hinako is too strong for the known universe and is thus disqualified from competing
Unfortunately I think Hinako was never too popular despite SNK’s best efforts. I always thought she was a cute concept.
Yeah, it’s been cool to watch the game’s graphics develop over time. It’s probably due to the video compression but the anti-aliasing looks real smooth.
This is probably a pipe dream but I wish Ryo would officially transition into Mr. Karate in the mainline KOF. Older Ryo looks way too good to let that design languish in SNK history. KOF is leaping to 3D, the timeline has been altered due to Ash, and Robert has a goatee. This would be a great time to age characters up.
I was just really skeptical because how offen is a game publically shown and then improved? The answer is guess is kofxiv.
I think Tung Fu Rue is too young looking in the new KOF. I liked how he looked in Neeogeo Battle Colosseum:
@Drem, totally agree about Mr. Karate Ryo. I liked that they did that with Terry in the pre-HD KOFs too where he’s in his Garou form. Maybe they’ll get there with the next game though and age everyone up like they used to. Maybe Athena will finally graduate high school!
CAN’T WAIT FOR NAKORURU
At the least I hope Wild Wolf Terry is a downloadable costume or something. Classic Terry was surprising but it would have been nice to have him get older because WW Terry is way cool. In fact, if there are DLC costumes I hope they get Falcoon to make a set of DLC costumes for the cast. I miss his wacky, bombastic fashion sense.
After googling around old SNK stuff (which has become much harder now that Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin is a thing) I’ve been itching to see what KOF14’s boxart looks like. SNK has had some amazing boxes so I hope they can follow through with their new game.
(If anyone knows where I can find a hi-res version of Hiroaki’s KOFXI cover I can use for stick art or where I could find a poster of it I would much appreciate it.)
guessing this is the best you can find on the net, unless there’s some hires scan of some artbook that might or might not exists
Oh cool, thanks, that’s good quality. I really love that cover but Shen looks like a blemish on the entire thing, like he was added at the end just because he was on Team Ash. He doesn’t meld into the colors nor does his posture fit the reserved atmosphere everyone else gives off.
A leaked roster image that looks about 80% real, but with some really glaring inconsistencies like using a pachinko render of Alice and the Athena portrait seems done in an entirely different art-style.
Yeah, I was just discussing this in the IRC room. The girl on the left of the South American team looks familiar- I feel like she was concept art for a character that got changed in the final version of a game. Guy on the left of Villains team looks familiar too. But hey, who knows!
Kim’s wife is completely wrong though. This is Kim’s wife:
Athena is always anime! Her style looks similar to Nakoruru’s art, which I think is from Neogeo Battle Colosseum?
Whoa, looking it up, I was totally wrong! Nakoruru’s look is from a 2011 pachislot game called Samurai Shodown Oni where she looked like:
Footage of the pachislot game:
Everyone has pretty interesting redesigns. I like that Nakoruru has more Ainu-elements and is aged up a bit.
She also showed up like this in KOFXIII mobile’s tutorial mode, which is why I sorta recognized it:
I thought the only Samsho pachislot game was this CG one from a few years ago but I was mistaken:
Man, I remember when that top trailer came out, I was so hyped until it was revealed to be a pachislot game. What a terrible/great twist reveal. Anyway, if the rumored new 3D Samsho looks like this, I wouldn’t mind. Also Nakoruru looks so anime in the actual non-CG bits of this pachislot game. She’s got a plastic sheen:
Also, I thought Alice was Blue Mary all this time. The pachislot game where she’s from looks rad, they should make a real 3d Garou/Fatal Fury sequel off it:
This youtube thumbnail is too alluring.
Oh, here’s a non-cg image of Alice:
Genderswap Terry. Where are you, Blue Mary?
Seriously. I mean, last we saw she was doing intel things with Vanessa, Seth, and Ramon, right?
Since Ramon’s on the Mexico team, having a team of the other three would be perfect. They could have even given Mary a suit and tie themed alt costume to match the other two.
Unrelated to KOF but the phrase, “Where are you, Blue Mary?” is always stuck forever in my head, because it was the profile text of the first person I ever played Phantasy Star Online with online. He was a Japanese player who didn’t type or use simple text, only emoting ingame by running circles and shooting.
“Where are you, Blue Mary?”
He truly knew what was up.
Loli with giant alien eyes is like a kick to the face
surprisingly high ratio of beards in new characters
I think she’s supposed to be master’s
whoa i really like that nakoruru design with the fur-trimmed costume 
It’s probably made from Shikuru.
Hm, the leak from a while back that this is in line with said:
Kim Team: 金家藩 (Kim Kaphwan), 他师父 (Kim’s Master), 他师母 (Kim’s Wife)
No, it’s real boring. Maybe it’s better with the pretty lights of an actual machine.
Well I can’t read the original (chinese I suppose) but MMcafe has been going with master’s wife for a long time, we’ll see. Got to admit Korea team is where originally I thought it was a bullshit list, what a strange team. All I can see is Kim’s inevitable romance with master’s younger wife, and he’s even already married? see you next season
I can’t read Chinese but given that the characters for the two non-Kim characters are something something Father/Mother, respectively, I’m guessing they’re related.
Kim is lawful good. Not gonna happen unless they break him out of character.
Then again, considering what they did to Leona, they just might