New Age Saga

The Shun'ei Saga is the fourth and current on-going mainline story arc in The King of Fighters series. It covers the events found in The King of Fighters XIV and The King of Fighters XV, as well as SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy (a canonical spin-off game).

Verse
After Ash Crimson sacrificed his existence to erase his ancestral Saiki from this world during the thirteenth tournament, a entity known as Verse began forming. Verse is formed from various fallen souls that spread not only through The King of Fighters series, but also other SNK series. When Nakoruru, a young priestess from the Feudal Japan (in the end of the 18th century), sensed a terrible malice coming from a crack in spacetime, she traveled to the modern times (where The King of Fighters universe and story takes place) and enters with Mui Mui, a dragon clan member, and Love Heart, a pirate and captain of the Peace Air Pirates.

The "First" Champion


Several years after the events of the thirteenth tournament, a confident billionaire named Antonov buys the rights to The King of Fighters tournament, over the strong objections of the board members of his company, the Antonov Corporation. Proclaiming himself as the “first champion”, he eagerly host a new tournament and sends out invites across the world, challenging the teams to take his title.

Follow Me
Once again, all of the teams fought with all their strength, culminating with the Japan Team reaching the finals, which was a final confrontation with the "first" champion, Antonov. Team Japan easily beats him, making them winners of The King of Fighters XIV, the first time since their last victory in the '97 tournament.



However, mere moments after beating Antonov, a mysterious entity appears, destroying the stadium and causing the death of many people.

This Verse's manifestation has already caused time anomalies. A fragment of Verse is inside, and its presence compelled Nakoruru (who refers to him as Wei Kamui) to traverse through spacetime to defeat it. Shun'ei defeated Verse, but upon the defeat, it exploded and released omnimous mist across the world. With Verse's defeat, The King of Fighters tournament ends.

Burning On
36 hours after the tournament's conclusion, Heidern receives information from Maxima about the creature that appeared during the finals of the tournament. The Ikari squad leader dubs the entity as Verse, due to it only yelling "Veeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrse" when it spoke. Heidern confirms that there are several bodies that were resurrected and has already commenced a 24 hour surveillance. After the meeting he tells Leona that Gaidel's resurrection has not been confirmed, although Leona responds that she's not concerned with it.

Several characters were revealed who were revived:


 * Orochi lands in Hungary, but cannot maintain itself without a catalyst as Chris was resurrected in a new body elsewhere. It is found and sealed once again by Kyo, Iori and Chizuru, the three Sacred Treasures. Orochi also had three empty craters near it, already revived.


 * Elisabeth Blanctorche is informed by Kukri that he found Ash Crimson in the Ukraine Carpathian Mountains, and reveals that Ash was among the many people whose souls were trapped inside of Verse's body.


 * Verse itself seems to not be completely destroyed, as its remains lands in the Australian Ayers Rock.


 * Besides that, other evil souls are trapped and released (some of them belonging to bosses from previous games and sagas).

Some teams formations remain the same from the latest title, and another are composed by new characters, as seen in the list below:

The new teams formed in this entry are the following:

SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy

 * Note: Due to this game's events being treated as a self-contained dream sequence they do not affect the future mainline KOF titles directly, with only a few minor tidbits like Shermie's presence being followed up upon.

Several months prior to the events of the fifteenth torunament, Kukri's obsession for women caused him to create a pocket dimension where women fighters must survive in his universe and join forces and slug it out with other women.

Kukri transports and kidnaps most of SNK female fighters, including few of them who aren't present in the previous tournament (such as Jeanne D'Arc and the recently revived Shermie) to this pocket dimension, and they suddenly fall unconscious. Upon waking, they find themselves in a strange mansion, along some male fighters who have been changed into women. Kukri's main objective is to transform the female fighters into sand sculptures. For this, he has the help of an evil statue whose energy comes from the battles between the fighters, in addition to the fear and despair of each of them. The fighters attempt to battle their way out, but are confronted by the mastermind, Kukri, who reveals he has trapped them in his castle in a pocket dimension and they must defeat him to return home. The heroines all defeat Kukri, which causes the pocket dimension to collapse all together, sending the heroines back to reality (indicated as the events being revealed to be a bad dream), while Kukri is left in an unknown status.

Prologue
Only the world's toughest fighters can duke it out in the largest martial arts tournament in the world.

Though a mysterious being called Verse destroyed the KOF arena, its threat was quelled thanks to the brave efforts of the winning challengers.

Time has passed since the closing of that tumultuous tournament, and the next KOF begins, backed by a new sponsor.

Meanwhile, Chizuru Kagura senses something interfering with the seal of Orochi, otherwise known as Gaia's Will.

She teams up with Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami to join the KOF and investigate.

Amidst these myriad motives, fighters resurrected after Verse's defeat also join the fray.

Once again, a storm is on the horizon...

Shatter All Exceptations
Following Antonov's early retirement, the new tournament commissioner Anastasia sends out invitations to fighters to join the tournament; the mayhem caused by Verse's powers resurrects various long-thought deceased fighters from past tournaments as well.

Chizuru Kagura gathers Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami in order to look after the seal of the snake demon Orochi. Shun'ei, a teenager with mysterious powers resembling Verse's, enters the tournament again alongside Meitenkun and Benimaru Nikaido to better understand his powers. During the tournament, they encounter a rival team led by a girl with similar powers to his own, Isla. Isla is being mentored by a woman named Dolores who wishes for her and Shun'ei to stop the appearance of more creatures like Verse, believing Ash Crimson's timetravelling in a previous tournament to have caused their appearance. However, a new creature labeled as Re Verse appears as the tournament progresses and targets the fighters, pulling them into another world. Following Re Verse's defeat, the mysterious goddess Otoma=Raga appears and attacks the teams. Upon Otoma=Raga's defeat, the fighters escape back to their world and are crowned the new King of Fighters champions.

The team formations of the game are as the follows:

Debutant Characters

 * Characters who made their canonical debut in The King of Fighters series, ordered by their first appearance in the series.

Returning Characters
Characters who are returning from previous installments in The King of Fighters series, ordered by their first appearance in the series.

NPC Characters
Non-playable characters who appear during the saga's lore.

Characters & Teams' Participations

 * Teams in which the characters who participate in the saga are inserted.


 * Note: As there the system of the game is 2-vs-2 (Tag-Battle System), all participations in SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy are solo.

Mainline Games

 * Participation of the debutant or returning characters in mainline games of the saga, either they canonical or not.


 * Note: The order of the table are based on the appearances on the first mainline game of the saga.

Spin-Off Participations

 * Participation of the debutant or returning characters in spin-off games with direct relation to the saga, either they canonical or not.