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 February 17,2022, 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. The game is the first of the series to have rollback netcode.

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.

=Story= Only the world's toughest fighters can duke it out in the largest martial arts tournament in the world.

Though a mysterious being called Verse destroyed the KOF arena, its threat was quelled thanks to the brave efforts of the winning challengers.

Time has passed since the closing of that tumultuous tournament, and the next KOF begins, backed by a new sponsor.

Meanwhile, Chizuru Kagura senses something interfering with the seal of Orochi, otherwise known as Gaia's Will.

She teams up with Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami to join the KOF and investigate.

Amidst these myriad motives, fighters resurrected after Verse's defeat also join the fray.

Once again, a storm is on the horizon...

=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. =Gameplay= Some game modes present in the previous game reappears in this game. One of the new modes added is the SHATTER STRIKER, that consists in defend and counter against any opponent. Beside that, there is the addition of a new versus mode: the DRAFT, in which the player does not use all the characters chosen by him.

= 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.

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

DLC Teams
Teams released through DLC.

NPC Characters

 * Clemence Bellamy (KOF Tournament Anchorman and Reporter)
 * Verse - in Story Mode

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 Revelead Until Now=

Other Confirmed Stages
=Trailers=

Teaser Trailers
Promotional trailers of the game.

Teamed Character Trailers
Characters with teams already revealed.

Individual Characters
Characters still with no team revelead.

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.

=References=

=External Links=


 * Japanese Official Website
 * Official Website
 * PlayStation Page
 * Xbox Page
 * Steam Page
 * Epic Games Store