The Insane History Of THE KING OF FIGHTERS '95 - Enter Iori Yagami

yeah the King of Fighters 94 has proved to SNK that the new 3 versus 3 crossover Series has the potential to not only stand on its own among the fighting games Giants but to surpass them as both the arcade and Neo geoh home versions of the game were a huge hit for the company both critically and financially the Kingo Fighters 94 developers team which was seen as the Underdog team within SNK and had previously endured a harsh and stressful development cycle which included many project cancellation threats has now become the most Tred of the company's internal teams as SNK decided to capitalize on the success and made the King of Fighters a new flagship series [Music] okay the success of the King of Fighters 94 was so disruptive that SNK moved to prioritize the new team versus Team game sequel over other titles and quickly green lit the sequel to The King of Fighters 94 because kof94 was supposed to be a oneoff the company hesitated on the sequel's title but ultimately they decided to make this new very lucrative series a yearly event and the title The King of Fighters 95 was chosen the King of Fighters snk's goal for the King of Fighters sequel was simple take what worked on the previous title and make it better initially due to the excitement from the great reception that the King of Fighters 94 received the King of Fighters development team wanted to redraw all the Sprites and start from scratch for this new chapter the team started drawing in new Sprites with better animation and more details but then quickly realized that this very ambitious approach would not allow them to release the game by the agreed deadline Instead The King of Fighters 95 team decided to take a more realistic and sustainable approach of reusing the assets from the King of Fighters 94 and slightly retouching them the plans for the new Sprites would be put aside to be used for at the time the entitled second sequel one area where SNK changed course at the last minute during the King of Fighters 94 was its lore the game's original story was very basic and was not to be taken seriously but that all changed before the original game release when the protagonist of the series design and name were changed from show to Kio kusanagi the kusanagi family name has ties to the fame Japanese Fork Clore story of yamat no Orochi the yamatanoorochi folklore is a famous tale that is integral to Japanese mythology particularly in the Shinto tradition the story is about a fearsome eight-headed and eight- tailed Dragon called yamat oroi which had an enormous body that stretched over eight valleys and eight Hills every year this monstrous creature demanded the sacrifice of a young Maiden from the nearby Village the story is Clos associated with the deity of susano the Shinto god of the sea and storms who in the tale used the famed kusanagi no tsurugi sword to slay the demon the kasagi sword is one of the three Imperial regalia of Japan which are highly revered symbols of the Japanese Imperial family's legitimacy and Authority the other two are the yasakani Jewel and the yata mirror these regalia also known as the three sac Treasures of Japan play a crucial role in Japanese mythology and the enthronement ceremonies of the Japanese emperor SNK decided to fuse the yamat oroi folklore story with that of the three sacred treasures and thus a long running Narrative of the series was born game director masanori kasasi was the one responsible for coming up with the plot of what we now know as The oroi Saga he decided to to make oroi as a deity that sees itself as the spirit of the earth and could no longer tolerate human civilization's expansion at the expense of nature 18800 years ago Orochi decides to destroy the human race once and for all the demon gathered a large following in the form of a clan the eight strongest Warriors of this clan are known as the hesu Orochi decided to use the powers of nature to wipe Humanity from existence the heshu and the human race waged countless Wars until the leaders of three Japanese Clans the kusanagi the As sakani and the yata defeated the demon with the three mystical Treasures the kusanagi sword the as sakani Jewel and the yata mirror the oroi was defeated but not vanquished as the spirit of the Earth the demon could never be fully killed so the three Clans decided to use their three mystical Treasures to seal Orochi in a suspended State the second part of the story takes place 660 years before the events of the King of Fighters 94 centuries after being defeated and sealed the Seal of Orosi has started weakening the then leaders of the three sacred Clans the kusanagi yasakani and yata decided to move the seal to a hidden location wanting to disrupt their Unity One of the clan members that worships oroshi killed the yakan leader's wife and blamed it on the kusanagi clan angered by his loss yasakani made a blood pack with Orosi to gain the necessary means for Revenge the yasakani would then change their family named to Yaga and as a side effect to the oroi blood now running in their veins the once