KOF Power Tiers

Well, after seeing "official" SF power tiers, I got to making a KOF power tier, but I dunno if it is exactly right. I was hoping maybe some of you with good storyline knowledge could help out in fixing it.
Anyway, here goes.

TIER 1
Orochi

TIER 2
Kyo, Iori, K', Kula, K9999, Igniz, Mukai

TIER 3
Terry, Saisyu, Takuma, Ash, Geese, Krauser, Rugal, Goenitz, Krizalid, Zero, Original Zero, Adel

TIER 4
Andy, Benimaru, Ryo, Robert, Kim, Jhun, Heidern, Chizuru, Duo Lon, Shen Woo, New Face Team

TIER 5
Leona, Ralf, Clark, Goro, Joe, Maxima, Yamazaki, Athena, Vice, Mature, Angel, King, Lin, Gato, Tizoc

TIER 6
Mary, Vanessa, Ramon, Billy, Seth, Foxy, Kasumi, Eiji, Mai, Whip, Mr. Big

TIER 7
May Lee, Kensou, Yuri, Chin, Chang, Heavy D!, Shingo

TIER 8
Malin, Xiangfei, Chio, Hinako, Lucky, Brian, Bao

Well, any suggestions? Are some characters not where they should be?

Leona is at least Tier 3, Tier 2 in Orochi form. You underestimate her too much. Goro and Tizoc not more powerful than Andy and Benimaru? A lot of these are wrong.

Bao at tier 8?

And I'd definately put Heavy D! at the same level as Vanessa.

I'm with snesaes on this one. A lot of these are out of place.

Not knocking you though. It's a nice idea. But you'll have to do these by the game's year. Simply because the system changes fequently every year. For example, Goro isn't quite the cheesefest he is in '98 when he appears in '95. As many people could say that Benimaru has been nerfed down since his '96-'97 incarnations.

Like I said, nice idea. Just needs a bit more organization.

Ummm, this isn't gameplay-wise. This is storyline-wise...

that's quite an ambitious undertaking, I tip my hat to you...but I should tell you that without much of any official word from SNK to help with this, you may find that having so many KOF's will bring up a lot of contradicting information...

for instance, the Psycho Soldier ending in 2K shows BAO absorbing a satellite blast from the Zero Cannon...the only other person who went toe-to-toe with the satellite was Takuma...

good luck TerryBogard, this won't be easy...

I'd say Terry, Ryo, and Robert are easily on par (if not above) everyone in tier 2.

Just ask Taiso.

The New Faces Team should be on the same tier as Goenitz
(to account for when their status as the other three Heavenly
Kings of Orochi). Leona and Athena should be a bit higher
as well (about tier 3 as well). Zero and Shen Woo should be
lower, though (about tier 5 for Zero and 6 for Shen Woo).

Korigama said:

The New Faces Team should be on the same tier as Goenitz
(to account for when their status as the other three Heavenly
Kings of Orochi). Leona and Athena should be a bit higher
as well (about tier 3 as well). Zero and Shen Woo should be
lower, though (about tier 5 for Zero and 6 for Shen Woo).

Click to expand...

6 for Shen? You really think he's that low? I think he's 5, 4 tops.

Well, that's based on where Vanessa was put (I'd rank her
at least 4), but I suppose 5 would be closer for Shen.

I dunno, I really don't see Leona (or Athena for that matter) on the same level as really powerful guys like Terry, Saisyu, Takuma, or the bosses.
It just doesn't fit. And she can't possibly be more powerful than Chizuru, the guardian of the mirror, or the Kyokugens, or Andy or Benimaru.

Another reason is, Ralf and Clark can contain her in Orochi form...so she couldn't be that insanely high.
Plus, Orochi blood does not automatically mean near-god status. Yamazaki has Orochi blood, yet he is considered mid-tier at best.

Please don't take my comments as trying to start a flame war. I just want to keep this at a cool-headed debate, with suggestions and opinions welcome from everyone.

Its off. I'll add my 2 cents once i freakin get home from work. for now I sleep.

TerryBogard said:

I dunno, I really don't see Leona (or Athena for that matter) on the same level as really powerful guys like Terry, Saisyu, Takuma, or the bosses.
It just doesn't fit. And she can't possibly be more powerful than Chizuru, the guardian of the mirror, or the Kyokugens, or Andy or Benimaru.

Another reason is, Ralf and Clark can contain her in Orochi form...so she couldn't be that insanely high.
Plus, Orochi blood does not automatically mean near-god status. Yamazaki has Orochi blood, yet he is considered mid-tier at best.

Please don't take my comments as trying to start a flame war. I just want to keep this at a cool-headed debate, with suggestions and opinions welcome from everyone.

