And boy, is it a doozy.
(Disclaimer: Yes, I've seen the datamines and such-it's hard to miss them nowadays-this blog stays spoiler-free. And even then, gotta somewhat be careful with those, since stuff can get swapped around, etc.)
Welcome, Team Garou and Team South Town!
Now I'll come right out and say it; this pass is probably one of the most attractive DLC passes I've seen in a fighting game in the past years. They really weren't messing around with this one. I also kinda feel like its makeup is about perfect for XV right now in several ways:
-It brings back several favorites, for one. Geese is Mr. SNK Baddie(and Tekken 7 made him even more well known, let's face it), Rock is widely popular among the NA/EU audience(I can't really say whose popular overseas, but he seems well liked, going by fanart?) Garou characters are always welcome in, and so on.
-XV's roster has three criticisms surrounding it that I notice. Lack of characters from certain sagas, (particularly Ash) a lack of baddies, and a lack of OGs/characters from other franchises(there's only 13 characters out of the 39 from other SNK franchises, and the rest are all KOF originals, even if many of them, like Kyo, Iori, etc, are at this point icons themselves.)
This pass takes care of two of these, and at least touches on a third. Bringing in South Town brings in a 'baddie team'(even if Billy seems to be more of a 'Neutral, but feels indebted to Geese' guy, going by his interactions with other characters). The entire pass are either OGs(Geese, Billy, Yamazaki, all from the 90s), or characters from other SNK franchises(Garou, Fatal Fury). And, while it's minor since they aren't *originals*, and they are Garou characters first and foremost, Gato and Jenet at least showed UP in the Ash Saga the first time(though it still needs Ash Saga originals, not letting SNK off on this until I get some of those. ;p But it's a start!)
-It's just an excellent 'out of the gate' combo. Just straight up handing the fanservice over. If anything, this is going to make *follow up* passes a little hard to follow, maybe, depending.
Now I get while it comes to Garou characters, everyone has their own ideas who should get in. It's a beloved game, with a lot of fan favorites, and I understand people who would rather have characters who hadn't been in yet(Kain, Freeman, Marco, Kim's sons, etc) over ones who have, but IMHO, they did really good with this, and this is the exact pass I would have chosen. Rock is extremely popular, though he has a few vocal detractors(which, well, any popular character is going to have-FWIW, I think he's cool, I'm more of a Gato person when it comes to Garou, and when it comes to the Conflicted, Anti-Hero Son of a Previous Baddie character you all KNOW whose side I'm on), B. Jenet has been requested to come back for a long time, and Gato has always been popular in whatever game he's in(though his fans are more quiet-I guarantee you Gato will probably see some of the most active play of these three, though.)
I personally love Kain and Freeman, and would love to see them on sometime, but again, I kinda feel like this pass is like, THE Garou pass to have on there. (Also, see below, re: Story.) I feel like playstyle wise, it's got nice variety-Rock's classic Geese/Terry mix-which it looks like they brought in his Garou TOP attack and his Rising Tackle might be a direction now, which would be a small buff which he generally needs, Gato's brutal and powerful feeling Kung Fu style, and Jenet's more stylish stuff, complete with the Team Rocket Shoe Attack.
And again, people just like these three characters. And I stand by my assessment this was three of the best to pick for a first DLC pass.
And on a personal note...let's face it. I'm biased here. Gato was one of my top 5 requests to come back to this game. I mentioned in my last blog that I only got one of my top 5(Ash), but I got half my top 10(CYS, Chizuru included), so I was REALLY happy with the base. But even then, I felt like I was missing a little something; and that something was 'One of my top 5 I DIDN'T think would make it.'(yes, again, datamines-but before I knew about everything confirmed, Gato was still a rumor.) While my Adel and Duo Lon are still waiting on the sidelines, getting Gato in made me over the moon, because I had a feeling Ash was inevitable. So getting that character locked in and confirmed that I REALLY WANTED to come back was a really good feeling that I think I needed. As highly as I ranked XV's base(hey, tied for 3rd place for a canon roster is pretty huge), there was that little "Man, I wanna get to flip out over someone getting in that wasn't a lock that some others got." I got that finally.
