SNK Lore Misconceptions(and possibly where the came from)

 In the process of trying to clean up(to only somewhat successful ends) the SNK wiki(which is quite good, but still not 100% accurate, running more of a 75-80% accuracy or so I'd say), I decided, for fun, to put together a list of some very common misconceptions. 

Now, I don't unfortunately know every one of these-but if others know other misconceptions, please by all means let me know. 

Canon Side Material:

It should be said that the only known canon side material are:

A. The Team Stories(located online and sometimes, like in the case of Adel's story in 03, in the Gamest mooks, which carry the official team stories, 

B. Official books, which sometimes have lore bits you don't find elsewhere(Character Encylopedia, Perfect Reader, Gamest mooks as mentioned above which also have character concepts, things like that), or

C. The Ureshino novels, which basically just novelize the games themselves but add things-his work is all official. 

No Manhua, other mangas or anything are official canon. Now, I am not saying that you can't have fun with your own headcanons or whatnot, by all means do that, but for purposes of recording canonical lore, I try to keep things to the official material.  The manhua in particular are not canon-no, Mr. Karate did not ride a T-Rex to fight Geese riding a mammoth, and I don't think over in Street Fighter land that Ryu ever fought Gene Simmons, but I'm not as schooled on Capcom lore so someone might need to corroborate that one for me. ;p 

(FWIW, the manhua are great, entertaining reads-but treat them like some fun fanworks, and not canon material. But if you do fanwork and want to borrow from them, by all means go ahead, like, I'm not trying to police fanwork here. I'm just trying to keep the wiki-lore straight.) 

"What about ANB/The Shingo Manga?"

These aren't stated as to be actual canon yet. ANB was said to have been written to be able to line up as to not mess with the timeline too much, that they 'could' take from as canon if they wanted, but AFAIK they haven't used very much of it. The Shingo manga is a big unknown; I guess we wait to see if he has some blue flames in the game, eh? 

"Shipping?"

The only 100% bonafide confirmed ships in this game are Andy/Mai and that took forever, and stuff in the background like "Daimon and his wife," "Saisyu and Shizuka", "Seth and his wife," "Vanessa and her husband"(See below for this one.) The rest? Are all just up to the fans. Ryo/King were never confirmed in the game-they keep dancing around it. They keep going back and forth constantly on Robert/Yuri and seem to love to just stop at confirming the Terry/Mary ship(which I thought they had confirmed, but I seemed to have been mistaken.) The latter two of these are 'Almost There', but SNK seems to tease everyone, lol. I have a feeling if you asked the devs themselves they'd say they'd all say something different. Something could change here of course and they could decide to finally hammer home another canon one, but yeah. (I notice most of the '100% confirmed ships' are all in the background.) Mature and Vice are another fanon ship-in the source material, they are barely even friends; they are co-workers who happen to work together often. (Mature and Rugal were never really confirmed, either, just hinted that they had a fling from some flirting, but again, never written in stone.) 

So anyway, here's a few misconceptions for you:

-"Leopold Goenitz."- Goenitz' first name to any novels, as checked by someone I know has read them, was never stated in any source material. A side comic made up a name for him. Like, use it in any fanwork you want, but this sort of thing doesn't belong on the wiki. 

"Gaidel the Water User."-Gaidel's element, if he even had any, was never stated in past material, either. The only elements actively stated in lore were the Four Heavenly Kings(Wind, Earth, Fire, and Lightning.) This was once again due to a non-canon manhua. Also, Gaidel was reincarnated without his powers anyway in the official material. He didn't even remember who he was fully. He MAY have had some subconscious memories that got passed onto Leona, but the reasoning behind his reincarnation going wrong was never even stated in the original novels. It was probably just to facilitate Leona's plot, a means to an end, rather than a technical reason why it went wrong. 

"Goenitz had Mature and Vice killed by Iori": Unlike the other two things that were caused by weird manhua/comic stuff, this one was instead caused by the game itself being translated imperfectly back in the day. As we know, Dweebenheimers, SNK had some...interesting translations back in the day, wubba-wubba. This unfortunately carried over to some more important things. It was a minor mistake all told, but one that changed the full context of the ending(once again, needing to go to the novelization for this.) 

What actually happened here was that Goenitz warned Mature and Vice from messing with Iori, because he was extremely powerful. They were basically poking the bear, wanting to use Iori for their own purposes to mess with the Orochi stuff, and in the process-between that and everything else that happened during the end of the '96 tournament-set him off, so to speak, and he killed them on the spot. But there were no issues with Goenitz wanting the other two dead. They basically brought that on themselves. 

"The Hakkeshu Dislike Goenitz": They don't. Not even Mature, Vice, or whatever. Gaidel, should he return, probably has a bone or twelve to pick with him but he's technically no longer a Hakkeshu as he reincarnated wrong, and of course Leona hates him, but the rest? They don't really...care. They're indifferent. Like you can even see in a recent team story, CYS and Goenitz are more cordial, but they aren't a bunch of buddies who go out for bowling league every Saturday or something(though this would make for some good artwork.) Think of the Hakkeshu as 'business partners.' If you notice, Goenitz in the recent Awakened Orochi story is more disappointed in the others than mad, but he knows that when 'The Call' hits, they'll come. They're a bunch of reincarnating beings of a force of nature; they have all the time in the world. They don't always get along, they sometimes butt heads on methods, but they aren't really enemies or anything. Yamazaki doesn't give a rat's ass, M&V are just in their own little world(they're still ghosts, too). Btw-adding this on: CYS, as we see in the game, are close, so that's all correct. (I mean, if it's in the game, unless it was specifically retconned by SNK, it's fine.)

