The Timeline of Krohnen(Welcome Back, Holy $h1t!)

Good evening and happy holiday, gang! Yeah I've been gone for awhile. Long story short I was ill for most of the autumn it felt like and I didn't really have much time nor inclination for blogging as such, but I'm feeling a lot better now, at least.

And, well now, THIS is something that I did not expect to happen. I can't say I'm not pleasantly surprised, though. 

Welcome back, K9-ehm, welcome, Krohnen! Consider my expectations fucking shattered. 

So some of you might be newer to SNK and KOF, and don't know this character's(due to international copyright law, it's not)rather checkered history, including the fact he actually stopped existing for awhile. 

See, our boy Krohnen wasn't always like this. He started life as a complete rip-off of another character, become disappearing, ending up being replaced by another character, and then becoming his own. 

For fun, I'll give a brief rundown on what this character's timeline looked like. 

So the order of events, as I have managed to gather them up through various sources and books, plus my own memory of remembering the Eolith years:

-Eolith ends up taking over the IP for 2001/2002. 

-Eolith makes K9999, a total Tetsuo rip off down to his move names. Just with 'NESTS' scribbled in his background. Like full bore ''Original Character Donut Steel'' sorta levels of it only less shameless. His move names were literally lines from the movie. How they never got in trouble for this was beyond me. 

-SNK gets control back, and eventually strikes him from existence. The last time I actually saw him featured in something was a page of the Perfect Reader, which was released in 2005, and then in the Character Encyclopedia, he was struck to a silhouette(sorry for the phone picture, but I don't want to break the binding on these)

                                           You can see him there on the NESTS relationship tree.

-2k2UM comes into play, and they make a new guy to take his place. He's in a DM, BUT he's got a backstory that fits in(which was different than K9999's...who to be frank didn't have too much as it was since he was, again, a Tetsuo knock-off), and it's different from K9999's, so they could conceivably both exist in the narrative, I imagine, with a few tweaks. (Nameless had a small spot in the Character Encyclopedia, putting his creation at probably somewhere around 2007, if I had to guess. You'd have to ask them for an exact date, though.)

Now that basically was the history up to Nameless' creation. However, behind the scenes, the developers acted a lot more hostile to K9999 than they seemingly actually were. I and many others always figured that they could just like, redesign the character, since the fact he was a Tetsuo rip-off was his problem, not the fact he was a NESTS creation. But, Nameless continued to be used in a lot of side material-licensed mobile games, card games, and the like, making it almost look like Nameless was the dude they'd be using in the lore as his replacement(in the actual series, he seems to be, for lack of a better term, Schrodinger's Canon, since he was written in, but has yet to appear in a canon game). 

Fast forward to 2016, when during an interview, Oda was quoted as saying, "Maybe one day we'll find out what happened to Ángel's partner K9999." In some of the lore, it seemed that Ángel was used as the NESTS traitor instead, and K9999 wasn't even mentioned. 

So fast forward even further-amid rumors that his name was forbidden(which, I mean, was kinda believable among the fact they actually struck him from the books and such)...we suddenly get this trailer dropped on us during the announcement for the Open Beta test on December 17(oh yeah, we're getting another PS4/PS5 Beta! Just an FYI.)

                                   That crouch has entirely too much asshole energy and I love it.

And I couldn't believe my goddamn eyes. Somehow they managed to keep this behind the scenes. 

Now, granted, this dude got a hell of a makeover. Which, well, he actually *needed.* His big problem was his overall appearance...move set, voice and...yeah the whole fact he was freaking Tetsuo Shima. There was no way he was coming back in that old form(despite some people insisting he come back in that old form.) 

Personally, I think his makeover is about perfect. And it actually shows him as, once again, becoming his own character, rather than be a ripoff cut and pasted into the game. 

While I can't speak to the developers' ideas on this, for me, I can say what the redesign says to me:

-His outfit shows his interest in biking and motorcycles(he was shown in a picture on one once back in the day). They took this one aspect about him and turned it into an interest, which really helps his character. His outfit has patches on it(shows interest), though keeps his old color scheme, including some of the tattered red cape(maybe as a reminder?) The goggles? Also biker oriented, and fitting. The leather, the big boots. And in a design sense, separates him visually from the old. (His face changed, too, though I guess that can be an easy enough retcon.) The worn glove shows he's been on the road for awhile(yet the thing is still somehow intact.)

-The long hair is awesome. I know some liked the older style, but besides being a little biased toward the long-haired look, I like how it almost seems like he's trying to differentiate himself from the other clones, who all tend toward having the messy, shorter hair like he used to have. (Krizalid's is more styled, K's has a case of 'clearly doesn't care, takes scissors to it when bored.') It's almost like he's trying to look like his own person too. (And on a meta standpoint, it separates him even more visually.) 

-He looks more full cyborg now. I'm not sure how they're going to explain this-did he get an upgrade? Did they retcon him to always be like that? (And this is definitely some cyborg stuff, his arm has actual lights on them). Did he choose to get himself outfit in basically full metal to get rid of the nasty bio-stuff they did/to try to forget? Will be interesting to see his story, but as a huge fan of Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020 on tabletop I really love the cyborg stuff. How much of his body is changed over? His legs even maybe look bulkier under those cargos(which can be be bulky anyway), but I almost wonder if those are metal now too? Does he have some eye mods under those goggles? He also looks a lot bulkier than the almost-scrawny predecessor(clothing or not, you can tell) which makes me wonder if he gave his full body over, or if he just worked out a lot more or something. 

-His belt, as you can see above in the full model, was the NESTS belt...that's been carved up with a knife, easily showing that he's no longer a part of them nor wants to be a part of him. So he treated it violently like he does with everything(he did still keep the short-tempered, violent attitude, which at least is something that's his and capable of carrying over.) 

-Curious to see if his name was chosen by him to escape, or if someone gave it to him and he kept it. (I doubt NESTS cared about naming him.) 

Just those few things alone work well. My big question is...why didn't they do this to begin with? How long were they planning this? I imagine due to Nameless' creation, this may not have been on their mind in the late '00s, but maybe around XIV's era? (Since that was there the interview was.) Well, better late than never, I suppose? It just feels so weird to retcon a character, create another character, and then redesign the first character instead of just redesigning him in the first place. (Perhaps there were some leftover feelings, perhaps it was a case of them getting back on their feet, so a redesign of a single character made up when they didn't have the IP was one of the last of their concerns at the moment-I wouldn't be surprised if it was that last thing. 

Besides the full cyborg looking set, he also has the fire(instead of the dust/energy stuff), which, of course, fits his status, given he had the fire abilities given to him, fits a lot more(since, again, the other stuff seemed lifted from Tetsuo.) They do refer to him as an 'Exceptional Esper', which generally means someone with weird abilities, but, well, given that's like everyone in KOF...yeah. Right now he seems to look like a 'Technological/Clone Fire User'. Hoping sooner than later we get the deal with him. (He probably controls his arm through a mix of electronics/cybernetics and powers, I'd imagine.) 

So Azzy, what's your take?

