After months of silence on the project, SNK has announced that it will be debuting the first gameplay trailer for The King of Fighters XV on January 7, 2021. In an exclusive first-look over at IGN, SNK's Yasuyuki Oda (producer) and Eisuke Ogura (creative director) also showed off concept art for the first three characters on the roster. These include mainstays Kyo and Benimaru, alongside King of Fighters XIV newcomer Shun'ei.
Shun'ei is now the main character of this particular game's story arc, so it will be following up on the events of XIV. I'm not exactly familiar with that entry, so I don't know if that means returning villains or characters, but it should make for a more compelling story mode than past KOF titles.
What we're unlikely to find out during this reveal is when King of Fighters XV will actually release. Both Oda and Ogura state in the above video that the team will be revealing more of the roster over the course of 2021, so it seems as if the game won't be hitting store shelves anytime soon. This makes sense considering calls XV "our most ambitious KOF yet."
As for what I expect, I wouldn't put money on this being a radical departure. 2019's Samurai Shodown didn't reinvent the wheel when it came to combat systems, instead opting to go back to something more akin to Samurai Shodown II. That worked in the game's favor, propelling it up in popularity and landing a spot at EVO. SNK seems to understand what it takes to make solid fighters, now, so I don't foresee this changing the formula too much.
Source: IGN