"Goenitz gave Rugal his Power": What happened here was Rugal took the power, Goenitz(when he was only 18, Rugal was a young man himself in his early-ish 20s), whipped his ass, and took his eye. He let him *keep* the power, however, as a bit of a test on how it worked out. In addition to this one, Mature and Vice were not some long-time workers of Rugal, they were sent to spy on him like, around '94 and only lasted until after '95. They weren't with him very long. As mentioned above, it's unsure how close he and Mature were, but Vice didn't care one way or another about him. (This stuff's origins is I think simple mistranslations.) 

"Leona is somehow the leader of the Ikari team.": I have no idea where this one came from as this is just common sense with "How the Military Works, Rank-Wise," but here we go. This *may* have an origin in the '96 story where Heidern had her handing down his orders for one first mission, in a sense that he was still the Major Head behind the mission but he used her to pass down his orders for this one, and this somehow got taken as 'she is the leader in all games despite not outranking anyone.' It's the only thing I can think of how this one proliferated. I

But the rest all clearly state either Heidern as the main lead, or Ralf as the leader, with Leona not even having a proper rank(Heidern is a commander, Ralf is a Colonel-which is a rather high rank, mind you-and Clark a First Lieutenant.) He's even stated straight up as heading the team in a few stories('97, '03, XI and XIII come to mind), and in XIII Heidern goes as far as to ask Ralf and Clark their opinion on how the mission should be handled, despite his rank being above them in said team story. This stuff's even available in English, so I don't know how this gets mistaken. That said in the games themselves, it's pretty clear the three just...work smoothly together with no real 'power fights' or anything, some humor in the 03 story where he jokingly states "Is this how you treat your leader?" after some teasing. 

(On this note, it's ALSO an occasional misconception that Clark is higher ranked than Ralf, probably because he's more chill, but no, Ralf is clearly stated as a Colonel, which is a higher rank than a First Lieutenant.) 

Billy Kane Hates Smoking: The guy has a favorite cigarette brand. I think it was even stated that he just thought the jacket was cool. The origin of this was his jacket, I guess? Where they saw his fav cigg brand and then that he hated smoking is beyond me but I guess the jacket was that convincing, lol. 

Vanessa's Dead Husband: This one originated from a website of a guy who was writing his own what-if stories(he even said as much, mind you, but the site is not in English so it got mis-translated as canon, I guess.) But yeah, there's a strange bit of fanon that Vanessa's husband is dead. He is not; in the lore her husband, and kid, are alive and well as of now. Unless this changes in the future, this was basically someone's bit of fanfiction that grew out of control that started getting believed as canon. 

Whip Dislikes Krizalid: Whoo boy, this was a doozy of a mistranslation in KOF '99. Much in the realm of 'You Jerks', during these days SNK's EN department loved to add insults when there wasn't any. The original translation had Whip extremely sympathetic toward Krizalid when she went to go see him at the end; there was not one insult, or even harsh word, to my knowledge, said. I can even link, thanks to a Discord member who I know, what the ending REALLY said right here: 

Needless to say, '99 butchered it and yeah. I would go as far as to say that at least half the time you see weird insults back in the day there was likely something much different written here. I remember people being so confused at this ending because Whip was throwing around words like 'Simp' and 'Puke' while crying after the fact and the Westerners, who I am now convinced were robbed in this, were had no fucking idea on why that was. Whip was incredibly sad about what happened to him. 

There are some other things that are not misconceptions, per se, but things that have never actively been clarified, like Ron killing some of his sons(it's *hinted*, but never confirmed, yet, if he did so, we just know the other sons besides Duo Lon are missing.)  Iori had a girlfriend that was mentioned in the past on and off, but nothing ever came of her; this is one of those 'Unknowns' in the background. The last time anything like this was mentioned was early NESTS saga, however, so as of now there is nothing in official material about her. Also, Rugal has an estranged younger brother-he was only mentioned once in a Falcoon interview from 2005, and was never named. He was never mentioned since that, either, so no idea what's up with this. 

Then there's other weird bits like "Why Not Team Bernstein?" I have NO GODDAMN CLUE on this one but the games spell out in black and white in big, block letters that Adel is nothing like his father and literally show the man working with Heidern, with him on speed dial like they're friends. Why they keep trying to shove him and his dad on a team together is beyond me. This is just pure fanwank. (And Rose isn't a fighter anyway, so it's not like this team would even work from that angle. Sport Fencing doesn't equal fighting and the stories make it pretty clear she hates even lifting a finger in the first place.) Since nothing like this happened in the games or anything I didn't put it above, but it's a really damn strange suggestion I keep seeing that basically flies in the face of the established lore, so I just stuck it at the end. (It's a damn shame the 2003 story was never officially translated since that explained a lot of their dynamic.) Btw, for those interested, here is the link to the 2003 translated story, with credits to the translator, Miau: https://twitter.com/AzzyFGC/status/1516428477918023707

Anyway, if I think of more of these(more like, WHEN I do, since there is quite a few, lol), I'll just keep adding to this, but after trying to fix the wiki today I was sort of inspired to put this together. 

Some KOF Roster facts and figures(a lot of raw data), for your perusal!

While going through lists and such to discuss the last blog I did about KOF XIV's newcomers, I had found myself combing over various data of the rosters over the years, and the more I did that the more I found myself interested in things, maybe because I like numbers and stuff. 

