Iori’s life must’ve been weird, imagine being a successful bassist then one day you’re able to shoot fire out of your hands and you suddenly have the urge to kill a random 19 year old high schooler. Edit: Team samsho is dlc for kofxv.
being a high school bass player who discovers his powers and hates another guy sounds like a bad summer american movie, or shonen anime lol. He was able to use fire first, and then he was programmed with the : You have to kill the last Kusanagi in the name of the everybody-dies-young-because-of-the-kusanagi" family. Then he suddenly had to become a bass player, cat lover who hates violence, after a couple of tournaments and beating 2 pals, making 1 priest commit suicide, killing 2 girls, and roasting one god.
It all began in '94... Kept on rolling in '95... Things were in place in '96 and came to an end in '97... Now it comes and here we go... KOF is here again! Nothing gonna stop because it's 1998!!
They're back to the heat for an answer they've been long searching Is it their fate or just a bloody coincidence? It shall be clear as 3 powers will be as one Now the 4th phase is about to begin!
It honestly doesn't sound that hard tbh. You could easily make most of them repeats or just joke ideas. Like: destroy truck, destroy plane, fly plane, dodge missiles, eat as much ice cream as possible, drive car while avoiding other cars, deliver mail, destroy skyscraper, lick as many envelops in an hour, make sushi, do yoga, lion taming, walk on tightrope, write boss a really angry letter, avoid meteorites, give someone a massage, throw ball at bottles, throw ring at bottles, destroy tank, run away from giant boulder, etc. Okay, that was still only 20 ideas, but it took me less an half an hour to come up with them. Ideas are easy, it's executing them that's tough.
@@NIMPAK1 The fact that they didn't expect him to even be able to come up with as many ideas as he did, may be an indicator that the idea may have had to be a little more fleshed out than you gave him credit for
Iori still is a musician and dislikes violence despite acting like violent person in the kof tournaments. His power was already activated since his birth.
@@troykv96 essentially yeah, in fact the reason he wasn’t in 94 is because he finds tournaments like K.O.F boring, only being interested when he heard Kyo was taking part in the 95 tournament.
I confess i'm kinda like Iori irl, i usually use Violence to solve some situations effectivelly, eventhought i actually hate it. So yup, he does make sense on that one
Kim’s rehabilitation idea is actually a fatal fury reference. In 2 he enters the tournament to reform krauser from his evil ways and he succeeds in his ending as krauser is seen being a respectable member of society. In fact he originally was usually very successful at this to the point in made him a national hero. This also a faithful depiction of the real world taekwondo associations overarching message of using one’s strength as a means of justice. It’s why he’s so obsessed with it because he takes these virtues to heart even if others don’t think the same way he believes in justice strong enough to stand by that belief no matter any criticisms he gets for coming off as self righteous.
Rugal's ability to copy moves was, much like a lot of other things, referenced in King of Fighters Destiny, when he used Kyo, Terry, and Heidern's moves against them.
37:34 Oh.. I guess that explains why "Kusanagi" (the Chizuru-created Kyo's dark clone) has Kaneda's voice. Kyo was originally suppose to be a more blatant reference to Kaneda like how Krohnen was to Tetsuo.
Syo even appears in the Dreamcast version of KOF99 and KOF2000 as a special striker, complete with Mitsuo Iwata's voice. I think the couple of lines recorded for his striker attacks ended up being reused for Kusanagi in 02 and 03, too
@@sofiaciel7599 Considering he was a late addition, maybe they had already a plan for using his voice in a character, so they recorded a lot of lines, funny enough, the one that Syo uses for his special strike I believe was directly re-used in 2002 UM for Kusanagi's new move... Which is basically's Syo's striker as a Super.
Fun fact much later on in the KOF canon to be more precise after the Ash Crimson Saga ended in KOFXIII Robert would finally pop the big question to Yuri aka ask her to marry him and she said yes meaning Robert and Yuri are now fiancé, and fiancée whereas Ryo still has no freaking clue that King has a crush on him.'
@@jamessicard1705 Actually Ryo much to King's disappointment and Takuma's disappointment though him "going out" with King wasn't a romantic date but more of a small lunch or dinner between good friends.
@rawrdino that's a French grammar thing. Nouns often take a ( silent in some cases) "e" in the feminine form. Exemple: a male fighter =un combattant, a female fighter = une combattante. It's a bit like how in Spanish, some words in masculine ends in "o" and feminine in "a". In this case however, it's possible to just say Robert and Yuri are fiancés (the "s" indicate plural).
Iori was always pretty chill. Sure, he’s an asshole but if u piss him off or if he’s anywhere near Kyo (especially near Kyo), he becomes an aggressive prick who would be happy to roast someone alive. Also, his cursed bloodline powers are like the main reason why he doesn’t want anyone near him. But like Kyo, he is willing to work along aside him and Chizuru to face off against a common foe. He likes cats, jazz, and playing in his band.
King Of Fighters literally existed as a blind spot for me until KoF 13 so having a retrospective like that that even breaks down the story is freaking amazing, can't wait for Part 2
I didn’t even know about KOF until like 4 months ago. It has become my favorite fighting series. Snagged the earlier games on switch and picked up 15 when it released. Can’t believe I never played these games. They’re so good!
Funnily enough I got in with XIII as well after seeing Kyo in CvS and loving the designs of the SNK characters. Ended up going through the series myself and now it's one of my favourite video game franchises.
I loved how much detail SNK went into the lore of this franchise. For instance Kyo losing his projectiles and becoming more rekka orientated was linked into his fight with Goentiz where he changed his fighting style to be able to take him down in the rematch.
I once heard that the systems were cheaper in South and Latin America, and that saw the proliferation of KoF in the arcades. Here in Argentina it was all the rage; in my hometown KoF 98 was the big favorite. .
1:16:32 Her sister actually. 1:35:16 Don't you mean Yashiro? Despite those miskates, I really did enjoy this retrospective. Very detailed, especially with the cutting room floor info. I'm so damn glad that Rugal Infinity didn't end up becoming a thing.
