Gotta say, it feels so good to get SNK news/reveals/trailers pretty much every month now.
Agreed, they really are alive again (TT_TT) I won't say I never expected it to happen, but this is... highly unusual for a JP company like them. I look forward to watching them carry this
King kind Of Momentum.
I go into every E3 / Gamescon / TGS hoping to hear info from them, ha. Now, it might actually make sense to look forward to such a possibility again.
Maxima is looking good. The way they modeled his chest cannon this time reminds me of Metal Slug for some reason. I'm expecting his suit to open up in various cool ways during special moves, you could see the flaps on his arm open to release steam during Vapor Cannon already.
His df+C is a launcher now going by the last trailer, wonder if it has that property while used raw only (like in the trailer) or during a combo as well.
And yeah looks like they might make more use of the chest beam this time than just for a neomax.
I can see the Metal Slug comparison, yeah. Which is very good, because it always felt so tacked on before. "He's mostly human, but he has a matrix-style chest cavity that houses a gun! Please understand."
I always hated his DF+C before XIII. Of course, he had MONGOLIAN before that, but they made smart changes to it in XIII that just made it work great. Comboing the heavy V. KANNUN off a hit with it just felt good. And his EX Anti-air became a real honest DP! So much better than the older styles which never really worked as much more than predictive anti-airs.
I'm really glad he keeps getting love. I always feel like SNK(P) has care and respect, even for their non-main, classically cool characters, when they could just pull a Zangief, and halt the design progression of someone like him for 20 years, heh.
Even if it's a Serafuku, that doesn't really mean much given these guys style. They like Stiched materials, words and logos on outfits, detailed gloves, and unique shoes. If she does have a more plain look, that'll stick out because most of the designs are much more complex.
If her design is updated, it'll be a good, Athena-worthy refresh, hopefully.
Every time a new team gets to take on Athena, I wonder if she's gonna step over that fanservice line and start panty-flashing people (the only time it's really happened was with her "Another" design in MI series). Proper Athena always stays magically non-flash, like Kagome in Inuyasha.
I just hope she doesn't have the giant head and eyes she (and Yuri) had in KOF XIII.
Worry not, this game's character design style isn't as varied as Nona's art in XIII.
I find it a real shame how much people whine about Yuri and Athena's designs. 2 main female designs get substantial body/silhouette designs that make them unique amongst a freakishly large cast of characters, and all people do is complain. As much as people hard on "generic anime designs", you think watching a group take characters that would almost NEVER be modified by most other companies, and actually taking them to their roots (Yuri as a goofball, but undeniably talented heir to the Kyokugen style, Athena as inspired by her original design inspirations from her original game artist arts, would be more accepted.
I wonder if Kenou will get another update / reversion to his blue jean style, or keep the more obviously martial-artsy look.
These all come out pretty great. LoL, it really looks like the texture work in the game, basically... and that's... appropriate.