So I decided to record my findings in a blog for those who might be curious about how the rosters have worked over the years. I thought this might be pretty cool to do for some of the countdown?`

KOF has always had a fairly decent sized roster that only grew over the years(MOSTLY...); older games had fewer(24, 25 characters and such)-but keep in mind in *those* days, rosters in general were much smaller. Street Fighter Alpha, for example, had 13 characters. Marvel Super Heroes had 10 playable and 2 unlockable bosses. Samurai Shodown 2 featured 15(16 on consoles.) With the exception of Tekken, rosters tended to be smaller(and Tekken 2 had only a fraction of the games now, with 25, and in those days there were a lot of palette swaps, like Roger/Alex and Angel/Devil lowering the number.) 

So KOF busting out with 24 playable characters in it's very first game was pretty damn big, and it only went up from there. Some stuff I'll be going over in this blog are:

Roster size for each game(including DMs)

Gains/Losses in between games

Amount of new characters with each game

Some other odds and ends(like who disappeared, who came back and so on.) This is going to be done in a fairly basic 'List Format.' I'll be recording them as:

Roster: The count, with a difference from the previous game. 

Established Characters: These are characters who are already established in King of Fighters. (In '94, these are already established in SNK games.) As the years go on, you'll notice the new characters become 'established.' 

New Characters: Here are characters who are new to the current game in question. I will specify if they're new to KoF, or if they're brand new characters(separating the two numbers, this is for data reasons.) 

Returning Characters: This is where someone who was removed, but comes back in a later edition, will be put. 

Removed Characters: Where people who *were* in a previous iteration, but taken out of the current one. 

Comments: Odd commentary. (This tends to increase as the series goes on, as there's more to explain.) 

Also some notes: I WILL be counting like, everyone in the rosters-bosses, EX characters, and so on. Orochi versions of the Orochi characters will also be counted. I will also be using completed rosters in the case of games with DLC or console upgrades, but I will specify this in them. 

Finally, while I tried to be as accurate as humanly possible-as one person can be-I am but one person and I may have missed a number or something here, so I ask forgiveness in advance. I checked and double checked these between games, wikis, and everything the best I could. 

So starting with KOF '94, known as the Rugal Saga. Yeah, it's just one game. 

Roster: 25(24+1 unplayable boss)

Established Characters: 14(Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai, Kim, Ryo, Robert, Yuri, King, Takuma, Athena, Kensou, Ralf, Clark)

New Characters: 11(Kyo Kusanagi, Benimaru Nikado, Goro Daimon, Heidern, Chang Koehan, Choi Bounge, Brian Battler, Lucky Glauber, Heavy D, Chin Gentsai, Rugal Bernstein)

Returning Characters: None

Removed Characters: None

Comments: Being the first game, there was a fairly nice load(11) of brand new characters to round things out. Several of these would move on to become regulars who never or rarely miss a game. Others...disappeared. Except for a couple Dream Matches. 

'95 begins what is known as The Orochi Saga. 

Roster: 26(24+2 Bosses). +1 from '94. 

Established Characters(22): Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai, Kim, Ryo, Robert, Yuri, King, Takuma, Athena, Kensou, Chin, Ralf, Clark, Heidern, Kyo, Benimaru, Daimon, Chang, Choi, Rugal

New Characters(4): Iori Yagami(New), Saisyu Kusanagi(Sub-Boss, New), Billy Kane(Fatal Fury), Eiji Kisaragi. 2 Brand New, 2 from other franchises. 

Returning Characters: None

Removed Characters: Lucky, Brian, Heavy

Comments: The first game of the series already sees some roster shake-ups. It introduced the legendary Iori Yagami into the series, but removed the Sports Team(who would go on to be the notorious bad-luck team of the series.) Rugal has a cyborg arm now. 

Roster: 29(27+2 Bosses.) +3 from '95. 

Established Characters(20):  Kyo, Benimaru, Daimon, Iori, Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai, Kim, Ryo, Robert, Yuri, King, Athena, Kensou, Chin, Ralf, Clark, Chang, Choi

New Characters(9): Leona Heidern, Kasumi Todoh(AoF), Mature, Vice, Geese Howard(Fatal Fury), Wolfgang Krauser(FF), Mr. Big(AoF), Chizuru Kagura, Goenitz. 5 New, 4 from other franchises. 

Returning Characters: None.

Removed Characters: Rugal, Saisyu, Billy, Eiji, Takuma, Heidern

Comments: As we once again see a roster jiggle, Billy and Eiji were beaten up by Iori, Saisyu sat out after some problems with the mind control, and Rugal exploded again. We see quite a few new characters enter, though; 9 this time, with five brand new ones. Chizuru is one of the '3 Sacred Treasures' along with Iori and Kyo. 

Roster: 36 Characters(35 Playable, 1 boss.) +7 from '96. 

Established Characters(22):  Kyo, Benimaru, Daimon, Iori, Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai, Kim, Ryo, Robert, Yuri, King,  Athena, Kensou, Chin, Ralf, Clark, Chang, Choi, Chizuru, Leona

New Characters(12): Shingo Yabuki, Yashiro Nanakase, Shermie, Chris, Ryuji Yamazaki(Fatal Fury), Blue Mary(FF) Orochi(Boss.) Also Orochi Leona and Orochi Iori make playable debuts; CYS have Orochi variants. 5 New,  2 from other franchises, 5 Orochi Variants. 

Returning Characters: Billy Kane(FF), '94 Kyo as an alternate

Removed Characters: Mature, Vice, Geese, Wolfgang, Mr. Big, Kasumi 

Comments: The grand finale of what is known as 'The Orochi Saga', this one had the biggest roster of the three so far, but once again, shifts. Mature and Vice were literally killed by Iori at the end of '96, while some others stepped out and, once again, we saw some more introduced. The Orochi Saga is oft seen as one of the best overall stories of the KOF series. Because Iori murdered his other two teammates in the last tournament, he enters this one alone. 

