Shun Ei’s design is more of a Chinese cultural thing. In China there’s a form of fashion that kids who are unpopular by society do. It’s basically just this; dressing like a fuster cluck with bright contradicting colors. It’s basically a teen way of saying “you can’t ignore me just because I’m different”. If he comes back I’d actually appreciate a simpler design just off the idea that he doesn’t feel the need to dress like a punk getting attention anymore and instead wears more relaxed clothes.
1:28:38 I helped work on that Aoi Kusanagi. Thanks for featureing it! There was code issues and we helped them out! Purple flame moves are being work on by the original team. Look forward to it :)
I know this series must not have been easy to make. The amount of research and passion you've put is just unreal. We just wanna appreciate your efforts Thorgi, and thank you so much for making these.
Being a fan of mainly Fatal Fury, my passing interest in KOF was stumped by my lack of knowledge to the lore, and intentions of each game. This TH-cam series has really helped.
What would you think if Kev conversation K3 was designed like Marvel versus Capcom three or to where you can call in your sis character but you only have one point character you know
@@strepsilsaregood4u I thought King of fair is 12 was even better than 13 but I think that was the best one they ever did was 12 they they added way too much touch of death combos to 13 in my opinion
It's poetic that KOF is known for its seemingly unbeatable final bosses while they're fighting unbeatable bosses within the company most of the time. It's like they were delivering their struggle as a metaphor for us.
Take into account that during the time that SNK was being forced to make pachinko machines and literally killing its game development department… and that Ash Crimson was the protagonist that was also the villain…. Well, it’s hard not to feel like the two are connected.
Maybe the next story arc could be based around how SNK Is dealing with Saudi Arabia. I know it sounds maybe too political but honestly they could probably make a interesting story out of it.
@@Silverwind87 There has been an ongoing takedown of the yakuza in the last 15 years or so, even one of the main groups was in a gang war with the police and it ended in one of the biggest families' boss going to prison and being executed, something that no one imagined before.
This retrospective is how I'm learning about SNK and King of Fighters being a fan of just Capcom fighters. This needs to be recoginzed by the community just for the effort alone.
Y’know, I have to say, even with the recent… for lack of a better word, controversies, I really can’t let this series and SNK go. These characters got me through high school ever since Terry was revealed for smash, heck I got very happy when K9999/Krohnen was revealed for XV because he was actually one of my favorite characters when I tried out all those arcade archive KOF ports for the first time. So all I can say is thank you for also keeping your enthusiasm for the series even after everything, I feel like everyone needed that after well… yea
Plus, EGDC (the parent company of SNK) is a subsidiary of MiSK, which is a non-profit organization, meaning Crown Prince Salman doesn’t get a single Yen from SNK purchases. We’ll be fine.
Honestly, I hope XV isn’t the last game of the Verse Saga. Like it feels like it needs one more game to wrap everything up. Also Shun’Ei and Isla need to be on a team. And a game where a more confident Shun’Ei as the main.
I had never played a KOF game before your retrospectives on the games, let alone played any of them. I binged your three first videos and then started playing the games and I am having so much fun, thank you for making these awesome videos and I'm really looking forward to this 4th retrospective !
@@jjjsalang I emulated basically all the older ones up to 11, and then I got to try 15 a bit at a friends house, still haven’t really decided which game to actually play since there are so many though but I’m having fun with all of them
@@kingdomcomesuperman3669 thanks !!!! I’m really loving 11, I’m a very annoying Athena player at the moment but I’m starting to learn other characters too !!
Actually, the reason Kula runs away from home in KOF 15 is because K' and Maxima are forced to break their promise to take her to the amusement park due to how busy they've been with work. Though K's attitude doesn't exactly do much to help the situation either so it did kinda play a factor in it too. One a different note, I completely agree with you. The KOF fanbase has to be the best fanbase I've ever been apart of honestly. I've made so many friends online ever since I got into the series. And I really hope and pray they SNK can once again pull off the impossible by bouncing back from their recent predicament.
That info about the buyout by Saudi Arabia was hard to swallow, but then again, if we decided to boycott everything from awful companies, we'd have nothing and would all go insane. But that ending proves that if KOF can survive multiple bankruptcies and pachinkofications, it can survive anything. This retrospective has been such an engaging watch. As someone who got into SNK thanks to Capcom vs. SNK and KOF 13, it warms my heart to see this franchise and company receive so much love and support. Whatever happens in the future, I have little doubt that KOF and SNK will be there. Here's to SNK and The King of Fighters, the ultimate underdogs of fighting games.
Make no mistake. When I buy a KOF game, or any SNK game for that matter, that money is in support of the people who make them. Some very shitty people may be profiting from those games, but they're not on the front lines working countless hours to make these games possible. They're not the ones with the drive and passion that have kept this franchise going for nearly 30 years. There are franchises that have died from less failures than KOF has had. The developers have been supporting this series through all it's highs and lows. A lesser company would've dropped it like a bad habit. KOF is still standing. That is more is more than worthy of my support.
Best way i think of it is: Support the artists but call out the corrupt evil businessmen at the top. As someone who loves SNK and NeoGeo stuff I really hope that the Crown Prince doesn't get in the way of the creativity of the series down the line and screw over character designs, backstories, story elements etc.
Nah, I am pretty sure Goodbye, Esaka was made precisely because sonething HAS happened and they are pre-emptively said goodbye to the people that enjoy said game. Until they somehow "recover" and then put out more games.
God, that ending hit me hard. With the highs and lows. I really felt the power in your words. This is exactly why I subscribed to you. Because of your fiery passion for fighting games.
The history of SNK can be succinctly described like this: Original SNK goes bankrupt: "We're cooked..." SNK Playmore buys the IPs: "We're back!" SNK Playmore embraces pachinko: "We're cooked..." Japan changed their pachinko laws: "We're back!"
I recently moved to Japan and so far I have seen a dystopian amount of pachinko/slot businesses. I never understood how so many good video game developers could abandon video games for gambling until seeing in person how depressingly popular pachinko/slots are.
@@dragonbornexpress5650 There is a reason why Konami are so evil. The fact that Castlevania and Frogger sells less than Pachinko is not a good sign. Company's like Arc Systems and Level 5 have to earn success. Konami can take the easy way out.
Yeah. As a Pokemon fan, as much as I love their games and spinoffs, if you are to ask me as to which Spin off Pokemon Games have been running the series of the last 5 years, it boils down to three: Pokemon Go (But recently under immense scrutiny as a whole) Pokemon Unite (currently under Metagame decline and Player base loss.) Pokemon Master EX (likely one of the very few Pokemon Spinoffs that has the biggest active player base and performs the best). So yeah. IF YOU are a game developer making games for ASIAN countries financially RICH AND POOR (especially the financially poor), Mobile gaming is the way to go
Whatever happens to KOF, pachinko, bankrupcy, corrupt owners, pandemics. KOF will live on in us, the fans heart because KOF is special. It brings together so many people of different walks of life and that is worth loving the series for. We are KOF, and we are alive.
WE ARE TEAM FANBASE!! What a wild ride, KOF Retrospective is what get me to this channel and to say it was incredible might undersell it. This channel is great, thanks for the vid and see ya again.
“It’s time for the lightning round!” *checks how much video is left* Only on fighting game retrospective can a lightning round be almost 2 hours long. Thank you thorgi this series has been amazing
This is all great, but your theory of the Isle of Man being a mysterious base for an evil supercompany is absolutely hilarious since the real life Isle of Man is known primarily for a motorbike race and being a tax haven which both make it seem oddly fitting for this series.
