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King of Fighters XIV Roster Discussion thread. Leaked roster in first post

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
They really don't seem to get as much credit for their animation work (so far) as they deserve. Not only do they have some physics based animation for hair, Iori's jacket coat-tails, Chang's chains, etc, but they've also obviously added some hand-crafted animation atop of that. Iori's Coat tails move very much like his 2D form while doing his Rekkas, Sweep, or DP, and Kula's hair properly flows with her Layspin, DMs, and basic movement.

I mean really, they're doing this level of detail for over 3x the cast of SFV. SFV has 16 characters, and can't be arsed to make sure hair doesn't clip through models on the closest detail shots on the character select screen, or during victory poses. A PERFECT time to tell an animator and a modeler to add a few bones and hand-crafted frames, to make sure your portrait-like view isn't destroyed by something immersion-breaking.

About the only games that seem to pay an equal attention to detail in this regard are Guilty Gear, and the Naruto UNS games.

Speaking of story... Could this game take place earlier? Unless this is a dream match, why are dead characters back? Shouldn't Geese be dead at this point for example? No Ash or Elizabeth is weird, too. Have they mentioned if this is a soft reboot of the story?
They said it's a new Saga. The only dead characters that might be back are Vice and Mature? They seem to be eternal guardians / servants, it's not uncommon for an evil power to be able to at least do SOMETHING to keep itself relevant in a story, no?

No Ash or Elisabeth isn't weird at all, that's directly continuing KoF XIII's grand finale. Considering Ash and his friends were an Arch-based team that's been around since 2003 (13 freakin years, eesh), it's not surprising they get to take a break for now. CYS hasn't made any playable story appearances since their completed role in the story, either...

Geese never died in KoF. He's only dead in the FF world. (And maybe in the MI world too, if you count the existence of Nightmare Geese.)
Ash got erased from history in the KOFXIII ending, basically sacrificed himself.

The ending was pretty touching actually.

What's weird is the lack of Duo Lon and Shen Woo given SNK's focus on the Chinese audience.
Gotta save something for the next part of a story, right? And I also wonder if a lot of the roster choices are based off the fact that they know who they're bringing into the game, unlike us. Who needs Shen (immediately) when the "Cyborg Boxer" Might already do things similar to him? Could the Sichuan Mask woman have an attitude similar to Chizuru? Would Alice and Blue Mary look to similar to justify both adding to the game at the same time? And so on...
 

dangeraaron10

Unconfirmed Member
That King of Dinosaurs though

The rosters in fighting games is what sells me the most, where as I have no interest in SFV, KoFXIV on the other hand I love the robust character list with each one oozing with personality in their designs.
 

i-Jest

Member
Ash retconned himself to non-existance, lol.


Ash is forever trapped in the Phantom zone along K9999 and those chumps from kof97. Saiki was a better Ash anyway.

He can always be retconned back in somehow.


latest

Well...

Alice....Rule 63 Terry Bogard confirmed? Wait, isn't she originally from that Fatal Fury pachinko machine game?
 
Geese never died in KoF. He's only dead in the FF world. (And maybe in the MI world too, if you count the existence of Nightmare Geese).
Is he though? There is definitely some overlapping in the south town and kof timeline. Like Terry wearing his motw outfit for a while... And we have Nightmare Geese in kof2002um, unless we write it off just as a dream match. I guess dead characters will be back just for the sake of it.

Edit: Weird I can't remember the ending for KOF13...
 

Tizoc

Member
Much like comic books there are multiple timelines/alt realities
Ff and aof are 1 timeline in which geese is dead
Kof is a different timeline in which geese never died
Think f nghtmare geese as shin gouki
 

Rymuth

Member
If we followed FF's timeline, Ryo and Robert would be fighting with crutches and complaining about these damn kids in their backyard.
 
Much like comic books there are multiple timelines/alt realities
Ff and aof are 1 timeline in which geese is dead
Kof is a different timeline in which geese never died
Think f nghtmare geese as shin gouki
Well Nightmare Geese usually only appears when he is dead in FF... Again 2002 is a dream match. And I just finished kof13 again. Gotcha.
 

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso

Summaries:
- The last boss is compared to an MK Soulnado: He can go anywhere in any point and time, and pluck people into the games realm. Canon Dream match times!

