Rendy's Battle Report 02: The N Word

Disclaimer: No offensive remarks were made at the making of this post.

While I've been absent on writing for the past couple of weeks due to job search (and eventually landed on one, thankfully), I've been getting a lot of great stuffs in The King of Fighters ALL STAR. Initially, this post would detail the Wonderland and Valentine events plus all the roulette fighters and new summon systems, then proceeded with Samurai Shodown collaboration in the next one, since, at the time of this post, we're in the last stretch of the False Halloween event. However, I feel like given the lack of Wonderland and Valentine fighters I have and having no roulette characters won, plus my absence, things will go a little bit lengthy here.

Basically, the first quarter of 2020, despite the current affairs happening right now, was an eventful one for KOF AS. Athena in Wonderland and Valentine events were ran in the Global server, and the second collaboration with Samurai Shodown went pass by with a great success. Aside from them, lots of fighters were offered in different ways: '99 Krizalid, '03 Terry Bogard, NESTS Style Kyo from XIII, '03 Mukai, XIV Nakoruru, and 2001 Igniz were obtainable via their respective gacha while NESTS fighters make their way to the spotlight in their respective roulette events, with Whip, Kula Diamond, Angel, and Leona make their original series debut after making their debut in ALL STAR costumes, and even '98 Mai and 2001 May Lee joined the roulette fun. Past FES fighters are also offered via the new Summon System which I will detail within the next set of paragraphs...

THE EVENTS

The past three months, we had three different events in the game. These were, in order, the Athena in Wonderland event where it is basically the KOF spin to the classical Alice in Wonderland, Valentine's Day event where players fight against eight of the series' female fighters, and of course the latest collaboration event with Samurai Shodown, precisely Samurai Shodown V: Amakusa's Revenge. Different set of fighters were prepared for the events, as well as a set of quirks being offered.

Athena in Wonderland event tells the story of Athena Asamiya, the beloved Psycho Soldier, trapped in a strange place (read: the Wonderland) for some reason after following a white rabbit who turns out to be Art of Fighting's Yuri Sakazaki in a white rabbit costume. As Athena found herself in an accidental trouble which didn't sit well with the Wonderland inhabitants, she met a couple of fighters, even her teammates Sie Kensou and Chin Gentsai who initially didn't believe she's actually Athena, despite being dressed in an Alice-like dress. Aside from Yuri, she fought the tea-drinking Iori Yagami as the Mad Hatter and the leader of Wonderland herself Vanessa (the red-haired puncher from KOF 2000 making her debut in this game) as the Queen of Hearts. As she defeated the Queen of Hearts, she teleported back to the real world where she actually prepared herself for a concert. The 5-chapter adventure (including EX Stage) follows the Normal/Hard/SP format where the first two difficulties were reserved for obtaining points, with the last one made available one week later and was reserved for event-exclusive points, and accompanying the event was the Mai's Fortune Cookie event where tickets can be obtained by doing a daily mission with fighter growth-related rewards were offered for completing the random draw-based fortunes.

Fast forward to the Valentine's Day event, this one was a no-brainer since February is, of course, where the ballgame is at. Celebrating Valentine's Day, KOF AS provided a chance to battle against eight of KOF's favorite female fighters; from the fast and flaming ninja Mai Shiranui, the ever-charming Athena Asamiya, to the mesmerizing Kula Diamond, and the energetic Yuri Sakazaki. The story, however, started out in a rather unorthodox fashion: Maxima wreaked havoc in a chocolate factory due to his frustration, and had eight female fighters coming before him to save the factory, but these female fighters were trying to win the player's heart, so the player will have to go through the eight different chapters comprising 3 stages, of which these are stages dedicated to them. At the end of every stage, the female fighter in question will present the player a chocolate as a sign of thanks for choosing her. Much like The Bachelor, but it's KOF. The difficulty format is the same as the Wonderland event and the EX chapter are Time Trial versions of every chapter's final stage, but here's the catch: for reaching a huge milestone set during the event's run, all players get a x50 Element Soul Selector. Defeating a featured character for specific number of times (accumulated server-wide) also granted a nice set of rewards, like Auto-Clear Tickets and Rubies.

The coveted Samurai Shodown collaboration event finally came after the two events, putting six of the game's characters to the fray. Here lied a battle between SNK's greatest fighting game franchises, a showdown between fists and swords, and the second collaboration event ever in the game, with lesser strain on drop rates compared to the Tekken collaboration months ago. The Shodown focused on Haohmaru's journey in the KOF world, entering the tournament after being teleported out of his original world. His teammates were Chang Koehan and Choi Bounge, who the samurai thought they are Earthquake and Gen'an Shiranui respectively, and just after the journey in the competition started for him he took Kim Kaphwan's role of normally being the two's leader. Every fight in the tournament, aside from having either the two criminals (or even both) trying to stop Haohmaru for some reason, he gets mysteriously teleported to his original world, finding himself fighting against his SamSho rivals, especially Genjuro Kibagami and Amakusa. Just as he was about to claim victory against Amakusa, things got reset and he got back to the square one for some reason. The even has the same difficulty format as before and same EX chapter all reserved for Time Attack stages of the final stage in each chapter.