Click to expand...

Have you seen the Ikari team ending for KOF 2003? Where she starts to ROTB out of control again, and wrecked Ralf and Clark? Chizuru isn't that great. She got beat by Ash for God's sake. Saisyu isn't too powerful either. Terry has her beat too, but no one can beat Terry. Takuma might, he's getting old though. Benimaru isn't anything special. What has he done to earn his strength? Change into a new shirt?

snesaes said:

Saisyu isn't too powerful either.

Click to expand...

I think you never played KOF95.

Ralf, Clark, Goro and Takuma should be In Tier 2. You obviously didn't palyed against skilled enough players to put them In such a low category.

As for T1, Rugal rules supreme.

Orochi = weak.

How the hell is Terry in 3rd? He defeated a god in the Fatal Fury Motion Picture goodness sake.

Reality Check said:

How the hell is Terry in 3rd? He defeated a god in the Fatal Fury Motion Picture goodness sake.

Click to expand...

Yeah, he did kick Mars ass. I mean fucking MARS! The God of freaking WAR! The only thing that happened to Terry (physically) is his shirt got ripped. I've always said Laocorn and Suila should be in a dreammatch dammit! But I guess I'll have to keep dreaming.

I'll start this off by saying that I do NOT consider the AoF or FF characters in the KoF universe to be canon. In FFS, Ryo's appearance wasn't canon; it was a dream match. Also, Geese is noticably younger when he appears in AoF2 than in the Garou titles. Third, Geese is still alive in KoF2k3, whereas he's dead after RBFF. I'd say the tiers go something like this IMO (and Orochi really shouldn't count since he isn't even human):

1) Terry Bogard

2) Ryo/Robert (implied as equals, especially in AoF3), Geese

3) Takuma (he could rank higher, but he's in his fifties...), Rugal, Krauser (he could also be higher; however, he's not as established or as "fleshed out" as the others)

4) Iori, Kyo (and clones/spinoffs et. all), Joe Higashi (I'm serious...goofy persona aside, he's the world Muay Thai champion and could probably be a force if pushed to the brink), Andy

5) Saisyu, King (she's #1 for females IMO), Heidern (could be higher, but like Krauser hasn't had much spotlight), Kula, Benimaru, Kim (his hth skills are as good as anyone IMO; but still, he's played mostly as an over-the-top do-gooder and doesn't have giant fireballs), Leona

6) Chizuru, Mai (overlooked by many for obvious reasons; still, she's a great fighter in her own right), Yamazaki, Billy, MAYBE Yuri, even though she's mostly played for comic relief (you can't deny she has great chi-wielding skills), Bao (ditto), Athena (ditto) Mr. Big (not sure just where he fits in, but if he's with Geese he probably isn't too bad a fighter).

7) Vice/Mature, Blue Mary, Kensou, Clark, Ralf, Goro (could be higher, but for some reason doesn't really impress me that much), Heavy D! (underrated IMO; yet another "played mostly for laughs" character like his teammates)

8) Chin, Shermie (unimpressive IMO), Chris (I'm not sure just where he should rank), Kasumi, Whip, Xiangfei

9) Brian, Lucky (admit it: watching them fight is just plain ugly), Angel (People's Elbow? That's enough for last tier in itself)

2Heed said:

I'll start this off by saying that I do NOT consider the AoF or FF characters in the KoF universe to be canon. In FFS, Ryo's appearance wasn't canon; it was a dream match. Also, Geese is noticably younger when he appears in AoF2 than in the Garou titles. Third, Geese is still alive in KoF2k3, whereas he's dead after RBFF. I'd say the tiers go something like this IMO (and Orochi really shouldn't count since he isn't even human):

Click to expand...

Geese is younger in AOF2 because AOF2 took place before Fatal Fury. The Real Bout series isn't non-canon to the KOF storyline.

Reality Check said:

Geese is younger in AOF2 because AOF2 took place before Fatal Fury. The Real Bout series isn't non-canon to the KOF storyline.

Click to expand...

Oh, I know AoF takes place before FF; what I meant was that any game where characters from both universes fight (and look basically the same age-wise) shouldn't be considered canon for the reasons you and I pointed out. This is why I consider all three universes (the other being KoF) seperate. The AoF/FF characters are there for gameplay purposes only.

In AoF, Geese is in his late twenties/early thirties. In FF and RB, he's probably in his mid/late forties. He's also dead (SNK's official stance). In KoF, he's again the same age as in FF, but is up and about (and not in a "dream match" year, to boot).

But that's just my interpretation.

