Atlus and SNK recently brought the latest public build of the King of Fighters XIV to Wednesday Night Fights. This allowed players from the region to try this latest build out for the first time.

One of those players was Laban, who previously shared an extensive breakdown of the game’s early PSX build late last year. In the same vein as that, he’s now shared some extensive notes on the build of the game that came to WNF.

As with his previous breakdown, this one is focused more on characters. That said, he does note certain things, such as how there seems to be no alternate guard. Originally a bug in older games, alternate guard became a feature in KoF XIII that allowed players to extend their blockstun, protecting them from tick throw setups.

You can read his notes, which he’s granted us permission to share, below.

Laban's King of Fighters XIV Wednesday Night Fights Character Notes General gameplay notes Okay I confirmed myself there wasn’t any alternate guard when tested with the characters I played. I wasn’t able to test all 36 characters just in case. In KOFXIII Arcade (Pre-console/Climax), no character could alternate guard except for Maxima and he had to wiggle super faster just to maintain it. So I don’t know if there is some random discrepancy like that for KOFXIV, be it for this build or for when the game comes out in August.

Athena’s Psychoballs could be hopped like in KOFXIII, but her anti-air game seems stronger. I remember being able to hop her projectile at the right range and not get tagged by anti-airs in XIII, but now I do. Then again, I had no sleep last week so by the time I was playing people in XIV whom were playing it like XIII, the nuances kinda killed me. At the least, everyone didn’t mix up Athena block strings, so calling them out on normal xx Psychoball with a guard roll was free and got free punishes.

Another thing about Athena in XIV is that her run is much slower in comparison to both old KOF games and KOFXIII. I was thinking her cl.D anti-air would be GDLK in XIV on top of her new-ish projectile game, but her run is too slow to sling underneath to anti-air in a fashion that Iori could do. She’s not the only one with a slower run though.

So with characters like Kyo and Iori, their run speeds feel relatively normal in comparison to old games and KOFXIII, but characters like the aforementioned Athena and Daimon have super slow run speeds in comparison to their older iterations. I didn’t feel this for most of the cast, but those few characters got the hit. Tizoc’s run in KOFXI wasn’t that fast of a run, but in comparison to KOFXIV KOD’s run is also much slower than his already kinda slow run of KOFXI. I don’t know if this was to balance characters with strong command throw options since alternate guard is out of the picture, but I could see this adjustment to run speeds as a cooperating factor. Shun’ei Shun’ei I feel deserves the new “Protagonist” spot in at least his move set. The only thing I’d really like adjusted is to make his sweep make contact with the opponent after a cr.B cr.A block string. It doesn’t reach and just whiffs so I feel silly trying to sweep check “anti-hop checks.”

Another thing about Shun’ei is that in this build, he wasn’t able to cancel his f.B into air dash much unlike the trailer. He could still cancel into air hand swipe, but not the air dashes. I forgot to test out jump-in normals canceled into air dashes or double air dash.

Shun’ei’s burn knuckle is pretty safe on block, and it’s funny having it blocked. People want to press buttons since they think he’s negative (which he feels like ever so slightly), then I whiff punish people with another burn knuckle because it’s hard knockdown. It’s weakness is that if you try to tip with it, if you’re barely out of range his demon knuckle won’t come out and he’s stuck in a significant recovery animation. So his move is like XIII Claw Iori’s qcb+K move where it does dash forward and only comes out if in proximity within the opponent. The difference between the two is that at least Claw Iori didn’t have a big recovery window so he could use that skill for cross under mix ups. Shun’ei’s whiffed knuckle feels designed to have a weakness so he couldn’t just be Terry all day and scumbag safe burn knuckles in neutral and get safe jump wake up.

Shun’ei’s qcf+P “Aqua Spear” is a really good poke which nullifies projectiles. The player has to treat it like a Shoto fireball in the sense that the opponent can read it and full jump it to get over it. At the least, the Aqua Spear is pretty damn fat and catches hops and can be spaced to anti-air full jumps that come from a further distance.

As far as I know, Shun’ei doesn’t really have a meterless reversal.

Although level 1 isn’t invincible, Shun’ei’s “Shine” Knuckle super is relatively safe on block. It’s only really unsafe if Shun’ei does it on a cornered opponent so he’s left recovering point blank in the corner instead of gaining distance to recovery outside of punishing range. So I was just trying to abuse normal demon knuckles and his knuckle super to get out of situations during neutral.