- Alice looks like... Alice.

- Dragon Spirit arc involves the new China team ("demon boy, pillow child, Tung Fu Rue")

-Love Heart and Miu Mio could be redesigned for this game?

- Being owned by the Chinese overlords + getting the China team as a lead is a coincidence. This story path was decided before then, since China is the biggest KoF country in the world, and this game was to appear to a worldwide audience.

- Russian Billionaire boss is most likely a "half naked" shirtless dude.

- Official team's mask girl is said to be a Stance character, practices Chinese opera style Bian Lian. Similar to Gen's mask in SFIV alt outfit. Every mask is a different move set. This is unusual, as women don't normally practice this style. She never shows her face.​
Of course, take all this with a grain of salt.

Is he though? There is definitely some overlapping in the south town and kof timeline. Like Terry wearing his motw outfit for a while... And we have Nightmare Geese in kof2002um, unless we write it off just as a dream match. I guess dead characters will be back just for the sake of it.

Edit: Weird I can't remember the ending for KOF13...

Any crossover is most likely fanservice, honestly. The UM games are all pretty much Dream Matches, yes? Not like Chris, Yas, and Shermie were kickin' it with Nameless in a story arc...

Ending of XIII includes Ash telling Betty he screwed up, that eliminating Saiki meant this was time to say goodbye to him as well, and everyone in her team slowly forgetting this person they grew up along side, fought along side, for so long...
 

Tizoc

Member
I honestly dont know who lve heart or mio are but they would be the last. characters inwould ever think to add to kof
 
SNK timelines are such a mess. It used to be AoF/FF is its own timeline and KoF is its own timeline, but then they made KoF: Maximum Impact and KoF: Another Day to confuse the hell out of people.
 

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
I honestly dont know who lve heart or mio are but they would be the last. characters inwould ever think to add to kof

It's not surprising, really. SNK liked to celebrate anything they worked on with KoF. Ikari Warriors, Athena, Robo Army, their fighters... why wouldn't they want to celebrate a few more characters they've had as part of their history over the last decade or so?

It's not like they've made many other new IPs outside Pachislot and such.

SNK timelines are such a mess. It used to be AoF/FF is its own timeline and KoF is its own timeline, but then they made KoF: Maximum Impact and KoF: Another Day to confuse the hell out of people.

Another Day was a companion piece to MI. MI was just an alt world for Falcoon to get out his fanboy love for KoF, by making his own alt universe. It's not really confusing if you just view it like an offshoot miniseries in comics, or something to that effect.

It'd only REALLY get confusing if they start tossing MI characters into canon KoF.
 
So they pretty much opened up to included any ip into kof now. I mean Nakoruru already made a cameo in a stage. I'm fine with this.

I read today the only reason why Geese is still alive in KoF is, because the KoF team didn't knew he was dead in the South Town timeline. And then they just keep it that way...


Edit: Okay after doing further research it looks like following series form a continuity in the SNK universe:

Last Blade
Art of Fighting
Fatal Fury
Savage Reign & Kizuna Encounter

SmaSho and KOF are just its own thing.
 

BadWolf

Member
Summaries:

Them giving China and Mexico their own teams to acknowledge the huge fan bases in those countries is so cool.

The new characters sound very interesting, the masked girl seems very unique and there might be another weapon user aside from Billy. The masked girl definitely sounds like a character they may have wanted to do previously but was unrealistic in 2D.

I'm all for going with that story approach, this would pretty much give the story entries a dream match attribute and we could expect to see anyone in the roster.

Oh and I've been waiting so long for a cool Russian character to show up in the series, hope the boss delivers. Also hope the boss and sub boss are properly balanced for competitive play.
 

Village

Member
No Ash or Elisabeth isn't weird at all, that's directly continuing KoF XIII's grand finale. Considering Ash and his friends were an Arch-based team that's been around since 2003 (13 freakin years, eesh), it's not surprising they get to take a break for now. CYS hasn't made any playable story appearances since their completed role in the story, either...
I don't think the break is for now.


