Esaka

Esaka is a name related to several songs in The King of Fighters series of fighting games, often related to Kyo Kusanagi or his clones. Esaka is often attributed to Kyo in the Orochi Saga, while Tears and Blaze are attributed to Kyo in the NESTS and Ash Saga respectively.

Esaka is the name of a train station in Osaka, the city where the SNK headquarters are located so Esaka is also often used to reference and refer to SNK.

Esaka
The first Esaka has a prominent usage of keyboards. It also has electric guitars, bass guitars and drums. The arranged version has a guitar solo.

It was created to fit the chaos in the street shown in the Japan Team stage in KOF '94 (the drifting car as an example).

List of musicians behind the arranged version: An arranged version of this song also appeared in The King of Fighters '98, that has been transformed into a Pop Rock / Post-Grunge song that features a prominent usage of acoustic guitars, now solely associated with Kyo using his KOF '95 moveset.
 * Hajime Wada (Guitar)
 * Keisuke Komori (Drums)
 * Toshiharu Izutsu (Keyboard)
 * Naoya Izumi (Bass)

List of musicians behind the arranged version:
 * Jun Kajiwara (Guitar)
 * Masaharu Ishikawa (Drums)
 * Chizuko Yoshihiro (Keyboard)

Funky Esaka
This version is a funk (as the name says) song, featuring prominently bass guitar, keyboards and sax. It also has percussion, drums and an electric guitar.

The arranged version of this song has a bass solo and a saxophone solo as well.

List of musicians behind the arranged version:
 * Masahiko Hataya (Bass)
 * Shigeo Fuchino (Saxophone)
 * Hiroyuki Nanba (Keyboards)
 * Nobou Eguchi (Drums)
 * Jun Kajiwara (Guitar)

Esaka?
This song is the mostly known theme song of Kyo Kusanagi and is one of the most classic songs of The King of Fighters series. The song has also appeared in The King of Fighters '98, The King of Fighters 2002, The King of Fighters 2003 and The King of Fighters XI (although the KOF XI version sounds closer to KOF 99's Acid Mix). The song has also been featured as a bonus track for The King of Fighters XII Soundtrack and the console version of The King of Fighters XIII.

The intro of the song is played by a keyboard and soon the song starts with an electric guitar. The song has a fast tempo and fans consider this song to truly mirror Kyo Kusanagi's personality and music taste.

List of musicians behind the arranged version: The song was remixed for The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match by Yasufumi Fukuda titled "Esaka!!" It features a new intro and has a new synth-rock feel to it.
 * Akira Jimbo (Drums)
 * Tetsuo Sakurai (Bass)
 * Jun Kajiwara (Guitar)

It was remixed again for The King of Fighters XIV as "Yappari Esaka?" It features the main rhythm of Team Japan's "Yappari Esaka" theme with the notes of the original "Esaka?", used for Kyo Kusanagi's Fateful Battle against Iori Yagami, both in their Classic DLC costumes.

Esaka Forever
This song seems to be heavily based on its previous version. The intro is played by an acoustic guitar, but soon the song starts with an electric guitar. The song is generally fast-paced, but it has some slowdowns. The song's main riff is played by the electric guitar, but it also has some keyboards.

This song returns in The King of Fighters '98, but it, along with Cool Jam (Arashi no Saxophone 3), will play at random during Kyo vs. Iori matches.

This song has been judged by fans as memorable, specially the arranged version, which some call epic (as the name says).

List of musicians behind the arranged version:
 * Nobuo Eguchi (Drums)
 * Jun Kajiwara (Guitar)
 * Motofumi Ogiwara (Bass)
 * Chizuko Yoshihiro (Keyboard)

Esaka ~Acid Mix~
This is the theme of the two Kyo clones in The King of Fighters '99. This version is basically a remixed version of the 1996 version. It is slower, features a techno beat and also has some vocals.

It was created to mirror the technological feel of the NESTS era.

The song returns in The King of Fighters XI when facing EX Kyo Kusanagi as the leader and in The King of Fighters XIII as a bonus track for the whole Japan Team. This version lacks vocals from the original version and is slightly slower as it again becomes a rock beat.

Goodbye Esaka
The old SNK knew that The King of Fighters 2000 was going to be the last game of the series they were going to develop, so they created this song. The name Goodbye Esaka (or Good Bye ESAKA) was given to this song to mirror the situation SNK was facing. Since Esaka had been attributed to SNK, some fans call this song Goodbye SNK.

The song prominently features acoustic and electric guitars and is a little bit heavier than the other Esaka's prior to XIII. The song has a main riff played by the electric guitar that gives the listener a "Goodbye feel" that SNK intended to give. The arranged version has a bigger usage of the acoustic guitar.

List of musicians behind the arranged version: This song returns in The King of Fighters XIII, now associated with NESTS-styled Kyo. It features a more prominent and harder use of electric and acoustic guitars.
 * Jun Kajiwara (Guitar)
 * Hori_Hori (Guitar)
 * Atsuo Okamoto (Drums)

Esaka Continues...
This song is one of the two available themes for the Japan Team in The King of Fighters XIII, the other being "Esaka?". The song features electric guitars and seems heavier and faster paced compared to other Esakas. Because of newer hardware that allows the game to play sounds at a better quality, the theme does not have an arranged version.

Yappari ESAKA
This is the new theme for Team Japan in The King of Fighters XIV, but appears to be used for the Neo Esaka stage. It is an amalgam of all previous in the Esaka series into one theme, starting off with Esaka Forever, before going into Esaka Continues, Goodbye Esaka, and finally Esaka?, as the theme returns to Esaka Forever in a loop, though it sounds closer to Esaka? in terms of arrangement.