In terms of the story, the Orochi Saga of
KOF had come to an end, and in response to that, SNK wanted to give the series a "special" nature. Originally,
KOF itself was a series that started with the basic concept of something special, but as the series progressed, it gradually began to have its own unique storyline. Therefore, there was no story for
98, but various playable characters returning from previous stories. This is the first time that the
KOF series has had a subtitle, and the developers wanted to express that it has a different position from the previous games. All of the members of the development team had to decide who had participated in
KOF. SNK definitely released all the characters who had participated in
KOF at once, and then repeatedly considered who to bring back. During this process, the developers also took into consideration the opinions of the users especially in the
Neo Geo Freak magazine. Rugal is included due to the original creator's passion over him. Several characters were given customizations to their movesets. This, helped with the balance of the cat, helped ''The King of Fighters '98'' become one of the best games in the series.
Shinkiro kept being the series' artist with ''KOF '98'' remaining as one of his most famous works. The game was ported to several more consoles when compared with previous installments thanks to the new Neo Geo consoles as well as Sony's and Sega's. Director Toyohisa Tanabe had negative thoughts about this game due to SNK going bankrupt during the release of this game as SNK would close all of its American operations. While the American Sports Team was not as popular as the other cast members, SNK still paid attention to their detail by producing new sprites and special moves. The big aim was determined to bring back old characters. The same applied to Vice and Mature who were given new moves. Balancing the game took an entire mode. Before publishing the game, Tanabe drew two pictures of
Street Fighter characters
Ryu and
Ken Masters and inserted them into the game's build. This would predate the release the crossover
Capcom vs. SNK which gather both Capcom and SNK characters. The game's intro has Iori Yagami destroying the screen with his body which inspired future installments like
The King of Fighters 2002 and also coin the catchphrase "Shatter All Expectations" in
The King of Fighters XV. There was also a careful approach to drawing the characters during their victory screens when compared previous installments. The victory screens were based on a challenge image used for a bonus fight against Shingo Yabuki. In promoting the game for Sony's PlayStation, an image of Kyo Kusanagi was made by Shinkiro in a passive state which would change to his eyes open when the game would be ported to the console. In promoting the "Dream Match", Shinkiro's illustrations also led to characters in calm state while wearing formal clothes even if it does not fit. However, the Dreamcast port heavily focus on rivalry between Kyo and Iori. In ''
The King of Fighters '96, several moves from Kyo Kusanagi were changed in order to adapt him to the new game system. However, the original moveset was still popular among gamers and as such, an alternative version of Kyo was added to The King of Fighters '97. The introduction of this version was noted to be "a hit" within gamers, the staff kept adding new alternative versions of other characters in KOF '98''. Since this game did not have a storyline, the SNK staff decided to return
Rugal Bernstein as the boss character noting that "he's the only character who truly represents the ultimate
KOF boss." Additionally, some of his special moves were redesigned, which the staff found to have made him the strongest version of Rugal as well as one of their favorites. ==Releases==