The King of Fighters '97, the story moves toward violent destiny.
"They're back to the heat for an answer they've long been searching. Is it their fate or just a bloody coincidence? It shall be cleared as three powers will beat as one. And now, the fourth phase is about to begin."
The King of Fighters '97 is the fourth installment of The King of Fighters that was developed and published by SNK, released on July 28, 1997 for arcades and the Neo Geo.
Despite Goenitz's sabotage of the last tournament, KOF continues to rise in popularity, and so a new tournament is held again throughout the globe. Two new teams join the cast; '97 Special Team is a trio consisting of Fatal Fury characters, each with their own purpose, and the New Face Team is KOF-original, a rock band with a surprisingly good aptitude for martial arts. Meanwhile, Chizuru, the KOF '96 mid-boss who's joined Women Fighters Team, is expecting the Orochi's imminent resurrection, and still looking for cooperation from Kyo and Iori to prepare for it. And then there's Shingo Yabuki, the series' first Joke Character.
Like its prequel, KOF '97 is responsible for introducing signature systems that set itself from other SNK fighting games. Beyond bug fixes from '96, the biggest change is to split up the previous KOF's fighting system into two styles, the Extra mode and the Advanced mode.
- The Extra mode is based on KOF '95, using the Art of Fighing gauge that fills up when you take or block hits, and can be charged manually. You get the evasion dodge and the quick step, but lose access to most techniques in '96, like the Tech Grab.
- The Advanced mode is a new system that takes from KOF '96. Your gauge meter fills up whenever your attack connects to the opponent a la Street Fighter Alpha, and completely filling it gives you a stock that can be spent for Super Move, Advanced mode's equivalent to Desperation Move. Additionally, you can use a stock to activate the MAX Mode; in this state, you can spend another to perform a stronger MAX Super Move.
Teams in this version
- Team Japan: Having found his calling, Kyo Kusanagi leads his friends Benimaru Nikaido and Goro Daimon into one more KOF, hoping to stop Orochi once and for all.
- Team Fatal Fury: Comprised of Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi once again.
- Team Art of Fighting: Same as last year, with Ryo Sakazaki, Robert Garcia and Yuri Sakazaki all returning.
- Team Ikari: Leona Heidern, Ralf Jones and Clark Still set out to complete their mission, though something isn't quite right with Leona...
- Team Psycho Soldier: Athena Asamiya, Sie Kensou and Chin Gentsai as usual.
- Team Women Fighters: King and Mai Shiranui this time team up with the previous tournament's sponsor, Chizuru Kagura, though she still has her own agenda to deal with Orochi however necessary.
- Team Korean Justice: Same as last year, with Kim Kaphwan, Chang Koehan and Choi Bounge returning.
- Team New Faces: The up and coming rock band C.Y.S., comprised of guitarist Yashiro Nanakase, keyboardist Shermie and vocalist Chris, enter the tournament to prove their worth as well as get revenge on Iori for stealing one of their gigs.
- Team '97 Specials: Ryuji Yamazaki and Blue Mary enter KOF for the first time, joining Billy Kane.note
- Single Entry: Following his Orochi-influenced murder of his previous teammates, Iori Yagami enters the tournament by himself this time around. Meanwhile, a young fan of Kyo, Shingo Yabuki enters hoping to catch the attention of his idol.
- Bosses
- Mid-Boss 1: Orochi Iori or Leona, berserker versions of the characters brought out by the Riot of the Blood.
- Mid-Boss 2: Team Orochi - The Superpowered Evil Sides of Yashiro, Shermie and Chris, revealing their true selves as the remaining three Hakkeshu, wielding stone, lighting and flame powers respectively.
- Final Boss: Orochi - Using Chris' body as a vessel after the Hakkeshu's defeat, the demon that is Orochi is resurrected to pass judgment on the human race.
- Special Teams
- Team Sacred Treasures: As with the last game, pairing Kyo, Iori and Kagura will showcase the canon ending to the game's story.
- Also included were special art seen at the end if you picked certain teams.
- Kusanagi Team: Kyo, Shingo and anyone save Iori or Benimaru - Essentially a team with Kyo as the leader
- SNK Heroes Team: Kyo, Terry and Ryo - The respective main heroes of King of Fighters, Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting.
- Ego Team: Kim, Benimaru and Joe - The main ego trippers in the cast at the time.
- Classic Women Fighters Team: King, Mai, Yuri - Original Women's Team from KOF '94-95
- Classic Heroes Team: Athena, Ralf and Clark. - The main heroes from the original 80's games Athena and Ikari Warriors.
- If you had the Japanese version of the game, you get special magazine images if you beat the game with certain teams
- Neo Geo Freak Team: Kyo, Mai, Billy
- Gamest Team: Terry, Blue Mary, Joe
- Famitsu Team: Yamazaki, Chang and Choi
This work shows examples of:
- Balance Buff:
- The Emergency Evasion roll has a longer period of invincibility, making it easier to dodge attack with it.
- In addition to using the evasive roll as Guard Cancel, you can also perform it with the Blow Back attack, with reduced damage and brief invincibility period.
- Big Bad: Orochi, a divine being named after the legend of Yamata no Orochi.
