King of Fighters XIV finally made its playable debut at PlayStation Experience this past weekend, giving attendees an opportunity to see what the upcoming title has in store. As a new numbered entry to SNK Playmore’s storied franchise, it brings with it a variety of changes in both gameplay and aesthetics.
Famitsu recently got a chance to talk to battle designer Yasuyuki Oda about why they’re making these changes.
According to Oda, one of their goals with King of Fighters XIV is to simplify the systems. This means that things like the Drive meter from King of Fighters XIII and their respective Drive Cancels have been removed, replaced by the MAX Mode of older games.
The reason behind this is to strike a balance that appeals to players of both combo-heavy installments, like King of Fighters 2002, and older titles that were less so, like King of Fighters ’98. And now that they are starting out on consoles instead of in arcades, SNK wants to attract more players to the franchise by keeping controls simple, but still giving the game depth to be explored.
King of Fighters XIV is scheduled to arrive on PlayStation 4 sometime next year. Oda mentions that the title is about 70% complete, so it might hit consoles sooner than you think.