Welcome back to the KOF Love Letter and our entry on KOF 96. For all you people that think fighting games don't have a story, prepare for a 6000+ word essay on a single KOF game. Nevermind that I had to do extensive research from a plethora of sources because just playing the games doesn't give you the story. The foundation is very much there and SNK puts a lot of time into character motivation and backstory and the like. This one article is bigger than the entire rest of the KOF Love Letter put together.

Before moving on let's mourn for Rugal. After King of Fighters 95 he is gone for certain. Screw that guy. SNK's staff openly speaks of Rugal with affection by equating him to being the perfect boss character. This is totally true if the perfect boss is supposed to be borderline impossible to beat. I don't know what boss actually started the trend but this level of difficulty is so absurd that people actually needed a term for it: SNK Syndrome. The syndrome is infamous enough to even make its way on on the Urban Dictionary. SNK Syndrome describes an incredible shift in difficulty upon reaching a boss, and you can't really say you know what it's like until you've experienced it yourself. Very often the only way your average player can expect to beat an SNK boss is abusing the A.I. and sweep kicking over. Assuming you can even get close to the boss, that is.

All you Capcom guys out there. trust me when I say you're lucky you got Gill as a boss instead of Omega Rugal. Now sit back and be prepared, because this Love Letter is way more extensive than anything that's come before it. Individual sections of this article are probably going to be the length of an average blog. I'd advise sticking around even if you find yourself wearing out while reading this. If nothing else you should skip to the end of the article for something special. For those of you who started this series late, there will be a final recap blog piecing together the entire Orochi Saga before moving on to the special surprise at the bottom of the blog and the next KOF story arc. It'll be at least 15000+ words, though.



Between the conclusion of King of Fighters 95 and the start of 96, Kyo suffers some existential blues. King of Fighters Kyo is a comic that later became a Japan-only RPG, focusing largely on the series' protagonist. In it Kyo has some trouble coming to terms with his fate as a Kusanagi. He spends a fair amount of time acting like a jerk to his girlfriend Yuki, riding and brooding around on his motorcycle, and getting into fights with Iori. Basically acting like a dumb kid. After a while he breaks out of this slump thanks to one of Saisyu's (that's Kyo's dad if you can't remember) insane ideas. Near the end of the comic Saisyu explained the story of the Orochi Legend as well reason for Kyo and Iori's feud. Various characters overheard this. Among them include Eiji, who after snooping through the Kusanagi home became friendly with Kyo's mother; Athena who traveled overseas to attend school in Japan out of interest in Kyo's strength; and Kensou who has recently revealed to be in love with Athena and now proclaims himself as her official fanboy.

The King of Fighters version of the Japanese Orochi Legend takes its own spin on things, so we're not going to concern ourselves with how true it is to the original myths. Long ago there were two martial arts clans that were the strongest in the world. The Kusanagi and the Yasagani, both capable of manipulating flame. 1800 years ago the two clans fought together to slay the Orochi, and afterward for the next 1130 years they endlessly immersed themselves in their fighting arts. This came to lead to the creation of the Kusanagi and Yasagani fighting styles.

Between the two clans, the Kusanagi always overshadowed the Yasagani. Even though the two clans fought and trained together, this bred a resentment that lead to the Yasagani clan trying to undo the seal that held the Orochi. The Yasagani style had reached its full potential and thus the clan tried to use the Orochi power to surpass the Kusanagi. The Kusanagi stopped them and held the Yasagani in custody before the seal was fully released, but enough of the Orochi power was released for the 8 headed demon to make a deal with the Yasagani family. The Orochi offered the Yasagani a blood pact to become Sons of the Orochi, able to use the Orochi's power as their own. The Yasagani accepted and were given one command: Kill the Kusanagi who stand in the Orochi's way. This feud helped ensure that the Orochi would have a new chance to wreak havoc on the world, since to slay the Orocho both the Yasagani and Kusanagi's must fight together and use their unique powers. As a visual mark of their blood pact the Yasagani clan's flame gained a purple tint.

