It follows another King of Fighters tournament secretly hosted by Those From the Distance Land, the organization behind the events from the two prior games that are trying to break the seal of the demon Orochi and take its power.

The mode is presented in visual novel style alongside fights, something considered to be hard to include in the arcade version by the SNK Playmore staff.

[14] The online gameplay is based on the one included in later versions of The King of Fighters XII, which fixed the issues the initial one had.

[10] The fighter Ash Crimson has absorbed the powers from two of the descendants of the clans who sealed the Orochi away 1,800 years ago, Chizuru Kagura and Iori Yagami, while Kyo Kusanagi is to be his last victim.

When the winning team reaches the game's end, Saiki, the leader of "Those From The Past" puts his work into motion.

Saiki intends to use the energy expended by the winning team to enable him to cross time, killing his own subordinate just to face the champions.

The official website was soon updated with the changes as well as adding a storyline for Iori's team,[17] and on the April 23, 2010 location test at Hong Kong, Hwa Jai from Fatal Fury: King of Fighters was confirmed to be in the game as the final member of Kim Kaphwan's team.

On June 28, 2011, Famitsu reported the addition of Billy Kane from Fatal Fury: King of Fighters as a console version exclusive character.

[26] SNK Playmore president Ryo Mizufune commented that they wanted to release a game that would surpass fans' expectations and could become as popular as The King of Fighters '98.

[27] The producer Masaaki Kukino debuted with The King of Fighters XII which was poorly received due to its lack of storyline and minor characters.

[29] Because the prior game, The King of Fighters XII, suffered from various technical issues, developers also worked in fixing them to improve the gameplay.

Meanwhile, the fighting system relied on both common Desperation Moves and the new HD mode, with the latter created to appeal to new combos possibilities.

[32] In choosing characters, developers wanted to include ones that would give a notable contrast and balance between teams rather than popularity within fans, expanding the "KOF-ism" theme.

Artist Ogura expressed pressure in drawing this incarnation of Kyo as it had to live up to a long reputation he has had ever since his introduction.

[37] Returning characters such as the K' Team were adjusted so that they would play in a similar fashion to prior titles, which resulted in several revisions of mechanics.

K' in particular was influenced by his portrayal in Chinese comics where he often breaks his right hand glove which is often broken when he fails to control his flames.

Meanwhile, Yuri's redesign gave the staff a good impression in how she her sprites changed, especially liking the universal lower body due to her combination of white gi and blue pants.

[44] In June 2011, SNK Playmore confirmed that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 console versions were in the works and would be released on October 27, 2011, in Japan.

[19][45] In September 2011, however, SNK Playmore delayed the game's release date to an unspecified one from the same year,[46] later leaving it to December 1, 2011.

[49] While the Xbox 360 cover focuses on Ash Crimson due to his role in the story, Ogura did a different artwork for the PS3 release, featuring the more familiar characters.

The staff had trouble adapting the game to iOS due to lack of balances of moves and enemies' intelligences.

A new arcade version of the game, titled The King of Fighters XIII: Climax, was announced in February 2012.

[62] A version of the game, The King of Fighters XIII: Global Match, for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch with rollback netcode online play was announced at Evo Japan 2023.

[63] An official guidebook from the series was published by Arcadia in Japan on August 6, 2010, as The King of Fighters XIII Master Guide.

[76] On the other hand, the game has received criticism as a result of its story mode which is nearly inaccessible to those unfamiliar with the series as well as its use of illustrations alongside large paragraphs telling the plot.

[76] GamePro praised SNK's dedication to expand the story but lamented there was little voice acting as the cutscenes still rely with silent lines.

Nevertheless, the same site praised the notable visual improvements making the characters "look like paintings",[73] with 1UP.com comparing them to Street Fighter III: Third Strike.

[71] The inclusion of DLC was well received by Electronic Gaming Monthly and Level Up for the decision to bring back the classic fighting styles Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami had in previous installments.

[84][85] The iOS port received a perfect score by TouchArcade praising its large amount of characters and responsive controls it has.

[86] Global Match was praised by the media for retaining the DLC characters for free but criticized for the lack of balancing in the cast with Kim and Takuma being too overpowered.