Every great video brings us one step closer to the BlazBlue retrospective with a complete story breakdown. It will come, friends. Thorgi will get there one day.
29:35 granddaughter actually. Mai’s parents aren’t actually documented. Her grandparents are, her hair band was a gift from her late grandmother and again grandpa hanzo trained them both but it’s never stated what happened to her parents.
1:48:39 Small correction on that: The backgrounds aren't the same from Dream Match 1999. They were remodeled again. Furthermore, they use different camera movement from the Dreamcast backgrounds
That part about the end of the Orochi Saga... imagine Capcom did the Kyo and Iori ending with Ryu and Bison and then never turned back... that'd be wild.
I don't know if you knew this but in both 96 and 97 if you make it to the end as team psycho soldiers the four Heavenly Kings (Goenitz, Chris, Yashiro, Shermie) and Orochi will talk to Athena as if they know her implying they knew her in a previous life as the goddess Athena
A couple of corrections and trivia; 1) KoF was planned as a collaboration of Fatal Fury + AoF + Samsho in the beginning. The Samsho roster was scrapped because they had over a 100 yrs timeline gap and Samsho being a weapon-based FG. The US sports team was made as a replacement to them, and THAT'S WHY SNK HATED AND TREATED THEM AS SUCH. 2) Choi Bounge(Who is read "Chae Bun-Gay" with Bounge means lightning in Korean) is not a serial killer. although he is based on Freddy Kruegar who is one, Choi was just a criminal who attacks ppl randomly with no question asked just for his joy of violence. 3) The sway dodge was to imitate the 2-line system from Fatal Fury and the Charge meter was from AoF. You could do a taunt and cut the chunk of their meter like they did in AoF, but this taunt system was changed since 97 to just a useless move only to appeal to your opponent. 4) In 94 and 95, any fighter from Fatal Fury could move forwards while crouching. while being correct to its origins, it wasn't a fair move since it wasn't applied to everyone. Also exclusive to 94&95 was if you beat King or Yuri with a non-grappling special, their clothes would shred revealing her underwear(This did come back in XIII for a brief moment). 5) The Japan team(aka the hero team), was designed after the 3 most feared form of disaster in Japan - which is Fire, Lightning and Earthquake. Kyo uses flames from his ancestral power, Daimon smashes the ground to shake the earth, and Benimaru.....can make electricity for some unknown reason. 6) The statue behind Rugal who Thorgi claims it's Zangief is actually Abobo from Double Dragon. Other characters include Reiji Ouyama from Atlus's Power Instinct, but mostly they are from Capcom's Street Fighter. This might seem that SNK started what is known as the "Feud" between Capcom and SNK, but it was actually Capcom who shot first. During the promotion for the Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Capcom revealed a picture where Sagat was holding a man by the face who looked like a mash-up version of Ryo and Robert from AoF. KoF94 was released after that reveal. 7) Long jump was added in 95. 95 also had sway attacks so you can dodge and counterattack immediately, this lead to some deadly combos. 8) While every numeral KoF until XI was made annually so they were made with rush and crunches, 96 was one of the worst to be released incomplete. Command normals were gone, The input was stiff so rekkas were hard to perform, and command shortcuts was also removed so it was tough to input super specials too.
9) During KoF96's development, one anime impacted Japanese subculture so hard it impacted KoF as well, and that is of course - Neon Genesis Evangelion. You can see that Goenitz is a parody of Gendou Ikari, and Leona is same of Rei Ayanami. Yuri's taunt is "Anta Baka(Are you stupid)?" which a line said multiple times in the show by Asuka, and one of her victory line is "Service, Service!" a phrase which is said in the end of each episode. Also the orochi blood riot + Iori's desperate super special is a parody of Evangelion going nuts. 10) You couldn't choose Chizuru or Goenitz at 96. if you wanted to play them you either had to play the CD-based console version(Neogeo CD, Saturn, Playstation), or via the hacked rom. if you chose the hacked rom however, the scene where Iori throws a crimson flame was missing, so you couldn't figure out what actually happened. This move became his other super since 97, but in a purple flame form. 11) It wasn't Chizuru's father that Goenitz killed to open the Orochi seal, it was Chizuru's twin sister. The Kagura(originally Yata) clan being the heritage of the sacred mirror, was destined to be born as a twin. and Chizuru's sister - Maki took the duty of protecting the seal so Chizuru could have a normal life. After her death and the seal broken, Chizuru realized her role as the guardian and decided to continue her role. Maki appears as an illusion in KoF 03. 12) The actual reason why the dramatic change with the projectile throwers since 96; is because of Capcom making fun of SNK characters - Dan Hibiki. SNK changed Ryo and Robert to play similarly as Dan, but was still strong and fun to play. a nice and clever way to respond to their rival company. 13) Shingo was designed as a parody of Sakura from SF Alpha and was to take a serious role in the storyline. originally, Shingo was supposed to be one who becomes Orochi and the final boss. but since a lot of characters involved with Kyo had already big roles in the story(especially Yuki), thus the Orochi role was changed to Chris. 14) Until Takehito Koyasu(The voice of Dio from JoJo) took the role of Shingo in 97, the most expensive voice actor in KoF was Nobuyuki Hiyama who was the voice of Joe(And also Link from LoZ ocarina of time).
A couple of extra info: one of the original advertisements for The King of Fighters '94 stated that characters from World Heroes we're supposed to be included as well. I remember being confused because all 24 characters were pictures in the ad and I didn't recognize any World Heroes characters in the roster. This same advertisement was later redacted and mentioned something along the lines of a dream match. I've searched online and this is the only version I can find but I know this other advertisement is out there somewhere because I used to have it. Another thing I remember is that in the King of Fighters '94, the teams actually have names. I don't know if this was just something that EGM did (it wasn't one of the magazines) or the American version of the game actually have names for them. I remember the Japan team having a silly name like the Geniuses of Fisticuffs and the ladies team having the name: The Princesses of Punch. Does anyone else remember this?
