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!
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