Athena is the incarnation of a goddess, she'd be up there with Orochi power wise. (Not that she uses all of it when she fights, or even knows how)

Lemme state two things:

1) Animes are NEVER canon. Yes, Terry defeated a god in the anime, but still, as far as KOF continuity is concerned, it never happened.

2) Again, these tiers are based on STORYLINE, not gameplay.

2Heed said:

I'll start this off by saying that I do NOT consider the AoF or FF characters in the KoF universe to be canon. In FFS, Ryo's appearance wasn't canon; it was a dream match. Also, Geese is noticably younger when he appears in AoF2 than in the Garou titles. Third, Geese is still alive in KoF2k3, whereas he's dead after RBFF. I'd say the tiers go something like this IMO (and Orochi really shouldn't count since he isn't even human):

1) Terry Bogard

2) Ryo/Robert (implied as equals, especially in AoF3), Geese

3) Takuma (he could rank higher, but he's in his fifties...), Rugal, Krauser (he could also be higher; however, he's not as established or as "fleshed out" as the others)

4) Iori, Kyo (and clones/spinoffs et. all), Joe Higashi (I'm serious...goofy persona aside, he's the world Muay Thai champion and could probably be a force if pushed to the brink), Andy

5) Saisyu, King (she's #1 for females IMO), Heidern (could be higher, but like Krauser hasn't had much spotlight), Kula, Benimaru, Kim (his hth skills are as good as anyone IMO; but still, he's played mostly as an over-the-top do-gooder and doesn't have giant fireballs), Leona

6) Chizuru, Mai (overlooked by many for obvious reasons; still, she's a great fighter in her own right), Yamazaki, Billy, MAYBE Yuri, even though she's mostly played for comic relief (you can't deny she has great chi-wielding skills), Bao (ditto), Athena (ditto) Mr. Big (not sure just where he fits in, but if he's with Geese he probably isn't too bad a fighter).

7) Vice/Mature, Blue Mary, Kensou, Clark, Ralf, Goro (could be higher, but for some reason doesn't really impress me that much), Heavy D! (underrated IMO; yet another "played mostly for laughs" character like his teammates)

8) Chin, Shermie (unimpressive IMO), Chris (I'm not sure just where he should rank), Kasumi, Whip, Xiangfei

9) Brian, Lucky (admit it: watching them fight is just plain ugly), Angel (People's Elbow? That's enough for last tier in itself)

Click to expand...

This is so off that I don't know where to start. For one thing,
Kula is a clone of Kyo as well, yet you listed her on a separate
tier, one much too low as is; Andy, way too high; Athena, too
low; everyone in tiers 1-3 is too high.

Either way, this one is all wrong.

Give me a few hours and I'll create my tiers, and see how mutilated they get by you guys

TerryBogard said:

Well, after seeing "official" SF power tiers, I got to making a KOF power tier, but I dunno if it is exactly right. I was hoping maybe some of you with good storyline knowledge could help out in fixing it.
Anyway, here goes.

TIER 1
Orochi

TIER 2
Kyo, Iori, K', Kula, K9999, Igniz, Mukai

TIER 3
Terry, Saisyu, Takuma, Ash, Geese, Krauser, Rugal, Goenitz, Krizalid, Zero, Original Zero, Adel

Click to expand...

Some of the people in Tier 3 need to be tier 2 such as Goenitz. He's powerful as hell, much more powerful than any of the people he's listed with. Out of all the Orochi characters he's 2nd to Orochi. He's the one who made Rugal into Omega rugal after whipping Rugal's ass and taking out his eye.

You need to switch both Zeros and Krizalid with K' and Kula(i'm not sure where K9999 stands as far as power goes). Despite K' being a clone of Kyo, he's still not as good a fighter as Kyo cuz he can't control his power.

Korigama said:

This is so off that I don't know where to start. For one thing,
Kula is a clone of Kyo as well, yet you listed her on a separate
tier, one much too low as is; Andy, way too high; Athena, too
low; everyone in tiers 1-3 is too high.

Either way, this one is all wrong.

Click to expand...

Then quit bitchin' and make your own, dipposhitz.

I intended Kula to be among the Kyo clones; I don't know how it happened, but it did. That being the case, simply add her in with the rest of the group. Yeah, Athena was probably too low as well, but I personally hate the character the same way everyone hates Bao, and he's pretty low on other lists, isn't he? Those two screw-ups aside, I think Andy is vastly underrated and belongs right alongside the others in his tier. He's the total "all-around" fighter: speed, agility, keep-aways, close-in combos, and some pretty ferocious chi-handling skills.

And lastly, it's kinda impossible to have a list that's "way off" when an OFFICIAL tier for such characters hasn't been officially made.