The King of Fighters XV/Trivia


 * The 3D character models are all cel-shaded, similar to the models of Samurai Shodown (2019) (the first SNK game to use Unreal Engine 4). However, the vast majority of 3D models have been reused and remodeled from The King of Fighters XIV and SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy. The exceptions are Chizuru, Yashiro, Chris, Ash, Isla, Dolores, Krohnen, Elisabeth, Jenet and Gato, who have their models made from the scratch.


 * This is the first mainline KOF game in 28 years where it doesn't feature Kim Kaphwan in the initial roster. The reasons are explained in the Secret Agents Team's Story and in Luong's interview with Clemence Bellamy, where she mentions he's currently training in the mountains with his master and her lover Gang-il. This reason is also seen in Kim Team's ending in the previous game.
 * The other probable main reason of the character's non-inclusion in the initial roster is due to the recent death of the real Kim Kaphwan, founder of Viccom, a Korean company that for many years licensed SNK's games, and that inspired the fictional character.


 * This is the second game of the series where every act of the fight is narrated, the first being KOF XIV.


 * Some team formations in this game evoke details from past games of the series (or from the other SNK 's franchises):
 * Benimaru teaming with the current protagonists is a callback to how he can often be seen in several story-relevant teams composed of varying members, of which many of them resulting in their canonical victories within the most of KOF tournaments (particularly with the Hero Team). However, in the third saga's case is opposite, where Benimaru team up in its saga's Rivals Team during the eleventh tournament, Team Elisabeth, its saga Rivals Team ended up acting as a replacement Hero Team in thirteenth tournament, due to Ash's role in that storyline.
 * Certain special formations present in older KOF entries appear as official teams (the Sacred Treasures Team and the Super Heroines Team.
 * Similar to Fatal Fury Team's classic formation, the Art of Fighting Team 's formation in this game consists of the three main heroes who all debuted as playable characters in the first Art of Fighting game. It would mark the second time to have a team formation based on the playable fighters from the first Art of Fighting game since KOF 2000 (if counting Takuma Sakazaki as Mr. Karate).
 * Heidern's presence in the Rivals Team marks the second formation of this team with a character debuting from the first mainline game of the series (the first being Benimaru Nikaido in The King of Fighters XI).
 * The Krohnen Team resembles the NESTS Team 's formation in The King of Fighters 2002. The only difference is that one of the members of the former formation (K9999) is removed and swapped with a similar character (Krohnen McDougall).


 * Some team endings in the previous game make clear two current formations in this game:
 * The Sacred Treasures Team appear together during the Yagami Team's ending in KOF XIV. The three guardians find themselves near the crater where Orochi was found, in Hungary, and seal the evil entity away again.
 * The Ash Team appear together in the Official Invitation's ending. Kukri and Elisabeth are near to the crater where Ash is found, sleeping and unconscious, in Ukraine. The same scene can be seen in The King of Fighters: A New Beginning.


 * This game and The King of Fighters XI are the only mainlines game with profound team changes.


 * Some classic teams, like the Japan Team, Yagami Team and Psycho Soldier Team, do not appear in this game, and the other classic formations receive new names.


 * This game is the fourth KOF mainline game, and the third KOF canonical game to have another variant of Women Fighters Team, in form of the Secret Agents Team, thus making the team the third all female teams to be another variant of the original team. The other games with other teams composed only of female fighters are The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match (with the Pretty Girls Fighters Team and the NESTS Team) and The King of Fighters 2003 (the High School Girls Team).
 * Athena's inclusion as a member of the Super Heroines Team was foreshadowed in two games prior through her dialogues against the members of the original Women Fighters Team (those being her XIII intro dialogue with King, and XIV win dialogue against Mai).


 * Several references to SNK 's game catalog can be noticed in many trailers for the game:
 * The Shibuya Crossing, in Tokyo, appears in one of the scenes of the first trailer of the game (when Benimaru and Kyo talk to each other) and in the Story Trailer (when Shun'ei and Meitenkun are seen in the street). This place also appears as a fighting stage in World Heroes Perfect.
 * When Clemence Bellamy appears in the first trailer, flashes of the Kagura Stadium (The King of Fighters '96's Sub-Boss Stage) appears.
 * In Terry's reveal trailer (Character Trailer #10), the formation of the Fatal Fury Team recreates the arcade cover of the first Fatal Fury game. Besides that, Kurikinton,a song from the arcade game, plays in a small match after the main trailer. Also in this trailer, the theme VS. plays before the match.
 * The Opening Theme of the first Art of Fighting game, Dragon and Tiger, plays in Ryo and Robert's shared reveal trailer (Character Trailers #16 & #17). Also in this trailer, the theme Wait, Yuri! plays during the team's formation.
 * In Ralf and Clark's shared reveal trailer (Character Trailers #19 & #20), they indirectly quote "Cross Changer" pose in their dialogue, a reference to Chojin Sentai Jetman, which both characters would perform as their special interaction in the last two games of the Orochi Saga.
 * In Story Mode cutscenes (more precisely, when the characters are in Shibuya), a poster of Athena Asamiya with her outfit in the previous tournament can be seen.
 * In the main trailer of the game (released during the Gamescon 2021), the appearance of Verse in the penult cutscene of the previous game can be seen.


