Sure, Team South Town will eventually be changing that with Geese Howard, Ryuji Yamazaki and Billy Kane as DLC, but how do you make up for that on Day 1 to fans?
There's no Orochi, Goentiz, Krizalid, Igniz, Adelheid Bernstein, nor anyone else from NESTS or Those from the past. That narrative changed just a few weeks ago though, as multiple reports appeared that clearly stated the game would actually have 40 fighters.Īn official screenshot for KOF15 also appeared to show the character select screen does indeed include an extra slot outside of the 13 teams for a sole fighter, indicating it would be for a boss.Ĭonsidering the new entry is shaping up to be something of a canon dream match, there is a distinct lack of villains on the starting roster. His being a part of Team Rival also heavily implies the military leader will also be quite important to the new story too.Īnd I can't think of a better reason for Heidern to join the front lines again but to put the evil man who killed his family and took his eye back into the grave Rugal belongs in.įor months, the official word out of SNK was that KOF15 would launch with 39 playable characters, and we know all of their identities now. This time around, however, he's recruited Dolores and Isla to join him in Team Rival, who are both seemingly connected to Verse through their knowledge and power respectively, to undertake a new secret mission. There's one other interesting detail about the setup to KOF15's story that also makes us believe that Rugal is back in action, and that's the role of Heidern.įor over 2 decades now, Heidern has exclusively preferred to fight his battles from the shadows while the Ikari Warriors tackle the front-facing missions. Perhaps, Rugal is hoping to combine the powers of both Orochi and Verse together to become a truly monstrous being the likes of which we've never seen before. Speaking of the deity, Chizuru claims that Orochi's residual spirit was also resurrected by Verse's defeat and that there's some sort of power interfering with the god's seal, which forces her to reform Team Sacred Treasures with Kyo and Iori.
Since this is now technically Shun'ei's story, however, the man with Genocide Cutter legs would have assuredly learned of Verse's immense power and try to claim it for himself through the connection in the new protagonist like he once did with the god Orochi. It makes complete sense that Rugal would go back to his old tricks to host another tournament for the chance to exact revenge on those who originally took him down like Kyo Kusanagi and Heidern. The most likely answer is that Rugal is actually the one secretly hosting the new King of Fighters tournament in KOF15.Īntonov, who organized the previous tournament, was banned from doing so again after the disaster caused by Verse, and the identity of who put together the upcoming event is still a mystery. Like the others then, he too would have been revived and is now once again walking the Earth, but what is he up to and why haven't we seen him yet? What Would Rugal be Scheming in KOF15's Story? One of those came versus Mature where Verse proclaims "what's wrong.? You can be my secretary again." which is an obvious reference to Vice and her working under Berstein while he was alive. Well, Verse itself kinda spills the beans because it would sometimes channel one of the spirits within for win quotes against specific characters. So how do we know that Rugal's soul was actually among those trapped? The being's defeat in the last game led to the revival of said previously deceased characters, which allowed fighters like Ash, Yashiro, Shermie and Chris to rejoin the main roster of KOF15. Verse, for those unaware, is / was an entity born from Ash Crimson creating something of a time paradox or anomaly at the end of KOF13, but more importantly, it also trapped and contained the souls of many dead fighters. SNK began laying the groundwork for Rugal's resurrection back in The King of Fighters 14 with the introduction of that game's final boss.