Visual references - King

This new hero for the game is a clear copy of Ryu (Street Fighter) in gameplay and fighting style.
To begin with, they share the same stand animation/battle pose:

Next, we have his moveset, in which even the names for his attacks are highly resembling the ones of Ryu. In first instance, Ryu's classic projectile, the Hadouken ("Wave Fist Surge") has its counterpart on King's "波动拳 " (Bōdòng quán, "Vacuum Wave Punch"):

 Both of them have the ability of shooting a charged "fiery version" of it:

Next, Ryu's famous "rising jab", the Shoryuken ("Rising Dragon Fist") is imitated by King in the form of a "升龙拳" (Shēng lóng quán, or "Spirited Dragon Fist").

You must defeat Shenlong to stand a chance, right, uh? The strong version of King's Sheng Long Fist is highly resembling of Ryu's hard-hitting supermove, the Shin Shoryuken, pose and everything:

The family picture is completed by King's 旋风腿 (Xuànfēng tuǐ, or "Cyclone leg"), ripoff of the last Ryu's move, Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku ("Tornado Whirlwind Leg").

Also, both Ryu and King can perform a super version of some of their special moves, including this super projectile:

To be fair, not everything from King is stolen from Ryu. For instance, his command move 浪斩 ("Wave Cutter") is modelled after one of Kyo and Shingo's special move:

"Puncha!"

Visual references - Wuxie

Wuxie is a master of Chinese martial arts.
This characters takes many cues of Yun and Yang from Street Fighter III, specially in the normals:

 

Which include the attack with his hands:

And feet:

Visual references - Panda

This walking Panda is for sure inspired in Po, from the Kung-Fu Panda franchise.

In-game, he shares some resemblances to Rufus from Street Fighter IV. They not only share a similar physique, but also some resembling strikes, like this hand palm attack when they crouch/sit on the floor:

As well as the hilarious multipunches:

He's also similar to Bob from Street Fighter x Tekken, specially in the way he crushes the opponent with his belly:

Visual references - Ray

The military wrestler Ray was considered the first grappler in this game. As such, he takes some cues of both militar and grappler characters.

His buff physique is similar to Ray, and being both military grapplers, it's no wonder why he based some of his normals on his succesful use of muscular mass. That includes the popular turning chop, as well as the hopping shoulder tackle:

Ray has learned survival tactics from Ralf. The KOF XIII version of the popular Ikari Warrior has a special move in which he ducks and slams a grenade on the ground, causing a pillar of flame to rise.
For Ray, it seems Chinese army is not in its best moment and ammo is scarce, so, he decided to punch the ground instead, which at least makes stone shards to rise:

Ray got inspiration for one of his supermoves from Maxima, another great grappler from the KOF series. They first go and gather strength, after that they perform a super duper jump, and finally land on the opponent curled into a hard-hitting human cannonball:

Last but not least, Ray has been seriously studying Abel from Street Fighter IV. His regular command throw is practically identical to the one of the french MMA warrior:

Also, his MAX Super throw is virtually the same as one of Abel's Ultra moves. Including the dramatic ending:

Visual references - Claire

Claire is one of the most well-known characters for ripping off another fighter's gameplay, in this case is Kula Diamond from KOF:

She actually takes notes  from other SNK characters. To begin with, she's kind of similar to Blue Mary from Fatal Fury, she's blonde, rides a motorcycle and has the signature belt hanging from her hips. Her stand animation is also very similar to B. Jenet (Garou: Mark of the Wolves):

Aside from that, she takes many of her normals animations from Kula:

Her special moves are practically verbatim copies from the ones of Kula:

Although the animation and pose is sometimes not exactly the same...

... They still work practically the same. That includes her supers:

Some other posses and mannerisms are imitated almost the same:

While she has an amount of original moves, they're still very similar to the ones of Kula:

Visual references - Yan

Next character is Yan, the second protagonist of the game. To begin with, his original design was more inspired in Kyo Kusanagi from KOF, so his gamestyle of fire punch combos.

His second design is still a shootout to Kyo and Shingo from the first KOF games:

He shares a couple attacks with Kyo:

While Kyo is the inspiration behind his design and concept, his big model to follow for the sprites and animations is Rock Howard from Garou: Mark of the Wolves. That includes his normals:

As well as some other various animations:

Yan also sports some mannerisms directly inspired by Rock:

Of course that's not everything. Yan takes inspiration of some other characters like K':

And Shen Woo:

Finally, the first part of his supermove is traced from K9999's gun super:

The second one, from Rock Howard's hidden super:

Visual references - Shanwoo

This street wrestler/underground boxer is well versed in different fighting styles. It seems like he has crossed through different schools of fighting. He first learned from legendary Terry Bogard some dance steps:

Seems like later he realized Terry was nothing but a hobo. He left him right after learning his own version of Power Geyser:

So, after some beers with Clark, he convinced him to teach him how to fight like military and crush the opponent under his elbows:

 

Shanwoo didn't finish his "Gattling" classes with Mr. Ralf, but even if his moves are not exactly the same, the result was quite similar:

After that, a few punching lessons with Yashiro:

Finally, wrestling classes with Tizoc taught him how to fall on his opponent from the heights:

Visual references - Tsukikage Arashi

Psychopath Tsukikage Arashi is probably possessed by the spirits from old ghosts from SNK, as his fighting style is more than similar to Freeman from Garou Mark of the Wolves. Starting with the martial art of scratching:

 

 ... Playing peek a boo with the opponent:

... Imitating his normal strikes, and even his strange way of bending his neck while running:

Arashi's head is inhabited by many voices; I bet Basara from Samurai Shodown III is inside there, somewhere:

Finally, but not less important, Arashi learned one day how to kick like Remy (Street Fighter III):

I bet they met each other because they go to the same hair stylist.