Iori Yagami (King of Fighters series)
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The rival of Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami is the
last heir to the Yagami clan, and wields the blood of Orochi. Donning red hair
dyed from the blood of his own mother, Iori swears vengeance against all
Kusanagi clan members, ever since Kyo’s father killed the few remaining members
Outside of being known as a bloodthirsty yet lonesome character who refuses any
assistance, Iori must suffer from his own family’s history.
Iori first appeared in KoF 1995, the second installment to the team format,
along with Billy Kane and Eiji Kisaragi, forming the rival team. Iori’s team
failed to make the finals and meet Kyo, thus Iori gave his team members a
beating which sent them hospitalized and looking for revenge against him.
In 1996, Iori teamed up with the secretaries of the previous villain of KoF,
Rugal Bernstein. Near the end of the tournament Iori was forced to team up with
Kyo and the current heir of the Kagura to prevent the resurrection of Orochi
once more. During the battle it triggered Iori’s blood and instead of using
purple flames, he had crimson flames, the same color that the Yasakani
originally had. This time, in the heat of battle Iori killed his teammates and
Rugal’s legacy was no more (until 2003 at least…) In 1997, another attempt was
tried to revive Orochi, and in the end the Orochi blood inside the Orochi
characters of KoF (Iori, Leona, Yamazaki) made them go insane. In the end, the
curse of Orochi was lifted away for now and Iori lost his placement in the
storyline for the next arc. Since Kyo disappeared in the NESTS saga, Iori went
looking after him.
The most recent KoF arc revolves around its roots again where a mysterious
French man named Ash Crimson wishes to collect the 3 Sacred Treasures used to
seal Orochi. In 2003, Ash kills Chizuru Kagura and manages to steal the Yata
Mirror. In KoF XI, Ash went after Iori and made him go Orochi once more, and by
weakening Kyo enough to prevent any further trouble from happening, Ash defeats
Iori and takes away the Yasakani jewel and his power to wield flames. What is
going is happen to Iori in the series is currently unknown.
Iori is still one of the most popular KoF characters, and snubbing him for even
one game will make his fangirls cry in their sleep. His gameplay has remained
the same for more than ten years but from the work of Ash, Iori will finally
have a new makeover that should give him a better reputation.
“Asobi owari da! Nake! Sakebe! Soshite shine!” -Iori Yagami
(Writeup courtesy of FrostHarpy; ragingstorm@fastmail.fm)
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Iori Yagami's Contest History
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Win-Loss Record
0-1
Summer 2002 Contest
North Division - 14 Seed
Northern Round 1 --- Lost to (3) Duke Nukem, 19714 [37.28%] - 33160 [62.72%]
Extrapolated Strength --- 50th Place [13.03%]
Iori is one of many examples of obscure fighting game characters making the Summer 2002 Contest field and turning out to be nothing more than fodder, further proving that GameFAQs is hardly a haven of massive amounts of fighting game fans. Depending on how many bios you read before this one, you may be tired of reading this fact. It's a true one however, as Iori hasn't made the field since 2002.
The funniest thing about Iori's match is that some of those, including myself, who had no clue who he was before his match with Duke thought that he was a girl.
http://www.sc2k5.com/gallery/albums/sc2k2/thumb_sum02b06.jpg
Check out that match pic and tell me Iori doesn't look fruity as fuck in that picture. I dare you.
The other thing of note is that at the time of this match, Iori's fans felt that his performance against Duke was respectable. Time has proven that Iori doing well in his lone match wasn't borne of his strength, but because of how horribly weak Duke was at the time. We simply weren't exposed to how weak truly was until Summer 2003.
-Ulti
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