The King Of Fighters is a team fighting game that has produced 3 arcs with the series working on its 4th. But with these arcs we have gotten many hero characters or main character since we cannot classify Ash as a hero and K isn’t exactly a good guy either. But with these heroes you might not know that K was supposed to replace Kyo and Iori thus why they weren’t playable in KOF 2003 arcade edition only console. As we see Kyo and Iori still present in the game we must ask why didn’t work. For that we will be looking at beast of prey himself to see why he couldn’t replace the 2 rivals.
We will begin by looking at K. K was the hero for the Nest saga which ran from KOF 99-2001. A supposed clone of Kyo we would learn K is a human who body has been modified with his memories lone gone. K is one of Nest many attempts with Kyo flame noting his will being the reason why K survived the experiment . After Igniz defeat K would find himself in KOF as back up for Kyo and Iori if they fail. This was Chin basically playing it safe seeing Kyo and Iori might kill each other before defeating the enemy. Something we see shown in KOF 2003 graphic novel as K hand react on its own to Mukai presence.
This would carry on through out the Ash even now K works with Ikari warriors from time to time. But they aren’t on the up and up between there odd jobs and Maxima hacking. We also see without Nest that people are still after them. Now with Nest back this will probably make things worse for him. As for his abilities K has Kyo flames as mentioned before and super human speed that in game gives him a teleport as well as emphasis on it for some his moves such as supers chain and heat drive.
So back story is interesting and power is cool which leaves personality. This is where I believe we hit the nail on the head. When it comes to K he is supposed to be the bad boy but also he is lazy. One of his win quotes is the fight made him sleepy but it is more than that. When it comes to K he is constantly on the run so of course when he gets a chance he is going to relax. This reason means if he could he would stop fighting as opposed to Kyo who fights to make sue he is up to stopping the Orochi if it is revived. Iori who trains to kill Kyo or Terry who is always looking for a fight after defeating Geese or defending South Town.
That isn’t all. The math doesn’t add up when you think about it. Some of SNK wanted K to replace Kyo the one who started the series and his rival Iori who have become a fan favorite. I say some as there were those who though K wouldn’t be liked to which they were proven wrong as he to is one of the most beloved characters. But to have him replace to starters is a big undertaking that doesn’t really work to well in games. (Iori was introduced in 2nd game but as a rival to Kyo it works.) For proof of this check out SF3 and MKX. People like the games but when it comes to classic characters over next generation most fans go back to the original cast. Hence why Ryu, Ken and Chun Li will probably be in every street fighter forever. For k point of view he was originally supposed to replace 2 and again 1 is hard enough but 2 is too much.
Now that does it for K my favorite kof character. to be clear K is the only time Kyo and Iori were planned on being replaces hence why they have teams in 2001 and beyond. So Ash was just next arc in the story. We will look at more KOF lore later on.
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