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89-569: The game was directed by KOF XIV staff member Kaito Soranaka with assistance from creative director Eisuke Ogura who also worked as an artist alongside Tomohiro Nakata, artist of The King of Fighters All Star (2018). It is the first game in the series created using Unreal Engine 4 , and the first to implement GGPO rollback networking. Taking place after the events of KOF XIV , the narrative primarily revolves around two fighters with multiverse-related supernatural powers, Shun'ei and Isla, among other returning heroes facing revived threats caused by

178-501: A dating sim part of the Days of Memories series. Ash was designed as an "attractive evil character", in contrast to previous King of Fighters heroes. The supervising designer created the character as desired, with few changes since conception. When The King of Fighters 2003 was released and Ash introduced, the staff did not want to disclose information about him, instead telling fans to look forward to his "exploits." His canonical height

267-468: A fighting game system involving teams composed of three fighters. Every team relies on these combatants in the order they want, facing multiple enemies until reaching the Story Mode's boss . The gameplay includes a parry system under the name Shatter Strike. It also reincorporates the common "Max Mode" system where fighters can use stronger techniques once energy bars are filled. Unlike in previous game from

356-486: A "fan favorite" character. Famitsu noted Ash Crimson came across as a surprise to gamers for his ambiguous characterization as even though he is supposed to be third hero of KOF , the ending of the Sacred Treasures Team makes him look like a villain when attacking Chizuru Kagura and stealing the sources of her powers. This resulted in several mysteries that the audience wanted SNK to explore in future games. In

445-415: A 119-page artbook. Oda claims the game is being developed in order to be enjoyed for years after its release. As such, additional characters were added as downloadable content, with four teams released during 2022 as part of a season pass . The first, Garou Team, was released on March 17 for most platforms, but was delayed until the next day on Steam. In addition, a free update on April 14 added Omega Rugal as

534-689: A DJ Station Update. The third, Awakened Orochi Team, composed of powered up versions of Chris, Shermie and Yashiro was released on August 8. The fourth, Samurai Team was released on October 4. Six additional characters were also released as paid DLC throughout 2023 as part of a second season pass, along with a patch adding cross-platform play to all platforms and a second Boss Challenge in the form of Goenitz, who, like Omega Rugal, sports another unlockable outfit should he be defeated. Two additional characters are scheduled for release in December 2024. The King of Fighters XV received "generally favorable" reviews, with

623-409: A better score than the predecessor, according to review aggregator Metacritic . VG247 gave it a perfect score, praising how far more expanded the story mode became in comparison to its previous installment as well as the more accessible combos. Destructoid enjoyed its fighting action, its large roster, improved visuals, and revamped online options, finding them highly complex while still praising

712-468: A buckwheat husk pillow as a reference to the pillow that Meiten-kun has, and he was surprised when that was adopted as the song title. Asanaka himself says that he often names his characters themes after considering their hidden side, and for example, in the case of the Kronen team's "Liberty", he said that he imagined the freedom that they had seized. In June 2021, SNK announced that the game would be delayed to

801-483: A designer for the Samurai Shodown reboot, all together. It got pretty tense, so they got Saji to help us out as we went along. They were given text about Isla's background and Dolores' character settings, and thus made sure that these were clear at a glance. For Isla, we were conscious of giving her a street feel, like she is painted with spray paint, and for Dolores, we were conscious of giving her an ethnic feel with

890-463: A desire by Japanese designers to confuse Western gamers about their sexuality. Writers for Game Informer joked about their surprise at the discovery that Ash is a male character. After UTV Ignition Entertainment polled fans to choose an artbox for console versions of The King of Fighters XII , the company announced that Ash's unpopularity reduced the number of potential covers to two (featuring Kyo and Iori). Den of Geek described Ash as one of

979-479: A flower crown for Betty rather than take part in a sweaty tournament. Ash Crimson's character had a mixed reception in video-game publications. When he was introduced, GameSpy ' s Christian Nutt called him a "clone" of Guile from the Street Fighter series because of their similar movesets but Ash's team was praised as new characters with new elements in the series. Lucas M. Thomas of IGN wrote that

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1068-574: A fully charged Focus Attack from Street Fighter IV . In XIV , combos from quick activation were the main way max mode was used so the gauge consumption was increased from 1 to 2 to prevent players from being overwhelmed. A neutral state in XIV was not seen often so in XV attack power and guard crush are increased when neutral is activated. Since Max Mode activations in neutral were almost nonexistent in King of Fighters XIV ,