I'll be honest-I was indifferent on K9999. I wasn't a huge fan back then, but I wasn't a hater either; he was just there for me. I wasn't really into 2001, nor 2002 Vanilla(wasn't really into how they played, their aesthetic and the like, and I think part of me was a little bit sad about SNK losing the game back then), and the character himself, while I'm a big fan of Akira, just was...a ripoff. Again, Donut Steel. Copypaste. Yeah, Benimaru is inspired by Polnareff, and Heidern by the Colonel(Hokuto no Ken), but this was shameless, 'I'm surprised the lawyers weren't on him.' There was nothing there that really endeared me to the character. 

But I love his glow-up. As you see above, the little things they did took a character who wasn't even theirs, and turned them into one that was, while still keeping ''NESTS Construct'' as part of his background. Everything I listed above goes into why I really love this redesign. 

I enjoy Nameless for who he is(I liked his backstory, his design was decent, and he was fun to play in 2k2UM), but I'm really sold on this guy. I really can't wait to try him this weekend to see how he feels in a system I like to play. His gameplay seems to keep his moves(his drill still hits OTG, and I really hope he keeps his curb stomp since that fits the hotheaded bastard to a T), so I really wanna get my hands on him. He scratches all of that cyberpunk itch for me, where the old one didn't really do anything to really attach me to the character like it did others(I love a good shout-out like anyone, but this just carried over too far into the other direction.) 

I admit that I figured a redesign would work, but I didn't think they'd do it, since I figured they already did it with Nameless, but it turns out perhaps they got other ideas a few years later. But I was not only surprised, I was pleasantly surprised, since I don't think I've been so excited about a character redesign since like, ever, almost. Re-designs can be hit or miss(hell, I like everyone have favorite 'eras' of characters, like Benimaru's NESTS outfits, Kyo's Ash outfits, and so on), but I can't think of one that hit so well in ages, to be honest. I hope he clicks well with me(I can see myself using him as a backup at the very least, but we'll see if his playstyle clicks with me enough to push into the Main Crew Level.)

While I'm still waiting for Adelheid(and will be waiting for Adel until I GET Adel, which I imagine will be DLC by now, but I don't mind waiting), I'll indeed be quite happy to check this guy out and hopefully invite him into my main pile. I also look forward to seeing how his story develops. How will the others react to him? How much did he and Ángel miss each other? Why will the 3rd be who they are(if it's Kula, did they retcon the fact he or Angel hurt Foxy? If it's Whip, was she sent there due to Heidern sending her? If it's Maxima, did he join to keep an eye?) 

(And to people who wanted his old design; I get it, I get being attached to something at first, but his design was his biggest problem, and without a redesign, you likely never would have seen this character again. He would have been stuck in retconned limbo forever. If you wanted this character back, he needed a new look, a new identity, and I expect some renamed moves, even if he kept them. If you wanted this character back, he was going to need to come with a new identity.) 

In any case, welcome(back-ish) to the fold, Krohnen. Congrats on beating the Tetsuo allegations, and may your new, improved cyborg design and asshole energy actually stick around for years to come. 

Guesses for KOF XV, as of mid October, using some character relationships

 Alright, folks are in big guessing mode, so I'm going back to this guessing thing, using my usual guessing method that has served me well so far: Narrative and character connections. I've had a surprisingly good hit rate so far using this method(no one's been 100% but it's been solid), so I figure I'll keep using it. 

So here are my final guesses for who will be filling out these last teams. I feel like the six we get will come from these:

Basically, this is who has connections to who we have in, OR the potential Sound Beach stage(but see below.) I just listed everyone pretty objectively here. Some characters are connected to more, other less, but they all have connections(Adel is connected to both Heidern AND Ash, while Duo Lon and Shen are more Ash-connected, etc.)

Oh yeah, here's an interview with Famitsu: It states that we will be getting two more 'surprises' which I'll get to at the end, what I think that means(spoiler: two pre-XIV characters.) 

So let me first address the two elephants in the room I see mostly when it comes to the discussion: the Sound Beach stage and last game's DLC: 

Sound Beach Night:

This stage was featured in Blue Mary's trailer, which released a week before the delay was announced. This is sort of important to recognize; since it has not been seen SINCE Mary's trailer, as well. The fact is these trailers are probably made somewhat ahead of time-while I can't say for sure how much, but I'd say 3-4 weeks if I had to guess, going by the time Luong's was uploaded at the same time as Mary's, which happened two weeks before her own trailer. So knowing all of this, Mary's trailer was probably getting made before the delay was happening. 

Which meant that this stage may be connected to one of the DLC teams, if one of those teams were originally planned for the roster but had to be pushed back. I can't say for sure, and I doubt we'll ever find out regardless, but this is just a hunch I have given how we have never seen that stage again since then. 

Now, I still feel there is a chance this is the last stage! But I'm saying it *might be* tied to a DLC team instead, so I'll be giving more than one set of guesses. 

Last Game's DLC:

While I myself once thought we'd be getting all the DLC main cast, I no longer think that's the case for several reasons. For one, in about every interview I've seen, they've discussed this game as if it is following a heavy narrative. They discuss 'Key Characters' to the storylines, and make a big point of showing important saga characters.

The DLC has a few characters which, while people might LIKE them, are not important to the sagas. 

Plus, as listed above, we're getting 'a couple more surprises.' Now I've narrowed this down as said above, but that also puts a big damper on this theory. On TOP of that, it requires things like Kula being DLC(highly unlikely; no, not impossible, but guessing and predictions are based on likelihood and I don't see it as likely) to make room, as well as things like Rock teaming with Yamazaki, which, while not impossible, needs a lot of behind the scenes stuff and I'm failing to see how this connects with the important saga stuff at all. 

FINALLY, I feel like the push on important sagas re: Heroes and Rivals, that's another reason I think Kula won't be DLC-she's the rival of NESTS. 

Do I think some DLC will be main still? Yeah, I think if Heidern gets his own team Whip will be there likely with him, but I think Rock is going to be KOF's version of Baiken so they can just keep selling him, I don't see Najd back due to the fan character thing and I feel like Oswald is someone else that could end up sitting this out totally without being sold again.

So with those two things out of the way, here are my guesses, again, based on the character relationships and narrative above: 

Rivals Team: Isla, Delores(Braids Lady's apparent name), Kukri. 

This is simply because Kukri seems to be aligning with them narratively. Heidern wouldn't just join them to investigate I think-if he had to investigate them, he'd do it through someone else since otherwise it's far too "HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KOFFERS?" I can't really think of anyone else who can fit them atm, since the 2 surprises do not lean toward new characters thanks to how some of it was translated. Also, Kukri's clothing designs matches that of the braids lady(and they both have long, bluish-white braids, funny that), so I almost feel like they could be connected. So this is my guess for this. (Backup: Kukri will be with Ash and Betty, like the original guesses have been doing, including my own-I changed my own after Gamescom.) 

