While we’ve seen a fair bit of King of Fighters XIV footage so far, those of us who weren’t able to make the trip to PlayStation Experience still don’t have a clear idea of how new mechanics function in the upcoming title. Fortunately, N4Us, LordWalkman, Wild Wallace, MMCafe’s Professor, and ATRyoSakazaki from our own forums have provided breakdowns of the various systems and changes.
One of the biggest change is the replacement of King of Fighters XIII’s HD system with the MAX Mode mechanic from earlier installments. Activating MAX Mode costs one bar of meter and grants access to an unlimited number of EX attacks as long as the mode is active and MAX Desperation moves.
SNK Playmore has also seen fit to add auto-combos into the game. These Rush combos, as they’re called, are performed by mashing light punch, and can automatically cancel into Desperation Moves if the player has enough meter.
King of Fighters XIV reportedly borrows mechanics from other classic SNK games, including the Just Defend system from Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Somewhat similar to Street Fighter III’s parries, Just Defend previously lowered blockstun and allowed a defending player to recover faster, but may function differently in this new iteration.
Other new mechanics include King of Fighters XI’s forward roll on ground recovery and meter gain on character loss. Finally, Blowback attacks (performed with MP+MK) can set up wallbounces on counter-hit.
While these details come from knowledgeable members of the community, the game itself may have more mechanics that have yet to be discovered or revealed, and some are likely to change as development continues.
King of Fighters XIV will arrive on PlayStation 4 sometime next year.
Sources: N4Us, LordWalkman, Wild Wallace, MMCafe, Shoryuken forums