SNK releases more videos of KoF XIV’s graphical evolution

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Some updates only change a number in a table, and some you notice in the very first frame. On December 30, 2016, SNK published a series of videos comparing the old and new look of some The King of Fighters XIV fighters, showing what version 1.10 would bring to the PlayStation 4 fighting game.

What stands out in the videos is the light. The update tweaked the shaders and the characters’ lighting, giving more volume to the 3D models, which had been the most criticized point since launch, in August 2016. Besides the visual touch-up, SNK raised the number of alternate colors for each fighter from 4 to 6, answering a request from the players themselves.

The videos show four classic faces of the series:

Yuri:

Leona:

Kyo:

Iori:

A nice detail: before the official date, SNK released a second version of the free demo (Demo ver. 2), with the graphical improvements and the two extra colors, for those who wanted to compare with their own eyes. Version 1.10 also brought quality-of-life tweaks: choosing another character or team after each fight in random mode, saving the second player’s button configuration, 50 profile icons and 100 new titles. The update arrived for free on January 11, 2017.

What came next

KOF XIV reached PC on Steam on June 15, 2017 and Japanese arcades shortly after. The game, which debuted with 50 fighters, gained eight more characters through DLC, among them Whip, Vanessa, Rock Howard and Blue Mary. The Metacritic average was 79 on PS4, with praise for the accessible fighting system and reservations about the visuals, precisely the point 1.10 tried to improve. Combined PS4 and Steam sales came close to 920 thousand copies. The sequel, The King of Fighters XV, came out in 2022.