3:10:06 I agree with you. I've made so many friends in King of Fighters and Metal Slug alone. I have introduced so many friends who don't know the franchises SNK makes and they loved them and we've grown closer because of it. My best friend introduced me to it. Smash made me adore KOF so much again. I already had some experience before smash but I was... 7... I chose Terry because kid me had this thing where if a character wore red, they're automatically good!! Ken? CHOOSE. Terry? CHOOSE! (I dunno who else I chose back then). Spiderman in Marvel Vs Capcom? OF COURSE CHOOSE!! But Smash made me love it so much and the RPs, the fanart, the stories from the games, and just the general games made me grow so close to so many people. I mean I EVEN GOT TO WORK ON ONE OF BANDEN'S VIDEOS!! I LOVE THIS COMMUNITY SO FRIGGIN MUCH!!! I'm not exaggerating when I say King of Fighters' fanbase is one of the most wholesome fanbases I have ever been in. Yeah there is some bad people, what fandom doesn't have bad people? But the amount of friends via this game has made me happy. HECK I MET A FAN WHO WORKED AT WALMART AND WE CHATTED ALL BECAUSE HE LIKED MY TERRY HAT!!! AND WE JUST TALKED!! And people loved my Terry cosplay despite the fact I am a short and chubby person. You hear stories of cosplay shaming all the time but never with KOF. The people here ROCK!! Heck that same con, I went as Fio. And I felt extremely validated because... the fans of both KOF and Metal Slug supported and loved my cosplay. I don't often times feel that. I love this fandom so much. I've even learned a lot of Spanish and Portuguese BECAUSE of both KOF and Metal Slug's massive Latin American popularity. I wanted to talk to others. I was proud of myself the other day when I kept up a small conversation in Spanish at a store all because of this game's incredible fanbase. To say SNK taught me more Spanish than Duolingo has is not an exaggeration. I dunno what the future holds. I know things are bad... But if it doesn't hold, I will always have my great friends who have made the greatest of memories. SNK has a very special place in my heart and its community even more so.
I love that you make a distinction between graphical fidelity and presentation. The latter is so much more meaningful imo the world/environment and interactions in the kof series, in T3/4, MvC is part of why I like this genre at all
Learning the history and dirty ways of companies like Coca Cola, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, EA, Blizzard etc. has made me kind of numb to the fact that the crown prince bought most of SNK's shares. SNK didn't do anything bad and until SNK becomes like those companies I will probably keep on supporting them. Also that crown prince has shares in other companies that people support including SNK's long time rival Capcom.
if anything, what we should be on the watch for is when EGDC starts to go hands-on with SNK. for now SNK is just bought and sort of left alone to make games. The moment there is indication that EGDC starts to dictate the game design AKA the classic publisher developer relationship issue much like EA, Ubisoft, and more then we should come on to the defense of SNK
When I was in high school, Shun’ei was the coolest guy I ever saw, and he’s still one of my favorite characters and designs. I don’t care if everyone hates him, I think he’s neat.
Kof 15 ending probably hint he will growth on experience for fighting and experience on modern world plus people who hate him will be jealous because shun éi has isla who like him 🤣
I'll admit, my interest in KOF and SNK started when Terry was added to Smash, and he slowly became my new main, but thanks to your videos I can now say that me and my partner are now huge KOF fans, thank you for all the work you have done, and I wish nouthing but good fortune for you
KOF 15 feels like a big tribute to SNK entirely. they have teams based on old ones, cameos from characters that we haven't seen in a long time and references from their older games that aren't KOF.
I have a newfound respect for SNK as a whole. It can ruin itself or be ruined by outside influence as much as humanly possible, and yet its tenacity to survive is very inspiring. They can lose their company entirely and still bide their time to come back with a fight for their life. Especially since the fanbase is so dedicated to ensuring only good things come from the company, even if things go south again, they will choose to not die and return with a vengeance. Thank you for all the work you've done to bring this to my attention Thorgi. You rock.
I remember someone telling me about NeoGeo and how SNK created first crossover fighting game that was too cool for it's time. Then I saw King of Fighters XV on Steam and immediately loved it even though I was not fg fan. It's lore is very big and I'm too lazy to complete all 15 games for every team to understand it. All I wanted to say is thank you for your series of retrospectives I am happy to be part of the KOF fanbase now.
The elephant in the room part was a very important thing you brought up. Bet it did a number on you during the scripting/recording/editing phase & all I could say is thank you.
That segment about the Buy out was really a Gut Punch... But yeah, I'm with the "Everyone in power is evil and you'd go insane trying to avoid anything related to them" crowd. I call out stuff when I'm aware of it.. But am still not gonna abandon anything that bring me joy in this very, very depressive world. Thank you for introducing me to this franchise that gives me wishes to buy it (when the money is in-), and for a lore hungry guy like me, it's a lot I wish to devour and see more of.
This series has been a blast to watch. Soon it’s about to be a year ever since I got into KOF in the fall and I must say it’s a great series, so much so that it’s now one of my favorite fighting games of all time. While yes the fate of the series is once again in question, it’s gonna survive come what may. I learned sooo many things while watching these videos that deepened my liking of the series. Thank you so much for doing this retrospective Thorgi!
Thorgi: "When Terry was added for Smash, people thought he was a grown up Pokemon Trainer!" Me: "Really? I've heard almost nothing but "Ken with a hat" jokes with his release for me." Thorgi, thanks for making this retrospective for KOF. I got introduced to your channel via the Orochi Saga video and I'm very happy I subbed to your channel and saw you reach the finish line with this! Maybe we can get a Blazblue Retrospective in the future after your long break from this masterpiece? It's kinda my favorite FG franchise and I'd love to see your take on that...
The "Ken with hat" joke is extra hilarious with the CvS2 intro between the two of them. Apparently, Ken somehow DID get ahold of that hat at one point.
I do remember the joke of evolution. Ness, to Pokémon Trainer and at the end Terry. Due to how similar they are, especially for being red cap wearing bois. Also the fanart involving these three. They're pretty cute and also some cool ones!
If I had to describe SNK in my opinion: they’re a company, a community that rides a see-saw between heartbreak and triumph. They taken so much hits in their history but always keep in their minds that it doesn’t matter how hard they get hit but how many times they get back up, how much they can take and move forward because they’re fighters themselves. “Don’t give up and keep fighting” is all I can say to SNK right now and always. @Thorgi’s Arcade seriously you are amazing and incredible with this retrospective, a lot of your opinions and views I can relate to heck I won’t lie that KOF 14 got me into this rabbit hole for the past 4-5 years (also Capcom vs SNK 2 had me interested in who is SNK) and since then I’ve had nothing but great memories I’m still making to this day with SNK’s library of games especially King of Fighters. You’re retrospective just really as a whole these 4 parts reminded me just why I love SNK and fighting games in general. You’re the best man thank you so much for your hard work on this and I’m happy to have discovered you because of part 1….also Team USA Sports team I have hopes for as DLC in KOF XV 😆😆
This was an amazing video, though there's some trivia that is incorrect. Here's a few notes and corrections: 1:28:00 KOF Kyo is "partially" canon. The story itself is not canon, as some elements conflict with the story in '97's arcade mode (like Yamazaki working with Yashiro, the CYS team being aware of their role from the beginning, or Blue Mary not being on a team with either Yamazaki or Billy) but some elements that were new in KOF Kyo are part of the official lore. 1:58:04 That infamous ad wasn't made for KOF ALLSTAR, it was made instead for a game called SNK ALLSTAR...which shut down a few months after the ad went up lol
Through this retrospective, I've realised that no matter what is the situation, SNK somehow will find a way to rise from the ashes time and time again which is facinating to be honest and makes me glad that I'm a fan for nearly 3 years now.
Man KOF All Star was awesome, I remember playing it religiously everyday and it was right when it's around the KOF x TEKKEN period follow by the Christmas period. All the crossover and seasonal skins were so freakin' awesome. Thank you Thorgi for this retrospective! You are a King.
