Welcome Back Ash! Gamescom, Systems, Trailers, News!

 Well holy shit we have a news drop. To say the least. Gamescom certainly delivered day one(and just to get it out of the way, there's something else on Friday, as well going down that I'm looking forward to checking out.) 

Let's get the big guy...or, well, the lovely sneering guy out of the way; Welcome Back, Ash Fucking Crimson, you glorious bastard. 

                                                                     I lived, bitch. 

I had NO goddamn doubt he'd have been back, but maaan its nice to get the conformation that they didn't opt for the DLC method for him, like some feared. (I DO think some well liked characters are gonna end up as DLC, mind you, but I really didn't want it to be him.) I missed that troll. I can't wait to see his trailer. Can't really talk much about his gameplay since we haven't seen much of it yet, but hopefully I'll get to write up his trailer here soon. I'm hoping we see it sooner than later, but I'll definitely do a writeup asap for it. 

But whoo boy! We have conformation of a bunch of stuff here. First, the trailer:

Well this is huge! It shows some story mode stuff with some wild stuff going on which I can't really begin to parse yet except for Shit Gets Weird. Which we expected; I'm sure Clemence Bellamy is wondering how this manages to happen so often.

So! First off, the gameplay. We got a name for the armored attack: Shattering Strike. It seems to cost a full bar(recovering half on hit), and does act like an armored attack for you to be able to blast through a move. 

Basically as we saw, it crumples on the ground, and blows back in the air. I kinda feel like I would end up falling into this more than a guard roll cancel to be honest, unless that ended up costing half a bar instead this time around. Potentially quite strong, but needing a full meter to be able to do one is something. 

Now, we do have two meters, in a sense. The power bar is used for EX moves(Half a bar), the Shatter Strike(a full bar, again, recovering on hit), Max Mode activation(2 meters now! Regardless if its quick or raw), and supers(which cost 1, 2, or 3, depending if Super, Max Super, or Climax.) 

The second bar is either red and blue, depending on what mode is active; Quick(combo-extending red max mode, which seems to function much like XIV, ends on super or after a set time, and its bar is shorter and you don't have increased power/guard crush), and Raw(Blue Mode, which powers your character up and lets them do more stun damage.) It may, by the look, also allow for free EX moves, just taking a chunk of the timer(which I am pretty sure I saw happen in both modes, but here's an example of the Blue mode version):

So I think they basically took care of a ton of my issues with XIV in that you only ever wanted to fish for far cr. B's into max mode. It's more expensive and there are two of them, and they function differently. I'm sure that characters are going to end up favoring one or the other depending on who, with some really enjoying using both, but that will come in time; we don't have perfect info about this system yet on how it ALL would look in an actual match. 

Also, the Blue max seems to do something with reducing the cost of supers, we know, but I still don't know exactly how that works or not. 

Rush combos-eh, I'd have liked them not in, but if you had an option to turn them off I think I'd be better with it. It's not a dealbreaker, just a preference, but even then, I feel like I'm gonna like this one in general more than XIV(and I actually enjoyed XIV enough gameplay wise. This just looks like it took and refined everything.) 

The HUD isn't my favorite, but I've also seen worse. That said, I think the game in general looks beautiful and just aesthetically pleasing. It's very just, vibrant, and has its own look; for me it's such and infinite improvement over XIV it's almost staggering. The characters, the stages, the general aesthetic. If they wanted to improve on the HUD some I certainly wouldn't complain, but it's functional, at least. The bottom bothers me a little less than the top(the portraits look good, though, I think.) 

The Extras:

This game has a ton of extras already it seems; Story mode, the Obari short as part of the game itself, Draft mode sounds pretty interesting/fun for a special tournament or something for sure(the old MtG head in me kinda giggles at it.) Gallery, too. Training mode is both on AND offline. Importantly, though, there are two big draws.

First, Rollback is 100% confirmed, up front, in the trailer itself, so everyone can breathe easy now. Crossplay is still a thing people want, but after the pandemic basically murdered Samsho and GBVS due to their netcodes, people were understandably worried about KOF XV; even *after* it was announced, people were worried, but it's right here in the trailer. So there we have that. Let's hope it's solid rollback. 

