The Orochi in The King of Fighters is a version of the Kusanagi legend. He is the final boss of The King of Fighters '97. His voice is provided by Rio Ogata. He has white hair, white trousers, and a tattoo across his chest. The tattoo on his chest represents the eight-headed serpent from the legend. His origins are unknown except from the legends told about him. The King of Fighters ), or KOF for short, is a fighting game series by SNK that debuted in 1994. ... The King of Fighters (or KOF for short) is a Japanese fighting video game series by SNK that debuted in 1994. ... Kusanagi-no-tsurugi (Japanese: 草薙の剣) is a legendary Japanese sword as important to Japans history as Excalibur is to Britains. ...

The name Orochi directly translate as The Great Serpent.

History

The Orochi was a being that could cause incredible amounts of destruction and death that was originally defeated 1800 years ago by the members of the Kusanagi, Yasakani, and Yata clans. After rescuing the Sacrificial Maiden, Princess Kushinada, the Yasakani held Orochi in place, the Kusanagi dealt the final blow, and the Yata sealed it off.

However, 250 years later, when the Kusanagi clan was considered to be the strongest of the three clans and the Yasakani the weakest of the three, the Yasakani clan made a blood pact that allowed the Yasakani to use the power of Orochi. Such power came at a cost: the Yasakani, now Yagami, wielded purple flames and were doomed to live very short lives. This action led to a violent feud between the Kusanagi and the Yagami, and many members of both clans lost their lives.

The murder of the leader of the Yata clan in the present day released the seal that had sealed Orochi away. Hearing of this, the heiress to the Yata, Chizuru Kagura, organized the 1996 King of Fighters tournament in order to unite the two warring clans, represented by Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami. In the 1997 KoF tournament, the Sacred Warriors of the Orochi rise and directly try to resurrect Orochi himself, who is reincarnated as a teen boy named Chris. Also, they kidnap Kyo's girlfriend Yuki, who is believed to be the last descendant of Princess Kushinada. After saving Yuki, Kyo deals the final blow to Orochi as Iori holds the god in place, and Chizuru seals it off... just like 1800 years ago. Chizuru Kagura is a videogame character from the King of Fighters series. ... Kyo Kusanagi ) is one of the main characters in SNK Playmores King of Fighters videogame series; he was first introduced in The King of Fighters 94. ... Iori Yagami ) is a video game character who made his first appearance in the Neo Geo fighting game, The King of Fighters 95. ... Yuki is a secondary character in SNK Playmores King of Fighters videogame series; she was first introduced in the The King of Fighters 97 and King of Fighters: Kyo games. ...

But as if fated, the remaining warriors that fought for Orochi would never give up trying to revive him. In 2003, the heralds of Orochi made another attempt to break the seal, putting the human race in peril, yet again. It is oriented towards the revival of Orochi.

Followers of the Orochi

The Four heavenly kings

• Goenitz - Elemental of the Air and Wind—He is known as Fuki Sasebu Kaze no Leopold Goenitz (Leopold Goenitz of the wildly-blowing wind)
• Shermie - Elemental of Thunder and Lightning—She is known as Arekuuruu Inabikari no Shermie
• Yashiro Nanakase - Elemental of the Earth—He is known as Kawa Ita Daichi no Yashiro Nanakase (Yashiro Nanakase of the parched Earth)
• Chris - Elemental of the Flames and the known vessel for the Orochi—He is known as Honou No Sadame no Chris (Chris of the flames of destiny)

Leopold Goenitz is a video game character who made his first appearance in the Neo Geo fighting game, The King of Fighters 96 as the last boss, following Chizuru Kagura. ... Shermie is a videogame character in the King of Fighters series. ... Yashiro Nanakase is a videogame character from the King of Fighters series. ... Chris is a character from SNK Playmores King of Fighters series of fighting games. ...

The Assassins

• Mature - Steel/Metal Elementalist—Minor Orochi Contributor
• Vice - Death/Seeping Arrow Elementalist—Minor Orochi Contributor

Mature is a videogame character from the King of Fighters series. ... Vice is a videogame character from the King of Fighters series. ...

The Heralds

• Mukai - Stone Elementalist; still alive, and appeared to be undamaged after the battle against him in KOF2K3. Presumably the leader of the Heralds (although it is debatable whether the Heralds truly follow Orochi, or oppose both it and humanity).
• Magaki - Energy and Warping Elementalist; transforms into a pink-skinned, demonic version of himself during combat

Mukai is video game character in the King of Fighters series. ... This is a list of characters from the King of Fighters series that play more minor roles in the story or lack sufficient information, and so are listed collectively here. ...