His f.B feels a lot like Kensou’s old f.B from previous games. It whiffed on most characters I played against, but I noticed it did hit Daimon on crouch at the least. I couldn’t cancel it when I did it raw, but I could always test it again at EVO to reconfirm.

Shun’ei’s DP is good as an anti-air and setting up people to jump into that range is relatively easy thanks to his Aqua Spear and demon knuckle. Otherwise his j.A, Far A, and cr.C are good anti-airs. I forgot to see what cl.D looked like but cl.C wasn’t an anti-air normal unlike stuff like Kyo cl.C

I did cool things like try to get hard knockdown, air dash low to the ground and right past the opponent’s head to do air qcf+C to stop my momentum and cross up with the hand swipe. I think he’ll have cooler things in the future.

I couldn’t back dash cancel into air dash, this made me sad but I respect that they didn’t give it to him since that’ll be super bust. It would have been better than KOFXI Gato stomp into air dash thing. Daimon df.C is good again kinda like 02um or 98umFE.

As said, run is pretty slow. Stuff that I can certainly punish in 98 and 02 by running up and cl.C xx cmd throw or just run into cmd throw wasn’t really feasible in XIV.

Only thing I could consistently get the OTG command throw was off of dp+K against a cornered opponent. I couldn’t get it to connect after a hcb,f+P command throw even against cornered opponents. Needs more testing. I think this super is used in a way that you can either get dp+K and keep people in the corner and bopping them with tick throws and oki, or you sacrifice position for the extra damage by using this super. It’ll be a cool way to end a round in my opinion.

Personally, I feel like Far C is the new 98 Far D. It’s fast and snappy and it tags certain full jumps and all hops really well. It didn’t seem to whiff on crouchers, so it was a great poke and check overall. Although Muimui’s Far C is the god, I was able to whiff punish it with Daimon on reaction as if I’m playing SF. Cr.C is kinda like Far C except just lower, so his wall of normals are still good within the context of the game

Far D didn’t feel as fast as 98 or 02 so I didn’t use it as much as a hop check or poke. It whiffs on crouchers, so I mainly used this for full jumps that are outside of df.C’s range. I’d use df.C more, but the slower run doesn’t help so it makes me use his other buttons. Athena Athena is good, she’s still much like XIII with her move set. As said, just a slower run.

Her cl.D is good, but it feels like the activation range is much smaller than KOFXIII. Needs more testing.

I got bopped by a bunch of her gimmicks (lol like in my KOFXIII days because lack of physical/practical match up experience of her XIII version) but certainly her zoning is strong even without a faster run speed. Muimui I didn’t really play her but I got to play against Romance’s quite a bit. This character was the one giving me the most trouble

Her MAX combos hella hurt and her ability to confirm into it from Far C is really damn strong.

Muimui’s Far C is the new 02og Athena Far C or Third Strike Chun standing heavy punch. I thought she would be negative after I block it and I read a second one about to come so I tried to jump. I couldn’t and got hit, not even made it to the air. Far C into Far C is hella legit.

Her j.CD beat out plenty of my anti-air normal uppercuts like Kyo cr.C. It’s pretty active and really strong in general based on what I played against it.

I don’t know much else about her other than the combos you’ve all seen from the WNF footage. Her ground game is good, but at least she doesn’t seem to have the fast run in the game to match it to make it truly nightmarish. Maxima I don’t know if I was messing up, but I tried to use his C Vapor Cannon like in XIII trying to get the guard point, but I was beaten out clean by projectiles on my start up or buttons. Dunno if this was changed or if I was just too tired to use it correctly (no sleep.)

Normals still all feel really good, we’ll see how he plays out in the long run. Terry Burn Knuckle is really really safe. It’s kinda like 98 or 02 kind of safeness on block, but the C version you could be lazy in spacing the last third or so of the distance and it seems to have the same recovery each time. Terry seems to be negative after his knuckle is blocked, but when “spaced safely” like mentioned before, he is safe from cl.C punishes like from Kyo and Iori. Burn Knuckle is also hard knock down so that’s nuts.

Terry’s buttons feel good in general like Far B, Far D, Far C, and etc. Good neutral game in my opinion.

