After our previous Retrospective article focusing on the Orochi Saga, it is time to turn our gaze on the following chapter of The King Of Fighters series: The NESTS Saga!

The NESTS saga came at a turbulent time for SNK.

KOF 99’ had planned to do away with series protagonist Kyo Kusanagi, only to find itself with three of him. 2000 became a swan song when SNK was forced under by financial troubles, and 2001 has become infamous among some fans for its ugly backgrounds, bizarre conclusion, and the walking lawsuit K9999.

Still, there’s an underlying ambition to games that keeps them compelling. The striker system was an interesting addition (even if it always had a problem with balance), making for more flexible teams, and allowing for plenty of cameos through alternate strikers.

NESTS also marked a huge tonal shift into the realm of cyberpunk and the sunglasses-and-leather look of the early 2000’s, introducing more subplots for its many teams of characters.

Kensou lost his powers, only to learn he shared a dragon spirit with Bao, which led to the reveal that the spirit was being hunted by Ron, former leader of a group of assassins. Who it turned out was in leagues with Misty, the secretary of NESTS. Who was the secret lover of NESTS second-in-command, Ingiz. Who was the son of the leader of NESTS, Nests. And Whip was a clone. Maybe. …So sure, it could get a bit tangled, but it was still interesting to see the series try something new, branching out into juggling so many plots at once.

Sadly, many are still unresolved, but the games since have had plenty of Ron cameos and Dragon Spirit mentions, just so we know they’re not forgotten. Yet out of all the dropped threads during the NESTS saga, the one that fascinated me the most was a single move they added to Kyo.

Being kidnapped by a secret organization and cloned countless times had worn him down, signaled by his theme shifting from the iconic Esaka to the much slower and sadder Tears. But 2001 marked his official return to the roster after spending two games as a hidden character, and with it came a new super, titled Shiki Kamukura.

The super was suspiciously similar to Iori’s Maiden Masher, complete with Kyo briefly sporting a shadowy, demonic face. It was hard not to speculate.

Maybe Kyo had finally begun to snap, bringing him closer to Iori than ever before?

Or had his experiences with NESTS simply driven him to show less restraint with his powers?

Well, it was quietly dropped in 2003, so we’ll never really know. But it says a lot that even at its lowest point, KOF could imply so much with so little.

Even while the gameplay was in the midst of a flawed departure and the plot was threatening to collapse under its own weight, some excellent storytelling was being done through character details, whether it was Leona’s run shifting from imitating Heidern to Ralf, or the countless specific intros peppered throughout every game.

So while KOF 14 may be a back-to-basics approach, I’m hoping that the series won’t be afraid to try and branch out again in the future.

Even if the experiments won’t always work, there’s still a heart to the characters that manages to keep fans coming back.