The King of Fighters '99 - Plot and Characters

Plot and Characters

Two years have passed since the last King of Fighters tournament and nobody has seen Kyo Kusanagi or Iori Yagami since they defeated Orochi at the climax of the 1997 tournament, but out of the blue, new invitations are sent out to many characters, inviting them to a brand new tournament, though this competition is more of a secretive affair than the ones in '96 and '97. Unlike in previous games of the series, there are four characters per team instead of three. In total, there are seven teams, each containing four characters, four Team Edit characters and a boss.

The increased number of characters per team, as well as the story element of the missing Kyo and Iori, lead to the reshuffling to the character roster. K' is introduced as the new protagonist of the game along with his partner Maxima, who joins forces with Kyo's former teammates, Benimaru Nikaido and Shingo Yabuki, to form the new Hero Team. Takuma Sakazaki rejoins the Art of Fighting Team as its fourth member, while Mai Shiranui finally becomes an official member of the Fatal Fury Team for the first time in the series. King joins forces with Blue Mary (formerly with the "'97 Special Team") to form the new Woman Fighters Team along with Kasumi Todoh (last seen in KOF '96) and Li Xiangfei (from Real Bout Fatal Fury 2). The other three returning teams each gained a new member as well: Whip for the Ikari Team, Bao for the Psycho Soldier Team, and Jhun Hoon for the Korean Team. The game also introduces two clones of Kyo Kusanagi, Kyo-1 and Kyo-2, as Team Edit characters based on previous playable incarnations of the character, while the real Kyo, along with his rival Iori, also returns, but only as secret playable characters. The antagonist of the game is Krizalid, a clone of K' employed by NESTS to carry out one of their nefarious schemes. He is faced in two states: first he appears with a coat that analyzes an opponent's data, then once he is beaten, he takes off his coat and increases his strength while having stronger moves.