Crimson flames of the yasakani changed to a purple one while this was the full lore behind behind the King of Fighters 95 and two of its sequels the developer team decided to only reveal a little bit about the story through the game and hope that each new sequel will reveal more of the King of Fighters new [Music] tale cont [Music] cont the King of Fighters in terms of playable characters the new King of Fighters 95 kept most of the previous games roster except for the USA team SNK wanted to replace the sports team with a new one that would be important for the game's narrative introducing the non-conventional hero kok kusanagi in the King of Fighters 94 was very well received as the character quickly became a fan favorite as previously mentioned Kio was designed as a new type of hero unlike other series protagonists like Terry Bogard for fatal Fury Rios sakazaki for aut of fighting or capcom's very popular Ryu from Street Fighter 2 initially during the King of Fighters 94 Terry Bogard was the Rival of the new hero an idea seen in the box art of the King of Fighters 94 however kosan conventional and well-received design gave the King of Fighters Dev team the idea of introducing a brand new rival and one that can tie to the game's developing lore many designs were introduced and tried for the Rival character named eori Yagami before deciding on the final one SNK also wanted to make the character have a unique personality that would be apparent from his Sprite animations and voice acting since kusanagi from the kusanagi clan Sports a sun logo on the back of his jacket it was decided that Yori who was written as a member of the Yagami Clan would have a crescent moon design showcasing that rivalry not only between K and Yori but also the respective Clans once the iconic design for eori was locked work went into giving this new character a unique person ality unlike anything seen in a video game before iori's gameplay was created from the beginning to show his rude and violent personality while violent characters in video games were nothing new especially looking at other fighting games of the era like the then very popular Mortal Kombat 2 scorpion wins Flawless victory Yori Yagami and the King of Fighters 95 brought a new level of sadistic intensity and seen in games at the time the new character openly wished for his enemy's death using phrases Like Son meaning die as you are and nak sake sh which translates to cry scream and then die his unique moves in the game included grabbing and headbutting his opponents and setting them on fire fire while laughing at them and wishing them to die many of his attacks included clawing and his opponents while showing Delight in their pain all these elements combined to make Yori a unique character that will make his Mark in video game history it was important for SNK to get eori WR as the character was written to be an important part of the franchise's upcoming narrative iori's story was written to be both tragic and anti-heroic as The Last Descendant of the Yagami Clan Yori grew an orphan as the Orochi blood running through his veins causes the mother of each air to die in childbirth and the heir to die in his young age now that the main rival for the King of Fighters protagonist was ready the King of Fighters developers decided to make him part of a team that included other Rivals to exist characters Billy KH geiz Howard's right-and man from the Fatal Fury franchise was chosen as a rival for Terry Billy was considered to be part of an early version of the England team in the King of Fighters [Applause] [Music] 94 as for the third character SNK went with a Kisaragi a rival to riosa kazaki AG made his debut in the art of fighting two and was a fan favorite for both his ninja attire and unique skills thus the rival team was complete the rest of the cast from The King of Fighters 94 are all back a subtle change was also enacted when it comes to team names rather than representing countries like the previous game each team now has a unique name that fits its power narrative for example the Italy team of Terry Bogard Andy Bogard and Joe hiashi is now team fedal Fury while the China team is now team psycho soldiers this gave the characters more personalities and emphasized the importance of the narrative speaking of narrative all returning teams now have had the new story elements and developments more teams were planned for the sequel first was a boss team made of Gees Howard Wolf Gang krower and Mr Big The idea of the boss team would be used in the eventual sequel to The King of Fighters 95 another team that almost made the cut was a Samurai Showdown team made of haaru nakoruru and galford SNK really wanted to include characters from the very popular Samurai Showdown too but due to time constraints the team would be cut from the game many other original characters were planned and then abandoned like a traditional karate fighter a skater girl and what would be an early version of the character of Chris who will make his big debut in the King of Fighters 97 while the prise for the King of Fighters 95 characters were similar