When creating Hyena's design, Falcoon's main objective was to make a man looks best in a green suit. His wacky gestures and face were based on Boyacky Butsukusa from the Yatterman series.
Duke was originally designed to be a younger man in his twenties with a Japanese sword, similar in appearance to Shinnosuke Kagami from The Last Blade or Kain R. Heinlein from Garou: Mark of the Wolves. He was specifically made to seem as though he's suppressing himself from his true potential. Duke later underwent a number of retakes until the development team requested for a "strong-bodied and serious man in his thirties".
Kim Kaphwan was going to be playable under the pseudonym "Mr. Taekwondo" (similar to Takuma's persona as Mr. Karate in Art of Fighting). However, veteran designers protested the idea, resulting in Kim being replaced with a different fighter. While several SNK's Taekwondo characters were considered (such as Jhun Hoon, May Lee, and Seo Yong Song from Buriki One), a fellow developer suggested creating a female Taekwondo fighter with Kim's "hot-blooded" personality, which eventually formed the basis for Chae Lim. To set her apart, Chae was made to be the struggling student who was not as adept as her peers or mentor but possessed a dominating determination. Ureshino depicts her relation with Kim as a "father-daughter relationship", adding that she is a young woman with Kim's potential.
Mignon Beart was designed to be a contrasting rival to Athena Asamiya. Keywords to creating her persona were "innocent, honest, and a little childish", which Falcoon admits is best seen through her actions rather than her figure. Her design is based on typically "cute idol" traits, particularly her boots, her manner of referring to herself in third-person, and her alternate catgirl costume. Her magical powers were created to counter Athena's Psycho Powers, which is interpreted by Falcoon to be akin to witchcraft.
She was initially not well received by Ureshino and other veteran staff, deeming her to not entirely fit the mood of the King of Fighters universe -though they lightened their impressions after considering the presence of Psycho Soldier members and other "orthodox" characters. As her character further developed, she became the "stupid, but cute" character, Ureshino using the term as a simple means of endearment.
Lien Neville was conceptualized to contrast with Mai Shiranui: Where Mai's character was very cheerful and lighthearted, Lien was made to be more serious and dark. Where Mai represents a "sexy and beautiful [Japanese] kunoichi", Lien represents the "sexy Western femme fatale". Mai wore loose-fitting outfits, while Lien had "tight and constricting" outfits. Mai had is straight and long black hair, and Lein had a short and curly hairstyle. Her curled hair needed several retakes, along with a long trial-and-error process for the game's modelers.
Scenario writer, Akihiko Ureshino, states that the Meira siblings became twin brothers to avoid comparison with other brother characters from other SNK games, such as the Kazama brothers from the Samurai Shodown series and the Jin brothers also from Fatal Fury. He also addresses that the main complaint received from fans was concerns of the brothers "not looking alike"; in response, Ureshino admits that he was also unaware of Alba and Soiree being siblings until much later in production and shares his confusion with fans.
The idea for the "Another" costumes came from the process of designing costumes for the main duo, Alba and Soiree, which led to the idea of the "Another" alternate costumes for every character.
According to a 1996 interview with the game's director Masaya Kobayashi published in the GSLA archive, he stated that he loves snowboarding, that he wanted to make a sport game about it, so he then drew up the initial plans. He also stated that it's like car racing, but racing in snowboarding by jumping and soaring through the air, and he thought including these elements in the racing game would be interesting.
According to the character designer, Tatsuhiko "Falcoon" Kanaoka, both Meira brothers were initially conceptualized to be the KOF counterparts to the Bogard brothers, given the game's setting, Southtown, is the same in Fatal Fury. Several of the brothers' prototype designs were assigned to other characters' alternate outfits; in this case, Alba's prototype design became Rock's alternate outfit, and Soiree's prototype design became Maxima's alternate outfit.
According to the game's artist, Yutaka Saito, Mila was created with the theme of "a girl who would appear in a sports anime or TV drama".
So we looked at lots of material of female athletes, and there was one that was very attractive/interesting to us. It was a blonde model who was profusely sweating while properly boxing, there were two pictures where afterward she took off her gloves, dangled them over her shoulder and smiled like "See you again tomorrow". When I saw them I thought "That's it!". Maybe you'd call it on/off? [referring to being on: training earnestly and off: smiling afterwards] When in the gym or the ring, it's all about winning, about becoming stronger. But once she leaves the ring, she returns to being a cute girl. This duality is what really enamored me. I think that Mira is a character who has that duality.
Critical Bursts were not originally going to be featured in the game. The staff did not see them as a priority at the time and did not add them to the demo. However, the game's director, Yohei Shinbori, thought they were an interesting idea and added the mechanic into the game's E3 playable build. After receiving positive feedback, an improved version of Critical Bursts became part of the final product.
According to a 1993 interview with the game's programmer Kan Naitou published in the 5/93 issue of Famicon Tsuushin, he stated that the game took a lot of inspiration from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s movies. He also stated that a single action in the game took 7 frames of animation, an idea which came from Disney's animated movies.
According to a 2003 interview with the game's director/writer Yoshio Sakamoto published in GSLA, he stated that after Super Metroid on the Super Famicom, they couldn't use the underpowered Game Boy Color for a new Metroid game. When the Game Boy Advance was released, a console whose specs surpassed the Super Famicom, the team from the mobile games division really wanted to work with it.
