Easing Back Into FG Blogging...my KOF XV Wishlist

Deciding to get back into blogging by basically just posting up stuff I'd like to see in KOF XV. It's shockingly a small list of stuff(though I manage to bluster on in the blog for much longer than necessary.)

I'm just trying to ease back into things with a more 'fluff' styled blog that doesn't particularly have anything deep in it. It's been awhile. 

I mainly have 4 big wishes for KOF XV, in order of importance to me:

1. Rollback

2. A big, awesome roster that gives me my favs back

3. Potentially other things to do with meter

4. Less 'invasive' Max Mode(I guess this goes hand in hand with 3? 'More to do with meter' might be a better way to put it.) 

Number one is self-explanatory so I don't think I need to go into it as much. Rollback has always been important, but I feel like this pandemic REALLY drove home this fact even harder than it already was. Like, let's face it, despite the fact we're getting vaccines now, I don't think we're going to be back to normal for awhile. And even going back to normal, online is here to stay. We need good netcode. It's just how it is.

Number 2-roster. Strap in, this section's going to be a bit long.

I could probably do an entire blog about roster importance. In fact, I might. Especially with Super Baby 2 being announced for DBFZ it could make for a pretty decent one, to be honest. But that being said; for me? I want a big ass roster, and I want my damn favorite team back. I'm tired of not being able to play my fav team legally except for KOF XI. 

When they said 'masterpiece' 'Fire up those dream rosters' and 'Ambitious', they, IMHO, set up a tall order here. And yes, I'm being optimistic with this one. But I think we could, maybe, see a roster finally that matches 2k2UM in terms of size. But more importantly is the *content* of said roster. 

I am aware that 'size' doesn't necessarily equal 'amazing' in terms of rosters. KOF XIV, for my money, had a fairly middling roster(after DLC it became better with the addition of folks like Heidern, Whip, Rock, Oswald and so on), but the large amount of new characters they dropped on(like, 16?) for my money kinda fizzled. Looking at a KOF XIV character favorite poll that happened, and I am not the only one who seemed to think this. I personally liked some(Hein, I actually liked Shun'ei and think he has potential, Najd and Mian looked cool, Kukri has neat story potential) but I mean on this list all of *one* creeped into the top 20 and the rest are all...quite down there. 

Compare these to say, NESTS(whose new faces hit pretty hard and fast; not ALL, no, but it at least had a handful that became well liked regulars), and Ash Saga(likewise; in fact, looking at this poll of most wanted characters back-roughly 4800 voters were involved in this, (Quick note-hit 'sort results' and 'show numbers' to get them in order-yes, Geese Howard is number 1 by 2 votes!). In fact, counting ties as one spot(so, Iori, Kyo and Adelheid are all tied with 74 votes each in the 5th place spot), pretty much the *entire Ash saga crew save for Malin* is in the top 20. Adelheid is tied in the goddamn 5th place spot. Ash beats out Rock Howard.

(Yes, Ash took awhile for some to warm up to him-and one could argue that maybe some of the new characters need more time like him? Which is fair. BUT well there's a lot of characters who DID become well-liked right off the bat in their respective arcs, like Elisabeth, Adelheid, Duo Lon, Oswald, K', Kula...)

(SIDE NOTE: I am aware that these are only two polls, and polling can be definitely sort of iffy; that said I tried to pick two that had large amounts of voters from a larger poll of people, but as always, take polls with a grain of salt. For example, the second poll had nearly 5000 voters, but you only had 1(one) pick, and we all know sometimes in these cases we're tempted to, say, vote for someone we hadn't seen in awhile, instead of a favorite, and so on. Just to clear the air that I'm not saying these 2 polls are the end all be all, but I think they at least make for a decent example, since they're both fairly recent-the 2nd poll was late in the summer, and the XIV poll was late 2019-and had a hefty number of voters.) 

Now my point here is less leaning purely on two polls, but I think it at least holds a little bit of weight to say 'The current XIV newcomers didn't light the world on fire for whatever reason, and that includes vs. characters who were part of a saga that was actually cut short and were not as characterized as they could have been'(which was one of Ash Saga's issues.) Now, keep in mind also characters are more than just visual design; it's also playstyle, and that's something else the polls don't tell us(the whys people voted for them.) 

Now that I've spent four paragraphs going on about 'Quantity doesn't necessarily equal quality' which is probably obvious to most anyway...My *personal* favorite KOF roster is XI's-it's 47 characters(one of the biggest non-DM rosters), but that's purely bias on my side as it's literally the only KOF that I can play my favorite team legally in, so it's my favorite and a reason I keep playing the game next to '98 despite the latter being more my style gameplay wise. 

Hell-Virtua Fighter 5 FS has all of 20 characters and is an *excellent* roster as it gives, IMO, almost everything someone might want IN that small roster. Now, VF is a way different game than KOF(this wouldn't even cover more than 6 teams), but it goes to show an example of a small roster that's great. Hell, I have a main and two solid alts out of these 20 characters, and a couple others I like to dabble in on top of that!

So what do I want? I'm easy, just let me play my favorite team again, that's my selfish answer. My selfish+unselfish answer would be let me play my favorite team but ALSO bring back a bunch of characters people clearly like and miss. CYS comes to mind; people have been asking for this team to come back for ages. In fact, I'll give my top 10 returns here for those curious: 

1. Adelheid(give me my boy back SNK I am still saltier than the Dead Sea over XIII to THIS. F%!&"G. DAY.)

2-4: CYS

5-7: Ash, Elisabeth, Shen

8. Chizuru

9. Krizalid

10. Duo Lon/Goenitz(the latter balanced and playable) tied. I'll cheat here. 

("CYS are DEAD tho that's the only reason why they haven't been back yet!" Yeah so were Mature and Vice and they just made them ghosts, because players liked them, lol. Being dead in the KOF universe isn't an excuse, ESPECIALLY NOW that Verse literally resurrected half the cast.)

