Iori Yagami/Move List

Overview


Iori is a notoriously offensive Rushdown Character with powerful simple combos that can lead into vortex situations off of guaranteed hard knockdowns, though players would need to be careful as failing to master Iori would prevent using him to his full potential due to his laggy attacks and slow walking movement can easily lead him being punished for misuse of his tools.

Iori is surprisingly an avid zoning-type character, as his Yami Barai gives him an advantage in keep-away due to the movement styles in KOF. Even then, his powerful 127 Shiki Aoihana is his main meterless-combo-finisher tool that rewards him with said hard knockdowns, and makes his small combos extremely rewarding as he can continuously loop simple bread-n-butters into Aoihana to keep racking up damage not as affected by scaling, and even resulting in a quick stun to push his offense even further; this can be true if Iori has meter to expend for a super cancel (such as into his trademark Ya Otome).

Though in order to find opportunities to connect with such combos, an Iori player has to overcome the huddles of his lack of strong high-low mixups (his grounded overheads are lacking in speed with notable wind-up and his famed Kuzukaze throw has startup), and his laggier attacks which give him issues with applying safe pressure.

His most popular command normal, Ge-Shiki Yuri Ori, is a backwards kick that is meant only for crossing up making Iori unique in this aspect. In most games as of KOF '98, Iori can use it in a backdash for a quick getaway. From there, Iori conned the discovery of certain midair attacks being available during a backdash.

Due to Iori losing his flames at the hands of Ash Crimson during the climax of The King of Fighters XI, his moveset had been revamped for The King of Fighters XII and The King of Fighters XIII. His flameless fighting style appears somewhat faster (albeit less mobile) in KOF XII and KOF XIII; his combos seem to have become easier to chain with a slightly higher priority, on top of a far more practical tools in a quicker overhead in Ge-Shiki Kui and a damaging-side-swapping-juggle throw in the form of 203 Shiki Tsuchi Tsubaki.

Despite this, his lack of projectiles and limited multi-input offense without Aoihana revolves around being far more meter-reliant for both his Power and HD gauges in order to maximize his combo damage.

His old moveset returns as a separate version of Iori, titled "Iori who has recovered his Flames", or "EX Iori" in the console update Arcade "Climax" version of KOF XIII, which saw nerfs to some of his classic elements (such as his Aoihana being laggy on recovery more than before).

Starting with KOF XIV, he returns back to his Flame based moveset, while also containing elements of his Flameless moveset.



In Million Arthur: Arcana Blood, Iori's moves is a combination of his classic and Flameless XIII incarnations, with the added ability to perform air dashes and a few other new additions, such as the ability to perform the 311 Tsumakushi in midair.

Million Arthur: Arcana Blood
To be added soon...

Trivia

 * Iori's Sanjingi no Ni move is based upon the canon ending of The King of Fighters '97, in which the special edit-only Team Sacred Treasures seals Orochi.
 * Kuzukaze used to be a normal kick throw in KOF 95 that throws the enemy to the opposite direction. From 96 onwards, it is now a command throw that does not knock down the enemy, and the Saka Saka-Hagi takes its place as the kick throw.
 * Depending on his appearances, the Saka Saka-Hagi will have him turn around and slip behind the enemy before the aforementioned throw, or he'll instantly switch sides (whose animation looks rather rough) with the enemy while the animation plays.