@@MaverickZeroD I wasn't aware of your info but I'm guessing WH characters was tough to join KoF since they were ADK IP. The revived SNK Playmore salvaged some of ADK's IP when the company went out of business in 2003, thus some ADK characters were able to appear in Neogeo Battle Colliseum. As for the other team name issue, I also have no clue. but SNK had terrible localizing problems during most of its history, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was their job with those ridiculous ideas.
@@kojiroh30 That's what I figured with the World Heroes references. I believed the ad originally said "The characters of Fatal Fury, Arti of Fighting, and World Heroes come together..." or something like that. I'm almost sure it was an error. Also, apologies for my terrible grammar. I was close to falling asleep when I typed that.
I think my favorite thing about ryo and kings relationship is the kof 2000 ending where takuma deflects the zero laser with haoh shikoken to save king and kings like "I'm in your debt" and takuma says verbatim "Don't be silly I can't let the mother of a kyokugen heir perish" which causes robert,ryo and king to go "HUH?". It's non-canon as hell like most team endings but it's hilarious. There are other team art of fighting endings where it's just takuma and the others pushing ryo and king together but the 2000 one is by far the funniest to me.
Great format! I mean,shout out to another content Shoryugame who has a great channel explaining the lore of all the KOF series. But I actually appreciate you mixing in the behind-the-scenes elements + easter eggs on top of all that. *chef's kiss*
41:56 That flag isn't the flag of England, that is the British flag prior to the joining of Northern Ireland, represented by the Red diagonal lines as part of St Patrick's saltier
Mai: I thought you were stronger than that. Bummer City! Me: I don't think American dialogue actually sounds like tha... Sailor Moon: Major BUMSVILLE, Oh, I'm so late
I agree they could have called it "Female Fighters" to roll off the tongue better, but i think the name was pretty deliberate considering this was the 90's still; Women in video games were starting to become much more prevalent, now not only having like two in your street fighter roster to a noticeable percentage being female, and women in general being more and more notable as stars. Even in universe it's considered a pretty inspiring thing that in a martial arts tournament there's a team that consistently make it to the semi finals minimum who are all women, which i think was the main idea for the name.
I am really thankfull for all these retrospectives you’ve been making! As someone really compasionate about video game history and a new fighting game fan (although I am very bad), these videos have taught me a lot about these big series that have so, oh so complicated and mind-blowing history Can’t wait for part 2!
The Nest Saga is next it for some, it might as well be the Saga that would finacally make or break the KOF series as a whole. Also it's my favorite Saga in the entire franchise for too many reason I can put in a top 5.
As I'm watching this retrospective, all the memories playing the games listed so far came flooding back. Both good in wins and bad in crushing defeats. You sure know how to tug the heart strings Thorgi. This is a thoroughly well researched video. I can't wait for part 2!
"Team Grown Arms" I can't believe this franchise roster is so big that there are actually 3 different characters with stretchy arm powers, that's incredible.
Man I fucking commend you for doing these arcade modes to get footage. I’m trying to go through all the KOF games, and I am STUCK at 94, and 95 wasn’t much better
Correction on "earliest game with a date-specific event": Rise of the Triad came out in 1994 and had an absolutely legendary Christmas Mode that replaced all the music with metal covers of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
That Rugal infinity idea would’ve taken KOF into straight up horror territory. The concept art looks like something from SNK’s Mutation Nation or Beast Busters. No doubt the difficulty would’ve been very high and cause players to go into fits of rage
As someone who grew up casually playing the games in arcades, been reading about the various sagas recently, and then I came across this, alot of work, thanks for putting this out! EDIT just finished this first part----absolutely incredible work! Fantastic! Amazing work on this, looking forward to part 2!
Canon is such a weird thing we get hung up on nowadays. Does it matter that AoF makes no sense timeline wise? Not to me, but the endgame comparison with the comics was very well put.
Both rugal theme and Japan theme from kof 1994 have an audio sample Of gutsfests 89 " you can hear behind me now I think their called blue death" While the Brazilian/ ikari theme is Literally suprises your dead from faith no more .
I realize that the KOF retrospective is probably going to be a long running project for you, but when it's finished, have you thought about doing one for Power Instinct? Because from what I can tell that game has a history that is genuinely weird and is probably worth a closer look. EDIT: Also, I wonder what a KOF game would look like today if they followed the Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting series chronologically and the characters were the appropriate ages?
Yuki was coincidently related to her ancestor as a sacrifice for Orochi, I'm sure your might be saving this info for the Ash saga, Chizuru older sister Maki was the successor of the Yata clan except she was killed trying to protect the seal of Orochi against Goenitz. Great video, I've watch the whole thing.
I don't know if it's intentional, but Orochi's difficulty kinda could explain lore-wise. New face team was intended to sacrifice Yuki not just because she's close to Kyo but also she's a descendant of Kushinada bloodline who was supposed to be a sacrifice in the past, they ended up have to use Yashiro and Shermie as substitute and Chris as vessel so they're not a proper ritual which made Orochi awaken in weakened state.
My absolute favorite fighting game franchise, ever. :) PS: Here's how I always saw the KoF timeline personally. The Fatal Fury and AoF cast are there, they take part, but they aren't part of the KoF story as they are seen in game necessarily. In my interpretation. They are playable for the sake of the game, if you see what I am getting at. If this were simply presented as a story and not a game, I believe we'd be seeing a much older Ryo and Terry. In other words, I tend not to look too deeply into the pixel art as being exactly age representative. Also in my head-canon Geese is a vengeful spirit.
Awesome video. Goenitz is my favorite KoF antagonist. Koko desu ka! KoF 97 is my favorite in the series, as I find the gameplay the be the loosest for combos while having the best responsiveness, and yes, I am a Shingo fan! I used to yell "Yo te chingo!" when pulling off Shingo's SDM in a combo when playing in my local arcade hahaha
This was literally the exact video I was looking for. An in-depth examination of the series' evolution of mechanics, the lore, the characters, everything. Thank you for making this.
They really could've made a nod to the fact Team Heroines (my stomach rolled into orbit with that one cause it's somehow worse) used to be Team England by naming their team Team Queens
1:35:15 *Yashiro. Awesome awesome vid though. Anyone who's been following since 94 definitely appreciates the work. I can't wait until (if) KoF: Kyo is covered or touched on.
