Rugal Bernstein

Rugal Burnstein is a character from the King of Fighters games.

Feared throughout the political and fighting world, Rugal was an influential arms dealer who operated aboard his aircraft carrier Black Noah. To those who would oppose him, he would defeat them and later preserve their bodies in liquid metal to add to his grisly trophy room. He used to work with his younger brother, but they separated over conflicting interests. When Rugal was about 25 years old, an 18 year old Goenitz took out his eye with one strike and gave him a small portion of Orochi's power for surviving the attack. Since then, he has a bionic eye to replace the one he lost.

Appearance
Rugal is 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) tall, and weighs 103 kilograms (227 lb). In his first appearance in King of Fighters '94, Rugal is shown wearing red formal clothes and with his right eye covered, having lost it in a previous confrontation. After his initial defeat, Rugal appears in a battle outfit composed of a sleeveless green shirt, but still keep his red pants. In King of Fighters '95 Rugal keeps his formal clothes but when he becomes Omega Rugal, they are destroyed. His body is much bigger in this form, his skin becomes darker while his hair appears gray. From his right eye it appears a red light, and is shown using a prosthetic in his right hand's place. In following games from the series, Rugal's Omega form appears wearing his battle suit from King of Fighters '94. In the SNK Vs. Capcom video games, he is featured in his formal clothes in both his common and god form. Original drafts from Rugal showed his character using black glasses and having several wires connected from his chest to his hands. His Omega form appearance had chains along his trousers and tattoos on his chest, one of which being a tiger.

Personality
Rugal is a cruel and powerful man who will kill anyone who stands in his way. He sees absolutely no value in human life, to the point where he proudly displays the metal-encased corpses of worthy opponents he has killed in battle as trophies. He will even go so far as to kill people simply to spite others (such as when he slaughtered Heidern's family simply because he found Heidern to be a disappointment). Unlike most other KOF villains, Rugal has a sadistic sense of humor about what he does. Many of his winquotes are snarky insults toward his opponents, and he often sees the act of taking human life to be more of a pastime.

Much like Igniz, he believes himself to be a human god. Unlike Igniz, however, he hardly takes his "godhood" seriously. It could be said that Rugal possesses the greatest proverbial swagger of all The King of Fighters boss characters. His "godhood" is also a motif for moves like his God Press attack.

Due to his arrogant nature, Rugal has also been shown to be an incredibly sore loser. Refusing to accept defeat at the hands of his enemies, he'll instead trigger the self-destruct mechanism of whatever the base he's in with the intention of taking his opponents down with it, but ends up being the only one caught in the explosion instead. While this first appears in KOF '94, it happens again in KOF '98 and KOF 2002. This trait even carries over to Metal Slug Defense, where upon his defeat, he'll get back up, pull out a detonator and blow himself up.

There is no information regarding his outlook towards his immediate family, but it can be safely assumed he is somewhat distant from it. Rose inherits some of Rugal's nasty attitude, and is just as much of a sore loser as her father, while Adelheid presumably inherits his combat prowess, and unlike his father, has far better sportsmanship.

Abilities
His fighting style is an amalgam of various arts, including Hakkyokuseiken and House of Strolheim, the styles used by Geese Howard and Wolfgang Krauser. He has adapted several moves from each character, such as Geese's Reppuuken and Krauser's Kaiser Wave (the latter converted into a special move for Rugal's case). Oddly enough, so far only Geese and Krauser's techniques are used very frequently by him (the two men are even related out of ironic coincidence) and he even clashes paths with them at some point; both him and Krauser even clash their Kaiser Waves together in their  '98 UM special intro.

However, he also uses his own techniques such as the Genocide Cutter. Rugal was originally supposed to have access to every special move in the game during The King of Fighters '94, but idea was scrapped because it put a terrible strain on the programming, and thus he appeared as a combination of the two Fatal Fury bosses instead. He also has a projectile reflector known as Dark Barrier/Dark Crystal Reflector which is very similar to Athena Asamiya's Psycho Reflector, this move along with him copying the Reppuuken and Kaiser Wave being a possible remainder of the original idea.