This roster has some oddities as there are 'Orochi' versions of the characters, and '94 versions of Kyo, for another alternate version of a character. Oddly, they shoved Chiz on the Women's Team instead of actually making up the 3 Sacred Treasures, but that may have been because Shingo was new, and was not established enough to replace Kyo on Japan Team yet. 

DREAM MATCH! This is the first Dream Match of the series, and thus does not follow a story. Dead characters are allowed in DMs since they take place outside of any storylines. 

Roster: 51 Characters(including all EX/Orochi versions and stuff). 59 Characters in '98 UMFE. 

Established Characters: Everyone

New Characters: None

Returning Characters: Almost Everyone who was missing

Removed Characters: None

Comments: Because Dream Matches are basically Everyone Is Here(or close to it), I'm not doing these in a traditional way so much as I am just listing the roster counts and everything. This was the first DM; '98 and 2k2 were both Dream Matches. Ash Saga never got a proper dream match(grr.) '98UMFE saw a few more characters added back in including Orochi, Goenitz and some others. 

Back to the series!

'99 begins what is known as the NESTS Saga. 

Roster: 33 Characters(32+1 Boss). -3 from '97. 

Established Characters(20): Benimaru, Shingo, Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai, Ryo, Robert, Yuri, Leona, Ralf, Clark, Athena, Kensou, Chin, King, Blue Mary, Kim, Chang, Choi

New Characters(9): K', Maxima, Whip, Bao, Li Xiangfei(Fatal Fury), Jhun Hoon, Kyo-1, Kyo-2(these are Kyo clones), Krizalid(Boss). 8 New(counting the 2 Kyo clones), 1 from another franchise.

Returning Characters: Kasumi, Takuma

Removed Characters:  Daimon, Yashiro, Shermie, Chris, Orochi, Chizuru, Billy, Yamazaki, Orochi Variants

Comments: '99 changed things up. 4 person teams, with a designated 'Striker', and some new systems. Being the first game of the series, the roster dialed back a bit from '97(the DMs are counted separately), despite having a slew of new characters added. Any removed characters are from '97. As we see, this 1st game of a new arc had 3 less characters than the previous arc. 

Roster: 36(35+1 Boss.) +3 from '99.

Established Characters(29): Iori, Kyo, Benimaru, Shingo, K', Maxima, Terry, Andy, Joe, Blue Mary, Ryo, Robert, King, Takuma, Leona, Ralf, Clark, Whip, Athena, Kensou, Chin, Bao, Mai, Yuri, Kasumi, Kim, Chang, Choi, Jhun

New Characters(7, all new): Ramon, Vanessa, Lin, Seth, Hinako Shijou, Kula Diamond, Clone Zero(Boss). 

Returning Characters: None

Removed Characters: Krizalid, Kyo-1, Kyo-2

Comments: I do not list non-playable strikers in this. This game interestingly enough was the first whose new characters are all originals(since '94, that is, which was sort of different circumstances); most other games had some originals and at least one or two who came from established SNK series. This also has the four-person teams. 2000 saw many strikers that were previously playable characters-like Chris, Daimon, and so on, as well as some new characters. (They still were not playable.) 

2000 also may be one of the KOFs with the least overall changes between two games. Besides the 7 new characters, the only ones removed from '99 were Krizalid, who was the boss, and the Kyo clones. It basically took what there was, added some new, and went on. The NESTS rosters were daring enough, but still were packed with favorites in general. 

Roster: 42(40+2 Bosses.) +6 from '00. 

Established Characters(34): K', Maxima, Whip, Lin, Kyo, Benimaru, Shingo, Iori, Vanessa, Seth, Ramon, Terry, Andy, Joe, Blue Mary, Ryo, Robert, Yuri, Takuma, Leona, Ralf, Clark, Athena, Kensou, Chin, Bao, King, Mai, Hinako, Xiangfei, Kim, Chang, Choi, Kula

New Characters(6, all new): May Lee Jinju, Foxy, K9999, Angel, Zero(Sub Boss), Igniz(Boss.) 

Returning Characters: Heidern, Daimon

Removed Characters: Jhun, Kasumi, Clone Zero

Comments: Once again the new characters are all originals. There are a couple of sit outs this time(Jhun due to a broken...arm, and Kasumi again. Clone Zero was ventilated before getting a colony dropped on him.) Iori teams up with the Agents this time(he's not particularly tied to teams.) This was the first, and only, appearance of K9999; he was retconned out of the actual story. 2001 basically did what the others did of the past time; it took what there was and mostly built up on it, removing very few from a previous game of an arc. 

This game closed off the 'NESTS Saga.' 

DREAM MATCH again! The second Dream Match had a ton of characters; 2002UM still has the largest roster of any KOF game. There IS a bit of difference with this than '98's DM, though. 

Roster: 49(66 in 2002UM.) 2k2UM remains the biggest roster, as said. 

Established Characters: Everyone. That said, 2k2UM added in even more characters who was missing. 

New Characters: Kusanagi, Nameless

Returning Characters: Almost Everyone who was missing(pretty much everyone in 2k2UM.)

Removed Characters: K9999

Comments: Unlike '98, there are new characters. Kusanagi was created as another Kyo clone(he will come back later), K9999 was retconned out, and replaced with Nameless, a new NESTS test subject(despite the fact 2k2 UM still misses a proper story, Nameless has a story. Basically, Nameless' story was put in instead of K9999's in the previous NESTS plot.) There are also EX/Classic versions of characters. 

