In preparation for The King of Fighters XV, Youtube user NeogeoNow collaborated with SNK to create a trilogy of videos recapping the story of the games in the mainline KOF series, presumably to give possible newer players some background and older players a refresher.
The videos get the job done and the guy has played KOF even longer than I have so he knows what he’s talking about. That said, it’s clear that he was trying to be concise. Obviously he wasn’t going to go through every little plot thread, but even focusing on the important stuff he really sped through the story of those 10 games. As a result, I think there are points in the videos in which casual viewers not in the know might do a double take and/or there is some context that’s skipped over I feel is necessary to understand the story better. I also have a little criticism about the videos and some insights of my own, including a few parts in which I don’t want to claim the guy with decades of KOF experience working with the company itself is wrong, but it seems at odds with the official material.
I will go over NeogeoNow’s plot recap of each game from his videos in order. I won’t be going over every little thing, because they’re largely fine and the majority of my reaction is nodding my head saying “yep.” It’s not exactly bad enough to clown on. There are other videos for that.
When I reach a particular part in which I have something to say, the quotation will be highlighted in bold followed by my comment. Occasionally, such as for the first one, I will comment on certain parts wholesale instead of on a single line. I hope this will at least partially act as a little supplementary piece to his videos for more comprehension into the KOF story because I too love it and want people to enjoy it.
First is his video on the Orochi Saga.
KOF 94
His summary of the distant past with Orochi and KOF 94 doesn’t have a lot to elaborate on. The first game’s pretty straightforward. However, it’s worth mentioning that Rugal is a ruthless international arms dealer who killed Heidern’s men, wife and daughter as well as took Heidern’s eye. It doesn’t have a lot to do with the main plot, but I think at least some of that was worth mentioning to signal his plot significance and money, even in passing.
Furthermore, technically speaking, Black Noah and Sky Noah are never referred to with a “the” before them, even when the translations improved. Heidern’s aircraft carriers don’t use “the” either, which might mean that they’re supposed to be code names. I use “the” as well. I just thought that was worth pointing out.
KOF 95
“Their attackers were Billy Kane, Eiji Kisaragi and Iori Yagami.”
I want to point out that he pronounced Billy’s last name as “kahn” when, based on the English spelling, you’d think it’d be pronounced “cane.” He is actually right here. The pronounciation, according to the Japanese spelling, is indeed “kahn.” It doesn’t help the misconception that his last name is practically never spoken in voice. That’s not going to stop me from pronouncing it “cane” though. It just sounds right.
“As Kyo, Benimaru and Goro were waiting to be crowned as the victors, a mysterious gas filled their chamber and they all fell unconscious.”
This is one of the weirdest transitions in the franchise. What chamber? What the game shows is the screen fading to black and then the team getting gassed, which makes it look the cutscene is focusing on them and ignoring that they may well be in a wide open outdoor space to disperse the gas with spectators nearby to witness it happening. In the retelling in KOF: Allstar the team is on a transport to the finals before they’re gassed.
“It was revealed that Vice brainwashed the Kusanagi leader[…]”
Vice has brainwashing kisses. Apparently she had a hard time with Saisyu and she hates him now because of it.
I notice NGN cut out the infamous “I’ll be back… You jerks!” line when Rugal dies. Perfectly understandable since this is a straight-faced recap and that awful translation flub would ruin the mood as much as it did in the original. This recap is a no meme zone. Don’t worry though. The Shonen Otaku Corner is located in Meme Central. You can get here from Iksan Station.
KOF 96
“Kyo Kusanagi, who now sees himself as an invincible fighter, would be approached by a mysterious figure, who would challenge the Kusanagi heir to a fight.”
