The King of Fighters '99 - Development

Development

The King of Fighters '99 initially meant to remove Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami from the series due to the introduction of the new lead character, K'. However, due to negative fan response in location tests, they decided to readd them. Kyo was also redesigned for this game, but the developers still liked Kyo's school uniform outfit. As such, based on the concept of adding EX versions from various characters in previous games, the staff created the Kyo clones, which would feature Kyo with classic movesets. The staff wanted to create a Robo Army Team. However, this idea was abandoned but they later made it a tribute in The King of Fighters 2000 by introducing Rocky, a character from Robo Army as a striker for Maxima. The character Whip was originally meant to appear in The King of Fighters '96, but due to Leona's introduction in that game, the staff decided to wait until KOF '99. Developers also found troubles with the large number of young characters appearing in the game; as such the staff also designed older character such as Maxima and Vannesa to balance the game. In contrast to this, Bao was added to the game in order to reduce the average age from the Psycho Soldiers Teams (which changed from 42 to 34 with Bao's introduction). The boss character, Krizalid, was designed "with a straight, stylish appearance and earnest strength." However, the designer in charge mentioned he "overdid it." Due to the large number of unused graphics accumulated on the Neo Geo version, some of Krizalid's graphics were removed. With the release from the Dreamcast port, the staff could add Krizalid's graphics due to the capacities from such console. Vanessa was also meant to be playable in the game, but due to time constraints, she was only a striker character in the Dreamcast port.