Since the start of 2021, SNK continues to ramp up the roster reveals for their upcoming game, The King of Fighters XV. SNK hasn't been shy about pulling from some of their other games to fill out the roster, either, including characters from Fatal Fury and The Art of Fighting as part of The King of Fighters XV. The latest reveal adds to this internal crossover as two more characters from The Art of Fighting will be joining the fight.
SNK first announced The King of Fighters XV back at EVO 2019 with a targeted release for 2020. The latest entry in SNK's long-running franchise was delayed in December 2020 and is currently penciled in to release during 2021.
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Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia were confirmed to be joining the game's roster in the latest trailer, serving as two-thirds of Team Art of Fighting alongside the previously announced King. Ryo, also known as "The Invincible Dragon," was the first one seen in the trailer followed shortly by the man dubbed "The Raging Tiger." It then cuts to gameplay of the two trading blows and highlighting the abilities both characters will be bringing to the game.
Both characters are mainstays of The King of Fighters series, appearing in every game since the original 1994 release. The one, slight exception is The King of Fighters XI where Robert Garcia was a PlayStation 2-exclusive character while Ryo Sakazaki was available in the arcade version and the latter remained part of Team Art of Fighting.
The additions of Garcia and Sakazaki brings the current roster size up to 19, with many more likely on the way. The roster for 2016's The King of Fighters XIV, alone, reached 58 characters including the eight saved for DLC releases. It's fair to say the newest game's roster at release will be slightly slower than that, but will still be sizeable roster highlighting SNK's history as previous games have done.
The King of Fighters XV is set to release in 2021, though SNK have not confirmed on what consoles.
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