1157-626: A long reputation he has had ever since his introduction in 1994. When drawing Kyo in XIII , Ogura aimed to give him a darker style while giving the art further depth than in XII . In addition to the character illustrations and main visuals of this work, Ogura also worked on victory demo illustrations during the game. Ogura stated that designing Ash Crimson 's final form was conceived shortly after he saw early designs of Saiki. Following this, Ogura tried drawing Ash's possessed form from The King of Fighters XIII where he

1246-452: A major fan complaint was the character's strength in the games, which made him one of the strongest opponents despite an apparent lack of effort. According to Thomas, Ash is "nothing if not strange" and the writer lamented his many appearances in the KOF 2003 manhua compared with more-popular characters. GameType compared him to Guile and Remy from Street Fighter due to his special moves and felt

1335-471: A manager. The series' official website was updated with story prologues during development of the game. Although the game gave closure to Shun'ei's character arc, SNK is not satisfied with the result, believing they could still focus on his role again. The sound of this work was created mainly by sound director Hideki Asanaka, sound designer Minori Sasaki, and Makiko Hino, and the "Fateful Battle" BGM introduced in XIV

1424-513: A move allowing him to steal his opponents' special moves. After defeating Iori Yagami, the character acquired the " Fructidor " ( テルミドール ) Neo Max move (his strongest attack in The King of Fighters XIII ). During the game's development, the staff considered returning Fructidor's animation style to an earlier version they had tested. For The King of Fighters XIII , producer Kei Yamamoto wanted gamers who had played previous titles with Ash to consider

1513-441: A playable character to the game, and introduced the new Boss Challenge mode. Players who beat the stronger boss version of Rugal are rewarded with music, alternate costume, and a new stage. Rugal's popularity has continued even to his appearance in The King of Fighters XV , with Nakata surprised by how acclaimed the decision to include Rugal was. The second, South Town Team was released on May 16, along with music from KOF Neowave in

1602-422: A rival to Shun'ei, so they let the design team to come up with whatever they could think of. The resulting draft had an impact on Oda, as it is very close to the final result, but he was initially worried about putting a character with that type of design into a fighting game. According to Eisuke Ogura, Isla is "not very much into actual fighting", and has a special and abnormal dance-like style. Despite Shun'ei being

1691-529: Is 178 cm (5'10") and he weighs 59 kg (130 lbs). According to a staff member, Falcoon , the goal was to make Ash an ambiguous protagonist who made players "feel bad" for cheering for him. Although Falcoon did not design the character, he added details while illustrating him. Akihiko Ureshino saud Ash has the weakest relationships among protagonists. Although it is not clearly depicted, these three are probably just friends who happened to be in Shanghai at

1780-573: Is handled by the Embracer Group 's Koch Media . A demo became available in Tokyo Game Show 2021 featuring a total of eight playable characters. Downloadable content for the game include Terry Bogard's design from Garou: Mark of the Wolves and Leona Heidern's classic look from The King of Fighters '96 to The King of Fighters 2003 . Other releases of the game include a two disc soundtrack and

1869-564: Is revealed in The King of Fighters XIV that Ash is trapped in a time vortex, with an entity known as Verse enveloping him. It is later also revealed that Verse, along with an unnamed blue creature, whose half of their power fragments somehow implanted into young Shun'ei, was created from Ash's result on changing his timeline back in the previous tournament, creating timeline interferences and resulting in Samurai Shodown ' s Nakoruru traveling to

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1958-489: Is the final boss in The King of Fighters XIII as "Ash driven insane by the Spiral of Blood" ( 血の螺旋に狂うアッシュ , Chi no Rasen ni Kuruu Asshu ) (also known as Evil Ash) with power stolen from Saiki, who is trying to possess him instead. He ultimately sacrifices himself to destroy Saiki, his very own ancestor. While Ash's memories start disappearing from almost every people who knew him, he still makes cameos in some endings. It

2047-435: Is updated to help newcomers perform combos and special moves easier. The Rush now has also been modified to help the player perform both a Super Move and Climax should be the bars be limited to only the former as in The King of Fighters XIV . Shatter Strike was designed mainly as a defensive system but it can be used offensively when making use of guard points. On a more critical analsys Destructoid compared Shatter Strike with

