KOF XIII Announced

I feel your pain.. Great game sitting in my arcade games section all dusty.

 

That's the thing, for us in London there should be plenty of opputunity to play offline. Neoempire are big fans and will be really pushing this game (notice the banner on Neoempire and the amount of exposure it got at SVB), Gunsmith of Orichinagi will back them up too.

I couldn't play fighting games seriously if online was my only avenue of competition and I tend to stay offline most of the time anyway. I'm hoping it all improve a great deal by the next gen but even the best around today don't feel right to me.

 

This game came through the post this morning from my rental service, i've never been a massive KoF fan and I didn't enjoy XII much at all but XIII looks damn good. I only had the time to go through the tutorial and have a couple goes at story mode, after that though I already wanted to go out and purchase the game. I'm gonna play it a bit more tomorrow and send it back then i'll buy it when I can.

Can anyone else confirm the netcode is as bad as people have been saying in here? It wouldn't put me off buying but i'd certainly have less fun with the game if the netcode was that poor.

Also, that last boss (Saiki?) in story mode was a beast I don't know if it was the fact that i'm n00b at KoF or because I was only having a quick go on pad but there was no way I was beating him.

Glad Takuma is back too Sorry if i've spouted on a little.

 

KOF games (SNK games in general) are known for extremely hard bosses so don't feel bad.

 

Damn, finally got some time with this thing (albeit short)... I've been mad busy with things, but for the most part, I'm digging the game, and this is the best Billy even though he doesn't have his reversals (best Takuma, too)...

I'm personally impressed with the netcode... I honestly think people need to look at their ISP and ensure that they forward their ports properly to avoid falling into the whole "bad netcode sandtrap"... Plus, you gotta understand, not every area of the US is great when it comes to internet speed (I can think of some areas in the midwest that aren't as great as say the East Coast or even Seattle)...

I played a few people, and did a FT10 with a homeboy in Texas and it ran pretty good. Imo, it's better than 02UM, and pending the locale, as good as NGBC. Sure, there's some hiccups here and there, but I've had better success with this than I did with SSF4, MVC3 (and part 2), even DOA4.1... HD combos were done to me with ease (although they were simple)...

I did hear about some issues which if the community(ies) decide to voice professionally I think they'll hear us all out and stay on top of things like the MK9 and MvC3 guys did; but all in all, its good imo.

 

Saiki's only the second to last boss. Dark Ash is worse.

And I really love what they've done with Takuma. His short and stocky design rules.

Also, Feck, if you want to try the netcode out, I'll have some quick games with you if you want.

 

Netcode only works if you're fairly close or have really good internet. It's not up to standard. That said, you'll at least have a few people you can play with.

The low population base of KOF players doesn't help.

 

Yeah that'll have a big impact on how well this works online. It can potentially work very well but there aren't a lot of players.

Saw this on SRK
http://shoryuken.com/2011/11/25/poongko-kofxiii-replays/

Poongko of Korea playing online. If he can pull off those things online there internet is amazing. The benefit of having the best internet in the world + a small denseley populated country and lots of KOF players.

 

The game's fighting system is awesome. I love the EX moves and drive cancel mechanic.

The netcode isn't horrid, but like others said, there's not a ton of players.

 

Finally got my game yesterday and I love it. XIII has an excellent feel imo. It's kinda similar to 2002 UM, but not nearly as strict (so somewhere between 2002UM and XII?).

For some reason, the word "Meaty" comes to mind. But I think it's the best feeling KOF game for me already--not too insanely strict, but still feels like classic KOF.

Need more time with it, but just gotta say I'm lovin' it!

 

Don't know why, but enjoying watching Juicebox training KOF XIII ^_^

Watching it on the side while working. That said, if I watch it while not working, I should then remind myself "that should be me practicing constantly to get better" ^_^

 

I'm starting to feel like the netcode isn't that bad. I've been finding games with 3 bars regularly and I even played a fairly good set at 2 bars. This game is worth $50 bucks any day of the week IMO.

It has a very cool combo system using the two super meters and it has that MK9 factor where you'll just sit in practice or mission mode for a several hours working on your combos. It has a legit record feature as well and you can customize the color of your characters and save 5 outfits. Once you the character for a while you open more colors, you know, if you like your Iori to have blue skin or whatever.

Most importantly though, the gameplay itself is excellent. Every character has some good tools and it's a challenging game. I think people will definitely feel like they got their money's worth.

If you get the game, definitely read the tutorials posted in this thread, that stuff is very useful - the button buffer is crucial.

 

Most of the later ones are well beyond me but there's a lot i've not learnt properly yet, the gameplay and combo system are really good though. Infinitely more fun and more rewarding than other recent fighting games that I won't bother to mention

 

I agree 100%, the combo system in this game is outstanding. I actually think this could be the best fighting game of 2011. Solid, solid mechanics.

Those trial combos are VERY tough, some of them are ridiculous. I haven't even scratched the surface of Hyper Drive combos yet, but that's where the biggest combos are in this game. Another thing I love is the new EX moves. Because they cost the same amount of meter as super, SNK made them powerful moves, they add so many more options to your gameplay. They either do big damage, provide a nice setup to continue the combo or they good invincibility frames. They add a ton to the game.

The only thing about KOF in general is the game has tough inputs and they're not too forgiving. I like that for the most part but it makes it a much tougher game to get really good at. Again, learn about the button buffer.

One example of what I mean is this... I was using Elizabeth last nigh and practicing with her in trial mode and came across a tough combo, mostly because there's one very precise input involving a drive cancel. (Drive cancels use the narrow, fairly quick-charging green meter that's split into two portions, the drive meter, to cancel one special into another at the cost of half the meter... FYI, you can do two drive cancels in one combo if you have a full meter.) So in this combo you're drive cancelling a DP+p into a qcf+p, however, she has a super that's qcf x2+p, so you have to be very precise with the DP input. You have to perform the DP textbook style, ending on the d/f diagonal (3). If you go all the way to 6, when you go to drive cancel with qcf+p, you end up super cancelling instead. But doing those two motions that precisely, that quickly, is very hard to do consistently in the middle of a combo, let alone a real match. I'm just hoping that practice will make perfect eventually.

But basically, in one quick motion, you're going: 6, 2, 3+p, 2, 3, 6+p... If you touch 6 even for one frame on the DP, you won't be able to drive cancel. If anyone knows a trick to clear the input buffer, please let me know.

 

The combos shouldn't be too hard imo if you've played either 02 or 98. 98 had QMax combos that were very hard to do and took quite a bit of practice. 02's BC combos are like XIII's, but it required you to determine which move you were going to use as you entered BC mode. It's alot easier to this time around, since the window for combo extending is a bit wider, but I did notice some characters have easier moves to open up with than others.

Like someone said earlier, if you have read the KOF related material posted here, as well as the remaining/newer write ups on dreamcancel.com, then the only real thing left to truly grasp is the timing of the combos...

I do notice alot of people, especially sf4 players, having a hard time with the inputs are concerned. As far as inputs go, aside from shortcuts (i.e.- doing f,df+P instead of dp+P), you do have to be sure you are doing the actual input for alot of the specific moves. You can't mash a damn thing out, even though technically you could mash to a very small degree in some of the older ones. You also have to be sure that you put the stick in neutral for some cancels like Billy Kane's, and even Elizabeth's.

 

These combos on the other hand, take some time to get down... Even those who've been playing for the past year still dropped some difficult combos during this past NEC XII.

Hopefully there will be as much hype for FS as there was for this game.

Speaking of which, shoutouts to Hubbs for breaking that Chin out. You made those cats mention VF for a bit, Shun in particular...