The team story describes this figure as a shadowy one of
unknown identity and it’s supposed to be a revelation that it’s Goenitz when he
shows up at the end of the game for team
His recap of the game’s finale overall works, but keep in mind he’s kind of picking and choosing bits from Iori, Kyo and the Sacred Treasure team’s stories. Since this is KOF continuity, almost all of them might as well be canon at the same time (except for who defeats the boss), but just know specifics of things like the order of events are up to interpretation and this is his own comprehensive version of events. Make of that what you will.
KOF 97
This is a random thing to bring up and makes for an awkward and obvious setup. It would’ve helped to at least touch on the dialogue the Ikari Warriors team has with Goenitz in KOF 96. I know the Ikari Warriors team aren’t really main characters, but I think Leona (and Heidern, to an extent) has enough relevance to mention a few times for the Orochi Saga.
“[…] the young Shingo
Yabuki decides to become the pupil of Kusanagi, despite the latter refusing.”
Kyo sort of refuses. He demonstrates his moves to Shingo at school in exchange for food and Shingo tries to copy him without the flames, hence the similar moves. Kyo’s not a direct teacher, but he is a part of Shingo’s training, even if he doesn’t really care.
[…] the unexpected
has happened. The New Faces team made of
Yashiro, Chris and Shermie suddenly remembered their true nature.”
No. I have heard the explanation that they suddenly remembered who they were before and I don’t buy it at all. The only thing that would suggest that is that their team story prologue is at odds with their motivations, which personally I explain away as Iori being more of a side reason and that team story being a big red herring.
Nothing in their dialogue suggests it wasn’t all planned out. Not in the badly translated original and not in the better-translated KOF Allstar. In the semi-canon KOF: Kyo they also were clearly planning ahead and in their non-canon ending where they somehow used Namekian fission, both versions of themselves are perfectly aware of what is going on. Isn’t the ritual altar you fight them on also constructed ahead of time? I doubt they got that ready on the spot. None of it makes sense. They were villains all along and if anyone can back up claiming otherwise, please share in the comments.
“Similarly, Leona also finds herself in the same uncontrolled rage, as it turns out she also has the blood of Orochi, as her true father, Gaidel, was a reformed Hakesshu."
Saying Leona has the “blood of Orochi”, or some variation thereof, is common both in-universe and out, but it should be noted that Leona’s condition is not hereditary. It has something to do with the transferring of power and it only working halfway, making her similar to Iori in that she has just some of Orochi’s power passed down to her.
“The power generated
by the unprecedented battle helped Orochi awaken from his slumber, but it was
not enough for the demon to have a physical form.”
For the people who don’t watch a lot of shonen or wuxia media, this might require an explanation, since it’s a recurring concept. They aren’t siphoning ki/chi or life energy directly from fighters, per se. When powerful fighters clash, their spirit and energy create a special kind of power, like explosions for a combustion engine or UV radiation for solar panels. Like those examples, there are things that can use that unseen power as an energy source. KOF Allstar even translates it as “willpower.” If you watched Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds, that’s what EnerD/Momentum is. Martial arts tournaments are the place to go when you want some of that.
What really gets Orochi going, however, is when that power is combined with hate. The original translation does a poor job of expressing this, but KOF Allstar makes it a little more clear that they’re trying to get the winning team riled up and kidnapping Yuki certainly helps with that, even if there’s another reason for it. Orochi being awakened and energized by hate is also a detail that comes back later.
“Seeing that there is no other choice, Yashiro and Shermie sacrifice themselves in order to transfer their energy to Chris, who would be used as the vessel for Orochi’s return.”
It’s true that they died, but the only time they’re shown not having enough power and sacrificing themselves as depicted here is in their non-canon ending, which is never shown anywhere else in the game. I just assumed they dropped dead on the spot for sacrifice. I guess it’s a more dramatic interpretation, but it’s kind of telling that something is off in the video by their clothes suddenly changing color.
Moving on to his video on the NESTS Saga.
KOF 99
First I’ll just say that news article near the beginning needs to fire its editor for allowing the word “catched.” You don’t even need the AP style book for that one.