2136-510: Is written by Akihiko Ureshino as Ash's former guardian and older sister figure, a woman who believed in the clan's mission and guided Ash in a similar fashion Chizuru Kagura from the Orochi arc video games. It is more affectionate towards Ash, and feels something similar to familial love or even romantic feelings. In The King of Fighters XII Ash was the character the staff worked on the most, reworking his movements and speech to be more consistent with

2225-526: The KOF: Maximum Impact 2 ' s update KOF Maximum Impact Regulation A and The King of Fighters XII , games without a storyline. In The King of Fighters XIII Ash is the only character not part of a team, and it is learned that he works for Those From the Past (seen in 2003 and XI ). However, he has a conflict with organization leader Saiki at the end of the game, with his real plan revealed. Ash

2314-657: The Fatal Fury series. His first title was Real Bout Special where he met his senior Yasuyuki Oda . He did pixel art starting from the port Dominated Mind , helped on others titles from the series. Ogura was famous for working in the game Garou: Mark of the Wolves . Ogura tried to take advantage of Neo Geo's console limitations in order to create appealing 2D animations. Ogura also served as character designer for Ogre Battle Gaiden: Prince of Zenobia . However, by that time SNK fell into bankruptcy which depressed Ogura as most of his partners moved to other companies. Ogura became

2403-599: The KOF franchise, but now just like enhanced moves prior, characters can now use their strongest techniques, Climax, versions of special moves, with or without entering Max Mode. The game features a wide variety of online modes, including Ranked Match, Casual Match, Room Match, and Online Training. Besides fighting against AIs in the Story Mode, the player can fight a Boss Challenge Mode against two returning KOF bosses: Omega Rugal from The King of Fighters '95 and Goenitz from The King of Fighters '96 . The single button "Rush" from The King of Fighters XIV reappears and

2492-558: The OVA adaptation ) created and directed a short anime based on the series, with his animation studio, G-1Neo, producing the short anime. Yusuke Takeda and Hirotoshi Takaya have also worked on the short. In an interview with Famitsu , Ōbari has stated that he wanted this anime to be his best work yet, and that his team worked closely with SNK on the character design to make sure it has feature film level of detail put into every frame of animation. The song "Now or Never" by Steven McNair plays during

2581-463: The 2003 tournament, Ash's team is defeated in the final but later helps defeat the demon Mukai. Although he is not part of the recurring tournament in The King of Fighters XII manhua , he briefly confronts Kyo in an attempt to steal his powers. Ash also appears in the CD drama KOF: Mid Summer Struggle , which has a mock King of Fighters tournament. Outside The King of Fighters , the character appears in

2670-596: The 2011 title, The King of Fighters XIII , and he has been featured in print adaptations and a drama CD based on the games. SNK Playmore staff created Ash as an evil main character, in contrast to previous main characters. His moves have been reworked in every game in which he has appeared, gaining new techniques as a result of his actions or modified to balance the character roster. Critical response to Ash has been largely negative due to his androgynous appearance and his technique. In interviews and press releases, video game publisher UTV Ignition Entertainment noted that he

2759-499: The DLC teams' involvements in the storyline are canon. The game features two non-playable bosses in the initial release, and two free playable DLC boss characters who are part of special boss challenges. Newcomers are marked in italics. Due to positive response to the marketing of The King of Fighters XIV , director Yasuyuki Oda said in August 2017 The King of Fighters XV was possible, but

The King of Fighters XV - Misplaced Pages Continue

2848-531: The Evil Ash easily. The idea behind this character was giving an vibe of a repulsive person. For The King of Fighters XV , designer Tomohiro Nakata said several fans already knew The King of Fighters XIV would tease his return. In his reappearance in XV , Ash was given a new design reminiscent of the original one. While SNK looked forward to his interactions to his previous enemies Chizuru and Iori, they were also glad that he managed to join his friend Elizabeth for

2937-436: The Orochi followers were brought back due to their fame in the fandom. Meanwhile, Kyo's girlfriend Yuki was brought back for as Ureshino realized that their relationship stayed pure and faithful to the point he considers them a married couple. Meanwhile, the character of Krohnen has been noted to have multiple similarities with K9999 from The King of Fighters 2001 and The King of Fighters 2002 due to his similarities with

3026-413: The accessible Rush Mode. IGN praised the game's character models, rollback netcode , and roster. GameSpot praised the distinct playstyles, team-based gameplay, large roster, new modes, and the online play. Hardcore Gamer considered the story mode pretty much an arcade and that the narrative is not the best part of the game when compared to other better implemented parts. HobbyConsolas accalimed

