Goenitz

is a fictional character from ''The King of Fighters'' fighting game series by SNK. He was introduced in the 1996 game ''The King of Fighters '96'' as the final boss, responsible for several tragedies that occurred to several characters as a result of him granting them the power of the ancient demon Yamata no Orochi. Although Goenitz dies in this installment facing the leads Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami, he has appeared in related games without storylines as well as the crossover '' SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos'' as a boss until his revival in ''The King of Fighters XV''. The character is voiced by Shima Yoshinori. While the character posseses only two designs, SNK designed him to give the impression of a priest interested in religion.

Goenitz's character led to mixed responses to his overpowered skills in his first game that made him one of the strongest bosses in gaming and was praised for being a calm personality despite his antagonistic role in the story. His return in ''The King of Fighters XV'' was also praised by the media as he was seen as difficult as the other boss Rugal Bernstein and thus provides a major challenge to the players.

Creation and design

While creating ''The King of Fighters '96'' as a director, game designer Masanori Kuwasashi created Goentiz with his name being a reference to an anime he liked as a child. Goenitz was written to be an antagonist who surpassed the previous villain of the previous ''The King of Fighters'' installments, Rugal Bernstein. Though Goenitz had only appeared in one installment by the time of writing it, SNK's developers noticed he became one of ''The King of Fighters'' most popular characters. Goenitz was first voiced voiced by Shima Yoshinori who found the character young despite his age. Goenitz is not a pastor who sees Orochi as a god, but a pure pastor. Therefore, he usually works as a pastor. He considers Orochi and the religion he deals with to be separate. The staff claims he is probably because he was interested in the religion as a personal hobby, leading to his clothing. As a result, SNK revised his design several times until they made him look like a priest. Since early development of the game, Goenitz's abilities to summon tornadoes that foreshadow that the challenge needed to defeat him.

Since his first appearance Goenitz is consistently seen reading a book, a blue wardrobe and a silver earrings. A new costume was given to Goenitz in the video game ''The King of Fighters XV'' as a reward for the player beating him in the Boss Challenge Mode. The new costume emphasizes darker colors and red eyes but still keeps blue color. The suit has a reptilian scale-like appearance and is made of a stretchy reinforced fiber material. In contrast tp the original Goenitz who had no pockets, ''XV'' reinforces intricate accessories.

Appearances

In video games

Goenitz is one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the demon Orochi, with the power to command the element of wind. Goenitz has a very polite personality which is reflected in his winning poses and his elegant, somewhat flowery speech. Even though influenced by Orochi, he sports the same messianistic attitude that aspires to bring about "salvation" expected from people of religious occupations. During the 1996 tournament, Goenitz discovers that the host Chizuru Kagura plans to gather warriors to seal the Orochi and heads there to stop her. In addition to this, Goenitz is the one who took the villain Rugal Bernstein's right eye in an attempt to grant him the power of Orochi and make him a vessel of his lord. However, Rugal dies after fighting Kyo Kusanagi in ''The King of Fighters '95'', leading Goenitz to target the winner. Following his defeat, Goenitz passes away as his body disappears in a tornado. If the player forms the Sacred Treasures Team, Goenitz is incinerated by Iori Yagami and Kyo Kusanagi. If Goenitz is chosen by the player, Goenitz is defeated by Chizuru's late sister, Maki, who put a spell on him before her death.

Goenitz went to appear as an assistant-type character dubbed "Striker" in ''The King of Fighters 2000''. He returns alternative boss in ''The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match'' and '' The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match''. In the Game Boy Advance game '' The King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood'', Goenitz's subordinate Gustav Munchausen attempts to reincarnate Goenitz's soul a new vessel. He is also both a playable character and boss in '' SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos'', and boss-only in '' KOF: Sky Stage''. Beating ''SVC Chaos'' as Goenitz lead to an ending scene where Chizuru attacks the Orochi servant. Following his revival after ''The King of Fighters XV'', Goenitz is dismayed about his fellow Heavenly Kings recently revived split into two halves, but despite this, both the normal and awakened forms of the Orochi Team are still determined to carry out Orochi's mission while also trying to avoid the Ikari Warriors' current surveillance towards them.

In other media

A manga called ''Goenitz Gaiden: The King of Fighters '96 Millennium Zero'' explores the character's youth targeting his future enemies, most notably Rugal. A dating sim called ''The King of Fighters For Girls'' features Goenitz with the new voice actor Hiroki Yasumoto. Goentiz's role in the ''KOF '96'' is also explored in Ryo Takamisaki's manga ''The King of Fighters G'', where he brings the presence of Orochi to the tournament, corrupting everybody. Just like in the video game, Goenitz is incinerated by Kyo but blind as Benimaru Nikaido wounded him when he was corrupted by Orochi's power. In the manga '' The King of Fighters: Kyo'', Goenitz attacks the Yagami Team in the before a concert, killing Vice and Mature while kidnapping Iori. This angers Kyo who claims Iori is his enemy resulting in the two rivals turning against Goenitz until killing him. Goenitz also makes a cameo in the final episode of the Chinese computer animated series '' The King of Fighters: Destiny'' where he grabs Rugal who was defeated by Kyo to increase the curse of Orochi in Iori. The character was meant to return in the film ''The King of Fighters: Awaken'' facing Kyo but was cancelled. According to the manga adaption of ''The King of Fighters XIV'' titled '' The King of Fighters: A New Beginning'', it is confirmed that Goenitz is one of the souls inside the boss character Verse.

