Plot rundown?

[Bible Accurate Clown]

Can anyone give me a quick plot rundown on the previous games?

I tried reading some info but it's a lot of info for a lot of people and all of it seems patchy at best.

I just want a brief rundown of things since nothing seems to matter but a handful of characters each game.

[Loona]

Oprindeligt skrevet af RX-0Banshee:

WHAT?! How have all the people who've commente forgotten the VERY first KOF?

Garou Densetsu/Fatal Fury

Remember Geese Howard organized a fighting tournament in Southtown in 1990? It was specifically called the "King of Fighters". Rugal Bernstein heard about this and hosted his own version in 1994, and the rest is history.

Actually, the 1st KoF tournament happened in Art of Fighting 2, a decadde before Fatal Fury - but nowadays it's generally accepted that those games and the KoF series are different continuities, with a few differences, like the ages of the AoF cast, and Geese being alive or not.


As for the Ash saga, long story short is that much like the Orochi clan inflicted some troubles in Japan 1800 years ago and was dealt with by Kyo, Iori and Chizuru's ancestors, there's a European clan of beings who see themselves as separate from humanity ("Those From a Distant Land", because Europe is rather far from Japan), whom Elisabeth's family is tasked of keeping in check.
This clan has time-manipulation abilities, but needs a major power source to use them, and they want to use Orochi, who was sealed in 97.
In 2003 they set their plans in motion, taking control of Chizuru to have her oraganize that year's KoF and grant access to the seal. As is revealed later, they are working with Ash, whom at the end of that tournament's events steals Chizuru's powers, one of the keys to contain Orochi.
It is also revealed that Rugal has 2 children: Adel, who has his fighting abilities, and Rose, who has his sore loser attitude. Prior to the events of 2003, Heidern and Adel meet, which is a bit tense, since Rugal killed Heidern's family, but there's a hint of mutual respect.

According to their interactions in XI, Elisabeth and Ash were both supposed to keep an eye on Those from the Distant Land, but Ash appears to have gone rogue. Ash now targets Iori to get his powers, and succeeds in the end.
There's tension within TFDL's ranks - in XI, this is shown by the final boss, Magaki, being a major prick to Shion, the game's sub-boss. after you beat Magaki, Shion kills him with his spear (the very first thing you see in the XIII opening).
Heidern's group retrieves Magaki's body to study it, but the body is stolen by Shroom and Rimelo from TFDL (who also steal one of Heidern's eyepatches ni the process).

Those from the Distant Land take control of Rose, Adel's sister, and use her to set up the KoF XIII tournament. The plans include building a stadium for the event right on top of where Orochi is sealed, to gather enough energy to awaken it into the trap meant to power the time travel gate that will allow TFDL to go back in time to reshape history to suit them.
Before the XIII tournament, Shroom and Rimelo try to attack Kyo (you also see this in the XIII opening, and is addressed in the story mode), possibly to see what they're dealing with, now that he's the only one whose powers haven't been stolen by Ash.

With Ash gone rogue, Elisabeth has to take it upon herself to deal with the situation, while trying to figure out what's going on with Ash.
Kyo is trying to get Ash too, since he knows he's next in line for something that is not meant to end well.
Iori's pissed off as well with Ash, and obssessed with Kyo as usual, so keeps on fightnig even without his flames. As what remains of Orochi is none too pleased with seeing their power used for somebody else's plans, Vice and Mature are sent to join the living and team with with Iori to deal with the new common enemy.
Adel is concerned about his sister, and ultimately gets in touch with Heidern to exchange information on what's going going, since Heidern has been investigating the incidents since 2003 (well, his staff has a role in all KoF stories, but Adel's concerned with more recent events).
Ash is doing his own thing, pretending to play along with TFDL, encouraging Shroom and Rimelo to rebel, antagonizing everybody else in the process.
Saiki is TFDL's leader - and an ancestor of Ash's. His plan, as stated, is to use the energies generated during the tournament to feed them into the seal containing Orochi, to awaken it into a trap he can use to power his time gate.

At the end of the tournament Saiki stops time for everyone who's not aware of what's going on and raises the time gate - this is when we have the boss fights. Given the story, it makes the most sense for Elisabeth and her team to be fighting him (between her role in the story, and apparearing list before everyone else in the game except the select screen, it seems very likely).
When Saiki is distracted from this fight, Ash steals some orbs that would be powering the time gate, and tries to stop Saiki by stealing his powers too - however, Saiki's essence takes over him.
After Saiki'd Ash is defeated, Saiki tries to continue controlling him to go through the gate and go back in time to be able to resume his plans, but Ash doesn't allow it to happen. Existing only as an essence not allowed to resume control, Saiki dissipates, along with the history that would folow him. As Ash is his descendant and a part of that history, he is erased from hsitory, not before saying goodbye to Elisabeth, whom he wished to protect.

with history retconned at the end of the game, there never was an Ash (or a K9999, maybe...), Iori and Chizuru never lost their powers, and apparently a lot of memories are erased or rewritten to fit the new circumstances - "god's in His Heaven, all is right with the world".

[Bible Accurate Clown]

Was K9999 really so bad that they couldn't even just change his apperence so it wouldn't appear as much like Tetsuo. He was a pretty popular character.

[Temporary]

I should bookmark this thread.

[Loona]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Smiler:

Was K9999 really so bad that they couldn't even just change his apperence so it wouldn't appear as much like Tetsuo. He was a pretty popular character.

They did something close - for KoF 2002 Ultimited Match they replaced K9999 with a character called Nameless, who essentially has the same moves but looks different.