Not gonna lie, Rugal Infinity looks like something straight out of Resident evil or Evil Within and i'm gonna bet 50 bucks that there's an MUGEN edit of Rugal Infinity out there somewhere...
I've been playing the mobile game, All Stars and I just want a huge lore dump. Also, Corgi, awesome fucking videos, holy shit. You are killing it, bro, keep it up! 🤘🔥
Fun fact about cut intros: The same way Kyo was supposed to enter the stage in '94 parking his motorcycle like Kaneda, Blue Mary was intended to have that intro in KOF 98, but got cut as well. However, you can actually find photos of Blue Mary's scrapped intro in the form of footage from early versions of KOF 98.
Iori’s life must’ve been weird, imagine being a successful bassist then one day you’re able to shoot fire out of your hands and you suddenly have the urge to kill a random 19 year old high schooler.
Edit: Team samsho is dlc for kofxv.
Truly a rise in K o F lore there
being a high school bass player who discovers his powers and hates another guy sounds like a bad summer american movie, or shonen anime lol.
He was able to use fire first, and then he was programmed with the : You have to kill the last Kusanagi in the name of the everybody-dies-young-because-of-the-kusanagi" family.
Then he suddenly had to become a bass player, cat lover who hates violence, after a couple of tournaments and beating 2 pals, making 1 priest commit suicide, killing 2 girls, and roasting one god.
@@zuzukydwho are those members on Team Samsho in KOF 15?
Just as a friendly reminder, we owe Smash’s existence to KoF.
fellow john sex fan?
@@neonthunder3261 Who?
@@Neoxon619 cool SNK youtuber
@@neonthunder3261 I’ll give them a look when I get the chance.
Even Smash's usage of a white envelope with the red seal was inspired from KOF's opening.
It all began in '94...
Kept on rolling in '95...
Things were in place in '96 and came to an end in '97...
Now it comes and here we go...
KOF is here again!
Nothing gonna stop because it's 1998!!
Violent fighting to come again!
As a year flew-by
from excitement,
We now declare the opening of
our special team tournament,
In 1996!
They're back to the heat for an answer they've been long searching
Is it their fate or just a bloody coincidence?
It shall be clear as 3 powers will be as one
Now the 4th phase is about to begin!
I read this comment as soon as I got to the song lmao
@@Anderson_101 1¹q011q
Great, now that song is stuck in my head
That unknown planner who made 100 different bonus game ideas deserves a medal.
And extensive mental care.
It honestly doesn't sound that hard tbh. You could easily make most of them repeats or just joke ideas.
Like: destroy truck, destroy plane, fly plane, dodge missiles, eat as much ice cream as possible, drive car while avoiding other cars, deliver mail, destroy skyscraper, lick as many envelops in an hour, make sushi, do yoga, lion taming, walk on tightrope, write boss a really angry letter, avoid meteorites, give someone a massage, throw ball at bottles, throw ring at bottles, destroy tank, run away from giant boulder, etc.
Okay, that was still only 20 ideas, but it took me less an half an hour to come up with them. Ideas are easy, it's executing them that's tough.
they deserve a fucking raise
That's like a whole Warioware game's worth.
@@NIMPAK1 The fact that they didn't expect him to even be able to come up with as many ideas as he did, may be an indicator that the idea may have had to be a little more fleshed out than you gave him credit for
Iori still is a musician and dislikes violence despite acting like violent person in the kof tournaments. His power was already activated since his birth.
@@meganinten0078 So basically, Iori doesn't have anything against fighting.. BUT, he hates bullies.
Most importantly, he love cats 😺😺😺
@@meganinten0078 I love that manga. Makes me love Iori more!
@@troykv96 essentially yeah, in fact the reason he wasn’t in 94 is because he finds tournaments like K.O.F boring, only being interested when he heard Kyo was taking part in the 95 tournament.
I confess i'm kinda like Iori irl, i usually use Violence to solve some situations effectivelly, eventhought i actually hate it. So yup, he does make sense on that one
I love how it's canon that krauser isn't really interested in kof he only went to 96 because his teammates were Mr big and geese 🤣
He's too cool for that
Kim’s rehabilitation idea is actually a fatal fury reference. In 2 he enters the tournament to reform krauser from his evil ways and he succeeds in his ending as krauser is seen being a respectable member of society. In fact he originally was usually very successful at this to the point in made him a national hero.
This also a faithful depiction of the real world taekwondo associations overarching message of using one’s strength as a means of justice. It’s why he’s so obsessed with it because he takes these virtues to heart even if others don’t think the same way he believes in justice strong enough to stand by that belief no matter any criticisms he gets for coming off as self righteous.
Didn't he also take on one of the bosses as his student in the end of fatal Fury 3
@@ryancraig110 Yes, the younger Jin brother, though it is fair to note Chonsu went to him first.
@@ryancraig110Jin Chonrei and Chonshu supposed to be added into KOF 94...
Fun fact: Choi is actually beloved in Korea and treated like a high tier character. That's why he's in SvC Chaos.
Has anyone in Korea made a slasher film based on Choi Krueger? LMAO
@@dnmstarsiChoi Bounge supposedly to be named as "Choi Kaphwan".
Yeah but what about Chang?? 😌
Rugal's ability to copy moves was, much like a lot of other things, referenced in King of Fighters Destiny, when he used Kyo, Terry, and Heidern's moves against them.
Too bad there was no season 2. The series just covered the KoF 95.
@@aarongallardo3684 I think it only covered 94'
@@CrimRui It kinda sorta covered both, if I remember right, it ended with teaser for a potential second season based on 96.
@@aarongallardo3684 There is new movie coming out that continues from season 1.
It kinda blended the events from Fatal Fury 1, Kof 94 and 95 along with some original creative ideas (i.e the brainwashing of the Sports team)
My favorite character tidbit is that Clark is a massive pro wrestling fan. No real reason, it's just something he loves to nerd out over.
You know what, suddenly his entire moveset makes sense.
Hates worms and loves wrestling. Ended up becoming a soldier.
Clark Still and Ralf Jones are very OP in KOF 94 along with Rugal Bernstein...
