Robert Garcia (Game)

General CVG character
name=Robert Garcia


caption=Robert Garcia in "King of Fighters 2003"
firstgame="Art of Fighting"
series="Art of Fighting" series
"King of Fighters" series
artist=
voiceactor= James W. Hove (during demo in AOF}
japanactor= Yano Eiji (during play in AOF)
Kay Inage (AOF2, KOF '94~'95, KOF XI, NBC
Mantarou Kouichi (AOF3, KOF '96~2003)
Masanori Ikeda (anime)
Hideo Ishikawa (Dengeki Bunko drama CD)
inuniverse=SNK character
birthplace=flagicon|Italy Italian
birthdate=December 25th
"(King of Fighters)";
December 25th, 1957
"(Art of Fighting)"
age=21 years old ('95-2001)
height=5'11 (180cm)
weight=187 lbs (85 kg)
bloodtype=AB
fightingstyle=Kyokugenryu style of Karate
likes=Collecting automobiles, Sushi
dislikes=Rakkyou (pickled scallions)| nihongo|Robert Garcia|ロバート・ガルシア|Robāto Garushia is a character in the King of Fighters video game series. A practitioner of Kyokugenryu Karate, he first appeared as the deuteragonist in "Art of Fighting" and currently appears in the "King of Fighters" video game series. Thus far, he has been a playable character in every edition of KOF except "The King of Fighters XI"; however, he has recently been added back in for the Playstation 2 version of the game. He is the first known foreign practitioner of Kyokugenryu Karate. In Gamest's 1997 Heroes Collection, Robert was voted as the staff's forty-sixth favorite character. He shared the spot with seven other characters, including "Samurai Shodown" character, Hattori Hanzo, and Darkstalkers character, "Demitri Maximoff".Cite book | year=1997 | editor=Gamest | title=Gamest Game Hero Collection 1997; issue 208 | pages=240 | language=Japanese | publisher=Shinseisha ]

Background

Art of Fighting

Robert is the son of Alberto Garcia, a wealthy Italian businessman and best friend of Takuma Sakazaki, the master of Kyokugenryu Karate. Alberto persuaded Takuma to teach Robert discipline through Kyokugenryu. While living with his new sensei, Robert quickly befriended Takuma's children, Ryo and Yuri. Ryo became his best friend, and Robert eventually developed romantic feelings for Yuri. He has held a special relationship with Yuri ever since he first met her, and would likely wed her if not for Takuma and Ryo, who either overprotect Yuri out of habit or suspect that Robert might take her for granted.

In 1978 (by the "Art of Fighting" timeline), Geese Howard secretly blackmailed Takuma into working for him after he kidnapped Yuri. Meanwhile, Ryo and Robert began searching Southtown's dojos, dives, and nightclubs for clues about Yuri's disappearance. In the process, they fought Southtown's toughest criminals, bouncers, and martial artists. They eventually learned that Mr. Big allegedly masterminded the kidnapping.

One of Mr. Big's henchmen led Ryo and Robert to Mr. Big, and Robert defeated him. When he demanded that Mr. Big release Yuri, Mr. Big sent them to a dojo where his henchman Mr. Karate purportedly held Yuri. Exhausted from his fight with Mr. Big, Robert stepped aside to let Ryo fight Mr. Karate. Ryo nearly used a "haoushoukouken" to finish him off, but Yuri, having escaped her captors unharmed, sneaked in and told Ryo not to harm him since Mr. Karate was really their father, Takuma. Then they had a joyous reunion.

After the first King of Fighters tournament which was held by Geese, Robert visited Central America to help Freya Lawrence, a childhood friend, save her brother Wyler, whose demonic power made him go berserk.

Robert benefits from his father's wealth. He always wears fancy clothes and drives expensive cars. Despite Ryo and Takuma's constant scrutiny, he sometimes gives luxurious gifts to Yuri. Robert also has an air of cockyness due to his constant wealth, which is seen by his friend Ryo as a sign of rudeness since Ryo's family lives in constant poverty due to having their finances run the Kyokugenryu dojo.

His Kyokugenryu movelist operates on the principle of Ryugeki, a class lower than the Kou-Ou principle but higher than the Raiou principle. Robert's style focuses upon lethal kicks, his signature move being the "genei-kyaku" or "spirit kick".

King of Fighters

"Rugal and Orochi Battles"

In the 1994 "King of Fighters" tournament, Takuma, Ryo, and Robert participated as the Kyokugenryu Karate team. Against Ryo's wishes—Ryo fearing that she would poorly represent the Kyokugenryu school—but with Robert's support, Yuri entered the tournament with King and Mai Shiranui as her partners. After this and subsequent tournaments, Robert and Ryo sneaked away or fled the venue to avoid Takuma's demands that they immediately renew and redouble their training.

After KOF '95, He then returned to the Kyokugenryu Dojo where Takuma informed his disciples that he felt too old to fight in the next KOF tournament. To Ryo's opposition and Robert's favor, Takuma granted his slot on the team to Yuri. Ever since, Robert has represented Kyokugenryu Karate at KOF as best as he could, and has looked forward to fighting alongside Yuri every year. However, much to his chagrin, Robert has never had one moment alone with his crush thanks to Ryo's overbearing surveillance. Despite being the only foreigner on the team, he can well represent Kyokugenryu Karate.

"NESTS battles"

With the arrival of KOF '99 and its teams of four, Robert had the pleasure of welcoming Takuma back to the Kyokugenryu team. Once again under the scrutiny of two Sakazakis, Robert worked harder than ever to prove his worthiness for Yuri. Part of that effort became Robert's drive to prove his mastery of Kyokugenryu to Takuma, which led to Robert's new and innovative kicking-based style.

