About the _Akira_ references: On top of everything mentioned in the video, K9999 was voiced *by the same guy* as Tetsuo Shima. Not only that, but the "Kusanagi" that's he's referencing in the trailer was yet another Kyo clone that appeared in _2002_ and _2003_ that he had a special intro with… who was voiced by Mitsuo Iwata, who also voiced Kaneda in _Akira._
It indeed broke expectations, this is K9999 or whatever the name is? Such a bizarre inclusion, lol but anyway, even if he looks bad and has a ridiculous name, the crazy arm is kinda cool
@@RRRRRRRRR33 I was hoping for nameless but with the name k-prime but this is a good fusion of the two and I like the redesign he looks pretty badass. As long as it's supers have easy imputs I'll be using Him. Retire those inputs SNK!
He was also voiced by the original voice actor for Tetsuo. And to *my* understanding, they never got sued but SNK was wary of it to a point of never including him in anything ever again. Another rumor was that the rights to K9999 belonged to the Korean company that co-developed KOF 2001. By the way, he was the 7th favorite character in the SNK popularity polls back in 2005, before the likes of Kim and Iori.
"Also, the rights to K9999 belonged to the Korean company that co-developed KoF2001, I think." I don't think that's the case, considering that the final boss of KOF2001 appeared in the KOF14 manga.
@@harlannguyen4048 A lot of characters from 2001, like Angel, have been used since. It was still one of the prevailing rumors about his situation though, for whatever reason.
@@crimsonb.6013 Yup. As an Angel fan I remember this. People kept insisting they couldn't be used again. Then again that company went out of business I think. On the flip side I heard something about the original author of Akira giving the okay on K9999, but they may have been afraid of other companies or something. It's all a lot of confusing backroom stuff but I'm glad he's back because WOW did K9999 have a lot of fans.
“This butthead did not come equipped with a silhouette which really sucks because…I can see about 1200 different ways this could have been Rock Howard.” Length of the video - 12:00 minutes.
I love how Krohnen's arm super takes from Nameless's drill aspect and combines it his more sci-fi tech aesthetic, but it still keeps the size of K9999's super with the effects.
He might not have that bio-mechanical edge anymore, but naming him _Krohnen,_ as in _Cronenberg but with a K_ is cool as heck. Would play Ryo over him any day of the week thou.
Others were also pointing out that Krohnen could be another way of saying K 4 9. Roh is one of two Japanese words for the number 4, and then Nen is pretty close to Nine. So quite possibly one of those Japanese puns being named after both K49 AND Cronenberg. Very slick.
@@tempestbrown5033 Why Ryo? Simple... One of the first original Shoto characters besides Ryu & Ken, the SNK's icon before Terrence Bogart and Iori Yagami strikes. And you ask "why Ryo?"
What a character with a crazy past. Glad that they finally knew what to do with him. Max is right, he should've had a sillhouette to let Max show off his amazing art skills.
@@Smoothie_The_Gamecat It doesn't matter, Rock will never leave, he'll always be included in Max's heart, that makes him eternal and he will always return no matter how long it takes. 🗿
"I don't think you're gonna get me to play Meitenkun." Well, considering you came out of the first beta a Chris main when you probably didn't actually expect to...
I like the K9999 history with Krohnen, and how he looks like he got ripped apart and rebuilt as a cyborg while on the run for a while with a bad disguise.
The fact that they brought back K9999 (sort of) is still crazy, but hey, I don’t think anyone’s complaining that he’s here. I’m digging his design, as well. Also Fun Fact: Nameless has a wife arm like Spencer!
Spencer (Bionic Commando 2009): So, What is your story? Nameless: ...My girlfriend became my glove. Spencer: My wife became my arm. Nameless: ... ... Spencer: ... ... I invite you to a drink.
I'd like for SNK to make a sci-fi aesthetic fighter with characters that span all the different art styles and sub-genres of science fiction, because I really think they'd be able to pull that off with their new signature art style.
Yeah Maxima was a disaster he even lost in hight n corpulence but remember how much of the character roster were a disaster in this game compared to XV. I really hope they'll bring back Maxima with a new design outfit for this opus. They will see how much they got the eyes for this kinda stuff
@@tempestbrown5033 Well, they're the closest you can get in the current roster. And I'm pretty sure I've heard people think Chris is a girl at first glance (though not as much as Ash and Shion, but that's a very high bar to reach).
this character is incredibly lucky to exist at all in the new era of fighting games considering other characters like him with a mysterious or otherwise shrouded lore that was left on purposely "?????" usually either never return and it's one and done OR even worse they do return but in a very distasteful unimaginative form. something bamco is guilty of horrendously with what they did to my precious main. that said he's returned with a far superior design and instead of gross fleshy he's got cyborg stuff going on.
Okay, some backstory lore about K9999 and Kof 2001: this guy is not only a totally 100% reference to K9999 but to put it into a 101% in the beginning of the trailer he is talking to Kyo Kusanagi, which in the game 2001 where K9999 was, he had a rivalry with Kyo aaaaand to go into mooore crazy stuff there is a reference to the classic scene of Akira where Kaneda faces Tetsuo. where Tetsuo screams Kanedaaaa! and Kaneda talks some shit back. in the game K9999 screams "Kusanagiii" and Kyo talks someshit back! and i think he says the exact same thing that Kaneda says to Tetsuo.
