But I’m a little weary. My primary exposure to FG’s has been SFII, MKII, MK9 and the SFIV series. I played BlazBlue for a bit and really enjoyed that. When I read about KoF the thing that is brought up most often is it’s “steep learning curve” and “brutal execution”.
Is the entry barrier for somebody who has never played a KoF game before that high?
Also, one of the reasons I’m thinking of getting KoF is that I’m getting tired of fighting one of the dozen shoto’s that are in SFIV’s cast. One of the things I liked about BlazBlue is that the characters all felt unique and interesting, not just Ken/Ryu/Akuma/Dan/Sakura/Gouken/Sagat clones. How many “shoto” type characters are in this game?
I feel that the entry barrier for KOF is moderate. The shortcuts and reversal window leniency isn’t ridiculous like the SSFIV series, but it’s inputs aren’t tremendously hard. If you’re used to playing a game like Blazblue and if you have most of your characters’ bnbs down, then movement and execution shouldn’t be much for KOF XIII. In regards to the amount of “true” shoto-archetypes in the game, I’d say that there are only three: Andy, Robert, Saiki. Even then, their types of projectiles, assortment of other moves, move properties between normals, and other factors make each “shoto-archetype” very varied as opposed to the differences between, say, Ryu, Evil Ryu, and Ken. Due to the subsystems of the game such as hop movement, the game largely emphasizes the usage of normals in a variety of manners and with that sort of demand, each of the “shoto” characters will be required to play in different manners altogether.
So, I dunno. The game emphasizes on chains and canceling attacks from chains so there isn’t much of an emphasis on links for bnbs. Certain links that are very useful often double-up as frametraps if one misses the link; whereas in SSFIV, missing a link could mean someone that was mashing reversal hoping you’d mess up would tag you. So with that in mind, combos in KOFXIII are easier. I think the only thing that may be difficult to grasp for someone coming into KOF is usually the spacing game since having hops changes the way how spacing and footsies are played. Actions become more “proactive.” Rushdown certainly becomes stronger; but with good normals, defending is really strong yet more “active” than typical SSFIV lameness. So even on an offensive, neutral, and defensive game, there is usually something going on or that you’re thinking of many possible options that could happen and have to be ready to respond to those options.
So in regards to learning basic offense, defense, and how to transition from an SF mindset to a KOF one, you could check out Dandy_J’s KOF Series tutorial on the KOFXIII SRK Wiki Hyper Guide. I’d say I’m one of the more knowledgeable KOF players in the US and I’ve been playing KOF for a little more than 2 years and all I had to go on was Dandy_J’s guide, Maj’s Footsie Guide, Domination 101 articles, and Sirlin’s ST Tutorial. I built myself up and just played KOF98 on GGPO against whoever was available, bad players and good players alike. So I’d say coming from a GGPO 3s scrub that dabbled and learned bnbs in Guilty Gear, Melty Blood, Alpha 2, Garou: MOTW, Vanguard Princess, The Last Blade 2, Third Strike then moving onto KOF, there was a few things that I didn’t understand in KOF but I picked up after a few weeks of actually playing people. KOF isn’t a hard game to learn, it just takes a bit of time and experience to really “play” KOF.
I think it’s a game you could pick up fine if you already have experience with other fighting games, especially if you dabbled in Blazblue. I was tired while typing this; hopefully this wasn’t just plain, incoherent blathering.
I’m going to give the demo a spin and make my decision from there. If I buy it I’ll have to add you guys on either XBL or PSN so you can [S]kick my ass [/S] show me the ropes.
I’m going to give the demo a spin and make my decision from there. If I buy it I’ll have to add you guys on either XBL or PSN so you can [S]kick my ass [/S] show me the ropes.
Be careful about online though, it only really works “GGPO” well when you have a 4 bar connection. So if you’re from Canada, be sure to have some Canadian friends close by or your online experience might become very, very damped down. SNKP is fixing the netcode so it could more accurately display who truly has a 3 bar or 4 bar connection since there were inconsistent cases where 2 bars felt really good to play while certain 4 bars felt like 1 bar connections. It still wouldn’t change the actual netcode of the game. I really love KOF and I want more people to buy the game and really get into the scene and play it, but as a precaution I must advise that online is truly bad unless you have consistent 4 bar connections.
But yeah, please try the demo and see if you like it or not. The demo even features an online function for you try it yourself and you could deem whether or not if you are willing to make a purchase or not despite the inconsistent netcode.
Online is perfect on 4 bars, decent on 3 but it’s still hit or miss on that level.
As for the brutal execution etc, I don’t think it’s that bad unless you’re trying to complete the mission combos, those got some tricky stuff. But the general bnbs and HD combos you’ll be using for most characters aren’t that hard to learn.
And that’s coming from someone who doesn’t have godlike execution. I’m decent at it because I take my time practicing so with some patience it’s not that hard. If you’re used to learning new systems etc in fighting games, 13 isn’t that much different with the approach you take to everything else. Get BNBs/punish situations down then practice setups. Get alot of matches played to know how learn how to land them properly etc. The rest is just experience.
With all that being said, the game is a ton of fun and feels very open in terms of what your possibilies are at any given time in a match.
I am trying my besr to get into the tournament scene with a dif game (i play mk) and im highly considering this game. Other than cvsnk2 I havent played a game like this… Lol does that one even count? But its complexity seems quite daunting so itll take awhile to actually get good at, which im honestly not worried about. Hows the popularity of this game out here? Im not too into sf4 anymore with the constant revisions and umvc is just not my style… As far as the game itself, is it pretty balanced? Im really trying to find another game for fear that mk will die soon.
I think it’s very balanced. Some characters seem a bit ridiculous but I never felt my character selection or the matchup caused a loss.
That being said, I don’t get why people say the ‘execution is brutal’. I’ve never felt it was that hard, except for maybe some of the more situational trial mode HD combos.
I think what happened to MK was that its top players, I think mainly Tom Brady, eventually racked on the game. Then there was the issue of too many patches within a small amount of time to the point that people couldn’t let the game roll and try to find the intricacies and depth. So it seemed it was largely the developer’s fault for mishandling the game post-launch to keep serious players interested in the game. They meant well but didn’t really know how to handle the situation.
I feel SNKP will be more laissez-faire about the game, for better and worse. But judging by what they’ve done so far and taken player input into account for actually decent balancing, they’re communicating enough and doing enough to get things done well while not over compensating. The game is there and it’s good, all we need to do is just play it. Even if not the entirety of the SSFIV, UMVC3, or SRK community doesn’t get into it, “we” KOFXIII players just need to play the game and enjoy it.
We just need to have a solid community that we haven’t ever really had for the lifespan of the KOF series in the US. For those coming into KOF and like the game, thanks for trying it out and hopefully you enjoy your entry into the series. We’ll help each other out and become better players.
For those of you worried about the execution, remember that those fancy HD combos don’t mean anything unless you can get in and land a hit. I strongly recommend picking up the fundamentals like spacing, pokes, etc. and then worry about the icing.
The execution isn’t to hard, i was practicing HD combos and my character has a 2 moves, QCF.p x2[DC]RDP.D. I was having trouble at first but after a day i was landing it more and more consistently.