Was originally going to post this in the videogame things you think about a lot thread, but decided it was a better fit here:
One of the things that I often think about re: KOF is just how much the team dynamic adds to the series. It could have easily been an afterthought–just a way to distinguish it from other fighting games. Instead, it feels like an extremely elegant way to do a lot of storytelling, in a way that feels both very videogamey and also unique.
Take Yuri in the first three games. In the first two games, her story is that she’s formed the women’s team in order to spite her family after they refuse to allow her on their team. Then you get KoF 96, where suddenly, she’s part of the Kyokugen team. Even without all the supplementary material—of which there is fair amount, but not a whole lot, in absolute terms—that tells you something. It’s arguably more development than Ryu’s ever gotten.
And there’s just so many bits just like that. There’s Shingo, who begins as a single entry Kyo-fanboy, gets adopted by Benimaru, eventually gets to join the Japan Team, even taking Kyo’s spot, and then actually gets to join a team without Benimaru in it. There’s Benimaru himself, with all his team-hopping, which makes him distinct from Daimon, who is a regular, but will only ever join one team, and appears to only do KOF when it fits on his schedule. Iori, like Benimaru, does a fair amount of team-hopping, but it feels…less deliberate? Like, he’s been on teams with both Ramon, Chizuru, and Billy Kane—who else can claim that sort of variety?
(And yet, curiously, Benimaru and Iori have never been on the same team.)
Or heck, just take Seth and Vanessa in KOF 2000. Their similar aesthetics would have still been suggestive if they’d been Street Fighter characters, but the fact that they’re introduced on opposing teams suggests so much more, and makes them so much cooler.
KOF XI will always be one of my favorite entries because of what it does with the teams: none of them retain a previously existing configuration. A Terry / Kim / Duck King Fatal Fury Team? Yes, please. And then comes XIII, which is just whiplash-inducing in its traditionalism; the only interesting team is Team Korea, which is surprising but becomes less so when you consider that the last time that team had its usual configuration was 2002, and that it has only become weirder since.
The King of Fighters XIV has a team made up of existing characters whose only link is being born in Mexico and having wrestling as a fighting style, and I find that fantastic.