Upon accepting the blood pact the Orochi gave the Yasagani a new name: Yagami. This has lead to a blood fued that's lasted hundreds of years, with Kyo and Iori being the most recent heirs to their fighting styles. Recently the Kusanagi had taken notice of a change in the Orochi seal, likely the reason that Saisyu had challenged Rugal before the KOF 94 tournament. Rugal wasn't completely responsible for this, though. In the world there are a group called the Hakkeshu, otherwise known as the Eight Serpent Heads. They are eight people born as servants of the Orochi, each representing one of the Orochi's heads and gaining one of his powers. Though their blood is basically the same as the Yagami's, they serve the distinctly different purpose of hunting down the Orochi seal and freeing their master. The Yagami in comparison are seemingly not as loyal to this cause. When Rugal found the Orochi seal one of the Hakkeshu appeared and gouged out his right eye, allowing him to use some of the Orochi power when he managed to survive the assault. To ensure that Rugal did not interfere with the Hakkeshu's own plan to revive the Orochi he was also appointed spies to watch over him.

While Iori does continue the blood feud with Kyo, he doesn't fight for the sake of the Orochi. He claims he wants to kill Kyo simply because he hates the sight of him, very clearly resenting everything that Kyo represents. Moreso though, Iori probably resents being a Yagami. The blood pact with the Orochi brought a curse upon the previous Yasagani lineage. In the presence of the Orochi, anyone of the Orochi's blood is subject to entering a state known as the Riot of the Blood. Iori is not immune to this and can go into uncontrollable fits of murderous rage with no control over himself. That's plenty to be bitter about as is, but that's not the end. The Yagami specifically are all destined to die young with every mother of the lineage unable to survive childbirth. Needless to say Iori doesn't have a lot of family, nor a lot to be happy about. He doesn't seem to bear a personal grudge against Kyo, but obviously he hates the fate he's been subjected to and Kyo seems to trigger some very intense feelings. He always talks about killing Kyo with a certain glee, but at times it seems like a farce. It's hard to tell if Iori would ever seriously kill the series protagonist if given the chance.



Much to the surprise of anyone who'd previously entered a KOF tournament, the King of Fighters name lived on even after Rugal's death. While some suspected that one of the original hosts like Geese Howard had resurrected the tournament for their own purposes, the reality was that the tournament had gained some recognition despite its somewhat underground nature. Various corporations showed interest in sponsoring an official world wide tournament and suddenly King of Fighters became a public and big name affair. All the big names from the previous tournaments were being handed invitations, and a few new names were getting in too. With the tournament now offering a chance for fame and money many of the previous entrants have fresh motivation to enter. What's more some downright infamous names are new to the roster, giving more reason yet to check out what was going on. There seemed to be a reason for just about anyone to join the fray again.

Of special significance as far as motivation to enter the tournament goes: Kyo is attacked by a shadowy figure prior to KOF 96. What's unexpected is that even Kyo's strongest attack, the Orochinagi / Serpent Wave is useless against him. Kyo gets put in his place and ends up in a hospital, with the shadowy figure saying that he had overestimated the hero. Kyo exclaims that he hates the idea of somebody like this watching and taunting him, claiming that he'll enter the next King of Fighters tournament to prove his strength. Being beaten was likely the motivation that led Kyo to becoming a whole new fighter. He may as well be an entirely different character in terms of moves now. KOF 96 is where he gained his trademark punch combos and RED Kick.

Interestingly enough the new commercial nature of the KOF tournament had an effect on the game itself, more specifically the presentation. Various stages had much more active backgrounds, with the Psycho Soldiers and Japan team sharing a stage. Screens in the background of this stage would show the profiles of the current fighters, and depending on which of the two teams was using the arena you would either have a group of older college aged students watching Kyo's fights or a bunch of rabid younger Psycho Soldiers fans watching Athena's. There's also a sign in the background advertising a live Athena concert, marking the first time we actually get mention of Athena's character evolving into a pop idol.