37:34
Oh.. I guess that explains why "Kusanagi" (the Chizuru-created Kyo's dark clone) has Kaneda's voice. Kyo was originally suppose to be a more blatant reference to Kaneda like how Krohnen was to Tetsuo.
Syo even appears in the Dreamcast version of KOF99 and KOF2000 as a special striker, complete with Mitsuo Iwata's voice. I think the couple of lines recorded for his striker attacks ended up being reused for Kusanagi in 02 and 03, too
@@sofiaciel7599 Considering he was a late addition, maybe they had already a plan for using his voice in a character, so they recorded a lot of lines, funny enough, the one that Syo uses for his special strike I believe was directly re-used in 2002 UM for Kusanagi's new move... Which is basically's Syo's striker as a Super.
lol how can you even know that
- Anime fanbase creeps me out sometimes.... -
@@sofiaciel7599KOF Game Boy Advance also great games like KOF 2002.
@@troykv962002 UM also has a special character named "Nameless". Which is a hybrid prototype version of K + KRIZALID + Kyo.
This channel has it all. Great voice, great unique content and movie length videos.
Only criticism about the voice: He mispronounced a lot of character's names:
Sie is pronounced "SEE"
Eiji is pronounced "AY-Gee"
You mean Vince McMahon? 😁
@@tiberiusblack659 he totally sounds like young Vince
He is a video game Chad.
Fun fact much later on in the KOF canon to be more precise after the Ash Crimson Saga ended in KOFXIII Robert would finally pop the big question to Yuri aka ask her to marry him and she said yes meaning Robert and Yuri are now fiancé, and fiancée whereas Ryo still has no freaking clue that King has a crush on him.'
Didn't he go on a date with King in XI?
@@jamessicard1705 Actually Ryo much to King's disappointment and Takuma's disappointment though him "going out" with King wasn't a romantic date but more of a small lunch or dinner between good friends.
Wait, there's a fiancée for male and female? That makes no sense
@rawrdino that's a French grammar thing. Nouns often take a ( silent in some cases) "e" in the feminine form.
Exemple: a male fighter =un combattant, a female fighter = une combattante.
It's a bit like how in Spanish, some words in masculine ends in "o" and feminine in "a".
In this case however, it's possible to just say Robert and Yuri are fiancés (the "s" indicate plural).
@@emperormegaman3856 that's interesting
Iori was always pretty chill. Sure, he’s an asshole but if u piss him off or if he’s anywhere near Kyo (especially near Kyo), he becomes an aggressive prick who would be happy to roast someone alive. Also, his cursed bloodline powers are like the main reason why he doesn’t want anyone near him. But like Kyo, he is willing to work along aside him and Chizuru to face off against a common foe. He likes cats, jazz, and playing in his band.
I still remember a lot "THE THREE SACRED TREASURE TEAM" which is still popular even since 1997.
Nicely done! KOF story is coming like a Final Fantasy story!
Yoo King Jae! Brushing up on KOF lore I see? 😁
The lore is so confusing it feels like a Dragon Quest story.
Wtf do you mean kof story??? What is that?
Well, Rugal is an arms dealer. He probably was going to sell that missile at some point before he evaporated.
Rugal vs Guile in CVS 1 and 2.... Man, good times.😢
King Of Fighters literally existed as a blind spot for me until KoF 13 so having a retrospective like that that even breaks down the story is freaking amazing, can't wait for Part 2
I didn’t even know about KOF until like 4 months ago. It has become my favorite fighting series. Snagged the earlier games on switch and picked up 15 when it released. Can’t believe I never played these games. They’re so good!
Funnily enough I got in with XIII as well after seeing Kyo in CvS and loving the designs of the SNK characters. Ended up going through the series myself and now it's one of my favourite video game franchises.
@@kingdomcomesuperman3669same. KOF 13 also has the exact same team order like it was on KOF 94.
I loved how much detail SNK went into the lore of this franchise. For instance Kyo losing his projectiles and becoming more rekka orientated was linked into his fight with Goentiz where he changed his fighting style to be able to take him down in the rematch.
"I've seen people who've never even touched an SNK game before get excited for KOF XV."
Ha ha, guilty as charged.
My first SNK game was KOF XIV and i instantly fell in love with the King of Fighters.
Same
KOF is my favorite SNK series! I didn't know that a max meter would make the normals stronger though. I only used it for super moves all these years!
Ditto.
It also adds push back on block so everything you do is safer.
@@Neogears1312 do you mean more blockstun? because wouldnt more pushback make combos harder to land?
Lucky's favorite sport being baseball is almost certainly a reference to Michael Jordan, who originally wanted to be a baseball player like his dad
Then why isn't he using a baseball rather than a basketball?
@@nasnase354 coz michael jordon is a basket ball player also
he was also a golfer, at least according to space jam
@@Silverwind87he loves golf
"Your daddy got killed and I feel for your family
But your baseball career; now that was a tragedy!"
-Muhammad Ali, ERB
Did it all begin in 94? Kept on going in 95? Pieces come in place in 96? Come to a head in 97? Would be cool if that's what happened
Well...yes and no, most people will tell you KoF existed before 94 with Fatal Fury being the first one
Yes and now KOF is here again!
Shouts out to the Mexico/Latin region for always supporting kof endlessly
kof is globally popular. I was born and raise in Morocco, and where ever I used to go, there was an arcade machine with a kof game in it.
I once heard that the systems were cheaper in South and Latin America, and that saw the proliferation of KoF in the arcades. Here in Argentina it was all the rage; in my hometown KoF 98 was the big favorite. .
@@redhat4363same also in Bosnia. There are some arcade cabinets on it.
The fact that Mai shiranui is somehow sexier than Bayonetta so she's banned from smash is still hilarious.
"somehow sexier than Bayonetta"
"Somehow"
It's not a hard bar to clear tbh
1:16:32 Her sister actually.
1:35:16 Don't you mean Yashiro?
Despite those miskates, I really did enjoy this retrospective. Very detailed, especially with the cutting room floor info. I'm so damn glad that Rugal Infinity didn't end up becoming a thing.