3115-472: The appearance of more Amp-related creatures like Verse, believing Ash Crimson 's time-traveling in a previous tournament , which Dolores' disciple, Kukri confirms it to have caused their appearances and connected to distortions across the multiverse. During the finals, a new cutscene is given to each team revealing their needs to enter the tournament and become the champion. However, a new Amp creature born from Isla's Amp power, labeled as Re Verse manifests as

3204-465: The best The King of Fighters with the writer comparing him with Loki based on their antagonistic and tricky behaviour as well as how his heroic traits in KOF XIII gave fans different thoughts, while Complex described him as one of gaming's "douchiest" characters androgynous look as well as how he steals the powers of Chizuru Kagura and Iori Yagami. GamesRadar found the character's name as one of

3293-602: The best position to watch over them. However, in the end we chose Benimaru Nikaido as a proposal from fellow busy character Kyo Kusanagi, as Benimaru is just good enough to take care of others whereas Kyo was requested by fellow fighter Chizuru Kagura join her team. In the end, Ogura was glad with this decision. Character design is being handled by Tomohiro Nakata, who is also working on The King of Fighters All Star . Tomohiro Nakata tried staying faithful to previous illustrators' works. The designs for Isla and Dolores were done by him and Ogura until halfway through, and then Saji,

3382-426: The character of Tetsuo from the manga Akira and had to be removed from the franchise based on copyright issues. Although SNK did not confirm his identity, artist Hiroaki was more open about it, calling him the revival of K9999. Among other characters, the previous subboss, Antonov, became a playable character as a regular member of the cast. Oda stated that he was further changed based on the team's idea in regards of

3471-583: The character teams up with Oswald and Shen Woo. At the game's end Ash leaves his teammates to fight each other, after disclosing that Oswald's price for joining him was finding a drug he can only obtain after defeating their pharmacist's enemy, their own teammate Shen. He later finds a berserker , Iori, defeats him and steals his powers. When Ash's comrade Elisabeth Blanctorche accuses him of abandoning his original mission and becoming obsessed with power, he leaves after saying that Kyo Kusanagi will be his next victim. Ash also appears as an available fighter in

3560-507: The character's motivation and whether they could relate to him. Artist Eisuke Ogura stated that designing Ash's final form was conceived shortly after he saw early designs of Saiki. Following this, Ogura tried drawing Ash's possessed form from The King of Fighters XIII where he was careful in showing that while the enemy's body is Ash's, the one fighting is Saiki as represented by his black flames. Despite early pressure about that, once seeing Saiki's similarities with Ash, Ogura managed to draw

3649-404: The company SNK also wanted to focus on other franchises. Oda instead worked on a spin-off, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy , a female character-driven fighting game and a spiritual sequel of SNK Gals' Fighters . In December 2018, SNK revealed the company was working on The King of Fighters XV , aiming to release it during 2020. However, the co-vid 19 pandemic caused major delays in the making of

The King of Fighters XV - Misplaced Pages Continue

3738-532: The developers are giving more incentive to players to not just use it as a combo extender. The story focuses on the next King of Fighters tournament held after the appearance and defeat of Verse . Following Antonov's early retirement, new tournament commissioner Anastasia sends out invitations to fighters to join the tournament; the mayhem caused by Verse's powers resurrects various long-thought deceased fighters from past tournaments as well. Chizuru Kagura gathers Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami in order to look after

3827-483: The event without ceasing from existence, thanks to Kukri's confirmation of the outcome on defeating Otoma=Raga, thus finally live peacefully with Elisabeth once again. Ash has made appearances in various other King of Fighters media as well. In the fourth chapter of the anime The King of Fighters: Another Day , he sets fire to a city to lure Kyo into a trap. He is also prominent in the manhua adaptations of The King of Fighters 2003 by Wing Yang and King Tung. In

3916-511: The fact that he using flames as part of them felt obligatory for being a KOF protagonist. When playable characters for the arcade version of The King of Fighters XIII were introduced, Anime News Network ' s Todd Ciolek speculated about Ash's lack of teammates and wondered if he was alone because "no one likes Ash now." Marissa Meli of UGO Networks ranked Ash sixteenth on a list of "The Most Androgynous Video Game Characters", with Meli jokingly attributing his androgynous appearance to

