inspired game designer Nobuyuki Kuroki to join SNK and oversee his animations in the third game of the series. He was modeled after American actor Patrick Swayze. Artist Shinkiro has said he had no problems with designing Ryo because he himself had not been rich. Designing Robert Garcia, who was rich, caused him "trouble". In several games, the Kyokugen style is depicted as a struggling family business, funded almost entirely by prize money earned from KOF and Robert's vast wealth. SNK staff members Youichiro Soeda said that Ryo and Robert's debut was unique to other games based on the company because the story did not focus on fighting tournaments but instead on the duo's quest to save Yuri Sakazaki. Art of Fighting creator Hiroshi Matsumoto has stated that he felt he was appealing to people who did not usually play games by showing the story in the game instead of just media such as magazines and comics. Ryo's movements were changed across the Art of Fighting series. In the third game, SNK wanted to make his actions look more realistic when performing a technique. In the planning stage of Fatal Fury Special, another SNK fighting game, Hattori Hanzo of World Heroes was being considered as a hidden boss. However, Hanzo was a character developed by another company. Even though ADK was a subsidiary, the staff decided instead to place Ryo as a hidden character; they found him more interesting as a guest character. Ryo's addition to Fatal Fury: Special was done with the approval of the designer of the first Art of Fighting game who also worked on designing Ryo for this game. For The King of Fighters '94, along with Robert, developers of the game had problems balancing Ryo with the other characters from the series without removing any of his special moves. However, Ryo was said to be one of the game's strongest characters. The developers added that this game was created with the idea of having Ryo fighting against Terry Bogard, the lead character of the Fatal Fury series. Ever since The King of Fighters '96, Ryo was given a new stance which the staff referred to as neutral since they did not find it superior or inferior to the original one. His shape and colors of his projectile technique, "Torakuken", was altered across The King of Fighters. Though SNK artist Falcoon said that Ryo's characterization between