Art of Fighting's story ends with a cliff-hanger; Yuri is about to disclose the true identity of masked man.

Art of Fighting's contribution to the genre was the inclusion of a "spirit gauge" underneath the character's life bar.

[12] The series also introduced graphical scaling into the fighting game genre: as the characters move towards each other, the camera zooms in to maximize the level of detail.

Shortly after the release of Street Fighter, a headhunter approached director Takashi Nishiyama and convinced him to leave Capcom and join nearby studio SNK.

[17] SNK staff members Youichiro Soeda said that Ryo and Robert's debut was unique to other games based on the company because the story did not focus on fighting tournaments but instead on the duo's quest to save Yuri Sakazaki.

From the marketing side, SNK wanted to show the characters as big sized as possible on screen, leading to the zoom ins when they get close.

In the early development prototype, this was so extreme that characters were only visible from their knees to upper body as they got closer on the screen.

[20] Nobuyuki Kuroki said Art of Fighting was "action game at heart", fitting for a reboot that could emphasize more of its unique aspects, dreaming of creating such installment.

[22] The Neo Geo trilogy was compiled in Art of Fighting Anthology (龍虎の拳 ～天・地・人～, Ryuuko no Ken Tenchijin) for the PlayStation 2, while the original game was also included as part of SNK Arcade Classics Vol.

[23] GameSpot agreed citing the visuals as one of the best ones in Neo Geo but criticized the " underlying gameplay is nearly devoid of soul."

He specifically said this due to the requirements needed to perform special moves and called the game a Street Fighter "knock off".

They cited that the previously released Fatal Fury: King of Fighters had the same negative problems involving only three playable characters but lacks the innovation that Fatal Fury had as in such title two players could tag the enemy AI together in contrast to Ryo and Robert who fight alone.

[25] A number of critics compared Ryo and Robert to the Street Fighter protagonists Ryu and Ken Masters due to their physical appearance and techniques; However, their morales and bond were praised.

The second sequel, Art of Fighting 2, incorporated Geese Howard due to his popularity in Fatal Fury and his younger look from the first original video animation as a hidden boss.

[35] The character of Dan Hibiki from the Street Fighter series is deemed to be a parody of Ryo's similarities with Ryu and Ken, but his design is more like Robert's while he is showing mannerisms like those of Yuri Sakazaki.

[36][37] These similarities are addressed in the crossover game SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos with GameSpot's Greg Kasavin stating that fans would appreciate the appearances and the interactions between Ryo, Dan and Takuma.