4005-610: The fighters. The Unreal Engine also allowed the characters to be given more facial expressions when interacting. Additionally, the Unreal Engine allowed to improve the visuals of the Climax techniques the characters can perform like Kyo's who fires a projectile, punches the enemy with his flames and then covers them with the Kusanagi Crest. Originally, the game was set to be released in 2020. However, in late December, Oda and Ogura revealed

4094-573: The first quarter of 2022, due to rising cases of COVID-19 in Japan. Youchiro Soeda worked from his house due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so he drew storyboards that went on to become cinematics. In July 2021, SNK announced that the game would be released on PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Windows , and Xbox Series X/S via the Microsoft Store , Epic Games Store and Steam . The game's international release

4183-435: The first time in the franchise due to their close relationship. During the development stage, there was a plan to introduce a beautiful girl character who would make fans suspect, "Maybe this girl likes Ash?", so if that girl had actually appeared, Betty might have become more like Chizuru, or conversely, more like Ash's girlfriend. In any case, with Ash safely returning in XV and the trouble that came with it being cleared up,

4272-440: The franchise and improvement to the gameplay. PCMag regarded it as one of the best fighting games from 2024. Eisuke Ogura Eisuke Ogura ( Japanese : おぐら えいすけ , Hepburn : Ogura Eisuke ) is a game designer working for SNK . Originally an artist for pixel animations and illustrations, Ogura became the creative director of the fighting game The King of Fighters XV . Eisuke Ogura joined SNK in 1996 and worked for

4361-577: The gallery mode employed in the game, HobbyConsolas lamented KOFXV does not present the same concept artworks from previous artworks KOFXIV had easy access to. Producer Yasuyuki Oda believes that the players' response to the game was overwhelmingly positive, which allowed them to properly work on early issues such as the online play. The PlayStation 4 version of KoF XV was the 8th bestselling retail game during its first week of release in Japan, with 9,062 physical copies being sold. The PlayStation 5 version sold 2,414 physical copies in Japan throughout

4450-407: The game while the console was still popular and expects this version to be used during major tournaments. Much attention to the character lineup was given due to the worldwide popularity of the series. In total, around 400 people were involved with game's development. In February 2021, Oda announced on his personal Twitter account that the team is working on implementing rollback-based netcode for

4539-481: The game would see release in 2021 with more content yet to be explored. During these announcements, the two developers revealed sketches of Shun'ei, Kyo Kusanagi and Benimaru Nikaido , with the former being set to be the protagonist of the new game. Ogura called it "our most ambitious KOF yet". An official trailer was set for January 7, 2021 but was delayed for unknown reasons alongside the downloadable content for Samurai Shodown . The trailer was, instead, revealed

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4628-422: The game. The team aims to improve the gameplay and graphics while also providing a more interesting story than the one from XIV . SNK later confirmed that they were using GGPO for their rollback implementation. In promoting the title, anime director Masami Ōbari (who previously worked on Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture and 1995 Technōs ' Neo Geo fighting game title Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer along with

4717-449: The game. They decided to make XV while they were still working on XIV but only started development after Samurai Shodown was completed. The game's creative director is Eisuke Ogura , who has previously worked as an artist on the series, beginning with The King of Fighters 2001 . Most notably, he served as the main illustrator for The King of Fighters XIII and XIV . The director of King of Fighters XIV , Yasuyuki Oda, serves as

4806-487: The gamers regardless of where they are playing it. Feeling the previous title had outdated graphics for a 2016 game, SNK chairman Zhihui Ge said that XV will use the Unreal Engine 4 to provide a better presentation. At Evo 2019, SNK announced that the game was in development. Thanks to the Unreal Engine, the team could create more cinematic cutscenes during rivals' clashes than in the previous games where they just moved

4895-467: The issues presented in KOFXIV . Shacknews similarly lauded the visual redesign, netcode, training modes, gameplay mechanics, music, and existing roster while panning its inaccessibility, overpowered mechanics, and the absence of major characters in the roster. GameSpot criticized bad AI and the lack of substantial iteration over The King of Fighters XIV . PC Magazine lamented the lack of crossplay and

4984-404: The lack of proper training modes to newcomers who want to perform proper combos rather than relying on the simple moves. Meristation critcized the story mode for the poorly developed bosses and anime-like cutscenes but still praised the visual improvement. destructoid still believes KOFXV employs the best roster in the entire series especially thanks to the new visuals developed. Despite liking

