Last night SNK dropped another character trailer for the next entry in the upcoming flagship fighting title, The King of Fighters XV. The newest character on the roster is Athena Asamiya. This high school pop idol comes with psychic powers which she mixes with traditional Chinese Kung Fu. Athena has been a mainstay in the series for quite some time. Check out the full KoF XV Athena trailer below.

Athena’s lore actually goes way back into the early days of SNK. In 1986, SNK released a platform arcade game called Athena. The titular Athena is a princess who winds up in a world ruled with an iron fist by a cruel emperor. A year later, Psycho Soldier was released as a spiritual successor to Athena. This game is where the Athena associated with The King of Fighters first appeared. She also appeared alongside Kensou, another KoF legacy character. This version of Athena is a descendant of the Athena from that first game.

 

Get ready to hear “Psycho Ball” over and over again

In the trailer, we see most of Athena’s traditional moveset. Her Psycho Ball projectile, uppercut, teleport, and counter all appear along with an extra flashy super move that all of the cast has received so far. Surprisingly though, Athena is now a member of a different team, which is revealed at the end of this KoF XV Athena trailer. Athena is normally a member of Team Psycho Soldier with the aforementioned Kensou. Along with their mentor, Chin, a master of the Drunken Fist style.

This time around, Athena is teaming up with Mai and Yuri to form Team Super Heroine. It’s an odd choice, because these are two characters that she is usually never associated with. It will be interesting to see if Kensou or Chin end up in the game at all.

The King of Fighters XV is slated to release next year in the first quarter of 2022. This is following the news earlier this year that the game would be delayed. More character trailers are sure to come, but it’s interesting that we have yet to see any details on gameplay yet. Hopefully more information on that will be revealed sooner rather than later.