In a 1995 developer interview featured in the game's guidebook, the game's staff were asked what their concept for the development of this game was. They responded:
"A new Fatal Fury, one that both beginners and experienced players could enjoy, punched up with loads of snazzy visual effects. That was our image, but of course, the way newcomers and veteran players enjoy a FTG is dramatically different, right? Newcomers play relatively casually, and want to be able to perform lots of different special moves; meanwhile, veterans are more interested in precise timing and big combos. We tried to appeal to both, but above all, to make it the kind of game that jumps out at you visually."
"This may be too subtle to notice on first glance, but did you see how most of the stage backgrounds are done in darker colors? We did that so the flashy HIT marks and player graphics would stand out all the more. We asked ourselves, what do players really want to see in a FTG game today? And what you see in Real Bout Fatal Fury is the answer we came up with."
"I think you can say this about any game, but if it looks good, it will look fun to players. With that principle as our basis, we endeavored to make a game that truly anyone could enjoy."
According to a 1992 interview with the game's director/original story writer Makoto Ogino published in BEEP Megadrive magazine, he stated that while playing The Legend of Zelda, he held a strange fascination for it and loved the game, despite not caring for other games before then, and always wondered why there wasn't a game like it that came out since. He claimed that "it's good when games have a simple system like Zelda. It's got a lot of depth. I want King Colossus to be like that too."
According to a 2007 interview with the game's planner/graphic designer Yukio Takahashi published in the book Game Shokunin, the interviewer commented that the ending scene where the main character removes their helmet to find out that she’s actually a woman was the first game to make such a surprise twist. He responded:
"This was influenced by the anime Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Actually, a bunch of things were influenced by Nausicaa: the protagonist you just mentioned, the side-profile perspective of the paccets, and the Blue Worm boss… Also, as I mentioned, because people during the development were so enthusiastic about slaughtering all the paccets they could, as a contrast to all that cruelty I wanted at least in the final scene to have something cute and adorable, so I drew those ending images."
In an interview with the game's director and planner Kengo Morita, which was published in the All About Puyo Puyo Tsu guidebook in 1995, he was asked why the Mega Drive version didn't have the endless mode (“Tokoton Puyo”)? He stated that he was so busy focusing on the main game that he forgotten about it because from the developers' perspective, they always thought that endless mode was more of a side-dish. He also stated despite complaints about the lack of manzai demos in user surveys during development, they were left out due to time constraints.
The game's official art book, The Art of Super Mario Odyssey, includes concept sketches for a never-realized scenario where Bowser uses his own version of the Capture ability to possess Princess Peach, who would adopt Bowser's physical characteristics.
The concept art attracted attention online following the book's publication, as it coincidentally predated the creation of Bowsette, a viral fanmade design for Bowser wearing the Super Crown power-up from the Nintendo Switch port of New Super Mario Bros. U. Like the concept art, the Bowsette design mixes together attributes from both Peach and Bowser. The original comic depicting Bowsette was itself a parody of Super Mario Odyssey's ending, Spoiler:depicting Mario going out on a date with the Super Crown-wearing Bowser following Peach's rejection of the two.
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Four pieces of artwork in the Japanese release of the game were replaced in the international versions:
•The Fine Painting ("Jeanne Hébuterne with Yellow Sweater" by Amedeo Modigliani) is replaced with the Basic Painting ("The Blue Boy" by Thomas Gainsborough). •The Healing Painting ("Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son" by Claude Monet, a.k.a. "The Stroll") is replaced with the Classic Painting ("Washington Crossing the Delaware" by Emanuel Leutze). •The Lovely Painting ("Portrait of Irène Cahen d'Anvers" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir) is replaced with the Quaint Painting ("The Milkmaid" by Johannes Vermeer). •The Pleasant Feeling Painting ("Olympia" by Édouard Manet) is replaced with the Scary Painting ("Ōtani Oniji III in the Role of the Servant Edobei" by Tōshūsai Sharaku).
Of these four, the only painting whose reason for replacement can be concretely inferred is the Pleasant Feeling Painting. Its real-world equivalent depicts a prostitute lying nude in bed, which Nintendo of America likely deemed too mature for a child audience.
The Fine Painting that was replaced in the Japanese release is a different item from the one named the Fine Painting in the English release of Animal Crossing, which is based on Paul Gauguin's "Arearea" and is included in all versions of the game.
With the exception of the Classic Painting, the replacement artwork would become standard for later entries in the series; the only replaced painting to return in a subsequent game is the Lovely Painting, present in all versions of Animal Crossing: Wild World.
According to the character designer, Tatsuhiko "Falcoon" Kanaoka, both Meira brothers were initially conceptualized to be the KOF counterparts to the Bogard brothers, given the game's setting, Southtown, is the same in Fatal Fury. Several of the brothers' prototype designs were assigned to other characters' alternate outfits; in this case, Alba's prototype design became Rock's alternate outfit, and Soiree's prototype design became Maxima's alternate outfit.
In the 1.04 update, Cammy's leotard costume removed her nipples from her 3D model.
The game's official art book, The Art of Super Mario Odyssey, includes concept sketches for a never-realized scenario where Bowser uses his own version of the Capture ability to possess Princess Peach, who would adopt Bowser's physical characteristics.