K999 marks the first and only time a character was ever completely retconned out of the series after their release. Retcons have happened in the series, but it was never to completely retroactively remove a character. 

Now we're heading back to the series proper! 

2003 starts what is known as Tales of Ash/The Ash Saga. 

Roster: 37(32+5 Bosses). -5 from '01. 

Established Characters(23): Terry, Joe, Ryo, Robert, Yuri, Leona, Ralf, Clark, King, Mai, Blue Mary, Kim, Chang, Benimaru, Daimon, Shingo, Athena, Hinako, Kyo, Iori, K', Maxima, Whip

New Characters(9): Ash Crimson, Duo Lon, Shen Woo, Tizoc/Griffon(Garou), Gato(Garou), Malin, Maki Kagura(Sub-Boss), Adelheid Bernstein(Boss), Mukai(Boss). 6 New, 3 from other games in a way(Maki first appeared in KOF '96 in a way, though not...in a tradtitional manner. See comments.)

Returning Characters: Jhun, Yamazaki, Billy, Kusanagi(as canon from a DM, Sub Boss), Chizuru(Unlockable)

Removed Characters: Vanessa, Ramon, Lin, Seth, Xiangfei, Kensou, Bao, Chin, Andy, Choi, May Lee, Foxy, Angel, Heidern, Zero, Igniz, Kula, Takuma

Comments: Now this game saw some changes. Some very big roster shifts, a bit of a drop in characters(again, in between arcs tend to dial a bit back before the arcs themselves USUALLY increase...see later, however). 2k3 also had a very interesting plot twist in where the apparent hero-Ash-seems to almost be a villain? But then the son of one of the most established classic baddies turns out to be pretty cool; in fact developers stated Adelheid was intended to be the 'other protagonist' of this saga despite starting out as a boss.

Maki is actually an illusion(she is dead before this game.) The reason why she's New with a note is that she is implied to be an illusion fought instead of Chizuru if the 3 Sacred Treasures are chosen in '96, but cannot be picked normally. This is ALSO a KOF that has legit two canon boss paths in the lore. 

This game also was the first KOF game to be a 'Live Tag' game rather than a traditional 3v3 game. This would go on for one more game after this. It ALSO really started shifting team comps around again('99 did this some, but then re-established lines somewhat.) 

FINALLY(yeah 2k3 has a lot of notes), as you see several usuals sat this one out, like Andy, Kensou, Chin, and so on, and there was a fairly large removal(though only five less than '01.)

Roster: 47(45+2 Bosses). +10 from '03. (46 without EX Kyo.)

Established Characters(25): Ash, Shen, Duo Lon, Benimaru, Terry, Kim, Ryo, Yuri, King, Ralf, Clark, Whip, Athena, Tizoc, Gato, Kyo, Iori, Blue Mary, Shingo, Adelheid, Robert, Mai, Malin, K', Maxima

New Characters(13-14): Oswald, Elisabeth Blantorche, Duck King(Fatal Fury), Momoko, B, Jenet(Garou), Sho Hayate(Savage Reign), Jyazu(Savage Reign), Gai Tendo(Buriki One), Silber(Buriki One) Shion(Boss), Magaki(Boss). Tung Fu Rue(Fatal Fury), Hotaru(Garou). (EX Kyo Kusanagi is technically added too, for 14 if we want to be technical.) 5 New, 8 from other games, and EX Kyo.

Returning Characters: Eiji Kisaragi, Kasumi Todoh, Kensou, Ramon, Vanessa, Kula, Geese, Mr. Big 

Removed Characters: Hinako, Chang, Kusanagi, Chizuru, Maki, Joe

Comments: XI was one the current biggest roster gain between two games in the same arc(not between two non DM games, that comes later), with a full 10 higher. Refining 2k3's tag system, there were some adjustments(like Adelheid being balanced to become playable), and some team adjustments(like Fatal Fury being considerably different with Terry, Kim, and Duck King.) 

XI's roster is sometimes seen as one of the more daring, and fun, rosters in the series; keeping many classics while going around to some other, non Fatal Fury series again, like Buriki One and Savage Reign, also returning some long-time missing characters like Eiji Kisaragi in a canon entry. 

There's also a huge amount of new additions to the roster; however, only five of them are genuinely *new* characters, as the rest of these all come from other titles, and some of these had yet to appear.

(There is now an interruption in the Ash Saga with KOF XII.)

I hesitate to use the term 'Dream Match.' More like a Nightmare Match.(But this isn't a review, it's a data-drop blog. Heh.)

Roster: 22

Established Characters: Not too many from the old(again, this is a non canon game). Will show below for XIII. 

New Characters: Not Canon(Will show below for XIII.)

Returning Characters: Not Canon(will show below for XIII.) 

Removed Characters: Like everyone. 

Comments: This in no way was canon; at best it felt like an incomplete demo of a game. They made the swap to sprites here that would go on to basically almost bankrupt the company, cause them to cut the Ash Saga short, and we never did get a proper Dream Match for it. I could go on a Festivus-style rant about the damn sprites and what happened here. Suffice it to say this remains the KOF with the smallest, weakest roster in the series. It brought back a few usuals, but dropped so many cool characters. Including like, SUPER regulars. To the point where I don't even count this as a game when keeping track of people who missed games. It didn't even have Mai. It gave nothing and started to bankrupt the company. 

Critical Counters were kinda neat, and Claw Iori IS possibly one of his coolest iterations, but these were NOT WORTH the cost. 

Roster: 37(36+1 Boss, includes DLC.) -10 from XI. This is the biggest drop yet, and the ONLY in-arc drop. 

