SNK is finally ready to show us KOF 15, with the announcement of a gameplay trailer reveal coming on January 7, 2021. The King Of Fighters XV, announced for a long while now, will finally see the light of the day. A short teaser trailer was published for the occasion. Including an interview with KOF 15 Producer Yasuyuki Oda, and Creative Director and current KOF chara designer Eisuke Ogura. It reveals the new KOF 15 character designs for Shun'ei, Kyo, and Benimaru. The reveal on January 7 will also include new details on the third season pass for Samurai Spirits.

In the interview, Oda and Ogura explained Shun'ei looks cooler, and is definitely the protagonist of KOF XV. Moreover, they confirmed KOF XV is a sequel to KOF XIV storywise. Shun'ei has some new moves as well.

Meanwhile, Kyo is back with his classic black jacket + bandanna look. KOF started in 1994, and bandanas were THE protagonist thing in the nineties, from Cress in Tales of Phantasia to Chrono in Chrono Trigger. However, the latest Kyo chara designs, for years now, had him without the bandana to make it look more modern. But longtime fans all prefer it this way.

Lastly, Benimaru is back to sleeveless outfit, with an oriental, Chinese look to it.

The King of Fighters series is a 3 Vs 3 fighter. Players can freely pick the characters they want to form a trio, however in the lore, there are official teams based on the games' story. On the character select screen, the characters are also located according to their official team.

Eisuke Ogura mentioned these team compositions in KOF 15 will differ greatly compared to the usual.

The King Of Fighters XV was first announced in December 2018, for a 2020 release, with nothing else but the announcement. The game was furthermore teased at EVO 2019 in August, with only a logo. This is the very first time we're actually seeing something. No platforms were announced yet. The game suffered development delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is mainly why SNK waited so long to give us this first KOF 15 characters reveal.

Following the gameplay trailer on January 7, additional info will release regularly throughout the year.

In related news, we recently learned that MiSK, the non-profit foundation of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, bought 33% of SNK's shares, becoming the largest shareholders. Moreover, it's ultimately planning to own 51% of the shares. Personally speaking I highly doubt there will be any changes to SNK's games reflecting this new ownership, be it censorship or anything else. However, I'm very worried by the fact that many of my favorite game IPs ever, KOF, Metal Slug, Fatal Fury etc, are being bought over by someone like MBS.