, light / heavy foot alternate cast of various combo tables, only need to connect the light fist keys, the screen fighter will automatically use the optimal combo according to the character's current air slot, even the must kill does not use the hand rubbing.
Putting aside the increasingly cumbersome rubbing moves, novices only need to manage their energy tanks reasonably, and can play a set of combos at the right time, but the essence of "King of Fighters" lies in a variety of cancellation of hard straight combos and the rational distribution of energy in different situations, blindly relying on the RUSH system is difficult to get out of the novice village.
Of course, if the RUSH system can significantly reduce the cost of getting started for players, as a representative of the veteran fighting game that has survived for 15 generations, "King of Fighters 15" has not lost its hardcore that has been passed down for more than a dozen generations because it wants to embrace new people.
I think any new player will be stunned by the description of some advanced techniques in the game
"King of Fighters 15" retains the series of ordinary skills, special skills, must kill skills, super kill skills, CLIMAX super kill skills of the rub system, the combat idea is still around the character's energy slot to attack and defend, for example, although it takes 2 blocks of energy to enter the MAX state in this game, the accumulation of energy to enter the MAX state using EX must kill skills to output a large amount of damage is still the core of the battle in this game.
However, "King of Fighters 15" also added the "MAX mode (fast)" that can be cast by the enemy defense without hard direct when combos, in exchange for a shorter burst time for the restraint of those "turtle stream" players, choose a MAX mode with a longer burst time but more obvious flaws in the battle, or sacrifice the burst time in exchange for a more flexible combo routine, different characters, players and battle environments have their own choices.
How to use the MAX system to explode has become a very strategic embodiment of the battle of "King of Fighters 15", and it has also lost the stereotype that the series only relies on reactions and does not rely on brains in the player's understanding.
The smashing strike system is a new system added in "King of Fighters 15", consuming a block of energy, the character will make a CD attack action, and this action comes with a block, after hitting the enemy, the enemy will kneel or fly, you can chase, smash the hit can also recover half of the air slot.
As a very core system in "King of Fighters 15", the addition of smashing blows can also be said to have completely changed some unbalanced battle experiences of the previous emperors of fighters, so that many attackers no longer have relatively safe means of suppression, and the defenders are no longer too weak, coupled with relatively good rubbing, some beginner players are also very useful when challenging master players, not to be taken away by a set of combos, we can also add smashing blows to the combo moves, broadening the continuous thinking of "King of Fighters 15".
Smashing blows also made most of the characters and players in King of Fighters 14 win the prize under the light leg touch, and the brainless battle idea of receiving BC was completely useless. Of course, the smashing blow is not completely beneficial to the defender, as an offensive and defensive integration seems to be a golden oil move, most of the characters smash the blow swing hard straight is also very large (visually 30 frames up) is easy to be confirmed, making the game between the two sides in the battle more strategic and more fun.
To sum up, despite major changes to the system, in King of Fighters 15 you can still focus on the offensive end, but rather, MAX energy (fast) and smash blows also provide more possibilities for the development of combos for master players.
More refreshing and balanced, the game rhythm is also well controlled, "King of Fighters 15" is very similar to the "King of Fighters 98 in 2022".
To sum up King of Fighters 15
Finally, a brief chat about the online battle of "King of Fighters 15".
At a time when the epidemic is still spreading in the world, online battles are still the first choice of many players, and online battles with players in the north and south of the sky, the quality of online battles has become the most critical factor in determining the game experience of both sides.
In the past, fighting games used the traditional "delayed network code", that is, the two sides transmitted data to each other and then jointly output the results to the same battle, which also brought a problem - if one of the parties has poor network quality and cannot quickly transmit data and receive data, the two sides of the game will have a significant sense of delay in input feedback, and the heavy will enter the bullet time in order to synchronize the data game into slow-motion playback, or even disconnect.
However, many fighting games in recent years will adopt the new "rollback network code", and King of Fighters 15 also adopts this new technology, which is explained in more popular terms - the server will pre-read the player's operation and feedback the operation to the game in advance, when the prediction is correct, the development of all battles is synchronized, and when the prediction is wrong, just adjust the result before the human eye can distinguish it.
▲ For example, if a character's heavy kick is 6 frames and the first 3 frames are just simple animations, then the battle situation using the rollback network code only needs to play the last 3 frames with the attack judgment when the correction result is played
It's a bit like the whole class singing the national anthem, even if someone just opens their mouths and doesn't sing, the teacher is difficult to distinguish, which also makes the network battle experience of "King of Fighters 15" much smoother.
As an orthodox sequel that returns after a gap of 6 years, the performance of "King of Fighters 15" is quite stable, at least I am relieved, before the game is about to be released, the participation of The Saudi Petroleum Crown Prince and true love fan of The King of Fighters, Mohammed bin Salman, is also a shot in the hearts of all players.
After all, with money and love, the King of Fighters can accompany everyone all the way.