New Age Saga

The Shun'ei Saga (Tentative Title) is the fourth and current on-going 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 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 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).

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.

The King of Fighters XV
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...

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.

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.

Trivia

 * As this is a current on-going story arc, there are currently many mysteries that currently do not have answers yet.


 * Although the manga The King of Fighters: A New Beginning contains more information about the story side of KOF XIV, it is not canon to the games. The publication is written by Kyōtarō Azuma.


 * As of yet, it is unknown how Mui Mui and Love Heart will be affected in the series, since the rights for Dragon Gal and Sky Love pachinko series are sold (the last for Highlights Entertainment, a bankrupted company).


 * On the Team Ikari Warriors's story introduction for KOF XV, Heidern refers to both Shun'ei and Isla, as well as other people with similar powers to them, as the "Awakened Shadows". This could be the official title for this saga, or a hint as to what the official title might be.


 * This the only story arc which their chapter games are developed and released firstly for modern video game consoles, being released for arcade cabinents for some time later.


 * This is the first mainline arc story to use 3D graphics, with 2.5D playthrough. The other experience of the series with that type of engine is the Maximum Impact series.
 * However, unlike the spin-off series (which use the 3D game system), the games of the story arc uses the 2.5D game system.


 * The first game of the saga, The King of Fighters XIV, is the first of the series to use the Season DLC Content Pass system. However, the first DLCs of the series are released in The King of Fighters XIII, the last chapter of the previous saga.
 * This is also the only saga which the DLC characters released in the first chapter are available in canonical teams in the following chapter.


 * Due to 3-vs-3 system, the maximum number of rounds is 5. However, when the last round (now named "FINAL ROUND") ends in a tie, a decisive round, under the name "EXTRA ROUND", appears.


 * In this story arc, the rounds are again numerically announced, which hasn't happened since KOF XII (Ash Saga's Dream Match and KOF XIII's Beta Version).


 * The two chapters of this saga and The King of Fighters XIII are the only of the series which the characters quotes when selected.
 * The two games also uses the characters' full name in the select screen, along with The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match and 'The King of Fighters Neowave.
 * The two entries also use selectable character costume colors, along with The King of Fighters XIII.


 * This story arc is the first of the series which the characters spoke his victory quotes (between mainline chapters and spin-offs). The same feature can be seen in Samurai Shodown (2019).


 * This saga and the NESTS Chronicles are the only story arcs in the series with an updated version of a character removed due to copyright isssues and controversy.


 * All games of this saga are produced and released by current SNK.