The King of Fighters XIII

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by noobita

The only disappointment for KoF XIII is the final boss design. Another naked man?

Well, it seems that the ending somewhat sad...

KoF XIII Final Boss Video

SPOILERS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSqISeeC_oA

It seems that muscleman isn't final boss.

Yet another impossibly cheap boss eh? I wonder who in the design department originally thought up the idea of bosses you have to hit a hundred times just to chip off half of their life bar while they only have to get one good hit on you to do the same. At least they don't seem to recover much of their life bar after a K.O.

[C.A.]

Well KOF is infamous for insane bosses since the beginning and they actually designed those bosses to irritate players.

[Rayneing]

Yeah, bosses like that exist pretty much to frustrate players into trying to beat them - and thus, put more quarters into the machine. Saiki actually looks like he'd be pretty interesting if he was playable, especially because of that overhead fireball. Dark Ash is somewhat lulzy, I love how the qcf+A/B/C/D fireballs stay in place pretty much forever.

[mageormike]

I actually love the challenge of SNK bosses ^_^;;

This looks so awesome, I will be putting in some major money into this before I head home in the next couple weeks :P

[Sheba]

I am actually disappointed with Dark Ash as a boss, it's like Noob Saibot. I was never a fan of "Dark.powered-up version of regular characters" as bosses. At least, Orochi Yashiro/Shermie/Chirs were totally different, movelist-wise, and Boss I-no had her awesome theme.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Sheba

I am actually disappointed with Dark Ash as a boss, it's like Noob Saibot. I was never a fan of "Dark.powered-up version of regular characters" as bosses. At least, Orochi Yashiro/Shermie/Chirs were totally different, movelist-wise, and Boss I-no had her awesome theme.

Which reminds me that at least no SNK Boss I've ever seen has had auto-healing in the middle of a fight. I think Boss I-No would be substantially easier to even greenhorn players without that game breaking ability. Not that she's improbably hard to begin with, but could you imagine an Igniz or Goenitz with that ability. Especially the latter doing his keep away tornado thing while healing up the whole fight.

[kiak666]

Here's the cutscenes before the boss fights with Saiki and Dark Ash:

SPOILERS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGs5SSrTrqg#ws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPrZefGKl7A#ws

[kiak666]

I had spend some time reading through the other forums and finally got a bit of understanding about what the basic plot is about. For those who wish to know what's going on, feel free to check the following post in the spoiler tag:

Spoiler for Long spoilers containing the plots regarding Those From the Past as well as part of the ending regarding Ash:

Apparently, Those From the Past (TFTP) are a clan of powerful people originated from Western Europe led by a being named Saiki. In fact, they can be considered the Western counterpart of the Orochi clan, as both Orochi and Saiki are divine beings known as Gaia's Will. Unlike Orochi who has the power to distort space, Saiki has the power to distort time.

TFTP wanted Orochi's power to open the Time Gate (the gate we saw in the Boss Stage), which requires a lot of energy to do so. The reason they wanted to open the Time Gate is so that Saiki can travel back to the past to rewrite history, as many members of TFTP were wiped out in a war by humans (speculated to be Elizabeth's ancestors). However, when the door of the Time Gate closes before Saiki can even reach the past, it would create a time paradox, thus it would cause Saiki's existence to cease. So in order to ensure that the gate stays open when Saiki is time travelling, the power of the Three Sacred Treasure is needed.

Saiki ordered Ash, who would later be revealed to be his direct descendant, to steal the Three Sacred Treasures from Kyo, Iori and Chizuru. Ash succeeds in stealing the latter two's treasures, but it was revealed that he never really intend to help his ancestor in his plan to change history. One of the reasons is probably because he fears that if history is changed, then Elizabeth, whom he viewed as a sister figure, would ceased to exist. The reason for him to steal the treasures is to gain Saiki's trust so that he can get near him.

When Rose congratulates the winner of the tournament, Saiki and his remaining followers set their plan into motion. Saiki uses his power to freeze time, causing the surrounding environment and people (with the exception of the KOF participants) to stop moving. Because only two of the Three Sacred Treasures were collected, Saiki orders his followers to go to the Time Gate and use their powers instead along with the other two treasures to ensure the the Time Gate is open. However, Mukai wishes to stay behind so that he can deal with the KOF participants in his master's place. Despite Mukai's display of loyalty, Saiki is annoyed by Mukai for disobeying his order and proceeds to kill him, reducing him into a pile of bones. Saiki then transforms into a red demonic looking creature and decides to use the KOF participants as a sacrifice to Orochi in order to increase its power to open the Time Gate.

After a massive battle, the KOF participants managed to overcome Saiki. Despite this, Saiki taunts them that the more they struggle against him, the more power they would provide to open the Time Gate. However, things does not go as planned for Saiki when he was informed by Botan that the door of the Time Gate is closing. Shocked by this turn of event, Saiki deduces that more sacrifice is needed. Before he could even proceed further, Saiki is blindsided and has what appears to be his soul absorbed by Ash, whom noticed that his guard is down during the distraction.

Shocked by Ash's betrayal, Botan demands an explanation from him, to which he nonchalantly replies that TFTP should have perished a long time ago just as stated by history. Before he could say more however, Ash suddenly went into a trance as his entire body is enveloped with dark aura, revealing that Saiki's soul has managed to overcome Ash's willpower and possessed his body. The resulting possession causes a powerful energy explosion, which blows away Botan. Refusing to let his plan fail, Saiki plans to use Ash's body (seems like his original body is destroyed) to travel through the Time Gate to complete his plans. The KOF participants follow Saiki and engages him in one final showdown, which ended with Saiki defeated again.

