E3: The King of Fighters XII (PS3, Xbox 360) Preview/Interview
Posted by Tommy Coloma on 06.19.2009
Hands-on: We take a look at the latest entry in the King of Fighters series and also chat with producer Eric Rogers about what we can expect when the game ships in July.
Of the games that I knew were going to be at E3 this year, The King of Fighters XII was the one that I had been looking forward to playing the most. In fact, Ignition's booth was one of the first places that I visited when I was free. After playing the game several times each day at the convention, I'd say that it feels very much like '98 save for the two major additions to the fighting system - critical counters and clashes. Critical counters are activated by keeping the stick neutral or holding it toward your opponent and then pressing hard punch (or hard kick depending on the character) when the critical counter gauge is blinking. Once activated, you can string together some moves for a few seconds while your opponent stands there helpless. You also have the option of activating a super right away instead for extra damage. I pulled off one critical counter by accident and was able to execute a nice looking combo even though I had no idea what I was doing. Clashes happen when you and your opponent hit each other with a similar move at the same time. When this happens, both of you get knocked back without losing energy. It's a pretty cool effect to see, especially when things are getting down to the wire. The arcade version has been out for a little while so I didn't want to dwell too much on the fighting system, but that is pretty much the gist of it. If you want more details, check out SNK Playmore's official KOFXII site.
As for the characters, I played around with some of the ones that I am familiar with, including Kyo, Iori, Athena, Leona, and Terry, and they played as expected save for a few alterations to their movesets. In the end, I was able to adapt quite easily (granted, I'm no expert so I don't know how extensive the changes are). I also paid a lot of attention to Mature, mostly because I main Vice in '98 and therefore held out hope that the recently revealed character was going to play a little like her partner in crime. Unfortunately, from what I played, Mature seems to be fairly gimped compared to her '98 iteration; she went from six special moves to a measly two. Sorry, no De Cide, Death Downer, Ebony Tears, or Sacrilege. The only moves she was left with were Despair (the one where she flips forward and slashes) and Metal Massacre (where she charges forward and swipes at her enemy's mid-section). Things weren't a total loss however - you can now control the slashing attack when performing Despair, so at least that move is useful now. Also, according to some of the people who attended the KOF tournament right before E3, her moves have high priority and quick recovery, so maybe the developers replaced quantity with quality. We'll find out soon enough.
I would be remiss not to mention the long load times experienced when playing both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game. However, I was assured that it will not be a problem in the final build. I also noticed that the character sprites, while a vast improvement over every KOF that came before, are not as high-res as I had been expecting. I'm perfectly fine with how the game looks, even without the use of filters, but I know that some may find it off-putting, especially when seeing it in HD.
Overall, except for the lack of a few key characters, The King of Fighters XII is pretty much what I would have wanted in a revamped KOF game. It looks good, plays as expected, and doesn't stray too much from the formula that has kept the series popular for the past fifteen years. Keep a look out for it when it gets released early next month.
Don't forget to check out the interview that I conducted with one of the producers for the game down below.
At E3 I had a chance to talk with Eric Rogers, a producer/product manager over at Ignition Entertainment, about the upcoming release. Here is what he had to say -
So, The King of Fighters XII...
It's the fifteen-year anniversary for the King of Fighters franchise. [SNK Playmore] decided to revamp all the graphics from the ground up. They redrew all the sprites for the twenty-two characters. There's brand new stages, brand new music, and a couple new fighting systems that they added as well.
Tell us about the online system
You've got your Tournament Mode where you got eight players in a room - you got eight player lobbies. Netcode is still being fleshed out at this time. That's the final thing - they really, really want the netcode to be very strong 'cause I told them - "you know if the netcode isn't strong..." So that's their main focus right now. That's the last thing they're working on. Pretty much all the content is unlocked right now.
On the PlayStation 3 - they're featuring what they call the clan system were you'll be able to pick up to three players at a time - individual real players. They can select their character and they'll go up against a team of another three players. Red versus blue is what we're featuring on the Xbox 360, and that's more of a point system where you fight on either the red side or blue side and keep building points for your faction.
Are you using anything GGPO-related?
No middleware for the online code. [It] has been written from the ground up by SNK using new tech that they've been working on.
How are you going to keep regular/casual players from always getting destroyed by the really good players all the time?
There's a ranking system [using skill points where we] try to match you with somebody with the same amount of points going all the way up.
Are you confident that [the online experience] is gonna rank up there with the recent Street Fighter releases?
I'm fairly sure that it's going to be pretty robust. It's gonna be really smooth gameplay. We're doing a lot of testing on it, worldwide actually, from Japan to America, America to Japan - America, Japan, and Europe - triangulating with each other, [getting] the online code as clean as possible.
So the servers will be open between the US, Japan, and other countries?
Oh yeah! It's worldwide. It's going to be a worldwide ranking system.
Is there going to be a one-on-one option as an alternative to three vs three?
Yes, there is a one-on-one option.
Online also?
Yeah.
Is that going to be ranked too?
I am not sure at this time on the ranking for those. I doubt that they're actually going to have it ranked because it is outside the normal KOF system of three-on-three.
How about the soundtrack? Will you be adding an alternate BGM option that contains tracks from the older games?
No, they actually decided to go ahead and do all new music for this game since they redid everything else from the ground up.
English voices - are they the same ones that were used in the previous games?
There are all new English voices. [There's] a Japanese and English option, so you can play either.
What are the differences between the two HUDs - the arcade version and the console version?
There's very small differences between the two. They tried to make the console port as true to the arcade port as possible, so they didn't really actually change anything from the arcade port. They added a few more options on the screens - some menus for the console side - but what you're primarily seeing is exactly the same replication of the arcade.
So... There are twenty-two fighters right now. Is that final?
That's final for now.
Twenty-two for sure?
Twenty-two. I can't even pour any salt on that. It's twenty-two. It's twenty-two for sure. Twenty-two characters.
For now?
For now, dot dot dot... [evil laugh]
Downloadable characters?
There's a possibility, but they haven't really actually thought about that because they're really trying to focus on the main game right now - trying to get the main game done before they actually try to get DLC together. They really want to focus on the main game. Make sure that it is as strong as possible before they try to add anything extra.
There are so many characters that they could have added [to the console release]. Why Mature and Elizabeth?
I have no idea, truthfully. I really do not know. It was a surprise to everybody when we finally got it. It was like - the big reveal is... "Mature and Elizabeth?" Where's K' or Yamazaki, you know? ... I really do not know why they decided to use those two characters. I think it might have been because they don't have many females in the core game itself. Because in the arcade version you had two female characters.
Tell us about the story.
There is no story.
No story at all?
There is really no story at all for this King of Fighters. I think that they just wanted to mainly focus on revamping the gameplay and balancing out all of the characters really well.
So this is more like a dream match?
It's more like a dream match so to speak.
So they're not going to explain why Mature has an eye patch?
There's no explanation for it ... It's just - "she came to the fighting tournament." I was under the [impression] that she was dead.
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Is there anything else that you wanted to add about the game?
