@Bubba_da_genius - Leona, Chin, Tung, MAKUSHIMA… these are pretty consistent favorites of mine in the games they appear in. I’ll have them on main teams no matter how difficult or low-tier they could end up being. Luong looks pretty nice, though I can’t tell if I’ll main her based on gameplay yet. If she’s this game’s Shermie mixed with some Maylee or Chizuru, I could end up really liking her.
Vice is a move or 2 away from her being my premiere female grappler for this release. Love her in 98UM, always enjoy her to some capacity. Clark and Robert are always in my eyes too, I could see Robert reaching main for once, if he’s especially solid this time. I don’t play Shoto-a-likes, but Robert’s always been a personal cut above as a character.
It mostly depends on how meter turns out in this game, and the specials and cancel systems. I LIKE using Leona as an Anchor, but I found Claw Iori much easier to do everything I wanted to do with Leona, since she was much harder to cancel into useful advanced combos with in XIII. I could rip it up with her in the corner, but Midscreen was harder.
I think the biggest things against her right now:
[list]
[] Soulless eyes in the first pic make her look dead inside; Needs a bit of light sparkle.
[] The Nakaruru thing. As much as people disliked her in XIII at times, she was wholly unique in look. Now she looks like a clone of someone else, and that’s disappointing.
[] Same with the schoolgirl look. Japan might love it, but it lessens her individuality for many others.
[] Her skirt had all types of issues in the trailer. Clips through her leg in the “Death Ball” animation, Clipped during her DM on Terry, and looked very static and non-flowing through most of her section.
[*] She’s in that “uncanny valley” of anime design that people respond badly to. This doesn’t seem to bother people as much on Kula or Sylvie as it does on Athena, but I think it’s because they’ve tried to give her a unique facial structure here and there, and it’s unfortunately failing.
[/list]
It’s a shame, because I think her little head nods, the quality of her hair animation, and the Same-but-Different nature of her outfit are all pretty good. Athena should be a shining star of the KoF World, but for now, she feels like a 2nd tier character, and I hope they can fix that before release.
My own suggestions would be:
[list]
[] Give her a bit of that body weight / Shape back from XIII. The Goddess Athena is a bit more shapely than scrawny, use this as an excuse to give her a more unique body type. A little bit of thigh fat goes well with Zettai Ryouiki.
[] Fluff up her hair. She needs hair that looks different from Nakaruru or Kula. Even just giving her a bit more unique looking bangs could achieve this.
[] Depending on how that goes, they might need to remove or at least touch-up the hairband. It’s way too similar to Naka’s classic look, and even if Naka herself has a more detailed one in this game, Athena will still draw comparisons to a well-established character.
[] I’d prefer a bit of outfit changes to draw this further away from “School Girl”, but I don’t see that happening.
[*] Give her a bit of something to reference the Chinese culture she’s always around. Maybe a pattern on her dress, or a bit of a Qipao-inspired pattern / design to her outfit.
[/list]
I already have a character crisis with the revealed cast as it is lol.
King/Vice/Ralf/Angel/Luong and I’m also looking at Kensou, Joe and the butler…
Imma be rockin like 3 teams <__>
Do we have any indication that shows air BC activation is possible like XIII? With how ex moves are locked behind the max mode it could be useful like say with Vice (assuming ex sleeve is still like XIII) you do j.CD+ activate then ex sleeve into combo.
@“Eternal Blaze” - Not a showing of air activate yet from what I’ve seen. No idea if “Anywhere Juggle” exist in game yet either, for things like EX Sleeve.
True but I doubt that there won’t be any moves with that property, especially with moves that has always had that like K’s air qcb+kick. I’m personally expecting a couple of ex moves to have it to give more incentive to use them as combo extenders and whatnot.
We’ll see soon enough in the KVB tourney. I’m stoked to see some footage with competent players and what they do with the game’s engine.
@Bubba_da_genius Fatal Fury team is always a staple for me, but probably rotate Mai, Geese or the 3rd member of the South Town team (if he’s got a good moveset).
@SAB-CA I like your suggestions, they’d make Athena stand out of the ‘cookie-cutter’ / played safe area. For a character that drastically changes her look every year, between XI - XIV, they’ve more or less been ‘more of the same’ outfit. Unfortunately, I think they’re going to just be updating the textures, though I definitely would like to see some / all of your suggestions implemented. Thigh fat with Zettai Ryouiki… genius!
@“Eternal Blaze” - Aye, I hope it’s there too. I just wouldn’t be surprised if more “recognizable” states like Ground bounce, Dizzy, double over, and Blowback Wall bounce take the properties place as combo extenders / EX “status effects”. We’ve seen all these states / animations at a few points in the gameplay, so it might be a possibility.
@JulianKPrime - All the people who couldn’t stand Athena’s uniqueness in XII and XIII get to have their version, if this one remains unchanged, so I can live with it… just won’t be as happy, ha. As much as Sie loves Nikuman, I thought it was cute that Athena’s pudgy, soft look could be related to one, lol.
I don’t want chubby Athena back, but I do want to see a more “natural” face.
I just hope her st.CD is snappy and fast like 98 or 2002, unlike KOFXIII’s version of it. Since it looks like she is KOFXIII Athena, at least she’ll have XIII cl.D which I love
geese (because if geese is in a game i have always used him) kyo (because he’s always enjoyable to use) king (because she has nice buttcheeks, i mean she’s always really simple yet effective, usually)
you wont really know till you try them, sometimes you might think that chracter is for you but when play them it’s a complete different story.
I mean i’m not a mai fan at all but i always do well with her, sometimes you don’t pick a chracter they pick you
But for now that’s my team till i see a bit more of other characters, especially the new ones.
I would like to give luong a go, and new villain beard man though, i might find a way to shoehorn them into my team
Too many interesting character’s to choose from, only three in a team. #KOFproblems.
Athena looks mostly fine in motion, mostly. Genki Death Ball is the only time I’m put off by her looks.
Before I can make a decision about her, I need to see more of Luong’s moveset and I wouldn’t mind being Kim’s stand in to do so (as long as she practices that throw a few times).
Lastly, I’d like for Nelson to get alt colors in reference to King Lion (Shishio) or Rob Python (because they’re mostly forgotten SNK boxers, and Nelson’s hair reminded me of Shin Shishio).
I’d most probably learn the whole cast on a fundamental level so I can run random select, but for tournaments I’m most probably going to use Kyo/Terry/Iori like I do in 98. Even then, I don’t know if that’s set in stone since I don’t know how the brand new characters are going to play. I’d like to know how Alice plays or how the new protagonist plays. I might find some happy surprises. So I can’t really say which team I’ll main at the moment.
Gotta have Leona and K’ on the team, that’s always a must. I actually don’t plan on having a set team, and may just rotate a set of 8 characters (give or take) for online play. I’ll revisit some old favorites like Kula, Athena, and Iori, as well as give each new character some extended practice hours.
This is why I love KoF though. so many characters, so many different match-ups, so much room for experimentation
K’, Benimaru and the Pillow kid from the China Team are my main picks. Then again I’m indecisive as hell when it comes to KoF teams so I’m not too sure on that.
Random teams, for casual matches. For tourney, I’m likely to try Goro, Ryo, Ralf with Leona and Clark alts (my XIII team sans Takuma)… But who knows? Max mode and EX moves will probably affect my decision, as well as all the new characters. For all I know I might end up running Tung, Ninja Zorro, and Dinosaur.