that wasnt in 2001, it was with Kusanagi, the mirror image Chizuru creates in 2003 Kusanagi didnt exist in 2001, he was created for 2002 (where he has this interaction with K9), and then made canonical in 2003
Dude, the rabbithole goes a lot deeper about this character. Not only he looked like Tetsuo, the names of his moves referenced lines of the movie, his moveset referenced famous scenes of the movie and he was VOICED by the voice actor who played Tetsuo in the original movie. Not only that. The voice actor for Kaneda voiced "Kusanagi" the dark skinned clone of Kyo and they had a special intro replaying a scene from Akira where K9999 went "Kusanagiiiii!!!" and Kusanagi goes "That's MISTER Kusanagi to you, PUNK!". It was just priceless. But turned out that the "lawsuit" thing was a ruse! SNK took advantage of the rumor to add to the character's mystique all these years. There was never an issue about the character referencing Tetsuo (as in this trailer he's still doing it, but with fire effects to have him be more like a clone of kyo than a psychic. Hell, his name is also a play on "Clone"), it was just a creative direction thing cuz they felt it was too on the nose and thought that the character was only famous for the reference and not cuz he was any good. So they replaced him with Nameless and now he's back properly as himself, but with his special effects changed to be less obvious. Long story short... They played us like a goddamn fiddle! -whams table-
I love this redesign of K9999, I like to think that Krohnen was the name that K9999 gave himself to be a new being and have a new identity, just like Tizoc. I'm curious about his belt because it has the NEST symbol so... maybe he still works for them or its just sassy fashion. Anyway i'm hyped af for him, this boy is more than welcome. 💙✨
@@harlannguyen4048 Maybe Kula? The K' team would be made up of Máxima and Whip as before, maybe Kula will stay in a possible NEST team with Ángel and Krohnen, maybe she have reasons to get involved with them to see what they are up to?... hmm idk, let's see what SNK will do for them.
@@Shunsuka It's hard to see Kula and Angel teaming up. They don't like each other, even in KOF14. I was thinking of Sylvie, but Angel did made fun of her in the manga so I don't think they'll be on good terms.
I wish they would do something like this for Order Sol, I assume they're not gonna just put him into Strive, so make a new character (maybe some Holy Order knight idk) that has O-Sol's moveset
@@PlayWithThatBlackGuy You never know, it could be a good way to get a new story relevant character while still giving us legacy gameplay. But you're right that there's a laundry list of characters that need to be added first
@@kurtf3441 Order sol isnt story relevant anymore either. Not super relevant at all even when he was added in game he hadn't super story relevant. It's just a nice extra version of a character kind of like robot Ky but also not
@@PlayWithThatBlackGuy You misunderstand my point. I know O-Sol isn't even canon in +R. I mean to say, maybe a new character gets added in the new story, give them O-Sol's gameplay, that way O-Sol fans still get a character they want, and Daisuke gets to introduce a new character for some plot reason. Just a thought
@@kurtf3441 hmm could be doable I get that my thing then though is personally I'd rather if they made a new character that they have their own gimmick. I'd rather have a returning character or a completely new character personally over a variation of a character. (Yeah itd be a new character but its be a variation on sols gameplay still) I think the guilty gear team excel at creating new whacky characters that play in interesting ways. Personally I think if order sol is that wanted people would be better off just asking for order sol than a new character with kind of his moves. Personally I only like characters filling a roll of another character if its represented in the lore or for guest characters who will literally never return (like Kunimitsu taking on some of noctis gameplay gimmicks in t7) Not saying the idea is bad though I'm just picky about stuff like that
I want it to be Kim trying to reform them like he tried with raiden and hwa jai considering how much of an easy concept it is to tag that gimmick to villains who’re resurrected.
Unless they bring back one of the NESTS bosses like krizalid, the third member would more than likely be Sylvie. Doubt they would put Kula on Angel's team
A little sidenote about K9999's legality. There was NEVER a lawsuit or a complain (outside of fans) about K9999 being a ripoff of not even Tetsuo, his visual design is straight pulled off Chirico Cuvie from a 80s anime and some thing here and there. Tho there was no lawsuit filed and Japan had VERY STRICT copyright laws (Ask Nintendo and Toei, or how Totally Not Mark's career vanished due to Toei) and neither Tetsuo's voice (also K9999's 2001/2 voice) and even the creator of Akira looked wrong on K9999 and apparently the creator didn't mind if SNK used K9999 as he is. We don't know for sure why K9999s was vanished from SNK since 2015 or Nameless creation (there is card game that both appear at the same time), Falcoon once said in a Twit that wasnt about copyright and never gave an answer. My hypothesis is that someone at SNK higher executives feared about a potential lawsuit so pulled out K9999s wire from the franchise for a while and redesigned to calm those executives.
Well, there's always the potential the character's rights may change ownership and BAM! immediate lawsuit. That said, a lot of mangakas and anime producers are actually geeks and like to play games themselves, therefore I'm not surprised they didn't care about the ripoff. It's actually not even an uncommon thing. Guile for Street Fighter is straight up a Jojo reference (Stroheim), and Rose is an even bigger one (Lisa Lisa), down to using a scarf as a weapon. And Paul from Tekken is a reference to Polnareff, even in the name. It is true that Japan is very stingy with copyrights, but I feel like this is mostly true for recent times. In the 80s-90s there were A TON of homages-ripoffs in popular culture.
@@Shendue yeah I can totally see that as a concern, and considering how some Japanese companies can be as crappy just to squeeze IPs for some extra dollars
@@Shendue Many mangakas and video game developers don't own the rights for their own creation. Same with recording labels and musicians. Iga wouldn't go to kickstart Bloodstained if Konami let him do another Castlevania game.
They literally released the games with him on PS4 & Switch, of course there's nothing legally preventing them from including K9999. They chose to remove him, though the weirder thing was the removal of him from all the art in the newer games.
Terry has a skin of his garou version and SNK do like to do skins for their 3d fighters so I'd say there's a pretty big chance the skin will exist although wil be reminiscing Nameless more that being him.
It's the same argument with captain marvel - billy batson - and superman... I think k9999 deserved to exist due to being an homage. But I'm glad they fought to keep the archetype. I lost my mind when they added kronen
@@fissilewhistle that's like saying any superhero is a copy of super man -_- the tetsuo homage was one of the coolest things from my childhood. If that's the case get rid of characters like omniman, Shazam, Hyperion, hell get rid of SUPERMAN himself for being a carbon copy of the classic character Jesus Christ himself
@@monstersinthecity Don’t be ridiculous, that’s not the same thing at all. Regardless of how you might have felt about it as a child, the fact still remains that K999 was literally Tetsuo with almost no difference. Obviously SNK felt the same, otherwise they wouldn’t have gone out of their way to redesign him and then ERASE the original character from history.
So the picture leak with the clues back before kukri's reveal is true, and if so... we'll get Rock, Gato and B. Jenet as DLC, prolly the 2nd DLC after the Sam Sho team. That means, the only characters left to reveal for release are: Kula (with Angel and Krohnen), Maxima (K' and Whip) and Elisabeth (Kukri and Ash). Awesome.