K' Team: Most likely K', Kula, and Maxima. ALTERNATELY: Possibly K', Kula, and maybe Heidern, IF Heidern doesn't have his own team. I do NOT think Kula is likely DLC like some, because I feel that breaks the narrative they've been pushing of Important Saga Characters, and I believe that each main Saga Team will include at least the Hero and the Rival of each saga, which means K' and Kula. Keep in mind I am firmly and thoroughly in the 'DO NOT SEPARATE K' TEAM, THEY COME AS A SET' camp, but I *have* to allow for the Heidern possibility. 

I know people like to guess Whip here, but I'm just far too iffy about Kula being DLC. I just feel like it doesn't fit the narrative, and I feel like she's not a DLC type. I think they're going to put the Hero and Rival on the team, at least. If Whip isn't with Heidern, she may end up DLC later.

Ash Team: This gets a little more complicated since it's based on where Heidern is. I think Ash and Betty are two, with Betty being one of the possible 'surprises'(despite being one of the most predicted characters). The final member I feel like will either be Duo Lon, Shen, Adel, or Oswald, if Adel is not on Heidern's team(see below.) All of these characters have narrative ties to that saga(the former two teaming with Ash, Adel as the co-protagonist of the saga). Duo Lon, Adel or Shen would ALL tick the 'Surprise' button, since they're all pre-XIV, and quite popular at that. 

Oswald isn't impossible here, but I feel like Duo Lon or Shen have better narrative ties to Ash and Betty if Adel is with Heidern; Oswald only teamed one time with Ash, and it was for convenience, and he doesn't really know Betty, either.  That being said, if Betty IS considered one of the 'surprises', and Adel's over with Heidern? Yeah, Oswald might fit here after all, even WITH his flimsier narrative ties. But again, that depends if Betty is considered a 'surprise' or not. Which we have no idea. She won't surprise ME, but maybe others feel differently. 

Adel being the 3rd would cover Protag, Rival, and Co-Protag very well(even nailing the Joker, Queen, and King songs from XI while they're at it.) 

Heidern: I believe Heidern has a good chance of having his own team, and narratively, Whip and Adelheid would be his two most appropriate teammates. He's had a thing going with Adel for ages which I've posted pictures of before but I will again just because:

He was meant to be playable in XIII but had to cut him because of resources, he's popular, and he's very possibly tied to the story right now. So for me I feel like if Heidern has his team, this is whose gonna be on it, IMHO, and Adel CERTAINLY ticks the 'Surprise' button, as said. That said, yes, I could see him on another team-K's team more likely, but he COULD end up as the third on Ash, in which case, again, see the Sound Beach section(this is far less likely though, I think.) 

There is a chance, as I said, Adel ends up the third with Ash/Betty, in which case I can't say the 3rd if Heidern's on his own team. I don't think it would be anyone too special, though-possibly just someone from XIV who could be crammed there. (THAT being said, if Adel is with Ash/Betty, I do not think Heidern is getting his own team as much. It's a big connection thing.) 

Sound Beach Night: IF Sound Beach Night ends up as a team in the MAIN roster, I think it'll likely be Kim's(Gang-Il, Jhun, the latter especially if Heidern is with Ash, or if Heidern is with K' and they use Oswald for the third on Ash), or some sort of Yamazaki/Billy based team, or maybe Rock or something, but I...kinda feel like Rock, again, is going to be their 'Baiken' in which I feel like they're just going to be selling him. So if this stage belongs to a team, I'm feeling the Kim/Jhun/Gang-Il combo since that covers a potential 'Surprise.' If Heidern's with K', Adel's with Ash, then this team would probably be all made up of XIV characters who might fit the stage. 

But I'm kinda admittedly leaning toward Heidern getting his own team, thanks to how the cover has him set up next to Ash(a team leader), and K'(a team leader.) 

DLC Set 1: Kim's team will be one if he's not on the Sound Beach thing, and I think we'll find Angel somewhere here too. Keep in mind I sort of believe these two teams were meant for the main roster, but ended up cut because none of the other characters/teams really could be due to the heavy focus on narrative. 

Yes, I think Kim can be DLC. Mai was console only in XI, after all, as was Robert. I don't think he's 100% safe. 

DLC Set 2: Really depends on things, but I think if Duo Lon or Shen don't get used, we could see that Dragon Spirit team with them and Kensou? Possibly a non-canon boss team, as well, where they just smash together three fav bosses like Geese, Rugal and Goenitz in a not-narratively likely but totally off the books team. 

A team with Rock/Shingo or something is also possible and would probably sell gangbusters. In fact I'm pretty sure we'll see Rock and Shingo show up *somewhere* on DLC, I just dunno if it'll be in the first group or the second. 

--

Anyway, those are my guesses. Again, I've had a pretty good guess rate so far-I've hit most of the characters and even like five of the teams(I had guessed King on AoF on my first pass even! Only teams I missed were Agents, GAW and WT and even those I had nailed who two would be together, though to be fair that wasn't too hard. I also said that we wouldn't be getting too many XIV newcomers back on the initial roster-and it seems that I was, indeed, correct there as well. 

I could totally be wrong here, though-wouldn't be the first or last time(I and many have been wrong on how big the initial roster would be, for example) but this is what I'm sticking with since the guessing method has worked alright so far.

I guess we'll see in a couple months? (You know they're going to drag this out, heh.) 

TGS! New character trailer. Stealth K' trailer drop! Gameplay bits! Demo! Stuff!

Well I'm not going on a ton of sleep here, but I'll see what I can put together. We got a lot of stuff today! This is mostly going to be me compiling stuff from around online and then bullshitting about it as I usually do. 

For starters, we got a bunch o' info at TGS about KOF XV! For starters I'll just link the stream here, if you happened to miss it. It's a bit of a long watch, but you can jump around. 

It has a slightly updated trailer, and it goes over some of the gameplay basics, as well as has some people playing an eight-character demo(consisting of Iori, Kyo, Leona, Athena, Mai, Shun'ei, Terry, and Isla, the new rival girl.) Speaking of which, we have her trailer here!

Now I'll be honest; she's not really my cuppa tea. Moveset doesn't really look like, well, too 'Azzy' and neither does her aesthetic. Still, she's vibrant, seems to fit the cast alright(in terms of more modern games, I mean I'm still kinda old school admittedly, if designs are busy I prefer them more 'Elaborate' than 'Loud' for lack of a better term.) I mean I find her pretty inoffensive, it looks like she'd drop into League or something. I'm sure she'll find a few players, even if she's not really what I'm looking for. The hands are pretty cool, though, and she apparently greets them as 'Amanda' which is interesting. The spray-paint super is pretty funny and troll-like, I'll give them. 

They mentioned ''Surprises'' in the presentation today. I'll get back to that(character wise.) 

So as the day went on, we got to see bits and pieces of trailers. Like Iori's win screen! 

A gorgeous Athena alt color:

                                             These make my King of Fantasy self very happy.

We also got to see some bits on the Max Mode. The Blue(Neutral) max does indeed get a much bigger bar, as you can see from these three comparison pics I'm about to post; the red bar is what the anchor Quick/Red max looks like from the website. The smaller Blue bar is what the Point Neutral caps at. 