As far as actual gameplay goes, KOF 96 hasn't changed that substantially. The most significant changes we have mostly come down to polish and increasing the game's speed. KOF 94 and 95 weren't exactly what I would have called playable by today's standards even though they were rather impressive at the time, and 96 started to push it into that playable territory. All the gameplay changes that were introduced though, stayed with the series. Low jumps and evasion rolls got their start here. While many people don't use them, both are trademarks of the series and important to tournament level play. Probably one of the absolute coolest things in KOF 96 was starting the trend of giving individual characters their own theme music during fights. Everyone in the new Boss Team had their own respective music, with Geese Howard even sporting his famous and badass Raging Storm theme. The music in general saw an increase in quality too, though it wasn't quite to the point where every team had its own distinct and memorable songs yet. It was getting there, though.

Last time we had a direct character swap with the USA Sports Team going out and the Rivals Team going in. This year the roster sees a serious mix as 4 characters from various teams leave and 7 join the fray. This is what I was talking about at the very beginning of the love letter. I went back to check and I was wrong. There's over 100 characters in King of Fighters. Slogans like "No Mai, no buy" are absolutely ridiculous considering this and only go to show when a fan doesn't understand what they're talking about, joke or not. Once again we're going to introduce characters chronologically, going by the order they became relevant to the plot.



Being one of the main villains of three different series, Geese Howard has a LOT of history. We have the events during and between at least 5 different games to cover, so grab a seat and a bite to eat because this is gonna be a long entry. What's more there was apparently an internal conflict at SNK that results in some confusion over the outcome of Geese's fate. I promise everyone else will have significantly less information, and Geese himself is mostly a character who works in the background. If you want to skip this entry just remember "Geese bad, Geese want power. Geese big jerk."

On to the backstory: Some time ago Geese Howard and Jeff Bogard were apprentices to Chinese martial arts master Tung Fu Rue and his Hakkyokuseiken martial arts style. When it came time for Tung Fu Rue to choose an heir to learn the style's most powerful techniques, Jeff Bogard was selected thanks to Geese's power hungry ways. Angered by this Geese began concocting plans to kill his fellow student, which in turn ties into Art of Fighting. His idea to kidnap Yuri Sakazaki and coerce Takuma Sakazaki bore two intents: To prevent the Sakazaki framily from interfering with his criminal uprising and to obtain a strong assassin to use on Jeff Bogard. Despite being something of a joke character Takuma was famed as a very fearsome martial artist back in his day, so you could think of it as killing two birds with one stone. Jeff and Takuma were two of the strongest men in South Town capable of bringing Geese's downfall.

Art of Fighting 2 marks the very first King of Fighters tournament by Geese. While Geese currently seems to be something of a mob boss sitting up in his tower with his nice chair and cigar and all that, he used to be a police commissioner using the KOF tournament to find people to work under him. Despite the fact that he did not actually do any of the dirty work Geese Howard was discovered as the man responsible for the Yuri's kidnapping. The Sakazaki family retaliated in Art of Fighting 2 and forced Geese into hiding in Japan for an unknown period of time. Geese was also informed that Jeff Bogard was investigating Geese's activities. Clearly not wanting Jeff to interfere with his plans: some time between the end of Art of Fighting 2 and the beginning of Fatal Fury Geese succeeded in assassinating Jeff Bogard. Since then he steadily gained power in South Town and without dispute owned the place. After leaving the Hakkyokuseiken he apparently learned from every big name martial artist he could find and became a national martial arts champion. His skill and power are well known, with people apparently equating his power to that of a demon.

Perhaps to atone for his student's sins, Tung Fu Rue took young Andy and Terry Bogard into his care and raised them after their father's death, teaching them the same Hakkyokuseiken style that Geese employs. As we know Terry and Andy went off their separate ways after growing up a bit waiting for the day they could avenge their father. Some time later Geese reopened the King of Fighters tournament. He used the tournament on an annual basis for gambling revenue. As we know Terry, Andy and Joe entered the tournament and gained a chance to confront Geese. Terry eventually avenged his father with a flying kick that sent Geese plummeting off the top of Geese Tower, and for a time Geese was not heard from and was presumed dead. What happened in Fatal Fury 2 can be attributed to Wolfgang Krauser down below.

Come Fatal Fury 3 Geese reveals himself to still be alive. All explanations as to his survival require we take note of this: Hakkyokuseiken is a set of teachings revolving around the manipulation of Chi. Chi is the founding explanation for a lot of martial arts anime, and how people can do things like shoot fireballs from their hands using their spiritual energy. Characters like Kyo and Iori have more mythical powers in comparison. Because Hakkyokuseiken's uses are fairly flexible, we have 4 users of the art with drastically different fighting styles using spiritual energy in a variety of ways.

