For a franchise that spans as long as The King of Fighters has, it's inevitable that some characters will eventually be recasted.
- Jun Hashimoto (Andy Bogard's seiyuu in KOF '94) was replaced by Keiichi Nanba in the following game; Nanba has voiced Andy in all subsequent games until KOF XIV, where Hiroshi Okamoto took over.
- In XII, Matsuo Matsuo now voices Chin instead of Toshikazu Nishimura. Come XIV, Shintaro Tanaka takes over.
- Several characters had alternate voice actors/actresses in the '94 Dengeki drama CD:
- Kyo: Ryōtarō Okiayu.
- Benimaru: Hikaru Midorikawa.
- Daimon: Ryūzaburō Ōtomo.
- King: Yumi Touma.
- Mai: Megumi Hayashibara.
- Ryo: Akira Kamiya.
- Yuri: Sakura Tange.
- Takuma: Hōchū Ōtsuka.
- Rugal: Banjo Ginga.
- Terry: Takeshi Kusao.
- Joe: Kazuki Yao.
- Katsuhisa Namase voiced Joe in KOF '94. Nobuyuki Hiyama has taken over the role since then, until XIV where Kozo Mito took over.
- Robert Garcia: Kazuhiro "Kay" Inage was replaced by Mantaro Koichi, who voiced Robert from KOF '96 to 2003. When Robert popped up as a Secret Character in XI (which was based off of his appearance in Mascot Fighter NeoGeo Battle Coliseum), Inage returned to voice Robert, and continues to do so in XII and XIII. Come XIV, Inage gets replaced by Go Shinomiya.
- Bunsyu Shinoya takes over for Ralf in XII. In English, Scott Casey in the Maximum Impact series, Jeff Manning in XII.
- In English, Clark went from Sean Michaels (Maximum Impact) to Eric Kelso (XII).
- Kim is voiced by Kazuhiko Nagata in XII, succeeding Satoshi Hashimoto (Hashimoto voices Terry until XIII, where Takashi Kondo takes over for XIV). However, in his return in XV as DLC, he's instead voiced by Kunihiro Kawamoto, his voice actor in The King of Fighters: Destiny.
- Akoya Sogi (who has voiced Mai from the beginning up to XI) has been replaced by Ami Koshimizu as of KOF Sky Stage. Given that Sogi has apparently retired, it's a safe bet to assume that Koshimizu will take over in all subsequent appearances. This could also be the reason behind Mai's absence in XII.
- For Kyo, Andrew Roth (his English VA in the Maximum Impact series) was replaced by Peter von Gomm come XII.
- His Japanese Voice is also changed for XIV, with Tomoaki Maeno taking over Masahiro Nonaka.
- Ditto for Iori, who used to be voiced by Kunihiko Yasui ever since his debut, until in XIV he was replaced by Takanori Hoshino.
- Between '94 and '98, Athena's voice changed as much as her clothes, with one for every game. In order: Reiko Fukai, Moe Nagasaki, Tamao Sato, Chris Yukina, and lastly Haruna Ikezawa, which was the one who stuck. It can be presumed that this was because SNK was testing out a seiyuu for her.
- The unfortunate consequence of the suicide of Daisuke Gōri led to Raiden's voice duty being handed over to Iain Gibb in XIII.
- Krizalid is a rather perplexing example in that both of his seiyuu are used in 2002 UM (Yoshiyuki Iwamoto for him as a standalone character, Eiji Yano for him as one of Original Zero's Strikers). Semi-justified since they are two different Krizalids, the one who backing Zero being a clone of the one who hosted the '99 tournament. He has since been voiced by Masahito Kawanago since KOF: World.
- Rugal also has this kind of case, as while Toshimitsu Arai has voiced him in nearly all of his appearances, his appearances in 2002 and Neowave instead have him voiced by Norio Wakamoto. Rugal's role would then be handed over to Tsuguo Mogami come KOF: AS.
- En masse for XIV, many voice talents got replaced, not the first time it happened in the series as one can see above but XIV took many mainstays out in one go; characters that had the same voice for decades (Kyo, Kensou, Yuri to name a few) were finally, but sadly, gone. And also shockingly, despite still being active with his voice quality intact, Nobuyuki Hiyama did not return for Joe. The only characters who didn't get recast were Geese, Benimaru, King, Mai, Athena, Chang, Choi, Kula, Maxima and Tizoc as the King of Dinosaurs.
- Nakoruru subverts this in XIV, though. Harumi Ikoma, her very original voice actress, did not return for her. However, Mai Nakahara, who was voicing her during her appearances in Samurai Shodown's Pachislot titles reprised her role. (Most likely due to Ikoma's advanced age; it'll make it hard for her to do Nakoruru in her youthful appearance. King, however, is a more adult-looking character that Ikoma can still do.)
- In her old Pachislot title, Love Heart was voiced by Atsuko Tanaka. Come her KOF debut, Toa Yukinari took over.
- Mina Tominaga voiced Angel in 2001, and got replaced by Mayumi Shintani in 2002 and later Miki Ogura in XIV.
- Ramon went from Eiji Takemoto to Kiyoshi Katsunuma come XIV. Takemoto also did not reprise Rock Howard for his DLC appearance, despite the fact Rock hasn't had a lot of appearances in general, changing to Yūma Uchida.
- Krohnen/K9999 went from Nozomu Sasaki to KENN in XV. Likewise, Elisabeth is also no longer voiced by Kayoko Oshima, but rather Shizuka Itō.
- Gato and B. Jenet went from Kouji Ishii and Rei Saito as of their last appearances in XI to Yuma Yamaguchi and Mikako Komatsu in XV, respectively.
- Despite Ayako Kawasumi still providing voices for Hinako in KOF: AS, she did not return for Hinako in XV. Akane Tamura replaces her.
- Bizarrely enough in The King of Fighters: Destiny, Mature, who already had an established new voice actress in XIV, got hers replaced once again in the series, being replaced with Yu Shimamura instead.
- Until KOF: AS, Yamazaki has been voiced by Kouji Ishii since his debut. His role was then handed over to Tsuguo Mogami, who would return as the character in XIV.
- Goenitz was initially voiced by Yoshinori Shima since debut, until KOF: World replaced him with Susumu Akagi.
- The "New Faces Team" from KOF '97 also had this change since KOF: AS:
- Yashiro: Makoto Awane —> Keisuke Hamaoka
- Shermie: Hazuki Nishikawa —> Erina Seto
- Chris: Rio Ogata —> Shiki Aoki (Aoki would later be darrin'd by Rui Yamasaki come XV)
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