@@000mjd I don't think it was that obvious to put Heidern with 2 new characters (Isla and Dolores) and call the return of K'9999/Nameless... that for me is enough to take that 'leak' with clues seriously. It can still be wrong and reveal something like... Kim with Angel and Krohnen (lol), but so far it has been accurate.
update on this story in development, the SNK community manager admitted in the official discord that K9999 being verboten was all a ruse that he had to play along with for years
@@phoenixdouchebag904 because the main designer team for KOF did not made k9999, they hated his design for being so unoriginal and way to much on the nose kind of "reference" on the edge of rip off, so they did not wanted to be asosiated with it in any way so they pulled him off every artwork and promotion they could and only kept him on the game out of contract binding with the producers who designed him may be wrong with this info but knowing how touchy every art designer is when someone external puts a finger on his baby, this is more likely to happen
Funny enough I was wondering about what my Team would've consisted of. Terry for sure, Ryo and most likely K- and well here's my chance to try it out next week. Funny how that works.
I like how his moves look in modern graphics. The arm cannon looks even better than before 9:39 I only have two complains. First, they changed his psychic dome/shield to make it fire. It looked much cooler in older games 10:03 Second, he no longer makes dust come out of the ground but fire instead. 10:21
There was never a lawsuit, Otomo never cared, the VAs (Tetsuo's and Kaneda's) never cared either and participated in the project without problems (if there was a lawsuit, it would put their careers at risk and VAs are huge in JP) Im lazy to explain further, but i left some extra data as a reply to another post
I was a kid when I played 2002 for the first time and I remember loving k9999! He’s easily one of my favorite characters, I always wondered why he didn’t show up ever again… I had no idea of that backstory, but I’m hyped af to see him return with some of the same moves
Krohnen gives me KoF: Maximum Impact vibes. I don't know why. Maybe it's the hair and sunglasses. Yeah for some reason even though it's a completely different character he reminds a bit of the red haired guy from those side games. Design wise.
9:44 I agree with Max. He looked better with short hair and showing that big forehead. 10:26 Actually, K9999 had the red scarf/cape in many of his official artwork. He has shape shifting abilities so when the fight starts he removes his red scarf. In one of his win poses when he changes the colour of his hair to white the red scarf appears.
Loved playing him back in the OG KoF2K2. Angel, K9999 + Whip was always a team I fucked with for shits and giggles and to thing I get to do it all over again after 2 decades. Crazy!
Lol Max, K9999 actually has the red scarf in almost all of his artwork promotional and otherwise and even has it animated into the game in certain win poses. The Tetsuo scarf is what tipped us off more than the blue hair
"You ain't the same guy, but that's a face I gotta punch!" I'm going to officially say this to all the people I am no longer friends with when I see them.
K9999 hated K'(Wears black a lot and a Fire user) Kyo also wears black a lot and uses fire... That's why it makes sense there... Your use of it as joke comment the way you have here is outta pocket lol
K9999 did have Tetsuo's red cloak in his intro. Also had an intro where he wears Tetsuo's fur coat from the manga, when he goes into the cryo chamber beneath the Olympic stadium.
Which is why I want Alba Meira in this game. They did that with Rock as DLC in KOF14 so is not a problem to add Alba as DLC in this game. If Alba were added, that mean we have a true full main protagonist of KOF in the game now.
Pretty sure someone must have already mentioned this, but K9999 *did* have a red scarf in KOF 2002. He used it on one of his victory poses and on his HSDM, and I'm pretty sure he had it on during the post-battle victory screen as well.
Bro relax, nobody in Japan disliked K9999 because of the "similarities" he had with Tetsuo. To the contrary, even SNK admitted K was a homage to Tetsuo, where even Tetsuos real voice over did the voice for K, but he only appeared on that Arcade version of KOF.
I'd love to see Geese, Rugal, Goentiz, Shion, Igniz, Jhun Hoon, Orochi and Bao all make a comeback! They all had really unique and fun playstyles and designs! Especially Bao, love how he utilises the projectile and even turns himself into one.
You can see wear and tear on his blue glove. This indicates Krohnen is definitely not some random character that has been manufactured by NESTS recently. He's got some history to tell. He has been through a lot. Also the Oda director/producer once said, some times after SNK revealed Angel for KOF14, ''we might be able to learn what happened to K9999 soon' in one of the interviews he had. I believe Krohnen IS K9999.
Here in Chile, people went apeshit when it was revealed that Isla (the new girl) is chilean. Chilean characters in videogames are counted with one hand
I saw this on Twitter that krohnen name is K- K ROH- 4 NEN- 9 I don’t know how true it is though. Couldn’t find any thing that proved it. If it’s the case, that’s totally cool. This truly shattered my expectations.
K9999 and Kyo (or Kusanagi, i don't remember exactly) even have a special intro in reference of Akira cause they have the same voice actors as Tetsuo and Kaneda, pretty cool stuff
I want an DLC Costume for Krohnen where he look more like Nameless with the Half-Black, Half-White Hair, the White Glove, the Black Flame, & the Black Outfit.
In 2k2, K9 in the Japan version he shots with a gun in his desperation move. In the US version he shots with his fist. His moves are the same just with the blazing effects added.
what a great fuckin birthday present the Game Awards gave me my main man and pretzel boy of legend has escaped Copyright Hell and has become a *mix* of K9999 AND Nameless's aesthetics especially in that SDM, dude. it's both mechanical AND wibbly. love that so much.
Strongest KOF character is the Orochi. It’s too powerful to kill so it has to be sealed, but only a Yata can seal it, and it has to be weakened by a Kusanagi and Yasakani first.
@@KramerBebop Orochi is still the strongest, literally can't be defeated can only be sealed and he'll eventually return. Mr.Karate is on par with Goenitz believe that it or not so by result he can also beat Omega Rugal. Igniz is the third strongest boss in the lore after Orochi and Saiki.
man I forgot about this guy but now it is all coming back to me I always wondered what happened to him well now I know and now we have him back and I agree with max he looks better this way and his game play looks like fun glad we get to try him in the beta
K9999 is canonically the strongest KOF character because he's the only one to have beaten copyright laws
That’s freaking broken he NEEDS a nerf
What about Sora?
