Did we see an unexpected character from King of Fighters 15 over 2 years ago?

The King of Fighters 15 is the most anticipated fighting game of the year for many in the community, although we still don’t know much about it – like where we can play it.

There’s a good chance we already know more than what’s been shown in recent trailers, though, at least when it comes to an unannounced character. Potential spoilers ahead for the future list reveals.

After Tomohiro Nakata was recently announced as KOF15’s character designer and lead illustrator, some fans have referred to an old SNK employee page for the artist that contains an interesting image.

Nakata appears to be working on a fairly detailed portrayal of giant wrestler Raiden, and what’s intriguing is that the image doesn’t appear to have been used since its inception over two years ago.

This led some fans to theorize at the time that it might be concept art for King of Fighters 15, which now seems more likely that it hasn’t reappeared during that time.

Raiden is much more of a Fatal Fury character than a KOF character, but he last appeared in KOF13 on Kim’s Team with Hwa Jai.

Nakata worked on the art for the King of Fighters All Star mobile game, but as far as we can tell, Raiden didn’t show up either.

It may seem odd that SNK is showing off a KOF15 asset years before its debut, although this is certainly not the first time a developer has shown early gameplay while taking photos or videos of employee desks, as it is. either intentionally or accidentally.

That being said, however, it’s also highly likely that it could have been created for an obscure promotional poster or something similar, though it’s impossible to say for sure.

No other relevant information can be found on Nakata’s page regarding the image.

We can’t pinpoint when exactly the page was released, but the earliest we can find people talking about it and Raiden’s portrayal is January 2019, just a month after KOF15 was confirmed to be in development for them. investors.

Currently, only Kyo, Shun’ei, K ‘, Leona, Benimaru, and Mai have been confirmed for KOF15 although SNK appears to be planning some sort of weekly reveal at the moment.

It would certainly be interesting to see the semi-retired wrestler return as a 3D model, but I wonder if he would kick Gang-il off the team to join Kim, or if he would team up with a new crew.