Also good goddamn look at how GOOD he looks in this. Like, he looks SO good. One of my favorite models in XV so far. The embroidered dragon on his shirt was a great touch, his new Climax looks awesome, he still has his iconic neck snap and kick super, they gave his dp+K back, and now he gets to use EX moves. Gato with EX moves just makes me giddy, bwahaha. Going to maybe do a little breakdown of him at some point and see what he's got and what he might keep.
How do you glow UP Gato? Apparently like this.
As for South Town team, holy shit. The suits, the style, the pimp coat, the swag. This glow up was extreme, and for me, this is *probably* the best combination I've ever seen for a proper South Town team. Hein was actually one of my fav of the XIV newcomers, but he didn't really give me a huge South Town vibe. '96 Boss Team, while it's awesome and I love it, has Krauser, who, while being related to Geese, is more 'German Noble' than 'South Town Guy.' So when it comes to a trio of South Town Antagonists(or two antagonists and one neutral dude who's lightened up over the years), this one just feels *right.* And the aesthetic is perfect. The fact it calls out the Real Bout cover with Geese and Billy was fantastic.
Just LOOK at them.
Now, I do get that some feel that having a full team of XIV assets feels a bit off on a DLC pass, but eh, I'm willing to give a pass. That visual glow-up is perfect, they have this matching aesthetic while not having the same exact costumes(Billy's more laid-back nature with the open suit fits him, with his trademark bandana, and Yamazaki with the pimp coat again brings me BACK), and this is, again, basically everything I wanted out of the South Town team.
DLC has story?
Jenet getting her crew together again(well, at least with Gato) makes sense, given she's the most personable one of the bunch. I wonder how that chat went...
But, yeah, it seems like we got DLC stories? At least small ones. Hence my comment about Kain and Freeman-those characters, I'd have trouble placing on a team together. But at the very least, the Garou team has some story. Now whether or not that keeps with every team on every pass is anyone's guess, but I actually hope we get some more story-tied DLC this time. This doesn't seem like it's like Strive(that continues after the game's story), the way this is worded, this team is supposedly in the tournament itself, which is interesting. I wonder how they'll handle cutscenes and such? (And damn, we need some Geese/Rock interactions. And...good lord in the future, please give us some Bernstein interactions, too, especially with Adel on the good guy's side, now. You know, future passes. ;))
On the slight downside to this-it DOES kind of put characters who were hard-deconfirmed from the main story on much thinner ice. Kim, Mature, Vice, Daimon, Gang-Il(for his three players), all of these were hard-deconfirmed in interviews or stories. (Kim was the only No-Miss here, to be fair. Daimon's a regular, but he sits enough that him sitting a game isn't surprising, and M&V aren't even regulars-they've been in all of 5/15 mainline games, and two of those are DMs. Mature was in XII, as well, but...uhh. Basically if this crew does end up sitting, I can't say it surprises me, beyond Kim a little?)
Now, not everyone MENTIONED is deconfirmed, but you can tell-like Joe mentioned Billy in a neutral way, and Billy's fine. Shingo was mentioned in a neutral way, so he can still steal onto a pass sometime down the line, Duo Lon was mentioned in a positive way in Betty's interview-she wanted to team with her old Rival team again with him and Beni. Kensou might not be in, but he was never really mentioned either. So I think these types are safe for now, but I do feel like story-based DLC does, again, put the hard-deconfirms further into the 'doubt' pile.
They could decide to run Year 2's passes not connected, however, which would render this moot and put even the hard-deconfirms back on the table. Time will tell.
All in all I was hoping for more story-based DLC, at least having a few teams there, since in XIV, I kinda missed that. I'm curious to know what's up with the South Town team after XIV. Is Hein still working with them in the background, or did he break loose?
All in all this pass 1 alone I think brings the roster, for me personally, from 'Tied with '97s in 3rd place' to 'Tied with 2003 in Second Place.' It's still not tied with XI yet(that's gonna take a particular bunch of characters, and beating it is going to take a very specific combination), but jesus they are doing really damn well for themselves.
And with that, I think I'm about done? I fucking love this pass and I can't wait to play it. Looking forward to what the last few trailers are before release!
'Til next time...