@@HellecticMojo sora didnt break copyright laws, sakurai spent years to make that shit happen
In a manga k9999 also kicked iori's ass and sent him flying into an ocean with his gun
Haha 😂 . .. He didn't beat the copyright laws .....he being redesign and rename
About the _Akira_ references: On top of everything mentioned in the video, K9999 was voiced *by the same guy* as Tetsuo Shima. Not only that, but the "Kusanagi" that's he's referencing in the trailer was yet another Kyo clone that appeared in _2002_ and _2003_ that he had a special intro with… who was voiced by Mitsuo Iwata, who also voiced Kaneda in _Akira._
"Kanedaaaaaa!"
Nozomu Sazaki, a famous seiyuu.
He also voice Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakkusho
@@tomaturtle7790 "KUSANAGIIIII!"
"San wo tsukeroyo dekosuke yaro!"
さんをつけろよデコ助野郎!!
I knew everything except the Kusanagi VA. That's cool as fuck dood
Expectations shattered, never thought they'd bring him back and redesigned him again no less!
It indeed broke expectations, this is K9999 or whatever the name is? Such a bizarre inclusion, lol but anyway, even if he looks bad and has a ridiculous name, the crazy arm is kinda cool
@@RRRRRRRRR33 I was hoping for nameless but with the name k-prime but this is a good fusion of the two and I like the redesign he looks pretty badass. As long as it's supers have easy imputs I'll be using Him. Retire those inputs SNK!
He was also voiced by the original voice actor for Tetsuo. And to *my* understanding, they never got sued but SNK was wary of it to a point of never including him in anything ever again. Another rumor was that the rights to K9999 belonged to the Korean company that co-developed KOF 2001.
By the way, he was the 7th favorite character in the SNK popularity polls back in 2005, before the likes of Kim and Iori.
Pretty sure it was because they were afraid of being sued by the people who made Akira actually..
"Also, the rights to K9999 belonged to the Korean company that co-developed KoF2001, I think."
I don't think that's the case, considering that the final boss of KOF2001 appeared in the KOF14 manga.
@@harlannguyen4048 A lot of characters from 2001, like Angel, have been used since. It was still one of the prevailing rumors about his situation though, for whatever reason.
@@sonomni Never was the case, apparently.
@@crimsonb.6013 Yup. As an Angel fan I remember this. People kept insisting they couldn't be used again. Then again that company went out of business I think. On the flip side I heard something about the original author of Akira giving the okay on K9999, but they may have been afraid of other companies or something. It's all a lot of confusing backroom stuff but I'm glad he's back because WOW did K9999 have a lot of fans.
“This butthead did not come equipped with a silhouette which really sucks because…I can see about 1200 different ways this could have been Rock Howard.”
Length of the video - 12:00 minutes.
🤨
3 x 4? 😁
I love how Krohnen's arm super takes from Nameless's drill aspect and combines it his more sci-fi tech aesthetic, but it still keeps the size of K9999's super with the effects.
He might not have that bio-mechanical edge anymore, but naming him _Krohnen,_ as in _Cronenberg but with a K_ is cool as heck.
Would play Ryo over him any day of the week thou.
Yeah as soon as he said that he was a redesign of the Akira "tribute" character the name Khronen stuck out like a sore thumb.
Why Ryo tho?
Others were also pointing out that Krohnen could be another way of saying K 4 9. Roh is one of two Japanese words for the number 4, and then Nen is pretty close to Nine. So quite possibly one of those Japanese puns being named after both K49 AND Cronenberg. Very slick.
@@tempestbrown5033 Cuz' he a karate boi and karate bois are cool shut up. Yes I do eat white bread sometimes.
@@tempestbrown5033 Why Ryo? Simple...
One of the first original Shoto characters besides Ryu & Ken, the SNK's icon before Terrence Bogart and Iori Yagami strikes.
And you ask "why Ryo?"
What a character with a crazy past. Glad that they finally knew what to do with him. Max is right, he should've had a sillhouette to let Max show off his amazing art skills.
Good thing there's no silhouette. His obsession with Rock Howard is getting old.
@@Smoothie_The_Gamecat Max's obsession with Rock Howard will never get old, it's eternal and grows every day as the stars predict.
@@Shunsuka then I predict that Rock Howard will NOT be included until the year 2024.
@@Smoothie_The_Gamecat It doesn't matter, Rock will never leave, he'll always be included in Max's heart, that makes him eternal and he will always return no matter how long it takes. 🗿
Honestly the repeated obsession with Rock Howard kind of makes me hope he's not in the game at this point.
God I love that his name is a reference to Cronenberg's body horror.
I literally shouted at my screen during the Game Awards, "Holy shit, it's K9999!" I can't believe they brought him back, the madlads.
Sounds like you need some professional help.
@@-Devy- for being excited over something? 😕
@@-Devy- pretty ironic coming from Gir over here ngl.
@@-Devy- ???
"I don't think you're gonna get me to play Meitenkun."
Well, considering you came out of the first beta a Chris main when you probably didn't actually expect to...
Until he gets moped by Meitenkun's online lol.
"Shatter All Expectations"
But Meitenkun is more like Bao a zoning character and that is definitely not Max style. Arturo Sanchez on the other hand will love this character.
I like the K9999 history with Krohnen, and how he looks like he got ripped apart and rebuilt as a cyborg while on the run for a while with a bad disguise.
Nah, he probably just replaced his arm with a robot one because turning it into a goopy meatentacle must've hurt like hell >:P
Fun fact: K9999's name is banned from being said in the SNK offices
Edit: this isn't true. Sry
@@LordDragox412 Still enough to look cool and somewhat rebuilt.
@@thatonenerd9252 confirmed not true
@@ReeseGhost really dang
I’ve wanted Nameless in the game since the beginning, but to see K9999 back of all people is absolutely mind blowing.
Exactly
Nameless had such a cool design it would have been cool to see him in there too but I think I'll warm up to Krohnen really quick
@@KukiJaNai maybe in a dlc suit.
