The basic characters of WolfTeam - Which ones were more appealing overall?

 When Softnyx team released their first WolfTeam trailer we were introduced to some basic elements what were present in the game: We got to see the unnamed red and blue characters and then a werewolf as an antagonist in the trailer. Trailer is below for reference.

I've probably mentioned this in my previous blogs, but I started playing the game in 2009 and I grew up with these unnamed characters that were the face of the game along with the wolves. They also fit thematically well in the game as they looked like they had these sci-fi like armor plates and such (they were visually only so they didn't provide any stats unlike the descendant characters named Duane and William). These predescendant characters with no names were in my eyes definitely the best ones in design as WolfTeam paints itself in sci-fi shooter as genres. They had the look and their werewolf transformation made sense too. 

They were the perfect mascots for future content until the new basic characters were created to replace them.

Meet William Kroll and Duane Eddy.

Duane Eddy (WolfTeam Aeria fandom database)

William Kroll (WolfTeam Aeria fandom database)

These new named basic characters then replaced the older modeled characters to reflect more on the released 1st and 2nd. generation characters Softnyx had released which were available for Cash or Aeria Points.

These characters had some lore written for them to fit in the game, similarly to 1st and 2nd gen. characters as well. Gameplay wise this made some alterations as the hitbox of these characters were smaller in comparison to the previous, older basic characters. Thematically however, they remind me more of actual military characters, which I don't think is necessarily bad but personally I didn't take this change exactly well but when I was playing the game I had to adapt to this so eventually I learned to accept these characters.

When I think about the game overall besides just characters it is obvious that while the sci-fi elements are still there, the direction game has taken towards would seem to imply that it is cross-bred with modern weapons and other elements, such as the characters, weapons, etc. It isn't a bad thing but it would've been preferrable to have futuristic characters than these military-esque characters that is in the game. Weapons? Honestly there may not be that many advanced futuristic weapons so sticking to the known military weapons is acceptable.

So what is my consensus? Were the older basic characters more to the liking than the current ones named William and Duane? 

I personally loved the previous basic characters: They had the theme for the game and in their design, remind me of futuristic, paid lab-soldiers with military training that were then experimented on to be able to transform into werewolves at will. Duane and William however, seem out of place in my eyes and they try to be these soldiers from the "Paien Lab" team to replace the previous soldiers. Of course the previously known, first basic characters that were introduced in the game were turned to cash-shop characters as a 10th anniversary characters, which to me, just was a massive let down.

TLDR: The previous basic characters were more fitting to the game and Softnyx had then decided to change the basic characters to the newer ones to fit the theme of the cash-shop characters that, at the time, were out, with more following in the later updates. Visual and gameplay choice.