When it comes to who the protagonist of the "King of Fighters" series is, I am afraid that everyone will think of Kyo Kusanagi, but in fact, the original protagonist was not him at the beginning.
In the time of "King of Fighters 94", in fact, the protagonist setting did not have a clear candidate. Although the official hope is that Kyo Kusanagi will become the protagonist, because the "Legend of the Hungry Wolf" series Terry is too dazzling, everyone only recognizes him as the protagonist at that time. But in fact, Terry is not the original protagonist of the "King of Fighters" series. After playing for more than 20 years, I learned that the real first protagonist was actually a dragon set character in "King of Fighters 2000".
SNK's original protagonist of "King of Fighters" is actually called "Kirishima Sho", although it looks a bit similar to Kyo Kusanagi, but the style of moves is completely different.
Most of Kirishima's moves focus on "opening and closing", but closer to the protagonist of "The Legend of the Hungry Wolf", Terry. It is also officially for this reason that the protagonist of the "King of Fighters" series is too similar to the protagonist of the "Hungry Wolf" series, which forced SNK to abandon this setting.
Although the setting of "Kirishima Sho" as the protagonist was abandoned, his hairstyle and clothes were still passed on to Kyo Kusanagi. In the final installment of the SNK series, King of Fighters 2000, Shō Kirishima was added to the game as a hidden aid to Kyo Kusanagi, which is also a kind of commemoration.
Later, in the mugen, the KOF Z team made the character. However, because Kirishima Sho only existed in the early setting of SNK, Kirishima Sho in the mugen is not strictly speaking an "official setting".
Since then, Kirishima has also guest starred in SNK's love game "Memory Day 1", appearing in the Kagura line and racing with Kagura, but did not show his face. Although he never appeared in the "King of Fighters" series as a full character, in a sense, Kyo Kusanagi is his "inheritance", and this inheritance has been recognized by players to the present.
Later, the protagonists of the "King of Fighters" series changed several rounds, from the K of "King of Fighters 2000" to the Ashu of "King of Fighters 2003", and then to the moments of "King of Fighters 14", although they have written chapters in their respective stories, in the hearts of old players, the first protagonist of the "King of Fighters" series will always be Kyo Kusanagi who uses fire.
Dear players, have you ever seen the character of "Shō Kirishima"?