NGN doesn’t point out that unlike the last two, the KOF 99 tournament isn’t as big of a worldwide event as the last one and several of its venues are in the area of people the Ikari team have been tailing. That's a little relevant.
“As for the fourth member, Heidern recruits a new mercenary to the squad: the young military member Sally, who goes by the name Whip, as she is an expert in using and controlling a whip as a weapon.”
First, “recruit” may not be the right word. Heidern says she’s from Axe Squad so it seems more like a transfer than a new hire. Second, her code name is Sally at first, but they drop that name in subsequent games real quick. He doesn't mention that being the case so a casual viewer might think he real name is really Sally when it's Seirah.
“To finalize the mission, Krizalid orders K’ and Maxima to collect what he calls the trigger data, the data that would grant the clones the ability to kill people. The killer instinct."
So this is a point that always seemed weird to me, even
putting aside the complete bonkers absurdity of taking over the world with an
army of Kyos. Krizalid needs the team to
come at him and his fancy data transfer suit with intent to kill so all the clones
can take the major cities of the world.
Why would NESTS send them out when they weren’t ready? Well, if I recall, the
“Upon his defeat, a mysterious voice tells Krizalid that he has failed and he is no longer needed.”
NGN doesn’t explain why he’s no longer needed. During the fight, all the clones were killed by Heidern’s mercenary force. That’s why.
I should probably be concerned that there’s a militia that can kill hundreds of people all around the world in a matter of minutes. I don’t think the Mossad and the CIA combining forces could’ve pulled that off.
KOF 2000
There’s actually only one comment I have here. Otherwise his recap of KOF 2000 is spot-on.
“Heidern, taking advantage of the moment, removes the weapon remote control from Zero’s hand.”
Not really, unless you want to say “from a certain point of view.” Zero has his own remote and is on location. Heidern is with a clone of Zero. A clone of a clone of Zero, given later revelations. That clone has its own remote as a backup in case something happened to the Zero fighting the hero team.
Kula and her mommies sabotage the one that’s fighting (shown in the ending you get if you fought Kula) and Heidern disarms the clone that was holding him hostage (shown in the ending you get if you didn’t fight Kula).
KOF 2001
Oh cripes. From what I can tell, even the writers have a hard time knowing how to explain what exactly happens in KOF 2001, besides the bare basics, and the translation doesn’t help, so even if some of the stuff NGN mentions goes against other material, I can let it slide. The game’s a bit of a mess.
“He was accompanied by his genetically engineered pet black lion Glaugan, Krizalid, who was presumed dead, and Ron, the Hizoku leader Lin has been searching for.”
The explanation I’ve found about Krizalid being there is that it’s a clone of the original, who himself was already a clone. Given that in the team edit ending of KOF 99 Krizalid loses all his memory and then promptly dies right in front of Heidern, who most certainly took him into custody, that’s the most sensible explanation. He recognizes K’ in a special win pose from Zero though, so is it the same one? Did they have a backup of his memory somehow? I don’t know.
Also why did he pronounce Glaugan’s name “gloo-gan”? Doesn’t the “au” make a “ow” sound?
“[…] the man named NESTS, but not for long as it turns out NESTS was murdered a long time ago by his son Igniz without the cartel knowing. Igniz was using a virtual image, pretending his father was still the one calling the shots.”
Nothing in any material I’ve ever seen even mention who this NESTS guy is, but this explanation here lines up. The game seems to try to fake the player out by having them believe the man in the chair is introducing himself as Igniz, only for it to be revealed the one talking is the guy in the hood next to him, which lends to this plot point that NESTS was a figurehead.
“Proclaiming himself a god, Igniz shocked the winning team by revealing that he was the one behind their creation and memory manipulation. Before he challenges them to the final fight, Igniz decided to restore their memories, as he wanted to fight them at full power.”