Being a collaboration event, the dedicated Time Attack is presented to the players with rewards based on players' time in the mode. Haohmaru, Rimuru, Ukyo Tachibana, and Amakusa were selectable in the first week of the Time Attack, with Genjuro and Charlotte taking the first two's place in the second week, and the final week with all fighters plus the XIV Nakoruru, along with the Master Time Attack for owned fighters. A reward-based event was also in the run for the entirety of the collaboration, requiring completion in the character collection and social media sharing.

The recent one, and the last to feature in this post, is the False Halloween event, but it's more of a Dungeon-type event than it is an event with a proper storyline. Basically, you just defend the Halloween cake from the ghosts that give your fighters utter headache from their Blast skills (unless they have Super/Hyper Armor...) for three times daily and that's it, you get a random box for obtaining specific coins separated by characters: Heidern, Blue Mary, and Xiangfei. Players can exchange these coins with fighters, cards, and souls available in the event-specific Exchange Shop, just in case they don't get any of the event's fighters and cards.

THE NEW FIGHTERS

SamSho goes brrr!

All four events feature their own set of fighters. Yuri, Vanessa, and Athena became the Wonderland fighters with Iori also included in the mix as an obtainable fighter from completing its dedicated Super Mission, serving all the good tea. Valentine roster has Kasumi, King, and Blue Mary in their best casual street style outfits, but these three do not feature in the event's storyline unlike the Wonderland fighters. Samurai Shodown offers six fighters: one obtainable via Super Mission, done by crafting Soul of the Samurai (Ukyo), four obtainable from summons (Haohmaru and Rimururu at the start, Genjuro and Charlotte a week later), and one obtainable from collecting the Samurai Coins (Amakusa), and finally False Halloween offers False Halloween Heidern (dracula), Blue Mary (nurse), and Xiangfei (jiangshi vampire). These fighters, in their respective banners, have 1% drop rate, and they have their own quirks.

To rank them from worst to best, Valentine is skippable despite I actually get Valentine's Kasumi just to boost my rewards in the event, and I don't think I've find anyone special in this section (and never tried them anywhere). Miles ahead, Wonderland fighters are a solid group. I always wanted at least one of them (but wanted Athena more to complete my defense type suite), but the Wonderland Yuri I've got wasn't a bad choice since her first skill actually freezes opponent and is actually another good defense type character as well. Combine that with Wonderland Iori's striker link, you get yourself a solid combination based on the Wonderland event. False Halloween fighters, despite haven't tried them, look promising at first impressions. The FH Heidern feels like he's a better Heidern for sure, same with FH Mary and FH Xiangfei, whose respective special quirks include attack speed increase and good team leader skills.

And obviously, the winner stands to be the SamSho group. Crazy buffs, Super/Hyper Armors, and good Damage Overtimes make it every player's reasons to roll, combined with easy drop rates and nice striker links. Haohmaru and Genjuro are the two top tier fighters out of this group, being the true fighters in their own right, especially with the right battle cards and striker links when necessary. The first time I get Haohmaru from the summon (and his Special Card in another), I felt accomplished and took every chance to grow him up in the first week even though I haven't got Rimururu yet (of which both have a neat striker link that increases power charge). As the second volume came, I frantically took the chance to get Genjuro, and yet despite not getting him at early tries I actually got Charlotte first before him, quickly ending my rolls, focusing on Rimururu, and finally Genjuro's Special Card, all accomplished with few rubies left after doing them. Crazy to think that I'd be getting all the collab fighters, something I couldn't do in the last collab event, and even better battle cards that should at least help me keeping myself relevant in the tier list.

Krizalid in action

A number of new FES fighters ran their banners at a specific period of time with others being offered as roulette fighters just like in the Tekken collaboration event where Paul Phoenix was the one fighter being offered that way. The Wonderland update saw '99 Krizalid, '03 Terry Bogard, and XIII NESTS Style Kyo being offered while the last banner mentioned carried on through the Valentine update. Through SamSho collaboration, '03 Mukai and XIV Nakoruru were the next ones on the list, and finally the recent False Halloween update put 2001 Igniz to the mix. Given my focus towards SamSho characters, I didn't have the chance to roll for any of these fighters. However, these fighters are occasionally used in the Novice Time Attack. Terry and Kyo do pack a punch while Nakoruru's ranged attacks can be quite useful when they hit. I do like Igniz as well, and somehow he bears similarities to Haohmaru in some way, except the NESTS leader have awesome move names (Brutal God Project, anyone?) and the fact that his defensive stance looks like a gigantic sound system. Non-FES banner fighters also appear in the Supreme Mankind & Secret Agent banner under the Pick-Up Summon menu, with the banner in question offering KOF 2000 fighters Ramon and Vanessa with no time limit imposed, plus being the bonus fighters to the newly-introduced Epic Quest Episode 1. Their Special Cards are also available in the series' Battle Card Summon as well.

