KIM KAPHWAN
First Appearance: Fatal Fury 2 (1992)
Game Appearances: Fatal Fury 2 & Special, Real Bout FF 1, Special, 2, DM & Wild Ambition (missed only 2 of 10), Every King of Fighters Game, Capcom (vs) SNK 1 & 2, SNK (vs) Capcom- SVC Chaos, Neo-Geo Battle Coliseum
Role: Arrogant Taekwondo Guy, Justice-Seeker, Korea-Pleaser
PL 9 (135)
STRENGTH 3
STAMINA 3
AGILITY 6
FIGHTING 11
DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 2
AWARENESS 2
PRESENCE 3
Skills:
Acrobatics 8 (+14)
Athletics 9 (+12)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 4 (+15)
Expertise (Law Enforcement) 5 (+7)
Expertise (Martial Arts) 6 (+8)
Insight 4 (+6)
Investigation 3 (+5)
Perception 3 (+5)
Advantages:
Agile Feint, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Unarmed) 2, Improved Critical (Crescent Moon Slash) 2, Improved Critical (Hi Sho Kyaku), Improved Critical (Flying Swallow Slice), Takedown, Ultimate Insight Check ("Detect Evil People")
SNK Fighting Style: Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Defensive Roll, Extraordinary Effort, Fast Grab, Improved Trip (Throw), Power Attack, Takedown, Withstand Damage (Block)
Powers:
"Rising Attacks" Leaping 1 (15 feet) [1]
"Hi Sho Kyaku- Leaping Multi-Kick" Strength-Damage +0 (Extras: Multiattack 3) (Flaws: Distracting) Linked to Affliction 3 (Toughness; Dazed & Vulnerable/Stunned & Defenseless) (Extras: Extra Condition) (Flaws: Limited Degree) (5) -- [8]
- AE: "Crescent Moon Slash- Overhead Kick" Strength-Damage +2 (Inaccurate -1) (1)
- AE: "Flying Swallow Slice- Backflip Kick" Strength-Damage +2 (Feats: +2 to Hit Jumping Opponents) (Inaccurate -1) (2)
- AE: "Hakikyaku- Downward Energy Kick" Damage 3 & Dodge +2 (5)
Offense:
Unarmed +15 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Special Moves +13 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Hakikyaku +13 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Hi Sho Kyaku +15 (+3 Damage & Affliction, DC 18 & 13)
Initiative +6
Defenses:
Dodge +12 (DC 22), Parry +14 (DC 24), Toughness +3 (+4 D.Roll), Fortitude +6, Will +8
Complications:
Motivation (The Law)- Kim is strictly-adherent to the letter of the law, and will punish anyone he sees going anywhere outside of it. He has taken it upon himself to personally oversee the reformation of Choi Bounge & Chang Gentsai.
Weakness (Liquor)- Kim cannot hold liquor very well, as seen in the ending for
KoF XI.
Weakness (Predictability)- SNK Characters cannot simply "spam" out the same attack over and over again, as the opponent will expect the attacks, and be ready for them (and a counterattack). The third time they try the same technique (or same combo of techniques) in a short span, they will be at -2 to Accuracy, AND to his Active Defenses in that round. All will decrease by 2 every successive round the same move is done.
Total: Abilities: 66 / Skills: 42--21 / Advantages: 10 + 11 / Powers: 9 / Defenses: 18 (135)
Kim- Arrogant TKD Master:
-Kim is one of the most-beloved
Fatal Fury characters, and debuted in the second game as the World Taekwondo Champ, out to prove himself. It's funny, because I know some people who worship the art (the guy who runs the excellent Fighter's Generation website is a TKD guy), while others just absolutely crap all over it- a friend who was a Kickboxing Titleholder in Alberta said TKD guys were easy to beat, because all you had to look at was their legs- they would only ever throw kicks, and kicks are easily dodged, so you just punch the crap out of them (presumably guys with better training would be better at throwing punches). Others online have said that TKD has watered down its own style by just handing out black belts like water to little kids with minimal training, making it more of a "YMCA" McDojo fighting style than something elite like Kung Fu or Muay Thai. Watching professional TKD is almost HILARIOUS since it's just "concentrated spin-kicking" with guys acrobatically flailing around- most MMA fighters would just tackle them to the floor and annihilate them if they tried any of that. TKD is thus one of the least-respected popular martial arts out there, with almost no crossover into the wider world of MMA or anything- many, many forum posts are of "why is TKD so disrespected?".
-Of course, since Fighting Games have as much to do with real martial arts as
Halo does with actual military combat, it fits perfectly to have an arrogant, showy TKD expert as a top character. He joined in
FF2, and only missed
Fatal Fury 3 before appearing in every single game until the final one, which gave him a PAIR of clones in his head-swapped sons, Dong Hwan & Jae Hoon. Kim is also a giant weirdo, and for decades has been paired up with weird
KoF-created characters Chang & Choi, permanently trying to rehabilitate them, only taking a couple years off to ally with Terry & Duck King (as the "Fatal Fury Team"), and another time with Hwa Jai & Raiden (trying to "rehab" two guys who had already gone good). Finally, they gave him a proper "Korea Team" of good-aligned characters.
Why Kim? ... oh. Korea.:
-Kim's popularity is thus kind of a funny thing- most
Fatal Fury side-characters were not as successful. Mai was, for obvious reasons. Terry's buddies went with him to most
KoF games. But even Billy, Tung Fu, Duck King & others faltered heavily in the non-
FF bouts- so why Kim, who has never missed a single mainstream
KoF game? Well, I think his traditional style was very well done- he was dressed like every other TKD guy, but did it with STYLE, and stood out in a world of pretty generic designs like Jubei & Axel Hawk, or street fighters like Terry & Billy.
-Also, much as people today snark on gaming and movies going out of their way to appease China for that sweet foreign monies... Kim and his cronies have appeared in every
KoF game because "Muh Representation" has ALWAYS been a thing- they are popular in Kim's native Korea. SO popular, in fact, that Capcom, Namco and other countries would join the ass-kissing parade with aplomb, introducing Juri Han in
Street Fighter IV and Baek Doo San & Hwoarang in
Tekken games, and giving them huge pushes, all to gain market penetration in Korea, which is really, really big on gaming.
Kim's Techniques:
-As a long-running fighter with elite skills and a knack for effortlessly beating down his
King of Fighters teammates, Kim deserves full PL 9 status- effectively making him a match for any
Street Fighter character. Someone who lasts through basically every
Fatal Fury game (his sons are in the final one), and even the
King of Fighters series with its more mercurial attitudes towards older video games, deserves some respect and credibility. His athletic kicks are awesome-looking, featuring these massive wide arcs, split kicks and rapid-fire combos- so he has an Anti-Air, a standard Special, and a Multiattack (representing multiple kinds of attacks- two kick combos and his leaping "repeated stomp"). There's also an energy kick that's used to block low projectiles and do a bit of damage.
-Kim is a highly-mobile fighter with a lot of jump-y moves, dash attacks, and more- he has no ranged attacks or much close-range skill, so he specializes in mid-range sweeping attacks that are best kept at leg-distance so he can't be punished. Most of his big moves thread into combos, and he has numerous multi-hitting techniques for this purpose, from many different positions (run-up, leaping, etc.). He also has semi-keen Insight for detecting bad apples, though it doesn't always work.