Terry Bogard


Terry Bogard is a character and the protagonist of the Fatal Fury series created by SNK. Introduced in Fatal Fury: King of Fighters, he is an American fighter who enters the worldwide "The King of Fighters" tournaments to combat his father's murderer, Geese Howard. Following Geese's death in Real Bout Fatal Fury, Terry becomes the guardian of Geese's son Rock Howard, the series' new protagonist. He is also a regular character in the crossover video game series The King of Fighters, where he continues participating in tournaments with Andy and Joe among other Fatal Fury characters. He has also been a guest character in other games, including the Capcom vs. SNK series, Arika's Fighting EX Layer, Street Fighter 6 and Nintendo's crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In addition to video games, Terry has appeared in anime films based on Fatal Fury, and manga serialized in Comic Bom Bom.
SNK designer Takashi Nishiyama created Terry based on a scrapped design he used in Capcom's Street Fighter before moving to the company. A major redesign for Garou: Mark of the Wolves was made by Yasuyuki Oda to reflect on his more peaceful life with Rock as the game takes place a decade after Geese's death. His gameplay was based on traditional fighting game characters which kept being balanced with each installment. Terry's popularity led SNK to create a female version of him for the 2018 game SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy.
Publications have praised the character's personality and movesets and how he was developed from Fatal Fury to The King of Fighters as a wandering fighter dealing with revenge, although the female Terry saw mixed reception. Terry has become an icon for not just SNK, but fighting games in general, appearing prominently on SNK and non-SNK merchandise, often making rivalries with Street Fighter character Ken Masters both in crossovers and his iconic guest appearance in Street Fighter 6. His role in the Fatal Fury original video animations and movie were also the subject of praise with director Masami Obari's own take on Terry's chi-based techniques influencing his style in the games.

Creation

Terry Bogard originates in the development of Capcom's fighting game Street Fighter, for which developers Hiroshi Matsumoto and Takashi Nishiyama created a concept for a Caucasian man wearing a leather jacket; the concept was not used in Street Fighter, as they decided to make the main playable character a dougi-clad karateka name Ryu instead. They still wanted to use this concept in a game; after their move to SNK, they implemented him in Fatal Fury: King of Fighters as a playable character. His inclusion in Street Fighter 6 was done since Nishiyama had created the first Street Fighter during his time at Capcom and believed adding him alongside Mai Shiranui would fit in the game. However, all of Terry's special moves were created by Capcom designers. Terry and Street Fighter character Ken Masters have had past dialogue between them, so they were very conscious of their relationship when they created them.

Portrayal

One of the earliest thoughts about Terry's personality was that he is a calm man despite seeking revenge. In the making of the series, Terry and his brother Andy were characterized as the heroic leads, contrasting with the comical Joe Higashi. For the release of the Fatal Fury 3 game, Terry was quickly added because of his popularity with fans. When it came to his moves, SNK had different ideas and altered the special moves he could perform. While Terry has an easygoing personality, he is fueled with the thirst of revenge with killing Geese Howard in most games. However, in Real Bout Fatal Fury, revenge is not necessarily Terry's absolute goal, as is clear from the fact that he instinctively reaches out to Geese, who is supposed to be Jeff's enemy. Real Bout Fatal Fury, was made to end the conflict between Terry and his nemesis, Geese Howard. Ureshino believes Terry had no intention of killing Geese and getting revenge, and at most he just wanted to defeat Geese and make Jeff apologize after he died. Ureshino thinks Terry's feelings were expressed when he instinctively reached out his hand to Geese as he was falling off the building. However, Geese refused even that, and selfishly ended his life, abandoning the future of Billy Kane and the connections he had built up.
Although Terry and fellow fighter Blue Mary get along, SNK writer Akihiko Ureshino does not see the two as a romantic couple but instead as a friendly relationship comparable to Robert Garcia and Yuri Sakazaki from Art of Fighting or Athena Asamiya and Sie Kensou from Psycho Soldier because Blue Mary is in doubts about her late boyfriend killed by Geese. However, Ureshino has shown a desire to promote Terry and Mary's relationship in Fatal Fury or The King of Fighters. Terry has been popular with the SNK staff to the point multiple individuals worked on his character's movesets during location tests of Real Bout Fatal Fury 2.
According to Yasuyuki Oda, the phrase The King of Fighters is commonly associated with Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami than Fatal Fury characters. As a result, the new tournament was dubbed "Maximum Mayhem King of Fighters" to give a new tension to associate Terry. Though Terry was created as the lead for all the games, his adoptive son Rock Howard was designed as the new lead character of the Fatal Fury series by Nobuyuki Kuroki in 1998. Both he and Yasuyuki Oda wondered what type of hero would succeed Terry Bogard in Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Rock's character and entire personality served as the main basis for the game. This led to the creation of supporting characters like B. Jenet or Terry Bogard's redesign. Terry became a famous character thanks to KOF and Fatal Fury which earned his fame in Smash. In the Smash games, he became depicted as famous and cultural figure, and he has many different jobs. Ureshino describes the Garou Terry as a childish adult who is lazy most of the time and believes that in a sequel he might be given a more mature personality. When the 35-year-old Terry appeared in KOF: Maximum Impact 2 under the name "Wild Wolf", his character story naturally followed this, and he also earned a living by giving lectures and writing essays, while at the same time showing a fatherly side, worrying about Rock's future, who has been forced to join in his wandering life. His earlier life with Rock is portrayed as similar to the Sakazaki family from Art of Fighting as they are comically worried about their money and fighting style at the same time.
The King of Fighters game was created with the idea of having Terry fighting against Ryo Sakazaki, the lead character from the Art of Fighting series. The King of Fighters protagonist Kyo Kusanagi was also created with this in mind. Though Terry does not have a major role in the Maximum Impact series other than revenge with Billy Kane over Geese's death in Real Bout, game designer Falcoon created the new lead Alba Meira to be Terry's KOF counterpart. SNK said that Terry's great popularity among players made him one of the most used characters for every installment of the series. For The King of Fighters XV, when the staff was finishing Team Hero, creative director Eisuke Ogura wanted to use Terry because he is a disciple of Tung, just like newcomers Meitenkun and Shun’ei. He thought he would be in the best position to watch over them. However, in the end we chose Benimaru Nikaido as a proposal from fellow busy character Kyo Kusanagi, as Benimaru is just good enough to take care of others whereas Kyo was requested by fellow fighter Chizuru Kagura join her team. In the end, Ogura was glad with this decision.