 * This game, along with The King of Fighters '98 (and its updated version), The King of Fighters 2003, The King of Fighters XI, The King of Fighters XII and The King of Fighters XIII, are the only games of the series in which the character BGM plays after the round is announced.


 * The win screens of this game are very similar to, and are likely inspired from the prominent Capcom fighting games Super Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter V, where the winning character performs a unique victory flourish as the in-game camera dynamically follows them in a cutscene-esque fashion before ending in a still scene featuring said character and their victory quote.
 * However, unlike the mentioned games, the victory quotes of each character are fully spoken by the characters themselves, a feature also seen in The King of Fighters XIV, SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy and Samurai Shodown (2019).


 * When the player chooses a team composed of the rightful members, their team emblem appears in the lower corner of the pre-fight screen. When the chosen team is random, however, an emblem of the series appears.
 * In Single VS., depending on the character chosen, the emblem of the team/character where he/she belongs appears in the middle screen.


 * This game is the only one in the series in which the narrator uses phrases in addition to the original narration, during the matches and the winner announcement.


 * This is the only game in the series to use the expression "Perfect Fight" in rounds.


 * Certain DLC characters released in the previous entry appear in canonical teams this time around. In the order of triailer's appearance, they are: Blue Mary and Vanessa (both in the Secret Agents Team), Heidern (Rivals Team) and Whip (K' Team).
 * Beside that, Rock Howard and Ryuji Yamazaki, another DLC characters released in KOF XIV, appears in DLC teams in this current entry.


 * This game, The King of Fighters XIII and The King of Fighters XIV are the only games in the series which the characters say one of many specific quotes when selected.


 * This game, The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match, The King of Fighters XIV and The King of Fighters Neowave are the only games in the series to use the characters' full names in the select screen.


 * This game, The King of Fighters XIII and The King of Fighters XIV are the only games in the series with selectable character costume colors.


 * This game and The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match are the only games in the series to feature an updated version of a character that was removed in future appearances due to copyright issues and controversy.


 * This is the fifth SNK game (fourth considering that KOF XIII was produced by SNK Playmore, albeit only EX-style of pre-existing characters) to use DLC content (in this case, DLC Teams, DLC Charaxters and outfits).


 * This game, The King of Fighters '98 and The King of Fighters XIV are the only games in the series in which the defeated character's name appears dimmed on the fight screen.


 * This game, the two versions of The King of Fighters '94, The King of Fighters '95, The King of Fighters '96, the two versions of The King of Fighters '98, The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match and The King of Fighters XIV are the only games in f the series with stages associated to one or more teams.
 * In KOF '98/UM, however, this occurs only with the mid-boss teams.


 * This game, The King of Fighters XIII, The King of Fighters XI and The King of Fighters XIV are the only games in the series which the hero/protagonist and their rival/deuteragonist from the same saga/story arc are on a same team.
 * Interestingly, this only applies to the odd-numbered story arcs, those being featured in the Sacred Treasures Team (from the Orochi Saga, the first saga in the series) and Ash Team (from the Ash Saga, the third saga in the series).
 * The particular characters from the even-numbered story arcs, K' and Kula from the NESTS Saga (the second saga in the series), and Shun'ei and Isla from the Shun'ei Saga (the fourth and current saga in the series), oppose each other through different teams, instead.


 * With the exceptions of Shun'ei, Meitenkun, Kyo, Iori, Terry, Mai, Dinosaur, Antonov and the characters that weren't in the previous game, all the other characters retain the same Climax Super Special Moves in The King of Fighters XIV.


 * When a character defeats an opponent, the background screen radiates a color specific to the move used to defeat them, with those colors being:
 * Blue: if the opponent is defeated with a Special Move.
 * Red: if the opponent is defeated with a Super Special Move.
 * Yellow: if the opponent is defeated with a Climax Super Special Move.


 * In Story Mode, during the Final Match, some team plays fight against specific formations, due to the rivalry of both. Therefore, the list is as follows:
 * Hero Team: Rivals Team (and vice-versa);
 * K' Team: Krohnen Team (and vice-versa);
 * Sacred Treasures Team: Orochi Team (and vice-versa);
 * Ash Team: Rivals Team;
 * Secret Agents Team: Rivals Team;
 * South Town Team: Fatal Fury;
 * Other Teams: Random Teams.


 * The way how characters interact on gameplay intro, particularly individual Round 1 intro (except against bosses) and special intros is similar to the one seen in KOF: Maximum Impact series.


 * About the initial roster, the existence of three last characters revealed in the game's trailers (Maxima, Kula Diamond and Elisabeth Blanctorche) is showed by a leak revealed after Krohnen McDougall's confirmation in the game. Each character forms the three last confirmed teams in this entry (the K' Team, the Krohnen Team and the Ash Team, respectively).
 * The same leak showed the existence of some DLC teams and characters in the roster: the Garou Team (Rock Howard, B. Jenet and Gato), the South Town (Geese Howard, Billy Kane and Ryuji Yamazaki) and Omega Rugal. Both the characters are already confirmed in this game.