Last Night, I shared my thoughts on the Demo for King of Fighters XIV. Today I will share the rest of my thoughts.
First, let me finish my thoughts on King of Dinosaurs. After spending a lot more time with him, I really came to enjoy the character. An excellent grappling character with fun moves. I suggest taking the time to learn him because you will enjoy the character.
Now that that business is finished with, let’s move on to the remaining characters. Kyo is a good basic character that is capable of much in the hands of the right player. I’m personally not a fan of the character and I didn’t spend as much time with him as I did others, but from what I saw, I do like what they did. He is fast and easy to learn, though I still think Mai is a better beginner character, and would be good for players looking for a bit more challenge than Mai. I do like that some of his combos are easy to learn in Max Mode more than characters like Iori and Sylvie. Kyo does have one thing that I like, in that I’m able to attack from more angles with him than in previous games that I’ve played. This may not seem like much but to someone who plays the way I do, this can change the entire fight. Kyo may not be a character I am extremely into but from what I have seen of him, I plan to use him more.
Iori is one of the harder characters to write about. I was able to do incredible moves with him and the character is a good one, but he just doesn’t feel right to me. I don’t know why, but this incarnation of Iori just feels off. Maybe I need more time with the character, but for now, I don’t like him. He does have some great moves but his speed seems different and for me at least, awkward to use. he was nowhere near as hard as Sylvie to learn, but I just don’t think I like him as a character. This is strange to me as I used to really like Iori in the older games. I plan to spend more time with him because he is one of the stronger characters from what I’ve seen and I hope I can come to like the character in the future. I discussed this with a friend and he found my reaction strange. Because Kyo grew on me and I didn’t expect that, I am hoping that the more I play Iori, I will start to like the character again.
Now that the characters are done, I want to talk about the presentation of the game. As discussed before, the visuals are not the greatest but in motion, they are far better than what people are saying. The game isn’t beautiful on the level of Tekken 7 or Street Fighter V but is indeed visually impressive in its own way. Where the game does stand out is its music. The game has an amazing selection of music available, both from the trailers and the stages in the demo, and it feels like a great fit for a fighting game. King of Fighters has always had a Rock N Roll edge to it, and this soundtrack fits it great. The main theme from the trailers is an epic rock tune ( at least from my perspective) and that is extremely important to me. Fighting games need good music and while I haven’t heard the full selection from the game,, I can tell SNK is putting a lot of work into the soundtrack. Even the sound effects are great, Iori and Mai’s specials in particular both have great sound effects which give them an extra feeling of awesome. The sound effects for King of Dinosaurs are also great but at time have a sense of weirdness to them and not in a good way. Maybe its a big still left to fix but it does stand out to me. The different stages all have great themes and while I don’t have any particular favourites, the music makes me excited for the full game so I can hear more of the stage music. SNK just did a great job hear for the most part ( except the aforementioned KOD issues)
While the game may not look as great as some of the others, don’t let that fool you. This can definitely hold its own with the likes of the big kids.