I've been playing KOF for most of my life, and seeing this much love and appreciation for this franchise, not only from fans, but from even the developers, it's amazing. I really hope that this franchise will keep going for a really long time so that this part of my childhood lives forever, I love these videos so much, these were some of the best and most interesting videos ever made, thank you so much for putting all of this effort into this.
Absolutely incredible retrospective, so well researched, so well scripted, fun and entertaining! Thank you so much for ending it on such a positive note, I've been in the KOF fandom for decades, I'm an artist and I fell in love with Iori and Kyo when I was 16 back in 2001, now I'm a 37 married woman and I still love these characters like if they were my own kids haha. SNK characters are charming and memorable, you grow attached to them bc of their backstories and how many sides they show besides what you see in the ring. I kept friendships online for more than 20 years just because we love Iori and Kyo! The amount of fangirls of KOF characters that have consistently drawn them for the last 2 decades is incredible. You're right about the passion and love the game devs and designers put in KOF bc it shows in how charming the characters are and how fun the game is to play! I'll personally continue to support SNK and especially the devs even if the owners and investors are different. I have to stop watching it in the middle bc of how long this video is lol but here, I finally made it to the end!!!
Thorgi, you're scaring me. Literally earlier today I was thinking, "Huh, I guess it's been a while since the last KOF retrospective. Maybe it'll be soon. Heck maybe it'll be today." Guess it isn't today... but it sure was announced today
And with that, this REALLY long retrospective ends. Presumably on a sour note at first but was brought up to something much better, fitting, and uplifting. I learned many about KOF, bait characters, concepts, development, and all that(though I still REFUSE to believe that SNK saying "it was nothing" to why K9999 was just erased from everything for a while had nothing to do with him being just blue-haired Tetsuo. There has to be something MORE to this!) As for the last 2 sections, I agree with your stance as well the other 2 of "Salmon already too rich so boycotting will only hurt SNK and nothing else" and "everything ever is owned by someone/something bad so why really bother." And I do agree that SNK will probably be fine in the end, with how much shit they've survived and for how long, SNK is now the company embodiment of an anime protagonist!)
To be fair about the Saudi Prince, he bought SNK because he's a massive KOF/SNK fan so I doubt he'll change anything. Also, he isn't going to really make money because you buy a $60 game ever 4 years. His money is coming from oil and when you give him $60 three or four times a week when you fill your car with gas. He bought SNK as a hobby and less as a business.
Oh my god, if I say this has been my not favorite series of ALL TIME, that would be a lie. This series is absolutely amazing, and I can watch these videos forever, they’re just so good, the end was super sad, to me, but like you said, I think SNK and KOF will be fine. As long as we support it. I am honored to be able to watch all of these videos. Stay safe, sayonara!
1:28:18 I am totally with you on this. Ever since I saw her in another KOF related video before I have been wanting Aoi to be a playable character in mainline games
That ending was incredibly heartfelt and I agree. The KOF developers are passionate and dedicated, the fans are just the same. One thing I love about this community is how much they look after each other and their own, based purely on their shared love of the franchise. I've never seen such a beautiful community before, it may not be the biggest but it spans across the world and is the same everywhere.
I'm not really good at putting this kind of thing into words, but I just wanted to attempt to let you know how much I appreciate this entire series of videos. I loved every single minute of every KOF video you made. SNK and KOF have been important to me since the 90s and even when no one else I knew had any clue what SNK was, even when the 90s were so far in the past that people had literally never heard of KOF, I still actively loved the series and all of SNKs games. I own everything from my own red MVS NEO GEO arcade cabinet to the NEO GEO Pocket Color and every single SNK game released for the PS2, Dreamcast, and original Xbox in North America. Terry Bogard getting into Smash was a titanic announcement for me personally. Just overall I'm an SNK super fan and I really wanted to thank you for all the time an effort you put into these videos. We SNK fans are few and far between, especially in North America.... but we are devoted.
I learned about KOF once Terry released for Smash, and I noticed a character, named Clark Still, that unlocked a memory, and I remembered I played KOF with my cousins in Mexico and I chose Clark because he looked like The Terminator when I was kid lol. After that, I started playing KOF Allstars and only used the Ikari Warriors in it, I still play Allstars but sometimes the game doesn't show off how cool the characters are, like move wise. And then KOF 15 was announced and this was, I guess my first time playing one, and I love it, I'm not good at it, but I love the characters, at first I only loved the Ikari Warriors and all their members, but I fell in love with other's, such as Maxima, Kukri, Antnov, Isla, Yamazaki, K', and Angel. There's a ton more, but I love how great the characters are, Clark is my all time favorite and the KOF14 manga made me enjoy him more, I love the one interaction he has with Kula in 15 where he tells her that Whip is worried about her, he's incredible, same with Ralf and Leona. Even though I started with 15, I became very interested in every character, so I'm glad I enjoyed this series you did, absolutely amazing. I know I went all over the place with this comment and it's long, but this is the one fighting game franchise that I still love to talk about and will get excited if anything is announced, I wanna see the characters grow, like the whole Leona story that was hinted in 15, so I hope we get more for these characters either in another game or other media.
I love the Fighting Game Retrospectives and this KOF series in particular has been your best work, hands down. Can't thank you guys enough for the hard work. Looking forward to whatever comes next.
Part 4 and still 3 hours long. I applaud your dedication, dude. The previous parts were excellent. Not just a documentary of KOF, but truly a documentary of SNK. I will probably watch this in pieces as I have time.
this was a really wonderful retrospective. through thick and thin, good times and EXTREMELY BAD, KOF is and always will be my favorite fighting game series and I'm glad you could spread the good word with your platform. thanks a ton, man
Hey, Thorgi! Just dropping by real quick to say thank you so much for this retrospective. It made me appreciate the chaos engine that is SNK and the fans surrounding these titles. In regards to the entire Saudi Prince deal and how SNK has been running since the stock investment... SNK seems to be running just fine on their own. The second season of KoF XV's DLC is wrapping up with Hinako making her return soon and KoF XIII was recently re-released on Switch, PS4 and PS5. Maybe it was the initial shock that made people have split opinions, but as far as I can tell, things seem to be okay now. Again, thank you so much for this retrospective and I look forward to more!
Yes! A new video! Love these KOF retrospectives man. KOF is my favorite fighting game series, i'm glad to see someone actually give it the attention it deserves.
This was a wild ride. I am one of those guys who knew it existed but thanks to this channel as a whole I have really gotten into fighting games over the last couple years and KoF may just be my personal favorite. Every fandom has their bad apples but this one is filled with so much support that it ain’t a fandom it’s a goddamn FAMILY. We have fun, crack jokes, get hyped, argue about topics, get inspired and create things, and even when all the chips are down, we pick each other up. I’m glad that I hopped in. Thanks Thorgi, you helped me find one crazy family.
Thorgi, this series made me appreciate SNK in such a huge way. Also, your TMNT BAR got me into the IDW series and now I'm already up to the 5th IDW collection. Keep these videos coming!
35:42 this stage is based on the Iguazu Falls in the limit of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, so you can come here whenever you want As a long time KOF fan from Argentina i must say that i love all the work, passion and love that you put into this retrospective, i love KOF since the very beggining, i´ve started playing KOF 96 as a 9 year old child in arcades and now i play XV with 35 years old, for me this franchise is about play with friends and compete against other kids of the neighborhood, represents my childhood and the comeback of the franchise with XIV make me really happy, hopefully SNK keep growing from here, the near future seems really good with another season of XV and a new Garou game Thank you for this retrospective, excellent job!!