To be clear, Igniz believes he will prove himself a god if he defeats the strongest fighters, effectively being allowed to call himself the most powerful being on earth and being defeated by his own creations is definitely a blow to his ego.
Igniz does say he restores their memories, but there’s nothing to suggest they actually got any back. K’ and Whip don’t seem to know any more about their past than they did before the start of the game for the rest of the franchise. In KOF: A New Beginning (which is non-canon, but uses past plot points), K’ is offered his memories back, meaning he never got them. If he did, it didn’t stick. I don’t know.
I notice he cut the “lovable Igniz” line. Again, this is a no meme zone.
“Kula, seeing the base falling, rushes down towards the descent zone. Luckily, and presumably thanks to Ron, who was still alive, the station was diverted towards the water. The heroes survived the fall. Kula, who jumped in the water, was saved by K’.
KOF Allstar seems to imply that Kula was the one who diverted, or at least slowed down, the crash. That or she helped the finalists escape. I definitely don’t think she simply jumped in the water. The way she’s presented upside down and sinking implies she fell from somewhere. It’s very vague in either case.
The Ash Saga is where I think NGN starts skimping on details while giving details I’m not so sure about. This is the one where I have the most to say.
Opening
“But as the war waged between the noble family and the evil clan, all of a sudden, those from the distant land, along with their leader, Saiki, mysteriously vanished without a trace.”
First, I don’t know if it’s appropriate to call them by that
name yet. They were referred to as Those
from the
Second, what seems to have happened is that Saiki and a select handful of elites went to the future, where Saiki expected the members he left behind to finish the job and subjugate the humans. That is made explicitly clear in the bad ending of 13’s story mode. NGN phrases it like they all left to flee, which doesn’t seem to be the case because why would he expect them to win if they were losing?
KOF 2003
“The Ikari Warriors have also been invited, and while they do enter the contest, the trio, along with Heidern, have been busy tracking a mysterious airship that has been crossing world borders unnoticed.”
Largely unnoticed. Said airship has a cloaking device that protects it from being sensed by radar. It’s still perfectly visible, but it’s easy to lose track of.
For the ending, NGN goes with Ash’s team being the winners, when really, who actually wins is vague. Again, this is a continuity where most of what happens in the endings is canon except for who actually won. He is correct that the Ikari Warriors are the ones who fight Adelheid though. The KOF 11 manual says so.
“Once inside, they meet Rose and Adelheid, who reveal themselves to be the children of Rugal Bernstein.”
They do not reveal that, at least not in the actual game. That is inferred.
“The reason behind them flying over the tournament’s venue, using their sky fortress, called the Sky Noah, remained unclear.”
In the 2003
Something the comics portray that is shown in canon is that Heidern was on casually friendly terms with Adelheid before either of them knew who the other was, making for a bit of a precedent to becoming allies.
“Mukai reveals that
he is a member of those from the
Botan says that. Not Mukai. He even shows her saying it on the screen. Unless he meant Mukai reveals himself by transforming, but how would the team they’re talking to know that’s an indicator, barring maybe Ash?
“[…] and he starts with Chizuru, as he extracts the essence of the Yata Mirror from the wounded guardian.”
It’s good he said “essence of” there. When I was first playing these games it looked like the sacred treasure holders literally had the sacred treasures in them to give them their powers, but that would have to mean there are two Kusanagi swords if Saisyu can use the flames. It doesn’t help that other characters refer to Ash as having the sacred treasures like they were the actual objects. Actually, the essence that gives them their power takes the shape of the treasure they have the power of.
I think I figured that out when I looked at the two different versions of 13’s opening in that game’s gallery mode. Both show Ash taking Iori’s power later and holding it in his hand, with one version simply being a purple flame and the other being a flaming ethereal magatama. They were both conveying the same thing.
KOF 11
“The reason for her involvement is that she heard about Ash Crimson’s latest troubles […]”
She heard about it from Benimaru and Duo Lon. They went to
“It was revealed that he followed the orders of another member, Magaki.”