Ash doesn't exist anymore. They erased ash from ever existing. I don't know what typhoon or whatever did, but ash is gone. Its why iroi has his flames. Ash never existed.
 

sibarraz

Banned
Will not an South American team appear on the game too? KOF has a big scene on Brasil, Chile and Peru, so it will be nice if they gave them a slot in the game too
 

Warxard

Banned
SNK timelines are such a mess. It used to be AoF/FF is its own timeline and KoF is its own timeline, but then they made KoF: Maximum Impact and KoF: Another Day to confuse the hell out of people.

Maximum Impact and Another Day are part of the Fatal Fury timeline exclusively.

Is he though? There is definitely some overlapping in the south town and kof timeline. Like Terry wearing his motw outfit for a while... And we have Nightmare Geese in kof2002um, unless we write it off just as a dream match. I guess dead characters will be back just for the sake of it.

Edit: Weird I can't remember the ending for KOF13...

Dream matches aren't Canon, and XI inconsistencies are a byproduct of timelines being fucked with in Ash saga
 
Doesn't MI take place within the same year as Garou? 2006?
See that's the same mistake I made before, just because it takes place around the same time, doesn't mean it's part of that timeline.

On another topic: I still don't buy that 3D makes it so much easier to develop a big roster. If true Xrd and SFV would have launched with a bigger one. But then those don't look garbage. I admit it gets better, but doesn't mean it's anywhere near good looking. Oh well.
 

Tizoc

Member
It's not surprising, really. SNK liked to celebrate anything they worked on with KoF. Ikari Warriors, Athena, Robo Army, their fighters... why wouldn't they want to celebrate a few more characters they've had as part of their history over the last decade or so?

It's not like they've made many other new IPs outside Pachislot and such.

Love Heart looks like a poor man's Ruby Heart.
Unless they want to promote their pachinko ish, at least 1 pachinko character should've been in
I don't even know who miu mio is unless it's a tencent character or something.

Hell here's a better samsho team for you:
Iroha, Nako, Haohmaru
 

sibarraz

Banned
Another day was a big trolling by SNK I think

the ending with ash riding a boat with elisabeth really fucked all the timelines and logic possible.

It was just promotional material to hype KOF XI and MI2 I guess
 
Unless they want to promote their pachinko ish, at least 1 pachinko character should've been in
I don't even know who miu mio is unless it's a tencent character or something.
Mui Mui is your pachislot character :p
Dragon Gal was the first pachislot SNK made without Aruze.
 
Pachinko, pachi slot, either way 2 is 2 characters too much.

And don't act like y'all care about the pachinko side of SNK, y'all never did :V
Not much but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't buy a Bayonetta or FF pachinko machine cheap...

Mui Mui is probably SNKs Jam. And she is chinese... I see a pattern here.
 
On another topic: I still don't buy that 3D makes it so much easier to develop a big roster. If true Xrd and SFV would have launched with a bigger one. But then those don't look garbage. I admit it gets better, but doesn't mean it's anywhere near good looking. Oh well.

Difference is that both SF V & Guilty Gear Xrd uses very different art styles, etc. that makes those characters very expensive & time consuming to develop for (which are probably still 2D). That's why both games have started off with less characters.

SNK Playmore went with 3D modeling because it was more cheaper & faster to develop characters for, unlike with both KOF XII & KOF XIII (which was strictly 2D modeling). Should there be KOF XV, then they can use those same character models from XIV & improve on them even more as it would take less work for them to do since they've already been made (on the characters that they choose to bring back in XV), & of course, bringing in more old & new characters like Blue Mary, Vanessa, Takuma, etc. in 3D.
 
If I remember correctly KOFXII and KOFXIII aren't strict 2d. The animation etc was done on 3d models and then they wrapped a 2d skin over the skeleton, no?
And they could have went with this for 14, using all the models done in 13 and just make new characters. Now they had to start from scratch again....


I talked about this with a friend earlier and I still think ps4 wasn't the initial target platform.
 
But then if they would've went with the same models from XII & XIII, we would probably only get about 6 new characters at the most, & SNK Playmore would've most likely go bankrupt.
 

BadWolf

Member
If I remember correctly KOFXII and KOFXIII aren't strict 2d. The animation etc was done on 3d models and then they wrapped a 2d skin over the skeleton, no?

The 3D models were just used for the base animation reference, that's it. Everything else was done traditionally using a very expensive and time intenstive process. They also weren't able to find enough artists to work at that level which slowed down things even further.

