King of Fighters XIII Official Preview @ BelleSalle, Akihabara.

So today KOFXIII was finally previewed at Akihabara, BelleSalle.

Although i was not able to go myself, there is plenty of information floating around on the net and quite a few videos already on Youtube.

Based on what i've seen from the videos this is what i can tell has been changed/added (though as i do not have access to the game myself so some details may be sketchy).

System:

• Critical Counter removed and replaced by the new HyperDrive mode, which seems similar to BC cancelling in 2002. Seems like you can activate this by itself or cancel it from a move. Also it seems the Hyper bar is lost if you are hit during max up.
• Guard break bar makes a return.
  
• Drive Cancel, which takes a chunk of the new Hyper bar (located on top of the Super bar). You can use this to cancel special moves into each other.
• Counter stumble has been removed, it does seem that there is a very slight stumble after counter but no where near as long as it was in XII.
• C+D guard break has returned and replaced the back+C+D from XII. (Takes one stock)
• Super stock, and the Hyper bar increase with each character in your team. (Starts with 3, second character 4, etc...)
• The zooming camera seems to have been removed.
• EX Special moves (e.g Joe's EX Hurricane shoots out 3 Hurricanes), which take 1 stock to use. You can cancel special moves into EX moves via Drive Cancel.
  
• EX Supers, as far as i can tell these cost two stocks and the background goes black. (Not 100% certain about this)
• 4 new stages, one of them being the UK. :)
• Colour select menu, i've read it's about 10 per character.
• Character pre fight dialogue, i think this may be vs CPU only.

Characters:

• Athena: Psycho Teleport, and it seems she can now do her Shining Crystal Bit super in the air.
  
• Kyo: Can now do Orochinagi in the air (Maybe he learnt this in his time in KOF:SkyStage o_O), he also looks like he has had some moves slowed down (Not 100% sure), and regains his air dwn+C. Looks like he can also do his air down+C whilst hopping backwards like old KOF games.
• Joe: Gains his Ougon no Kakato (qcb+K), as well as his Bakuretsu Hurricane Tiger Kakato super.
  
• Raiden: Has gained a new drop kick move.

New characters include Mai, King and Yuri.

Rumours/Unconfirmed:

There seem to be slots for at least another 6 characters. One slot reserved for Iori's team, one slot reserved for Kim's team and one for the Art of Fighting team.
Judging by the unused data found on the KOFXII disc, these characters would most likely be Vice, Hwa Jai and Takuma.
Alot of rumours flying around who might fit into the final 3 slots, some think it may be a Hizoku team (Lin maybe?) and some seem to think it'll be a K' team.

Again judging by the unused data from the KOFXII disc it is very possible other characters may/will include Dark Ash, a Boss character, 98' style Iori, Billy (either from Rage of the Dragons or Billy Kane), and there were 9 'bad allocations' which could well indicate another 9 characters.
Based on the intro movie, Rose (Adelheid's sister) is present which could mean Adelheid will make it into the game, also Mukai and Botan are showed along with 'Those from the Past'.

There is also some speculation as to whether Ron will finally make a playable appearance.


So quite alot of information shown today with alot left to be excited about, Tougeki this year will also feature KOFXIII as a tournament game in category C and the location tests begin tomorrow so expect more videos to pop up on Youtube.
For now you can check out Samalus' Youtube Channel here, there's also a couple of vids on BasGrosPoing's Youtube Channel here, or there's one vid up on Youku here.

I'll just end this entry with some pics.




Also don't forget to check out Dengeki Online, for three pages of character art/screenshots.