Terry’s df.C is like XIII or even CVS2 status. On the characters I played against. cl.C point blank and 2 hits canceled into df.C, df.C would always whiff. cr.B, cr.A, df.C works on hit, but if spaced out from the start of the combo, df.C whiffs.

f.A is kinda like XIII’s, it doesn’t special cancel like in 98 though which makes me sad. I used it to preempt hop check people and use it as a poke and it’s pretty good. It doesn’t feel as fast as XIII but it’s not as slow as 98’s, but I really wished it was special cancelable so I can use it in neutral but still continue pressure into Power Wave or something like in 98.

I don’t know what to do with Terry’s non-EX Power Charges. They’re both kinda slow on start up, but the B Version combos from df.C but doesn’t knock down. I didn’t test if I can get special cancels from it like trying to do power charge xx burn knuckle. The C version does launch and juggle which is really cool, but I couldn’t combo it from normals. King of Dinosaurs Yeah he’s pretty slow, in run and in normals.

Far C is kinda like Zangief st.MP chop but not that fast. It was good in XI with more range and better speed, but he feels like he needs more range on it.

Far D is was pretty dang slow, but then again it was kinda slow in XI and Garou. On the flip side too, Far D in XIV is slower than either XI and Garou making it not as viable during neutral. This needs range and faster start up speed.

I feel the strength of this character will come in how good his Far A and cr.A are in pokes. His Far A felt good almost like XI, but I didn’t get to try cr.A since I forgot.

His sweep is actually pretty good for the speed it his, the range it covers, and it being double hit.

EX Command throw super actually has him run a bit forward before he throws, but will instantly connect if he’s already point blank or within the throw range. That’s how I interpreted it at least.

I think the character needs a bit more work, but I don’t feel like he’s that far behind the pack as everyone else seems to think. All I feel he really needs is faster heavy normals. Tung Fu Rue I couldn’t back dash cancel or tiger knee is air spin attack. It’s a decent air to air and air to ground for a cross up, but you can’t Brian Battler it up.

df.A is a pretty strong anti-air, but he does have a bit of a blank spot right above his head.

Typical bnb is cl.C df.A xx C Lunge Punch and cr.B cr.A df.A xx C Lunge Punch.

He seems to space will with df.A and projectile, I think he’ll be a decent to good zoning character with annoyance properties.

All I truly want with him is a faster run Sylvie I didn’t try her too much but I feel like I don’t really know what to accomplish with her.

Her normals overall didn’t seem fast for neutral game but anti-air game is quite good with cr.C, f.A, and DP. The thing is that I didn’t really have tools to really coax anyone into hopping or jumping at me. The qcf+P biribiri electricity just covers only that range so people can just hang back and let it whiff instead of having it pressure them to want to jump. Maybe I have to go inside space with her more, because her mid range and far range game don’t seem that hot Nelson I really wanted to play Nelson but trying to learn him then and there wasn’t really feasible to me.

His normals seem very Heavy D like, outside of the command normals of course

Nelson can do command dash and super cancel the recovery like how Dudley in SF3 could do Ducking into SA3. I was able to react to an Athena fireball and dash under into super; I think dash into super into level 2/climax could be strong and force people to respect his neutral game. In other notes, command dash does seem to have a bit of recovery, so I only really liked doing it into super cancels.

A basic BnB to do with him is cr.B, cr.A b.A b.B it was hard trying to learn things on the fly when people want to beat your character up or the CPU punishes everything perfectly. Ralf Ralf seems to be a fun mix of 98 Ralf and XIII Ralf with maybe a sprinkle of 02 and XI Ralf in there.

His normals are all really good. Even cr.C feels as fast as 98 cr.C as opposed to XIII cr.C, doesn’t seem as disjointed in hit box as 98 though but the speed makes me happy enough.

j.D is still an instant overhead like in KOFXIII, it’s fun to abuse while hopping back against someone’s wake up then still bully them with far ranged normals after getting out.

EX Galactica Phantom does have big guard point windows, a legit enough reversal or something to whiff punish with or plow through attacks with during neutral.

cl.C 1 hit into df.A doesn’t work anymore, but at least cr.B into df.A does. I’ve seen in the footage that he can do cl.D into df.A, so I think cl.D might be the preferred party starter. Clark He still has his hcf+B delayed command throw but I didn’t get to see if it still guard pointed people.