Shion did not reveal that to the fighters. He just showed up and picked a fight. There was another cutscene beforehand, but no one but the two of them (and the player, I guess) were privy to it.
“Kneeling, defeated,
Shion is surprised that after this long battle, Orochi has yet to awake.”
The mid-game cutscene established that that’s their goal here: to get Orochi to respond and pinpoint his energy (he isn’t right behind the seal). I don’t think NGN makes that clear.
“Magaki, still on his feet, is surprised Orochi has yet to awake, realizing that their fight energy is not enough and something else is missing to fully awake the deity.”
This is all NGN says on the matter before moving on. I don’t totally blame him because the game doesn’t exactly spell it out, but there’s a major detail he skips.
When Magaki is about to go into one of his spatial rips to get away, one of the player’s teammates makes an angry comment, mad that after all he’s done the smug Magaki is running away like a coward. With that, the game flashes a red eye on the screen and Magaki reacts to it. That is Orochi responding to the player team’s hate. As I mentioned for KOF 97, that's what really gets Orochi going. It is then that Magaki realizes that hate and anger is the key that was missing. That Magaki was allegedly designed to be a hateable character further drives home that it’s what the game was going for and it gets brought up again in KOF 13.
“[…] a spear, Shion’s spear, flies from the rift and goes through Magaki, killing him in the process. It seems Shion has betrayed his master.”
Very important wording here and I applaud him for taking notice. Prologue stories for KOF 13 state that Magaki was killed by Shion’s spear. He’s right that “it seems”, but at no point is it ever stated that Shion killed Magaki and we never see him do it. That is left ambiguous, which might lead into a twist someday.
KOF 13
“The two Hakesshu are
somehow looking alive and are interested in stopping Those From the
The reason Vice and Mature can come back to life is kind of a stretch, but the writers don’t push it too much. They might be looking alive, but they’re basically ghosts or revenants, hinted to be one of their Hakesshu powers. They appeared as shadows haunting Iori previously, meaning they were still around, and during both this game and the next, they simply go back to the darkness from whence they came in the end, meaning they’re only there to get their fighting over with. They don’t make it a habit. They’re also the only ones in 13 with an alternate color that makes them partially transparent, like ghosts.
“When they were pressured by the Blanctorche family hundreds of years ago, Saiki, using his power, escaped from his era and into the current one.”
He used his power? What was the gate for then?
“His plan is to get the Orochi power, then go back and wipe the Blanctorche and humanity with it."
I thought Orochi was only there to power the time gate and, if anything, Saiki just wanted the sacred treasure powers for some extra insurance. The bad ending in 13 implies that he was going to use his knowledge of the future to time a civil war with a pandemic to get the upper hand and take out the humans while they’re weakened from that. It’s kind of like the sports almanac scenario from Back to the Future. He didn’t need to take any of Orochi’s power for that.
“As it turns out,
this device was placed by Those from the
I thought those were for trapping Orochi’s power for the time gate when he woke up, not for the actual waking. I thought they were connected to the not-elaborated-on time spheres, something I'll get to.
“The door is Saiki’s way of traveling betweel eras.”
Then why did you say “using his power” before? Clearly it wasn’t his power if he needed
Orochi’s power for it. Come to think if
it, I have to wonder how they got it to work in the first place when they were
in Europe and Orochi was all the way in
Also, NGN calls it a door, but it’s also called a gate. I call it a gate.
“Mukai, feeling shame from his defeat in The King of Fighters 2003, asked Saiki to let him have his revenge, but Saiki, having no patience for failure, killed Mukai and absorbed his energy, showing his true form.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t have patience for failure. It’s that he had no patience for not following orders and has an obvious disregard for the lives of everyone else because, not unlike Magaki, he considers everyone beneath him. He even flat-out tells Mukai to die earlier in the game. All Mukai says here is “let me handle this.”