@@KukiJaNai While it is a cool design I always associated nameless with a krizalid fan XD
Yeah. Nameless is such a cool character
The new dude is voiced by Jaden Yuki from Yugioh. Get your rollback on!
I love that fact. Dark King is back :)
K9999's arm only turns into a gun in the JP version of KOF 2001 and 2002. That's why many people never saw it.
Oh shit I forgot that! I'm used to playing in Mugen.
Yep.
Whip also suffered censorship because of her gun in some versions.
A Chinese leak confirmed that this is indeed K9999, Ángel supposedly refers to him as such.
The fact that they brought back K9999 (sort of) is still crazy, but hey, I don’t think anyone’s complaining that he’s here. I’m digging his design, as well.
Also Fun Fact: Nameless has a wife arm like Spencer!
if the old info is true then we gonna see mai lee back too
This means Najd might come back.
Nameless did the "wife arm" thing first.
@@alexiscarvajal4304 May Lee IS in the mobile game KOF Allstar so there's nothing stopping her!
Spencer (Bionic Commando 2009): So,
What is your story?
Nameless: ...My girlfriend became my glove.
Spencer: My wife became my arm.
Nameless: ... ...
Spencer: ... ...
I invite you to a drink.
I'd like for SNK to make a sci-fi aesthetic fighter with characters that span all the different art styles and sub-genres of science fiction, because I really think they'd be able to pull that off with their new signature art style.
This is good
Galaxy Fight, remember that game? Imagine if they remade that or gave it a sequel now.
If not SNK I wish Capcom would make something with Star Gladiator I played the absolute shit of that shitty game when I was a kid
I don't know dude, I don't think they did a good job with Maxima's design in the previous game.
Yeah Maxima was a disaster he even lost in hight n corpulence but remember how much of the character roster were a disaster in this game compared to XV. I really hope they'll bring back Maxima with a new design outfit for this opus. They will see how much they got the eyes for this kinda stuff
Expectations finally shattered. I officially want to play KOF15 just to play as this dude.
5:58 If the past repeats itself, Meitenkun will absolutely be the staple in his team
The Chris Experience part 2
Watch him main team femboys (Chris/Meitenkun/Ash) on release :eyes:
@@ZeroStrife1396 Not sure if Max is fan of charging motions, but if he doesn't mind, that would be a nice team regardless.
@@ZeroStrife1396 chris and Meitenkun aren't femboys
@@tempestbrown5033 Well, they're the closest you can get in the current roster. And I'm pretty sure I've heard people think Chris is a girl at first glance (though not as much as Ash and Shion, but that's a very high bar to reach).
this character is incredibly lucky to exist at all in the new era of fighting games considering other characters like him with a mysterious or otherwise shrouded lore that was left on purposely "?????" usually either never return and it's one and done OR even worse they do return but in a very distasteful unimaginative form. something bamco is guilty of horrendously with what they did to my precious main.
that said he's returned with a far superior design and instead of gross fleshy he's got cyborg stuff going on.
noob saibot is one i can think of, lore is very bland but then again its mk, theyre not really great at writing stories unless its a character bio
Q (Street Fighter), Mokujin (Tekken), and Chameleon (Mortal Kombat) comes to mind.
A.B.A: is the closest One and Done character I can think of in Guilty Gear. Allthough I know fans want her back.
@@astridparungao4971 Q got a redemption arc, G is dope man .
@@leithaziz2716 sadly we won't get her :_ she was replaced by Nag, very similar style of play, but I like ABA better tbh, she was really coool
Max: You won't see me playing as pillow boy
*Max's team ending up being Terrence, Chris and Meitenkun*
WE WON BABY!!! EXPECTATIONS ARE SHATTERED
For real!
This blew my mind! I've been waiting for him to return for 20 years. I'm stoked!
And also fun fact K9999’s voice actor from 2000-2002 is actually Tetsuo’s VA
You mean 2001 since thats when K9999 actually debuted
Nozomu Sazaki, a famous seiyuu.
He also voice Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakkusho
Igniz comeback as Goodman
K9999 as Kroehnen
Now we need May Lee.
She might come back as cyborg Lee ,😄
Okay, some backstory lore about K9999 and Kof 2001:
this guy is not only a totally 100% reference to K9999 but to put it into a 101% in the beginning of the trailer he is talking to Kyo Kusanagi, which in the game 2001 where K9999 was, he had a rivalry with Kyo aaaaand to go into mooore crazy stuff
there is a reference to the classic scene of Akira where Kaneda faces Tetsuo. where Tetsuo screams Kanedaaaa! and Kaneda talks some shit back.
in the game K9999 screams "Kusanagiii" and Kyo talks someshit back! and i think he says the exact same thing that Kaneda says to Tetsuo.
Kusanagi also had Kaneda's voice actor if I remember properly, hence the reference.
A little clarification: It wasn't kyo, it was the clone "KUSANAGI"
Yeah, he says “That’s Mr. Kusanagi to you punk!” Or something like that, which is from Akira.
K9999 and clone Kusanagi are rivals at KOF 2002.
that wasnt in 2001, it was with Kusanagi, the mirror image Chizuru creates in 2003
Kusanagi didnt exist in 2001, he was created for 2002 (where he has this interaction with K9), and then made canonical in 2003
Dude, the rabbithole goes a lot deeper about this character.
Not only he looked like Tetsuo, the names of his moves referenced lines of the movie, his moveset referenced famous scenes of the movie and he was VOICED by the voice actor who played Tetsuo in the original movie. Not only that. The voice actor for Kaneda voiced "Kusanagi" the dark skinned clone of Kyo and they had a special intro replaying a scene from Akira where K9999 went "Kusanagiiiii!!!" and Kusanagi goes "That's MISTER Kusanagi to you, PUNK!".
It was just priceless.
But turned out that the "lawsuit" thing was a ruse! SNK took advantage of the rumor to add to the character's mystique all these years. There was never an issue about the character referencing Tetsuo (as in this trailer he's still doing it, but with fire effects to have him be more like a clone of kyo than a psychic. Hell, his name is also a play on "Clone"), it was just a creative direction thing cuz they felt it was too on the nose and thought that the character was only famous for the reference and not cuz he was any good. So they replaced him with Nameless and now he's back properly as himself, but with his special effects changed to be less obvious.
