SNK's The King of Fighters (KOF) series includes a wide cast of characters, some of which are taken from other SNK games. The fighting games take place in a fictional universe in which an annual series of 3-on-3 or 4-on-4 fighting tournaments are held.

The first game in the KOF series introduces the initial protagonist, Kyo Kusanagi, a young Japanese fighter with pyrokinetic abilities who is the heir to a powerful group of martial artists. Kyo fights against the Kusanagi clan's enemies, his rival Iori Yagami, and the snake entity Orochi and its human followers, among others. The first four games in the series revolve about these fights, while The King of Fighters '99 introduces a second story arc, revolving around K', a young man who seeks to destroy the mysterious NESTS organization because they kidnapped him at an early age and stripped him of his past memories so they could force him into a fighter under their control. A third story arc focuses on Ash Crimson, a mysterious fighter with green flames who steals the powers of the clans that sealed Orochi in the past for unknown reasons. A mysterious group of villains, Those from the Past, also wants to obtain Orochi's power for the purpose of giving it to their unknown master. A fourth story arc currently involves Shun'ei, a young Chinese fighter who possesses unknown supernatural powers, as a result of being connected with Ash's time-traveling paradox.

The plot and the characters came from the Yamata no Orochi legend. There are also several characters in the games that are parodies or homages. Merchandise based on the characters has also been released, including action figures and keychains. The characters have garnered praise from several video game publications for the quality of their designs and movesets. Comments focused on the lack of improvements in some of the characters, but added that the roster is greatly diverse.

Cast creation and influences

The concept of The King of Fighters originated as a Double Dragon-style side-scrolling beat 'em up titled Survivor after Street Fighter and Fatal Fury: King of Fighters creator Takashi Nishiyama appointed game designer Masanori Kuwasashi as the creator of a new SNK video game. It would have used only core characters from the Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury series, specifically allowing players to play Robert Garcia and Terry Bogard for location testing. The idea was abandoned due to the poor popularity of beat em up games in the 1990s. Since the developers were attached to the idea of the two series cross-over, they eventually agreed to make their idea into a fighting game. Characters from the Ikari Warriors and Psycho Soldier games were added in the spirit of other gaming genres considered for their final product. The concept of a three-man team was one of the ideas kept from the side-scrolling version. Kuwasashi expressed early concerns about introducing a young lead character who might clash with the established veteran fighters, but ultimately believed it would benefit sales after a talk with Nishiyama. This eventually led to creation of a new hero character named Kyo Kusanagi. Yuichiro Hiraki created Kyo as his answer towards Street Fighter lead Ryu while being inspired by the boxing manga character Joe Yabuki from Ashita no Joe. Flagship director Toyohisa Tanabe asserts that the Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury fighters were added specifically for adults. The newer King of Fighters characters were aimed to appeal to younger and newer audiences. He agreed to include characters such as Benimaru Nikaido and Chang Koehan to add an off-beat variety to the cast, which he had previously deemed to be too serious.

The King of Fighters '95 started its own narrative, with its first arc being called the "Orochi arc". For this Kyo's rival Iori Yagami, who has similar characteristics to Kyo. Kuwasashi was responsible for the Orochi arc. Saisyu was added at the last minute as he originally died in The King of Fighters '94 during one of the cut-scenes from the Hero Team. However, when it came to Kyo's girlfriend mentioned in his file, the director was against using her. The King of Fighters '96 created new multiple characters including Leona who was the company's response to Street Fighter character Cammy; both are implosion assassins, while Goentiz was meant to be an overpowered boss superior to Rugal.

In The King of Fighters '99, to contrast the previous protagonist, K' was made to be the "dark hero". The introduction of K' to the KOF series was meant to remove popular characters Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami from the roster, though this idea was scrapped in the game's release. Due to the large additions of teenage characters in the series, SNK decided to add several middle-age ones to balance them. Several characters were added to the roster by Eolith's desire when this company sponsored SNK to attract fans from Eolith's region, ,leading to the creation of May Lee. In preparing the boss characters, the original team was dissatisfied with Zero's portrayal in The King of Fighters 2000, which led to the inclusion of the real Zero. The final boss, Igniz, was conceptualized as a sexually appealing character in order to generate a contrast with other members of the cast.

The Ash saga led to the creation of characters who would confuse the audience with the protagonist Ash Crimson being designed as an "attractive evil character", whereas his teammate Shen Woo seemed more like the series' main character than Ash did. Adelheid was added in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience and to add additional depth to the narrative of the series. Besides the new original characters, the Ash saga also had more guest including the Fatal Fury sequel Garou: Mark of the Wolves as its narrative lacked closure and no sequel was produced, while XI added mid-bosses from Buriki One and Kizuna Encounter who were meant to surprise gamers. For The King of Fighters XIII characters like Kyo, Mai and King were given back their classic fighting styles. Artist Eisuke Ogura aimed to make Kyo's design as appealing as Shinkiro's.