From the KOFXII wiki:

Kukino added that each character took between sixteen and seventeen months to be done by 10 designers together along with Nona, who revised them.

So yeah, it makes perfect sense why they would abandon this process.
 
Well then fingers crossed SNK/p isn't bankrupt after this (again).
I'm excited and disgusted at the same time...
I can't help it and still buy their shit tier outputs, because I'm somehow sorry about them.

Man I love all these SNK ips and everything but it's so hard to love them since 20xx.
 

Mister Wolf

Member
Im looking forward to this game. Terry, Joe, Robert, and Leona will be my primary focus. Having 50 characters to choose from is great.
 
Will not an South American team appear on the game too? KOF has a big scene on Brasil, Chile and Peru, so it will be nice if they gave them a slot in the game too

PS4 exclusive and isn't PS4 is still over $1000 USD in South America?

Puts into context that thread where SNK was praising PC specifically mentioning KOF (I can't find that thread anymore).
 

Warxard

Banned
Love Heart looks like a poor man's Ruby Heart.
Unless they want to promote their pachinko ish, at least 1 pachinko character should've been in
I don't even know who miu mio is unless it's a tencent character or something.

Hell here's a better samsho team for you:
Iroha, Nako, Haohmaru

Haohmaru, Ukyo and Shiki
 
Haohmaru, Ukyo and Shiki

Nah, you GOTTA have Nakoruru there. Isn't she considered the most popular character in the franchise?

I like Tizoc's team only because I just imagine them working together and the quirky story behind their addition AND they're three of the most popular characters in the series (I <3 Shiki though).

As far as that "leak" goes. Hope it's true, because the mask girl sounds really neat. And I've said it in another thread, but it's going to be really fun to see how the Brazillian Girl compares to Laura, both gameplay and design wise.
 
Maximum Impact and Another Day are part of the Fatal Fury timeline exclusively.

MI is its own thing and not part of FF. Another day isn't canon to anything. And I never said Dream matches are.

Doesn't MI take place within the same year as Garou? 2006?

See that's the same mistake I made before, just because it takes place around the same time, doesn't mean it's part of that timeline.

See, that's why I said it was confusing, haha.
 

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
Them giving China and Mexico their own teams to acknowledge the huge fan bases in those countries is so cool.

The new characters sound very interesting, the masked girl seems very unique and there might be another weapon user aside from Billy. The masked girl definitely sounds like a character they may have wanted to do previously but was unrealistic in 2D.

I'm all for going with that story approach, this would pretty much give the story entries a dream match attribute and we could expect to see anyone in the roster.

Oh and I've been waiting so long for a cool Russian character to show up in the series, hope the boss delivers. Also hope the boss and sub boss are properly balanced for competitive play.

Yeah, I agree, and SNKP that acknowledges the world is great. I'm actually happy with how it all sounds, and I could see Bian Lian lady being a nice compliment to my Chin or Tung play...

"Dream Matches" don't really need to exist anymore, in the age of DLC, so canonizing appearances from whatever the fans think is awesome is a twist I can live with. KoF is SNK's sandbox!

I don't think the break is for now.


Ash doesn't exist anymore. They erased ash from ever existing. I don't know what typhoon or whatever did, but ash is gone. Its why iroi has his flames. Ash never existed.

Yeah, but what does that mean in gaming? Take him away for story purposes... bring him back for "fan demand" purposes. CYS has been dead for almost 20 years, but they find themselves back in every UM, and with their Orochi forms in tow, with new and adjusted moves.

Love Heart looks like a poor man's Ruby Heart.
Unless they want to promote their pachinko ish, at least 1 pachinko character should've been in
I don't even know who miu mio is unless it's a tencent character or something.

Hell here's a better samsho team for you:
Iroha, Nako, Haohmaru

Since we have no images in this thread of the two (other than the leak thumbnail), Mui Mui is this gal right here:

Love Heart:

KoF has never been a game of JUST promoting Relevant IP, lol. How many new Ikari and Athena games came out after their appearance in KoF? SNKO's internal devs actually like some of their characters, and they want to put things they like or worked on into a new product.