5073-474: The main designer for most of The King of Fighters games starting with XII although he did multiple animations for The King of Fighters 2001 . Ogura expressed difficulties in the handling of the main characters like Kyo Kusanagi as he, despite often wearing different outfits for story arc, he was given a more masculine appearance for The King of Fighters XIII . Artist Ogura expressed pressure in drawing this incarnation of Kyo as it had to live up to

5162-479: The next day and included game footage of Kyo, Shun'ei, Benimaru, K' , Mai Shiranui and Leona Heidern , while also confirming a 2021 release. The team focused on improving the visuals and increasing the fast-paced gameplay by adding new elements. The game was developed for PC and ninth generation of consoles , and supports ray tracing on these platforms. The PlayStation 4 version was also created with fans of The King of Fighters XIV in mind: SNK wanted to release

5251-399: The older fighting game protagonists, Shun'ei has a one-of-a-kind world view, and his values change as he grows older. While Kyo and Iori are always written as rivals, Ureshino remarks that Kyo's existence is importance for the latter as he believes, should Kyo ever die, Iori will not find his existence meaningful, making them an important relationship. In regards to Isla, SNK wanted to introduce

5340-495: The patterns on her shoulders and clothes. Many returning characters received cosmetic changes. For example, Kyo Kusanagi was altered to overall look closer to his earlier appearances in the series, but different in other parts of his design like his jacket and gloves. Ogura said that while there are several characters like Athena Asamiya and Benimaru who are often revised, there are also fighters he cannot see without their unique outfits, specfically pointing Mai Shiranui. Ash Crimson and

5429-431: The planning staff, "Time for revolution It's our generation" was created. According to Asanaka, the song titles are given by the composer, and while each staff member has a different understanding of the titles, many staff members want to follow SNK's tradition of unique song titles. For example, when Asanaka asked the composer to create the theme song for the battle between Shun'ei and Meiten-kun, "Sobagarakura", he asked for

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5518-673: The present and stuck there, along with a time-displaced Mui Mui of Dragon Gal and Love Heart of Sky Love . The new tournament participant, Kukri of the Official Invitation Team, is hired by Elisabeth to find Ash's whereabouts. With Verse's defeat as his reality manipulation energy spreads around worldwide, Kukri and Elisabeth finally found Ash alive. Due to the ongoing multiversal crisis which revives many deceased fighters like himself in his home universe, he returns in The King of Fighters XV , accompanied by his childhood friend Elisabeth, and their new ally, Kukri, and manage to survive

5607-415: The problem was that Kyo and Iori, who had been rivals until now, were teamed up as the "Three Sacred Treasures" team, and as a result, they could no longer use either of their theme songs, and revealed that they created a new song, "Fictitious or Real," to express the three of them, including Chizuru. On the other hand, the rival team wanted to bring Isla's image to the forefront, so after discussing it with

5696-412: The producer for the title. Oda claimed the team had to "start from zero" as they avoided using assets from the previous installments. The game director was Kaito Soranka who had joined SNK in 2014 during development of KOFXIV . Oda referred to the game as an "all-star game". He wanted players to get attached to the game mechanics. The Unreal Engine also allowed to improve the gameplay's speed. The objective

5785-459: The protagonist the story will explore Isla's character as well. Ogura is in charge of the whole of KOF XV , including not only the characters but also the interface and 3D modeling, and Naakta am mainly in charge of illustrations and character design. Nakata's works were approved by Ogura. Ogura wanted to use Terry Bogard as part of Shun'ei's Hero Team because he is a disciple of Tung, just like newcomers Meitenkun and Shun’ei. He thought he would be in

5874-846: The recently revived Ash Crimson . While Ash's actions in The King of Fighters XIII (2010), resulted in the creation of a creature known as Verse that was defeated in the previous game, in this installment Shun'ei and Isla have been called to fight new possible threats related to Verse. The game includes 39 characters, including two free bosses and several downloadable content characters released in several different seasons, and also includes several returning characters from KOF , Fatal Fury as well as another franchise, Samurai Shodown . King of Fighters XV generally received praise for its character roster, team-based gameplay, and smooth online performance, but criticism for its small story mode, complex tutorials, and small content for offline players. Like its predecessors, The King of Fighters XV uses

