The King of Fighters 30th - Definitve Match

**The King of Fighters 30th Ultimate Match** is a fighting game made by SNK has a celebration for the 30th anniversary of The King of Fighters series. Includes most characters from all the KOF history even adding some spin-off exclusive characters.

## Gameplay

The game's gameplay takes inspiration from all KOF history mixing elements from different eras to bring the definitive way to play KOF!

* **Buttons**

The game makes use of the 5 button system that we seen in KOF 2003 and XI, with the fifth button being assigned to the Blowback Edge. This time there are special moves that are executed only with this button.

* **Rush Combo**

A mechanic that persists from KOF XIV, if you repeatedly press standing LP when you're close to an opponent, the character will activate a combo that leads to a Special Move. If the power gauge has 1 or more bars, 1 bar will be used to change a Special Move into a DM, the combo will be different during Max Mode, ending with an SDM to NDM.

* **Power Meter**

Like almost all KOF games you can have a max of 5 stocks of meter. It's required to do things like EX Special Moves, Distortion Moves, Shatter Strikes, Guard Cancel Roll, Guard Cancel CD, between others.

* **Drive Meter**

A mechanic from KOF XIII, you can use this secondary gauge for activate Max Mode, make Special Cancels and Super Cancels, tag partners and use Tag Strikes. This time the Drive Meter has 6 stocks, requiring 1 stock to do Special Cancels, tag partners or do a Striker Move, 3 for Super Cancels and all 6 to enter in Max Mode.

* **Special, Super and Dream Cancel**

Special Cancel is when you cancel a special move into other, you can do that for 1 Drive Meter or for free in Max Mode, Super Cancels requires 3 stocks or being in Max Mode allowing you to cancel a special move into a DM or SDM. Dream Cancels allows you to cancel a DM, SDM or NDM into a SCM, requiring full Drive Meter or Max Mode (consuming all the restant meter).

* **Tag System**

Based on the mechanic of the first games of the Ash Saga, you can switch between characters midmatch (Tag Shift), you can can also make combos with Tag Cancel (requires Drive Meter). You can also instead of shift of character make them attack with a particular move being a Tag Strike (requires Drive Meter).

* **Max Mode**

The mechanic is old but the way it works is a mix of KOF XIII and KOF XV. You can cancel normals, commands and special moves out of Max Mode using the Drive Meter but if you have the gauge complete you can use Max Mode instead that unlike the regular form, doesn't consume the meter being exclusively a timer (the only way finish the Max Mode without a timer is using a SCM during Max). You can also do a Quick Max Mode cancelling any attack at the cost of have shorter time.

* **EX Moves**

Special variations of moves with enhanced states, requires a half of a Super Meter to be used.

* **DM, SDM, NDM and SCM**

The abreviations for Desesperation Moves, Super Desesperation Moves, Neo Desesperation Moves and Super Climax Moves. The first two and the last one are very well knowed but the Neo DM are something new, these ones are based on the Neo Maxs from KOF XII and can only be used cancelling a SDM in Max Mode, requiring just 1 meter, they are kinda similar to the Exceed Accels from BlazBlue. SCM (Super Climax Moves) can only be used at 30% or less life with 3 stocks or more.

* **Meter Charge**

You can charge your Power Meter like in the first games of the series but with some changes. The speed of the charge depends of your total amount of characters and health left, if you have all your characters and barely get damage the charge will be very, very, very slow, but if you are in red health and only have one character left in less than 20 seconds you will already have almost 3 meters charged. You can only charge in neutral and you can't block, but you can do a Shatter Strike for defense or cancel charge into Max Mode.

**EX Characters**
The EX characters are alternative versions of a character that can or cannot have a similar moveset or be stronger than the original. Examples includes NESTS Kyo (EX Kyo), Mr. Karate (EX Takuma) or Goddess Athena (EX Athena).

## Game Modes

### Arcade Mode

Classic Arcade, like in 2002UM you can play against certain Sub-Bosses and Bosses depending how the last one was defeated.

### VS Mode

Play against the CPU or a friend, you can do 1v1, 3v3 or custom set (between 1 to 4 characters).

### Boss Syndrome

A Boss Challenge mode where you fight against almost all Bosses from KOF history, there are two modes being Legacy and Extreme, Legacy makes use of the vanilla characters with an unique AI to make them more difficult while the later is a special version making use of EX editions of the characters with additional gimmicks unique for them.

