So wouldn't that leave her inhuman strength unexplained? Would she just be like Hinako then?
I don't recall Angel having some particularly impressive feats outside the range of the series' grapplers and other generally strong folk.
For me, the differences in the jump mechanics, chaining/rushing attacks, multiple play-styles in EX/Adv, the continuous story line and the fact that the cast is incredibly grounded in reality to make them very believable, layered characters.
Well, the Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting games that inspired the series are more grounded, in a way - you could tell most of their stories without relying on superhuman abilities, mystic arts or science fiction (well, they're in continuity with the Last Blade series, which has more of the supernatural stuff, and Sokaku and the Jins in FF carry some of that with them).
For KoF, however, the fact that you usually use 3 characters against a single boss tends to require a higher power curve to justify the teamwork against the threat at hand, instead of the 1-on-1 conflicts of the other series, so you get primordial forces like the Orochi and high tech like NESTS's.
Not to mention KoF protagonists tend to have special abilities like fire wieldling, and that tends to affect its story a lot - but there are still some pretty human stories under that.
I always main the fatal fury team so im good but i would love to see Rugal show up as a secret character... one of my favorite designs... a complete 90's throwback villian out of a karate flix.
Rugal in a way is a blend of the principles that made Geese and Krauser work before him, but he manages to work well on his own.
I keep this faint hope that based on the tech involved in his boss form from 95 he might actually be behind NESTS and that boss fight was an actual clone - with Adel and Rose around turning a new leaf compared to his path, he could work were he to return to a story game, but appearing in a future dream match game seems more likely (same as Ash, really).
If Rugal retuns, as in OG Rugal, not his boss form, just give him the bloody suit snk.
When I think OG Rugal I think his 94 self, without no 98 long hair, no 98 postore or stupid musclehead grin, no nonsense and no jacket - just good old-fashioned brutal efficiency:
He could keep his 94 jacketed version's block damage on standing hard punches during an EX mode or something though.
Do we still expect the new hero to have an alternate color flame motif, like past heroes? K' has darkness within his flames, Ash had Green Flames.. what could be next? Yellow? Blue? A whole new element?
I hope they give the flames thing a rest though - with the likely china focus, maybe some interesting use of chi, or maybe something based on the Chinese 5 elements system (fire, wood, metal, water, earth) - which could match a character each, some maybe to be left for a following game in the story arc.
For the Ralf moving in flames, I keep imagining him attacking with a grand Bareback Vulcan style DM, with the last hit blowing away everything in the area. From the flames of total destruction, he's the only thing that "survived", walking out with that "Mission accomplished!" mumble.
Maybe they're going for something like Dynamic Kills in the Super Robot wars games, where if a special attack finishes off an opponent, the animation changes considerably for dramatic effect.
So of the lore is what is really attractive, do I just start from the first game and play the arcade/story mode of each game? Do I really have to play 14 games to be up to date?
No need to be that drastic, even if you subtract the dream match games (although some have nice nods, like the 98 intro between Chizuru and Kyo where she briefly show her Yata mirror) - the KoF anniversary site covers a lot of backstory if you check the Team Story sections for the applicable games:
http://kofaniv.snkplaymore.co.jp/english/history/index.php
For the older titles, between sites like the VGMuseum's Endings section and Youtube you can find some story bits, and there's also the SNK wiki. as a secondary source.
Occasionally stuff from outside the KoF games themselves gets mentioned, for example, in the XIII pre-match dialogs if they involve the FF or AoF cast, so if something intrigues you it's a matter of looking up info on the characters involved - look up the ones that catch your attention and it can branch from there, and feel free to ask if something's not quite clear.
Either that, or she's a sleeper agent of some sort, still working freelance with Foxy & Diana's NESTS reconstruction efforts. Which would make it pretty interesting, considering Ramon is a freelance agent, himself, that aligns himself with Vanessa's current bosses over on the Ikari side.
After the NESTS arc K' and the gang still seem to be on speaking terms with Diana, and both her and Foxy weren't exactly on good terms with NESTS's management (mostly seen in the 2000 ending) - they seem to have a more benign view of the organization than the likes of Igniz and Zero did, so even if Angel is still involved with her, that wouldn't necessarily make her a villain.
Ramon, however, has a pretty lax work ethic (XIII's story mode shows this clearly), and for all we know all he's been doing is just to stay close to Vanessa (can't blame the guy for having good taste, but he should know when to call it quits).
Krauser is a very unpopular character. He might as well be in team usa.
I don't recall major character rankings pointing in that direction - most of the distaste for any KoF character I've seen over the years has been pointed at Bao...
The characters also constantly refresh between entries. They keep some iconic tools and personalities, but they also gain entirely new tools, change and update outfits, often tied in with the storylines. Some Examples:
- Kyo's change from a normal fireball / uppercut character into one that has chain punches and more destructive abilities, all came about from him being disappointed with his strength VS his foes, and wanting to get stronger.
In Kyo's specific case, he fought Goenitz before the KoF96 tournament and lost, which drove him to revise his moves:
http://kofaniv.snkplaymore.co.jp/english/history/kof96_story/index.php?num=hero
This played into the gameplay design shift between 95 and 96, where projectiles were deemphasized in favor of more mobile and close-up combat, so making sure this applied to the protagonist was a good way to drive the point across, and using the narrative to reinforce it helped the whole package.
They could go completely nuts with costumes if they want, since EVERYONE has been updated in one way or another. With 50 characters, I don't expect them to do much out of the box, costume wise... but I'd love to see team-related costume sets. Especially if they had unique animations and voice work applied to them.
If they give Terry and alternate Garou look, they'll certainly have to replace that cap-shifting animation from the trailer - it's a matter of if they'll go that extra mile this early on in their 3D experience...
Ash is forever trapped in the Phantom zone along K9999 and those chumps from kof97. Saiki was a better Ash anyway.
The 97 guys killed themselves to try and preserve Orochi, which may be why they didn't return when Vice and Mature did.
But nobody's deeper in the phantom zone or the
SNK locker room of oblivion than
Syo Kirishima, who got replaced by Kyo before the first KoF game was ever released.
Metal Slug 6 already did it when it made him the only character capable of getting up after an attack - everyone else in that game is a 1 hit point wonder. And there's the bit in KoF95 where the Ikari team is the only one that doesn't get knocked out by the gas Rugal uses to bring the tournament winners to his HQ.