To be frank, if they cut some of the *really* fizzled new XIV crew(like, the bottom 8-10, including the pachislot characters who have their rights in limbo), even if they made all of XIV's DLC mainline they could bring back a fair chunk(10-12) of requested favs AND a couple new faces and STILL come up less than 2k2UM's roster; BUT be a big, chunky 'dream-roster' at the same time. I mean if they play their cards right they could cough out a roster that's *close* to what a good portion of the fanbase could ever want(they'll never 100% please everyone, as there are always people who like the lesser-played ones. And some people WANT a bunch of weird picks instead of traditional ones even if the roster lacks favorites.) 

As another aside; I DO actually think we may lose a couple of well-liked characters that are currently on the roster, at LEAST for the launch, DLC notwithstanding which could bring some back. I feel that Mature and Vice are both on the line right now for narrative reasons, for one example, and believe one or two more almost-mainstays-not guys like the Ikari Warriors or Athena or anything-may also step out for a game. We also might see some swaps, like Bao in for Chin, just for another example. But I definitely don't think EVERY almost-mainstay is safe. Most, yeah, but not all, and again, I am not counting DLC here.

Okay, so yeah. Basically, extreme TL; DR: A big, great roster is a wish that gives me back my teams. 

Next!

3/4. Potentially other things to do with meter/less invasive MAX mode

While '99 and '00 aren't two of my *favorite* KOF games(if I had to list my favorites in some sort of order it'd basically be '98/'98UMFE, XI, '97, XIV and even 2k3-the latter for sentimental and nostalgia purposes, mind you, I am not praising gameplay/balance here, heh), it had a gameplay idea that I enjoyed; Armor Mode and Counter Mode. If you haven't played the games at all, to explain it simply; you could hit different sets of buttons(ABC or BCD) to activate one of two modes. Counter Mode lasted a bit longer and let you do things like infinite Guard Escapes/Cancels and such and increased your damage. Armor mode lowered damage you took(lasted shorter) and let you armor through attacks. After activating a mode you had to wait a bit before you could use another mode. 

I don't necessarily want to see a carbon copy(since to be frank, Counter Mode I think basically just sort of evolved later into Max Mode and I think the latter works well enough, and it WAS pretty rough, IMO, like the modes costing all your meter), having *more than one thing* is what I'd like to see-I've mentioned a few times Armor Mode coming back would be hella cool. Give us Armor Mode and Max Mode or something. Tweak it so it doesn't cost ALL your meter like it used to(I think Max Mode should cost about 2 bars, Armor Mode could probably cost 1, and EX moves could cost 1? I'm just brainstorming here, but different games have different mechanics and I'm not even getting into how we'd balance this), but I kinda feel giving a choice like this would be fun again, if, again, it could be balanced. 

In '99/'00, certain characters worked better while in CM, and others worked better under AM, and some yet could get some benefit from either depending on the circumstance. I like Max Mode's idea, but I kinda feel like XIV's iteration of it was a bit *too* end all be all; if MM could be adjusted to be a bit less 'max mode go brrrrr' and more a meaningful choice you make depending on character and/or situation you're in(particularly the latter) that could go a long way. I kinda wouldn't want it to be cut-and-dry, 'X is only good with MM, Y only AM' or whatnot, but having SOME 'favored' would be fine, I think.(Armor Ralf! Armor Chang!)

I know EX moves are sort of a point of contention-I'm fine with taking or leaving them? But I don't mind if they stick around and cost some meter.

Keep in mind the Armor Mode was just something I liked from '99/'00: if they can think of another mode instead to give us something to do with the meter that matters(and increase Max Mode's cost just a little), I'd be cool with that, too; this is one of those things where I just want it to be fun/fitting. It's more or less me wanting some more choice here, if possible. It can keep how meter 'works' (in terms of 3 bars on your point, 4 for mid, 5 for anchor, and so on.) 

And...really those are the 3-4 'big' things I want; the top of the list(particularly the first 2 things.) Other secondary things include more robust single player stuff(I enjoy both the competitive side and the narrative side of SNK games, and robust single player is great for the casual audience; FGs need the casual audience I think), favorite stages and so on, which I'm not really worried about(they often deliver in terms of music and stages.) 

Bringing back some of those moves that got cut years ago would be keen, too, just sayin'. 

I should also add: PLEASE keep the game KOF. Go ahead and make some things more accessible to *learn*(tutorial modes, etc), but keep the game fast-paced, the hops, etc-don't try to turn the game into SF or something. I don't *think* they'll be doing this; they haven't so far. Yes, they've adjusted systems(this is fine, like, I think fighters should mess with some new things now and then).

I can see them doing something to try to make things feel more accessible? Which is fine, I'm all for opening the doors and putting up some proverbial signs, but just don't go changing around all the furniture inside and turning it into an unrecognizable place. 

Ahh well. I think I've rambled enough here for my 'comeback blog.' I have NO idea when my next one is going to be. I don't expect everyone to agree with my wants(some of you might not want any system changes, some might want more drastic changes, etc), but again, just a few things I'd personally like to see happen in the game going forward.