The King of Fighters XV

"Shatter All Expectations."

- Tagline

The King of Fighters XV (Japanese: ; Chinese: ), officially abbreviated as KOF XV, is the upcoming fifteenth instalment of The King of Fighters series. It was officially announced at EVO 2019 and was originally slated for release in 2020. However, the date was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More details were revealed on January 7, 2021. In June, SNK announced that the game had been postponed once again and will be released in the first quarter of 2022, due to the rising cases of COVID-19 and the state of emergency in Japan. The game will be released for PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows 10, Steam and Epic Games. It is currently not known if the game will have crossplay or not.

This game is the second chapter of the fourth canonical saga for the series, and is the second SNK game to use the Unreal Engine graphic motor (Unreal Engine 4), the first being Samurai Shodown (2019). Yasuyuki Oda (Garou: Mark of the Wolves and The King of Fighters XIV) is the producer, Eisuke Ogura is the creative director and Tomohiro Nakata (The King of Fighters All Star) is the main illustrator.

The promotion of the game is through trailers that were, initially weekly, but with the postponement of the game, they became biweekly. Starting with the 11th trailer (Yashiro's Reveal Trailer), the company reveals silhouettes of the next characters to be confirmed.

=Confirmed Teams & Characters (Until Now)=

Overview
KOF XV keeps the voice actors for characters returning from The King of Fighters XIV (between veterans and debutants). For characters that weren't in the previous game, some voice actors from KOF All Star return to voice their respective characters with the exception of Chris, a member of the Orochi Team, who has a different voice actress than the one from the mobile game.

This game also has a profound change in teams compared to KOF XIV. The new team formations are as follows:

Confirmed Teams
Teams confirmed until the current moment.

Hero Team (A.K.A. Shun'ei Team)

 * Shun'ei
 * Meitenkun
 * Benimaru Nikaido

Sacred Treasures Team

 * Kyo Kusanagi
 * Iori Yagami
 * Chizuru Kagura

Fatal Fury Team (A.K.A. Garou Densetsu Team)

 * Terry Bogard
 * Andy Bogard
 * Joe Higashi

Orochi Team (Former New Faces Team)

 * Yashiro Nanakase
 * Shermie
 * Chris

Art of Fighting Team (A.K.A. Ryuko no Ken Team)

 * Ryo Sakazaki
 * Robert Garcia
 * King

Ikari Warriors Team (A.K.A. Ikari Team)

 * Leona Heidern
 * Ralf Jones
 * Clark Still

Secret Agents Team (A.K.A. New Agents Team)

 * Vanessa
 * Blue Mary
 * Luong

Super Heroines Team (A.K.A. New Women Fighters Team)

 * Athena Asamiya
 * Mai Shiranui
 * Yuri Sakazaki

Galaxy Anton Wrestling Team (A.K.A. G.A.W. Team)

 * Antonov
 * Ramón
 * King of Dinosaurs

Other Confirmed Characters
Characters already confirmed, either through individual videos or through the first promotional trailers.

Confirmed only in the Teaser Trailer & Official First Trailer (Until Now)

 * K'

Confirmed only in Individual Trailers

 * TBA

NPC Character

 * Clemence Bellamy (KOF Tournament Anchorman)

Fatal Fury series

 * Michael Max - in the Beach Resort Stage
 * Richard Meyer - in the Pao Pao Cafe Stage
 * Bob Wilson - in the Pao Pao Cafe Stage

3 Count Bout

 * Terry Rogers - in the KOF Stadium Stage
 * Master Barnes - in the KOF Stadium Stage

Metal Slug series

 * Hyakutaro Ichimonji (presumably, along with other POWs) - in the Sahara Stage
 * Rumi Aikawa - in the Sahara Stage
 * SV-001 - in the Sahara Stage
 * Super Vehicle "Camel" - in the Sahara Stage

=Stages=

Team Stages

 * Classical Chinese Garden — Hero Team: The Classical Gardens of Suzhou, in the Jiangsu province. The fight takes place in a red balcony in the Humble Administrator's Garden, at night. This stage features a giant dragon statue, inside, a small waterfall, in the right outside, the full moon, bonsai trees, aquatic flowers, flags, Chinese pillars and decorations, besides the Jinshan Temple in the background.
 * Note: The dragon statue is very similiar to the seen in Art of Fighting Team's stage in The King of Fighters '94 and The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match.