On the roulette front, we had 99 Whip, 2000 Kula Diamond, 2001 Angel, 98 Mai, and 96 Leona. First four fighters debuting in ALL STAR costumes now appear in their original form from their respective KOF games, while the new Mai is yet another addition to the Mai Shiranui suite in the game. Such a shame that I couldn't able to get any of them, but at the end of the day these characters would make it to the default pool at some point, though this would take time waiting. However, the current spotlight is actually on 2001 May Lee, still ongoing with her roulette set to end a week after this post, I'm currently hoping that I would get her by any means, and I'd probably buy the roulette ticket pack for this occasion. General consensus seem to see May Lee as a solid fighter, especially for yellow element, something that... on a second thought, I really need it.

Interestingly, this rule doesn't apply to XIV Alice, the third fighter to come out from KOF XIV after Geese and Nakoruru. Instead of being a gacha fighter in the Japanese version, she was actually a paid fighter. Yes, you spend money on her (and her Ultimate) just like the School Uniform Xiaoyu during the Tekken collaboration. It isn't surprising to see negative receptions when she's revealed to be a paid fighter when she was normally obtainable via gacha, despite people's tendency to spend a lot of rubies to aim for a potential banner pity and XIV Alice being a "guaranteed" package at a set price. My guess is that this is done as an "Early Access character before we make the gacha banner of featuring her," barring the negative things about this business move, with no telling when her actual gacha banner is. Another guess would be that this is basically a chance to get a character and her card 

NEW WAYS OF SUMMON

Since the Wonderland update, the summon system is revised to follow the Japanese version's categorization. This resulted in three categories of "Event", "Special", and "Misc" banners; "Event" banners are pretty much pick-up and FES fighter and Battle Card banners running for a limited period of time; "Special" consists of a normal fighter and Battle Card summons which have now been revised to include six past FES fighters under the moniker "Noah's Fest Banner Season 1," plus a special Diamond Summon. Finally, "Misc" banner is basically the Friendship Point summon we all know since day one.

Though the default summon pool actually offers one of five past FES fighters, all eyes are on the Diamond Summon banner. The banner, entitled the "Kaya Summon", is a stacked deck Diamond-only summon where you have the chance of getting either a past FES fighter (even Pretty Chang), a seasonal fighter, a set of special cards, or a set of fighter growth essentials. Diamonds for this summon are only obtainable through doing gacha in any of the existing banners and there's no loyalty meter just like in every normal banner. A very promising banner, but can be a challenging one just to get the one you actually one. Each roll costs 3000 Diamonds, while you can earn 25 Diamonds from every Fighter summon and 15 from every Battle Card summon (250 and 150 for x10 summons respectively).

VICTORY SCREEECH!!!

My first experience on the Diamond summon wasn't that good given that I obtained a Halloween Option Card featuring Halloween Kula with her gigantic lollipop candy (affectionately dubbed as "Peropero Candy" in this game, if we were to go with its own affinity item naming...). However, this is when things get more lit: my second run had me getting XIV Geese which was offered during the Tekken collab and effectively earned myself a second purple-bordered motherchucker after Goenitz, courtesy of my series of SamSho banner summons. My third run was even more unreal as '97 Orochi (yes, the same KOF 97 final boss I spent my rubies for in vain) was my third Diamond summon result, bringing my FES Fighters count to three. Not that I would predate the top ranks in either PvE or PvP, but it's crazy to see myself getting something I couldn't able to have in a row this way. I never had frequent jaw drops from these kinds of summon haha.

GOENITZ GETS BETTER!

Goenitz. now packs more serious punches than before!

It turns out the update not only brings Samurai Shodown characters but also a much-needed buff for Goenitz as well. Having buffed Orochi Iori during the Wonderland event, the Mr. Koko desu ka? finally gets a long-awaited refinements that actually improved his overall gameplay. The most noted thing for his buff is his attack animations, deleting delays during Skills 1 and 2 (being the famed Yo no Kaze and Yami Doukoku respectively). However, it actually goes beyond that as now the former now gives an additional 12% Critical Rate for 7 seconds and an ability to disable a target's Roll for 3 seconds upon a successful attack or a Guard. For the latter, it increases ATK by 28% for 7 seconds. Last but not least the third skill, Hyouga, now gives Hyper Armor for 3 seconds, meaning that upon activation Goenitz is immune to any damage.

As someone who obtained Goenitz a while ago and haven't been comfortable in using him until now, this is something I welcome the most. For a size of a purple-bordered fighter, he didn't stand much chance against other same-bordered ones like, say, Original Zero and Orochi for that matter. Now I have a reason to max out his level, stats, and Affinity, all of which are pretty much accomplished, except one: his Special Card, Shin Ya Otome: Jissoukoku, something I haven't able to get when his banner went up, thankfully the Noah Summon gives the second chance that goes on forever. However, there's also his 3PG card entitled Shuuen wo Yobu Kaze, originally meant for Mecha Goenitz but is also usable for Goenitz as well. Whichever Special I get, I am guaranteed at least one Finisher which should be enough.

The next update should be yet another stacked deck to get on: the KOF '99 Story Mode being added, Ash Crimson coming, Team Relay Dungeon, and God knows what other new stuffs in place for the game...

~[R]