SNK Playmore recently got to show off some of the latest characters for The King of Fighters XIV during PlayStation Experience last week, and battle director Yasuyuki Oda had more to share about the roster in an interview with Famitsu.
Famitsu asks about the 50 characters, which started with Kyo and Iori, followed by several popular characters. They ask if it’ll keep trending this way for the character revealed.
“We’ve selected these characters after having examined things such as ‘if we put in this character, then it’d make everyone happy,’ and such,” explains Oda.
That said, he’s asked if that means all 50 characters have already been decided.
“Yes, we’ve already decided on them,” responds Oda.
Next, Famitsu asks if he can share something like a ratio between preexisting and new characters for The King of Fighters XIV.
“I can’t say much on that, but it’s safe to assume ‘since there are 50 characters, then perhaps a character who was popular will appear in it’,” says Oda with a laugh.
On the subject of new characters, Famitsu asks if they’ll have some kind of elements or features that the preexisting characters from the series don’t already have.
“Hmm, yes. When making new characters, we think ‘make completely new elements’ and ‘it’s necessary to challenge’,” answers Oda. “Such experiences are necessary for a developer, and I believe that it’s wrong to not do that.”
He then explains that back in the Neo Geo days, there was a time when The King of Fighters were releasing on a yearly basis, so they weren’t always able to do things the way they wanted due to not having enough time; however, now that they have plenty of time, they’re able to put in the extra effort into the new characters.
Famitsu says that it sounds like a lot of trouble to make adjustments on all 50 characters to make it on time for release next year, and asks if all 50 of them will actually be playable at launch, with that in consideration.
“That’ll be fine. All 50 characters will be playable at launch,” says Oda. “There will be numerous characters at launch, and we don’t plan on just adding more bits at a time, so please be sure to properly jot that down [laughs]. It wouldn’t be a KoF game with a small number of characters, after all.”
Finally, Famitsu mentions that it’s the norm for fighters these days to add more characters through updates, so having 50 right off the bat should make quite an impact. Oda says that the “50 characters at launch” is their current selling point.
Famitsu asks if there’s a chance that we may see additional characters after launch.
“That will have to wait until we see how the 50 character do after launch, so it has yet to be decided,” says Oda.
As for whether The King of Fighters XIV will become its own series with newer versions or whether they’ll go to The King of Fighter XV, Oda says he’s still uncertain, but up until now the stories in the series have been told through three titles each, and he can just say that XIV will mark the beginning of a new chapter.
The King of Fighters will release in 2016 for PlayStation 4.