Long story short... They played us like a goddamn fiddle! -whams table-
I love this redesign of K9999, I like to think that Krohnen was the name that K9999 gave himself to be a new being and have a new identity, just like Tizoc.
I'm curious about his belt because it has the NEST symbol so... maybe he still works for them or its just sassy fashion.
Anyway i'm hyped af for him, this boy is more than welcome. 💙✨
NEST team with Angel, possibly? But who's going to be its third member?
@@harlannguyen4048 Maybe Kula? The K' team would be made up of Máxima and Whip as before, maybe Kula will stay in a possible NEST team with Ángel and Krohnen, maybe she have reasons to get involved with them to see what they are up to?... hmm idk, let's see what SNK will do for them.
@@Shunsuka It's hard to see Kula and Angel teaming up. They don't like each other, even in KOF14. I was thinking of Sylvie, but Angel did made fun of her in the manga so I don't think they'll be on good terms.
I appreciate how the '02 edit has matching fighters or equivalent next to Krohnen reveal.
Now they really shattered my expectations.
No no no....if the team gave us a Dec. 31st trailer showing *Goenitz* NOW that'd blow my mind.
8:26 Can't blame Max for not recognizing that move
The shotgun arm was censored outside Japan
I wish they would do something like this for Order Sol, I assume they're not gonna just put him into Strive, so make a new character (maybe some Holy Order knight idk) that has O-Sol's moveset
It's very unlikely order sol will come back in anyway especially in strive.
Considering the sheer number of characters who aren't in the game.
@@PlayWithThatBlackGuy You never know, it could be a good way to get a new story relevant character while still giving us legacy gameplay. But you're right that there's a laundry list of characters that need to be added first
@@kurtf3441 Order sol isnt story relevant anymore either.
Not super relevant at all even when he was added in game he hadn't super story relevant.
It's just a nice extra version of a character kind of like robot Ky but also not
@@PlayWithThatBlackGuy You misunderstand my point. I know O-Sol isn't even canon in +R. I mean to say, maybe a new character gets added in the new story, give them O-Sol's gameplay, that way O-Sol fans still get a character they want, and Daisuke gets to introduce a new character for some plot reason. Just a thought
@@kurtf3441 hmm could be doable I get that my thing then though is personally I'd rather if they made a new character that they have their own gimmick.
I'd rather have a returning character or a completely new character personally over a variation of a character.
(Yeah itd be a new character but its be a variation on sols gameplay still)
I think the guilty gear team excel at creating new whacky characters that play in interesting ways.
Personally I think if order sol is that wanted people would be better off just asking for order sol than a new character with kind of his moves.
Personally I only like characters filling a roll of another character if its represented in the lore or for guest characters who will literally never return (like Kunimitsu taking on some of noctis gameplay gimmicks in t7)
Not saying the idea is bad though I'm just picky about stuff like that
I always knew he would return.. I can rest now…
So Alba Meira from KOF: Maximum Impact was one of NESTS test subjects.
This character is truly the one who shattered my expectations
Him and Ángel are definitely part of a NESTS team, but idk who the third could be
Oh god it might be Sylvie
I want it to be Kim trying to reform them like he tried with raiden and hwa jai considering how much of an easy concept it is to tag that gimmick to villains who’re resurrected.
@@thedarkderp2520 I really hope so
As long as its not Sylvie...
Unless they bring back one of the NESTS bosses like krizalid, the third member would more than likely be Sylvie. Doubt they would put Kula on Angel's team
His design is K9999, K', Nameless and Alba Meira put together.
Glad to see someone who remembers the Maximum Impact games :)
Alba was cool
@@meganinten0078 Much cooler than his brother was anyway.
@@meganinten0078 Also, A Maximum Impact team wouldn't be a bad idea for this game either.
@@ThirteenOhEight Not gonna lie... would be good to see Jivatma or Duke as sub bosses on KOF XV.
@@Mondragora99 I'd just go with Duke. I didn't care for Jivatma.
A little sidenote about K9999's legality.
There was NEVER a lawsuit or a complain (outside of fans) about K9999 being a ripoff of not even Tetsuo, his visual design is straight pulled off Chirico Cuvie from a 80s anime and some thing here and there.
Tho there was no lawsuit filed and Japan had VERY STRICT copyright laws (Ask Nintendo and Toei, or how Totally Not Mark's career vanished due to Toei) and neither Tetsuo's voice (also K9999's 2001/2 voice) and even the creator of Akira looked wrong on K9999 and apparently the creator didn't mind if SNK used K9999 as he is.
We don't know for sure why K9999s was vanished from SNK since 2015 or Nameless creation (there is card game that both appear at the same time), Falcoon once said in a Twit that wasnt about copyright and never gave an answer.
My hypothesis is that someone at SNK higher executives feared about a potential lawsuit so pulled out K9999s wire from the franchise for a while and redesigned to calm those executives.
Well, there's always the potential the character's rights may change ownership and BAM! immediate lawsuit.
That said, a lot of mangakas and anime producers are actually geeks and like to play games themselves, therefore I'm not surprised they didn't care about the ripoff.
It's actually not even an uncommon thing. Guile for Street Fighter is straight up a Jojo reference (Stroheim), and Rose is an even bigger one (Lisa Lisa), down to using a scarf as a weapon. And Paul from Tekken is a reference to Polnareff, even in the name.
It is true that Japan is very stingy with copyrights, but I feel like this is mostly true for recent times. In the 80s-90s there were A TON of homages-ripoffs in popular culture.
@@Shendue yeah I can totally see that as a concern, and considering how some Japanese companies can be as crappy just to squeeze IPs for some extra dollars
@@Shendue Many mangakas and video game developers don't own the rights for their own creation. Same with recording labels and musicians. Iga wouldn't go to kickstart Bloodstained if Konami let him do another Castlevania game.
Really love the voice acting especially when he turns his arm into the giant gun and says
"This is gonna make you a hornet nest!"
They literally released the games with him on PS4 & Switch, of course there's nothing legally preventing them from including K9999. They chose to remove him, though the weirder thing was the removal of him from all the art in the newer games.
