It is via its twitter account, that the studio announced these future revelations, while posting some artworks as well as a teaser on Youtube, in order to make the fans of the franchise wait till early 2021. For those who do not know this legendary series of fighting games, King of Fighters is played in a team of 3 fighters, with a leader inside, that is to say a character whose capacities will be boosted. Although some teams are official in the history of the game, the player can create his own team without lore constraints. Unlike Dragon Ball FighterZ, it is usually not possible to change fighters during a round, although a few games have allowed this before the studio reverts to its original formula, only allowing a player to take another warrior if the first one is knocked out
The series remains quite familiar to any 2D fighting games player, with specific key combinations to release special moves, a super bar system that can charge up to 3 times, giving access to a specific mode called Max Mode, which greatly improves a fighter for a given time, or the 4-button system with light punch, light kick, heavy punch, heavy kick. An auto combo system is also present on the licensed games. As no official gameplay information has yet been circulated for KoF XV, keep in mind that the mechanics mentioned in this article are only there to introduce the license, and will not necessarily be present in KoF XV.
This teaser does not reveal much of the gameplay, but we learn that some characters will be present such as Kyo Kusanagi and Benimaru, two of the iconic characters of the saga, but also Shun'Ei, a new character introduced in KoF XIV, and who will be a again the main character of the game. While it is unusual to see a Chinese character being the main protagonist of a Japanese game, this is partly because King of Fighters is a license that may have gone wrong to find the same place in the West as Street Fighter or Tekken, but that its popularity could even exceed that of the behemoths of the FGC in regions such as China, South and Latin America, the Maghreb countries among others.
SNK has also created teams especially so that players from these regions can feel represented in their favorite game, thus leading to the creation of Chinese, Mexican and South American teams. With buyout rumors going around on SNK to see a new team in KoF XV made up of fighters from the Middle East would only be a small surprise.
The studio will also take the opportunity to give more details regarding the third season of Samurai Shodown. So all fans have to do is wait until January 7.
Known among other things for their King of Fighters license, SNK could be taken over the investment arm of the Saudia Arabian royal family after it acquired a 33.3% stake in the Japanese publisher.