For the New Age saga, Fatal Fury designer Yasuyuki Oda created the first mainline KOF with 3D visuals inspired by Virtua Fighter which led to diffulties in the new models. said while researching for the game's new characters, they avoided stereotypes like Japanese sumo wrestlers to produce more diversity in the cast which includes characters of various nationalities. Oda coined the term "Kyo-ify" based on the series' main character Kyo Kusanagi in regards to the stylishness presented in the cast. As a result, Oda wanted the fighters to look as appealing as Kyo. Art director Nobuyuki Kuroki redesigned Kyo and Iori underwent major redesigns to fit the series' new story arc depite fear of negative backlash. Ogura took over Kuroki's role as art director in The King of Fighters XV, aiming to improve issues the previous installment suffered, resulting in more stylish designs and better 3D models.

Introduced in The King of Fighters '94

Kyo Kusanagi

is a high school student whose family possesses an ancient set of pyrokinetic abilities. Kyo is the leader of Japan Team and one of the three Sacred Treasures.

Benimaru Nikaido

is a model who fights with shootboxing and has electrokinetic abilities.

Goro Daimon

is a former gold medalist in Judo and a mentor to his own dojo. After KOF '97, Daimon retires from being a fighter and returns to the Judo circuit representing Japan.

Chin Gentsai

Chin Gentsai is an elderly fighter who uses various styles of Kung Fu and fights primarily with drunken boxing. An original member of the Psycho Soldier Team, Chin is Athena and Kensou's master and also a mentor to Bao and Momoko.

Chang Koehan

Chang Koehan is a giant criminal who fights with a large metal ball attached to a chain. He is also a member of Kim Kaphwan's team alongside Choi.

Choi Bounge

Choi Bounge is a small criminal who fights with Freddy Krueger-esque claws. He is also a member of Kim Kaphwan's team alongside Chang.

Heavy D!

(Heavy D!) Heavy D! is a professional boxer who was banned from regular competition after severely injuring his opponent. While introduced in The King of Fighters '94, he only returns in The King of Fighters '98.

Lucky Glauber (Lucky) Lucky Glauber is a former professional basketball player and a Karate champion with a penchant for street fighting. While introduced in The King of Fighters '94, he only returns in The King of Fighters '98.

Brian Battler

Brian Battler is an American football player who also makes use of wrestling. While introduced in The King of Fighters '94, he only returns in The King of Fighters '98.

Rugal Bernstein

Rugal Bernstein is an arms dealer and the organizer of The King of Fighters tournament. Capable of copying any technique after seeing it performed once, he makes heavy use of Geese Howard's Reppuuken and Wolfgang Krauser's Kaiser Wave ki-attacks. Rugal also has techniques of his own, such as a slashing kick called Genocide Cutter. In KOF '95, he appears in his superpowered form. His regular form can be selected in KOF '98 and its Ultimate Match remake. Omega Rugal returns in KOF 2002 and its Unlimited Match remake as well as in KOF XV.

Introduced in The King of Fighters '95 Iori Yagami

Iori Yagami is a descendant of Yasakani, gifting him blue flames that he uses to fight. However, the curse of the Orochi gives him a berserker form in KOF '97 called Orochi Iori which appears as a boss. Iori also often appears as Kyo's rivals not because of their clans' past but because of a personal grudge.

Saisyu Kusanagi

debuted in The King of Fighters '94 as a victim in Rugal's gallery of defeated fighters. He appears as a sub-boss in The King of Fighters '95, and becomes playable for the first time on the screen in The King of Fighters '98, although he was selectable in the console versions of The King of Fighters '95 as a secret character. He was originally meant to have died in The King of Fighters '94, but was added in at the last minute of development for The King of Fighters '95.

Saisyu Kusanagi is the previous head of the Kusanagi clan, who left his family to face worthy opponents across the globe. After his defeat by Rugal, he is brainwashed by his secretary Vice to fight his son, Kyo. Upon his defeat, he regains his senses and escapes from Rugal's missile silo base. Although Saisyu is missing, in The King of Fighters 2001, he appears before Shingo Yabuki and spends a year properly teaching him the Kusanagi fighting style. He is still playable in The King of Fighters '98 and Neowave. He returns in the story during the prologue from The King of Fighters XIV asking Kyo to meet Tung Fu Rue in the upcoming competition. In the 2010 live-action film adaptation of The King of Fighters, Saisyu is played by Japanese actor Hiro Kanagawa.

Introduced in The King of Fighters '96 Leona Heidern

, Heidern's adopted daughter introduced in The King of Fighters '96, replaces him as he takes on a more active role behind the scenes, investigating occurrences parallel to the tournament. Although she tends to be very quiet, Leona was conceived to be an Orochi descendant at the time of her debut, and her designers took special care to let their interests at the time reflect in her actions. Her official nickname is The Silent Soldier. Although she recovers from her childhood trauma at the end of King of Fighters '97, she leaves the team after attacking her friends in the Riot of the Blood state at the conclusion of King of Fighters 2003 and tries to regain her focus from within her personal time.

Vice and Mature