The workings of Hakkyokuseiken and Geese's history regarding it are definite. Less so are its origins because I don't have information directly coming from SNK. This is what some sites have noted: The teachings of Hakkyokuseiken were inscribed into one of three ancient scrolls, this one scroll being handed down to Tung Fu Rue. There were two other scrolls, one called the Phoenix Scroll which increases one's capacity to recover from physical injury as well teaches to enhance strength. The third called the Jin scroll was said to grant immortality when combined with the others in the presence of intense fighting. Geese supposedly had the Phoenix Scroll, which allowed him to recover from his fall at Geese Tower in the original Fatal Fury.

In Fatal Fury 3 there is a set of scrolls that everyone is looking for, said to grant immortality when gathered together. So this explanation does seem to make a lot of sense. Regardless, what's most important is that Geese officially obtains all three scrolls at the end of Fatal Fury 3. Proceeding to Real Bout Fatal Fury, the scrolls are destroyed and Geese is once again knocked off of Geese Tower. This time Terry tries to grab Geese's hand and save him, but Geese takes the badass route and slaps the and; falling to what was supposed to be his official death. This scene is pretty vividly shown as the intro to Mark of the Wolves, the final Fatal Fury game.

Here's where we come to a conflict. Real Bout Fatal Fury was supposed to mark Geese's official death. If Geese had used the Phoenix Scroll to survive his first fall, this would have been destroyed with the others and logically he wouldn't have it anymore to recover from his second fall. Fairly logical and I'm inclined to believe the Phoenix Scroll is official because it would explain how he survived once, but not twice. The conflict comes when Geese appears in KOF 96. Supposedly this was because the developers of KOF were not aware of the events in Real Bout Fatal Fury, which was in development but wouldn't be released until after KOF 96. The KOF team didn't want to abandon the use of Geese, though. Possibly because the graphical work was already done, and so he still made the cut. Thanks guys. Thanks for giving me a headache.

In KOF games as recent as 2003 it's very obvious that Geese is alive, while in Fatal Fury games like Mark of the Wolves it's very heavily implied but not undeniably confirmed that he's dead. It's pretty heavily implied that in one series he's dead but in another he's not. There's even a "Ghost" version of Geese in Real Bout Fatal Fury 2. Thus we only have one real possibility: Fatal Fury and King of Fighters diverge into split timelines thanks to KOF 96. The split is determined by whether Geese survives his fall in Real Bout Fatal Fury or not. In King of Fighters there are vague hints that Geese is immortal, implying that before the immortality scrolls were destroyed he had used them and thus could survive his fall off Geese Tower. In Fatal Fury Geese didn't use the scrolls prior to them being destroyed, thus meaning no immortality and no Phoenix Scroll either.

Mind you this is speculation and this is a KOF blog. In King of Fighters Geese is alive and kicking, The only real reason this split timeline is a concern is because of Rock Howard, a character very important to both Geese and Terry later on Mark of the Wolves. Mark of the Wolves takes place some 10 years after Real Bout Fatal Fury, though. We don't have to worry about it for a while. Whether or not Geese is actually dead in Fatal Fury thus has some significance, though. I should also note this seems to be the only instance of an inconsistent storyline. For the most part all the SNK series are intertwined. KOF 96 specifically just led to something of a paradox, and I don't know if SNK has ever properly resolved it. Let's concern ourselves with the present and what isn't veiled in mystery, though. In KOF 96 Geese assures Billy to simply leave everything to him and assembles his own team of criminals from previous games. Geese's main motivation for entering the tournament is to learn of the mysterious power that Rugal possessed in KOF 95. Though Geese states he isn't against crushing the Bogards at the tournament if given the chance, he now seems to consider them smalltime compared to discovering the secret behind Rugal.

KOF 96 seems to mark the first time the Fatal Fury team has seen Geese in a while, as all the Fatal Fury heroes are extremely surprised to see that he's alive and well. Neverminding all that confusing split timeline business.



