Japanese media outlet Gamestalk recently reported on the leak of a handful of Project X Zone 2 characters found in screenshots of a Korean preview of the game. While small in number (only three characters,) the reveals themselves were pretty major – especially the reveal of Shenmue‘s Ryo Hazuki, found in the image above. The other characters that were leaked were immediately confirmed as Solo Units, but Ryo’s status is still up in the air – no sprite of him was shown anywhere in the screenshots.
It’s pretty difficult to predict whether or not Ryo will be part of a pair or a Solo Unit. In my opinion it wasn’t all that radical of an idea to see Ryo included in the game (even if Shenmue III were never announced,) considering many of the classic characters that have been featured in Project X Zone and Project X Zone 2 as it is. But while Project X Zone has used Pair Units to represent relatively inactive franchises (a category to which Shenmue no longer belongs, thankfully!) the questions are: who would Ryo be paired with, and which other Pair Units are still likely to arrive? There is no Valkyria Chronicles team that is publicly known, for one.
In any case, hopefully we will know everything about the roster over the course of October, since Project X Zone 2 releases in Japan on November 11.