Also it's interesting to note that Saiki, Mukai and Magaki all have a “true form” in addition to a more presentable human form. You can briefly get a glimpse of Mukai’s human form changing color in 2003 like the other two do later. These true forms also have markings on their body that occasionally glow to show themselves (for Saiki it’s when he uses his ultimate attack). Since Shion and Botan never seem to have such power, it appears to distinguish them as special, or elite, compared to the others.
Regarding the confrontation with Saiki, NGN glosses over the hate thing again. Saiki says anger and hate brings out the best in fighting spirit, which he figured out thanks to Magaki. Like Magaki, Saiki is a pretty hateable character to suit that purpose, and killing someone trying to help him right in front of the winning team probably helped with that. Saiki wants the fighters to hate him.
“The demon realizes that Shroom and Rimelo have betrayed him and have removed some of the time spheres needed to operate the door.”
Shroom and Rimelo did that? I thought he suspected Ash. Yes, Ash does manipulate Shroom and Rimelo to stop following Saiki, but I just assumed those two ditched him. There’s no reason I can think of to believe it wasn’t Ash and Saiki was suspicious of Ash the whole time so I would think that’d be a safe assumption. I would say it makes sense that since Saiki was suspicious, Ash wouldn’t be allowed near the spheres to do that, but multiple cutscenes show Ash has no problem getting in and out of there. Citation needed.
Furthermore, this scene reinforces my theory that the actual time spheres are the things Orochi is powering underground and not what is being used to reawaken him. The door has a bunch of spheres on it that seem to act like a power light on a computer or something and two of them are not lit up. When Botan says the spheres are missing, I think she meant the ones in the power chamber.
NGN also failed to mention something pretty important: they also need a planetary alignment to make it work, something that only happens every several hundred years. It’s why it closes so quickly and why Saiki says they only have one shot at it. That said…
“[…] Ash was able to take control of his body and stop Saiki, who is revealed to be his ancestor, from going through the door before it forever closes."
Strictly technically speaking can’t they try at the next planetary alignment in a few hundred years? I mean it sucks, but Saiki seems immortal.
“With the time door now shut, Saiki no longer exists in the past and since Ash is his descendant, he could not have existed either, now that Saiki has been erased.”
Here we go…
I fail to understand the time travel logic here. Dialogue suggests that when Saiki goes through the time gate, the timeline he was in ceases to be and he starts making a new future, suggesting it works on what you might call “rewind button” time travel logic, but then not going through would just mean he doesn’t press the metaphorical rewind button and nothing happens.
So then maybe it’s time loop logic, but if it were a time loop then there was no reason for him to go through because he couldn’t change anything because, per the loop, whatever happens with the time travel still happened and that's at odds with the description of leaving the timeline behind to disappear.
The closest thing I could think of that makes some sense is that it’s not rewind logic so much as it is override logic, where he’s done this before and instead of branching off into a new timeline it’s more like the current one gets overridden and replaced based on the changes he makes in the past, so if he isn’t in the past like he was before then the new reality rewrites itself so he never existed. Okay, but then why does it cause a “paradox” like Saiki says or make a giant crack in reality like the next game says? Isn’t the gate just doing what it’s supposed to? If he used it before shouldn’t something have gone wrong then? Or was this a special case because the change was so drastic?
I don’t know! I don’t know! Someone tell me! Someone tell me how the time gate works! I need to know!
“[…] yet
Afer this, NGN does a brief recap of KOF 14, which didn’t have too much to go in depth on.
I hope some of the insight here made the recap a bit more complete while the criticism and confusion leads to some discussion into specifics. I urge anyone who might have an objection to my own analysis of this recap leave a comment. I also give full permission for someone to make something like this in response, reacting to this reaction to further add more clarity and detail. If there are any responses that clarify or correct something of mine, I might edit them in because I'm sure I'm not the only one asking these questions. In the meantime, my next post will probably be a review of KOF 15.
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