, often shortened as KOF '97, is a 1997 fighting video game developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home platforms. It is the fourth game in The King of Fighters (KOF) series. The game was ported to the Neo Geo CD console and released worldwide; it was also ported to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn consoles in Japan. KOF '97 is the last game in the "Orochi Saga" storyline, which began in The King of Fighters '95. The new tournament focuses on the servants of the demon Yamata no Orochi, also known as the "Will of Gaia", who plan to revive their master by gathering energy and sacrifices from the fighters in the KOF tournament.
KOF '97 is the first game in the series to be directed by its battle system designer Toyohisa Tanabe. The original director is credited to Masanori Kuwasashi, who stopped working on the series after The King of Fighters '96. The creation of the game's characters primarily focused on creating bosses, especially Orochi, to properly tell the game's story in an appealing fashion. Among its several ports, SNK developed a version of KOF '97 subtitled Global Match that has online features.
Upon its release, game designers praised KOF '97 for the handling of its narrative, though critics were divided on whether the controls and balance were better than those of previous installments. The game sold well and was followed by The King of Fighters '98, which includes most of the Orochi arc cast, who fight in a non-canonical tournament. Yumekobo also created a visual novel with role-playing game elements titled The King of Fighters: Kyo, which retells the events of The King of Fighters '97 but primarily focuses on Kyo's life. The first handheld-based game in the series, King of Fighters R-1, was released in 1998 based on The King of Fighters '97. A spin-off light novel titled The King of Fantasy was released in 2019. The combined ports sold together over 336,000 copies in Japan.
Gameplay
The King of Fighters '97 is a fighting game that features gameplay similar to previous installments in the series, which primarily involves the use of three-character teams. Two new playing styles are introduced, "Advanced" and "Extra", which the player can select before choosing their team.
Advanced mode is based on KOF '96 including the ability to dodge moves, counterattack or plan jumps but has a redesigned Power Gauge. The Power Gauge, instead of charging, is now filled whenever the player strikes the opponent or when Special Moves are performed. The player can stock up to three Power Gauges. The player can use one stock of the Power Gauge to perform a Super Special Move or enter a "MAX" mode, in which the players defensive and offensive strength are increased. By performing a Super Special Move while in MAX mode, the player can perform a more-powerful Super Special Move.
Extra mode is based on the first two games in the series, KOF '94 and KOF '95. As in those games, the player fills the Power Gauge by charging it or defending against the opponents attacks. After the gauge is filled, the player enters MAX mode and, as in Advanced mode, their character's offense and defense increases. The player can only perform Super Special Moves in Max mode or when the life gauge is nearly empty and flashing red. The Super move are more powerful when the player performs a Super move in MAX mode while the life gauge is flashing red. The Emergency Roll maneuver from KOF '96 used in Advanced mode is replaced with the side-step from KOF '94 and KOF '95.
Plot and characters
The highly successful and lucrative King of Fighters (KOF) tournament has sparked a worldwide fighting craze. Within a few months of the tournament ending, large corporations had held smaller KOF tournament qualifiers and constructed special KOF stadiums around the world to hype the next tournament. News of the next tournament spreads and new fighters arrive to watch the preliminary matches. All of the previous game's characters, except the disbanded Boss Team, return. Kasumi Todoh went to search for her father, and Mature and Vice were killed by Iori Yagami after he was possessed by the previous game's Riot of Blood. Chizuru Kagura, the sub-boss in the previous game, takes Kasumis place in the Women Fighters Team. Geese Howard's underling Billy Kane, who participated in The King of Fighters '95, returns to work with the agent Blue Mary and the wanted felon Ryuji Yamazaki (both from Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory) to form the "'97 Special Team". Iori returns as a Team Edit character along with Shingo Yabuki, a high-school student who patterns his fighting style on that of his idol and reluctant mentor Kyo Kusanagi. An alternative version of Kyo with his pre-KOF '96 moveset appears as a hidden character.
Iori and Leona appear to fight as mid-boss characters in the Riot of the Blood curse, depending on which characters the player is using. A team of all-new characters, Yashiro Nanakase, Shermie, and Chris, form the "New Faces Team", which is revealed to be the last-three servants from Orochi during the Arcade Mode. The New Faces Team fights as sub-boss characters, having more powerful abilities than their common forms. Once they are defeated, Orochi possesses Chris' body to fight as the final boss character. Depending on the team chosen, Orochi takes a rest in most fights with the New Faces Team offering their lives to their lord to revive him. If the Hero Team wins the final battle, Iori challenges Kyo to a one-on-one fight. The plot is further altered if the player uses the Sacred Treasures Team composed of Kyo, Iori and Chizuru; it is revealed Kyo's girlfriend Yuki is a descendant of the goddess Kushinadahime, who is meant to be offered to revive Orochi. The defeated Orochi tries to use Iori's curse to turn him against his teammates but Iori resists and Kyo finishes the demon.
