him one of the most useful of the games' characters and one of the best characters for "veteran players". He is ranked in the top-ten fighting games from GameTrailers and has been called one of the series' innovative characters from his introduction in The King of Fighters '95 and during his development in the following games. Some commentators found his recurring interactions with Kyo Kusanagi during fights to be appealing, adding depth to the games, despite English gamers not being able to understand them, and the lack of a storyline in some. Kevin S. from GameRevolution liked the interactions between Kyo and Iori in The King of Fighters XIV because it was one of the most famous parts from the series. The addition of a unique theme song to Iori's and Kyo's rival fight was also praised. Meristation compared Kyo's and Iori's antagonistic rivalry to that of Goku and Vegeta from the Dragon Ball manga by Akira Toriyama. The Daily Star noted Kyo's and Iori's popularity comes from the way Kyo and Iori start facing each other as enemies but still become allies for other games. ThunderBoltGames stated that Iori stands out within the plot because of his rivalry with Kyo and because he is cursed with Orochi's power, which makes his heroic traits questionable yet well-written despite the series being from the fighting game genre. The formation of the Three Sacred Treasures Team in The King of Fighters '96 had a major impact with fans because it was appealing because of the Orochi saga and because of its incorporation of Japanese mythology. 4thletter enjoyed the KOF '97 of Kyo, Kagura and Iori, stating "this [is how you write a climax to a four-year-long story]" at the ending of the Orochi story arc. Lucke M. Albiges from Eurogamer praised Iori as having one of the most unpredictable appearances in the series, and considered him a veteran character. Across the franchise, Iori has been given new looks and techniques which have also resulted in different kind of responses. IGNs Jeremy Dunham praised Iori's appearance in KOF: Maximum Impact as one of the best designs from the game. However, Dunham complained about his lack of bloody scenes considering his actions in previous 2D games. The character's new design from The King of Fighters XII has been well received by GameSpots writer Andrew Park who found such moves interesting. On the other hand,