When Deep Silver announced that it was bringing The King of Fighters XIV to Europe last month, fans breathed a sigh of relief as it meant that, unlike some other games, they would be getting KoF XIV at the same time as other regions.
Deep Silver’s Production Chief, Julien En Rab, recently spoke to Gamelove about various topic regarding the latest iteration of the game.
Regarding bringing the game to Europe, En Rab confirmed that they talked directly to SNK, without going through Atlus. He also states that, alongside bringing the game at the same time as other regions, any future updates to the game will also come at the same time.
As for localization, he confirmed that all of the text–barring special move names–will be translated, but the voices will remain in Japanese.
He goes on to mention that the game is a return to the series’ roots, focusing more on fundamentals in a way that fans of KoF 98 and 2002 will find familiar, while adding in mechanics that bring in new fans. The idea is to “get back” the fans of the older games while still cultivating new blood.
As for competition and eSports, he states that SNK is coming from an arcade background and, like a lot of companies, it’s still new to this whole eSports thing. That said, he stated that SNK has allowed them to bring the game to events such as Stunfest, and the upcoming Japan Expo in Paris. However, he notes that, for them to create an international, pro-level competition, they would have to work closely with SNK.
Of course, this is just part of what En Rab talks about in the interview. Orochinagi has an english translation of the interview, with a few added questions of their own on their site.
Source: Gamelove via Orochinagi