I like it almost as much as your normal appearance
After being silent for more than a year, SNK is doing a good job by continually releasing small pieces of information about King of Fighters 15, even outside the trailers.
The game’s main character designer and illustrator, Tomohiro Nakata, launches small insights from developers about the appearance of the cast, with this week’s focus on Benimaru. It is also a little different from the others we’ve seen so far, considering that it presents a new portrait of the handsome boy with his hair down.
Although we have seen him without electric-tipped hair in many introductions over the years, it is more rare to obtain an official work of art portraying him that way.
Nakata notes that the team had a strict policy of not removing any characteristics that would make Benimaru who he is in essence, and he assures fans that he is still as smooth as ever.
【KOF XV】
SNK dev for [KOF XV] shares his thoughts on BENIMARU NIKAIDO.
BENIMARU NIKAIDO’s character designer goes a little deeper into your design process!#SNK #KOF # KOF15 pic.twitter.com/SwbhFNGnyv– SNK GLOBAL (@SNKPofficial) January 29, 2021
Benimaru serves on a new team this time with Shun’ei and Meitenkun to fight the main heroes, where he was raised to be his protector and mentor – although some are joking that Kyo made him a nanny too.
Instead of the tight shirts or jackets he wore in previous games, the KOF veteran seems to be wearing yet another Chinese dress shirt this time.
It is interesting to see how just a change in hair can change a character’s tone, considering that Benimaru looks much more serious in this art than what we saw in the trailer.
With how big the cast of King of Fighters 15 is likely to have, these weekly downturns can continue for many months, although most fans don’t seem to have a problem with that yet.