List of The King of Fighters characters

The latest story arc involves a young Chinese fighter named Shun'ei who possesses unknown supernatural powers, as a result of and being connected with Ash's time-traveling paradox.

[15] Main characters Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami underwent a major redesign to fit the series' new story arc while at the same time the development team tried to keep their appeal intact.

As the younger heiress of the Yata clan, the other being her older twin sister Maki Kagura, Chizuru was raised as a priestess who maintains the duty of keeping the diligent seal on Orochi intact.

First appearing in The King of Fighters '96, Chizuru hosts the tournament with the goal of bringing together the three clans by entreating Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami to help her replace the broken seal.

The Sacred Treasures Team successfully defeats him in an intense fight and in a last-ditch effort, Orochi causes Iori to enter the Riot of Blood, expecting him to turn on Kyo and Chizuru.

[21] While she doesn't appear in The King of Fighters XI, Chizuru asks Shingo Yabuki to enter the tournament with Kyo and Iori to investigate Ash and the weakened Orochi seal as she cannot due to still recovering from her injuries.

Duo Lon (Chinese: 堕瓏; Pinyin: Duòlóng; Japanese: デュオロン Dyuoron) makes his first appearance in The King of Fighters 2003 as a member of the game's Hero Team.

In The King of Fighters XIII, Kyo, Benimaru, and Goro enter the tournament to relive their old days as the Japan Team, while Shingo look after Chizuru until her Yata Mirror recovers.

in The King of Fighters XV, Kyo had also insist for Benimaru to accompany Tung Fu Rue’s last disciples from the previous tournament, Shun’ei and Meitenkun per the Hakkyokuseiken grandmaster’s request.

In The King of Fighters XIII, Kim summons Raiden, a famous heel professional wrestler and Hwa Jai, a former Muay Thai champion who was defeated and lost his title to Joe Higashi in the past, to Southtown after he believes that they are still employed by Geese Howard, and takes them in as his new students.

Despite the fact their subject was a mindless puppet with no sign of emotions, the NESTS cartel created an android called Candy Diamond to monitor Kula's behavior and to ensure that she would accomplish her missions.

[35] While recovering from the trauma of Candy's destruction, in the following game, The King of Fighters 2001, Kula enters into the fighting tournament with fellow NESTS' agents Foxy, K9999 and Ángel to capture K'.

[55] She is playable in the mobile phone game Kimi wa Hero (as an adult) and Brave Frontier,[56][57] while also making a cameo in the dating sim Days of Memories should the player interact with K'.

In order to infiltrate the NESTS cartel without being recognized, Maxima was transformed into a cyborg, with his strength and reaction time increased to superhuman levels, built-in weapons, and the ability to conduct instant data analysis.

It is revealed in The King of Fighters XV that Kukri’s cynical attitude had been originating from the death of his master and adopted mother Dolores, who had sacrificed her life to save him after the former had suddenly awakened his sand power while being unable to initially control it at first.

First appearing in The King of Fighters XIV, the team consists of Nelson, a boxer with a robotic prosthetic left arm after losing his arm in a terrible accident, Zarina, a Samba dancer whose fighting style resembles capoeira, and Bandeiras Hattori, an obsessed fanboy of ninjas who trained himself to become one, and the founder of the “Brazilian Ninja Arts Dojo.” Prior to the tournament, Nelson defeated Tizoc in a contest that left him in disgrace, with the latter adopting a heel persona called “King of Dinosaurs.” Each member had their own reason for entering the tournament.

[97] In The King of Fighters XI, Vanessa enters the tournament together with Blue Mary and Ramón under orders to receive information concerning the broken Orochi seal and the mysterious members of Those From the Past.

Within his being, he holds the souls of deceased fighters from the past tournaments such as Goenitz, Yashiro Nanakase, Shermie, Chris, Orochi, and Ash Crimson along with Gaidel, Krizalid, Original Zero, Igniz, and Rugal Bernstein, as well as Mizuki Rashojin from Samurai Shodown II, Kukri's adoptive mother Dolores and many more.

Not only that, one of Verse's fragments is also implanted inside the young Shun'ei, leaving his parents to abandon him secretly due to this, though he was later rescued by Tung Fu Rue, who had decided to raise him as his last disciple.

In a manga adaption of XIV titled The King of Fighters: A New Beginning, once Verse gathers enough essences from the previous matches, including one which were outside the ring, he is confronted and defeated by Geese, who interrupts the recent official matches, using its power to assume his Nightmare form in order to fight alongside Billy and Hein against the China and Fatal Fury Teams while also summoning the deceased Four Heavenly Kings and NESTS executives to dispose of the other teams, including Nakoruru’s summoned Samurai Shodown warriors.

[117] K9999 would later be re-introduced in KOF XV as Krohnen McDougall (クローネン・マクドガル, Kurōnen Makudogaru), around the same time that SNK had officially confirmed via Discord that the K9999 removal controversy was false in order to redesign his appearance to avoid copyrights issues.

After returning home from the tournament, the team throws a private party to themselves where Ryo and his student, Marco Rodrigues (from Garou: Mark of the Wolves), become displeased with Robert and his family's attitude regarding their training, and are more focused on improving the restaurant.

In The King of Fighters 2003, Terry and Joe entered the tournament with Tizoc, a famous Mexican professional wrestler as Andy took care of his Shiranui disciple Hokutomaru who fell sick with the mumps.

The team includes Tizoc, a famous Lucha libre pro wrestler, Gato, a powerful yet emotionless martial artist and a modern-day female pirate named B. Jenet.

[1] Leona (レオナ, Reona), Heidern's adopted daughter introduced in The King of Fighters '96, replaces him as he takes on a more active role behind the scenes, investigating occurrences parallel to the tournament.

Ever since Verse's incident at the end of The King of Fighters XIV, Heidern and the Ikari Warriors have been investigating the unknown threat left behind by Verse, leading to Heidern meeting and befriending not only a resurrected Malian medium named Dolores, but also a cynical Chilean graphic artist named Isla who utilizes a multiversal Specter power similar to Shun'ei's own and in due time, the three of them form a new Rival Team for KOF XV.

In XIV, the team returns with Mai and King getting a new member named Alice Nakata, an avid fan of Terry Bogard who inspires to be just like him, who was previously introduced in the Garou Densetsu: The Legend of Wild Wolf pachinko machine.

Because of the fourth saga's storyline involving the concept of time and space within a multiverse, this would enable the original plan to truly come to fruition, thus the Samurai Team would finally make their debut in The King of Fighters XV via a downloadable pass, with the sole exception of Galford being replaced by the female newcomer Darli Dagger from Samurai Shodown (2019), a strong African ship-maker who wields a jagged saw-sword named Libertalia while being raised by pirates in Merina Kingdom, Madagascar.

Realizing that the mysterious yet dangerous threat of Otoma=Raga might somehow be connected to the current situation that the fighters are facing at the moment, Nakoruru, Haohmaru, and Darli join the fight, presumably to possibly return to their home timeline.

[137] The same issue would happen in the third story arc, where Kyo and Iori are major characters opposing The King of Fighters 2003 lead Ash Crimson but more due to narrative intended reasons rather than fan demand.