Hwa Jai

Hwa Jai (หัว ใจ in Thai language) is a character from the Fatal Fury series and The King of Fighters series. He first appeared in the original Fatal Fury game and appeared as a playable character once more in The King of Fighters XIII.

Development
The producer for KoF XIII stated that he was added to be the "surprise character" for KoF fans, keeping true to their theme of not always adding popular characters for the newer cast's balance. He thought Hwa Jai would be one of the most interesting characters for an appearance in KoF, due to his detailed background history and previously lone playable appearance.

Personality
Hwa Jai longs to be the best Muay Thai fighter there is. To accomplish that, he must defeat his sworn enemy Joe Higashi. After being defeated by Joe in 1992's KOF, he and Joe eventually became friends. Now, he realizes that life isn't about winning and he and Joe support each other all the time.

His KoF counterpart is rougher than his Fatal Fury counterpart, talking in a more brutal and intimidating manner. Even though he claims to have changed, he is rather cocky of his skills and is ready to start a fight at any time. His friendship with Joe has also been abandoned, thinking that he still needs to defeat his rival in a match. Considering that Raiden is "acting" like a villain in order to partake in the tournament, it can't be truly ruled out that Hwa Jai isn't just faking his cruelty in The King of Fighters for the sake of giving Kim something to work on.

Fighting style
While Hwa Jai does not have any kind of powers, when he ingests his "power drink", he gains above average strength, stamina and speed, but seems to lose some reflexes. Such drink is a mixture of medicinal herbs and, according to the KoF XIII development team, does not contain alcohol or cola.

Hwa Jai uses traditional Muay Thai. Hwa Jai is only able to perform his special moves after using his "power drink". He would automatically do this after taking a significant amount of damage (around 1/3). In the original Fatal Fury game, his only special move is the Dragon Kick. In the SNES version of Fatal Fury he gained another special move named "Dragon Back Breaker" and furthermore he could use that move without the effect of his power drink. KoF XIII includes a version of all of his Fatal Fury moves, the Dragon Kick, the Dragon Back Breaker and his drink power up, plus adds several other moves for Hwa Jai to use.

In Fatal Fury, Joe's and Hwa Jai's normal attacks are different, unlike KOF XIII. His Dragon kick is made to rival Joe's Tiger kick since it follows the Dragon vs Tiger theme.

Music

 * King Cobra ga Yatte Kuru (King Cobra is Finally Here) - Fatal Fury
 * Tame a Bad Boy - The King of Fighters XIII (shared with Raiden and Kim)
 * Seoul Road - The King of Fighters XIII (when the music is set to "Type B", console version only, shared with Raiden and Kim Kaphwan)

Voice actors

 * Sōnosuke Nagashiro - The King of Fighters XIII
 * Ryōichi Tanaka - Fatal Fury drama CD
 * Hisao Egawa - Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf
 * Chō - Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture

Appearances
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Mainline

 * Fatal Fury: King of Fighters — playable in SNES version; left out of Genesis version due to memory constraints
 * The King of Fighters XIII
 * Garou Densetsu: The Legend of Wild Wolf — one of Joe's arm wrestling opponents
 * Garou Densetsu Special — one of Joe's arm wrestling opponents

Cameo

 * Fatal Fury 2 - listed as one of the fighters beaten by Krauser
 * Fatal Fury Special - in Joe's ending
 * Fatal Fury 3 - in Joe's intro; background when facing CPU Joe
 * Real Bout Fatal Fury - in Joe's intros and ending
 * Real Bout Fatal Fury Special - in Joe's winpose, background Yamazaki vs. CPU Joe
 * Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special Dominated Mind — in the intro, nackground in Joe's stage
 * Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers - background in Joe's stage
 * The King of Fighters XII — as Joe's personal trainer in his profile story
 * The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match — background in Cambodia stage

Mobile

 * KOF x Garou Densetsu

Anime
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 * Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf
 * Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture

Gallery
Hwa Jai