SNK Announces A Revamped Version of Path Of The Warrior: Art of Fighting 3, Adds Yuri Sakazaki And King To Roster
The first attempt from SNK one of its oldest legacy fighting games
"ColonelFancy" Mike Lind
6/29/20262 min read
A refresher of SNK's 1996 fighter
New characters will be added, AoF vets Yuri Sakazaki and King
In the last calendar year, SNK Corporation has expressed an interest in reviving some of their dormant IPs. Over the last 25 years, The King of Fighters has been considered SNK's most recognizable and active franchises, seen as a spin-off of the Fatal Fury series. Fatal Fury itself has seen its first mainline game entry in last year's Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, which just recently wrapped up its Top 8 at EVO, while also announcing its guest characters addition, Kenshiro from the manga and anime series, Fist of the North Star.
One of its most idle series in tournament fighters has been The Art of Fighting, which saw its last mainline game in 1996's The Path of the Warrior. It was an ambitious game, boasting brilliant animations and a fascinating combat philosophy. It also introduced one of the more beloved characters, Kasumi Todoh, who would join Ryo, Robert, Yuri, and King in King of Fighters. It was vastly overlooked, as SNK's popularity dwindled by the mid-90's, but it looks like there will be an attempt to bring a new generation of eyes to their obscure fighter in a refresher, The Path of the Warrior: Art of Fighting 3 R.
The "R" emphasizes "RETUNED", "REIGNITED", and "REVIVAL". This remaster will likely come with some modernized quality of life adjustments, as it aims to relaunch on Steam. As a bonus, The Path of the Warrior R will feature the return of two Art of Fighting veterans Yuri Sakazaki and King. Yuri is the younger sister of series protagonist Ryo Sakazaki and the love interest of Robert Garcia. She debuted as a combatant in Art of Fighting 2, after being the damsel in distress in the 1992 game. King, a deadly Muay Thai practitioner, was initially an adversary of Ryo and Robert in the first game, infamously disguising her gender identity in androgynous or masculine clothing. She would become an ally and friend of the Kyokugenryu crew after the second game.
The Path of the Warrior will feature rollback netcode for a seamless online battle experience, a dedicated VS Mode, balance adjustments for the roster, and an expanded training mode to ingratiate players with the game's robust fighting system.
The Path of the Warrior: Art of Fighting 3 R is planned to launch via Steam. No release date or price has been announced as of this writing.