As a Brazilian I agree we should just rename team South America to team Brazil because it's literally just Brazil At least add a paraguain in or something
1:10:24 yeah I know and it’s hilarious, there’s a part where he tries to walk away from Athena and she tries to stop him and , accidentally grabs the belt between Iori’s legs causing him to fall on his face. 😂😂
I'm a new comer to the FGC and KOF in the span of less than a year, I became hooked on it cause I saw Kula and Mai in a DOA 6 video and from there on I became heavily hooked on the series as a whole. I never played any of the new KOF games cause the new console were expensive, but I own a game console that has 80s and 90s games. And immediately I started playing ALL SNK games because of my love for KOF and SNK games all together.
My gosh! This final part of the Retrospective sure does have both hope and despair clashing with one another... and since you've mentioned Samurai Shodown in this video, how would you feel about making a Retrospective on Samurai Shodown?
I adored all of these retrospectives. The passion and knowledge about these ground breaking fighting games, is evident in every aspect of the videos. Seeing this series end is a bitter-sweet one, but I am so glad that it get's to exist. Also I loved the section on the pachinko industry, really cool and fascinating to learn that stuff. I wish you the best on your next project, keep up the great work, and have a lovely day.
Congratulations on managing to make every single video of this retrospective bigger than the last one. And now that all of them are out, I can finally spend an entire day binging them to get the full, uninterrupted, KOF retrospective
Thorgi, while you may not know it, you quite possibly have done more to advertise KOF than anyone in history, even SNK themselves or even Sakurai. I've been playing KOF for decades. I started with KOF 95 on a PS demo disk, and I bought/traded for every KOF game since then; not just the mainline games, but all the good spinoffs and some of the bad ones too lol. And having been part of the community so long, I can say that you more to bring in new fans than anything I've seen. I wouldn't quite call you the Moment 37 of KOF, but definitely what Maximilian was to KI, you are to KOF. So I just want to say thank you for the trip down memory lane, and thank you for introducing KOF to more people. See you in the lobbies!
This retrospective has gotten me into playing the older series. Thank goodness PlayStation has all of them on there, I downloaded each one that was on there and am now having a blast going through each game and practicing them all, so thanks so much for showing people the fun and amazing things that the older games have, and bringing them back to light
I love the idea of a Mario Party like board game themed fighting game, Like you can mini games, then you can also challenge other players to one and one combat. Landing spaces could give you characters extra starting meter or HP or add defiance and attack stats and the game tracks you win count and first person to get so many wins win the game.
I will wait for that retrospective Both SNK Gals Fighter and SNK Heroines are really fun! SNK Heroines is one of my favorites fighting games of all time! Love the gameplay, silly story, costumes and the fanservice. The only thing that game needs is a bigger roster with more gals!
At least, seems Mohammed bin Salman is actually a big SNK fan (he was a rich kid, he had access to a Neo Geo and its games). So it seems he may support the company.
Thank you for mentioning KOFG, I also hated the name 'for girls' as a female player who plays the main games lol but I love the game, it's so fun and the stories are interesting and cute. All the male KOF characters are super charming and I love that SNK thought about giving us a game in which we can 'date' them!
You should play Days of Memories. In that series, in one game you can date females and in another you can date males SNK characters I wonder if those games got fans translations
man, the amount of love gushing from this video makes me smile. three hours long video feels like a second. i don't know how i can reciprocate this love letter video. the only thing that I can think of is to praise thank you very very very much and probably the domino meme: lowest block of domino: Thorgi heartbroken by SF V highest and biggest block of Domino: Thorgi making KoF Retrospective to me, this entire video is one of hallmark history (and nostalgia) of KoF that hopefully stands as a pivotal point of reference one day. again thank you very much.
My friends would visit family in Mexico and come back hyping up KoF. When Capcom vs SNK 2 came out I finally got to experience these characters that fired up my imagination for so many years. Thank you so much for letting me experience some of that history
Caught you on the Triple KO podcast. Watched the entire KOF Retrospective. Amazing job! Love it! I dabbled in the series, this instantly made me go buy all the KOF games I could get my hands on! Great job! Keep it up!
No joke, when I found out about Sylvie's inspiration, I actually looked up Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's songs, and I ended up really enjoying them. KOF got me into Kyary Pamyu Pamyu....
Shun Ei’s design is more of a Chinese cultural thing. In China there’s a form of fashion that kids who are unpopular by society do. It’s basically just this; dressing like a fuster cluck with bright contradicting colors. It’s basically a teen way of saying “you can’t ignore me just because I’m different”. If he comes back I’d actually appreciate a simpler design just off the idea that he doesn’t feel the need to dress like a punk getting attention anymore and instead wears more relaxed clothes.
Thanks for sharing about this trivia. At least it makes sense.
Shun'ei: It's not a phase, Master Tung! This is who I am!
@@Silverwind87 Ah, a classic from my teenage years
Thank you for explaining
I always liked his design
I never understood why people think its bad
1:28:38 I helped work on that Aoi Kusanagi. Thanks for featureing it! There was code issues and we helped them out! Purple flame moves are being work on by the original team. Look forward to it :)
you did good
Sweet
Where can I play the game?
@@jamessicard1705 I second that.
I know this series must not have been easy to make. The amount of research and passion you've put is just unreal. We just wanna appreciate your efforts Thorgi, and thank you so much for making these.
Hard agree. The quality and attention to detail just can't be beat and is super refreshing!
Being a fan of mainly Fatal Fury, my passing interest in KOF was stumped by my lack of knowledge to the lore, and intentions of each game. This TH-cam series has really helped.
What would you think if Kev conversation K3 was designed like Marvel versus Capcom three or to where you can call in your sis character but you only have one point character you know
The company is called SNK play more that’s pretty funny I’m pretty sure they wish people would play more lol
@@strepsilsaregood4u I thought King of fair is 12 was even better than 13 but I think that was the best one they ever did was 12 they they added way too much touch of death combos to 13 in my opinion
It's poetic that KOF is known for its seemingly unbeatable final bosses while they're fighting unbeatable bosses within the company most of the time.
It's like they were delivering their struggle as a metaphor for us.
Take into account that during the time that SNK was being forced to make pachinko machines and literally killing its game development department… and that Ash Crimson was the protagonist that was also the villain….
Well, it’s hard not to feel like the two are connected.
Maybe the next story arc could be based around how SNK Is dealing with Saudi Arabia.
I know it sounds maybe too political but honestly they could probably make a interesting story out of it.
@@bosswiggler8262interesting idea. Can't wait to see how it might get implemented but I'm hoping to won't be too dark and realistic.
@bosswiggler8262 Well, they have this Saudi Arabian heroine in "Najd." Take that with what you will.
03:06:50
"The man who gets beaten down isn't the loser. The guy who can't tough it out to the end, he's the one who loses" - Daisaku Kuze
holy SHIT *I WAS NOT EXPECTING KUZE IN HERE.*
Kuze for KOF XV, I don't care if it makes no sense at all.
@@weirdguy1495 Ron sees Kuze and suddenly has an urge to scream "KUZEEEE!"
@@BenetteG lmao
@@weirdguy1495 it's kof, yakuza characters could appear and being 100% canon
Wow, suddenly those pawnshops in yakuza and Shenmue make a million times more sense
Well, the real life yakuza _has_ used pachinko for money laundering before. That might be part of the reason why Japan wanted to regulate it.
@@Silverwind87 There has been an ongoing takedown of the yakuza in the last 15 years or so, even one of the main groups was in a gang war with the police and it ended in one of the biggest families' boss going to prison and being executed, something that no one imagined before.
This retrospective is how I'm learning about SNK and King of Fighters being a fan of just Capcom fighters. This needs to be recoginzed by the community just for the effort alone.
