Omega Rugal

Biography:

Rugal Bernstein was attacked and lost his eye to Goenitz while trying to channel Orochi's power. Rugal lived through it, and Goenitz granted him an extent to his power but warned him not to use it at full strength. Later Rugal sponsored the King of Fighters tournament in '94 but lost to Kyo Kusanagi. A year later, Rugal decided to use 80% of his power, which made his hair turn white and his skin gain a darkened-pale completion. But even with such powers and some cybernetic enhancements, Rugal was defeated again by Kyo, Benimaru Nikaido, and Goro Daimon. Frustrated by his second defeat, Rugal tried to channel even more of the Orochi's power, but his body could not withstand it and exploded, instantly killing him.  

Rugal has been dead for years but was eventually revived in the remains of the Black Noah under the sea. He was defeated again by the player's team and blew up the Black Noah, but the fighters could escape. 

Omega Rugal returned again in The King of Fighters 2002 and its remake, The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match. Despite using a lot of powerful attacks and skills, he was defeated by the player's team and died in the explosion of his new airship. However, he's been resurrected once again by the defeat of Verse and entered the fifteenth tournament alone, without having real involvement in the main story of The King of Fighters XV.

Fighting style:

In The King of Fighters XV, Omega Rugal is a great midrange defensive character with a handful of solid normals and special moves. With the meter, Rugal can go for one of the several excellent EX specials, which, if landed, gives a great opportunity for a mid-screen of corner combo. He excels in defensive play with two fireballs to cover different angles, a punishing laser eye special, and an ability to reflect projectiles as well. With all that setup of poking normals, great jump-ins, and a variety of mid-screen special options, Rugal is really hard to approach. He can also use his hit-grab super if the opponent gets past everything else, dragging the unfortunate foe all the way to the corner on hit. 

However, Rugal is really slow and, without a meter or in close range, becomes less threatening due to lack of damage. Also, despite wanting to put an opponent in the corner, Rugal's corner carry is frustrating and considered one of the worst in the game. For the character who wants to keep the opponent under constant pressure, slowly closing them in the corner with offensive and dealing high damage, Rugal is far from good. Heavy dependence on his meter makes it really hard to establish a proper constant pressure and deal severe damage. He has to rely really hard on landing special moves that can solve the meter problem, which makes him vulnerable to punishment.