Ok, for the one who asked, Haohmaru appears in the esaka stage after the 4th round
In ranked, you can search matches for region, skill level, and ping level
Thanks for the Info, and the Esaka stage sounds very in-depth, then. Like one of the most complex stages in the game, period. A premium item attached to a DLC character is cool. I can deal with the teasing preview of the stage, before it's fully available; a bit awkward, but even if it's a mistake, it's kind of cool.
Song selection, how does it work?
Is it like in arcade when you have to hold down a certain button? Or is there an option that lets you choose what songs come up?
Unfortunately, it's an option that's set, somewhere in the options menu. I would have liked the "Hold button to get Alt theme" method myself, but maybe the game Cache's the soundtracks or something, and can only have some much loaded at a time, and stay reasonable in loadtimes, or something.
The options are an "A" and "B" track setting. First is for XIII's specific themes, and B is for the classic themes.
When it actually gets to the fight, the music that plays is decided by the challengers first character in a fight, I believe.
WHAT?! The KOF96 Esaka stage is already included???? Or was it from a preview build?
The characters and stages appear to already be on the disk. So getting to see Esaka 96 is a glitch / fun bonus, it seems.
Ohhhh, they are either planning KOFXIV dreammatch to include them as playables or they are already in the process of being developed as playable DLC!!!!! (I can at least see Botan and Shroom+Rimelo being added to KOFXIII, but no one really knows how far along those characters are ready for either DLC or a KOFXIII/XIV expansion. I don't think those single sprites are just for icons, they could hint at future plans. ). Other companies get away with reselling updated versions of their fighting games so I wouldn't mind if they offer these characters through a separate version, or DLC characters, either way they should be added as playables, and the rest of those icon hints too (like Heidern, Adelheid, Mukai, etc.)
Usually KOF dreammatches bring back villains/characters from those in the saga. so it's really possible they might make previous unplayable story characters playable in a new KOFXIII version or the KOFXIV version that includes just about every major story character from Ash Saga as playables! 
Now affinity, fair warning, you know how "Serious business" gamers react to rampant TFTP Fandom, lol. So tread lightly in that respect
Of those characters, I have to wonder. While Rimelo and Shroom are somewhat possible, I don't see them as becoming fighters, personally. They seem more like pestering nuisances, rather than actual fighters. Botan I could possibly see, her puppetmaster abilities could be much like a mix of Chizuru + the partners of Igniz. I'm kinda suprised to see Magaki and Shion, but maybe Botan could bring them back, much as how Igniz uses Krizalid, even after he was killed offscreen in the past (-_-; )
Personally, having her control a variety of characters for the sake of attacks, would be the most efficient way I could see the mostly-non-fighter TFTP members as being "playable fighters".
I wish Chizuru has a pic too... Would be great to have her back, so we could have a sacred treasures team.
I think I remember reading somewhere that they used 3D models as the basis for their sprites, then retouched them to look more hand-drawn.
If that's true perhaps there are models of everyone you posted... which means maybe it's feasible to make them into real playable characters in an update or future installment.
It is reasonable. Unless they skipped a step and just sprited them without modelwork, lol. But it's probably pretty likely that they have models of loads of KoF characters made already... it's the spriting part that's the most difficult and time-consuming!
