Leona's Desperation Move "Rebel Spark" is likely inspired by the Revolcane attack from the 1989 television series, Kamen Rider Black RX

The Japanese version of the game contains three special promotional endings, all for Japanese magazines, for clearing the game with certain teams:
• Terry, Mary, and Joe (Gamest)
• Yamazaki, Chang, and Choi (Famitsu)
• Billy, Kyo, and Mai (Neo-Geo Freak)

There is a rotating set of cameos in the background of the China stage:
• Eiji Kisaragi from Art of Fighting 2 and Sokaku Mochizuki from Fatal Fury 3.
• Bob Wilson from Fatal Fury 3, and Rody Birts and Lenny Creston from Art of Fighting 3.
• Lee Pai Long from Art of Fighting, Tung Fu Rue from Fatal Fury, and Jubei Yamada from Fatal Fury 2
• Heavy D! from The King of Fighters '94, Duck King from Fatal Fury, and Ryuhaku Todoh from Art of Fighting
• American Sports Team from The King of Fighters '94
• Roddy and Cathy from Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy
• Rodem from The King of Fighters '94, and Sally & Elizabeth from The King of Fighters '95.

In order to decide who would become the members of the '97 Special Team, three polls were conducted by the video game journals Famitsu, Gamest, and Neo Geo Freak, in which readers voted who was the Fatal Fury characters they wanted to see in the team.
• Neo Geo Freak's winner was Billy Kane
• Famitsu's winner was Ryuji Yamazaki
• Gamest's winner was Blue Mary, barely beating Duck King via a few mere votes.

Orochi Iori was originally meant to be the final boss of the game after the player beats the New Faces Team in their Orochi forms. However, it was later decided to make Orochi Iori the mid-boss with Orochi becoming the final boss and the New Faces Team as the sub-bosses.

Shermie was based on the character Fujiko Mine from the manga/anime series Lupin the Third.

Orochi was originally planned as "a buck-naked Chris" fighting with a shining energy ball. However, it was changed after developers were surveyed and only two votes in favor of the design were received. His design codename was "Chief", however, a lot of people were against giving him the name "Orochi".