Kasumi is another character that has some history going as far back as the original Art of Fighting more than a decade prior to KOF 96. Her father--a native Japanese man named Ryuhaku Todoh--was the very first opponent Ryo assaulted when searching for his kidnapped sister. I didn't actually know this until I looked it up, but it seems that Todoh had come to America looking to settle an old score with Takuma, which makes a lot of sense. Based on the setting and music the fight with Ryo probably took place at the Sakazaki dojo, with Todoh looking suspicious appearing immediately after Yuri's kidnapping.

Since that fight Todoh had gone missing, leaving his wife and daughter Kasumi waiting at home in Japan for his return. Not knowing what had happened to her father, Kasumi made her debut in Art of Fighting 3 seeking revenge. Right before the climax of Kasumi and Ryo's fight, Kasumi's mother appeared and demanded she stop. She had left without permission and was told to stop dishonoring the family; at which point Kasumi's mother revealed that Todoh was training in another part of the world in preparation for another fight with the Ryo. She asked Ryo to both forgive her daughter as well as some day come to Japan to fight with Todoh once again, establishing a friendly rivalry between the two families. Before leaving with her mother Kasumi established her desire to challenge Ryo again someday as well, handing off her headband to her and saying that one day she'll come to reclaim it. What exactly happened with that whole headband thing I don't really know, but in King of Fighters 96 King introduced Kasumi to the Women's Fighting Team to help them out. Takuma had forced Yuri to join the Art of Fighting team because of his own absence, and King herself almost backed out of the tournament take care of her little brother. This is terribly ironic, because at first Yuri joined the Women's Team in KOF because she wasn't allowed on the Art of Fighting team. Now she wants to be on the Women's Team and is forced off it.

This almost left Mai alone and without a team, but at the last minute King had a change of heart and brought Kasumi along with her. Fun note: Kasumi's father is a recurring joke within the King of Fighters series, appearing in the background of many games. Apparently an in-joke at SNK is "Where's Todoh?" In KOF 96 he even cheers for his daughter in the background. Kasumi herself is actually a fairly lighthearted character. I invite you to check her Art of Fighting 3 ending.



Mr.BIG is a fairly small time crime lord who was responsible for kidnapping Yuri in the original Art of Fighting, back when he was doing Geese Howard's dirty work. At the time Mr.BIG was probably quite useful to Geese, who again started out in the series a corrupt police commissioner. Some time during Art of Fighters 2 Mr.BIG rebelled against Geese and tried to make a name for himself, probably after Geese retreated to Japan in the Art of Fighting 2 endings. Since then he's been running his own crime ring and been looking to increase his realm of influence. Though he and Geese are hardly on good terms, he thus accepts Geese's offer to enter the tournament to see if he can put it to some use. I might add that though Mr. BIG is small time compared to the other members of the Boss Team, he isn't against having hot bitches all over him in his intros. That's got to get him SOME kudos, at least.

Both of these characters have a relatively small impact on the KOF storyline compared to Geese, but Krauser can be argued to have more lasting impact. His influence actually extends back to the original Fatal Fury. Krauser is Geese's half brother and a member of an infamous German family. The exact nature of their relationship isn't quite known to me, but it seems like their mutual father and Geese's dead mother has lead to some resentment between the Howard and Krauser names. Back in the original Fatal Fury Krauser had written a letter informing Geese that he would come to challenge his half-brother to a fight. Geese was well aware that such threats were not to be taken lightly. Before Krauser had a chance to come though, Geese was thought to have died.

It might have been lucky for Geese, as it would seem that Krauser is a significantly more dangerous fighter. What's more Krauser doesn't strike you as being the kind of guy against beating his family to death. Interested in who could have defeated Geese, Krauser started his own tournament in South Town called The Sultan of Slugs Battle Royal. Yes, it sounds stupid as hell but I was surprised to learn it wasn't another KOF. Krauser is an extremely formidable fighter. During the tournament he hunted down many of the participants, among them being Tung Fu Rue and Joe Higashi. He beat the living hell out of them. Eventually Terry confronts him at the end of the tournament and overcomes Krauser, and until KOF 96 not much is heard from him. Likewise he's a member of the criminal underworld but seems to want to enter legitimate society. The fact that Geese was the one who invited Krauser to the tournament is the reason he entertained the idea of joining.