With the last ounce of his strength, Saiki attempts to cross the Time Gate when its door is closing again. When he almost succeed in reaching the door, Ash uses his remaining willpower to stop the body from moving further. Realizing what's happening, Saiki warns Ash that if they don't cross the Time Gate now, their existence would eventually perish due to the time paradox. Unfazed by the warning, Ash nonchalantly tells his ancestor that this suits him just fine.

After Saiki perished while screaming for his life, Ash was approached by Elizabeth.
He tells Elizabeth that things didn't go as well as he planned as the results could have been better. Puzzled by what Ash says, she asked for the meaning behind his words. Ash then explains that since Saiki no longer exists due to the time paradox, it wouldn't be long before he himself would perish. Realizing the truth, Elizabeth couldn't accept what would eventually happen and told Ash that she is here because she wanted to bring him back and live like how they used to during their younger days. Realizing his time is short, Ash apologizes to Elizabeth as he fades away from existance.

Shortly after Ash perished, everything returns to normal as Rose continues her speech to congratulate the winners of the tournament. Meanwhile, in an unknown location, a soldier reports to Heidern there was a time rift spreading at the location of the KOF Tournament. Heidern comments that Ash's actions have saved the present world. He then deduces that Ash didn't do it for the world's sake, but for the sake of protecting his own pride. Heidern then laments that since Ash had ceased to exist, no one would know the truth behind his actions as their memories of him would eventually perish as well.

[Sixth]

@kiak666

Thanks for the plot summary. It is sad to see Ash go away when we learned more about him. It seems that Saiki never want those Orochi Power for himself...he want to use it as battery to power the gate...Haha. Kinda an insult to Orochi if you asking me.

[mageormike]

So... got a chance to spend some time with the arcade version today. It was nice to see plenty of people playing on the machines throughout the afternoon.

One thing that I was reminded of first hand was that I really suck at arcade controls still ^_^;; Half the time I can't pull of the moves I'm trying to throw out. I mostly was trying a team of Kensou, Leona, and K.

For the most part I got my ass handed to me over and over, but I at least didn't get any 0-3's. My shining moment of the afternoon was blocking Maxima's Neomax laser when it most likely would have finished me off, taunting, then kicking him in the face to finish the round :P

A few people made it all the way to the final stages without getting interrupted so I got to see a few attempts at the bosses. I say attempts because not one of them could finish D. Ash off ^_^;;

Saiki's full screen DM looked pretty dang cool, and he's much more impressive in person I think. He seems to be weak to command throws like his predecessor Magaki; one guy absolutely demolished him with Clark at one point.

D. Ash was quite impressive for a final boss I thought. It was highly amusing to watch players who normally were doing quite well slowly simplify their tactics to sweeps, specific EX moves, and command throws to try to get the win ^_^;; Wasn't enough though.

This will probably be my only chance to play the game before it comes to consoles, so I'm glad I spent as much time as I did on it!

I will close this by saying, it definitely feels like the sequel to 11, albeit with gameplay reminiscent of early titles (though EX moves definitely spice things up a lot)

I can't wait to play it at home, to get all the endings, play with friends, and hopefully get destroyed online with superior connection

[Sixth]

So I wonder, how well is KoF XIII doing now in Japan?

[kiak666]

SNK updated the character section at the official site by adding Saiki's profile. It seems like that he can be playable.

http://game.snkplaymore.co.jp/offici...ter/index.html

Spoiler for Saiki's Official Artwork:

Spoiler for Saiki's Sprite:

[kiak666]

Here's another update on the character section, featuring the final boss Dark Ash, officially known as "Blood Spiraling Mad Ash" (longest name for a final boss ever )

http://game.snkplaymore.co.jp/offici...ter/index.html

Spoiler for Official Artwork:

Spoiler for Sprite:

[mageormike]

I'm loving the battle themes for both bosses. Magaki really ruined KOF 11 for me as a single play experience ^_^;;

Though I didn't get a chance to get to them during my brief try at the arcade version, I'm looking forward to losing to Dark Ash over and over whenever the home version gets released.

[kiak666]

It's been a while since someone posted on this thread, so I'll bump the thread with this video, featuring Saiki using his Desperation Move:

[Sheba]

Thread necromancy. However, I wished to have done that with better news than that one. Masaaki Kukino left SNK Playmore.

In other words, SNK may as well be considered as dead. If only the rights were purchased by Capcom or ArcSys because I am going to miss Terry Bogard, Hanzo Hattori, Kyo Kusanagi, K', Washizuka Keichiro, Ralf, Clark, Heidern, Rugal and many more charismatic characters by SNK.

[Westlo]

Finally.

http://shoryuken.com/content/king-fi...-release-4257/

Being too scared to announce a date because of SSFIV AE is a bit silly though...

Blazblue CS2 = May
SSFIV AE = June
KOF XIII = July/August?

[videoman190]

The King of Fighters XIII confirmed for home version!!!!!! Atlus is bringing it over!
http://www.siliconera.com/2011/06/07...-and-xbox-360/
http://www.atlus.com/kofxiii/

[SonOfHeaven]

About time we get a release date. Going to main this game along with SFxT, TTT2.

[Blackbeard D. Kuma]

Originally Posted by kayos

I wonder if this will be the last KoF. Heard a while back SNKP closed their gaming department but decided to finish KoFXIII anyway.

This game does conclude Ash's story, so it'll indeed be interesting to see where the series goes from here. Hopefully sales will be good, otherwise SNKP will be deterred from making fighters anymore. The netcode also has to be at least decent; KOF 12's netcode was terrible and that basically killed off the game's life.