Other

• Ryuji Yamazaki - Insanity/"Ten Thousand High" Elementalist—The only known Orochi (besides the Heralds) alive as of this update
• Guidel (Never appears, having died before the events of the series) - Water Elementalist—Orochi being who betrayed the Orochi Lineage - he fathered Leona with a human woman - so Goenitz induced the Riot of Blood on his daughter so she'd kill her parents.

Ryuji Yamazaki ) is a video game character from both the Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series. ... Leona Heidern is a video game character who made her first appearance in the Neo Geo fighting gameseries, The King of Fighters. ...

Other Characters within the Orochi bloodline

• Leona Heidern - The daughter of Guidel to a normal woman., being a half-blooded Orochi. Goenitz awakened her Orochi blood to punish Guidel and his community for his refusal to cooperate with the revival of Orochi, an obligation that all of their bloodline (Orochi) are sanctioned with. She is later adopted and trained by Heidern.

• Iori Yagami - Technically an enemy of the Orochi clan, his ancestors forged a pact with the Orochi clan to gain more strength and to defeat their rival, the Kusanagi clan, at a fatal price. All of the Yagami (formerly Yasakani) clan are doomed to wield the Orochi blood, the pain, and the short-lived lives that came with it. The Orochi clan used this feud to their advantage, but the Yagami blood has somehow managed to triumph over the Orochi blood. This was shown when Yagami managed to do his part in sealing off Orochi in 1997 despite being under the influence of Riot of the Blood.

Leona Heidern is a video game character who made her first appearance in the Neo Geo fighting gameseries, The King of Fighters. ... Heidern is a character in the King of Fighters series. ... Iori Yagami ) is a video game character who made his first appearance in the Neo Geo fighting game, The King of Fighters 95. ...

The Riot of The Blood

The Riot of The Blood (called Chi no Bousou in Japan) is a frenzied state of a human being where he/she loses total control, physical faculties and sanity to the Orochi blood within. This only happens to born people who do not have 100% Orochi blood in their veins. Any of the Orochi clan or even the Orochi itself can trigger this state at mere will.

The basis behind this condition is due to the resistance of the other half of the blood to the power of the Orochi. A person under the influence of Riot of The Blood can be subdued in due time, as the outburst do not last long, and as long as there is no presence of Orochi power nearby.

Gameplay

As a playable character, Orochi possesses immense power, and borders cheapness due to his mostly unstoppable techniques. He can stop just about anybody using his two super moves alone; Return to Nothingness and Enhanced Soul Stealer. He is the first SNK Boss to have a screen-filling super and a one-hit kill. Later KOF bosses like Zero and Magaki would adapt the attack concept of Return to Nothingness.

Orochi is among the SNK bosses that do not have crouching attacks, until the game was ported to the Sony Playstation, with severe frame cuts. He was slightly toned down, although still possessing the power that he is known for.

Orochi also uses signature attacks that some KOF characters have. Not only does Rugal's Genocide Cutter attack similar to Orochi's hard kick, but his Double Tomahawk command attack (f + B) is identical to Orochi's close hard kick.

In the arcade version of KOF97, he had an infinite combo that involved his reflector move. This was because the said move had zero recovering time, making it possible to cancel into several moves and deal crazy damage to the enemy. This flaw was fixed in the Playstation version by changing the animation of the move altogether.

As of KOF97, all of his DM (Desperation Moves) are considered SDM (Super Desperation Move) caliber and strength.

Divinity

SNK implied that Orochi is a divine being, calling him God's Messenger in the ending. This association is most likely due to Gaia, a representation of Mother Nature also being linked to God despite paganistic sources. In truth, one of Gaia's sacred beings is a serpent, and Orochi is a serpent, which would make sense as to why Gaia would send Orochi to the earth to warn humans to change their ways or face destruction, either at his hands or their own. This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... Gaia (pronounced // or //) (land or earth, from the Greek ; variant spelling Gaea—see also Ge from ) is a Greek goddess personifying the Earth. ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ...

Some observations, arguments and theories can be drawn from this.