Every great video brings us one step closer to the BlazBlue retrospective with a complete story breakdown.
It will come, friends. Thorgi will get there one day.
That will be the fighting game equivalent to PlayFrame's Kingdom Hearts Story Mode playthroughs. And I am here for it.
It is here.
29:35 granddaughter actually. Mai’s parents aren’t actually documented. Her grandparents are, her hair band was a gift from her late grandmother and again grandpa hanzo trained them both but it’s never stated what happened to her parents.
59:05 I didn't know about the idea for the Rugal/Geese/Krauser fusion before today, and I am *glad* that didn't make the cut, because... jeez.
I am from the association of weird ideas in video games and I personally find it a great loss but a necessary one for every sane person's brain
I kinda wish we got that in the Shun'ei Saga especially given the whole Verse stuff.
1:48:39
Small correction on that: The backgrounds aren't the same from Dream Match 1999. They were remodeled again.
Furthermore, they use different camera movement from the Dreamcast backgrounds
That part about the end of the Orochi Saga... imagine Capcom did the Kyo and Iori ending with Ryu and Bison and then never turned back... that'd be wild.
Wish they reused it on KOF 15 though.😢
I don't know if you knew this but in both 96 and 97 if you make it to the end as team psycho soldiers the four Heavenly Kings (Goenitz, Chris, Yashiro, Shermie) and Orochi will talk to Athena as if they know her implying they knew her in a previous life as the goddess Athena
A couple of corrections and trivia;
1) KoF was planned as a collaboration of Fatal Fury + AoF + Samsho in the beginning. The Samsho roster was scrapped because they had over a 100 yrs timeline gap and Samsho being a weapon-based FG. The US sports team was made as a replacement to them, and THAT'S WHY SNK HATED AND TREATED THEM AS SUCH.
2) Choi Bounge(Who is read "Chae Bun-Gay" with Bounge means lightning in Korean) is not a serial killer. although he is based on Freddy Kruegar who is one, Choi was just a criminal who attacks ppl randomly with no question asked just for his joy of violence.
3) The sway dodge was to imitate the 2-line system from Fatal Fury and the Charge meter was from AoF. You could do a taunt and cut the chunk of their meter like they did in AoF, but this taunt system was changed since 97 to just a useless move only to appeal to your opponent.
4) In 94 and 95, any fighter from Fatal Fury could move forwards while crouching. while being correct to its origins, it wasn't a fair move since it wasn't applied to everyone. Also exclusive to 94&95 was if you beat King or Yuri with a non-grappling special, their clothes would shred revealing her underwear(This did come back in XIII for a brief moment).
5) The Japan team(aka the hero team), was designed after the 3 most feared form of disaster in Japan - which is Fire, Lightning and Earthquake. Kyo uses flames from his ancestral power, Daimon smashes the ground to shake the earth, and Benimaru.....can make electricity for some unknown reason.
6) The statue behind Rugal who Thorgi claims it's Zangief is actually Abobo from Double Dragon. Other characters include Reiji Ouyama from Atlus's Power Instinct, but mostly they are from Capcom's Street Fighter. This might seem that SNK started what is known as the "Feud" between Capcom and SNK, but it was actually Capcom who shot first. During the promotion for the Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Capcom revealed a picture where Sagat was holding a man by the face who looked like a mash-up version of Ryo and Robert from AoF. KoF94 was released after that reveal.
7) Long jump was added in 95. 95 also had sway attacks so you can dodge and counterattack immediately, this lead to some deadly combos.
8) While every numeral KoF until XI was made annually so they were made with rush and crunches, 96 was one of the worst to be released incomplete. Command normals were gone, The input was stiff so rekkas were hard to perform, and command shortcuts was also removed so it was tough to input super specials too.
9) During KoF96's development, one anime impacted Japanese subculture so hard it impacted KoF as well, and that is of course - Neon Genesis Evangelion. You can see that Goenitz is a parody of Gendou Ikari, and Leona is same of Rei Ayanami. Yuri's taunt is "Anta Baka(Are you stupid)?" which a line said multiple times in the show by Asuka, and one of her victory line is "Service, Service!" a phrase which is said in the end of each episode. Also the orochi blood riot + Iori's desperate super special is a parody of Evangelion going nuts.
10) You couldn't choose Chizuru or Goenitz at 96. if you wanted to play them you either had to play the CD-based console version(Neogeo CD, Saturn, Playstation), or via the hacked rom. if you chose the hacked rom however, the scene where Iori throws a crimson flame was missing, so you couldn't figure out what actually happened. This move became his other super since 97, but in a purple flame form.
11) It wasn't Chizuru's father that Goenitz killed to open the Orochi seal, it was Chizuru's twin sister. The Kagura(originally Yata) clan being the heritage of the sacred mirror, was destined to be born as a twin. and Chizuru's sister - Maki took the duty of protecting the seal so Chizuru could have a normal life. After her death and the seal broken, Chizuru realized her role as the guardian and decided to continue her role. Maki appears as an illusion in KoF 03.
12) The actual reason why the dramatic change with the projectile throwers since 96; is because of Capcom making fun of SNK characters - Dan Hibiki. SNK changed Ryo and Robert to play similarly as Dan, but was still strong and fun to play. a nice and clever way to respond to their rival company.
13) Shingo was designed as a parody of Sakura from SF Alpha and was to take a serious role in the storyline. originally, Shingo was supposed to be one who becomes Orochi and the final boss. but since a lot of characters involved with Kyo had already big roles in the story(especially Yuki), thus the Orochi role was changed to Chris.
14) Until Takehito Koyasu(The voice of Dio from JoJo) took the role of Shingo in 97, the most expensive voice actor in KoF was Nobuyuki Hiyama who was the voice of Joe(And also Link from LoZ ocarina of time).
Thats some nice extra info
A couple of extra info: one of the original advertisements for The King of Fighters '94 stated that characters from World Heroes we're supposed to be included as well. I remember being confused because all 24 characters were pictures in the ad and I didn't recognize any World Heroes characters in the roster. This same advertisement was later redacted and mentioned something along the lines of a dream match. I've searched online and this is the only version I can find but I know this other advertisement is out there somewhere because I used to have it.