* **Rugal Bernstein:** You fight against the original Rugal, he now can launch full charged Kaiser Waves quickly and all his special moves are plus on block.
* **Saisyu Kusanagi:** Saisyu gained a Dokugami-like chain attack, his attacks deals DoT burning damage.
* **Chizuru Kagura:** Chizuru's mirages now deploy quicker and she can chain various at the same time.
* **Goenitz:** Goenitz's Yonokaze is always EX (the tornado is bigger and it always homes the position of the player), the endlag of most of his moves are reduced drastically.
* **Orochi Team:** You fight against Shermie, Yashiro Nanakase and Chris in their Orochi forms, Shermie endlag in most moves are reduced, Yashiro gains superarmor in most of his moves (including normals) and Chris deals DoT burning damage.
* **Orochi Leona:** Based on Another Leona, her air mobility is considerable increased including the ability of wall jumping. She can inflict the player a Bleed status that deals damage over time inclusive when the character is "in the bench".
* **Orochi Iori:** Orochi Iori mix moves from the regular Iori and Instinct Iori becoming a new level of threat. He can also inflict Burning DoT status.
* **Krizalid v2:** Krizalid now has access to brand new moves based on other NESTS members and his Typhoon Rage can be canceled with whatever he wants (included another Typhoon Rage) without expending meter.
* **NESTS Kyo:** It has an special AI that counts your steps a-la Mortal Kombat. All his moves with the exception Aragami and Dokugami are always in EX.
* **KKDD Team:** NESTS K', NESTS Kula and NESTS Krohnen all in a team, NESTS K's fire moves has a Hellfire effect that increase the received damage, NESTS Kula inflicts a Frost effect with her ice based moves reducing mobility and NESTS Krohnen can use Fusion Blaster as special move and Calamity Overdrive as a regular DM.
* **Clone Zero:** "Zero's Fart" is now a counter move with a lot of active frames, and he can also counter non-fullscreen projectiles.
* **Original Zero v2:** He can chain his assistants' moves without any limit. He also haves some additonal moves from his clone's special version.
* **Another Nameless:** Gains a new variety of moves from Iselda's DNA, he can charge an entire stock of power in no time.
* **Igniz v2:** All his moves where enhanced to stronger versions (that doesn't mean that his moves are always EX, in fact, he has EX versions for these moves), gains an airborne projectile, he can use SDM with only 1 stock of meter and his SCM doesn't require to be at 30% life.
* **KUSANAGI:** He gains moves from Kyo-1 and Kyo-2 apart of God's Duster. Kusanagi is super fast and all his normals are special cancelable without meter.
* **Maki Kagura:** She gains all her sister's buffs from her boss version but also gains passive charging in her meter and all her EX moves seals the opponent's special moves for 3 seconds.
* **Another Adelheid:** Adelheid can use G. Kreis and G. Kronspinz has regular special moves. He gains two new super moves that resembles Rugal's Omega Destruction and Kaiser Phoenix. Adelheid's AI is significantly stronger.
* **Shin Mukai:** Mukai becomes way faster, his fullscreen super gives the Petrified status and is unblockable (only way to avoid it is with a perfect roll in the exact time or with particular moves like Ralf's Galactica Phantom).
* **Shion:** Shion's AI is brutal and now he is even more fast to the poin that leaves afterimages of himself to his path.
* **Shin Magaki:** If the base Magaki was annoying this one is more, making some projectiles normal command moves that are extremely easy to spam, fortunalely his defense is paper.
* **Shin Saiki:** Gaining the power of Orochi mixed with his true form's abilities and her Ash-possesing form and other powers Saiki doesn't have actual buffs apart of the amount of new moves to his arsenal but that's enough for make him a pain in the ass.
* **Verse DX:** His flaming arms are notorioulsy larger having more hitbox but not hurtbox, he can also provoke both Burning and Hellfire effects.
* **ReVerse DX:** Her whole skin is protected by the same jewels from her hair having a one-hit armor that can reduce to 0 any attack and regenerates over time, she also gains new tricks.
* **Shin Orochi:** Orochi now has access to moves of his clone Mizuchi, Orochi gains a teleport-like move and like Gill he gains the ability to resurrect himself once in the battle. He also has passive healing like Mizuchi.
* **Über Rugal:** The definitive Rugal, a combination of his deadliest versions, this Rugal doesn't have any special gimmick apart of having an insane AI with the exception of recover 80% of all his lost health between matches.

## Teams

W.I.P.

Kyo Kusanagi
Iori Yagami
Chizuru Kagura

### EX Characters

Has mentioned before, EX characters are special versions of the regular characters, some of them are just alternative movesets while others even have their own lore behind.