Home Consoles: "The Japanese gambling laws changed, and where did that bring you? *Back to me."*
Y’know, I have to say, even with the recent… for lack of a better word, controversies, I really can’t let this series and SNK go. These characters got me through high school ever since Terry was revealed for smash, heck I got very happy when K9999/Krohnen was revealed for XV because he was actually one of my favorite characters when I tried out all those arcade archive KOF ports for the first time. So all I can say is thank you for also keeping your enthusiasm for the series even after everything, I feel like everyone needed that after well… yea
so no more kof?
@@oldm44zaliNo.
Plus, EGDC (the parent company of SNK) is a subsidiary of MiSK, which is a non-profit organization, meaning Crown Prince Salman doesn’t get a single Yen from SNK purchases. We’ll be fine.
Honestly, I hope XV isn’t the last game of the Verse Saga. Like it feels like it needs one more game to wrap everything up. Also Shun’Ei and Isla need to be on a team. And a game where a more confident Shun’Ei as the main.
The previous sagas have had 3/4 games to tell the full story, so a prospective KoF 16 to finish the Verse story makes sense.
I feel like they should do an upgraded um15 version with better netcode, matchmaking and single player content
Plus I also want Kukri as his actual rival over Isla
Shun'ei, Meitenkun, and Isla is a team that I see as the next Team Heroes, yeah.
I had never played a KOF game before your retrospectives on the games, let alone played any of them. I binged your three first videos and then started playing the games and I am having so much fun, thank you for making these awesome videos and I'm really looking forward to this 4th retrospective !
Which KOF games are you playing?
@@jjjsalang I emulated basically all the older ones up to 11, and then I got to try 15 a bit at a friends house, still haven’t really decided which game to actually play since there are so many though but I’m having fun with all of them
Im looking into playing KOF tooo
@@KiteTheFish 11 is a really strong entry, I'd recommend '98 UM & '02 UM as well.
@@kingdomcomesuperman3669 thanks !!!! I’m really loving 11, I’m a very annoying Athena player at the moment but I’m starting to learn other characters too !!
Actually, the reason Kula runs away from home in KOF 15 is because K' and Maxima are forced to break their promise to take her to the amusement park due to how busy they've been with work. Though K's attitude doesn't exactly do much to help the situation either so it did kinda play a factor in it too.
One a different note, I completely agree with you. The KOF fanbase has to be the best fanbase I've ever been apart of honestly. I've made so many friends online ever since I got into the series. And I really hope and pray they SNK can once again pull off the impossible by bouncing back from their recent predicament.
It seems like the fanbases of IPs that go through a lot tend to be tight hint like KOF and Devil May Cry
so they both hurt the baby?
why the fuck would they do that?
unrelated but curious, he was talking about how bad XIV looks, but it looks better than XV to me, anyone else?
Alba, Moe, and Nameless should all be on a team together called "Team Non-Canon"
Video Games to SNK: "You could not live with your failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me."
That info about the buyout by Saudi Arabia was hard to swallow, but then again, if we decided to boycott everything from awful companies, we'd have nothing and would all go insane. But that ending proves that if KOF can survive multiple bankruptcies and pachinkofications, it can survive anything.
This retrospective has been such an engaging watch. As someone who got into SNK thanks to Capcom vs. SNK and KOF 13, it warms my heart to see this franchise and company receive so much love and support. Whatever happens in the future, I have little doubt that KOF and SNK will be there.
Here's to SNK and The King of Fighters, the ultimate underdogs of fighting games.
I mean SNK was Chinese owned and they literally have concentration camps there so it's not that different.
Yeah after watching all of this if any company can do it, SNK can.
It's worth noting that it is through a non-profit company. Prince What's-His-Face doesn't get a yen.
Make no mistake. When I buy a KOF game, or any SNK game for that matter, that money is in support of the people who make them. Some very shitty people may be profiting from those games, but they're not on the front lines working countless hours to make these games possible. They're not the ones with the drive and passion that have kept this franchise going for nearly 30 years. There are franchises that have died from less failures than KOF has had. The developers have been supporting this series through all it's highs and lows. A lesser company would've dropped it like a bad habit. KOF is still standing. That is more is more than worthy of my support.
Best way i think of it is: Support the artists but call out the corrupt evil businessmen at the top. As someone who loves SNK and NeoGeo stuff I really hope that the Crown Prince doesn't get in the way of the creativity of the series down the line and screw over character designs, backstories, story elements etc.
I still believe that Good-bye Esaka is a cursed song.
So far, everytime it showed up in a game, something was happening at SNK.
To be fair, in every KOF game something happened, crazy plans of snk or external stuff
Nah, I am pretty sure Goodbye, Esaka was made precisely because sonething HAS happened and they are pre-emptively said goodbye to the people that enjoy said game.
Until they somehow "recover" and then put out more games.
@@chiefbawor_thegr8966exactly, we can all give testimony of that.
God, that ending hit me hard. With the highs and lows. I really felt the power in your words. This is exactly why I subscribed to you. Because of your fiery passion for fighting games.
The history of SNK can be succinctly described like this:
Original SNK goes bankrupt: "We're cooked..."
SNK Playmore buys the IPs: "We're back!"
SNK Playmore embraces pachinko: "We're cooked..."
Japan changed their pachinko laws: "We're back!"
I recently moved to Japan and so far I have seen a dystopian amount of pachinko/slot businesses. I never understood how so many good video game developers could abandon video games for gambling until seeing in person how depressingly popular pachinko/slots are.
It's unfortunately the way the economy is in Japan: Home console video games don't sell nearly as much as mobile games and pachinko.
@@dragonbornexpress5650 There is a reason why Konami are so evil. The fact that Castlevania and Frogger sells less than Pachinko is not a good sign. Company's like Arc Systems and Level 5 have to earn success. Konami can take the easy way out.
Yeah. As a Pokemon fan, as much as I love their games and spinoffs, if you are to ask me as to which Spin off Pokemon Games have been running the series of the last 5 years, it boils down to three:
Pokemon Go (But recently under immense scrutiny as a whole)
Pokemon Unite (currently under Metagame decline and Player base loss.)
Pokemon Master EX (likely one of the very few Pokemon Spinoffs that has the biggest active player base and performs the best).
So yeah. IF YOU are a game developer making games for ASIAN countries financially RICH AND POOR (especially the financially poor), Mobile gaming is the way to go
Whatever happens to KOF, pachinko, bankrupcy, corrupt owners, pandemics.
KOF will live on in us, the fans heart because KOF is special. It brings together so many people of different walks of life and that is worth loving the series for.
We are KOF, and we are alive.
WE ARE TEAM FANBASE!!
What a wild ride, KOF Retrospective is what get me to this channel and to say it was incredible might undersell it. This channel is great, thanks for the vid and see ya again.
“It’s time for the lightning round!”
*checks how much video is left*
Only on fighting game retrospective can a lightning round be almost 2 hours long.
Thank you thorgi this series has been amazing
This is all great, but your theory of the Isle of Man being a mysterious base for an evil supercompany is absolutely hilarious since the real life Isle of Man is known primarily for a motorbike race and being a tax haven which both make it seem oddly fitting for this series.
Again works well with Akira references.
It would also explain where Krohnen got the biker aesthetic from
It's too perfect😂
The motor track and tax haven is a front! There is a whole underground facility on that island, I'm sure of it!!!🤣
3:10:06 I agree with you.
I've made so many friends in King of Fighters and Metal Slug alone. I have introduced so many friends who don't know the franchises SNK makes and they loved them and we've grown closer because of it. My best friend introduced me to it. Smash made me adore KOF so much again. I already had some experience before smash but I was... 7... I chose Terry because kid me had this thing where if a character wore red, they're automatically good!! Ken? CHOOSE. Terry? CHOOSE! (I dunno who else I chose back then). Spiderman in Marvel Vs Capcom? OF COURSE CHOOSE!!