Krauser may or may not represent another time paradox, as there's a short movie called Memories of Stray Wolves saying after being defeated by Terry that Krauser commited suicide. KOF 96 takes place some time afterward and he doesn't exactly look suicidal over the matter. In fact losing to Terry seemed to have significantly mellowed Krauser out. That's just a vague impression based on KOF 96, though. Likewise in the Fatal Fury 2 movie he plummets off a cliff to his death immediately after losing to Terry. If nothing else Krauser dying does seem to be a bit of a running theme. The real question is when he dies, but honestly it doesn't matter since he's of no further significance to the storyline. Fun note: Rugal mentions both Geese and Krauser's names at the end of King of Fighters '94, and likewise has imitation versions of Reppuken and Kaiser Wave; moves belonging to the two half-brothers. It was very likely that they knew eachother in some way, if only just because they all had some pull in the criminal world.



The Ikari Warriors jump back into action, largely in part because of the public announcement of Geese Howard's participation. While Heidern has resigned himself to command, his adoptive daughter Leona takes his spot in the tournament. Like Heidern she has a tragic past and tends to hide her emotions, coming off as a somewhat silent and awkward character. Despite that she's a dutiful soldier, with Ralf and Clark taking kindly to her with time. Little is known about her initially. While on a mission in Brazil Heidern found her wandering the jungle alone in a daze. She had no memory and seemingly no family, which presumably Heidern identified with and took her in as his own. Her fighting style largely imitates that of Heidern with one key difference. While Heidern uses a variety of concealed knives to perform his attacks; Leona can do so with no tools whatsoever. She is literally able to cut with just her hands for unexplained reasons.

Ralf and Clark are rather shocked to have Leona join the team at first. She's exceptionally young still being in her late teens, and what's more she's very silent and avoidant. She almost immediately leaves the room as soon as she's assigned to the team, only staying thanks to Ralf's persistent personality. Heidern informs the two that the KOF 96 tournament will be her first mission. Reluctant to work with a rookie, Ralf and Clark realize they have to do as the boss says and resign to their fate. Almost immediately though Ralf expresses his interest in her. After shaking her hand at their first meeting he's directly quoted as saying he'll never wash his hand again. Considering Ralf and Clark just got done calling Leona a kid, this is borderline creepy. Ralf looks pretty old compared to her in some of his profile artwork. SNK doesn't hand out any of the character's full birth dates, though.



Vice and Mature were two of Rugal's secretaries who worked largely in the background until 1996. They served under Rugal and helped organize both the 94 and 95 tournaments. Mature even personally handed Kyo his invitation in 1995. Likewise in KOF 94 Mature was the woman who guided the winning team to Rugal, while Vice was the one assigned with brainwashing Saisyu before the 95 tournament. While they did serve to help and do as Rugal asked them, they were assigned to watch over him by the Hakkeshu who took Rugal's right eye. After Rugal's death their activities were largely unknown.

Some time before the tournament the two ladies approached Iori in his current home, an old and barren temple. Asking him if he's like to join another King of Fighters tournament, Iori seemed bitter about losing to Kyo in the last tournament and showed no interest. Asking if Iori was afraid of Kyo, the two women were very quickly met with a fight. Iori proved himself more than a match for the two, toying with them and even burning off their blouses. At his patience's end, Iori demanded the two state their business before he burnt them to a crisp. They introduced themselves as Vice and Mature, claiming they wanted to serve him and help him exterminate Kyo Kusanagi. Iori has a change of heart and decides that he will join the tournament with them and use them to his own ends. Soon after the two left and contacted an unknown party, clearly their Hakkeshu employer, assuring him that everything was going according to plan. Iori himself was not fooled, though. He didn't know what the two were up to, but he knew who they were. He could tell they were Hakkeshu themselves; underlings tied to the same Orochi blood as himself. Iori didn't care, though. He now saw the tournament as a new opportunity to crush Kyo Kusanagi.