5963-524: The relationships between Ash and Betty, or between Ash and Shen and Duo Lon, may change in the future. After all, unlike the Sacred Treasures, who are forever haunted by the shadow of Orochi, Ash and his friends no longer have their nemesis, Saiki. Looking at it from another perspective, it could be said that he is unlikely to enter future KOFs unless he has some kind of strong motivation, but Ureshino feels that it would be fine for Ash to just relax and make

6052-488: The rest of the cast. The King of Fighters XIII producer Kei Yamamoto jokingly called him a character players could use to "show off". His EX version in the game makes more multiple hits than his regular form, and the "disgusting" style of his " Génie " ( ジェニー ) move is said to fit his character. Since his introduction, Ash has acquired new moves in accordance with his action in the series. After The King of Fighters 2003 Ash gained Chizuru Kagura's " Germinar " ( ジェルミナール ) ,

6141-523: The revived fighters’ existences once they survive the two entities’ rampages. The King of Fighters XV launched with 39 playable fighters, consisting of 13 teams with three fighters each. Additional characters were made available via seasons of paid downloadable content : Season 1 consists of 12 fighters spread across four teams, while Season 2 consists of six individual fighters, with two additional fighters released separately later. Much like Samurai Shodown (2019) and SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy ,

6230-487: The same time, Akihiko Ureshino decided to write a subplot in the latter work where Ash is depicted as a puppeteer who manipulates Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami at the same time, most notably in the original net animation Another Day . His moves were named after months from the French Republican calendar. Due to Ash's late appearance in The King of Fighters 2003 , the staff joked that teammate Shen Woo seemed more like

6319-550: The same week, making it the 22nd bestselling retail game of the week in the country. During the 26th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards , the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated The King of Fighters XV for Fighting Game of the Year . The characters also had a crossover appearance in Another Eden . ONE37pm listed it as the 20th best SNK game of all time, praising its faithfulness to

6408-501: The seal of the snake demon Orochi. Shun'ei, a teenager with mysterious powers resembling Verse's, enters the tournament again alongside Meitenkun and Benimaru Nikaido to better understand his powers, the Amplified Specters. During the tournament, they encounter a rival team led by a girl with similar powers to his own and also another Amp user, Isla. Isla is being mentored by a woman named Dolores who wishes for her and Shun'ei to stop

6497-492: The series' main character than Ash did. One of three reasons for the title of KOF: Maximum Impact 2 Regulation "A" was Ash's introduction to the spin-off series. Falcoon called the character "really wild" because of his role in the series and his personality. Nona (another artist in charge) said that of the original King of Fighters characters, he liked Ash and looked forward to his development. Elisabeth, who first appears in XI ,

6586-435: The short, and is also used as the main theme of the game. Since the game takes after KOFXIV , the music was made to feel like the previous installment's while focusing that each theme represents the character's personality. For SNK it took half a year to decide the story, with all of it written by Akihiko Ureshino. The decision to revive characters killed off in previous KOF games was made during XIV ' s development and

6675-448: The story mode announcer from XIV , to appeal to the "tournament-likeness" of KOF and acknowledge that he was well received. Previous KOF heroes Kyo, K' and Ash Crimson have been more independent protagonists, but Shun'ei is a little bit younger than them and is more of a mentally unstable character. Oda has compared Shun'ei to Rock Howard , and says that his story could end up being as fun to write as Rock's. Oda feels that unlike

6764-471: The time of "2003" and became acquainted with each other. One of them is a traitorous teenager with no sense of ethics, and the other is a thug that the yakuza would avoid and an assassin possessed by a vengeful spirit, so there is no room for friendship to be born there. However, the ending of XII was written to stand out their connections. Since the "Ash arc" and the Maximum Impact games were developed at

6853-542: The tournament progresses and targets the fighters, pulling them into another world. Following Re Verse's defeat, the mysterious goddess Otoma=Raga appears and attacks the teams. Upon Otoma=Raga's defeat, the fighters escape back to their world and are crowned the new King of Fighters champions, whereas Isla finally warms up with Shun'ei at the same time their respective Amps are fully under control, such as Shun'ei can finally take off his headphone safely. As confirmed by Kukri earlier, defeating Otoma=Raga and Re Verse does not erase

6942-408: The visuals to the point of calling them the franchise at its finest even if the endings given for each team for the story mode do not use cinematic scenes unlike the story mode's rival fights or time outs against the bosses. Meristation said there were not many notable improvements in gameplay and has a cast of characters which could come across as divisive especially since by the time of the review it