 * Esaka Construction Site — Sacred Treasures Team: The Japanese city of Osaka, at night. The fight takes place in the expansion site of the Esaka Station, next to the Hanshin Expressway. This stage features construction workers cheering, construction materials, barriers, backhoes, buildings, a teddy bear and a construction worker signs, besides the SNK's headquarters, in the background, Hiragana signs and a "The Esaka Station is closed for expansion" sign. The game series' name can be seen all over the stage. Stage reminiscent of The King of Fighters '94 (Japan Team's [A.K.A. Orochi Saga's Hero Team] stage).


 * Beach Resort, Sunny Day (A.K.A. South Town Sound Beach) — Fatal Fury Team: The most famous beach of the American city, at a sunny day. The fight takes place next to the beach shops and to the entrance. The stage features a seafood restaurant, a surf shop with a mechanical shark sign, people cheering, parked bicycles, palm trees, the main church of the city, the tournament flags, a 4x4 car, balloons and a small ladder with a sun umbrella and a plaque with the sign WAVE SURF AREA, beside the South Town Bridge, in the background, and plaques with the signs PORT TOWN (Hon-Fu's stage in Fatal Fury 3) and CENTRAL CITY. Stage reminiscent of the first Fatal Fury game.


 * Concert Hall — Orochi Team: The fight takes place at a concert on the area of the main stage that has a checkered floor. This stage features the crowd cheering, screens (some showing the characters, other showing the game's name), stage structures, spotlights, sound boxes, a passageway and a band playing in the background, beside the game's logo in a big size.
 * Note: The band used in this stage is composed by NPC characters reused from The King of Fighters XIV (Villains Team's Stage).


 * Pao Pao Cafe — Art of Fighting Team: Richard Meyer and Bob Wilson's classic bar at night. The fight takes in the main saloon. This stage features the main bar, the public watching the fight, some drum players and the bar's logo, in the right, beside some decorations resembling Mudman (World Heroes' character). Stage reminiscent of the first Fatal Fury game and Fatal Fury 3.


 * The Sahara — Ikari Warriors Team: An oasis in the middle of the Egyptian desert. The fight takes next to a plane crash (General Donald Morden's M-32 Water Carrier Plane). The stage features palm trees, dunas, a pink sun umbrella, a wooden plaque with the name KOF and pennants (some with the series' logo), besides a teddy bear and stilts close to the plane's wreckage. Stage reminiscent of Metal Slug Infinity.
 * Note: The stage includes numerous references to the Metal Slug series (the "Danger" barrels, the weapon crates, several POWs, the SV-001, and the Camel Slug).


 * Provence Main Street, Night — Secret Agents Team: The city of Paris, at night, in the border between the 3rd, 10th and 11th arrondissements. The fight takes in the Place de la République, next to the statue of Marianne, a historical figure representing the July Revolution. The stage features water puddles, a few stray cats roaming around in front of the "Cafe des Chats" (The Cat Cafe in English) as well as a couple of cats roaming around the street with various buildings in the background. A famous Parisian cafe can also be seen: La maison des Délices (The House of Delights, in English). Similar to the Czech Republic Stage in The King of Fighters 2003 (Arcade Version).


 * Provence Main Street, Day — Super Heroines Team: This version of the stage occurs in a Saint Patrick's Day celebration. Features some people, flowers, light poles, vans (one of them parked on a tent) and pennants with France and Ireland flags. Beside that, the Marianne's statue is decorated with ribbons in the colors of the French flag, and the tournament's simbols can be seen all over the stage.


 * Hyper Galaxy Ring — Galaxy Anton Wrestling Team: The main arena of the tournament, at sunset. Features two giant screens showing the fighters who are fighting, a crown-shaped structure, the crowd (Clemence Bellamy in the middle), giant trophies in both sides, some KOF-girls holding plaques, spotlights, a passageway and a meshed wall separating the audience from the stage. Beside, the game's name and logos (KOF '96 and the previous tournament) can be seen all over the stage.