                                            

(Despite it saying 3 in the 2nd and 3rd, the activation is 2 bars, so they had five. The top bar was definitely done on a point character in the video.) 

So Neutral Max bar is just plain bigger. Both of them seem to grant free level 1's-the Quick *seems* to end it(maybe it just uses so much of it it ends up ending it), but the Blue does not end on super. Blue is where you can connect three of them; I have not seen yet how much a level 2 or 3 costs in Blue max. I'll get back to people on that one. But what seems to happen is that it just costs a chunk of the mode to use a super. Which means maybe Ash could, say, pop Sans-Culotte for some meter, and do his wreckage with increased damage and guard crush(which only Blue offers), and then when that mode wears out, if he still has regular meter, he's free to pop Sans-Culotte again(the Max Mode meter seems to have a cooldown on it, I'm not sure of how long that is.) And continue more fun? Yeah this has some potential; I definitely can't wait to lab the game. 

I'm going to also point out in the video, the developers pointed out specifically how they geared things to get away from XIV's issues, like cr. B fishing into Max Mode. By making it more expensive, that helped a lot, and splitting the max modes into two, I think they already well started on their way. The fact they targeted this(as well as making sure the game has rollback!) shows they do, indeed, care a lot. 

Shatter Strike definitely looks fun-and strong, I think the fact it costs an entire bar to use(tho refunds half on hit) is probably necessary. This is, however, going to I think counterbalance people from spamming those ''When in Doubt'' EX moves, which I think, at only half a bar, could get a little out of control themselves. The meter is going to be working quite a bit, I think, between Shatter Strike needing one to activate, EX moves taking half, and both Max Modes needing two to activate, along with supers still costing if you aren't in max mode, of course.

I see some are skeptical about it and I get why, but I sorta feel like it's in there to help vs. the EX's that are going to get spammed the second someone has half a bar. 

Some other neat things, gleaned around Twitter and compiled for your perusal. Speaking of those awesome EX's:

Iori's EX dp+K just happens to have projectile invuln. 

Reddit had discovered the old CH system back, which was skipped in XIV.  That's good news, IMO. 

Some Climaxes. Leona's, Athena's, Iori's, and Terry's. All look fantastic(Leona's Rebel Spark remains a very iconic one for her-it's short and simple, but she's about precision), but Iori's takes the cake; it's so...visceral and it ends so damn brutally. I've watched it for like five hours now. 

On the site, we got a preview of Classic Leona! I admit, I'm one of those weirdos who loves her new outfit because I like the military longer trousers with the tank top, but this IS a great outfit and I know a lot of people love it. 

Then, we made an interesting discovery. Someone was posting a cool video showing color variants on Reddit, when it occurred to us that the Character Select theme was the theme that played in Kukri's Trailer, which I actually forgot to link since I forgot to blog about it since I don't really play him. Oops. 

                                                        

                                Better late than never? Something something Fetishism Explosion?

Okay I'll give them credit: I like the fact they leaned harder on Kukri's troll side. To be honest after SNKH I kinda think even if the game itself was some fever dream and only the endings were canon, it's probably their best bet. And to be honest he looks pretty fun? Not really my type of character, again, but it seems Kukri fans are happy with what they gave him. 

Anyway, listen closely and you can hear things. This is a fairly decent discovery; a lot of us, pre-Gamescom, were pinning him for Ash's team. After Gamescom, however, we started to have a change of heart, seeing how the Rival and the Braids Lady(apparently named Delores), are teamed; I would assume so hearing in the trailer how she says ''I call the shots.'' It may be a hint. When having a good look at Kukri, though, and seeing the braid, and the decorations on his clothing, and how it matches with some of the decorations on Delores' stuff(as well as the braid...), I think there may be some Verse Connection stuff happening. Besides that, he simply doesn't fit that snow stage, like, at all. The teams we've seen so far all at least decently match their stages well; GAW in the ring, I think the Agents fit a shady night stage, Treasures fit Esaka, CYS the Concert Hall, and so on. 

Kukri sticks out like a sore thumb on that snow stage. I won't say it's impossible, but given all the info I have now? I'm leaning stronger toward Rivals. 

Anyway, again, the day went on. More little things pop up, like Terry's Rising Tackle being back to a dp motion, and Kyo's RED kick having its notation changed slightly. You can peruse the move lists here, if you're curious. 

Suddenly, as I was checking my feed debating the best way to shoot the concentrated caffeine into my veins so my eyes would stay open, and I thought I was hallucinating due to lack of sleep, I thought I saw K's trailer pop up. Okay, maybe it's just from the big trailer? Nope, apparently they just up and stealth-dropped K's trailer! 

                                                            Welcome back, K of Dash. 

Fashionably late as always, probably hitting his snooze alarm and not wanting to be here at all, his trailer on the other hand looks awesome. He's got 6K back from XI which is awesome to see, and his dp follow up looks sooo good. 

                                                            Remember this, XI fans? 

He's going to be fun by the look and I gladly have him on my backup crew for certain. He's K', but better, and I swear this looks like it's going to be one of the more fun K's to play in a while. But man that was a good trailer surprise. The initial announcements said "characters", plural, but after just seeing the one this morning for Isla, I figured that'd have been it. But K' literally woke up and chose violence, as we all expect him to. 

I guess that's somewhat it for now in terms of footage and pictures! I am still going to be combing my feed over the next couple of days for more fight footage, but right now running on low sleep and a lot of info I think it'd probably be better if I broke this up. 

So are we any closer to the teams? 

Well, not quite. Maybe a little, with the revelation the song in Kukri's trailer was the character select. 

But otherwise, we know Ash, K' and Isla are all on their own teams, they DID Mention there are 13 teams, so we know that bottom team isn't solo, and they just have not shown Heidern yet, except for the one Gematsu render. And we still have several weeks of announcements, probably bi-weekly. To be honest, while I can see them closing off the Rival team sooner than later, since I think that team has less 'weight' behind it since it's not going to involve returns and will involve the newcomers by the look, I feel like it'll be the others they want to keep us waiting on. 

Basically, here's where I'm at. Looking at this setup I have here, look at the top two rows, and pick six. That's who is likely going to cap off the roster. They did mention in that trailer some 'Surprises', and so if there are surprises still after bringing CYS back from the dead and Ash back from another timeline, we may well get a doozy on one of these teams. 

Basically those last three rows are just mentioned, but I think the six will come from the top 2 rows. We also don't know a few things like-is that initial DLC supposed to have been in the initial roster(which I almost think it was?) Is it story based? This would answer some questions. 

I would prepare for some high-end trolling, though. With birthdays coming up of characters(which they may or may not follow), just be prepared for them to sprinkle a bunch of characters in that everyone's going to fight about. 

That said, please give up on that atrocious Angel/Kula/Sylvie team. Good lord, why would you even attempt that. Edit team, sure, but as a canon story team? Please, read some lore. Even a little. Sylvie's afraid of Angel. Kula and Angel hate each other. A story team with rivals needs *someone* to kinda tie them together. K' stopping Kula and Angel throwing hands? Sure, that can work, though not optimal. Chizuru with Kyo and Iori? Yeah that works due to like, a long time clan responsibility and such. 