His cl.D seems more viable as a vertical anti-air since it has speed it didn’t have in either 98 or 02. I didn’t test if it whiffed on crouchers like in 98 or 02 though.

Normals feel good, has a bunch of old ones return like Far D, st.CD, j.C, and etc. Hein I should have tested him more, but I was more addicted to Shun’ei

f.B does cancel into Dive Kick/Bishop if f.B was canceled into. I forgot if here was a normal that did combo into f.B but cl.C wasn’t one of them.

Main BnBs are like cl.C f.A xx qcf+C and cr.B, cr.A f.A xx qcf+C

I couldn’t really find out how to use Rook or Castling. It just felt awkward and not that good, but I had limited time to actually try to lab him so I’m not going to say they’re wack. Nakoruru Her bird stance is pretty good, seems to last a long time but doesn’t seem to get quite the height like it did in Samsho 2. Her d.D option from it has her do a flip kick that seems to hard knockdown on contact.

qcf+P didn’t go underneath airborne projectiles unlike CVS2, made me sad.

qcb+P ender to qcf+C seemed safe on block. I didn’t get to extensively test this

Bird Super is really good at sniping people doing projectiles.

j.B crosses up but feels like it needs more finesse to land as a cross up than her j.LK in Cvs2.

df.A did not combo from cr.A; her bnb is like cr.B, cr.A xx qcf+A. Billy Billy felt good overall and even his far C felt good as a poke for once.

Main issue (or blessing for the opponent) is that f.A is not as abuse-able as it was before. It seems like it can lock down like in XIII or even 98/02 ish, but I had more normals and specials stuff it out on start up. So doing cr.C f.A into f.A string in against a cornered opponent doesn’t seem as good of a strat as it used to be. Kukri Flip kick thing reminds me of O. Shermie in 98/02. It is an overhead. B version falls completely down while the D version goes a certain horizontal distance. Can’t remember if I can cancel back dash into it like O. Shermie’s can.

Far D wasn’t as abuse-able as I thought it was; I legit want it to be as fast and as far reaching as M. Bison’s sweep in SF/CVS2, but having it already cancelable into teleport or other specials is strong in its own right. King King is King, really solid as always.

Her ground normals feel much better than XIII to me. I didn’t mess with her Far B though. Sweep isn’t cancelable as far as I tested; so although it looks like it’s good and has the range of CVS2 sweep instead of the older KOF versions, you can’t keep up the fireball block string pressure to the extent slide can do. I guess they’re trying to make sweep relevant and balanced with slide instead of making the slide end all and be all.

j.CD seems slower than XIII and KOF98/02um. I think her spacing game is still really strong but j.CD is less be all of air to air and air to ground like it usually is in other games. I think SNK is trying to make people play with her other normals and air to airs. Still, she’s really good.

cl.D into df.D into activate doesn’t really connect to anything. I kept on getting Far D to hit. I think the ideal BC activation starter would be cl.D BC cl.D.

I didn’t mess with Far B, so I don’t know if it really is that bad or whatever. Benimaru EX projectile is a really strong zoning tool. It has quick start up and quick recovery, it was hard to counter zone it without a reflector or without meter.

His normal qcb+P was kinda weird. I saw it go through Leona’s Baltic Launcher but Benimaru was recovering within the Baltic Launcher’s hit zone without getting hit by the other hits of the projectile. So maybe it nullifies projectiles? Needs more testing Mai I don’t know if it was B or D Version, but Mai’s hcf+K on my crouching block would cross me up on the second hit. It was silly.

Mai is good, and people were using her like an old school Athena by zoning with projectiles and getting anti-airs with Kagerou Super as if like an old school Shining Crystal bit. People were also tagging me with far C after I try to hop her projectile.

cl.D looked like a really good run under anti-air, but I didn’t really get to test if that was really the case.

I wasn’t able to combo cr.B cl.A xx hcf+B. So it’s kinda unlike 98/02/XIII in which you’d be able to do that. The hcf+B was too slow to combo from the cl.A. At least her qcb+C did combo and knock down. Needs more testing as usual for better confirmation. That’s all I can remember off the top of my head, but I’ll post more later as I remember it. The characters I played the most were Shun’ei and Terry while trying to figure out Nelson and Ralf while sometimes putting on Kyo or Iori to try to keep myself on the station to play.



The King of Fighters XIV hit PlayStation 4 on August 23.

Source: Laban