DJ Station is another prize that people weren't expecting, I think and something a whole bunch of us have wanted and love the idea of. Basically over 300 songs, from KOFs, and other SNK games, for you to make a playlist with while you play. From across ALL the damn sagas and games. It's incredible and I can't believe they did it, but they did it. and I can't wait. 

(Also, taking a gander, it seems the extra unknown team's theme is called 'Liberty.' Hmm.) 

Watching the trailer, and we get ideas of so far everything up in there; I gotta say they seem to be doing real damn good so far in terms of content. Now we'll get to the roster, which has been a bit of a point of contention with folks when they announced its size. 

The Roster

So yeah; for starters-at 39 characters it's definitely smaller than anyone I think guessed. I figured it'd be around 54+, others guessed higher, and even at the low end we had 45-48 guessed. Now I'm gonna go out on a limb and say COVID didn't help the case. It was announced August 2019 as being in development, and the pandemic started locking things down seven months later. Transitioning over to work from home was difficult in gamedev in general and it was doubly so overseas. Even FFXIV got hit with delays and that game runs on clockwork. EVERYTHING was. So to guess that maybe they intended this to be bigger? Wouldn't be surprised. BUT I'll say for 39 it's very stacked. Like, very stacked. When you get the Treasures, CYS and Ash Crimson into your roster it's stacked. 

Modern FG practices(this blog won't be about that; I get a lot of people don't like modern FG DLC practices, but it is what it is-definitely worth discussing but it needs more than just a paragraph) told me we'd be seeing Season 1 DLC, probably pre-order. The fact the DLC comes in teams is nice, though-I know that was a pretty big request in general after XIV. This could well hold a couple of usual teams. 

So yeah-we are missing some regulars. And we have an idea here, if you look above, of what we're looking at. (And also on the team stories. Daimon, for example, is confirmed sitting; Kim/Gang-Il are said to be training on a mountain somewhere, which puts them into more question; a lot of question on the base roster, at least. Others are not mentioned at all, though, like Kensou, leaving him more up in the air.) 

The trailer showed Glasses and Rival talking; Rival saying 'I call the shots' lets me think that maybe they are on a team. With who? Well, Glasses' symbols on her clothing almost look like Kukri's. So it could be him as the 3rd, or it could be a 3rd newcomer. But I think I'm not out there when I say those two are teamed up. (Glasses could also be a sub-boss. Or...both, who knows. Like on the team and gets another story mode form you fight against.) 

K' team, I feel like are the same. I mean, c'mon. Why separate them? They didn't separate Ikari or Fatal Fury and the latter's been separated twice(Leona only sitting out the time she couldn't participate in Ikaris.)

                                                      This is a set. DO NOT SEPARATE!

Ash's team? This is a tough call actually. I was assuming Betty at first, but a few of us started reconsidering. Betty is most likely, but maybe they'd do 03 Hero Team again, if they don't DLC Kensou's Dragon Spirit team? Maybe Kukri, if Kukri isn't with the rivals. Oswald is possible. Shen OR Duo Lon is possible, with the other going somewhere else later. But those are the options I can see for him at the moment, in any case. His team's kinda open. (Even Heidern, but see below for that one.) 

As for the Missing Team, which seems to be a huge point of discussion, here's my take on it, and it depends on the resurrected characters. Namely, one resurrected character in particular. 

If Rugal is alive, then I believe Heidern will be forming his own team, and will be the team at the bottom. I can't see a timeline where he just ignores that, and Heidern going with Ash's team at that point makes less sense and K's team virtually none. K' team probably only know who the guy is from reading about him, and probably would be dealing with other stuff or be needed for it. 

Ash's is still unlikely, but at least Ash knew a member of his family in XIII(popping in on Adel, so 'knowing' is very loose here, but it's something, I guess), so would be a little more likely than K' team. And the chance of Rugal being alive in a resurrection plot-you know, the guy whose hobby is resurrection, who they can't resist shoving in as a special boss when they can, and who can easily be slapped on as DLC later to make money after he hypes people up-is probably pretty damn high. 