to '94 an incredible work was done on the stages as the new stage of the sequel were more vibrant colorful and had more Spectators keeping up with its prequel the King of Fighters 95 also had spectacular Sage intros having decided on The Narrative of the series SNK wanted to only plant seeds in the King of Fighters 95 rather than then reveal it all knowing that oroshi would be the big bad of the series masanori kasasi wanted to showcase the power of oroi and decided to bring back the big bat of the previous game rugal Bernstein as the boss for the King of Fighters 95 however this time instead of rugal looking into making Bronze Statues of his enemies he is now interested in the autoi power through a yet to be revealed backstory at the time this the sadistic arms dealer has tapped into a small amount of the power which then turned him into the terrifying Omega rugal the idea was to show how powerful oroi is since just with a tiny bit of the oroi power rugal becomes this insanely powerful version of himself while the team planned for rugal to be the final boss from the beginning of development ral's portrayal was debated at some point rugal would have been a fusion of the scrap boss team of geize Howard and krower another plan had rugal combined with his black panther ROM in the second round of the final match but that also was abandoned for the Omega rugal design speaking of bosses the King of Fighters 95 developers decided to add a sub boss to the new game kiuk kusanagi's father saishu who appeared at the end of the previous game in team Japan story initially the plan was for SAU to remain dead for the rest of the franchise but in the later stages of the game's development it was decided to make kio's father the sub boss a subplot of him being brainwashed by rugal secretary Vice was also introduced The King of Fighters 95 gameplay remained unchanged from the previous title but one major option was introduced when the kingle fighters 94 was released most reviewers complained about the inability for the player to make his own team so SNK decided to make team edit the major change for the game rather than be forced to pick a set team of three Fighters players can now make their team from any three fighters from The Game's roster [Music] surprisingly the option to edit the teams was ready in time for the King of Fighters 94 release however game producer Takashi nishiyama preferred to keep the option for an eventual sequel his reasoning was that if you have the ability to edit the teams from the first game the whole wait for a team-based fighter will be lost as people will focus on single Fighters rather than team of three the story of the King of Fighters 95 will go down as the true first chapter in The Game's detailed lore and sagas a year has passed since the King of Fighters 94 kyok kusanagi who had left Japan after the events of the King of Fighters 94 in order to train made his return to his home country and was greeted by his two friends and teammates Benny Maroni kaido and Goro diamon as the trio reunited a mysterious masked figure attacked the team after a fierce battle K Flames broke the asent mask and it was revealed to be mature rugal secretary the same person that guided the team last year to ral's Black Noah carrier matur then handed the trio the invitation to the new tournament the King of Fighters 95 the letter had the same mysterious R seal on it Kio Benny marun Goro wondered whether this means that rugal is still alive all the teams from the previous tournament received their invitation for the new King of Fighters including the American sports team but not for long as they were attacked by three other fighters who would defeat them and steal their King of Fighters invitation the attackers were Billy Khan rightand man to Southtown Crime Boss and previous King of Fighters organizer geize Howard a Kisaragi a mysterious ninja with a grudge against the kugan karate practitioners and finally EO Yagami the heir to the Yagami Clan formerly known as yasakani Yori wanted a chance to enter the tournament and kill kuk kusanagi as the two families have been at each other's throat since the oroi incident 660 years ago the American sports team losing the invitation would be the start of a running gag where the trio always gets beaten before the tournament and have their invitation stolen a few weeks before the game's release a location test for the King of Fighters 95 took place at the Neo geoland Game Center the reception was once again highly positive one key takeaway that SNK noticed from this planned test is the great appeal of the new character aori was the most used character during the test period giving the King of Fighters developers confidence in their design choice misses the King of Fighters 95 was released on July 25th 1995 on the Neo geio mvs arcade system a neoo as and CD version were released on September of the same year the king of fighter 95 also marks the first time the series is ported to home consoles first was the Sega Saturn version which was released on March 1996 this version came with both a CD and a Rome cartridge the