I like the Legally Distinct Arm Super, and really wanna see his alt colors!
I would love a krohnen nameless skin that would be sick.
Terry has a skin of his garou version and SNK do like to do skins for their 3d fighters so I'd say there's a pretty big chance the skin will exist although wil be reminiscing Nameless more that being him.
It's the same argument with captain marvel - billy batson - and superman... I think k9999 deserved to exist due to being an homage. But I'm glad they fought to keep the archetype. I lost my mind when they added kronen
There’s a fine line between an homage and an unapologetic copy. K9999 was the latter. Krohnen is an example of how to do it correctly.
@@fissilewhistle that's like saying any superhero is a copy of super man -_- the tetsuo homage was one of the coolest things from my childhood. If that's the case get rid of characters like omniman, Shazam, Hyperion, hell get rid of SUPERMAN himself for being a carbon copy of the classic character Jesus Christ himself
@@monstersinthecity It's not. K9999 was almost a direct 1:1 copy. That's NOT a homage.
@@xOmniCloudx Nah, just a homage. A really cool one.
@@monstersinthecity Don’t be ridiculous, that’s not the same thing at all. Regardless of how you might have felt about it as a child, the fact still remains that K999 was literally Tetsuo with almost no difference.
Obviously SNK felt the same, otherwise they wouldn’t have gone out of their way to redesign him and then ERASE the original character from history.
"I can see about 1200 ways this guy _could_ have been Rock Howard."
Max, we need to have an intervention.
So the picture leak with the clues back before kukri's reveal is true, and if so...
we'll get Rock, Gato and B. Jenet as DLC, prolly the 2nd DLC after the Sam Sho team.
That means, the only characters left to reveal for release are: Kula (with Angel and Krohnen), Maxima (K' and Whip) and Elisabeth (Kukri and Ash).
Awesome.
where 's this leak?
Don’t give me a hope boner with the garou team, man.
I’ve been quitting hopium cold turkey for a long time.
I wonder for what reason Kula would team up with the murder of her friend. Krizalid would shatter expectations imo.
The think its yoy dont need to be a brainer to suppossed that base roster
@@000mjd I don't think it was that obvious to put Heidern with 2 new characters (Isla and Dolores) and call the return of K'9999/Nameless... that for me is enough to take that 'leak' with clues seriously. It can still be wrong and reveal something like... Kim with Angel and Krohnen (lol), but so far it has been accurate.
kro-nen as K nine. I was shouting for this character to come back. I am really happy that the did it. in their own way.
Never really caught wind of what happened to K9999, I remember kinda digging him.
update on this story in development, the SNK community manager admitted in the official discord that K9999 being verboten was all a ruse that he had to play along with for years
So why was K9999 seemingly erased frol history? This is just confusing.
@@phoenixdouchebag904 because the main designer team for KOF did not made k9999, they hated his design for being so unoriginal and way to much on the nose kind of "reference" on the edge of rip off, so they did not wanted to be asosiated with it in any way so they pulled him off every artwork and promotion they could and only kept him on the game out of contract binding with the producers who designed him
may be wrong with this info but knowing how touchy every art designer is when someone external puts a finger on his baby, this is more likely to happen
Wow I'm early
He looks incredible tbh, I like his redesign quite a lot and his attacks look sick, hope he's really fun!
He is.
The funny thing about K9999's redesign is that they gave him a biker jacket and Kaneda's googles.
Now he looks more like Kaneda than Tetsuo XD
That made my day
Funny enough I was wondering about what my Team would've consisted of. Terry for sure, Ryo and most likely K- and well here's my chance to try it out next week. Funny how that works.
the voice of k9999 is voiced by tetsuo voice actor
I like how his moves look in modern graphics.
The arm cannon looks even better than before 9:39
I only have two complains.
First, they changed his psychic dome/shield to make it fire. It looked much cooler in older games 10:03
Second, he no longer makes dust come out of the ground but fire instead. 10:21
Because this is not K9999 that we know. This is a mix character between K9999 and Nameless.
Mechanical super and fire come from nameless, and the design came from a mix of K9999 and Alba Meira
Oh, we're opposite then. I actually love that fire, because in kof xv the fire looks great. And being the rival of K', fire vs fire is nice too.
There was never a lawsuit, Otomo never cared, the VAs (Tetsuo's and Kaneda's) never cared either and participated in the project without problems (if there was a lawsuit, it would put their careers at risk and VAs are huge in JP)
Im lazy to explain further, but i left some extra data as a reply to another post
Otomo seems like a cool dude
Yeah, it was more of a pre-emptive/preventative thing plus regret after the fact
I actually kinda like the goggles, if only because it gives him a parallel to K', which was probably the intention.
I was a kid when I played 2002 for the first time and I remember loving k9999! He’s easily one of my favorite characters, I always wondered why he didn’t show up ever again… I had no idea of that backstory, but I’m hyped af to see him return with some of the same moves
Meitenkun is my favorite KOF character. He's insanely fun. He's going to be good too. :)
I don’t dislike Krohnen but I wish they would’ve kept nameless’ design. Hopefully we get a nameless color swap
I don't think he's supposed to be Nameless though
Man i like his design here and i can't wait to try him in the next beta
I'm pretty sure somebody already told him but in 2001 he has the Cape and in 02 his other super is the part when he goes to space
Krohnen gives me KoF: Maximum Impact vibes. I don't know why. Maybe it's the hair and sunglasses. Yeah for some reason even though it's a completely different character he reminds a bit of the red haired guy from those side games. Design wise.
Alba Meira
You are talking about Alba Meira.
I miss him and the rest of the Maximum Impact characters.
I hope some of them appear as DLC
He mentioned Kusanagi !! Hopefully they add him as well.
That's a good that Might be a confirmation of kusanagi being in the game!
The mad lads actually did it
9:44 I agree with Max.
He looked better with short hair and showing that big forehead.
10:26 Actually, K9999 had the red scarf/cape in many of his official artwork.
He has shape shifting abilities so when the fight starts he removes his red scarf.
In one of his win poses when he changes the colour of his hair to white the red scarf appears.