Established Characters(From XI, 22, counting Kyo/Iori variants): Elisabeth, Duo Lon, Shen, Kyo(Regular and NESTS, latter DLC), Iori(Claw and EX, latter DLC), Benimaru, Ryo, Yuri, King, Robert, Mai, Kensou, Athena, Kim, K', Kula, Maxima, Ralf, Clark, Ash

New Characters(4): Hwa Jai(Fatal Fury), Saiki, Raiden(appeared in XII but wasn't canon, FF), Mr. Karate(AoF, as DLC.) 1 New, 3 Established. (This is the fewest amount of new characters an arc has seen.) 

Returning Characters(Counting from XI): Leona, Chin, Andy, Joe, Chin, Mature, Vice, Daimon, Takuma

Removed Characters(Counting from XI): Shion, Magaki, B. Jenet, Gato, Momoko, Duck King, Gai, Silber, Jyazu, Hayate, Eiji, Oswald, Tizoc, Ramon, Blue Mary, Kasumi, Malin, Whip, Shingo, Adelheid, Tung, Hotaru, Geese, Mr. Big. (Adelheid, the Agents, and the missing Ikari Warriors appeared in the story mode; Adelheid and Heidern were working together, and the Ikaris were working with the Agents.)

Comments: Ash Saga was a mess development wise; as said, it almost sunk the company. They had to cut several characters, and the game had never seen a regression in roster numbers *within an arc* before now. (Rosters can shrink a little bit between arcs-like between, say, '97 and '99 and so on, but this was the first time it shrank *in* an arc.) A lot of plot points got hurried(Adelheid, despite being named as the co/'other' protagonist from Word of God, was shoved in the story mode to work with Heidern due to them having to cut him from being playable), a lot of unused sprites and art appeared, characters lost moves in the sprite games. It does remain a fav of many, but it was definitely disappointing in terms of having to shrink everything. It sort of 'broke records' in terms of drops-the fewest new characters(only 1 brand new one), and a whopping *24 removed characters*, beating the previously 'removed' record by 6. 

Funny enough, Mature and Vice make a canon entrance again; as literal ghosts who take solid form when they want. (This was probably the first time they started saying to hell with deaths in the canon, so there IS that.) 

KOF XIV started what doesn't have an official name yet, but the Verse Saga seems to be appropriate.

Roster: 58 including DLC. 2 Bosses but they're on the normal roster and balanced with everyone else. +21 from XIII; this IS the first gain in between arcs. 

Established Characters(24): Kyo, Iori, Benimaru, Daimon, Athena, Kensou, Chin, Mature, Vice, Robert, Ryo, Yuri, Terry, Andy, Joe, K', Kula, Maxima, Kim, Ralf, Clark, Leona, Mai, King

New Characters(20): Shun'ei, Gang-Il, Luong, Xanadu, Sylvie Paula Paula, Kukri, Mian, Hein, Meitenkun, Nakoruru(Samurai Shodown, appeared in a Game Boy title once), Mui Mui(Pachislot), Love Heart(Pachislot), Alice(Pachislot), Nelson, Zarina, Banderias, Antonov, Verse(Boss), Najd(DLC), Rock Howard(Garou, DLC). 15 New, 5 from other franchises/things. 

Returning Characters: Oswald, Vanessa, Blue Mary, Heidern, Whip, Yamazaki(all as DLC), Tung Fue Rue, Chang, Choi, Ramon, Angel, King of Dinosaurs(Tizoc's rudo persona), Geese, Billy

Removed Characters: Ash, Elisabeth, Duo Lon, Shen, Saiki, Raiden, Hwa Jai, Takuma, Mr. Karate 

Comments: Well XIV DOES have the largest non Dream Match roster of all(hell, it's got one of the biggest overall rosters, too.) That said the roster has a bit of a...mixed feel. Shun'ei wasn't named as the main protagonist until recently for KOF XV, so the roster didn't seem to have too much overall direction. It was a strange mix of 'Completely Safe/Established' and 'Weird new characters who had no direction except for a few.' It did bring back several who sat out the rest of Ash Saga due to the heavy cuts. It DID, however, bring back some favs(Geese, Vanessa, etc) and introduced a much-requested character(Rock Howard.) 

Oddly enough, the only Ash Saga character to make it back was Oswald, and that was as DLC; this is not common in the series, and no one knows why that is. Usually you see at least a handful of new additions from a previous series make it into the new arc; examples being Iori, Leona, and Shingo carrying over from Orochi Saga to NESTS, K', Kula, Maxima, and Whip carrying over into Ash(and most of these characters carrying into later series.) We have yet to see where XV goes; the story seems to be pointing at the Ash Saga characters making a return, though. 

XIV had the largest amount of new characters than any series; a whopping 20, with 15 of them being BRAND new, 1 from Samsho, 1 from Garou and 3 from Pachislot games. (Note: Love Heart and Mui Mui are now defunct characters, so SNK no longer uses them.) 

And next up...

TO BE CONTINUED...

For a Quick-List: 

94: 25

95: 26

96: 29

97: 35

'98: 51

'98UMFE: 59

99: 33

00: 36

01: 42

2k2: 49

2k2UM: 66

03: 37

XI: 47

XII: 22

XIII: 38(3 DLC)

XIV: 58(2 DLC Seasons)

So I hope you enjoyed this slightly rambly info dump. It's interesting to see how the roster has changed over the years, for better or worse. I will always feel the foray into sprites was a dark time for the series(besides the cuts, the lost moves...aworst of all it almost BANKRUPTED THE COMPANY. That's worse than any damn cuts.) 

