Fighting Games Friday: The Solo Kings (and Queens) of Fighters XV
Fresh off finishing up the first two seasons, SNK has immediately started releasing downloadable characters for the third season of The King of Fighters XV. The first among them is Shingo Yabuki, the man who idolized former protagonist Kyo Kusanagi, and has been missing from the series since The King of Fighters XI. He hasn’t missed much of a step since his last appearance, a phenomenon perhaps tied to no one in this franchise aging since the mid-1990s. He’ll be followed by Kim Kaphwan in the spring, himself missing from the initial roster of a KOF title for the first time in the franchise’s history, and Sylvie Paula Paula and Najd from The King of Fighters XIV sometime this summer.
The characters themselves aren’t what I want to focus on here, since this post wouldn’t be very long if I did. There are plenty of analyses of Shingo’s playstyle and changes for this iteration out there that I don’t need to waste anyone’s time providing another one, and none of the aforementioned upcoming characters have been shown in action yet. The real shame here is how the characters are being released.
Roster additions for the first two KOFXV Team Passes were released in, well, teams. The first Team Pass consisted of the Garou Team (Rock Howard, Gato, and B. Jenet from Garou/Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves) and the South Town Team (Geese Howard, Billy Kane, and Ryuji Yamazaki. (Yes, they did release two teams right behind each other consisting of Fatal Fury characters, as if they were hinting at something.) The second Team Pass consisted of the Awakened Orochi Team (the Orochi versions of Yashiro Nanakase, Shermie, and Chris, whose character models were already in the game) and the Samurai Team (Samurai Shodown guest stars Haohmaru, Nakoruru, and Darli Dagger). The only solo character released last year was Omega Rugal, as a freebie.
The switch in how characters are being released this year is notable, and disappointing. When SNK first announced Shingo and Kim last year, I was hoping they were teases for characters who’d come as part of teams. Perhaps Shingo would come with Terry Bogard fangirl Alice Nakata and, uh, some other character who aspired to be another existing KOF character. Maybe Kim could have come with fellow returning characters Choi Bounge and Chang Koehan, or even Jhun Hoon and May Lee. Unorthodox teams would have been fine too, many of which are already in KOFXV. It’s a pity that wasn’t to be.
I’ll admit that this should have been expected on my part. All of the KOFXIV DLC characters were released separately, after all. But I can be forgiven for hoping the teams released last year would be the new format SNK would stick to from here for their team-based fighters. It’s also not as if the already-packed character select screen could fit any more characters, on which it’s already difficult to find characters players want to use in their teams unless they’ve played the game for so many hours that they’ve memorized the character panel positions or simply use preset teams. Adding an option for a second panel that takes players to a second screen would be ridiculous, though still not on par with fighting games that jam-pack the extra characters in one panel for players to cycle through.
There’s a good chance that SNK simply won’t have the resources to make full teams for KOFXV going forward. The company has grown since returning to console game development with KOFXIV, but they’re still small per se. They’re sure to need all hands on deck for the Mark of the Wolves sequel SNK was clearly hinting at with the first two KOFXV DLC teams (though few realized it at the time). Nothing has been shown since the teaser that accompanied the game’s announcement at Evo 2022, but there’s hope that the initial package could arrive sometime in 2024. It should at least be shown this year. This game will undoubtedly debut with a larger roster compared to the first Garou (which came with 14) over two decades ago, even after accounting for the original game’s boss characters. The new Samurai Shodown launched with 16, so that will ideally be the floor for Garou 2, or whatever they’ll call it.
In the meantime, there’s still plenty of fun to be had with KOFXV. In addition to the three already announced, four more DLC characters will be released throughout the year — one of whom could be Hinako, the schoolgirl with a unique sumo fighting style who hasn’t been seen since The King of Fighters 2003. You can bet that she’ll still be a schoolgirl too. The other could be Duo Lon, whose last appearance was in The King of Fighters XIII. I’ll keep wishing that all these characters came as part of teams, but it’s welcome that the game will have a stacked roster for tournaments yet to come.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