• Although in his KOF97 appearance he was shown as an outright villain, his divine origins point that he had pious intents behind the campaign, and that his intent to destroy humankind is merely because of humanity's long-standing resilience. Moreover, SNK wrote in the ending that Orochi exists to prevent the excessive advancement, abuse and arrogance of humankind. Therefore, he should perhaps be seen as an anti-hero, not a villain. This also makes him the least evil of all KOF villains.
• The Edit Team ending still hints that Orochi wants to bring humanity to destruction anyway in spite of defeat, suggesting that even if Gaia did not see destruction as absolutely necessary, Orochi believes that this is the only certain way to clean the Earth of sins from humanity. Despite this, it seems Orochi, given a choice, would not resort to outright destruction of humankind, as he conceded to the strength of the fighters after the battle. After defeating Orochi, the victorious fighters are brought back to the world, with Orochi saying something to the effect of "I return to my sleep. For a ten, a hundred years. You still have a chance. I look forward to it."
• Before the battle with Orochi in KOF97, Orochi complains that years has passed and that humans has not changed at all. Also, in his lines spoken shortly after his defeat, he questioned why humans continue to persist their ways in face of self-destruction.
• There is an observed inconsistency with the portrayal of Orochi's divinity. All interpretations are widely varied, but all perceptions about Orochi point to him as a divine being; It is only Orochi's godhood that is being disputed, as Orochi cannot be one, if he is merely a messenger.
  • His winquote "There is no one greater than me" implies that he is a god; but this could be taken as a dominating gesture, having no intent to supercede Higher Beings than itself. There are others who take the quote literally, however.
  • The ending texts explicitly labels Orochi as God's Messenger. By this fact, Orochi cannot be considered a god, though his powers certainly do have the properties of a deity.
  • Some of Goenitz's speech in SvC: Chaos implies that the cultists (being the Orochi Clan, or the Hakkeshu) regard Orochi as most likely the one true god who ought to supplant all others (potentially mirroring the demiurge in Gnosticism, who is ignorant of all things higher than himself), and that raw bloodlust/rage is a higher state of being than anything that normal humans would regard as sane. The implication may be that Orochi doesn't think that humans are sufficiently bound by nature-forged instinct to ever be trusted. The fact that humans, by nature are stubborn, resilient, persistent, and at times, rebellious, reinforces this.

The Demiurge, in some belief systems, is a deity responsible for the creation of the physical universe and the physical aspect of humanity. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Trivia

• Orochi's theme music, The Origin of Mind, is a mysterious song with an ever-changing tempo, militaristic marching beats, choir voices, heavy percussion, and various other instruments, giving it a mystical, tribal feel. The Arranged version features an increased use of electric guitar.
• The form of Orochi seen in KOF97 is merely Orochi changing Chris' form to represent the strong-willed fighters of the tournament. The closest thing to Orochi's true form was seen in Iori Yagami's ending in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, in which Orochi speaks to Iori, tempting him to give in to the Riot of Blood. In this ending, Orochi appears to be identical to the multi-headed serpent of myth.
• SNK planned earlier in KOF97's production to make Orochi's incarnation as a buck-naked Chris, surrounded with light. Of course, the present form today was seen as the better idea.
• Based on Orochi's last words of a decade's worth of sleep, and nearly 10 years have passed, it seems possible that the words mean of prophecy. As of today, a cult of sorts is trying to revive Orochi (based on the current KoF saga of 2003 and XI). This would mean that Orochi may possibly return as a boss in the upcoming KOF game.
• Many years in the future, the WAREZ organization tries to revive Orochi with experiments, and the final result is Mizuchi, a powerful Orochi clone. Mizuchi is one of the bosses of Neo Geo Battle Coliseum and his powers are barely similar to the original Orochi.

Iori Yagami ) is a video game character who made his first appearance in the Neo Geo fighting game, The King of Fighters 95. ... Neo Geo Battle Coliseum (abbreviated NGBC or NBC) is a 2 on 2 tag team fighting game for the Atomiswave arcade board. ...

Appearances

• The King of Fighters 97 (Arcade/Playstation/Sega Saturn)
• The King of Fighters 2000 (Sega Dreamcast) - Leona's unlockable Maniac Striker
• The King of Fighters 2002 (Arcade/Dreamcast) - Temporary transformation, as part of Orochi Chris' Hidden DM.
• Neo-Geo Battle Coliseum (Arcade/PS2) - Represented as Mizuchi, with different movesets and voice, and greater difficulty.

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