- The Cameo: Several SNK characters can randomly appear in the "Next Challenger" booth from the left side of the China stage.note
- Canon Immigrant: Yuki, Kyo's girlfriend in the side materials, briefly appears as her first voiced role at the end of Three Sacred Treasures Team's ending. She is reprised by Tomoko Kojima who played her in the Drama CD adaptations.
- Cutting Off the Branches: The KOF series usually keeps it ambiguous about which team won the tournament, but KOF '97 isn't the case. KOF '99 mentions Kyo fought Orochi, so either the Japan Team or the Three Sacred Treasures Team was with him. Add in that Iori and Chizuru are still dealing with the aftermath of the Orochi in the Tales of Ash arc, and Leona is shown concerned about going mad from the Orochi blood again (which happens in KOF '97 if you recruit Iori in your team and not her), and it's clear the Three Sacred Treasures Team is the canon team that sealed Orochi.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first game with the Advanced Mode, it's also the only game where performing a Super MAX Move does not deactivate the MAX Mode. Because the Power Gauge here stacks up to 3 stocks, you can theoretically use MAX Super twice in a row, even if doing this is overkill considering how much damage they do in '97.
- Evil All Along: Team New Faces is introduced as a group of rock stars that have a rivalry with Iori. It's then revealed that they're actually hosts of Orochi's blood like the latter, and are seeking to resurrect Orochi.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Orochi is the source of several conflicts introduced thus far including the Kusanagi-Yagami feud and Goenitz granting powers to Rugal.
- It Has Only Just Begun: In Japan Team's ending, Kyo reflects on the dangerous threats he's fought over only four years before facing Iori once again. The narrator declares, in Gratuitous English, that this is only the beginning.
- Joke Ending: Like before, each team has its own ending, with a few hidden ones that are lore-heavy, but KOF '97 is the first to have joke endings:
- Pick Kyo, Terry, and Ryo as your team and you get the SNK Heroes Team ending, where they boast about carrying the weight of being the protagoinsts in SNK fighting games.
- Pick Athena, Ralf, and Clark, and you get the Classic Heroes Team ending, where they (and Kensou) show up in their original Ikari Warriors and Psycho Soldier costumes.
- Pick Benimaru, Joe, and Kim, and you get the Sidekicks Team ending, where Benimaru claims he's the best among them, much to other two's chagrin.
- If the game's lauguage is in Japanese, you can unlock endings that promote the video game magazines, Neo Geo Freak (Kyo, Mai, and Billy), Gamest (Terry, Joe, and Blue Mary), and Famitsu (Chang, Choi, and Yamazaki).
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Team New Faces actually being Team Orochi is treated as standard information nowadays by SNK. In subsequent appearances, they're even marketed as "Team Orochi" instead of the former name.
- Nerf:
- In '96, Air Guard would take effect as soon as you tap the joystick backward after jumping. In this game, it only starts to work when your character reach a certain height in their jump.
- The Guard Cancel now costs your gauge, draining it immediately in the Extra Mode and using one of Power Gauge stocks in the Advanced mode. If you want to keep the stocks in the MAX Mode, you'll need to bear the risk of not using the Guard Cancel.
- Starting with this game, Super Moves are preceded by a Lightning Reveal that stops the screen for a moment a la Street Fighter Alpha. The actual startup for the moves got shorter to make up for it, but this means your opponent will have a very visible cue when you perform a Super Move and thus is less likely to fall for it if you use it carelessly.
- The Mood system puts even heavier handicap on your team if you use the Advanced mode. If your character is on friendly terms with your previous fighter, you get their Power Gauges intact from the previous round, and may get a bonus depending on their relationship. If they're on bad terms, you lose all of them. Characters like Iori and Yamazaki, being enemies with most of the '97 cast, get the most shaft because of this.
- Offscreen Teleportation: After beating either Orochi Leona or Orochi Iori as a mid-boss, the battle stage is suddenly changed to the Altar of Orochi despite the cutscene before suggests this battle takes place shortly after. The game provides no explanation on how your team got there.
- Open-Ended Boss Battle: Losing the secret Iori boss fight after beating Orochi lets the ending and staff credits continue as normal, with Iori taunting Kyo instead of the other way around before they continue to fight. Interestingly, losing the fight enables extra dialogue after said trash talking.Kyo: Yagami... Afraid of fate?Iori: Fate? Hah! You're mine!Kyo: Says you!
- Play as a Boss: You can play as Orochi in the PlayStation version. This is notable because it's the first game where the port expanded the boss' moveset to become a proper player character, adding things like crounching animations that were not in the arcade version. This version of Orochi was later reused in '98 UM.
- Rival Final Boss: If you take the Japan Team route and defeat the Orochi as Kyo, Iori shows up to challenge him, initiating a single round match.
- Season Finale: This is the conclusion of the Orochi Saga, with the next game KOF '98 a dream match game and KOF '99 the start of another arc.
- Superpowered Evil Side: Orochi Iori and Leona are versions of the respective characters that have succumbed to Orochi's bloodlust. Both of them are hunched over and breathing aggressively; meanwhile Iori has paler skin and darkened hair, and Leona's hair turns blood red.
