Robert Garcia is a video game character created by SNK Playmore, formerly known as SNK. Robert stars in the fighting video game Art of Fighting as the lead character along his best friend Ryo Sakazaki. The game features both of them as practitioners of the Kyokugenryu Karate fighting who search for Ryo's younger sister, Yuri Sakazaki, who was kidnapped by a criminal named Mr. Big. He is additionally featured in most of The King of Fighters crossover games, in which starts into the King of Fighters tournament in teams composed of three members. 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.
Robert has additionally appeared in the film adaptation of Art of Fighting, and the manhua from The King of Fighters. He received mixed critics from video games publication, which praised his design, but some also noted him similar to the Street Fighter main characters. He has also been well-received by gamers, appearing in several popularity polls developed by journals and websites.
In the first Art of Fighting Robert sports a black t-shirt with short sleeves, a sleeveless brown jacket and a gold medallion around the neck. He also wears white pants, white and black shoes and black gloves. He has the same outfit in the following Art of Fighting but without sleeves in his t-shirt. This costume is also featured in the first two The King of Fighters as well as The King of Fighters XII. In the third Art of Fighting game, Robert has a light blue jacket with his top uncovered and does not wear his medallion. He also sports white gloves and brown shoes, but keeps having his white pants.
Story[]
Robert trains with his best friend and rival, Ryo
Robert is the son of Alberto Garcia, a wealthy Italian businessman and best friend of Takuma Sakazaki, the master of Kyokugenryu Karate. When he was younger, Robert was fascinated with the fighting style as he saw it as a way to escape from his father's shadow in the stifling high class society. Against his father's wishes, Robert trained under Takuma Sakazaki and often sparred with Ryo. As time passed, Ryo became his best friend.
Robert eventually developed romantic feelings for his friend's sister, Yuri. He has held an infatuation 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.
Robert is the stereotype of the rich partying playboy. He doesn't take life so seriously and always has a smile on his face. He often acts as the reluctant mediator for the Sakazaki siblings though he often sides with Yuri if he can. He is considered to be a natural genius by friend and foe alike. 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 cockiness due to his constant wealth, which is seen by his friend Ryo as a sign of rudeness since Ryo's family lives in borderline poverty due to having their finances run the Kyokugenryu dojo. However, this doesn't mean Robert is a bad person; far from it. He sticks by the Sakazakis' side when they really need it, and is overall a good friend judging from his relationship with the Sakazakis (especially with Ryo, who tends to be his foil). He's also not one to throw down a challenge either, and he works hard for his own karate prowess. In KOF XIII, Robert is mentioned in Yuri's intro against Benimaru, hinting that despite his nature being similar to Benimaru's, Robert can often show genuine worry over Yuri and can show a bit of jealousy to others who try to get with her. And despite his clashes shown with Takuma in XIII over Robert's proposal to Yuri, even he due to being one of Takuma's students, acts as silly as the Sakazakis at times, as evidenced in the Kyokugen team's ending in XI along with Yuri and Takuma himself.
To counter Ryo, Robert was taught to be the "dragon". Ironic since his nickname call him a "tiger". Robert's style focuses upon lethal kicks, his signature move being the Gen'ei Kyaku (Phantom Leg), along with his Mahha Geri (Mach Kick) from Neo Geo Battle Coliseum and KOF XI being a possible feint attack. He of course, also tends to sport some of the same techniques as Ryo via being his "shoutouclone" foil, like the Haou Shoukou Ken.
In video games[]
Robert fights Jack in Mac Bar
In Art of Fighting, Yuri is kidnapped by the criminal Mr. Big. As such, both Ryo Sakazaki and Robert go to Southtown to interrogate fighters untile finding Mr. Big. They decided to split up during the search for Yuri. Robert raced through South Town via his sports car, while leaving Ryo with a motorcycle. During his
A humiliated Robert begging King for forgiveness after she effortlessly defeats him
quest, he interrogates several villains within South Town, which often leads to a grueling fight. Following defeating Todoh and Jack at the Temple and Mac Bar respectively. Canonically, during the next several fights, Robert suffers a series of humiliating defeats. Robert heads to La Mour Cafe where he faced off with King, demanding to know Yuri's
whearbouts. King was angered by Robert's arrogance, and decides to fight after he insulted her, unbeknownst to him that King was actually a woman. Despite putting up a hard fight, Robert was no match for King's unique set of skills. Her speed and strength allows her to easily overwhelm Robert and defeat him without even taking a single hit. King ridicules Robert as she lands the finishing blow, causing Robert to lay unconcious in his trademark defeat pose -
on knees, head down, with butt in the air. Ryo arrivles shortly after to save Robert. After defeating Mr. Big, Ryo and Robert
face an assasain named Mr. Karate. Mr. Karate defeats Robert. Robert falls down on his knees and beg Mr.Karate to reveeal Yuri's whereabouts. Disguted by his shameful act, Mr.Karate knocked him unconcious. until Ryo arrives.. Ryo nearly finishes him off, but Yuri sneaks in and tells Ryo not to harm him since Mr. Karate is their father, Takuma. After saving Yuri, Robert and Ryo decides to spar to test their strength. Ryo easily defeated Robert, humiliating him in front of Yuri and Takuma. Robert decides to train more after realizing how weak he is after suffering multiple defeats during his search for Yuri.