Being Hakkeshu, Mature and Vice have been granted some power by the Orochi. Their personalities somewhat suit their powers, as SNK created the two with the intent of summarizing them as the "cruel woman" and the "ruthless woman." Really they're just a pair of evil bitches when you get down to it. Vice being the ruthless one inherits superhuman physical strength. She behaves violently and impulsively, on occasion even acting like an animal. Mature is almost the opposite of her, being the calm and collected cruel one. Her power is a bit more vague, simply being described as heightened raw instinct. In a way it makes sense when you compare her to Vice, as her movements are very smooth and elegant in comparison. To clear up any potential confusion: in KOF 98 Rugal has another pair of secretaries for some of his win poses. Nevermind the fact that KOF 98 doesn't have a story and Rugal is dead, SNK has stated on the KOF website that these aren't Vice and Mature. Those are a pair of separate secretaries named Hermione and Aya. While it's quite possible these were the very early designs of the two characters before they became important to the story, as far as SNK's concerned they're separate people.



Upon reaching the finals the contestants were met with an unexpected opponent in the form of Chizuru Kagara. Her movements are strange, all of them resembling different forms of dance; and she has a very strange power, being able to create solid after images of herself. She's not exactly an easy boss to beat either. After the fight she reveals herself to be the host of the tournament and the guardian of the Orochi Seal. Though she's aware Rugal was given the Orochi power and not responsible for unleashing it himself, she wanted to meet the people responsible for his defeat and test them in battle herself. She pleads for Kyo, to help in resealing the Orochi, upon which a fierce wind begins to blow.

The the moment I can't find my old source of information on this, but as I recall it Chizuru herself is the head of a large family corporation thus explaining how she was able to get further corporate sponsors for the tournament.



From the wind appears a man in blue, somewhat resembling a priest. Before our heroes stands the man himself. The man who took Rugal's right eye and allowed him to use a portion of the Orochi power; who employs Vice and Mature and assigned them to watch over Iori; who attacked and taunted Kyo prior to the tournament; and is even later on revealed to be responsible for the death of Leona's family. We have one of the Four Heavenly Kings: Leopold Goenitz. This guy has been busy. Despite the fact that he's already assessed Kyo as not being much of a threat and that Iori is of partial Orochi blood (he appears to be there as well), seeing all three of the Sacred Treasures had been gathered Goenitz feels its time to finally eliminate them.

You may be wondering what a Heavenly King and Sacred Treasure are. The Sacred Treasures we'll cover in the next blog. As for the Heavenly Kings, among the Hakkeshu there are 4 Heads who inherit higher power from the Orochi and likewise have more control over that power. Goenitz has inherited direct control over wind in a similar fashion to how the Kusanagi and Yagami can manipulate flame, and this guy shows you that a maelstrom is not something to be fucked with. He blows away the arena and turns it into a borderline pile of rubble, driving away all the audience. As a side note I'd say Goenitz's case of SNK Syndrome is nowhere near as bad as Omega Rugal's, but he's still pretty damn infuriating. Most people remember how annoying he is to fight because he can make tornadoes appear on the screen, ceasing any advanced toward him.

The official ending to the game requires that you have a team comprised of Kyo, Iori, and Chizuru, but it's not a whole lot different than Kyo's normal ending anyway. We should note that every ending for every team does take place. The only real difference is that one team officially beats the boss in the game and I suppose the others are still close by. Sometimes it's confusing trying to fit all the events together, but all the games do regard all those events as being true. Every character's ending is canon, as some might put it. Now moving on to those endings:

In a struggle between the 3 Sacred Treasures and Goenitz, Iori's flames briefly turn crimson and reveal their original power to seal off evil. Chizuru explains that this is how the Kusanagi and Yasagani clan had originally defeated the Orochi, with one clan sealing off the monster's power and the other slaying it. Goenitz's wind has ceased thanks to Iori's flame and Chizuru pleads for Iori to help in the coming battle and forget the blood fued, saying that relying on the Orochi power will lead to his early death as per the Yagami curse. Iori doesn't listen and claims he'll live as he pleases. Kyo likewise doesn't seem to feel especially cooperative, simply saying that the feud is between the two of them personally and that both of them would individually fight the Orochi if it appears.