Ideally, K' team will stick together, though I hope they don't try something silly and swap out Maxima for Angel or Heidern(the latter of which I really think should have his own team, and it could well be they wanna sit on that team.) At least Heidern being there would make some better narrative sense, if they *must* swap it, so long as they put Adel on Ash team's third to get that team going or something. ;p 

BUT I digress. Predictions and wishes aside(FWIW I think Ash Team will most likely be Betty and then either Duo Lon, Shen, or Adel, Heidern's team if he has his own will indeed be Adel and Whip, if not, he's more likely with K', and that last team goes to South Town Something), they're gonna leave us hanging. (I will say I will stick by my guess of, out of these last six, two or three of them are going to be from before XIV, since I feel like those are the best to sit on, to book-end getting some comebacks at the start, and some comebacks at the end.) 

And I think that's a wrap for now!

OH YEAH A BONUS! It's not KOF XV related, but KOF 98UMFE related. This winter...

WE CAN REJOICE. 98 fans can now continue playing one of the best KOFs(certainly my personal favorite), only this time, with proper netcode-especially since we know Code Mystics does a hell of a good job on it. 

Yes indeed, today has been a good day. 

If you want to make things even better, now, SNK, moving forward...

AND Officially: Ash Crimson Trailer, Breakdown and Discussion!

It's Ash! Officially! I feel like I've been prepping for this day for the entire year, like-we knew he'd be back, but seeing him back, and then seeing his trailer, finally cinched it all into place. It's been ages since Chris' trailer, and for awhile I was starting to get some serious fatigue on getting only XIV returns, and craved a pre XIV return. And we got him. Boy, did we. 

ANYWAY, it already welcomed him back, now let's break down his trailer! 

                                                       Just look at this glorious bastard.

So while it might be far, far too early to tell anything concrete, of course, we can at least take a look-see onto maybe what this new system could potentially do for the guy.

Just for a quick sidetrack: Lets first take a look at the stage: it's pretty gorgeous. I admit I'm kinda biased here, living in Northern Europe and usually getting crap in regards to fighting game stages in games(we got the Santa Village stage in TTT2), and while you CAN see Northern Lights in more places than just the far north(You can see them at the northern borders of Central Europe as well), I'm pretty happy we're getting...something that resembles kind of close to where I live. (I have no idea what country this is. It could just as well be the northern edge of Germany or the Netherlands as it can one of the Northern European countries.) So this could be interesting at least given that it looks like his team is tied to it(whoever that is, will discuss at the end.) 

As for his moves, it runs down a fair few standard Ash moves which are still intact from previous versions; he does have a new teleport move which looks pretty damn fast at a glance, and I almost thought his j. CD was a new move at first glance, but it feels like they ever so slightly revamped the animation to look more like a kick than the arm swipe. Which I kinda like better to be honest? 

His EX Pluviose (Level 2) super has an added hit at the end with the extra kick for a nice flair. It also feels like it ends with the opponent being close enough that something else can be added to it? Like it doesn't look like Iori drops all that far away at all. That said it may be too much recovery, BUT this could mean a lot of meaty setup potential(that can get really ugly with Blue Max increased damage and guard crush.) 

Nivose itself as we see is still going to AA you and this time he'll have access to an EX Nivose at any given time for only half a bar, rather than a full bar, so that's more added fun. And whatever's up with that climax hitbox? I'm pretty sure the rule vs. Ash is just going to be ''Don't Jump.'' 

     ...The last time a hitbox was seen this big was some 90s nonsense and this is bigger than that. (I'd be praying for Adel's God Press I-frames right now.) 

They DID cut off the end of that climax though-I kinda hope it ends with a big Nivose or something at the end to give it a big impact, or at least something that gives it more impact since a couple of the climaxes have ended a little lightly(like Shun'ei's.)

I think a few of his animations do lean on the stiff side, but I'm not too concerned at the moment since they have improved things on other animations so far, and still a WIP, etc. I don't seem to see as much stiffness as some, but I do see some? I'm just not registering it as heavily somehow. 

Ash *himself* looks freaking amazing. The detail on his jeans(jeans, I know), the boots, the leather and the fur. He still looks like he does not care at all about you when fighting, knowing he's probably more powerful than you anyway(yeah guys like it or not this prettyboy can probably take apart half the KOF cast, deal with it.) They even went as far as to detail his specific nails with different designs, which is a fantastic, and very extra/Ash-like, level of detail:

In the end we're getting Ash, but I feel like he may be able to drop into this new system rather nicely. While we haven't gotten to see matches, and only have the website and some of the initial trailer to go on, there's some things I feel that lean toward positive with him.

So what I have on my mind is first this blue max mode:

This mode, on anchor, lasts a long time. It's description on the site reads how you can activate for two bars, and for the duration, a characters attack and Guard Crush strength increases. Now I'm imagining Sans-Culotte in this mode and it's actually pretty terrifying. In XIII it was kept in check by doing piddly damage. I do not think it's going to be doing as piddly damage in this. While it's hard to say I'm wondering if Ash can activate Blue Max, activate a lower-cost S-C, go into his shenanigans with a damage boost, and activate it again in that time period? Will he have enough time? Supers don't end that Blue Max mode, only Climaxes do, so that will certainly be interesting. 

Can S-C interact with Red Max mode? That seems to end on super in Clark's trailer(we don't know enough there yet, either), but here I think it might depend on how long S-C lasts. Can he pop S-C, get a quick max hit and then start going into shenanigans? I feel like S-C would be stronger the other way due to the damage boost but it's worth considering how it can interact. 

I also feel that he's just going to have strong specials with being able to fire them off cheaper with half-bar EX's. Having access to a half dozen easy EX Nivose's will probably highly deter jumping in(even the non-EX ones do that), and we know what can happen in a KOF game when someone gets very good AA's at their disposal. With his damage likely better this time around(just a gut feeling), this could be a rather intense version of our sneering troll. 

In any case, at the end of the month at TGS we're going to have a 50 minute rundown, in which I have no idea what we're going to get. The rest of the roster? A Beta announcement? The rest of Ash's team? Some live matches? I have no idea, I hope it's at least some of the above. 

Ash's team?

Ash's team, IMHO, has the most variance of any other team right now. I'm going to sorta go over each possibility, and then the ''But...'' along with it as a counterpoint, since all the apparent members have that, too. Also keep in mind his stage: this stage is not a stage that fits just everyone. Also, he returned in the Carpathian Mountains, which are not typically places that you see the Northern Lights in, unless they took some geographical liberties(which they very well may have.) But still, see above-I feel like we're looking at a stage somewhere in the north part of Europe(Northern Germany), or further up, possibly. 

Keep in mind for these guesses, I am assuming memories are going to be jogged. He has the Treasure powers, and as such I feel like they are going to be handwaving away any memory loss for ease of storytelling, so they don't have like, a couple people running around with knowledge, and a bunch of people not, and one with partial knowledge in terms of Heidern since he saw his name on the list, and so on. 