Other Confirmed Stages

 * Haunted Amusement Park (A.K.A. Dream Amusement Park) (tentative name): An old abandoned amusement park, at night. This stage features decaying mascots and rides, although many of them appear to still function, a carousel, a haunted house, a Ferris wheel and a candy store, beside a castle and some buildings, in the background. Stage reminiscent of Art of Fighting 2 (King's stage) and similar to the Amusement Park in The King of Fighters '99: Evolution (Dreamcast's exclusive stage).
 * Beach Resort, Sunset: The same stage as the Fatal Fury Team, in depths of sunset. This version of the stage features the sun setting, the empty beach and two yachts in the middle of the sand. Similar to the USA Stage in Real Bout Fatal Fury Special.
 * Note: The sails of the yachts show the date 1994-08-25, right below the main logo. This date is the Japanese arcade release date of KOF '94, the first game and the prologue of the series.

=Development= Due to positive response to the marketing of The King of Fighters XIV, director Yasuyuki Oda said in August 2017 that The King of Fighters XV was possible, but SNK also wanted to focus on other franchises. Oda, instead, worked in the 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. Feeling the previous title had outdated graphics for a 2016 game, SNK chairman Zhihui Ge said that XV will use the Unreal Engine 4 graphic motor to provide a better presentation.

At the finals of EVO 2019, SNK announced that the game was in development. The title'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, will serve as the title's producer. The character design is being handled by Tomohiro Nakata, which also worked on The King of Fighters All Star.

=Trailers=

Teaser Trailers
Promotional trailers of the game.

Teamed Character Trailers
Characters with teams already revealed.

Team BGMs
Music Themes of the Teams.

Idle Poses
Fighting poses of the teams (some with taunts and/or victory poses).

Drawing Video
A sample of the game and character's creation process.

=Trailer Music= Some themes played in the character trailers are references to the characters' old themes in SNK past games. Below, the list:

=Trivia=


 * The character 3D models are made in Cell-Shading, similar to the models of Samurai Shodown (2019) (the first SNK game to use the Unreal Engine graphic motor). However, the vast majority of 3D models have been reused and remodeled from The King of Fighters XIV and SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy. The exceptions are Chizuru, Yashiro and Chris, who had their models made from the scratch.
 * Similar to Fatal Fury Team's classic formation, the Art of Fighting Team 's formation in this game consist of three main heroes who were first debuted playable in the first Art of Fighting game. It would mark the second time to have a team formation based on the playable fighters from the first Art of Fighting game since 2000, if counting Takuma Sakazaki as Mr. Karate.
 * This game and The King of Fighters XI are the only mainlines game with profound team changes.
 * This game is the fourth KOF mainline game, and the KOF third canonical game to have another variant of Women Fighters Team, in form of Team Secret Agents, thus making the team the third all female teams to be another variant of the original team. The other games with another team of female fighters are The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match (with the Pretty Girls Fighters Team and the NESTS Team) and The King of Fighters 2003 (the High School Girls Team).
 * Athena's inclusion to team-up with one of the original Heroines Team members was foreshadowed in two games prior from one of her dialogues against one of its original member (XIII intro dialogue with King, and XIV win dialogue against Mai). Due to King returning to join with the Art of Fighting Team, it is possibly her request on granting Athena a permission to lead the Heroines Team in her stead, as first foreshadowed by their intro dialogue in XIII.
 * Some references to the SNK World can be noticed in the promotional trailers of the game:
 * The Shibuya Crossing, in Tokyo, appears in one of the scenes of the first trailer of the game (when Benimaru and Kyo talks) and in the Story Trailer (when Shun'ei and Meitenkun are present in it). This place also appears as a fighting stage in World Heroes Perfect.
 * When Clemence Bellamy appears in the first trailer, flashes of the Kagura Staduim (The King of Fighters '96's Sub-Boss Stage) appears.
 * In Terry's Reveal Trailer (Character Trailer #10), the formation of the Fatal Fury Team reproduces the arcade cover of the first Fatal Fury game. Beside that, the song Kurikinton, from this game (Terry's Theme), plays in a small match. Also in this trailer, the theme VS. plays after the match.
 * The opening theme of the first Art of Fighting game, Dragon and Tiger, plays in Ryo and Robert's Shared Reveal Trailer (Character Trailers #16 & #17).
 * In Ralf and Clark's Shared Reveal Trailer (Character Trailers #19 & #20), they make an indirect quote to the "Cross Changer" pose, a reference to Chojin Sentai Jetman, and made by the two military men in two last games of the Orochi Saga.

=References =

=External Links=


 * Official Website