Reception

Several game journalists commented on Goentiz's appeal as a boss character and villain role in ''The King of Fighters''. ''Famitsu'' said that while looks like a pastor and can be seen to be polite in his words and actions, but he can also be seen to be ruthless when fighting, especially when he uses the power to create tornadoes. ''Destructoid'' considered Goenitz the "father" of the New Faces Team from ''The King of Fighters '97'' due to their same alignment. He acknowledged him as an "irritating" boss character due to the powers he uses when fighting which makes him strong depite his graceful style. ''El Periodico de Aragon'' said that while Goentiz had few appearances in the series, he still keeps his messiah figure and often comes across as a religious priest. The fact that he fights using the power of nature, he is still a demon-like figure.

Severak writers focused on the difficulty to beat him and powers the character use. ''Den of Geek'' said Goenitz appears to be the last final boss an insane difficulty as not only he few following bosses like Krizalid are able to imitate him but he has also one of the most horrible people to be featured in ''The King of Fighters''. This is reflected on the chaos he caused on Chizuru and Leona Heidern's lives and forced the protagonist to change his fighting style, and awoke the Orochi form of Iori Yagami. Nevertheless, the boss' personality is surprisingly calm in cutscenes and fights that his catchphrase would anger players. In ''GameAxis Unwired'', Goenitz was recognized as a popular SNK boss but overshadowed by Rugal. When it came to ranking ''KOF'' bosses, ''GameRant'' found Goenitz's character even harder to beat than his lord Orochi due to the advantages he has in battle when facing him ''The King of Fighters '96''. The boss was considered so powerful that his catchphrase "Koko desu ka?" ("Is it there?") was stuck in the writer's mind. The same website also considered Goenitz as one of the best fighters with wind powers in gaming history as echoed by his nickname "Wildly-Blowing Wind" and the multiple special moves he can create involving wind. ''Hardcore Gaming 101'' said that while the story of ''KOF '96'' was simple, the handing of Goenitz's design and his relationship with Orochi descendants was well executed as shown through some similar moves he and other Orochi related character have. ''PushSquare'' saw Goenitz as one of the most unbalanced characters from ''SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos'' due to the difficulty it takes to defeat the boss especially if the player is using Hugo.

For ''The King of Fighters XV'', ''Famitsu'' saw Goentiz as an equal to Rugal based on their updated powers, demanding good strategies to defeat him and obtain his new outfit. ''Excite'' like Goenitz's redesign and difficulty. In retrospect, when playing ''KOF'96'' like an obsessive, the writer was surprised to see Goenitz appear when defeating Chizuru Kaguraand thought it was the ending. Instead he felt the "despair at his extraordinary strength was tremendous". He continued facing Goenitz several times until succeeding with Goro Daimon. He was satisfied with this achievement and thus was glad Goentiz was not only playable in ''KOF XV'' but also as an special challenge comparable to Omega Rugal. Besides his costume, ''Excite'' liked his new background theme and how new generations who never had access to ''The King of Fighters '96'' would be able to face Goenitz like he did with ''KOF XV''. ''GameRant'' wanted Goenitz to form a team with Vice and Mature as the three are servants of Orochi and share similar personality traits despite the women's death and apparent return as Undead. Goenitz's revival in ''The King of Fighters XV'' was said to be common in modern fighting games which SNK often executed in the ''The King of Fighters'' series as foreshadowed in ''The King of Fighters XIV'' when Krizallid talks to K', showing potential for more revivals in the upcoming games.

The transformed state of Goenitz from ''SVC Chaos'' proved extremely popular. Appearing as a nun, the fandom dubbed the character "Goeniko" and fleshed her out as a full character for M.U.G.E.N, albeit with a more sexualized design. This later resulted in her appearing in commercial mobile game title '' The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match Online'', as well as in ''The King of Fighters All Star'' as "Lady Goenitz" and with a different appearance. In 2023, NetLab Research Team conducted a survey asking, "Who is your favorite character in KOF?" with Goenitz taking 9th place.

References

{{King of Fighters Characters

Fictional characters with air or wind abilities
Fictional criminals in video games
Fictional murderers
Male characters in video games
The King of Fighters characters
Video game bosses
Video game characters introduced in 1996
Video game characters with superhuman strength