Man I really hope he get his win pose with the white hair and long scarf back
Loved playing him back in the OG KoF2K2. Angel, K9999 + Whip was always a team I fucked with for shits and giggles and to thing I get to do it all over again after 2 decades. Crazy!
K-9 (that's all I called him) was strange but still fun to play. I liked him because of the Akira reference, haha
So hes Tokyo Gore Police and Machine Gun Girl all in one
Lol Max, K9999 actually has the red scarf in almost all of his artwork promotional and otherwise and even has it animated into the game in certain win poses. The Tetsuo scarf is what tipped us off more than the blue hair
"You ain't the same guy, but that's a face I gotta punch!"
I'm going to officially say this to all the people I am no longer friends with when I see them.
K9999 hated K'(Wears black a lot and a Fire user)
Kyo also wears black a lot and uses fire...
That's why it makes sense there...
Your use of it as joke comment the way you have here is outta pocket lol
K9999 did have Tetsuo's red cloak in his intro. Also had an intro where he wears Tetsuo's fur coat from the manga, when he goes into the cryo chamber beneath the Olympic stadium.
I like the Krohnen design
He looks like he came from Maximum Impact 😂
Which is why I want Alba Meira in this game. They did that with Rock as DLC in KOF14 so is not a problem to add Alba as DLC in this game. If Alba were added, that mean we have a true full main protagonist of KOF in the game now.
K999 with Alba feel lol. Epic
Pretty sure someone must have already mentioned this, but K9999 *did* have a red scarf in KOF 2002. He used it on one of his victory poses and on his HSDM, and I'm pretty sure he had it on during the post-battle victory screen as well.
Fun Fact: Nozomu Sasaki did the voice for K9999 so yup, flying too close to the sun is right.
(K9999 1st appeard in The King of Fighters 2001)
Bro relax, nobody in Japan disliked K9999 because of the "similarities" he had with Tetsuo. To the contrary, even SNK admitted K was a homage to Tetsuo, where even Tetsuos real voice over did the voice for K, but he only appeared on that Arcade version of KOF.
I'd love to see Geese, Rugal, Goentiz, Shion, Igniz, Jhun Hoon, Orochi and Bao all make a comeback!
They all had really unique and fun playstyles and designs!
Especially Bao, love how he utilises the projectile and even turns himself into one.
brought my favourite character(s) back, I gotta play it now
You can see wear and tear on his blue glove. This indicates Krohnen is definitely not some random character that has been manufactured by NESTS recently. He's got some history to tell. He has been through a lot. Also the Oda director/producer once said, some times after SNK revealed Angel for KOF14, ''we might be able to learn what happened to K9999 soon' in one of the interviews he had. I believe Krohnen IS K9999.
Ok, SNK didn't get sued for adding K9999. They probably just got a very polite C&D letter and that would have been enough.
Here in Chile, people went apeshit when it was revealed that Isla (the new girl) is chilean. Chilean characters in videogames are counted with one hand
Terry and Mary got that conjoined twin vibe on the Beta promotion roster screen.
Holy crap, this guy has Judai Yuki/Patrokolos' voice actor.
I saw this on Twitter that krohnen name is K- K
ROH- 4
NEN- 9
I don’t know how true it is though. Couldn’t find any thing that proved it. If it’s the case, that’s totally cool. This truly shattered my expectations.
This shattered expectations, also Blue Mary design inspired by android 18
K9999 and Kyo (or Kusanagi, i don't remember exactly) even have a special intro in reference of Akira cause they have the same voice actors as Tetsuo and Kaneda, pretty cool stuff
Well now I have 2 of my team members, this guy and Blue Mary.
Imagine they DO bring Nameless back and Him, Krohnen, and K’ on a team called Cloned Trinity Team (idk tried to make it sound cool)
Is this supposed to be K9999?
Edit: Oh yes. This is definitely supposed to be K9999
yea his fighter stance is identical to K9999.
I want an DLC Costume for Krohnen where he look more like Nameless with the Half-Black, Half-White Hair, the White Glove, the Black Flame, & the Black Outfit.
In 2k2, K9 in the Japan version he shots with a gun in his desperation move. In the US version he shots with his fist. His moves are the same just with the blazing effects added.
K9999's name is pronounced as K-four-nine, you can hear it in his special intro with Angel in 2002.
Max, just accept the leaks are real and Rock is gonna be DLC again
I bet Max ends up playing Terry, Marry, and K' or K9999
K9999 had no choice but to disguise himself with googles and a wig to bé able to come back
The guy who voiced Tetsuo also voiced K'9999 on top of it, just to make it an even bigger on the nose reference.
Bruh this guy was voiced by Tetsuo's Sub VA back in the day too... Fucking insane how close they flew to the sun.
K9999 actually did have the big Tetsuo cape in old kof too but it was only in his win pose that was also copying one of Tetsuo's poses
what a great fuckin birthday present the Game Awards gave me
my main man and pretzel boy of legend has escaped Copyright Hell and has become a *mix* of K9999 AND Nameless's aesthetics
especially in that SDM, dude. it's both mechanical AND wibbly. love that so much.
Two things
1. Lore wise who’s the strongest KOF character?
2. I hope they add more 2000 era KOF characters
The strongest lore wise is Orochi, a spirit of gaia that wants to end humanity
Strongest KOF character is the Orochi. It’s too powerful to kill so it has to be sealed, but only a Yata can seal it, and it has to be weakened by a Kusanagi and Yasakani first.
I believe it's the KOF XIII version of Ash Crimson, after he stole Iori and Chizuru's powers. I think Mr. Karate is up there too, then Kyo.
The answer is Antonov.
Source: Antonov.
@@KramerBebop Orochi is still the strongest, literally can't be defeated can only be sealed and he'll eventually return. Mr.Karate is on par with Goenitz believe that it or not so by result he can also beat Omega Rugal. Igniz is the third strongest boss in the lore after Orochi and Saiki.
k'9999 used to take his scarf off at the pre fight and telekinetically make it appear when he wins or during his HSDM
man I forgot about this guy but now it is all coming back to me I always wondered what happened to him well now I know and now we have him back and I agree with max he looks better this way and his game play looks like fun glad we get to try him in the beta