Returning from his pre-KOF 2000 vacation, he disappointedly learned that Yuri defected to Mai Shiranui's team. To make matters worse, with Takuma's blessing, Ryo invited his love interest, King, to join the "Art of Fighting" team. Robert had a low opinion of King. He initially refused to let King fill Yuri's spot with some strange lady who dressed like a guy and her inferior muay thai discipline, and challenged King to test whether she would not blemish the name of Kyokugenryu Karate. She accepted and pushed Robert to his very limits, and he reluctantly acquiesced, welcoming King to the team with all the grace his wounded ego could muster. Though no longer fighting beside his love, he competed just as hard in KOF 2000 to impress her since she was still watching him. Unfortunately, Southtown's destruction due to the Zero Cannon overshadowed infatuations that year. The Sakazakis, left homeless, relied on Robert to support them until they rebuilt their dojo.

Unfortunately, as KOF 2001 approached, the Garcia Foundation went bankrupt due to the NESTS cartel's intrigues. Now just as broke and miserable as his adopted family, Robert turned to the Sakazaki family for help. The Sakazakis could not stand the sight of a distraught Robert, so Yuri announced her return to the "Art of Fighting" team to cheer him up, having Li Xiangfei take her old place on Mai Shiranui's team. Ryo and Takuma also promised to help Robert win KOF 2001 and its prize money to revive the Garcia Foundation's finances. That year, with so many debts of money and gratitude to pay, Robert fought harder than ever before. Though his team did not win, it somehow received the prize money amid the confusion surrounding NESTS' destruction. The Garcias' fortunes partly restored, Robert repaid the Sakazakis for their support by rebuilding their dojo.

"The Ash Saga"

With the coming KOF 2003 adjusting teams back to three members, Takuma once again retired from competition to let Ryo, Robert, and Yuri form a team. Though the tournament passed otherwise uneventfully for the Art of Fighting team, they returned to find an assaulted Takuma sprawled across the dojo floor. Though he claimed to know the true plot behind the current KOF tournaments, he did not reveal it, nor did he reveal his attacker.

Though the Garcia Foundation no longer faced liquidation as it did in "KOF 2001", it needed significant help to rebuild its prior fortunes. Though he wanted to help investigate KOF along with Ryo and Yuri, immediately before the KOF XI began, Robert's duties demanded that he devote all his time to his company. Takuma asked King to take the third spot in the Art of Fighting team to replace Robert since she had made a fine teammate before. In reality, Takuma had hatched a ludicrous plot to force the consummation of Ryo and King's still tentative relationship, a plot in which Robert played a "very" reluctant part. Robert is confirmed to appear in the King of Fighters XII.

Appearances

Robert first appeared in the original "Art of Fighting" as one of the main characters, and he is playable in almost every game he appeared in. He is, along with Kyo Kusanagi and Athena Asamiya, one of the few SNK characters whose outfits change during all his appearances, having a total of 5 different clothes for him, but always maintain his white pants and his medallion around his neck. Alongside an aged Ryo Sakazaki from Buriki One, an aged Robert appears in "Neo Geo Battle Coliseum" with moves largely from "The King of Fighters 2000" and "The King of Fighters 2003". He also appears in this form in the PS2 version of "The King of Fighters XI". Despite their non-Japanese origins, Robert and Sie Kensou speak the Osaka dialect of Japanese perfectly. In "The King of Fighters '97" and "The King of Fighters '98", before they battle each other, they perform a classic schtick from Osakan comedy. Robert in between levels of the first installment can be seen driving a Ferrari F40, which is the same car that appears in the background in the second installment. However, judging by the birthdates of its characters, the car was not produced until 1987.

Gameplay and fighting style

Robert practices the Ryugeki principle of Kyokugenryu Karate. When he was young, he practiced the Kou-Ou principle. In order to make him push past his limits and complete the way of the Kyokugenryu practitioner, Takuma forced him to practice the Ryugeki principle. Contrary to popular belief Robert was never called the Invincible Dragon. Original 1992 Art of Fighting arcade flyers in English, Japanese, and German all show Ryo as the Dragon and Robert as the Tiger. [http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=archive&db=videodb&letter=a] Despite this, most of Robert's moves have the word "ryu", for "dragon", in them (e.g. "hien ryu-jin kyaku", or "dragon air-blade kick") just as most of Ryo's moves have the word "kou" in them, which means "tiger". He is the only character to ever possess three different super levels containing the same move. In "King of Fighters 2002", he possessed DM, SDM, and HDM versions of the "Ryuko Ranbu" (Utmost Attack), each with increasing hits per damage, the final one being unblockable as well. Along with Chizuru Kagura, he is one of the characters whos move input changes most constantly between games, though he occasionally reverts to his original moveset. For example, only in "King of Fighters 99" & "2000", he was a "charge-motion" type character, like Leona or Ash Crimson.

Related characters

*Ryo Sakazaki Friend/Rival
*Geese Howard Enemy
*Khushnood Butt Friend
*King Friend/rival
*Takuma Sakazaki Master
*Yuri Sakazaki Girlfriend
*Mr. Big Enemy
*Sie Kensou Friend Fact|date=July 2008
*Andy Bogard Fatal Fury counter part Fact|date=July 2008
*Dan Hibiki, parody

References

External links

* [http://www.kof10th.com// The King of Fighters 10th Anniversary Official Website]