Edit: Give me Rera pls. But I guess they're saving her for the new Samsho. Man I hope the Tenka style groove system is in. Sorry I know it's not kof related but man I'm kinda excited to see more SNK games. It's been a while since they made some games.

Naaa, I'm right there with you. SNK is more than KoF. To me, they're much like Hudson was during the TG16 days: They put their own twist onto game concepts from EVERYWHERE, and I like what they bring to just about everything. I don't care for Golf much, but Neo Turf Masters was awesome, for example.

Is that whole picture from Reddit, or from a specific KOF messageboard? I got to check it out.

I suck at Reddit / 4chan-style board stuff, but from SRK, it seems a few posters from that thread were in the convo, and it's disappeared since then. I wanted to provide a source link too!

Pachinko, pachi slot, either way 2 is 2 characters too much.

And don't act like y'all care about the pachinko side of SNK, y'all never did :V

Realistically, I have no supreme hate for Pachi-whatever. It kept them afloat. They're consistently more active than the Ghost of Hudson Soft. Even if they're not always doing what I want them to, at least it kept them doing something, so we could get our KoF XII, XIII, and XIV's, y'know? It also kept the VA's in work some, and gave us new designs for Nakaruru, Akari and Juzo, etc.

Man I love all these SNK ips and everything but it's so hard to love them since 20xx.
Heck, I had decent fun with Skystage and Trouble Witches NEO.

I've enjoyed their hard-fought passion through these years. It's like there's a few guys on the lower-levels who want to make what we love, but the upper-floor management has always been at ends on whether they should make such things are not. You get things like the XBLA releases, Neo Geo Station, and one of the most proper ports of Samurai Shodown 2 released over the time. I was quite happy the day SS2 came onto XBLA, and since I mostly wanted it for Local Play, the crappy CRAPPY online doesn't even stain my memories. That Neo Geo Land stage in MI2 is still one of my favorite things ever, and I still to this day make fun of Fio and Lily Kane's English VA work from the game. I'm probably one of the only people who really like Nagase in that game too, heh. Mignon was a rage button I could press on at any time to piss off anyone I played with then, and her rivalry with her sister actually felt nice, where most KoF Games only pit pretty flame boy VS another pretty flame boy, heh.

See, that's why I said it was confusing, haha.

Heh, I can give you that.

I've always just looked at them as equals to the "What If?!" Comic book series. I don't know why people want to force them into canon history. If it doesn't stick around for the next game, it basically never happened. Same logic one applies to EVERY FIGHTING GAME SEQUEL EVER. Sure the previous game has an ending per character... but generally only 1 of those actually meant something, the others were just possible outcomes.
 

TreIII

Member
Summaries:
- The last boss is compared to an MK Soulnado: He can go anywhere in any point and time, and pluck people into the games realm. Canon Dream match times!

- Alice looks like... Alice.

- Dragon Spirit arc involves the new China team ("demon boy, pillow child, Tung Fu Rue")

-Love Heart and Miu Mio could be redesigned for this game?

- Being owned by the Chinese overlords + getting the China team as a lead is a coincidence. This story path was decided before then, since China is the biggest KoF country in the world, and this game was to appear to a worldwide audience.

- Russian Billionaire boss is most likely a "half naked" shirtless dude.

- Official team's mask girl is said to be a Stance character, practices Chinese opera style Bian Lian. Similar to Gen's mask in SFIV alt outfit. Every mask is a different move set. This is unusual, as women don't normally practice this style. She never shows her face.​
Of course, take all this with a grain of salt.

Like what I'm reading so far.

Of course, assuming that they don't kill this supposed "boss" (or its effects) off so soon, maybe it means we can get more crossovers and ways to bring back "dead" characters back in the mix for XV.

C'mon, CYS...
 
The source should be 4chan. And I was quite unhappy with the barebones port of SS2. No reasons to play it on 360 when I still own the neo geo aes cart. But then Tenka and Zero Special are so much better anyways.
 

Skunkers

Member
Will not an South American team appear on the game too? KOF has a big scene on Brasil, Chile and Peru, so it will be nice if they gave them a slot in the game too

Well... in KOF94 the Ikari Warriors team represented Brazil, so I guess technically they are Brazilian.

Apparently the leak has a new Brazilian team too, so you're in luck I guess.
 
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