Athena Announced! EVO coming up, Kensou's new team?

So finally after what seemed like 300 years, we got the WFT completion, only it's not the WFT, it's team 'Super Heroines', and Athena is in it. 

This isn't the first time this has been shown; there was art in this back in '98 for a special team, but we seem to have it put together for real now. 

So first a few basics; as usual, her design shifts a bit, and I always liked shorter-haired Athena, so this works really nicely! I dig the new design a WHOLE lot, much better than the previous few years(I wasn't into the overly young look of XII/XIII.) The story as goes involves Yuri joining the tournament to prove herself to her brother(Again? Or is that still a thing?), Mai...is a ninja with fans apparently, but they are pretty vague with Athena. I'll get to this later on. 

Gameplay wise, she's Athena, Zoner Master. (They even spammed four psycho balls, because of course they had to.) 

                                                                         Obligatory.

She also has a new, cool looking Climax, and all in all I feel like she transferred over to XV's aesthetic and gameplay well. 

There ARE a couple more small gameplay tidbits! One...we see 2B into max, which is of course causing some groans(myself included.) That said, I'm willing to see things out if they do some changes. Two bar quick max cost for one would be great and alleviate a decent chunk of my issues. If the rest of the special things-EX, the new armored CD attack, and so on, are all loaded onto one meter maybe(we still don't know if we're looking at two modes, two meters, two grooves, or some combo of this, still leaning toward modes/meters), it could put enough stress on that meter, especially if QM costs 2 bars, to curb the whole 'quickmax superiority'(especially for a point character, and possibly even a mid. If the armored attack costs 1/2 or 1, and EX moves cost 1/2 or 1(maybe one costs 1/2 and one costs 1), AND the QM is 2, it could well put a lot of meter strain on for anything not an anchor-and even *then* it's not as cheap. 

On the note of the armored attack; she did her st. C into the armored attack. So this raises questions; is that a mechanic that you activate and *then* do an attack? Is it a separate attack? Both? Can you do this and the CD or are they one and the same? I guess we'll have to wait a little longer. 

(An aside: EVO happens August 6-8 and 13-15th, and they could have a thing or two there. Koch Media is at Gamescom later this month, who are the publishers SNK is using, so maybe there, too? We have no news if SNK themselves will be there however, so just cross fingers and hope for the best. We dunno if EVO will even be much, but again, cross fingers. Besides that, TGS is later September which we can also hope for, as at that point the time will be ticking down to Q1 2022.) 

As for more mechanics: It should also be noted above that while she did the cr. B into the red max, at the end of the trailer, she did the 1-2-3 super trick as well. While this is a trailer, and isn't indicative of something that would happen in the same match, this was the first time it showed someone using the 'red mode stuff' and the 'blue mode stuff' in one trailer. So we'll see where that goes too. I don't know if this was split, but it starts to make it look more 'mode' than 'groove'-but again, it's a trailer, not a match. 

All and all, an enjoyable trailer. Athena's probably my favorite OG lady in KOF(talking from like, the '94-95 era), and I'd say one of my top overall(with Whip, Leona, Chizuru, Vanessa joining her, and Elisabeth right around there), so I can't say I'm sad to see her. And her team means some potential interesting setups for Kensou which I'll get to later on, which may not have happened without her swapping teams. 

Okay so on top of all of this we got another new thing, a slightly extended story trailer! It's not too much, mind you-besides showing a bit with Shun'ei and Meitenkun in the city, Bellamy wondering WTF happened *now* in the tournament and Yashiro I guess marveling over modern technology:

Doesn't give much away, but it looks great so far! Once again it shows the trailer-less K'(whom I am still predicting keeps his team, since we do have some teams sticking, like Ikari and Fatal Fury.) I basically like how it's voiced cutscenes using in-game models. 

Kensou's Team?

So I think Kensou is likely still in. While not 100%(I never had him listed as 100%, just basically almost there like Robert, Mai, Leona, etc., all characters who only missed one game), he's likely in. He's an OG character-been around as long as Athena since 1986(the only character as old is Clark, and the only older character is Ralf, from TNK III in '85), and the only time he's missed a game, he had a good lore reason-he was busy training trying to control his new power. So it's HIGHLY unlikely he'd end up missing a game for the same reason. 

But I gotta wonder now, what's up with his team? He's actually got quite a few options open to him. 