Another thing I remember is that in the King of Fighters '94, the teams actually have names. I don't know if this was just something that EGM did (it wasn't one of the magazines) or the American version of the game actually have names for them. I remember the Japan team having a silly name like the Geniuses of Fisticuffs and the ladies team having the name: The Princesses of Punch. Does anyone else remember this?
@@MaverickZeroD I wasn't aware of your info but I'm guessing WH characters was tough to join KoF since they were ADK IP. The revived SNK Playmore salvaged some of ADK's IP when the company went out of business in 2003, thus some ADK characters were able to appear in Neogeo Battle Colliseum.
As for the other team name issue, I also have no clue. but SNK had terrible localizing problems during most of its history, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was their job with those ridiculous ideas.
@@kojiroh30 That's what I figured with the World Heroes references. I believed the ad originally said "The characters of Fatal Fury, Arti of Fighting, and World Heroes come together..." or something like that. I'm almost sure it was an error.
Also, apologies for my terrible grammar. I was close to falling asleep when I typed that.
1:35:15 Yamazaki isn't Yashiro but their both members of the Hakkeshu.
The confusion is understandable in such a long video.
The closest we get to a Team Masters is team Guardian/Team Adoptive Parents with Dolores Vanessa and Terry in XV
But Vanessa is a biological mother...
Team Single Parents
Replace Vanessa with Heidern and it becomes an actual Team Adoptive Parents
I think my favorite thing about ryo and kings relationship is the kof 2000 ending where takuma deflects the zero laser with haoh shikoken to save king and kings like "I'm in your debt" and takuma says verbatim "Don't be silly I can't let the mother of a kyokugen heir perish" which causes robert,ryo and king to go "HUH?". It's non-canon as hell like most team endings but it's hilarious. There are other team art of fighting endings where it's just takuma and the others pushing ryo and king together but the 2000 one is by far the funniest to me.
Wait it's not canon?
Great format! I mean,shout out to another content Shoryugame who has a great channel explaining the lore of all the KOF series. But I actually appreciate you mixing in the behind-the-scenes elements + easter eggs on top of all that. *chef's kiss*
Man Could you imagine if there was a character that was just one big reference to akira hahaha. crazy right krohnen
41:56 That flag isn't the flag of England, that is the British flag prior to the joining of Northern Ireland, represented by the Red diagonal lines as part of St Patrick's saltier
1:16:29 CORRECTION: Maki, Chizuru's twin sister, is the head of the Yata Clan, not her father.
Hearing that 98UM intro at the beginning gave me chills, literal chills!
I also ever reached Battle 75 in KOF 98 ULTIMATE MATCH PS2.
Mai: I thought you were stronger than that. Bummer City!
Me: I don't think American dialogue actually sounds like tha...
Sailor Moon: Major BUMSVILLE, Oh, I'm so late
I agree they could have called it "Female Fighters" to roll off the tongue better, but i think the name was pretty deliberate considering this was the 90's still; Women in video games were starting to become much more prevalent, now not only having like two in your street fighter roster to a noticeable percentage being female, and women in general being more and more notable as stars. Even in universe it's considered a pretty inspiring thing that in a martial arts tournament there's a team that consistently make it to the semi finals minimum who are all women, which i think was the main idea for the name.
Also Robert's face was based off Jean Claude Van Damme! If you look at the AOF poster!
I am really thankfull for all these retrospectives you’ve been making! As someone really compasionate about video game history and a new fighting game fan (although I am very bad), these videos have taught me a lot about these big series that have so, oh so complicated and mind-blowing history
Can’t wait for part 2!
🎶It began in 94,Damage to high in 95,96 was kind of s**t,97 was little better,Then they got it right in 1998🎶 😁
I really want team women fighter to be called team queen just so I can always say yas slay team queen
The KOF team before SNK's bankruptcy should reunite together. I want to know their secrets on making such detailed sprites.
That would be great, bring back some of the beautiful pixel art or any form in evolution of creativity
If I recall correctly, Athena Asamiya isn't the same person from the original games, but one of her main incarnations.
exactly, Athena is just a big Saori Kido reference.
Damn this was a hell of a video. Definitely one of, if not the best retrospectives I've personally seen on RUclips.
THis is incredible. Thank you for your hard work, Thorgi.
The Nest Saga is next it for some, it might as well be the Saga that would finacally make or break the KOF series as a whole. Also it's my favorite Saga in the entire franchise for too many reason I can put in a top 5.
Finally! A proper KOF retrospective! I’m looking forward to the next parts.
Gotta be real, I always main Benimaru whenever I play a KOF game just because he looks like Polnareff 🤣
As I'm watching this retrospective, all the memories playing the games listed so far came flooding back. Both good in wins and bad in crushing defeats. You sure know how to tug the heart strings Thorgi. This is a thoroughly well researched video. I can't wait for part 2!
Wow, never knew Iori was a pacifist and a bass player for a jazz band. Dont do Orochi blood kids.
I can't wait for part 2! I hope we won't have to wait too long...
"Team Grown Arms" I can't believe this franchise roster is so big that there are actually 3 different characters with stretchy arm powers, that's incredible.
Man I fucking commend you for doing these arcade modes to get footage. I’m trying to go through all the KOF games, and I am STUCK at 94, and 95 wasn’t much better
It all began in '94...
Also...
Your channel is about to explode, sir...
💯
1:44:27 to be fair, I love wrestling but I'm not a professional wrestler so I can understand lucky in some way.
Correction on "earliest game with a date-specific event": Rise of the Triad came out in 1994 and had an absolutely legendary Christmas Mode that replaced all the music with metal covers of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
That Rugal infinity idea would’ve taken KOF into straight up horror territory. The concept art looks like something from SNK’s Mutation Nation or Beast Busters. No doubt the difficulty would’ve been very high and cause players to go into fits of rage
I'm actually sad they scrapped the idea. I personally love horror and that concept art is awesome! Creepy as all hell too.