Elisabeth Blanctorche: Betty is, without a doubt, a most likely 2nd teammate. After the ending, in the manga, it's her best childhood friend, those heartrending pictures in XIII endings that made everyone shed Kenshiro levels of tears. She's most likely, IMO, going to be with him. She's also the rival of Ash Saga, and they seem keen on building up Protags and Rivals on teams in this game(in the case of XIV, on other teams, but the XIV rivals haven't, erm, 'de-rivaled' yet.) It is hard to picture a scenario without her being on his team right now, admittedly. 

But...

There is a scenario where Ash may not want to expose Betty to potential dangers, and ends up teaming with two different people. This could be Heidern and Adel, it could be Duo Lon and Shen, but there's a chance that he goes off on his own, even if it's less likely. 

Kukri: An oft picked 3rd member of his team thanks to XIV's ending, I could see this happening if they go directly *from* XIV's ending. That being said, we don't quite know exactly how long it's been since XIV, how tied to Ash or Betty Kukri truly is(was it just a job? Was there more?), or what. He just seemed to, at the time, be an easy guess.

But...

As said, I'm really not sure how much connection he truly has. Plus, the rival team had changed my mind. His decorations are similar to Glasses Lady's decorations, and the fact in XIV he was set up as Shun'eis first rival-they had a theme and everything-lets me think that he may well be on the Rival Team as a 3rd instead, if they don't get a newcomer and he's in. But right now, I feel like hints are pointing further away from this one. Also, with TGS coming up this month, I feel like he's not going to really be hype enough to put there-and if he's 2nd, then Betty's guess would probably come too easy(and if Kukri is with Ash, I can't see anyone other than Betty there.) Plus, he's not from the Ash Saga, and I *almost* feel like they want to place three Ash Saga characters on this team(unless Heidern does not have his own team.) 

Oswald: Oswald is another common pick, since he was with Ash in XI(More of an alliance of convenience), and he has a XIV model. Which are decent enough reasons. It would get Oswald back in to maybe get some story, and he'd probably get on alright with Elisabeth. Not really much to say here that's too deep, all in all? He'd make a pretty easy slot in for this, plus he's liked enough to bring back, I'd say, even if he falls behind some of the heavier hitters of Ash Saga like Shen, Duo Lon, or Adel. 

But...

Well, exactly that. There's nothing much here. Again, his XI appearance seemed to be a thing of convenience(he needed the Dragon Pills so he needed money), but his appearance in XIV wasn't actually canon, so he's sort of on flimsy ground. Arguably flimsier ground than Kukri in ways. He'd basically need a reason to come back after XI's mess, which they could write, but I feel like his spot is far from guaranteed, and I feel like people are picking him on basis of ''Has a Model'' instead of ''Actually has a solid story with the characters.'' Which I'll be honest-I'm not sure if they're going to do this time. It's definitely a 'But.' He also, finally, barely knows Elisabeth. Ash would have little reason to contact him, I think, and I'm not sure why Elisabeth would contact him over someone more tied to the plot. 

Shen Woo: Shen is a very well requested and well-liked character, who has a background in the entire Ash Saga from start to finish(and if they wanted to keep the team Ash Saga related, it would work.) He teamed with Ash twice, and finally in XIII he was on the Rival Team with Betty and Duo Lon. He could end up being tied in somewhere with this crew again; Maybe Betty contacts him, maybe she contacts both him and Duo Lon and Shen was free to come, maybe Shen finds out he's alive again, but there's definitely a lot of grounding with this guy to easily fit on this team. Hell, in the event Betty isn't there, it's a small, but not impossible, chance they reassemble 03 Hero Team, though I feel like the stage is pointing against that at the moment. 

But...

He may have some beef with Ash after XI, and usually Shen likes to beat someone up first before the beef is gone. *That* said, he seemed quite respectful toward Elisabeth in the end, so I don't think this would come into play. I think his biggest disadvantage is just 'no model', so I'd wonder. Plus I wonder if they'd want him on a DLC Dragon Spirit team. But all in all he doesn't have many negatives. 

Adelheid Bernstein: My boy does have quite a lot of story here to be potentially on his team, as well as being a well liked and requested pick. For one, it was Ash that gave him the hints necessary that had he and Heidern working together to solve the issue with Rose Stadium. He'd know Heidern(if he's on the team), or Betty(if she's on the team; He was XI's midboss, and Rivals won that tournament, which had Duo Lon, Elisabeth and Benimaru, so they'd probably have had to get past him at some point. He was the other protagonist of Ash Saga as that has been mentioned a lot(Dev's own words), and that would stick with the ''Heroes of all Sagas'' bit. He's ALSO got beef with Those from the Past, who Ash could probably point him at, and given Heidern's involvement with finding Ash, there could be a request *from him* to join Ash's team. Finally, Ash, Betty, and Adel would cover Ash Saga the best, I feel, with Protag, Rival, and Co-Protag. So it's definitely a viable team with more angles than a lot of the other ones mentioned. 

But...

Well, his narrative ties are good, but some feel that the 'was in XIV' is more of an advantage. Plus, if Heidern has his own team, I do think he'd have priority there than with Ash(Again, like I feel like Shen would have more priority on a Dragon Spirit DLC team.) Like Shen, he doesn't have too many negatives, though-I'd say the 'More Likely on Heidern's team if he has his own' thing is the biggest. 

Duo Lon: Another character with a lot of ties to Ash, he won XI, possibly won XIII with Rivals(as well as Shen and Betty), they were the ones who fought Dark Ash. His ties to the Ash Saga run pretty deep, even though his whole thing is more going vs. Ron. He, like Shen, seemed to respect Elisabeth's greeting, and it was clear by the end Duo Lon was more against Saiki and Dark Ash than Ash himself. So while I feel like he's one of the weaker chances, I don't think I can rule him out. He'd also be an 'Ash Saga Third,' if they wanted to keep the team all Ash Saga. He gets along fine with Elisabeth, if she were the 2nd. 

But...

Much like Shen, I feel like if they're bringing him back, it's going to be more of an anti-Ron team than a 3rd on this team; so the aforementioned Dragon Spirit team, or a Hizoku team(more than likely the former.) Really that and the 'it seems people think it will be people from XIV despite that being less hype' are leaning against it. 

Heidern: Heidern is not an impossibility here; see the entire thing I wrote with Adelheid above, and he was the one who saw Ash's name appear on the list, and as such started the investigation into him. He may well have wanted to hitch his wagon with him(especially if that final team is attached to a South Beach oriented team, like Fatal Fury or Garou.) Plus if he's on another team, this team has a lot more open spots than K's, which I feel has about two paths right now, at best. The third could vary(Betty, Adel, the latter harkening back to the XIII plot vs. Those from the past, and Adel's got more ties to that plot directly.) The Ikaris made a pretty big showing in this saga, as well, and he was one of the 'In XIV' characters. 

But...

Well, I do think him getting his own team has a better chance, like I said(depending again on that beach stage's situation, if it belongs to the last team, is it free floating, or whatnot.) Plus, if they wanted to keep this team Ash Saga related, Heidern, even though the Ikaris made a bit showing IN this saga, isn't from this saga. But all in all he doesn't have bad reasoning to be here, if he ended up not on his own team. 