In this case? Yeah, Adel/Whip are his most likely teammates I legit feel. Whip due to her status as an Ikari and Adel due to the fact they've worked together, are friends, and have had a longtime thing going(Heidern even being around when Adel was lamenting being able to break free from his bloodline and introducing him to the Chopin song, Revolutionary Etudé, in his 2003 story, unfortunately trapped in the Flame of Nova official guide.) 

In this case, Kim's team would I think be part of that early DLC. Again, regulars have missed before-Leona, Joe, Mai, and Robert have all missed one canon game with Robert/Mai coming on console for XI. Andy has missed two games. Kensou missed one and might miss this(or be on another DLC team! he's very possible for a Dragon Spirit DLC team.) People saying Kim can't miss a base roster I'm not sure were there when other regulars have, indeed, missed base rosters. 

Hell, King was absent from the original version of 2k2 vanilla, and that was a dream match. (She made the Dreamcast version.) Trust me when I say very very few people are 100% safe from DLC in this game. The list of characters out of the entire crew that have never missed a single KOF since their debut is incredibly small, and I think the only truly, 100%, bonafide safe characters in this franchise are probably Terry, Ryo, Athena, Kyo, Iori, K', Ralf, Clark, and Benimaru. (Also keep in mind, making it as DLC is still making it.) 

That being said, it's not definite. They may have left the bastard dead after all, or decided to not bring him back until after XV is done. It would be a surpsiring decision, due to SNK's penchant for using him as a boss whenever they can, but it could totally happen. In that case? I couldn't tell you where Heidern would be, getting slapped onto K' or Ash's team at that point could well happen. Or he could do his own again, sure, just with a different comp. Or even the same. 

Really I feel Heidern's position is basically dependent on Rugal being alive or not, regardless of his playable/boss/DLC status is what it comes down to. Of course, I'd feel sad if he's not alive, since that would mean Adel/Whip may likely be delegated to DLC at that point if they're playable, unless, again, Heidern DID form his own team and take them anyway...but I feel like the chances would go down, and we'd miss a really cool potential throwdown for a side story. 

All that said, I feel like Ash's team, if his own doesn't work, is his strongest option, given Ash is who gave Adel the hints to 'contact his friend', and then allowed them to work together to solve the plot. And then with Heidern seeing Ash's name on the list appear and making it a priority to find him? Maybe he IS on a team with Ash. 

That would leave the last row open, though, for more options. A team with Rock? Shingo? Kensou's Dragon Spirit team? Kim's team? seeing Jhun I think would make people pretty happy. But yeah, we got a big question mark there at the moment. 

"How do you feel, having pushed for a bigger one?"

Honestly? Quite fine right now. I kinda feel like they stacked this so hard that I am perfectly fine with it even if my two most wanted don't make it(or don't make it right away.) I was more wary that we'd get a big roster and it just have like a bunch of characters I didn't care about, or something bog standard like XIII at the time, but a smaller one(which to be fair, is 1 bigger than XI's in the arcade, and it'll be moving toward XI Console after just the first two teams DLC which was one of the *larger* non DM rosters in KOF history, XIV was sort of anomaly in terms of its size for a non DM), that looks something like this? This is good.

Plus there's a weird level of 'togetherness' when it comes to a whole bunch of us missing someone we wanted as opposed to just one or two of us sitting outside when everyone else has fun. Daimon mains, possible Kim mains, possible Rugal fans who were really looking forward to seeing him if he doesn't show up, Mature&Vice mains, Shen mains, Kensou mains, Chin's main, everyone else hoping for those others like Kasumi, Shingo, etc-everyone's sorta in it together. It's a sort of solidarity. (I mean Shingo's still got a chance to steal in there on that last team if it's the 'No Rugal, Heidern somewhere else' setup, but right now I fear our boy might be DLC even then.)