A basic setup would just be with Chin and Bao, forming a sort of Dragon Spirit variant of the Psycho Soldiers. Admittedly I would find this one sorta boring, but it is a possibility. Either way, it'll differ from XIV(since it kinda has to now.)

More interestingly, they could do something with his dragon spirit and have Ron target him. This is something that has a lot of potential to happen, since I don't think Athena would have just up and left randomly like this. If Ron targets him, that'll easily get Duo Lon involved, who follows his father when he comes out of hiding(and searches for him when he is in hiding), since his lifelong goal is to basically kill him. So he could get involved with Kensou. It could be he watches over both he and Bao. 

Or Shen gets involved, and Duo Lon, Shen and Kensou end up forming a team. Which, personally, is an idea I love since I'm a little leery that I'm going to get the Hizoku team I really want in with Duo Lon, Lin, and Xiao Lon-but man I'd take this one as an alternate. (I'm biased toward getting these guys in, given Duo Lon is my 2nd most wanted behind Adelheid right now, so if they figure out a way to do it, I'll take it.) 

                                                            I even scribbled an example!

Or Shen could end up with Kensou and Bao(if the aforementioned Hizoku team actually happens.) Or Kensou could end up with Mian and one of these two for another China Team. Or leaning away from that, he could join up with Rock and Shingo as some sort of Teenage Guy team or something. Really the guy's got a ton of options open to him right now. He's pretty affable and able to get along with a lot of people. 

I will say all in all this roster so far does have the 'air' of one of the early Ash Saga games, '03 or XI(the latter even in particular.) It's not AS wild-those games mixed stuff up beyond what we're seeing now, XI having no teams that were seen before. Keep in mind that was the first showing of K' team as we know it now(the beloved family unit), since Kula had sat out 03, was still on NESTS side in '01 and was solo in '00. AoF had King, Ryo, and Yuri, who all had BEEN on AoF before, but not all at once-the time King was on it, Yuri wasn't, and vice versa. Leona was missing from the Ikaris, and Kyo/Iori had never been together officially(they had a team story in 03 with the Treasures), and both of them had never been with Shingo at the same time, and so on. 

But, this one definitely has the 'air' of it, with the only classic teams we've seen so far being Fatal Fury and Ikari. There's actually a lot of things right now that we're seeing that we haven't seen since those early Ash Saga games, including but not limited to: 

-Playable Chizuru(03)

-Sacred Treasures all appearing in a game(03, even if they were all solo units, they had a team story)

-Benimaru on an important story team(XI, he was on Rival Team who won, with Duo Lon and Elisabeth)

-Kyo/Iori together on an official team(XI, Kusanagi-Yagami alliance)

-King on AoF(XI)

-Athena off the Psycho Soldiers(03)

-The WFT being nebulous(it didn't exist in XI, and while it...exists here technically, it's rebranded)

-Mary/Vanessa together on Agents(XI)

We haven't seen Japan Team yet, so they may well not be a thing(last time this happened was XI), Shingo getting his new manga could end up with him playable(this is just speculation, but if the boy ends up playable? Last time he was playable was XI). We'll see what else happens then! 

Anyway, EVO is coming up soon, so let's hope for another pre-XIV return before I fossilize, eh? It'll be damn near three months since Chris, SNK, please, there's like several Ash Saga leads we haven't seen since XI or XIII! 

                                                               prayer circle intensifies!

Announcement Fatigue?

 Yeah, it's been awhile. My last fun blog was like, June 3rd and my last actual KOF mechanic/announcement based blog was May the 20th. 

I can't help it, this is starting to dampen my hype a little. In a way. 

Not for the game, mind you. KOF XV remains one of my absolute most anticipated games coming the next several months(up there with FFXIV: Endwalker and a couple others), and that has not changed. But my hype for the week-by-week announcements has definitely shifted. I was amazingly hype for awhile...but then, suddenly, I just sorta...stopped being as hype, and after this week's silhouette I'm just like 'alrighty, let's see tomorrow's fellow.' (Since people are pretty sure it's Ramon, a character who I think is pretty cool, but is once again someone that's in 14.) 

