Welp, without further ado, SNK wasted NO damn time dropping our classic Ikari Team on us, with a dual Ralf&Clark trailer! Like I suspected, they were not going to debut these two by themselves.
MAH BOIS.
While didn't get a cross changer intro, we got a *shout out* to it which amused me, plus a very sweet looking Metal Slug stage. Clark has his Frankensteiner back! We are looking at something close to XI Clark and I'm here for that. Ralf didn't get his backbreaker back(booo!) BUT, he looks like, from this angle, to be able to work with this new system pretty well(despite the fact that Clark kind of kicked his superior's ass a bit more in the video. Ralf got his shots in at the end, at least.) I love these big dorks.
I do like how the tackle super is utilized in this. EX Ralf Kick, and just in general I think Ralf having access to the armored guard attack and EX moves could well do more for him since he felt sort of empty in XII+. He could be a character that falls really well into the new system. I will say he looked a lot more fun and beefy than he did in XIII or XIV in this trailer, so there's that. Clark looks amazing and I will definitely be playing him some(who am I kidding, I play any and all Ikaris, though to differing levels of competency. I'm a pretty intermediate FG player as it is-I'm more of a theorizer and guide writer than I am competitor.)
(As a side note this makes me super happy overall. The Ikaris are one of my fav canon teams, and I'd actually pick them in a 'team competition' over old Yagami Team since I don't really click playstyle wise with Mature/Vice despite having Iori there as an anchor, where I can happily enjoy all 3 Ikaris here.) So yeah, 2 weeks, Ikari team complete, let's hold onto that Heidern team hope, shall we? ;)
Overall mechanic wise, we got some goodies in this one.
Ralf right here does the guard attack. It gets blocked and punished with a grab. He does it again later where it's dodged. This attack is confirmed to be usable out of ANY mode, since we also see Leona and Ryo/Robert do it.
Here, we see Clark quick activate into a New Red Mode! He then goes into an EX move and then ends it with a super. The Red Mode ends supers, unlike the Blue Mode.
Here, we see Ralf utilize EX moves with NO RED GLOW, so these are still useable. (I slowed this down to make sure.) He does a level 1 super. Still no red glow; just the purpley activation flash to begin with.
Finally here's a series of pictures: While it seems Clark keeps the red glow and loses it on the super after his purple activation...Ralf, on the other hand, does not seem to have a persistent red glow. So I'm not sure what's going on here?
We don't see any of the big cancel combos like in the other videos(Leona did EX-Level 1-Level 3, no mode active, at least, but these guys didn't do any of that.) But really I think we have some more things to chew on. I dunno if Ralf's red glow isn't seeable due to it being a WIP or if he's using EX moves outside of Max Mode.
I did a tweet storm on this one, but...I have a couple of theories here onto what we may be looking at.
The 'Modes'-For lack of a better term, we'll call them Glows, and we'll call them Blue Glow and Red Glow. This way it doesn't really assume there are two modes, or two grooves or anything. Here is what we know:
Regardless of glow or mode, you can use EX's outside of them, and you can use that new guard attack whenever.
The Blue Glow we have ONLY seen raw activated, in Mai's trailer. We've seen it used in several, like Terry's, pointed out in the other blog. We know that we have seen people link together 3 supers, and the mode does not end until the Climax(as seen here again in Terry's.) So we have not seen it quick activated. This glowmode or whatnot seems connected to DMs/Supers in some way.
The Red Glow, seen above in the Ikari trailer, was quick-activated, and seemed to act Max-Modeish as we know. No idea of costs or anything. This ends on super. It shows it pretty clearly.
Now, this entire time, I've made it pretty clear that I felt like SNK has been hinting toward some sort of dual-system of sorts. Modes, Grooves, whatever, but looking at the logo, and the website, and how they correspond with Shun'ei and all of that? I feel like they've been kinda shoving it in our faces that we might be seeing some sort of duality deal. Between the bars in the background of the website, the same bars in the trailer thumbnails and the clear blue-red split of the logo, this has been marketed toward us.
The Blue Glow seems tied, in some way, to DMs. That's the juice they always show off during that. The Red Glow seems more classic max-modey by the look(though this is the first time we've seen it.)
