During the planning phase of development, the Mexico Team was originally going to be made up of Ryo Sakazaki, Robert Garcia, and Lee Pai Long. Over the course of development, Lee was drop in favor of Yuri, who would finally be replaced with Takuma in the final game.

Takuma's ability to combo off of his desperation move was originally a glitch:

"Takuma is able to combo off his Super Strike Gale, but originally this was a bug. We tried taking it out, but he was too weak without it: 'I don’t know… if Takuma doesn’t have this, he’s kind of… um…' So we re-added it again! Thanks to that decision though he became a pretty cheap character. So I kind of regret it now."

Since Takuma's design from Art of Fighting 2 was too similar to Daimon, he was given upper body clothing to make him more visually distinct.

During the planning phase of development, there were plans to make an "Ultimate Young Style Karate Team" consisting of Ryo, Robert, and Yuri. But with Yuri being committed to the England Team, along with other changes, Takuma was made the third member instead. The idea for this team wouldn't happen until The King of Fighters '96.

Joe's win pose was going to have a bigger smile with missing teeth. However, this animation was scrapped out of respect for the fans of his character:

"Joe makes a big toothy grin during his win pose, and at first we made it even larger, with more teeth missing! It was amazing… but of course, after considering the feelings of all the Joe fans out there, we thought it looked both too sad and too scary, so we asked the designer to fill those missing teeth back in."

According to level designer Mitsuo Kodama, the design of the Italy stage is inspired by the portrayal of Italy in the 1992 Hayao Miyazaki movie Porco Rosso.

The design of the Japan stage is heavily inspired by the look of Neo Tokyo from the 1988 film Akira.

During the planning phase of development, the development team originally wanted to include a bonus stage in the game:

"We asked the planner to come up with 100 different kinds, and he actually did it. But a lot of them were very out-there, like having Bonus Items fly in from the sky that you would have your character destroy. At that time, the general thought was that Bonus Games were essential for fighting games, but our conclusion from having thought of 100 different kinds was that we didn’t need one after all (laughs). So we quickly decided to cut the Bonus Stage from KOF’94."

At one point in development, the Ikari Team would throw hand grenades as their projectile attack, but in the end the developers thought "having grenades blowing up in a fighting game was a bit distasteful", so the idea was scrapped.

Kyo's girlfriend, Yuki, appears in the background of the Japan stage along with his motorcycle. The game was initially going to feature an intro sequence of Kyo where he would drive through the streets on his bike and an animation sequence where Yuki would appear when Kyo is defeated. These ideas were not featured in the final game.

The game was initially going to re-use sprites from Fatal Fury Special and Art of Fighting 2 during early development. However, they ultimately decided to create original assets for the game.

The U.S.A. stage contains a reference to The Blues Brothers and Pedro De Pacas from the Cheech & Chong film Up in Smoke, as well as references to the American hip-hop groups Kriss Kross and N.W.A.

The writing on the crashed helicopter in the Brazil stage reads "Death From Above," which is a reference to a helicopter decal featured in the 1979 war film Apocalypse Now.

Temjin, Mickey Rogers, Lee Pai Long, Eiji Kisaragi, Ryuhaku Todoh, and Young Geese Howard from Art of Fighting appear in the background of the Mexico stage.

Billy Kane and Richard Meyer from Fatal Fury, Roddy and Cathy from Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy, and Lily McGuire from the first Fatal Fury animated movie are also featured in the background.

Cheng Sinzan, Big Bear, Tung Fu Rue, Duck King, and Jubei Yamada from Fatal Fury cameo in the background of the Italy stage.

During the early stages of development, there was going to be a Fugitive Team with Chang, Choi, and a third "vicious criminal" character. This third character would later be replaced with Kim for unspecified reasons.

Chin's character is heavily inspired by Yuen Siu-tien's portrayal of the Qing Dynasty drunken boxer Beggar So (Sam Seed) from the Drunken Master film series.

There are many similarities between Psycho Soldier Team's design and characters from the Drunken Master film series. Kensou's character is possibly influenced by Jackie Chan's portrayal of Wong Fei-hung from the first Drunken Master film. Kensou's love of Steamed Buns is may also be a reference to a scene from the film where Chan's character attempts to steal food from a restaurant. Likewise, Athena's final design in the game is likely inspired by the lead female character from Story of the Drunken Master. Both characters were students of the Begger So in the films.

Many of the statues in Rugal's collection heavily resemble Ryu, Zangief, Guile, Akuma, Vega, and Fei-Long from the Street Fighter series, as well as Reiji from the Power Instinct series.

Early designs for Chang had him wearing a traditional striped prison jumpsuit. This, however, proved difficult to animate, so his outfit was changed to plain white cloth with a skull and crossbones mark. This also turned out to be too difficult, so he was given an even simpler "tunic and chains" design.

Lucky's design is based directly on the villain character Hakim from Bruce Lee film Game of Death. He was originally planned to be "a black man obsessed with Japanese culture, but as his design got updated and [they] added his American clothes and appearance, it no longer made sense for him to be a Japanophile", and the idea was dropped.