Beyond being the world stage for fighting game tournaments, EVO acts as the mecca for the fighting game fandom, memorabilia, and, most of all, announcements. Most developers save their big announcements for events like E3 or the Tokyo Game Show (which will soon be upon us); however, fighting game developers like Capcom, Bandai Namco, NetherRealm Studios, and Arc System Works all save their big announcements for the illustrious fighting game tournament. This year was no different. At EVO this year we saw announcements from Bandai Namco, Arc System Works, and SNK; however, we did see some announcements happen just before EVO began. If you missed out on any of these announcements, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Without further ado, here are the biggest announcements from EVO 2019.
Guilty Gear: 2020
Arc System Works
We’re going to see a lot of announcements from Arc System Works, I mean this company just doesn’t stop. During the top eight for BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, Arc System Works unveiled Guilty Gear: 2020 to the crowd and streaming audience. This small teaser featured the iconic Rock music that the series is widely famous for, what seemed to be stage transitions (a possibly new mechanic to the series), and an upgraded style of graphics from the game’s previous installments (which look beautiful). This teaser also showcased the series’ title characters ‘Sol Badguy’ and ‘Ky Kiske’, who are rivals so having them fight fits extremely well. The trailer does a great job of reminding us of how we felt when Guilty Gear Xrd Sign was announced back in May 2014. Super hyped for this title and cannot wait for it.
Janemba & Gogeta
Arc System Works
One of the other announcements from Arc System Works is the announcement of two more characters being added to Dragonball Fighter Z. The two additional characters are the villain ‘Janemba’ and the combination of ‘Goku’ and ‘Vegeta’, ‘Gogeta’. In this trailer, we see that fans of the game won’t have to wait long for ‘Janemba’s release, which is August 8th (a couple days from now, awesome); however, fans will have to wait a little longer for ‘Gogeta’ since we are only told that the release is “coming soon”. Other good news is that both characters, like their manga and anime counterparts, seem to be doing some really cool stuff in the game.
Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[cl-r]
Arc System Works
Fans of the game Under Night In-Birth are getting a revamped of the game that will feature vast balance changes for the roster of characters. This will surely shake the meta of the game up quite a bit. Beyond that, a new character is being added, ‘Londrekia’ “Frozen Fang of Eternity”. The ability of This new character focuses on ice and freezing the opponent (duh) to put them in a state in which high damaging combos, resets, or mix-ups can be completely utilized. All sound fun.
Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle 2.0
Arc System Works
From this trailer fans learn that they will be getting additional characters from more franchises. Additional characters will feature characters from the Seran Kagura series, two characters from Akatsuki Blitakamph (one of which is a literal tank), and ‘Neo Plolitan’ from the American animated series RWBY. This will all be released November 21st, fans get excited.
Samurai Shodown & KOF XV
SNK
SNK has finally announced the release months for each of Season 1’s character DLC release; those months being this month (August), October, November, and December. However, SNK has decided to give us a free DLC gift for September by releasing the character ‘Shizumaru Hisame’. That’s not all though. SNK also announced that Samurai Shodown will be getting a second season of DLC characters in 2020; the first of which will be ‘Mina Majikina’, with three more mystery fighters waiting to be announced. This game is getting a lot of support and that’s awesome. Other than Samurai Showdown, SNK also announced, with a small teaser, that King of Fighters XV is now in development. Unfortunately, no screenshots for that game, just a title card was shown.
Tekken 7 Season Pass 3
Bandai Namco
Let’s talk Tekken 7 real quick because a lot is going to change with this game in the near future. Season Pass 3 is going to bring a major update to the game that will be adding new moves for the roster of characters (which will change the meta of the game a bit), returning character from Tekken 6 ‘Zafina’, new original character ‘Leroy Smith’ (who looks dope as he kicks-ass in the trailer), two more unannounced characters, a new stage, and other features all released between September and Spring 2020. However, Metal Gear Solid‘s ‘Snake’ was showcased on-screen at Tekken 7 top eight. He may be a guest character but that’s a rumor (hopefully true).
Soul Calibur 6
Bandai Namco
So after months of waiting and silence from Bandai Namco, we finally got news about the future of Soul Calibur 6 and it looks good. First off, we finally have ‘Cassandra’ returning to the roster and she hasn’t been in since Soul Calibur 4. She is available today with Season Pass 1 as of today. Beyond her, we were told that we will be getting a Season Pass 2 which will feature additional characters like guest character ‘Haohmaru’ from Samurai Shodown, aren’t crossovers just amazing. However, the big news is that with this new season, an update will change how the game is played. This big update will include new systems that seem to change how ‘Soul Charges’ work, and change the ‘Reversal Edge’ system (hopefully that system is getting a complete rework). Overall, we’re very excited for all additions and changes to Soul Calibur 6 and can’t wait for them to come.
There you have it, all of the big announcements and trailers from EVO 2019; however, some announcements did turn up before the big tournament and those came from Capcom and NetherRealm Studios.
Street Fighter V
Capcom
About a week before EVO 2019 the company Valve leaked this Street Fighter V character trailer on their online store ‘Steam’. The trailer features returning characters like ‘E. Honda’ and ‘Poison’, but the new character ‘Lucia’ is from Capcom’s old ‘beat ’em up’ game Final Fight III. Seeing Capcom pay homage to the game with the addition of ‘Lucia’ is nice and all, but we would have preferred something a bit more exciting.
Mortal Kombat 11
NeatherRealm Studios
Returning to the MK series is the legacy character ‘Nightwolf’. Staying true to his Mortal Kombat (2011) counterpart, ‘Nightwolf’ seems to be a pretty well-evened character. He has some range options with the bow and arrow moves, and the bird; plus, his up-close gameplay seems to be good as well. Though, the ‘spirit animal’ buffs are a nice addition. His fatalities seem extra gruesome and that can only leave one wondering what his brutalities will be. Fans won’t have to wait long to get this character since he has early access coming out August 13th, which the full release can’t be too long after that.
These were all of the major announcements that happened over the weekend. Are you as hyped as us? Hopefully, you are. Which studio had the best announcements? Take our poll below.