But Smash made me love it so much and the RPs, the fanart, the stories from the games, and just the general games made me grow so close to so many people. I mean I EVEN GOT TO WORK ON ONE OF BANDEN'S VIDEOS!! I LOVE THIS COMMUNITY SO FRIGGIN MUCH!!!
I'm not exaggerating when I say King of Fighters' fanbase is one of the most wholesome fanbases I have ever been in. Yeah there is some bad people, what fandom doesn't have bad people? But the amount of friends via this game has made me happy. HECK I MET A FAN WHO WORKED AT WALMART AND WE CHATTED ALL BECAUSE HE LIKED MY TERRY HAT!!! AND WE JUST TALKED!! And people loved my Terry cosplay despite the fact I am a short and chubby person. You hear stories of cosplay shaming all the time but never with KOF. The people here ROCK!! Heck that same con, I went as Fio. And I felt extremely validated because... the fans of both KOF and Metal Slug supported and loved my cosplay. I don't often times feel that.
I love this fandom so much. I've even learned a lot of Spanish and Portuguese BECAUSE of both KOF and Metal Slug's massive Latin American popularity. I wanted to talk to others. I was proud of myself the other day when I kept up a small conversation in Spanish at a store all because of this game's incredible fanbase. To say SNK taught me more Spanish than Duolingo has is not an exaggeration.
I dunno what the future holds. I know things are bad... But if it doesn't hold, I will always have my great friends who have made the greatest of memories. SNK has a very special place in my heart and its community even more so.
I love that you make a distinction between graphical fidelity and presentation. The latter is so much more meaningful imo the world/environment and interactions in the kof series, in T3/4, MvC is part of why I like this genre at all
Learning the history and dirty ways of companies like Coca Cola, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, EA, Blizzard etc. has made me kind of numb to the fact that the crown prince bought most of SNK's shares. SNK didn't do anything bad and until SNK becomes like those companies I will probably keep on supporting them. Also that crown prince has shares in other companies that people support including SNK's long time rival Capcom.
EA? As in Extreme All-Stars? They never did anything dirty
if anything, what we should be on the watch for is when EGDC starts to go hands-on with SNK. for now SNK is just bought and sort of left alone to make games. The moment there is indication that EGDC starts to dictate the game design AKA the classic publisher developer relationship issue much like EA, Ubisoft, and more then we should come on to the defense of SNK
@@xavierortega6846 electronic arts
When I was in high school, Shun’ei was the coolest guy I ever saw, and he’s still one of my favorite characters and designs. I don’t care if everyone hates him, I think he’s neat.
Kof 15 ending probably hint he will growth on experience for fighting and experience on modern world plus people who hate him will be jealous because shun éi has isla who like him 🤣
@@ameerrusdi2540 factual
I think it's cool but I like style and do my own thing. But he does have a lot going on in his outfit that's for sure 😃
I'll admit, my interest in KOF and SNK started when Terry was added to Smash, and he slowly became my new main, but thanks to your videos I can now say that me and my partner are now huge KOF fans, thank you for all the work you have done, and I wish nouthing but good fortune for you
Me too
KOF 15 feels like a big tribute to SNK entirely. they have teams based on old ones, cameos from characters that we haven't seen in a long time and references from their older games that aren't KOF.
That ending you made gave me goosebumps started sour and ended comforting. You are awesome 👏🏻.
I have a newfound respect for SNK as a whole. It can ruin itself or be ruined by outside influence as much as humanly possible, and yet its tenacity to survive is very inspiring. They can lose their company entirely and still bide their time to come back with a fight for their life. Especially since the fanbase is so dedicated to ensuring only good things come from the company, even if things go south again, they will choose to not die and return with a vengeance. Thank you for all the work you've done to bring this to my attention Thorgi. You rock.
I remember someone telling me about NeoGeo and how SNK created first crossover fighting game that was too cool for it's time. Then I saw King of Fighters XV on Steam and immediately loved it even though I was not fg fan. It's lore is very big and I'm too lazy to complete all 15 games for every team to understand it. All I wanted to say is thank you for your series of retrospectives I am happy to be part of the KOF fanbase now.
3 hours of continuously fun and interesting KOF documentary…my bruh here is a legend…..way better than most Netflix standard formulated ones….
The elephant in the room part was a very important thing you brought up. Bet it did a number on you during the scripting/recording/editing phase & all I could say is thank you.
The entire US media is owned by antieuropeanite war mongers
That segment about the Buy out was really a Gut Punch... But yeah, I'm with the "Everyone in power is evil and you'd go insane trying to avoid anything related to them" crowd. I call out stuff when I'm aware of it.. But am still not gonna abandon anything that bring me joy in this very, very depressive world.
Thank you for introducing me to this franchise that gives me wishes to buy it (when the money is in-), and for a lore hungry guy like me, it's a lot I wish to devour and see more of.
Or you could go the pirate’s life…
that way you could still enjoy the work while not giving any money to some blood drenched monarchy…
This series has been a blast to watch. Soon it’s about to be a year ever since I got into KOF in the fall and I must say it’s a great series, so much so that it’s now one of my favorite fighting games of all time. While yes the fate of the series is once again in question, it’s gonna survive come what may. I learned sooo many things while watching these videos that deepened my liking of the series. Thank you so much for doing this retrospective Thorgi!
let rally together and enjoy the games wooooooooooo
Thorgi: "When Terry was added for Smash, people thought he was a grown up Pokemon Trainer!"
Me: "Really? I've heard almost nothing but "Ken with a hat" jokes with his release for me."
Thorgi, thanks for making this retrospective for KOF. I got introduced to your channel via the Orochi Saga video and I'm very happy I subbed to your channel and saw you reach the finish line with this!
Maybe we can get a Blazblue Retrospective in the future after your long break from this masterpiece? It's kinda my favorite FG franchise and I'd love to see your take on that...
The "Ken with hat" joke is extra hilarious with the CvS2 intro between the two of them. Apparently, Ken somehow DID get ahold of that hat at one point.
@@XellosNi This is true right here.
If we get a blazblue retrospective I would feel bad for thorgi to go into the visual novel stuff.
I do remember the joke of evolution.
Ness, to Pokémon Trainer and at the end Terry. Due to how similar they are, especially for being red cap wearing bois.
Also the fanart involving these three. They're pretty cute and also some cool ones!
Good news from future - wish granted!
Antonov is such a W of a new character.
The people's champion
If I had to describe SNK in my opinion: they’re a company, a community that rides a see-saw between heartbreak and triumph. They taken so much hits in their history but always keep in their minds that it doesn’t matter how hard they get hit but how many times they get back up, how much they can take and move forward because they’re fighters themselves. “Don’t give up and keep fighting” is all I can say to SNK right now and always. @Thorgi’s Arcade seriously you are amazing and incredible with this retrospective, a lot of your opinions and views I can relate to heck I won’t lie that KOF 14 got me into this rabbit hole for the past 4-5 years (also Capcom vs SNK 2 had me interested in who is SNK) and since then I’ve had nothing but great memories I’m still making to this day with SNK’s library of games especially King of Fighters. You’re retrospective just really as a whole these 4 parts reminded me just why I love SNK and fighting games in general. You’re the best man thank you so much for your hard work on this and I’m happy to have discovered you because of part 1….also Team USA Sports team I have hopes for as DLC in KOF XV 😆😆
This was an amazing video, though there's some trivia that is incorrect. Here's a few notes and corrections:
1:28:00 KOF Kyo is "partially" canon. The story itself is not canon, as some elements conflict with the story in '97's arcade mode (like Yamazaki working with Yashiro, the CYS team being aware of their role from the beginning, or Blue Mary not being on a team with either Yamazaki or Billy) but some elements that were new in KOF Kyo are part of the official lore.
