planned to exclude Iori and Kyo from the game because the company wanted to focus the story on the new protagonist, K'. They reversed this decision because of the characters' popularity. The repeated appearance of Iori, Kyo, and other SNK regular characters in the series is at the insistence of the marketers and main planners, making it a challenge to decide the story for each title. Because of his popularity among fans, some of the series' main designers have said Iori is "difficult to draw for". Illustrator Shinkiro said he thought Iori was one of the series' wildest characters because of his hairstyle; similar sentiments were expressed by Last Blade illustrator Tonko. KOF: Maximum Impact producer Falcoon stated that attempting to change an "untouchable" design such as Iori's put him under severe pressure. He stated that creating Iori's alternative design that appears in the Maximum Impact series almost felt "unforgivable" because he felt unsure of fans' reaction to the change. For the Maximum Impact spin-off games, Iori's characteristic hairstyle was changed dramatically. Throughout the series, his normal costume consists of a short jacket and bondage pants; without changing his design and adjusting only his coloring, a diverse number of image variations can be brought about. During the making of The King of Fighters XIV, Nobuyuki Kuroki wanted Iori, except the character's hair, to be redesigned. Character designer Eisuke Ogura created a new outfit for Iori and asked the modeler to focus on his masculinity and to pay close attention to the way the design of the character's eyes. This new design, alongside Kyo's, provoked controversy when it was revealed. KOF XIV director Yasuyuki Oda said the team wanted the characters to have new looks because the game is set in another story arc. In an interview with Iori's Japanese voice actor, Kunihiko Yasui comments that he feels responsible as a voice actor for his performances as Iori, taking care to sound different in each installment as a means of developing and protecting his character's humanity. Yasui was replaced by Takanori Hoshino starting in The King of Fighters XIV; Hoshino said he was delighted to be the new voice actor of the character, thanking SNK. Chisa Horii voices Iori's female incarnation in SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy. Fighting style When fighting, Iori employs the "Yagami style of ancient martial arts" as well as an art labelled as "Pure instinct" which involves