I can't get over the fact that Mai is too much and still is. She beats Beyoneta in contraversy. ,
Separating a retrospective into parts? I wonder if this is how you’ll tackle the monster that is a possible Street Fighter retrospective?
Noo
As someone who grew up casually playing the games in arcades, been reading about the various sagas recently, and then I came across this, alot of work, thanks for putting this out!
EDIT just finished this first part----absolutely incredible work! Fantastic! Amazing work on this, looking forward to part 2!
love that part one of this series is almost TWO HOURS long.
And then part two is actually *over* two hours long!
I am from the future. You've seen nothing yet!
Canon is such a weird thing we get hung up on nowadays. Does it matter that AoF makes no sense timeline wise? Not to me, but the endgame comparison with the comics was very well put.
When I was young, I kinda assumed that the Sports Team was based after some of the sports games SNK did. Now if only they had a baseball guy...
Not to sound greedy, but after he finishes this retrospective it would neat to see one about marvel vs capcom.
Both rugal theme and Japan theme from kof 1994 have an audio sample
Of gutsfests 89 " you can hear behind me now I think their called blue death"
While the Brazilian/ ikari theme is
Literally suprises your dead from faith no more .
Maybe the first date activated easter egg was on Art of Fighting 3, on the characters birthdates they get unlimited supers.
1:44:42-Lucky is just SNK's Micheal Jordan
That must be the reason behind such a weird team composition that feels off even when knowing what is about XDD
I realize that the KOF retrospective is probably going to be a long running project for you, but when it's finished, have you thought about doing one for Power Instinct?
Because from what I can tell that game has a history that is genuinely weird and is probably worth a closer look.
EDIT: Also, I wonder what a KOF game would look like today if they followed the Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting series chronologically and the characters were the appropriate ages?
Yuki was coincidently related to her ancestor as a sacrifice for Orochi, I'm sure your might be saving this info for the Ash saga, Chizuru older sister Maki was the successor of the Yata clan except she was killed trying to protect the seal of Orochi against Goenitz. Great video, I've watch the whole thing.
I don't know if it's intentional, but Orochi's difficulty kinda could explain lore-wise. New face team was intended to sacrifice Yuki not just because she's close to Kyo but also she's a descendant of Kushinada bloodline who was supposed to be a sacrifice in the past, they ended up have to use Yashiro and Shermie as substitute and Chris as vessel so they're not a proper ritual which made Orochi awaken in weakened state.
Do snk gal fighters retrospective. It’ll be funny.
Something I've been wondering: you frequently say "we" instead of "I". Is the channel a team project or a 1 man operation?
Can you please make a SNK gal fighters retrospective it looks fun as hell
IDK what you are talking about team grown arms and team detest Shingo sound awesome
Also apparently Kyo's GF Yuki is a descendent of one of the sacrifical maidens that were used for Orochi.
My absolute favorite fighting game franchise, ever. :)
PS: Here's how I always saw the KoF timeline personally. The Fatal Fury and AoF cast are there, they take part, but they aren't part of the KoF story as they are seen in game necessarily. In my interpretation. They are playable for the sake of the game, if you see what I am getting at. If this were simply presented as a story and not a game, I believe we'd be seeing a much older Ryo and Terry. In other words, I tend not to look too deeply into the pixel art as being exactly age representative. Also in my head-canon Geese is a vengeful spirit.
I now demand a retrospective on SNK Gals Fighters solely because you don't want to.
Awesome video. Goenitz is my favorite KoF antagonist. Koko desu ka! KoF 97 is my favorite in the series, as I find the gameplay the be the loosest for combos while having the best responsiveness, and yes, I am a Shingo fan! I used to yell "Yo te chingo!" when pulling off Shingo's SDM in a combo when playing in my local arcade hahaha
This is amazing thank you this helps so much on understanding the story of these games
This was literally the exact video I was looking for. An in-depth examination of the series' evolution of mechanics, the lore, the characters, everything. Thank you for making this.
They really could've made a nod to the fact Team Heroines (my stomach rolled into orbit with that one cause it's somehow worse) used to be Team England by naming their team Team Queens
I'm excited for part 2 of this retrospective after the not so subtle hint at 38:07 of K9999.
I'm saying this to look out for you, but you only slipped once where you accidentally called Yashiro "Yamazaki" at 1:35:15.
I’d like to think that almost any character in KoF or any fighting game period are just normal people, living their lives.
The Universe: 56:48
1:35:15 *Yashiro. Awesome awesome vid though. Anyone who's been following since 94 definitely appreciates the work. I can't wait until (if) KoF: Kyo is covered or touched on.
Massively surprised that you didn't mention King's ripped shirt when she loses. Definitely one of my favourite moments playing the game 😂
Yuri Sakazaki as well lol
God finally a neo geo content creator that doest sound like he is make love to the games.
"...but (Kyo)'s not an arrogant jerk."
...I guess you ain't talking about his win quotes from the later games, eh?
Right it's like no one noticed he kept calling Kyoto Joe by mistake the throughout most if not the whole video
This is the longest fighting game retrospective video on the channel and there are still atleast 3 more parts of KOF series to be released
Not gonna lie, Rugal Infinity looks like something straight out of Resident evil or Evil Within and i'm gonna bet 50 bucks that there's an MUGEN edit of Rugal Infinity out there somewhere...
KoF ‘97: if you have Iori AND Leona on your team, who do you fight?!
If you have both on your team, the game just acts like you have neither of them and throws Wild Iori at you.
@@dariogonzalez8989 thanks!! 👍🏻
@@chrisbrower9532 No problemo.
How much money for the KOF girl fighters retrospective?
I always thought it was funny some of the teams represented countries they were not from.
I've been playing the mobile game, All Stars and I just want a huge lore dump. Also, Corgi, awesome fucking videos, holy shit. You are killing it, bro, keep it up! 🤘🔥
Fun fact about cut intros:
The same way Kyo was supposed to enter the stage in '94 parking his motorcycle like Kaneda, Blue Mary was intended to have that intro in KOF 98, but got cut as well. However, you can actually find photos of Blue Mary's scrapped intro in the form of footage from early versions of KOF 98.