Plus, again, we dunno what the roster is gonna look like later in 2022. Or after that, and so on. And with COVID hitting things, and with everything else the game seems to offer? I'm really okay with this. I got my main team with Iori and two Ikaris depending on my mood, I got Ash to sub, I got Kyo/Chizuru and CYS to sub. I'm pretty packed and I love 'em all. I would be disappointed if they passed on a R resurrection sub plot to let Adel and Heidern fight him, of course, and I'd be like 'yet another year of XI being the only place I get my fav team', but I also gotta allow myself some leeway for the fact COVID perhaps didn't let them make the giant free for all that they maybe envisioned at first. And somehow, again, I feel much less bad in XV than I did in XIV. It's hard to explain. 

Final Thoughts?

I am so hype. I really wanna pre-order the Yagami special edition from overseas(and may well end up doing this), and I'm gonna grab my digital deluxe version ASAP. As I said above, it seems to shore up gameplay issues I had with XIV, I already like the roster more despite it being smaller on account of it having a bunch of interesting people I liked, it looks fantastic, the extras look great, and I look forward to the next several weeks of releases to see where exactly we're going from here. I'm not sure this one is going to completely erase my need to play '98 and XI(I will always love '98s gameplay), but I may just well fall for the gameplay enough a modern KOF can finally become a primary game, while I rely on XI/03 to get my character fixes for now(depending, of course, on who makes it! Now or as DLC.) But for now, yeah, this is gonna be a long six months(Early Access starts on Ash's birthday, too!)

Anyway I'm still gonna add this prayer circle in. Never hurts. 

Til' next time! Here's hoping for that Ash trailer soon. 

Do All Debuts always make it back?(Roster Info Dump)

So there's some discussion that goes on about 'Who gets cut and who makes it' in KOF XIV. Some think EVERYONE will be back because assets. Some think no, because, well, it does happen newcomers get cut. 

So, as usual, I decide to use the 'scientific method', going by purely historical data. What I'm doing here is listing exactly when characters debuted, were cut, and then put back in, and as you'll see...while it's not like, All Day Every Day, it's certainly not uncommon at all.  

(Also, reusing assets was probably more valuable back then that it is with UE4, which is easier to generally use once you get used to it, just to put that out there re: the assets.) 

Now how I'll be doing this:

-I'll be counting both True Newcomers(brand new characters), and KOF Newcomers(Established SNK characters who debuted in a KOF.) You'll know whose who I think. 

-I'm again focusing on characters who sat out immediately after debuting. (I'll mention when they came back and such.)

-Not counting DMs. In those days, DMs were literally "(Almost) Everyone is Here!" so they'd cram everyone, including dead bosses, back in. So '98(and its iterations), 2k2(and its iterations), and such. (Kusanagi gets mentioned.) 

-I don't count striker appearances. 

-I will mention DLC or console based characters, who tend to not be canon, but I'll make sure I mention this at the side, and I'll leave it up to the individual to count them. 

-I won't count bosses with two exceptions(one sub boss, one boss) as you'll see below(for reasons explained.) 

-I am not counting Maximum Impact in this. MI has only one canon link(Xiao Lon), and so I'll keep that separate. 

-I'm not sure I'll bother counting the Kyo clones, but you can if you want I guess? It will make the newcomer drop from '99 to '00 slightly worse if you count them. 

Starting off, going in chronological order of games: 

The scrappy 'heroes', the American Sports Team, is probably the ur-example of this. Appearing in '94. Never seen again in canon.

Billy Kane and Eiji Kisaragi made their KOF debut in '95. Billy did not return in '97(and then not until 03, he's a back and forth kinda guy, he did appear in XIV.), and Eiji did not return canonically until XI, where he disappeared again.

Mature and Vice appeared in '96 and were promptly reduced to their base components. They didn't return in actual playable canon until XIII. 

'96s Boss Team popped up, Big and Krauser never returned and Geese not again in the story until XIV. (He was console only in XI.)

Kasumi Todoh appeared in '96 and sat out '97, not returning again in the canon until NESTS saga.

Chris, Shermie, and Yashiro debuted in '97 and were killed off; they weren't seen again in canon until the yet-unreleased KOF XV. 

Ryuji Yamazaki made his KOF debut in '97, but disappeared after that until '03, and then wasn't seen again in the canon(he was DLC in XIV.) 