It's cool to see, I think, how things shift/change, even if we don't know all the reasonings(like, WHY exactly did they try to cram so many new faces into XIV compared to other games-new faces who never really landed with a lot of people-when there were a ton of previous characters who were well-liked who didn't get a lot of time?) Generally speaking new games would see a more reasonable 5-7 brand new ones, which would generally get more coverage. It's also neat, I think, to see who the regulars are, and who sits out sometimes/has sat out sometimes(could give some hints to the future.) 

I've said before, my personal favorite roster is XI; even if I don't necessarily think it's the current objective best(which I consider 2k2 UM to be, just from sheer volume), XI is the only KOF game right now I can play my favorite team legally in(Iori, Ralf, and Adelheid.) Everyone looks for different things in rosters, I feel; we all want our favorite teams, after all. 

Here's hoping XV knocks it out of the park with the best roster yet, eh? Could we see one that beats XIV in size and some of the more treasured rosters in sheer quality? Like while it's impossible to please *everyone*, they manage to come across a roster that appeals to a big ol' swath of the crowd, at least? They did say to "fire up those dream rosters..."

But wait! 

A BONUS SECTION! 

A list of characters are here who either:

A. Have never missed a game, or:

B. Have only missed a single game in the series since their release.

I AM NOT COUNTING KOF XII IN THIS. XII was, IMHO, an unfinished demo of a game that didn't even have *teams*, wasn't canon, and was more of a proof of concept. 

Missed ZERO games since their playable introduction: 

Kyo

Iori

Benimaru

Ralf

Clark

Robert*(Starred, since he sat out the arcade XI, but was introduced into the console version, and since I count those as the complete versions he goes here)

Mai*(Same as Robert, so half/half)

Maxima

K’

Kim

Terry

Yuri

King

Ryo

Athena

Missed ONE game since introduction(I point out potential XIII character cuts; the only KNOWN confirmed cut from XIII was Adelheid but there is a fairly substantial list of ‘rumored to have been cut’.)

Kula(2003)

Leona(XI)

Oswald(DLC in XIV, introduced in XI and skipped XIII. Possibly another victim of the XIII character cuts.) 

Duo Lon(XIV)

Elisabeth(XIV)

Shen(XIV)

Whip(XIII, another possible victim of character cuts. DLC in XIV.)

Joe(XI)

Kensou(2003)

Blue Mary(XIII, yet another potential cut victim. She was DLC in XIV.) 

Just some nice to knows. All other characters that had been introduced have missed more than one game so far.

(As an aside, I think the only genuinely safe characters are probably in that top spot, though I DO think some from the bottom set are very safe going forward; Kula, Leona, Kensou, Whip, and Joe mostly.)

And that's about it for now! I'm working now on a sort of prediction list that I'll post up to see how wrong or right I am. I'll be writing up my whys behind things and everything.

Virtua Fighter discussion and resources

So yeah, I decided: in a small hope that we'll hear Sega announce something to do with Virtua Fighter 6 this year(or even like, 5 Final Showdown Supreme Evolution featuring Shenmue's Ryo as the new character, fuck, I'll take it), that maybe in an attempt to coerce some new players into trying it out, I'd assemble a blog of good online resources to get you started, and then drop a few of my own, personal tips(which won't be as good as the online resources, but I figure I should at least attempt to.)

First to clear up a myth of Virtua Fighter.

Myth: Virtua Fighter is SUPER HARD to get into.

Reality: Virtua Fighter, at a high level of play, has a lot of demanding knowledge, but is NOT hard to get into. Its raw execution level is surprisingly low compared to many other fighters like Tekken, Guilty Gear, Blazblue, or sometimes even Street Fighter, depending on the version.

Most of VF's difficulty comes after you've passed over the early and into the intermediate threshold and need to learn the matchups, since it is fairly important you learn matchups.

There are some tougher characters. Akira is one of the more demanding characters of the game, and Eileen is also more advanced there due to hit-checks. Vanessa is a stance based character whose stances work differently than most(rather than a typical one who often has a core stance and set of moves, and then stances that flow into one another, her movelist is literally split between two stances), and there are other characters with their nuances, but there are a slew of characters who are fairly simple to get into(Jeffry, Jean, Goh, Lau, and some others.)

I really don't know where the myth came from that the game is hard; It may have stuck from the old days, when, if I think it over, it may have been one of the more demanding games compared to what else was out at the time, and it never lost that stigma. Ring outs may add to it, but Soul Edge/Blade/Calibur had ring-outs and was fairly popular in its heyday(before they broke it. :P)

Another cool thing is that stuff just works in VF like it says it does. Circulars are always tracking. Half circulars always track to one side. Evading a move means it's evaded properly, failing an evade means it fails. There are a few combos that have some character nuances, of course(Taka-Arashi comes to mind), but the game's rules are pretty strict, so you really don't run into things like 'random crushing' or 'random low profiling'. You can never be thrown out of attacks(intended.)

Basic movement is easy to grasp. While in Tekken, as much as it's one of my top 3 franchises, even learning basic movement can be a bear for a new player(it's easier now), in VF, there are some advanced movement tricks, but you'll be fairly cozy right off the bat.

Finally, the VF4 Evolution has what is seen as one of the top 3 training modes/tutorial modes of all time in a fighting game(unfortunately, VF5 FS has more of a standard tutorial/dojo, but it's still pretty good and takes you through enough motions). While I'd suggest FS as the one to play(it's my personal favorite, though some name 4 Evo as the pinnacle which is understandable), I'd highly suggest getting ahold of Evo as well.

But yeah, it got the stigma, it stuck, and it's a reason I think it gets passed over.

