« KING OF FIGHTERS XII LOCATION TEST UPDATE »

A lot of King of Fighters XII news pouring in over the past couple days since the location test went down. There are some impressions posted by Reno on NeoGAF and Cyberfantix has a report from sugar boy on the system changes and over all feel of the game thus far.

Apparently the game is 85% complete which I cant confirm, but I remember reading somewhere that the game was 100% complete at the Premier Event that went down about a month ago. Although if that was the case what would be the point of having a location test for the game? At 85% I doubt there will be any more character additions so SNK-Playmore are probably fine tuning the animations and general gameplay.

Reno mentioned in his post that the game has been sped up significantly which is interesting because I also remember reading that the game was going to be slower paced than previous entries. Maybe at that time they were having issues with gameplay speed and frame rate because of the HD sprites but since then have got everything running smoothly. Who knows really but over all the impressions seem to be real positive. I can't wait to try out the Critical Counter system!

There is also a ton of new footage from the lok-test on wx1682's YouTube channel. 

Comments

[Pyrestrike]

Watching the videos actually depresses me :/ I'm not a great SNK fan (I find it fairly simplistic compared to other fighters, but I naturally play well in it, go figure) but I was really looking forward to seeing KOFxii in action. Unfortunately the characters I like to play (Leona and Kensou) both look really gimped.

Considering how KOF is a 4-button fighter anyway, I personally think restricting the use of heavy attacks while at max is annoying :/ Making it the 5th button like in KOFXI would make more sense, IMO. I mean, could you imagine going to max, then being afraid to throw out have punch or kick because you are super-punishable? Suddenly your combos are limited because you're in max, because the only thing you can do safely are your weak normals, which is honestly not what KOF is about I'd think.

[haunts]

I'm personally the type that will give any fighting game a chance and I try not to have videos sway my opinion too much! I think with any new fighter there are always a lot of concerns but you just have to play it yourself. I remember before SFIV came out I had no idea what to expect but it turned out to be really good!

[Pyrestrike]

That's true, but the difference was that I recognized SF4 and its style of play. I guess part of it too is that I've never really seen high-level KOF play. I mean, there are lots of tutorials and combo videos but the match vids and community seem lacking compared to other fighters.

Thanks for pointing to Reno's notes though. I can see where people may be more apt to use their CC since its limited in time, but I think based on what we've seen from all fighters since ST, is that whenever you have a trump card, you always become more calculating and slower because you don't want to waste your CC, ultra, super, whatever. Plus, you never want to force the issue of pulling out a super because it makes you readable and obvious. That it is limited in time in KOFXII means its even MORE precious, I'd think.

(on a side note, I emailed the site, because I noticed that the link to your youtube channel was wrong, haunts)