Xiangfei made her KOF debut in '99, sat out '00, returned in '01 and disappeared. If you want to count them, the Kyo clones, 1 and 2, never made it into a canon game again. 

KOF 2000 was one of the only times where all non boss debuts made it into the next game. 

May Lee Jinju, K9999(who was erased), and Foxy all debuted playable in '01 and did not return. 

Angel debuted in '01, and did not return to canon until XIV.

KOF 2003 was *technically* another time where characters who debuted made it into XI, with the exception of Mukai who was a boss(see below this in regards to Adelheid, however.) This was the only time this has happened since KOF 2000. (Kusanagi is a gray spot, since he debuted in a DM, and he was technically an image made from a mirror. Maki did not technically debut in 2003, as she was the alternate boss in '96 if you made Chizuru playable. In any case, she's been dead.) You can count Kusanagi if you want; I personally do not, but either way. 

KOF XI had Adelheid's playable debut. He was a little different in that despite being the tournament boss of 2003, he was considered the saga's co-protagonist(Ash Saga got pretty ambitious.) He unfortunately wasn't playable in XIII despite being said co-protagonist. Momoko also had her XI debut and didn't make it into XIII. Gai Tendo, Silber, Jyazu and Sho Hayate debuted and had their sole appearance here, but they did not have story roles in XI, so they technically weren't in KOF canon. Duck King had his one appearance in XI(in story.) Oswald debuted in XI, sat out XIII, and did not return until XIV, though was DLC only and not part of the canon story. B. Jenet debuted in XI, not to return again yet. Elisabeth was the only debut to make it. 

(The PS2 exclusive characters like Hotaru and Tung were not canon at all. But if you'd like to count them in terms of the immense loss XI to XIII had feel free.) 

Saiki had his one appearance in KOF XIII. Raiden had his first canon debut in XIII with Hwa Jai(Raiden was in XII, the 'dream match'-which XII hardly was-came before, Ash Saga got kinda messed up there at the end), and neither of them made it back in. (Mr. Karate appeared in XIII, but given that's Takuma I'm not going to nitpick here and count him.) 

So what do I do with all of this rambly info?

Basically, this info is here to show you that more often than not, characters who debut in a game can sit out the next game. This has happened far more often than not, as you see above. Mostly this was assembled because I see a lot of 'Well, XIV debuts have to make it back because don't they always?" Well, no, kinda not. If anything, everyone making it back is sort of the exception to the rule, and previous KOFs had far fewer debuts as well. 

Again, it is an exception, rather than the rule, that debuts make it back immediately following their debut, and this goes for pure newcomers, too. NESTS saga was fairly kind to its brand new characters particularly in '99 and '00(01, not so much.) Likewise, Ash Saga was kind from '03 to XI, but terrible later on for it. Orochi saga likewise wasn't kind to its brand-newcomers, killing most of them(to resurrect later.) I do want to point out again that most characters do eventually make it back in; just not in the game directly following their debuts. 

"Reused Assets?"

Yes, I do think this will come into play-hence why I do think *most* of XIV appearances will be in. 

Do I think they all will? Nah, and again, this has a lot of historical data backing it up, up to some games-like 2001 and XI-being the sole appearances of more than a few characters, even, and all but a couple having people sit. (As for how many, I think about 8-9 of the 18 newcomers will sit, and I feel like about 5-6 of the 'semi-usuals' will sit as well. But I do think we'll get the DLC back as playable. So take the 58 XIV and subtract 14. Replace those 14 with returns, which we have four of already, to *match* XIV's roster count, and they could even go higher. 

Also remember: they have a lot of experience with UE4. I think making a double handful of new models is very viable and feasible, and they're in nowhere near the same situation as they were in XIII with having to reuse assets to even *get* a roster. 

I know people may disagree with this(it's why I tried to give as much hard evidence as possible to show I'm not just making crap up when it comes to 'yes, there really are only a couple KOFs where all the debuts carried over'), and that's fair, but I just wanted to give a little perspective why some of us aren't as sold on 'ALL the XIV characters(save pachislots and Verse) WILL DEFINITELY be in' as we might be. 

Anyway, just an info dump. Hope you enjoy!