King of Fighters XV - Yashiro Nanakase trailer - A Quick Look

I hadn't planned to do individual trailer write ups, but considering SNK has seemed to have 'shattered expectations' it means a change of plan...lol. 

Prior to this week's trailer they did tease in the silhouette format that they used to tease upcoming DLC characters for XIV, a lot of people seemed to be guessing Ryo due to way they've been releasing trailers so far, some guessed Yashiro correctly, and others went for characters like Shen or Shingo. 

But as we all know now it's Yashiro returning to the series. Strangely on SNK's Twitter account they say it's the first time back since 2002, but then he was in 98UM and 02UM...Even if they are technically remakes or possibly SNK just doesn't consider them part of the main series? A little strange considering 98 and 02 are dream matches.

Anyway back to the trailer, it seems like Yashiro's design has been slightly updated, also as pointed out by MMaker on Twitter, he has some clever details in his design such as the 1997 on his belt. (The last game he was alive in.)

One of the things I noticed that they didn't seem to show (or I've possibly missed), is his weak attacks in this trailer. I remember back in 98 his weak attacks (standing B, or crouching A) made him a bit of a poke monster, especially considering how good poking was in general in 98. 

It doesn't seem like they've added anything new to his move set, though I did think his qcfx2+P super looks a bit weird how his arm looks a little disjointed? Is it really possible to punch like that? lol...

Other than that I think he looks pretty much as he has in the previous games he's been in. 

On a side note, I was looking up his move lists last night (as I started playing KOF before internet was a widespread thing, I never bothered to learn move names) and I had forgotten his move list was written in Cyrillic (which I normally think of as Russian lol...). 

This led me to check out why his move list was in Cyrillic, and after a while Googling various keywords together I came across the Wikipedia page for the Oroch People!!

It could be just a massive coincidence, but it seems all too similar for it to be. As we all know the Three Sacred Treasures are based on the Imperial Regalia of Japan, so it could be very plausible that they referenced the Oroch people when creating the New Face/Orochi Team. 

As pointed out by others on Twitter it's a little ironic they announced Yashiro today (25th March) considering it's Heavy D and Iori's birthdays. Considering he beat up the former for his KOF invitation and he's rivals with Iori due to band conflict. 

Hopefully this also means the Orochi version of Yashiro is in the works, as I actually used him back in 98, as well as the rest of the New Face Team. All in all, great trailer. I always like seeing more returning characters or familiar faces in the KOF series.