And I don't think I'm the only person this has happened with. I noticed a distinct sort of downswing in terms of trailer views around the Mary time; Mary was quite telling since she's a fan favorite up there with the likes of Terry and Mai, and her views went up considerably slower. (And this is even taking into consideration that while she was 

I mean-they even surprised people with Charlie's Ang-ehm, the Secret Agents team.(Not that people didn't think Mary/Vanessa would likely be Agents, but no one knew Luong was an agent too. That being said, Agents are pretty nebulous-they've hired actual agents, detectives(Mary), luchadors(Ramon), even worked with a weird poison assassin(Lin), and given they have no real leadership that I know of-Heidern only works with them from Ling, but doesn't own them-they're a very nebulous force that they could basically just say 'Anyone can be an Agent,' but I digress.)

But even a surprise team didn't garner as many views as a couple of the long-time teams trailers...and I can't help but feel like this was due to its position. It has barely cracked 380 views after two weeks, which for a trailer that had a surprise team with a fan favorite who wasn't even guaranteed(Vanessa). Compare Team Fatal Fury, who was a NON-swapped team, using characters everyone would know would be in, which hit close to 600k in about the same amount of time, checking back over some notes. 

Tomorrow will mark 10 weeks since Chris, our last return that wasn't in 14. The top 6 trailers basically consist of CYS and the Sacred Treasures(AKA: the comebacks, and two big fan favorites.) 

And I realized when I saw the silhouette and realized it wasn't a cool return, or even...some newcomer or something, and how we haven't really even gotten more system info for awhile, I just realized that weekly I'm getting more muted feelings. 

Hell, we even just got platforms announced! This hyped us up for a moment(PS4, PS5, Steam, PC, EGS and Xbox Series, all simultaneous by the look), but we were, I think, still deep down hoping for a little more on the character or mechanical front. (Hey, we may get some new mechanics in tomorrow's trailer.) 

So...now what?

Full disclaimer. I am not a marketing expert. The biggest thing I ever tried to sell were a couple of local gigs. I don't have any degree in marketing, and I don't market videogames. Maybe there is a method to the madness I'm not seeing. 

But I kinda can't help but feel that they could maybe adjust the trailer releases a bit? 

For what it's worth, I get the delay(I have absolutely no issue there, Covid slowdown happens, would rather the devs be safe), and I get if the trailers have to come out slower because of said covid stuff, too. I don't want anyone working unhealthily. 

I'm more speaking of like, trailer order I guess?

I think it worked great at the start. We got the first two, then Benimaru on the Hero Team, to swap it up.

We got Iori, and then Joe to throw us all off. But then with Kyo, Chizuru and the Sacred Treasures? That was mad hype. Hype enough no one really minded that Fatal Fury was the same. 

And then so on and so forth. CYS were sprinkled about well. 

But after Chris...? It's been ten weeks. We've either gotten regulars, or not necessarily regulars who were in 14. Now I get frontloading the regulars a bit(and as my last blog stated, I was super happy to see the Ikaris in my favorite setup. Well, Ikari Team 1 anyway. Gimme my VERY SPECIFIC Ikari Team 2 now, SNK. ;p)

And since tomorrow is very much likely another 'Was in 14' character(if I'm proven wrong, hey I'll take it), that'll likely be another couple of weeks, and to be honest, I'm starting to not even care very much what I see week by week. I'm still hype for the game, and I'd rather see characters released faster than say how other games do it painfully slowly, but...I dunno, maybe I just need something to zap me awake again.

Hell, I even understand that the folks who were in 14 are likely easier to get in(animations used, etc.) I totally get that. I'm not saying they need to just fire off returns every week; all I'm asking for is maybe a return to the initial form we got when we had a good clip going of regulars and returns?

(Or a mechanics breakdown. I'd love a mechanics breakdown. Hell if tomorrow IS just Ramon and they give me an HUD? I'd probably be hype again, depending on what I see. I still can't believe we got *platforms* announced before a mechanics breakdown. I wonder why they're waiting so long on that?) 

I guess it's just waiting and seeing. But I gotta admit, while my hype for the *game* hasn't gone anywhere, the bi-weekly silhouettes have started to wear out just a little for me where I'm a little less excited each week for *those.* 

Am I the only person? Do you think they should just drop the mechanics? Mix in more returns who weren't in 14? Maybe give just give an HUD even? Also, why do you think they're waiting?

Let's hope tomorrow's trailer gives us just a little more besides a 14 return.