As stated in the roman numerals, this will be the 14th installment in the King of Fighters series, the last game being King of Fighters XIII that was released back in 2010.

Compared to the previous KoFXIII’s 36-character cast, King of Fighters XIV’s numbers total to 50 playable characters, as shown here:

The cast includes some fan-favorites like Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui, along with some new characters, such as Bandeiras Hattori.

Why such a huge selection? The huge 50-character roster allows for a large variety of play-styles and choice. In particular, the King of Fighters games function as a series of team battles, where sets of three characters (player’s choice) fight against each other to win.

The battle order is determined after character selection via button presses, as shown above.

Unlike other team-based titles like Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, there is no way to switch characters in and out of battle.

 Instead, KoF gameplay is a multi-round fighting system where players use one character at a time until their opponent’s team health reaches zero.

The surviving character of each round will have their remaining health carried over, which encourages players to not rush in recklessly pressing buttons.

Instead, long powerful combo strings are recommended, as they can lead to impressive damage output.

Thus, the King of Fighters play-style involves knowing the movements and combos of three separate characters. This can be a very daunting endeavor for people who just want to pick up and play the game with their favorite character.

As a solution for those players, there is a new online party mode available for King of Fighters XIV. In this mode, 6 players (3 players on each side) can join in on the fun, allowing for more multiplayer shenanigans.

Looking for something to play on your own? There’s also a KoFXIV story mode. Not much is known about the plot, other than the new antagonist Antonov playing some role in hosting the tournament in a new story line, but with several new characters, there’s bound to be something fresh and interesting in the narrative.

For more details about the upcoming fighting game, here’s KoFXIV’s recent E3 trailer, showing off several members of the cast in tune of the catchy main theme:

King of Fighters XIV will release in North America on August 23rd.

Curious about how King of Fighters stacks up against other PlayStation 4 fighting games? Check out this article about how KoFXIV could overshadow Street Fighter V’s release, here on GameSkinny!