* **NESTS Kyo:** Kyo in his NESTS attire, most like in his XIII appearence this Kyo is more a "definitive Kyo" than an acurrate use of his NESTS Saga moveset. Could be considered a mix between both XI and XIII EX Kyo and his appearence in crossover games.
* **Instinct Iori:** Iori when he lost his flame in the events of KOF XIII, using a variation of the Yagami martial style instead. This time will be a "expanded" version of his moves in KOF XIII including adittional attacks and a brand new SCM.
* **Maki Kagura:** Maki Kagura is Chizuru's deceased sister, since she shares most of her moves she is the EX version of her sister Chizuru. Quite nerfed from her appearence in 2003 or her Boss Syndrome version to make her more viable in competitive.
* **Wild Terry:** Based on his appearence in Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Terry uses his well knowed bomber jacket and gains some mechanics from his game like the Brake moves.
* **Invicible Dragon Ryo:** Ryo Sakazaki after obtaining his title has the new Mr. Karate, to differeance him of his father he use a new outfit based on his appearence in Buriki One, Maximum Impact and in Fatal Fury Wild Ambition, growing his beard and using his orange pants with a black gi.
* **Raging Tiger Robert:** The old appearence of Robert Garcia in a certain moment of the future after achievement the mastery of the Ryugeki Kyokugenryu, based on his appearence in NGBC similar to Kyo more like a rendition of that version of him is a definitive version of himself using powered version of his techniques. His vestiment is a mix of the NGBC costume and his more recent look in the Shun'ei Saga including the facial hair.
* **Goddess Athena:** Not actually Athena Asamiya but the Goddess Athena who taked her body to be in the battle, she has a very different playstyle in comparison to Asamiya using weapons and godly powers.
* **Dragon Kensou:** Kensou gets serious and use his look from the original Psycho Soldiers to demostrate it. Like other previous mentioned characters this version of Kensou is thinked has a definitve version of himself being now more than just a joke.
* **Mecha-IKARI:** A weird and unique EX character that is actually a mix of Ralf and Clark being the ultimate soldier. While the boss makes uses of both's moves the playable ones are only Clark or only Ralf depending of the character used.
* **Another Leona:** A what-if scenario of her, based on her newest look and BS Leona from KOFAS where she finally controls at perfection her Orochi blood being able to use it at full power without holding back.
* **NESTS K':** An alternative K' from a timeline where he never escaped from the control of NESTS, it goes to the point of being more like a "Orochi-likE" form of K' with extremely high speed and damage but paper defenses and it even damage himself while attacking.
* **NESTS Kula:** An alternative Kula from a timeline where she never escaped from the control of NESTS, her ice abilities has gotten so powerful that she is able to create ice clones of her friends Foxy, Diana and Candy.
* **NESTS Krohnen:** An alternative Krohnen from a timeline where he never escaped from the control of NESTS, his appearece resembles more his original K9999 persona even with more body-horror moves.
* **Another Ash:** A what-if scenario of Ash where he mantains domain over the Yasakani's Magatama and the Yata's Mirror, being able to use attacks like Germinal and Fructidor with other additional moves.
* **Another Elisabeth:** A what-if scenario of Elisabeth never meeting Ash. This version of her is based on her KOF XI playstyle.
* **Tizoc:** The original persona of the King of Dinosaurs, he is an upgraded version of his appearence in KOF XI.
* **Another Rock:** A what-if scenario of Rock being able to master his own style using the abilities of his fathers without losing the control of his evil blood.
* **Another Adelheid:** A what-if scenario of Adelheid being able to access to his dormannt Orochi powers that he inherited of his father before die.
* **Mr. Karate:** Takuma Sakazaki's Alter Ego, he gets more serious to demostrate to everyone the power of the Kyokugenryu Karate.
* **Nightmare Geese:** Has the name indicates, this is the nightmarish version of Geese who obtained the power of the Jin Scrolls. The playable version gets some nerfs.
* **Omega Rugal:** The form that Rugal adopts after obtain the Orochi power, this version is more of a what-if in a scenario where he controlled the power of Orochi, using moves of his incarnations in KOF 95, 98, 02 and XV, algonside some inspiration of his God Rugal persona from CVS2. Basically a nerfed, playable version of Über Rugal.
* **Orochi Yashiro:** Yashiro Nanakase using his abilities has the Hakesshu of the Earth.
* **Orochi Chris:** Chris using his abilities has the Hakesshu of the Fire.
* **Orochi Shermie:** Shermie using his abilities has the Hakesshu of the Electricity.
* **Orochi Goenitz:** You can also name it "Nightmare Goenitz", a spectre of the original one, without the needing of being chained to a mortal body Goenitz unleash all his power. This version of him isn't playable in any legal way.
* **Shin Orochi:** Orochi awakened once again but this time his reincarnation was in better conditions allowing him to use more of his power. This version of him isn't playable in any legal way.
* **Krizalid v2:** An upgraded version of Krizalid using the compilated information about the participants of the NESTS saga's tournaments that where listed has menaces. This version of him isn't playable in any legal way.
* **Zero v2 (Original):** An upgraded version of the original Zero who uses powered versions of his assistants (replacing Ron for a clone of him since he betrayed NESTS), his outfit is based on his BS form from KOF All Star. This version of him isn't playable in any legal way.
* **Ignizv2:** An upgraded version of Igniz who acquired more powerful technology to enhance his attacks, his outfit is based on his BS form from KOF All Star. This version of him isn't playable in any legal way.
* **Another Nameless:** An upgraded version of the original Nameless who stills under the control of NESTS, he can now uses the ice powers of his beloved Isolde who resides inside his arm. This version of him isn't playable in any legal way.
* **Shin Mukai:** Mukai using all his power has one of Those from The Past. This version of him isn't playable in any legal way.
* **Shin Magaki:** Magaki using all his power has one of Those from The Pasts. This version of him isn't playable in any legal way.
* **Shin Saiki:** Saiki using all his power has the leader of Those from the Pasts. This version of him isn't playable in any legal way.