SO yeah. That's my breakdown of who I think Ash's potentials are, their plausibility, and possibilities why they may not be, as well. 

Alrighty, that's it for this long-winded blog. I can't wait, dude's going into my main crew I think since I have a feeling even just judging by this trailer he's going to be mad fun to play in this and potentially one of his strongest showings in terms of sheer power level, to boot, which is win/win. Can't wait to see more of him!

'til next time, hoping for someone else I really want to get announced...

Welcome Back Ash! Gamescom, Systems, Trailers, News!

 Well holy shit we have a news drop. To say the least. Gamescom certainly delivered day one(and just to get it out of the way, there's something else on Friday, as well going down that I'm looking forward to checking out.) 

Let's get the big guy...or, well, the lovely sneering guy out of the way; Welcome Back, Ash Fucking Crimson, you glorious bastard. 

                                                                     I lived, bitch. 

I had NO goddamn doubt he'd have been back, but maaan its nice to get the conformation that they didn't opt for the DLC method for him, like some feared. (I DO think some well liked characters are gonna end up as DLC, mind you, but I really didn't want it to be him.) I missed that troll. I can't wait to see his trailer. Can't really talk much about his gameplay since we haven't seen much of it yet, but hopefully I'll get to write up his trailer here soon. I'm hoping we see it sooner than later, but I'll definitely do a writeup asap for it. 

But whoo boy! We have conformation of a bunch of stuff here. First, the trailer:

Well this is huge! It shows some story mode stuff with some wild stuff going on which I can't really begin to parse yet except for Shit Gets Weird. Which we expected; I'm sure Clemence Bellamy is wondering how this manages to happen so often.

So! First off, the gameplay. We got a name for the armored attack: Shattering Strike. It seems to cost a full bar(recovering half on hit), and does act like an armored attack for you to be able to blast through a move. 

Basically as we saw, it crumples on the ground, and blows back in the air. I kinda feel like I would end up falling into this more than a guard roll cancel to be honest, unless that ended up costing half a bar instead this time around. Potentially quite strong, but needing a full meter to be able to do one is something. 

Now, we do have two meters, in a sense. The power bar is used for EX moves(Half a bar), the Shatter Strike(a full bar, again, recovering on hit), Max Mode activation(2 meters now! Regardless if its quick or raw), and supers(which cost 1, 2, or 3, depending if Super, Max Super, or Climax.) 

The second bar is either red and blue, depending on what mode is active; Quick(combo-extending red max mode, which seems to function much like XIV, ends on super or after a set time, and its bar is shorter and you don't have increased power/guard crush), and Raw(Blue Mode, which powers your character up and lets them do more stun damage.) It may, by the look, also allow for free EX moves, just taking a chunk of the timer(which I am pretty sure I saw happen in both modes, but here's an example of the Blue mode version):

So I think they basically took care of a ton of my issues with XIV in that you only ever wanted to fish for far cr. B's into max mode. It's more expensive and there are two of them, and they function differently. I'm sure that characters are going to end up favoring one or the other depending on who, with some really enjoying using both, but that will come in time; we don't have perfect info about this system yet on how it ALL would look in an actual match. 

Also, the Blue max seems to do something with reducing the cost of supers, we know, but I still don't know exactly how that works or not. 

Rush combos-eh, I'd have liked them not in, but if you had an option to turn them off I think I'd be better with it. It's not a dealbreaker, just a preference, but even then, I feel like I'm gonna like this one in general more than XIV(and I actually enjoyed XIV enough gameplay wise. This just looks like it took and refined everything.) 

The HUD isn't my favorite, but I've also seen worse. That said, I think the game in general looks beautiful and just aesthetically pleasing. It's very just, vibrant, and has its own look; for me it's such and infinite improvement over XIV it's almost staggering. The characters, the stages, the general aesthetic. If they wanted to improve on the HUD some I certainly wouldn't complain, but it's functional, at least. The bottom bothers me a little less than the top(the portraits look good, though, I think.) 

The Extras:

This game has a ton of extras already it seems; Story mode, the Obari short as part of the game itself, Draft mode sounds pretty interesting/fun for a special tournament or something for sure(the old MtG head in me kinda giggles at it.) Gallery, too. Training mode is both on AND offline. Importantly, though, there are two big draws.

First, Rollback is 100% confirmed, up front, in the trailer itself, so everyone can breathe easy now. Crossplay is still a thing people want, but after the pandemic basically murdered Samsho and GBVS due to their netcodes, people were understandably worried about KOF XV; even *after* it was announced, people were worried, but it's right here in the trailer. So there we have that. Let's hope it's solid rollback. 

DJ Station is another prize that people weren't expecting, I think and something a whole bunch of us have wanted and love the idea of. Basically over 300 songs, from KOFs, and other SNK games, for you to make a playlist with while you play. From across ALL the damn sagas and games. It's incredible and I can't believe they did it, but they did it. and I can't wait. 

(Also, taking a gander, it seems the extra unknown team's theme is called 'Liberty.' Hmm.) 

Watching the trailer, and we get ideas of so far everything up in there; I gotta say they seem to be doing real damn good so far in terms of content. Now we'll get to the roster, which has been a bit of a point of contention with folks when they announced its size. 

The Roster

So yeah; for starters-at 39 characters it's definitely smaller than anyone I think guessed. I figured it'd be around 54+, others guessed higher, and even at the low end we had 45-48 guessed. Now I'm gonna go out on a limb and say COVID didn't help the case. It was announced August 2019 as being in development, and the pandemic started locking things down seven months later. Transitioning over to work from home was difficult in gamedev in general and it was doubly so overseas. Even FFXIV got hit with delays and that game runs on clockwork. EVERYTHING was. So to guess that maybe they intended this to be bigger? Wouldn't be surprised. BUT I'll say for 39 it's very stacked. Like, very stacked. When you get the Treasures, CYS and Ash Crimson into your roster it's stacked. 

Modern FG practices(this blog won't be about that; I get a lot of people don't like modern FG DLC practices, but it is what it is-definitely worth discussing but it needs more than just a paragraph) told me we'd be seeing Season 1 DLC, probably pre-order. The fact the DLC comes in teams is nice, though-I know that was a pretty big request in general after XIV. This could well hold a couple of usual teams. 

So yeah-we are missing some regulars. And we have an idea here, if you look above, of what we're looking at. (And also on the team stories. Daimon, for example, is confirmed sitting; Kim/Gang-Il are said to be training on a mountain somewhere, which puts them into more question; a lot of question on the base roster, at least. Others are not mentioned at all, though, like Kensou, leaving him more up in the air.) 

The trailer showed Glasses and Rival talking; Rival saying 'I call the shots' lets me think that maybe they are on a team. With who? Well, Glasses' symbols on her clothing almost look like Kukri's. So it could be him as the 3rd, or it could be a 3rd newcomer. But I think I'm not out there when I say those two are teamed up. (Glasses could also be a sub-boss. Or...both, who knows. Like on the team and gets another story mode form you fight against.) 