1:58:04 That infamous ad wasn't made for KOF ALLSTAR, it was made instead for a game called SNK ALLSTAR...which shut down a few months after the ad went up lol
That makes sense I tried looking up the trailer for King of fighters All Stars and it didn't look the same.
sooooooooooooooo is it canon: yesn't
@@mezoaim8957 Parts of the initial trailer is used as background animation for pre-title screen game data verification.
Through this retrospective, I've realised that no matter what is the situation, SNK somehow will find a way to rise from the ashes time and time again which is facinating to be honest and makes me glad that I'm a fan for nearly 3 years now.
1:41:10 I mean it's probably just because Shermie has a suplex which is really easy to repurpose into a "tossing a carrot behind me" animation
Man KOF All Star was awesome, I remember playing it religiously everyday and it was right when it's around the KOF x TEKKEN period follow by the Christmas period. All the crossover and seasonal skins were so freakin' awesome.
Thank you Thorgi for this retrospective! You are a King.
God I can’t wait to binge all 4 parts for 8 hours straight in like a year
1:58:12
Correction: That infamous ad was for "SNK All-Stars" a game that was being supported until 2021.
I've been playing KOF for most of my life, and seeing this much love and appreciation for this franchise, not only from fans, but from even the developers, it's amazing. I really hope that this franchise will keep going for a really long time so that this part of my childhood lives forever, I love these videos so much, these were some of the best and most interesting videos ever made, thank you so much for putting all of this effort into this.
Absolutely incredible retrospective, so well researched, so well scripted, fun and entertaining!
Thank you so much for ending it on such a positive note, I've been in the KOF fandom for decades, I'm an artist and I fell in love with Iori and Kyo when I was 16 back in 2001, now I'm a 37 married woman and I still love these characters like if they were my own kids haha.
SNK characters are charming and memorable, you grow attached to them bc of their backstories and how many sides they show besides what you see in the ring. I kept friendships online for more than 20 years just because we love Iori and Kyo! The amount of fangirls of KOF characters that have consistently drawn them for the last 2 decades is incredible.
You're right about the passion and love the game devs and designers put in KOF bc it shows in how charming the characters are and how fun the game is to play!
I'll personally continue to support SNK and especially the devs even if the owners and investors are different.
I have to stop watching it in the middle bc of how long this video is lol but here, I finally made it to the end!!!
Thorgi, you're scaring me. Literally earlier today I was thinking, "Huh, I guess it's been a while since the last KOF retrospective. Maybe it'll be soon. Heck maybe it'll be today." Guess it isn't today... but it sure was announced today
And with that, this REALLY long retrospective ends. Presumably on a sour note at first but was brought up to something much better, fitting, and uplifting. I learned many about KOF, bait characters, concepts, development, and all that(though I still REFUSE to believe that SNK saying "it was nothing" to why K9999 was just erased from everything for a while had nothing to do with him being just blue-haired Tetsuo. There has to be something MORE to this!)
As for the last 2 sections, I agree with your stance as well the other 2 of "Salmon already too rich so boycotting will only hurt SNK and nothing else" and "everything ever is owned by someone/something bad so why really bother." And I do agree that SNK will probably be fine in the end, with how much shit they've survived and for how long, SNK is now the company embodiment of an anime protagonist!)
Eager anticipation by all of us Thorgi. KOF has been your best retrospective yet.
To be fair about the Saudi Prince, he bought SNK because he's a massive KOF/SNK fan so I doubt he'll change anything.
Also, he isn't going to really make money because you buy a $60 game ever 4 years.
His money is coming from oil and when you give him $60 three or four times a week when you fill your car with gas.
He bought SNK as a hobby and less as a business.
Finally part 4 of throgi's kof retrospective is going tommorrow.
My favorite thing about KoF: Kyo is that if you have Kyo hit on Mai she just laughs in his face.
Oh my god, if I say this has been my not favorite series of ALL TIME, that would be a lie. This series is absolutely amazing, and I can watch these videos forever, they’re just so good, the end was super sad, to me, but like you said, I think SNK and KOF will be fine. As long as we support it. I am honored to be able to watch all of these videos. Stay safe, sayonara!
1:28:18 I am totally with you on this. Ever since I saw her in another KOF related video before I have been wanting Aoi to be a playable character in mainline games
This retrospective catches you up really nicely on KOF!!
That ending was incredibly heartfelt and I agree. The KOF developers are passionate and dedicated, the fans are just the same. One thing I love about this community is how much they look after each other and their own, based purely on their shared love of the franchise. I've never seen such a beautiful community before, it may not be the biggest but it spans across the world and is the same everywhere.
I'm not really good at putting this kind of thing into words, but I just wanted to attempt to let you know how much I appreciate this entire series of videos. I loved every single minute of every KOF video you made. SNK and KOF have been important to me since the 90s and even when no one else I knew had any clue what SNK was, even when the 90s were so far in the past that people had literally never heard of KOF, I still actively loved the series and all of SNKs games. I own everything from my own red MVS NEO GEO arcade cabinet to the NEO GEO Pocket Color and every single SNK game released for the PS2, Dreamcast, and original Xbox in North America. Terry Bogard getting into Smash was a titanic announcement for me personally. Just overall I'm an SNK super fan and I really wanted to thank you for all the time an effort you put into these videos. We SNK fans are few and far between, especially in North America.... but we are devoted.
I learned about KOF once Terry released for Smash, and I noticed a character, named Clark Still, that unlocked a memory, and I remembered I played KOF with my cousins in Mexico and I chose Clark because he looked like The Terminator when I was kid lol.
After that, I started playing KOF Allstars and only used the Ikari Warriors in it, I still play Allstars but sometimes the game doesn't show off how cool the characters are, like move wise. And then KOF 15 was announced and this was, I guess my first time playing one, and I love it, I'm not good at it, but I love the characters, at first I only loved the Ikari Warriors and all their members, but I fell in love with other's, such as Maxima, Kukri, Antnov, Isla, Yamazaki, K', and Angel. There's a ton more, but I love how great the characters are, Clark is my all time favorite and the KOF14 manga made me enjoy him more, I love the one interaction he has with Kula in 15 where he tells her that Whip is worried about her, he's incredible, same with Ralf and Leona. Even though I started with 15, I became very interested in every character, so I'm glad I enjoyed this series you did, absolutely amazing.
I know I went all over the place with this comment and it's long, but this is the one fighting game franchise that I still love to talk about and will get excited if anything is announced, I wanna see the characters grow, like the whole Leona story that was hinted in 15, so I hope we get more for these characters either in another game or other media.
I love the Fighting Game Retrospectives and this KOF series in particular has been your best work, hands down. Can't thank you guys enough for the hard work.
Looking forward to whatever comes next.
Part 4 and still 3 hours long. I applaud your dedication, dude.
The previous parts were excellent. Not just a documentary of KOF, but truly a documentary of SNK. I will probably watch this in pieces as I have time.
this was a really wonderful retrospective. through thick and thin, good times and EXTREMELY BAD, KOF is and always will be my favorite fighting game series and I'm glad you could spread the good word with your platform. thanks a ton, man
Hey, Thorgi! Just dropping by real quick to say thank you so much for this retrospective. It made me appreciate the chaos engine that is SNK and the fans surrounding these titles.
In regards to the entire Saudi Prince deal and how SNK has been running since the stock investment... SNK seems to be running just fine on their own. The second season of KoF XV's DLC is wrapping up with Hinako making her return soon and KoF XIII was recently re-released on Switch, PS4 and PS5. Maybe it was the initial shock that made people have split opinions, but as far as I can tell, things seem to be okay now.