Originally in KOF '94, Rugal's first round form in his suit (which returns in the Capcom vs. SNK games) lacked special moves, and only one of his normals did chip damage. His second round form with his jacket removed (used for his subsequent KOF appearances) gives him new normals and his signature special move set, though he does not have a legitimate Desperation Move. Both versions of Rugal act like so even when using a code to play as him, as he'll act just like his boss version and when he loses his first round, the background will distort to red like his boss battle. This is also the game along with the sequel to have his signature Genocide Cutter take out over half a character's health if both hits connect; however, KOF 98' onwards considerably nerfs the attack via removing its invincibility (or at least head-level invincibility only) which made it a much weaker anti-air in most titles.

In KOF '94: Rebout (as well as by proxy KOF '95 for his Omega form), Rugal gains a legitimate DM, which instead becomes his God Press (this was one of his special moves in the original  '94). As of  '95, his initial DM has always been his Gigantic Pressure, the stronger version of his God Press (which Mature's Heaven's Gate is modeled after). His  '98,  '98 UM and CvS incarnations so far are the most notably balanced versions of him, though to compensate Rugal often lacks cancels the most compared to other characters, making him a character that's difficult to perform combos with in trade of having a variety of punishing options. However, Rugal also possesses a large frame and notable lag on his attacks should he use them haphazardly.

His Dead End Screamer in  '98, due to its notable animation involving Rugal stomp on his opponent and drilling them to the ground, is often both a testament to his brutal fighting style, and the source of memetic jokes involving Rugal (often dubbing it as the "Rugalspin"). Along with this, Rugal shares a darkness and evil motif for his moves, through techniques such as Genocide Cutter, Genocide Heaven, Dark Barrier, and Dark Smash.

In Capcom vs. SNK 2, the word "Genocide" was censored out of his movelist, so his trademark Genocide Cutter became the "Destroyer Cutter", and a super version of it appearing in this Vs. series, Genocide Heaven, was renamed "Total Annihilation". In the Japanese version, the word "Genocide" wasn't actually censored out, thus when Genocide Cutter is used, he'll yell out the attack's name (he remains silent when using it in the international versions).

Powers

 * Gather energy - Rugal can channel energy from Gaia and other sources, including Orochi's power.
 * Sense - Rugal can sense chi energy of those nearby.
 * Energy Projectile - Rugal can fire projectiles of energy from his hands.
 * Energy Reflector - Rugal can create a barrier that reflects projectiles.
 * Energy Punch - Rugal, most notably in Capcom vs. SNK, can charge up dark energy into himself and rush forward with a powerful punch imbued with said energy.
 * Slashing Aura - Rugal can create a cutting aura around his legs (used for his Genocide Cutter).
 * Orochi Power - Rugal can slam a foe whilst using his Orochi energy, producing a pillar of dim light with a large skull inside, this attribute sometimes manifests itself in a burst of deep crimson as well.

Skills

 * Mimicry - Rugal is able to mimic and learn moves of other fighters just by observing them.
 * Management and Manipulation - His occupation is that of an international arms dealer who secretly holds dangerously powerful influence over global politics.

Trivia

 * Kecchaku R&D (Settlement R&D) has some audios from Digital Underground - Gutfest '89 said by Sex Packets: "you can hear behind me now that uh I think they called blue death." "Yeah you can hear that they're having a ball and a hell of a time down at gutfest this year."
 * Meanwhile, its arranged version samples a part from Kool Chip & Chuck Chillout - Rhythm Is The Master, specifically the line "Too the rhythm."
 * In some artworks, Rugal seemingly does not have his bionic eye present, which shows only a gaping hole for his missing eye.
 * In Neo-Geo Freak 1998, the characters in KOF '98 have their own interviews. Here are Rugal's response to the questions.
 * What is your aspiration in this competition? - "Destroy! Everything...!"
 * Who would you like to fight the most? - "Anyone will do. But, there are many guys who aren't going to sit still just because I'm coming out?"
 * Who would you like to team up with? / Who would you not like to team up with? - "Mature, Vice, Saisyu Kusanagi, you can send an invitation letter. Wouldn't it be nice to be with my old fellow subordinates?"
 * What is "KOF" for you? - "Don't you know, can't you tell? … it's revenge!"
 * Finally, please give a word to your fans. - "The cheers turn to screams, and excitement turns into fear. I can't stand waiting for your face to be full of despair!"