7031-555: The worst one ever seen in gaming. In an interview with Ignition Entertainment director of business development Shane Bettehausen, Alex Lucard of Diehard GameFan said that North American SNK fans detested Ash and complained about his inclusion in The King of Fighters XII without a storyline while popular series characters were overlooked. Bettehausen defended the character, calling him "nuanced and improved" and his moves "incredibly effective". In June 2009, Stephen Totilo of Kotaku interviewed Bettehausen, who asked him while Totilo

7120-455: Was also continued to be used. Asanaka explained that all the sound staff had a sense of the KOF feel, even without saying it out loud, and that he personally wanted players to feel that it was a sequel to KOF XIV . Because the game needs to be in shape before music can be produced, the sound team joined the development later than other departments, and by the time they joined, the team composition had already been decided. Asanaka pointed out that

7209-401: Was also in charge of Athena Asamiya 's look as the character always wears different clothing. Ogura is returning to make The King of Fighters XV but in the position of creative director with Tomohiro Nakata taking over his previous work. The team aims to improve the gameplay and graphics while also providing a more interesting story than the one from XIV . Besides working for games, Ogura

7298-550: Was based on XIII ' s themes of energies connecting the past to the present through space and time and Oda wondering how that would affect things in the future. The deceased characters returning for XV were chosen based on fan requests and the aim of the roster was for it to have a 'fresh and festive feel'. They feel like the gathering of the KOF Heroes as well as the return of Team Sacred Treasures and Team Orochi helped them achieve this feeling. They brought back Clemence Bellamy,

7387-489: Was careful in showing that while the enemy's body is Ash's, the one fighting is Saiki as represented by his black flames. Despite early pressure about that, once seeing Saiki's similarities with Ash, Ogura managed to draw the Evil Ash easily. The idea behind this character was giving an vibe of a repulsive person while also coloring his outstanding black flames. For The King of Fighters XIV , Ogura created newcomers Shun'ei and Sylvie, distancing them from previous veterans. He

7476-448: Was claimed by the developers there would be more characters but as paid DLC. Neverthless, the reviewer praised the rollback netcode. Critics were still divided on the overall main content when compared to the previous game. IGN heavily criticized the lack of content, insubstantial tutorialization, reused six year-old animations, and called its story mode "utterly bare bones." When it came to the visuals though, IGN still found it superior to

7565-464: Was in The King of Fighters 2003 as leader of its Hero Team. Ash, a teenager, participates in the series' fighting tournaments. He employs a personal fighting style that involves pyrokinesis with green flames. Despite being the series' protagonist during its third story arc , Ash's behavior is generally antagonistic and he tries to steal powers from several recurring characters, leaving them powerless. His identity and intentions are further explored in

7654-554: Was playing to guess Ash's gender. When Totilo said the character was female, Betehausen called KOF "progressive" in introducing a cross-dressing character and said that fans were apparently "warming up to him". On Destructoid , Jonathan Holmes praised Ash's character as "defying traditional gender roles while kicking some ass" and called him "the perfect mascot for the KoF series as a whole." Kevin S.from GameRevolution wondered about his removal in The King of Fighters XIV seeing Ash as

7743-498: Was the main illustrator for the light novel The King of Fantasy . Across his years of working for The King of Fighters , Ogura took a liking to the rivalry between Kyo and Iori Yagami due to their mutual respect as views their team ups as natural since they are not ashamed of working together. Ash Crimson Ash Crimson ( アッシュ・クリムゾン , Asshu Kurimuzon ) is a character in The King of Fighters fighting game series developed by SNK Playmore . His first appearance

7832-579: Was to smoothly transition players into a new game and build a system where fans could have fun performing combos.Wb While SNK tried implementing new types of new modes in The King of Fighters '99 through the assistant character Strike or the tag team system conceived in The King of Fighters 2003 , the aim of the team was to stay true to the original system they always used since their first game, The King of Fighters '94 , and improved on it. The popular usage of Cross-Engine also decided in SNK using it to appeal to

7921-598: Was unpopular with Western gamers and his design was better suited to Japanese fans. Reception in later years has been slightly more positive, with the character's relationships and tragic story arc being well received. Introduced in The King of Fighters 2003 , Ash leads the New Hero Team of Duo Lon and Shen Woo which participates in a new King of Fighters tournament. After the tournament, he ambushes host Chizuru Kagura and steals her powers, telling Iori Yagami he will be his next opponent. In The King of Fighters XI ,

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