Robert defeats John in the Art of Fighting 2 Tournament
The second Art of Fighting game features Robert, Ryo, Takuma and a now fighter Yuri entering into the first King of Fighters tournament held by Geese Howard, the main responsible for the kidnap. In Art of Fighting 3 Robert visits Central America to help Freya Lawrence, a childhood friend, save her brother Wyler, whose demonic power made him go berserk.
In the The King of Fighters series, Takuma, Ryo, and Robert are part of the Art of Fighting Team. After The King of Fighters '95, Yuri replaces Takuma who is feeling too old to fight. With the arrival of The King of Fighters '99 and its teams of four, Takuma returns to the Art of Fighting team. In The King of Fighters 2000 Yuri defects to Mai Shiranui's team, leaving
Robert Garcia in the King of Fighters series
King to replace her. As The King of Fighters 2001 approached, the Garcia Foundation went bankrupt due to the NESTS cartel's intrigues. In order to help Robert recover the money and cheer him up Yuri returns to the Art of Fighting team. With the coming The King of Fighters 2003 adjusting teams back to three members, Takuma once again retired from competition to let Ryo, Robert, and Yuri form a team.
Though the Garcia Foundation no longer faced liquidation as it did in The King of Fighters 2001, it needed significant help to rebuild its prior fortunes, causing Robert to be absent in The King of Fighters XI. He is playable in The King of Fighters XII, but like each character, he does not have an official team. He also appears in the spin-off The King of
Robert in Art of Fighting 3
Fighters Kyo, in which he helps the main character Kyo Kusanagi into finding his girlfriend Yuki. 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 as a hidden character in the PlayStation 2 version of The King of Fighters XI. In The King of Fighters game without storylines The King of Fighters 2002 and The King of Fighters Neowave the Art of Fighting Team remains as in '94, while in The King of Fighters '98 and The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match, it appears with Yuri taking Takuma's place. Both of these latest games also feature an "EX" version of Robert with his moves from the Art of Fighting series as a playable character.
Gameplay[]
Robert uses the Kyokugen-Ryu fighting style to fight but focusing more on kicks attacks unlike Ryo and Takuma who focus on punches. Robert 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 Ryūko Ranbu (Dragon-Tiger Crazy Dance), 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, in The King of Fighters 99 and 2000, he was a "charge-motion" type character, like Leona or Ash Crimson.
Trivia[]
One of his winposes is him tossing and catching a coin. The coin is a reference to his story in Art of Fighting, where his father gave it to him before he left the Garcia mansion. His father did it so Robert could remember his roots and one day come back to it. It wasn't brought to focus again until Art of Fighting 3 although it appeared sooner than that. The coin was included as a very rare extra along with stickers in the limited edition Neogeo CD release of the game.
His older appearance in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum is not intended to be tied with any continuity. It was made to match the older Mr. Karate II and is considered to be an original form of Robert.
In Art of Fighting, one of Robert's infamous defeat pose involves him falling on his knees in a bent over position where his rear is protruded upward. Fans often mock and ridicule Robert, especially since he is a classified as a determined and strong protagonist, for entering such a humiliating position. Designers stated the reason for this was to weaken Robert's image as the main hero, as they want Ryo to the poster child for the game. Furthermore, they joked that rendering a rich and arrogant jerk like Robert down on his knees is a suitable punishment and thus to balance his arrogance. Interestingly, in Art of Fighting 2 Robert only assumes this pose when defeated by Yuri via a special move during the final round.
Yuri defeats and humiliates Robert
Her victory quote involves her forcing her boyfriend to bow down to her. Referring to his defeat pose, it is implied that he succumbed to her demands, prostrating before her and pleading for mercy. Designers comment that this was done to add humor and to symbolize Robert's humiliation by being defeated by Yuri, whom is not only his girlfriend, but also the character with the least amount of training and fighting experience, and that he belittle her attempt to start fighting in tournaments. Fans often joke that Robert is whipped by Yuri in their relationship because of her ability to send a him, who is prideful and egotistical, down on his knees with his butt sticking up.
During the ending of King of Fighters VIII, Robert reveals to Takuma that he wishes to wed Yuri, and he already purchased a ring, in which Takuma heavily dissapprove. Despite this, Robert and Yuri has yet to wed.
Story-wise, Robert is depicted to be far weaker than Ryo, probably because he trained far less and is less determined than Ryo. He has yet to win any major tournaments, and his canon performance in the King of Fighter tournament is merely lukewarm.
