The finale starts after you fight K's team (that is unless you're playing as K's team, in which case it's just a random team) in a sewer arena that eventually turns into an elevator going down into some sort of industrial complex.
After your victory, the team is cut off from the observers, and the lift keeps doing down until the team reaches a door.
Since there's no other way out, they have to open it, and when the team does, they're confronted by some white-haired goth in a dark turtlenecked trenchcoat. This being King of Fighters, he naturally just up and attacks you without a word.
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| That's the player team talking. Not him. |
The fight with the mysterious figure takes place in a very strangely designed arena. You fight on a platform in what appears to be the inside of a computer, and in the background on another platform there's a holographic projector and two pillars with all manner of gadgetry and wires attached to it. It's detailed, but not excessively so, and the distance from the main platform gives the stage depth.
The man himself (named Krizalid, as you can tell by the health bar) is actually one of the easier fights in the series if you're not reckless. All he does is throw fireballs and use basic attacks. That's really it. The fireballs do a lot of damage if you aren't guarding, but they go slow enough to make blocking a breeze.
It's not that this boss fight is disappointing. The game is just taking it a little easy for once. It's a warm-up, and the music of the fight reflects that, as at first it doesn't sound like music. It's almost entirely computer noises, fitting the stage. Once it gets going, however, it has a simple beat for the slower pace.
After savagely beating his strappy arse, the computers say that a download is complete. The man identifies himself as Krizalid, and demonstrates his evil plan to take over the world with an army of clones of Kyo Kusanagi, the winner of the first 4 KOF tournaments.
That is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard! From what you can tell from the cutscenes, these clones are unarmed! True, Kyo is extremely skilled and strong in a hand-to-hand fight, but against a real army with real bullets, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be able to take a single country let alone the entire world! Especially with only a few dozen, or a hundred of them at best. Hell, Ralph Jones tears down more armed forces than that in the Metal Slug series!
But it gets better. Krizalid tells the team that his suit sent battle data to his organization and to the clones. Now, all the clones need is the killer instinct to activate them, and apparently another fight with Krizalid will give it to them through his suit.
But that raises the question of why they sent the clones out when they weren't done!
I could go on about the logical fallacies in this positively ludicrous plan, but the player gets far bigger things to worry about.
His suit spontaneously combusts and, for lack of a better term, shite gets real!
Krizalid gains an entirely new moveset utilizing all manner of techniques. Jumping slashes, counterattacks, grab moves, and streaks of fire are all in his repertoire now. But worst of them all is the dreaded typhoon kick. He spams the typhoon kick (though he calls it out as "tornadis!") with absolute priority. Jumping over it is almost impossible, so you have to just sit there and take it.
The music is perfect for this situation, invoking pressure and difficulty with its fast pace, with its computer-sounding ensemble to back it up.
To make matters worse, his AI is incredible. He will counteract your every move. You can't jump because the typhoon kick is too high. You can't approach him because the typhoon is too fast. You can't attack him because he'll counter your attack and punch you across the screen. You can't even go near him because he'll just grab you and slam you against the floor with the kind of quickness only a cheating AI could pull off!
To make matters even worse, you can't take your continue bonus with you to the second fight. Ordinarily, you have the option to give yourself a handicap, like giving the boss only a third of his health. That works on his jacketed form, but you have to fight both versions of him in a row.
But it gets worse! Not only do you not get any bonuses for the second fight, but if you lost any teammates in the first one, you aren't getting them back!
And so, the game ends with the player getting every one of his teammates punched around the room. Time and time again they try, but they never win, and Krizalid pounds them into jelly. Eventually, the player rage quits, Krizalid wins.
I assume the army gunned down the unarmed Kyo clones with a fraction of its military and saved the day.
Krizalid CAN'T be this strong as you said.Certainly there has to be some AI loopholes that you can exploit,right?
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