bundled ROM cartridge contains the majority of the character animations it was the first video game to use a CD ROM and a ROM cartridge combination in tandem SNK King SNK a PlayStation version will was also released in Japan on June 96 followed by the North American version in August 1996 the European version of The King of Fighters 95 did not release until the following year in 1997 due to a European exclusive deal between Sega and SNK with the exception of the loading times which were miles better than the Neo gocd the King of Fighters 95 ports were very close in quality and almost identical to the Neo Geo version [Music] ah this was the first time homeports and arcade versions of SNK games were similar which showcased the power of the 32bit systems unlike the 16 bits era where compromises had to be made while the PlayStation and Saturn version of the Kango Fighters 95 were great ports it was another Port that actually was the highlight of the Kango Fighters 95 home releases Netto King of Fighters 95 a unique Port of kof95 on the Nintendo Game Boy handheld [Music] Takara the toy company turned game developer had already surprised everyone with great Neo Geo game Sports following their success with Samurai Showdown and fatal Fury 2 takaran SNK joined forces to release the first ever portable version of The King of Fighters much like the Fatal Fury 2 before net K f95 uses super deformed Sprites that retained all the moves from their Neo Geo counterpart due to memory constraints the game boy version of The King of Fighters 95 came with only 15 playable characters and only three stages with the exception of the rival team of Yori Ag and Billy all the remaining teams were not complete compared to the Neo versions however all the playable characters retained all their moves special and supers from the arcade version the game also included three hidden characters first was nakoruru from Samurai Showdown the character as we mentioned was supposed to be in the arcade version of the game in her own team but unfortunately was cut the other two hidden characters are the game bosses saishu kusanagi and Omega rugal all three characters were unlocked via special code the King of Fighters 95 on the Game Boy also allowed versus play via the Game Boy link or the super Game Boy and speaking of super Game Boy the game contains special backgrounds and colors when used in conjunction with the Super Nintendo Game Boy adapter similar to the previous game The King of Fighters 95 received rave reviews and a very positive critical reception in Japan the King of Fighters 95 was ranked second in popularity among arcade games in the September 1st 1995 issue of game machine magazine both the Neo Geo as and CD versions experienced robust sales computer and video game magazine lauded the King of Fighters 95 as possibly the best 2D fighting game ever created egm honored the game with the title of best Neo Geo game of 1995 the reviewers praised the ne geas version for surpassing its predecessor especially highlighting the new team edit feature game pro also favored this feature along with the introduction of the rival team and changes to the [Music] controls similar to the king of aage 94 there was unfortunately no anime adaptation of the King of Fighters 95 as far as manga adaptation no serious manga was released but similar to other games few Gap compilation mangas or coma mangas were available to coincide with the release of the King of Fighters 95 kof95 can today be played on many modern consoles thanks to the akano giio series of games available everywhere the game was also re-released as part of the Orochi Saga collection for the PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation Portable with the successful release of the king of Fire 95 SNK now knew they have created a robust new IP and with fans expecting a brand new title every year work on the sequel quickly started with the mindset of revamping everything graphics and gameplay join us next time as we take a deep look into the King of Fighters 96 I hope you guys enjoyed this video please leave a like as it really helps the channel and helps this video being shared by YouTube big shout out to the Channel's patrons and premium subscribers patreons and premium subscribers get early access to videos as well as exclusive goodies to become a patreon check the link in the description or if you want to become a premium subscriber click on the join button below this video now until next time thank you guys for watching

Channel: NeoGeoNow

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Keywords: snk, neogeo, neo geo, kof, the king of fighters, king of fighters, KOF 95 history5, fighting games evolution, SNK history, arcade classics, video game legacy, esports origins, competitive gaming history, game development stories, retro gaming, fighting game community, KOF series5, gaming industry history, iconic video games, team-based fighting, KOF esports, classic arcade games, gaming nostalgia, history of kof, kof history

Id: ojY3A2jpqDk

Length: 26min 54sec (1614 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 25 2024