So from this, there are a few theories getting thrown around online. I'll go over them-
Mode Determined By Activation Method: This seems like it holds water. If you quick max, you get Red Glow, if you raw max, you get Blue Glow. This seems fairly simple, all told. Why they would tie different modes to activation methods, though, I'm not too sure about, and it's what gives me a bit of pause on it. Like, in previous games that had a Max Mode, you're able to actively raw activate into the mode if you want; this method means that you *cannot* raw activate into Red Mode, only Blue Mode. Thus while again, I feel like it holds water, it seems a bit weird you'd never be allowed to even raw activate. (I can see not allowing *quick* activation of a mode.) In 2k2UM for example, you could raw activate for 1 bar, or quick for 2. In this, we KNOW Red and Blue modes do different things; they show that pretty clearly in the videos, without a doubt. So we know they are not the same function. I just would give pause onto why they wouldn't allow people to raw activate into Red/Max mode.
EDIT: This one comes with an addendum! I also have heard a few suggestions that's it's more of an 99/00 type deal, where you activate it two different ways(button wise, not necessarily quick vs. raw), only instead of Armor and Counter, it's Max and...DM? Whatever the blue mode is going to be.
Grooves: I've seen the Groove Theory being kicked around, Red/Blue groove, Yin/Yang grooves, whatever, basically in the vein of ADV/EX or something, or Slash/Bust, Power/Speed or whatnot. I can see where one could guess this! It holds water too, in its way. I'm not sure this is going to be the case, since I sort of wonder if they'd go back to this in a more modern game, I'm not sure if they would. Another thing against it is that it feels like Blue Groove just...lets you crap out a lot of supers so far, and we haven't seen much else about it(yet.) But I can see where people could come up with this theory, very easily. On the same note, though, I will allow that it cleans up the above issue of 'Why does it seem you can only quick activate into red mode.' (For now. If they show anyone raw activating into red mode later? This changes things.) Also we don't know what OTHER abilities can link to what. Like what else does Blue Mode let you do? I think I'd be warmer to this theory if I had more info about what ELSE the 'grooves' do.
Two Bars, Two Resources: So this is the third. Going by the trailers, I'm starting to wonder if this isn't a possibility. What leans me against this slightly is the fact the the Blue Glow doesn't really seem to do much more than to allow you to go off with your DMs; that said, once again-we dunno what would 'hook up' to what. Like what abilities feed off of what resource? Do EX moves and that guard attack feed off of one, and everything else from another? Since Blue Mode seems DM-oriented, is all the DM stuff(cancels, DMs, etc), attached to said Blue Mode? Do both bars have the same amount of 'charges'(3/4/5) depending on position, or does one have 3/4/5 and one 1/2/3? Does only one have variable position charges and the other is static(like XI's Skill Stocks?) This is all a big bunch of whatever...just like everything else, really. I'm just kicking around possible ideas going by everything I've been reading and ingesting.
THAT SAID!
I'm not sure if the 2 resources case, that they are necessarily tied to the modes themselves; we don't need two modes to get two resources. We can have two resources under a Groove system, or whatever. The two can exist together; the main reason why I feel like we're getting 2 resources is because as of now, loading ALL the mechanics up on 1 bar, including(but not limited to given we may not have seen them all):
-Red(Max?) Mode
-Blue(DM?) Mode
-EX Moves
-The new Guard Attack
-Guard Cancel Rolls(still likely in)
-Supers/DMs themselves
-Possibly more we haven't seen yet!
I mean meter management meaning something-that I'm behind 100%, but it almost feels like it's two much on one little meter and would turn meter management into more of a micromanagey chore. But if stuff is split up? That, IMHO, would make it a little more elegant. Again; the game doesn't need resources tied to modes or anything, but even if it's the 'Quick vs. Raw Max', two meters could still come into play, like in 13, etc.
Of course, we REALLY can't see what is tied to what. THAT SAID:
It was pointed out to me in a Discord chat how the guard attack move has a purple flash. Purple=Red+Blue. It could be that, in the event of 2 meters(Red/Blue), that move costs some of each, possibly.
(The jury is out on this move. I have spoken to a number of people who have differing opinions of the move: some feel it will be very strong as is, given you can reverse momentum with it, and should have a heavier cost as a result since you can just hail mary your way out of a situation. Others don't think its strong enough to cost meter *as is*. I've seen some others think it should have a light cost. I am of the opinion that half a bar seems good for what you get-reversing momentum is powerful and this move does not look terribly unsafe, but a full bar may be too much. If it turns out that it does less than I think, or MORE than I think, my opinion can well change here. Also my opinion could change knowing what the mechanics are overall more, too.)
As always, this is pure speculation. With no gameplay, we can only guess, and there's not even a UI to match up so we're still in even like, super speculation mode. In any case this video gave us some more to chew on until we get either more info or an actual gameplay drop, which I think is imminent; it feels like they're just waiting for the right time for it.
Here's hoping for SOMETHING soon to see. E3, perhaps? I'm going to cross my fingers here.
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