New characters to the series are marked below in bold:
Hero Team Kyo Kusanagi Benimaru Nikaido Goro Daimon
Fatal Fury Team Terry Bogard Andy Bogard Joe Higashi
Art of Fighting Team Ryo Sakazaki Robert Garcia Yuri Sakazaki
Ikari Warriors Team Leona Heidern Ralf Jones Clark Still
Psycho Soldier Team Athena Asamiya Sie Kensou Chin Gentsai
Korea Justice Team Kim Kaphwan Chang Koehan Choi Bounge
Women Fighters Team Chizuru Kagura Mai Shiranui King
New Faces Team Yashiro Nanakase Shermie Chris
Special Team Ryuji Yamazaki Blue Mary Billy Kane
Sub-Boss Team Orochi Yashiro Orochi Shermie Orochi Chris
Single Entries Iori Yagami Shingo Yabuki Kyo Kusanagi '94 Version Orochi Orochi Iori Orochi Leona
Development
The series' previous installment, The King of Fighters '96, was the last game to be directed by Masanori Kuwasashi, who experienced pressure with the annual release schedule. Kuwasashi was replaced with battle designer Toyohisa Tanabe, who ended the Orochi arc with The King of Fighters '97. Tanabe was in charge of balancing characters; his main objective was to end the Orochi story arc by revealing the title villain who would become a boss and face the Sacred Treasures Team, who debuted in the previous game. KOF '97 was intended to improve on the previous game's new, experimental systems. The Orochi arc was planned since the series' beginning; the protagonist Kyo Kusanagi was inspired by Japanese myths, most notably the Kusanagi no Tsurugi weaponry obtained by the god Susanoo-no-Mikoto followed by the encounter with the mythical beast. He was also given a move titled "Orochinagi" which was conceptualized to be used to defeat it. The developers wanted to give players a large number of combos with the new characters and moves, leading to the development of the game's Advanced and Extra fighting systems.
The narrative of KOF '97 focuses on Kyo and his social life as antagonists almost sacrifice his girlfriend Yuki to revive the final boss. Although Yuki only has one line in the game, SNK carefully chose a voice actor for the character, who speaks in the Sacred Treasures Team's ending as a cameo when Kyo thinks of Yuki as he defeats the final boss. The gameplay was created to appeal to players of The King of Fighters '95 and The King of Fighters '96. The latter game onwards removed Kyo's original projectile version in exchange for hand-to-hand combat. This version of the protagonist was added as an alternative playable version because he was popular with gamers. There were two weeks of development for the game to properly balance the characters' moves and thus avoid overpowered and underpowered characters.
Among other subplots, Iori Yagami in his Orochi form was originally meant to be the final boss of the game after the player beats the New Faces Team in their Orochi forms. It was later decided to make Orochi Iori the mid-boss, with Orochi as the final boss and the New Faces Team as sub-bosses. Tanabe stated the staff was initially reluctant to add this version of Iori to the series' roster due to worries about fan reactions, but did so to add more impact to the Orochi Saga's climax. He was particularly pleased to see surprised reactions from female fans to this form during KOF '97s location testing. After deciding Iori as the mid-boss character, developers focused on adding Leona Heidern as an alternative mid-boss character if players were already using Iori in the game. As such, several television advertisements, and advertisements in other media, were produced to notify players about a "fork in the game" and to give hints about Orochi Leona. Leona was revealed to be related with the Orochi, and the missing character Heidern acted as Leona's father figure. Key arts of snakes were heavily featured in promotion of the game to symbolize the villain.
The New Faces Team was created to offset the remaining top-three characters. The team-member characters were developed as a counterpart to the Hero Team; Chris manipulates fire like Kyo, Shermie uses lightning like Benimaru Nikaido and Yashiro Nanakase is a male giant like Goro Daimon. The plot element of Chris acting as a new body for Orochi was developed in the early stages of production, but the staff considered using other ideas. At the start of production, the plan was for Chris to use the "Flame of Darkness (Black Flame)" but because viewing the black flame on a screen was difficult, its color was changed to purple. Orochi was first intended as "a buck-naked Chris" fighting with a shining energy ball. His final design was chosen after developers conducted a survey in which only two responders favored the first design. Orochi's character-design codename was "Chief", but several people opposed giving him the final name.
In regards to characters from other series, Blue Mary from Fatal Fury 3 was favored over her later designs. To have all eight of the servants of Orochi confirmed in this game, Ryuji Yamazaki from Fatal Fury 3 was chosen as the new member because the developers considered him to be a good villain and liked his snake-like appearance—the ancient Orochi was a giant snake. To adapt the character for KOF '97, the game planner provided Yamazaki with new moves. Yamazaki was too different from his Fatal Fury persona after Tanabe got the producer's permission as in KOF he is a rebellious servant of the villains while in his original game he is portrayed as a man working for the mafia.
Release The King of Fighters '97 was first released in Japanese arcades on July 28, 1997. It was ported to the Neo Geo AES and the Neo-Geo CD on September 25 and October 30, 1997, respectively. A PlayStation version was released on May 28, 1998. A Sega Saturn version was released in Japan on March 26, 1998, and requires the same 1MB RAM cartridge used by the previous game. A "Saturn Best Collection" edition was first released on October 1, 1998, with a new cover and a lower price.