K' team, I feel like are the same. I mean, c'mon. Why separate them? They didn't separate Ikari or Fatal Fury and the latter's been separated twice(Leona only sitting out the time she couldn't participate in Ikaris.)

                                                      This is a set. DO NOT SEPARATE!

Ash's team? This is a tough call actually. I was assuming Betty at first, but a few of us started reconsidering. Betty is most likely, but maybe they'd do 03 Hero Team again, if they don't DLC Kensou's Dragon Spirit team? Maybe Kukri, if Kukri isn't with the rivals. Oswald is possible. Shen OR Duo Lon is possible, with the other going somewhere else later. But those are the options I can see for him at the moment, in any case. His team's kinda open. (Even Heidern, but see below for that one.) 

As for the Missing Team, which seems to be a huge point of discussion, here's my take on it, and it depends on the resurrected characters. Namely, one resurrected character in particular. 

If Rugal is alive, then I believe Heidern will be forming his own team, and will be the team at the bottom. I can't see a timeline where he just ignores that, and Heidern going with Ash's team at that point makes less sense and K's team virtually none. K' team probably only know who the guy is from reading about him, and probably would be dealing with other stuff or be needed for it. 

Ash's is still unlikely, but at least Ash knew a member of his family in XIII(popping in on Adel, so 'knowing' is very loose here, but it's something, I guess), so would be a little more likely than K' team. And the chance of Rugal being alive in a resurrection plot-you know, the guy whose hobby is resurrection, who they can't resist shoving in as a special boss when they can, and who can easily be slapped on as DLC later to make money after he hypes people up-is probably pretty damn high. 

In this case? Yeah, Adel/Whip are his most likely teammates I legit feel. Whip due to her status as an Ikari and Adel due to the fact they've worked together, are friends, and have had a longtime thing going(Heidern even being around when Adel was lamenting being able to break free from his bloodline and introducing him to the Chopin song, Revolutionary Etudé, in his 2003 story, unfortunately trapped in the Flame of Nova official guide.) 

In this case, Kim's team would I think be part of that early DLC. Again, regulars have missed before-Leona, Joe, Mai, and Robert have all missed one canon game with Robert/Mai coming on console for XI. Andy has missed two games. Kensou missed one and might miss this(or be on another DLC team! he's very possible for a Dragon Spirit DLC team.) People saying Kim can't miss a base roster I'm not sure were there when other regulars have, indeed, missed base rosters. 

Hell, King was absent from the original version of 2k2 vanilla, and that was a dream match. (She made the Dreamcast version.) Trust me when I say very very few people are 100% safe from DLC in this game. The list of characters out of the entire crew that have never missed a single KOF since their debut is incredibly small, and I think the only truly, 100%, bonafide safe characters in this franchise are probably Terry, Ryo, Athena, Kyo, Iori, K', Ralf, Clark, and Benimaru. (Also keep in mind, making it as DLC is still making it.) 

That being said, it's not definite. They may have left the bastard dead after all, or decided to not bring him back until after XV is done. It would be a surpsiring decision, due to SNK's penchant for using him as a boss whenever they can, but it could totally happen. In that case? I couldn't tell you where Heidern would be, getting slapped onto K' or Ash's team at that point could well happen. Or he could do his own again, sure, just with a different comp. Or even the same. 

Really I feel Heidern's position is basically dependent on Rugal being alive or not, regardless of his playable/boss/DLC status is what it comes down to. Of course, I'd feel sad if he's not alive, since that would mean Adel/Whip may likely be delegated to DLC at that point if they're playable, unless, again, Heidern DID form his own team and take them anyway...but I feel like the chances would go down, and we'd miss a really cool potential throwdown for a side story. 

All that said, I feel like Ash's team, if his own doesn't work, is his strongest option, given Ash is who gave Adel the hints to 'contact his friend', and then allowed them to work together to solve the plot. And then with Heidern seeing Ash's name on the list appear and making it a priority to find him? Maybe he IS on a team with Ash. 

That would leave the last row open, though, for more options. A team with Rock? Shingo? Kensou's Dragon Spirit team? Kim's team? seeing Jhun I think would make people pretty happy. But yeah, we got a big question mark there at the moment. 

"How do you feel, having pushed for a bigger one?"

Honestly? Quite fine right now. I kinda feel like they stacked this so hard that I am perfectly fine with it even if my two most wanted don't make it(or don't make it right away.) I was more wary that we'd get a big roster and it just have like a bunch of characters I didn't care about, or something bog standard like XIII at the time, but a smaller one(which to be fair, is 1 bigger than XI's in the arcade, and it'll be moving toward XI Console after just the first two teams DLC which was one of the *larger* non DM rosters in KOF history, XIV was sort of anomaly in terms of its size for a non DM), that looks something like this? This is good.

Plus there's a weird level of 'togetherness' when it comes to a whole bunch of us missing someone we wanted as opposed to just one or two of us sitting outside when everyone else has fun. Daimon mains, possible Kim mains, possible Rugal fans who were really looking forward to seeing him if he doesn't show up, Mature&Vice mains, Shen mains, Kensou mains, Chin's main, everyone else hoping for those others like Kasumi, Shingo, etc-everyone's sorta in it together. It's a sort of solidarity. (I mean Shingo's still got a chance to steal in there on that last team if it's the 'No Rugal, Heidern somewhere else' setup, but right now I fear our boy might be DLC even then.)

Plus, again, we dunno what the roster is gonna look like later in 2022. Or after that, and so on. And with COVID hitting things, and with everything else the game seems to offer? I'm really okay with this. I got my main team with Iori and two Ikaris depending on my mood, I got Ash to sub, I got Kyo/Chizuru and CYS to sub. I'm pretty packed and I love 'em all. I would be disappointed if they passed on a R resurrection sub plot to let Adel and Heidern fight him, of course, and I'd be like 'yet another year of XI being the only place I get my fav team', but I also gotta allow myself some leeway for the fact COVID perhaps didn't let them make the giant free for all that they maybe envisioned at first. And somehow, again, I feel much less bad in XV than I did in XIV. It's hard to explain. 

Final Thoughts?

I am so hype. I really wanna pre-order the Yagami special edition from overseas(and may well end up doing this), and I'm gonna grab my digital deluxe version ASAP. As I said above, it seems to shore up gameplay issues I had with XIV, I already like the roster more despite it being smaller on account of it having a bunch of interesting people I liked, it looks fantastic, the extras look great, and I look forward to the next several weeks of releases to see where exactly we're going from here. I'm not sure this one is going to completely erase my need to play '98 and XI(I will always love '98s gameplay), but I may just well fall for the gameplay enough a modern KOF can finally become a primary game, while I rely on XI/03 to get my character fixes for now(depending, of course, on who makes it! Now or as DLC.) But for now, yeah, this is gonna be a long six months(Early Access starts on Ash's birthday, too!)

Anyway I'm still gonna add this prayer circle in. Never hurts. 

Til' next time! Here's hoping for that Ash trailer soon.