Rugal Bernstein

During development of The King of Fighters '94, several final boss designs were considered, including a masked dominatrix with a spiked whip, a long haired gentleman in a formal suit, and an early sketch of a muscular man wearing a mask and checkerboard sash around his waist.[2] The concept for making Rugal was to make "the biggest, baddest, most evil villain imaginable," due to the planning team's love of villains,[3] and as his character evolved a planned in-game team consisting of series bosses Geese Howard and Wolfgang Krauser was scrapped to further highlight him.[4] The stage you fight him in was meant to reflect his personality, and at one point they considered it to be a giant mecha modeled after his appearance, before switching to an aircraft carrier.[3][4] Rugal has been described by developers as "He's the only character who truly represents the ultimate KOF boss" and has become the boss character with the biggest number of appearances in The King of Fighters series, becoming a favorite character among both the developers and series artist Falcoon.[5][6] The character's popularity has continued even to his appearance in The King of Fighters XV, with artist Tomohiro Nakata surprised by how acclaimed the decision to include Rugal was.[7] Due to his multiple "deaths" in the series, developers joking added the hobby "resurrection" to his official profile.[8]

Standing 1.97 m (6ft 5in) tall,[8] Rugal is a blonde muscular man with a thin mustache, with his right eye missing. His normal outfit consists of a red formal tailcoat suit with black accents, fingerless gloves, a black cummerbund and ribbon tie, and a white shirt underneath.[9] This outfit has been used for most of his casual appearances, including crossover titles such as Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 and its sequel.[10] In The King of Fighters '94, when he is defeated the first time he will toss away most of his upper clothes, now wearing a black sleeveless undershirt with his suspenders dangling loose while, and fighting more seriously.[11]

In The King of Fighters '95, though other options were considered Rugal returned as the game's final boss with a modified design. Many ideas were considered for this version, including having him fight shirtless with a tattoo of a leopard covering his left arm and pectoral, a design with armor embedded into his flesh, and another featuring heavy cybernetic implants, with goggles covering his eyes and wires extending from his arms into his chest. A more outlandish design, called "Rugal Infinity", would have featured his body merged with Geese and Krauser, appearing as a six armed naked man with the other two men's faces sticking out of the sides of his head, akin to depictions of the god Ashura.[12] Dubbing him "Omega Rugal", they ultimately settled on an appearance similar to his King of Fighters '94 counterpart, but with his upper body having burst from his clothing, wild white hair, cybernetic prosthetics replacing his right hand and eye, and the Greek letter "Ω" tattooed on his back.[13] Omega Rugal later returned in King of Fighters '98, his design changed with the developers focusing on using his secondary 'serious' appearance in '94 as a base, while retaining the cybernetic red eye.[14] This served as Omega Rugal's look from that game onwards with minimal modifications and additions, such as a costume variant adding a red longcoat and armored shoulderpads in XV as an unlockable reward for defeating him as a boss.[7]

Rugal has been widely praised for not only his high difficulty as a boss, but also his personality and character portrayal

Rugal's high difficulty in King of Fighters '94, notably during his second phase, led to fighting game fans coining the term "SNK Boss syndrome", in reference to when a computer-controlled opponent in a fighting game is extremely difficult to play against to the point of feeling "outright broken".[11] Retro Gamer cited that his attacks copied from other fighters gave him a "formidable foundation", and that his own suite of attacks coupled with his lore of killing defeated opponents by turning them into statues them made him "the ultimate boss".[38] Darren Bonthuys of Gamespot called him "the boss of bosses", stating that he played like a culmination of every previous boss in other SNK fighting games, "but better".[39] 1UP.com described his Omega Rugal design as "one of the most stylish boss designs in fighting history, although more than a few gamers grew to hate the sight of him," and praised his absence in King of Fighters '96.[40] However, the magazine RetroManiac called him "one of the most charismatic bosses in the saga", and praised his inclusion in even handheld versions of King of Fighters.[41] Eliot Lefebvre of Dualshockers in turn named him one of fighting game's most iconic characters, stating that his high difficulty coupled with his lore made him an exception amongst fighting game villains in that he was as memorable as the player characters themselves. He further added that even in cases where Rugal was playable, "Rugal is remembered as a boss."[42]

Gavin Jasper of Den of Geek praised Rugal's character as a villain, comparing him to Capcom's Street Fighter antagonists with "He’s what M. Bison wishes he could be," and "he proves that as great as Akuma is, his power is better wielded by a megalomaniac with the gift of style and swagger."[43] Going into more detail with the latter, he added that while other crossover fighting games such as Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite would routinely feature a "merged" villain from their respective franchises, Rugal's approach of stealing Akuma's techniques and how he utilized them with his own style set him apart.[44] He further praised Rugal by stating despite all incarnations of the character being incredibly difficult to fight, "the dude has so much swagger and radiates such coolness that I can’t hate him. He’s Rugal Goddamn Bernstein and we’re better for knowing him." Jasper noted that while Rugal returned for "dream match" games in the series, in his eyes solidifying himself as "THE villain of King of Fighters", he felt the character didn't wear out his welcome. Instead he stated Rugal was defined as much by his weakness as his strengths, namely in regards to his deaths in the King of Fighters and Capcom vs. SNK titles due to absorbing too much power, describing it as "classic villainy".[43][45]

In Mexico where the King of Fighters franchise is extremely popular, Rugal's presence as a playable character has led to his picture being plastered on arcade cabinets with a statement not to select him, specifically stating "Prohibido jugar con Rugal" (lit. "Forbidden to play with Rugal").[46] A Spanish scholarly paper discussing human nature and the social norms of sportsmanlike conduct also mentioned Rugal in this context, and political figure Jaime Rodríguez Calderón specifically asked people not to use him when suggesting they play The King of Fighters among other video games during a "Game Day" celebration.[47][48] However Brazilian anthropology researcher Deyse Brandão in a dissertation cited Rugal as an example of a popular nickname amongst young students in her country, in the same vein as "Stark" or "Naruto", with the students applying the character's symbolism towards themselves as a form of identity.[49]