Chiruzu does not side with either family, just as she will for times to come as the impartial medium between the two. Most of the other teams this year don't have endings with much significance to the plot, but a few big events do occur. Goenitz claims that he's being called back to heaven in each ending, and either commits suicide or dies through other means. Before he does, though Goenitz reveals to the Ikari team that Leona is of the Orochi bloodline and that she cannot escape her fate; setting seeds of insecurity that'll be with her for a long time. Ralf and Clark of course seek to cheer her up, but Leona had a fragile enough personality as it is. Geese exclaims that the Orochi power was not impressive and all the boss teams go their separate ways. Mr. BIG showing his respect tries to have Geese shot, but Billy intervenes; while Krauser simply thanks his half-brother for the fun time and leaves.

The real shit stopper is the Yagami team's ending. Vice and Mature are impressed by Iori's strength, thinking he may be even stronger than Goenitz. They decide to betray their Heavenly King employer, but Goenitz just calls them fools. Whether Goenitz uses his power as a Heavenly King to do this or is just happened on its own in the face of the Orochi's power, after his death Iori's eyes dilate and he begins to cough up blood. The Riot of the Blood mentioned before has been let loose and Iori enters a murderous rage, brutally killing Vice and Mature. In a most ironic turn they're slain by the very man they decided to side with. And with that concludes all the significant endings in KOF 96.



I've wanted to do everything I can to help people appreciate King of Fighters a little more, meaning I wanted to do an entry on just about every KOF I could. The problem was that a select few KOF games have no story. My idea: hold community tournaments to write about in the place of any plot summaries. Fatal Destructoid be thy name, and 2DF is the medium. I own a physical copy of the game so I'm not ashamed of using emulation. Likewise I doubt anyone will look down upon you for doing the same.

Basically, I consider myself pretty decent at fighting games. I think that I can give most people on Destructoid a run for their money and I likewise think that I could help teach a lot of community members to up their game. Thus I'm gonna do both of those things. I'm gathering up entrants for a tournament where I act as a couch and final boss. Everyone is going to train with eachother long before the tournament begins, and I'm personally going to teach the weaker entrants to strengthen the competition.

Once the tournament begins we'll most likely have every entrant fight eachother to tally up point totals. The members with the highest number of points will enter a semi-final and repeat the point gathering process, at which point a winner will be decided. Anyone in the semi-finals will receive a game swag prize, as will members who show the most improvement even if they don't win. The winner will be awarded the grand prize and then have a chance to challenge me, in the same way that the winners in the King of Fighters games always have a final boss they have to fight. Rest assured that as of right now I am the top player in the tournament, so I don't intend to let myself go down easily. The winner will already have his prize, but if he beats me he'll get a bonus prize.

If you think you suck at fighting games, enter anyway. I'll teach you to get better, and you'll have a chance to bond with your fellow D-Bros. This tournament is all about getting together and just enjoying an under appreciated gem of the fighting genre. You'll have a chance to spar and chat with everyone in the tournament long before the competition actually begins, and we want to do everything we can to make this a community affair.

Just like the Fatal Destructoid logo says: Follow the love letter and learn the plot, train with your D-Bros and expand yo' skills, win some swag even if you don't win the tourney. If you have any interest at all let me know. As of now we have 8 entrants counting myself and a potential anonymous contender. If you have any interest at all, contact me any way you please. My E-Mail is to the right, you're free to send me a message on the forums, and but of course you can comment.

Maybe by the time Fatal Destructoid 98 and 2002 are finished the tournaments will expand into lesser known SNK gems. Even not counting the obvious Mark of the Wolves, there's a fair number of overlooked SNK fighters that deserve to be played competitively. Real Bout Fatal Fury 2, Last Blade 2, and Samurai Showdown 5 Special come to mind specifically. I personally haven't had much time with these games either. They're all substantially different and solidly built games, and I really like the idea of trying to get familiar with these lost gems. Maybe some of you do too.

Later on in another blog there'll be some match video comparisons of the current contestants, showing how well they were doing at the beginning of training and how well they're doing now. Until then, stay tuned for the next KOF Love Letter. The tournament will be poised to begin once we have the KOF 97 letter out of the way. Everyone will have plenty of time to train, though. These Love Letters take a lot of work and I need a break.


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