Special Feature: Announcements from Evo Japan 2020
This past weekend’s Evo Japan 2020 tournament was nowhere near as big an event as any of the main Evo (aka the Evolution Fighting Tournament) tournaments that occur in Las Vegas every summer. Not that this was surprising, given how this was only the third such tournament; it will need time to grow. The tournaments themselves didn’t receive as much attention thanks to the time zone differences and eSports not being quite as large of a phenomenon in Japan. It’s also why the announcements paled in comparison to the glut of them provided at Evo 2019. But doesn’t mean there weren’t any. It’s getting a little better every year.
It was confirmed at Evo 2019 that Samurai Shodown’s Haohmaru will join Soulcalibur VI as its third guest character, following Geralt and 2B from The Witcher series and NieR: Automata, respectively. Bandai Namco showed him in action for the first time, who’s more faithful to his SamSho self than expected despite the gameplay differences between both franchises. He’ll retain his biggest moves from SamSho, including his Senpuu Retsu Zan small tornado projectile and the Kogetsu Zan uppercut-like slashing attack. Notice that Haohmaru is fighting Soulcalibur series mainstay Mitsurugi in the trailer, rivals from two samurai games who have never faced off until now.
Haohmaru will be the second DLC character of four in the second season when he arrives, following returning character Hilde. The two subsequent characters will be announced in due time, but that could be a little while considering Haohmaru has no release date.
Speaking of SamSho: New characters were shown and announced for SNK’s new Samurai Shodown title. Mina Majikina was previously announced at Evo 2019, but was shown off for the first time. Her outfit still leaves little to the imagination, and her new eyepatch might be a nod to her Samurai Shodown V story. Sogetsu Kazama was also confirmed, the second of the two protagonists introduced in Samurai Shodown IV. (The first was Kazuki Kazama, who arrived as a DLC character in the first season.) Sogetsu’s appearance was previously leaked through the NESiCAxlive2 app for the SamSho arcade version in October, so SNK took their time confirming him.
The third character coming is Iroha, one of the most fanservice-laden maid characters ever introduced in the history of Japanese nerd-aimed media. Game director Nobuyuki Kuroki previously said in a Dengeki interview that she was deliberately excluded from the cast because she would contrast with the game’s intended tone. But they could only resist the demand from Japanese fans and likely internal staff for so long. Her outfit leaves extremely little to the imagination, but whether she’ll still address the player as “master” (no, I’m dead serious; this happened in Samurai Shodown VI) remains to be seen.
The fourth character coming in this second season is currently a mystery, but there are several good guesses as to who it could be. Sorry, I’m not partaking in that. No dates were given for when these characters will arrive, but they shouldn’t take too long given SNK’s quick pattern.
Nothing significant was shown with Tekken 7, but there was a small announcement. The My Replay & Tips feature will arrive as part of tomorrow’s update, a system that will analyze player matches and provide tips about what they can do differently. Hopefully it’s as helpful as it sounds. A balance patch will also be included, and it’s already confirmed that Leory’s gonna get this nerf. An update on Fahkumram, the new character announced at the end of the Tekken World Tour in December who is definitely not a genetically modified Sagat, will be coming soon.
A new trailer for Chaos Code: Next Episode of Xtreme Tempest was shown — the initials there being “NEXT,” in case you’re wondering why a game is brave enough to have “Xtreme” in its name in the year 2020. This is an updated version of the original Chaos Code title and the remastered Chaos Code: New Sign of Catastrophe (no semi-clever acronym there). This iteration, courtesy of Taiwanese developer FK Digital (Arc System Works distributes the games worldwide), will have new characters, new and updated stages, updated move sets, and visual enhancements all around. Following the trend established above, a release date was not announced; platforms for the game also weren’t confirmed.
It wasn’t an understatement to say the announcements weren’t on the level of recent Evo events. Several fans were hoping for one big surprise, like a reveal of The King of Fighters XV, but that clearly wasn’t meant to be to be. There will be other opportunities to reveal it throughout the year, but this particular event could have used something more.
In the meantime, have fun catching up on all the matches if you haven’t already. It was easy, for example, to catch the Tekken 7 finals, which happened on a Saturday night on the east coast of the United States. But others, like the Street Fighter V top 8, happened during the overnight hours here. They’re especially worth watching given which character won.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