I think another thing that got people to pass it over was that it's a fighting game light on flash and story. While it has some great character designs(I to this day think Goh, Brad and Jean are fantastic visual designs and Jacky 'Billy Idol' Bryant is a classic), great looking stages, and some really good looking moves that come from a wide variety of styles, some of which don't even get represented often(Mantis Kung-Fu rarely appears in fighting games, Jacky and Sarah's Jeet Kune Do is NOT a Bruce-Lee ripoff variant, and Brad Burns is, for my money, the best example of a Muay Thai character you will ever find in a fighting game) it lacks any sort of super/specials/meter, flash, and again, story. Also, the fact that weight classes exist sometimes throws people off; while these aren't new in games(Guilty Gear has them in a sense, Tekken has not weights but combo variants on characters of different sizes), weight plays into things a bit heavier; heavy characters have less damage done to them in combos than lighter(this does not mean lighter is worse; indeed, Lion is frightening in VF5FS.)

Story? Mattering in a fighting game?

Yeah, nowadays especially, but even back then a bit, story and flash DOES entice people to play, particularly more casual players(who can 'level up' to beginners who then level up to rookies, to intermediate players, etc), or just players who like a whole thing; I mean, there are a lot of players I know who play, say, Guilty Gear or Tekken competitively and also enjoy the story.

There was a long time where I felt it didn't matter, and even liked VF's light story touch. And hell, in ways, I still do. The gist is:

Tournament is held, turns out by an organization called Judgement 6, or J6, which is actually six heads of six different global megacorporations, all who have their hands in stuff like weapons manufacturing, terrorism, chemical weapons, human weapons, overall global domination, and so on. Despite it taking place in 'modern' times it's a kinda cyberpunkish story.

So everyone basically gets involved for varied reasons which can be boiled down to a couple to a few paragraphs each. It's really not much. You don't get fancy endings or cutscenes, you don't get story modes. And yeah, again, I feel that nowadays maybe this did trim off some of the potential playerbase. Here's hoping that maybe for the hypothetical VF6-if they go with this method-that people will be able to look past it, but if SFV is any indication, yeah, more 'light' players like this stuff.

“So, okay, I kinda want to try this Virtua Fighter game, where do I start?”

Well, for starters, you can grab VF5FS over on the PS3. It's not terribly expensive, currently around 25e for the complete edition, including custom packs. If you want the Supreme Training/Tutorial Mode(with the caveat that there are some mechanical differences between games) that VF4 EVO has to offer, you can get that for around 10e(or whatever equivalent currency you use, of course.) VF5 is where you'll find the most players.

A fantastic tutorial video right here: https://youtu.be/boM7T3BWewY While it's a good 2h 40m+ long, it has a crapload of info that will get you into the game. It is timestamped for easy watching, so you can come and go from it. Highly suggested.

Virtuafighter.com 's forums have a plethora of information as well, like:

-A 5 steps deal here: https://virtuafighter.com/threads/5-steps-to-learning-virtua-fighter.15813/

-A character list with some description, strengths and weaknesses: https://virtuafighter.com/threads/character-playstyles-how-to-pick-right-char-for-u.15847/

-And just for simplicity's sake, a link to the whole forum: https://virtuafighter.com/forums/

There are some recent posts, too, that one can utilize to find games and such.

For community matters, while it's slow moving, the VF Reddit is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/virtuafighter/ (and it's a good reddit too, for those a bit wary of the site.) As said, also see above with virtuafighter.com.

The Wiki is here for those who want some info on the more world-oriented stuff: http://virtuafighter.wikia.com/wiki/Virtua_Fighter_Wiki

Finally: I have my OWN little personal tips to folks who are looking to get into it! Note I'm like not an expert at the game, like most fighters I'm more an intermediate type, but...

-Pick who you like at the end of the day, BUT perhaps consider starting out with a slightly heavier character. Heavier characters are less vulnerable to certain combos, and it could well give you a little leeway at the start. This is, again, by no means a requirement-if El Blaze is a favorite of yours(one of the two Ultra Light characters), than by all means give him a whirl! But for the heavier types, Taka-Arashi is a super-heavyweight, and then you have heavies Wolf and Jeffry, followed by Jean, Jacky, and Akira, as 'heavy middleweights.' Out of all of these, Jean, Jeffry, and Jacky are all fairly forgiving to learn at first(Akira being probably the hardest in the game, but again, don't let this dissuade you if that's what you want. I should note Jacky is generally simple however has a couple of bits that can be difficult for newer players.

Middleweight characters are fairly numerous, including Goh, Brad, Lei Fei, Kage, and Lau.

-There are a small series of moves that you can learn with almost anyone to get you started. P, PP, P 6P, 2P, a couple of throws to mix up(forward, back, neutral), a low or two from your chosen character, a common string(character dependent) and a circular/couple of half circulars(one in each direction.) You can start learning the super-basics with this as you go through tutorials, experiment with the move lists, and so on. This list is only partially character specific(everyone has a jab, f, b, and n throws and so on), making it even simpler.

-At first, don't worry too super-hard about character specific combos or even weight specific(with an exception). Some of those nifty guides over on virtuafighter.com have them listed fairly simply in a 'Vs. Taka' and 'Vs. Anyone Except Taka' method. Again that's a great place to go, and you'll worry more about optimizing combos vs. lighter characters(who can take more damage) later on. Take it step by step, you won't be doing mad juggles at first anyway.

-TRY THE GAME AND HAVE FUN

Anyway let's hope we hear some more on Sega at some point. This game still has a community and a following; let's keep it going and maybe even get some new blood involved!