Again, thank you so much for this retrospective and I look forward to more!
but a lot of people cut their ties with SNK
the damage is already done
@@scoffeex1740 Darn. Ya hate to see it happen. But I do appreciate the update regardless.
@@scoffeex1740 oh yeah? Who are these "people"?
Yes! A new video! Love these KOF retrospectives man. KOF is my favorite fighting game series, i'm glad to see someone actually give it the attention it deserves.
This was a wild ride. I am one of those guys who knew it existed but thanks to this channel as a whole I have really gotten into fighting games over the last couple years and KoF may just be my personal favorite. Every fandom has their bad apples but this one is filled with so much support that it ain’t a fandom it’s a goddamn FAMILY. We have fun, crack jokes, get hyped, argue about topics, get inspired and create things, and even when all the chips are down, we pick each other up. I’m glad that I hopped in. Thanks Thorgi, you helped me find one crazy family.
These retrospectives are prolly the best series I’ve listened/watched on YT
Thorgi, this series made me appreciate SNK in such a huge way. Also, your TMNT BAR got me into the IDW series and now I'm already up to the 5th IDW collection. Keep these videos coming!
35:42 this stage is based on the Iguazu Falls in the limit of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, so you can come here whenever you want
As a long time KOF fan from Argentina i must say that i love all the work, passion and love that you put into this retrospective, i love KOF since the very beggining, i´ve started playing KOF 96 as a 9 year old child in arcades and now i play XV with 35 years old, for me this franchise is about play with friends and compete against other kids of the neighborhood, represents my childhood and the comeback of the franchise with XIV make me really happy, hopefully SNK keep growing from here, the near future seems really good with another season of XV and a new Garou game
Thank you for this retrospective, excellent job!!
As a Brazilian I agree we should just rename team South America to team Brazil because it's literally just Brazil
At least add a paraguain in or something
Better idea: Have a Team South America made of a Brazillian, an Argentinian and an Uruguaian, then make the sub or final boss be Paraguaian.
3:12:16 That ending is so cheesy and yet so heartwarming. Thank you so much for these 4 parts restropective, you've done a tremendously great job!
1:10:24 yeah I know and it’s hilarious, there’s a part where he tries to walk away from Athena and she tries to stop him and , accidentally grabs the belt between Iori’s legs causing him to fall on his face. 😂😂
I'm a new comer to the FGC and KOF in the span of less than a year, I became hooked on it cause I saw Kula and Mai in a DOA 6 video and from there on I became heavily hooked on the series as a whole. I never played any of the new KOF games cause the new console were expensive, but I own a game console that has 80s and 90s games. And immediately I started playing ALL SNK games because of my love for KOF and SNK games all together.
As a kid i owned KoF EX2 and was unknowingly my first king of fighters game until I rediscovered the series years later
XV's my favorite modern figthing game, i really love the gameplay🔥🔥🔥
My gosh! This final part of the Retrospective sure does have both hope and despair clashing with one another... and since you've mentioned Samurai Shodown in this video, how would you feel about making a Retrospective on Samurai Shodown?
I adored all of these retrospectives. The passion and knowledge about these ground breaking fighting games, is evident in every aspect of the videos. Seeing this series end is a bitter-sweet one, but I am so glad that it get's to exist. Also I loved the section on the pachinko industry, really cool and fascinating to learn that stuff.
I wish you the best on your next project, keep up the great work, and have a lovely day.
Congratulations on managing to make every single video of this retrospective bigger than the last one. And now that all of them are out, I can finally spend an entire day binging them to get the full, uninterrupted, KOF retrospective
Thorgi, while you may not know it, you quite possibly have done more to advertise KOF than anyone in history, even SNK themselves or even Sakurai. I've been playing KOF for decades. I started with KOF 95 on a PS demo disk, and I bought/traded for every KOF game since then; not just the mainline games, but all the good spinoffs and some of the bad ones too lol. And having been part of the community so long, I can say that you more to bring in new fans than anything I've seen. I wouldn't quite call you the Moment 37 of KOF, but definitely what Maximilian was to KI, you are to KOF. So I just want to say thank you for the trip down memory lane, and thank you for introducing KOF to more people. See you in the lobbies!
This retrospective has gotten me into playing the older series. Thank goodness PlayStation has all of them on there, I downloaded each one that was on there and am now having a blast going through each game and practicing them all, so thanks so much for showing people the fun and amazing things that the older games have, and bringing them back to light
I love the idea of a Mario Party like board game themed fighting game, Like you can mini games, then you can also challenge other players to one and one combat. Landing spaces could give you characters extra starting meter or HP or add defiance and attack stats and the game tracks you win count and first person to get so many wins win the game.
Sounds like Dokapon
Now we gotta wait for the SNK Heroines retrospective
I will wait for that retrospective
Both SNK Gals Fighter and SNK Heroines are really fun!
SNK Heroines is one of my favorites fighting games of all time!
Love the gameplay, silly story, costumes and the fanservice.
The only thing that game needs is a bigger roster with more gals!
This whole series was just incredible. Great stuff!
9:40 This part especially. Never in my life have I seen a faster u-turn from crap to cash
I really hope they bring back more of the new XIV characters, I liked them a lot.
THIS! 3:04:02 these are exactly my thoughts about the current situation
Mad prop's for all your work, that's impressive and heartwarming.
I really hope KOF's future will shine bright !
At least, seems Mohammed bin Salman is actually a big SNK fan (he was a rich kid, he had access to a Neo Geo and its games). So it seems he may support the company.
You legit deserve millions of views for this series
Kyo as Flame Hyenard might be the most important bit of information in this entire 4 part series
Thank you for mentioning KOFG, I also hated the name 'for girls' as a female player who plays the main games lol but I love the game, it's so fun and the stories are interesting and cute. All the male KOF characters are super charming and I love that SNK thought about giving us a game in which we can 'date' them!
You should play Days of Memories.
In that series, in one game you can date females and in another you can date males SNK characters
I wonder if those games got fans translations
Amazing Retrospective! Great way to start the year!
That last part, man. What an eloquent celebration of the series. Can't type right through this water in my eyes
Long ago we tried to warn many about the pachinko machines not working out. They didn't listen for a while. Then it hit. Hard.
man, the amount of love gushing from this video makes me smile. three hours long video feels like a second.
i don't know how i can reciprocate this love letter video. the only thing that I can think of is to praise thank you very very very much and probably the domino meme:
lowest block of domino: Thorgi heartbroken by SF V
highest and biggest block of Domino: Thorgi making KoF Retrospective
to me, this entire video is one of hallmark history (and nostalgia) of KoF that hopefully stands as a pivotal point of reference one day. again thank you very much.
My friends would visit family in Mexico and come back hyping up KoF. When Capcom vs SNK 2 came out I finally got to experience these characters that fired up my imagination for so many years. Thank you so much for letting me experience some of that history
Caught you on the Triple KO podcast. Watched the entire KOF Retrospective. Amazing job! Love it! I dabbled in the series, this instantly made me go buy all the KOF games I could get my hands on! Great job! Keep it up!
16:42 I am finding this whole explanation of Pachinko law very fascinating! Thank you very much for doing all that research.
No joke, when I found out about Sylvie's inspiration, I actually looked up Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's songs, and I ended up really enjoying them. KOF got me into Kyary Pamyu Pamyu....
That's the most random way to get into Kyary!!!
@@helsiclife What can I say? Never heard of her before KOFXIV. After I learned that, I heard her songs and liked them.
This series of videos is the longest I have ever sat down for TH-cam.
NGL. KOF XIV introduced me to the franchise. Good thing I watched the previous retrospectives in order to catch up with the story.
Being a life long KoF fan, I really appreciate having a huge deep dive retrospective like this made to showcase the series. Many thanks!