Designs

Terry was designed to fit an American hero, sharing blond hair and represent the country's flag through his clothing which includes red, blue and white, making him easy to recognize. This also includes references to superheroes often seen in Japanese series like mecha protagonists and echo a rise of popularity. The SNK staff described his original design as "the most macho, stand-out, original Terry". Youchiro Soeda was in charge of the animation of most of the characters in the first Fatal Fury. His original appearance was made with the intention that he did not look like a martial artist, contrasting the looks of his brother Andy. His appearance evolves across Fatal Fury; there were two rejected sketches. One involved a design with cowboy boots, a tattoo, and a pendant he had received from an unidentified woman. Nobyuki Kuroki handled Terry's design in the Real Bout titled games. This was mostly because SNK aimed to make Terry's muscles more notable, removing protection from his shoulders. Most of the main King of Fighters games up to The King of Fighters 2002 feature Terry in his Fatal Fury 2 outfit. In XII, his classic outfit was used to remain true to his origins, while color editing was made in order to make him look like the Pokémon character Ash Ketchum as a gag. For The King of Fighters XIV, the artists found Terry's new appearance challenging to the point it was remade four times along with changes by his motion actor. Yusuke Amano was the character designer for Terry in this title which he enjoyed due to his personal experience with Terry ever since he played as him in his childhood. With Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters eventually moving from 2D visuals to 3D, the staff was careful to keep his original image intact for gameplay and visual needs.
In Mark of the Wolves, Terry was redesigned with a "cool" look by the SNK staff because they thought his previous appearance had become outdated. Yasuyuki Oda was in charge of this version of Terry with respect to the game design. Regardless of major changes to Terry's most unique traits, SNK wanted to keep the original stars drawn in the back of his jacket. Another reason for the change of clothing was to symbolize Terry's more peaceful personality now displayed in Mark of the Wolves. The King of Fighters 2003 and The King of Fighters XI feature the "Mark of the Wolves" design. In Maximum Impact and Maximum Impact 2 Terry wears both recurring outfits which bothered Ureshino. This is mostly due to the age difference Terry and Rock has as Terry is 24 years old in Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters but 35 in Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Meanwhile, Rock is only 17 Garou: Mark of the Wolves, making the time gap in Maximum Impact not fitting. As a result, even if Rock stands next to him, they look more like brothers than stepfather in KOF. That is why Ureshino feel uncomfortable when the two of them talk in demo scenes and the like. As a result, SNK solved this discomfort by setting Maximum Impact in an alternate timeline where Geese Howard is already dead, making it nearly the Garou: Mark of the Wolves timeline. Meanwhile, XV has Terry in Fatal Fury 2 design as regular and in his Garou design as DLC. While Terry retains his Garou look in City of the Wolves. Players who pre-order Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves will receive an additional costume for Terry based on his appearance in Fatal Fury 2.
While making SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy, SNK staff noted that because Terry was one of the company's most popular characters, his inclusion in the game was necessary even if he had to be redesigned as a woman; this incarnation has feminine clothing options including a variant of his original outfit wherein the FATAL FURY logo on his cap is changed to read "FATAL CUTiE", a cheerleader outfit, and steampunk-inspired clothes. This was not the first time SNK had featured a female version of Terry in a game: in 2003's SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, he is magically transformed by the Darkstalkers character Demitri Maximoff.