Iori suffers from a curse – "The Riot of the Blood" (血の暴走, Chi no Bōso) – under which he becomes faster, stronger and wilder, exhibiting a deadly tendency to indiscriminately attack everyone in close proximity.

Although the staff members worked hard to impress their superiors at SNK, Iori's characterization caused them to discard the team in the next game in the series.

[15] While Kyo and Iori are always arguing with each other, Ureshino was careful with how writing them to the point their introduction in The King of Fighters '99 added a subtext of happiness of the two rivals meeting again, believing they had died when fighting Orochi and remained as hidden characters.

[21] Like Kyo, several aspects of Iori, including his surname and abilities, were designed to relate him to the Japanese legend Yamata no Orochi, which was the inspiration for the plot.

[22] During the early development stages of The King of Fighters '99, SNK planned to exclude Iori and Kyo from the game because the company wanted to focus the story on the new protagonist, K'.

[23] The repeated appearance of Iori, Kyo, and other SNK regular characters in the series is at the insistence of the marketers and main planners, making it a challenge to decide the story for each title.

Throughout the series, his normal costume consists of a short jacket and bondage pants; without changing his design and adjusting only his coloring, a diverse number of image variations can be brought about.

[30] A new design was created by Tomohiro Nakata for the next game, The King of Fighters XV; He expressed pressure of giving him a proper appeal that makes it worth of the character's fame.

Iori's strongest technique is "Forbidden 1218 Shiki: Yatagarasu" (禁千弐百拾八式・八咫烏), a new move that focuses on violent combinations and serves as a reference to the character's ending from The King of Fighters '96, in which he murders his teammates.

[32] This version, featuring his classic techniques, was designed to avoid surpassing the current Iori so players could choose the fighting style they prefer in the game.

[13] As downloadable content for The King of Fighters XIII, SNK added the original Iori Yagami who can wield flames for his fighting style.

[35] In KOFXIV, the commands for Iori's moves were also affected; one of his strongest attacks, the Ura 316 Shiki Saia (裏316裏参), would require high skill for regular players because SNK attempted to balance the characters.

[41] Iori Yagami first appeared in The King of Fighters '95, in which he enters an annual tournament as the leader of the Rival Team with Billy Kane and Eiji Kisaragi.

In The King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood, Iori enters another tournament and is joined by two women who want to find a man controlled by the Orochi power.

[74] The shooter game KOF: Sky Stage also features Iori as a boss, while Neo Geo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting makes him playable.

[85] Miss X reappears in the fighting game SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy as downloadable content, this time sharing both the original crossdresser and new true gender swapped form.

[87] In the crossover video games NeoGeo Battle Coliseum and SNK vs. Capcom series, Iori appears as a playable character; the latter includes his Riot of the Blood state.

[92] He is also present in the Chinese mobile phone game named KOF: WORLD,[93] the visual novel Days of Memories,[94] Metal Slug Defense,[95] Lords of Vermillion,[96] and Lucent Heart.

[104] Ryo Takamisaki's manga The King of Fighters G shows an alternative retelling of KOF '96 in which Iori faces Kyo and Athena Asamiya.

[105] The character appears in a manhua adaptation of The King of Fighters: Zillion created by Andy Seto that retells Iori's story of his fight against Orochi until he attacks NESTS to destroy Kyo's clones.

[25] In the manga The King of Fighters: A New Beginning, Vice and Mature force the Orochi power to make Iori lose his mind during his battle with Kyo.

[112][113] He is also set to be the protagonist of the light novel series Iori Yagami's Isekai Mu'sou by Nobuhiko Tenkawa which depicts him in an alternate universe fighting goblins.

Kyo and Iori's introduction was highly popular to the point Japanese gamers spread rumors they might be brother due to their connection to the myth of Orochi though Chinese comic created bizarre plots involving them.

Despite the comics portraying Kyo and Iori's deadly enemies, the video game introductions did not go that far and instead used to tease their continuous competitiveness highly lampshaded by how they stare at each other while creating different colored flames.

[121] The formation of the Three Sacred Treasures Team in The King of Fighters '96 had a major impact with fans because it was appealing because of the Orochi saga and because of its incorporation of Japanese mythology.

[127] The Orochi form from Iori was listed as the sixth best altered video game character alongside Leona's based on the impact both have on the storyline by Den of Geek.

[129] The writer noted that while Iori started as "anti-hero" due to his tendency to beat up his own teammates in his first two games, he would join forces Kyo for a greater good in upcoming titles which changed the way he was seen.

However, the fact that Iori is defeated by Ash in KOF XI was noted to be the opposite due to how much it affected him to the point of creating a new fighting style that does not involve flames.

[132] Atinux agreed, calling the character "sadistic" because of the violence of his attacks, most notably seen in his strongest moves that reference his enhanced Orochi form from previous games.

[137] Destructoid stated he was shocked by Miss X's debut in SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy because of Iori's obvious secret identity and because she has different incarnations with a different gender and outfit.