The story mode will offer fans a view of the tale from the perspective of each of the game's playable characters. Said story will be influenced by your actions and the outcome of your fights. It's unclear if this means you'll be allowed to lose and continue the story, but that would certainly be an interesting twist. Aside from the story, players will also find Arcade, Versus, Practice, Tutorial, and Mission mode, which includes the requisite Challenge, Survival, Time Attack, and Trial Mode modes.

On the online front, you'll find the standard assortment of Ranked, Unranked, and Friend Match options, but the real draw here is the platform equality that was missing from the previous release. Where the PS3 version of King of Fighters XII offered players a fairly impressive clan system, while 360 players were given access to TrueSkill for match recording/sharing. There will no such platform divide in the sequel, though there's been no mention of either of these two features.

Often gameplay improvements are all it takes to sell preorder copies, but Atlus will be distributing the title's 4-disc soundtrack as a bonus for eager fans. Look for King of Fighters XIII this October.