Lizardman (Soul Calibur)

The following is a comprehensive list of characters from the ''Soulcalibur'' series of video games, beginning with ''Soul Edge'' (''Soul Blade'' in the PlayStation version) in 1995.

Overview and development

''Soulcalibur'' is a weapon-based fighting game franchise developed by Namco Bandai's Project Soul division. Set in the period of late 16th to early 17th century, the plot of the games revolve around Soul Edge, a cursed sword able to possess its wielder and devour souls. Its spirit is called Inferno, and his avatar/host is called Nightmare. Soul Calibur, a holy sword and Soul Edge's antithesis, also has a spirit called Elysium.

When creating characters for the series, they started with the weapon first, aiming to choose one that would feel unique amongst the cast. The character concepts themselves are then built around the chosen weapon, with their movement, animations and personality designed to fit it. According to series creator Hirokai Yotoriyama, movement is the first element they focus on, deciding how the character will attack, and how mobile they are. Afterwards the character is defined down to their weight, height, age, and gender, and then developed by the concept artists. Afterwards a 3D model team is assigned to work on that character exclusively, with little overlap between the individual teams. Motion capture is then utilized for character movement and animation, though in select cases the design team will animate the character by hand instead. During the phase the designers will work with the story creators, refining the character's role in the plot as necessary. Some characters have been an exception to this process, such as Necrid, a character co-produced with Todd McFarlane that appears in ''Soulcalibur II''.

Starting with ''Soulcalibur II'', guest characters from other franchises or companies were introduced for different home ports of the game, with ''The Legend of Zelda''s Link appearing for the GameCube version, comic book character Spawn for the Xbox, and ''Tekken''s Heihachi Mishima for the PlayStation 2. Despite rumors of ''Devil May Cry''s Dante's inclusion in ''Soulcalibur III'', developers confirmed no plans for the inclusion of guest characters for the title, with series producer Hiroaki Yotoriyama stating "It's my policy to never do the same thing twice." However, under new producer Katsutoshi Sasaki the concept was revisited in later titles in the series, with ''Tales of Symphonia''s Lloyd Irving appearing in ''Soulcalibur Legends'', ''Star Wars'' characters The Apprentice, Yoda and Darth Vader appearing in ''Soulcalibur IV'', with the latter two exclusively to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions respectively until later released as downloadable content, ''God of War''s Kratos for '' Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny'', and Ezio Auditore da Firenze from the ''Assassin's Creed'' franchises for ''Soulcalibur V''. Devil Jin from ''Tekken'' was also added to ''Soulcalibur V'' as a non-playable character and his moveset can only be accessed by creating a character that uses his style of fighting. ''Soulcalibur VI'' added Geralt of Rivia from ''The Witcher'', 2B from '' Nier: Automata'' and Haohmaru from ''Samurai Shodown'' as guest characters.

Introduced in ''Soul Edge''

Cervantes

:Voiced by (English): Warren Rodgerson (''SCII'')
:Voiced by (Japanese): Takashi Nagasako (''SC''~''SCIII''); Jin Urayama (''SCL''~''SCV''); Hiroshi Shirokuma (''SCVI'')

was a privateer who was sent on a mission by the King of Spain to loot in the name of Spain. Following a disastrous attack on an English warship that killed Philip, Cervantes forsook his allegiance to the king and became a pirate. Receiving an order from a wealthy merchant to find the cursed sword Soul Edge, Cervantes voyaged through the sea and eventually found the sword in the possession of an English dealer who specialized in rare weapons. However, the sword gradually corrupted him until his soul was devoured by it. Having murdered all of his crew, Cervantes boarded his ghost ship on a reign of terror for twenty years until he was defeated and killed by the combined efforts of Greek warrior Sophitia and Japanese ninja Taki.

However, Cervantes was accidentally resurrected without his memory by Nightmare because of the Soul Edge fragments lodged in his body, transformed into an undead. For the next three years, he decided to search for the cursed sword despite knowing that it had robbed him of his free will while slowly recovering his memories. Upon the shattering of Soul Edge, Cervantes began his quest on collecting the fragments of the cursed sword for four years which melded to form a weapon for him, attacking other ships that came close to his sea. When the presence of Soul Edge's other half vanished, Cervantes's body began to weaken as the fragments that sustained him crumbled. He was informed by a servant of Soul Edge, Tira, that a powerful entity was the one responsible, so Cervantes sought to defeat the entity and preserve his life. Eventually, Soul Edge summoned all pieces of itself back to it. Cervantes followed its trail, intending to wield the sword once it completed itself. Along the way, he devoured the soul of his illegitimate daughter, Ivy, but after the latter had survived thanks to her artificial soul, Ivy retaliated and defeated Cervantes, releasing all souls he had consumed, including hers. His body beaten and his mind shattered, Cervantes was swallowed by a dimensional rift opened by Soul Edge.

Seventeen years later, during the wake of the 17th century, people reported the presence of Cervantes' ship, voyaging through the sea; Cervantes had been released from the rift, now free from Soul Edge's control and at his height of power.

In the non-canonical Gauntlet storyline of '' Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny'', Cervantes' soul was required as payment for Ivy to create a potion for Hilde and her party to cure her father. Though they attempted to renegotiate, they were forced to find and take Cervantes' soul by force.

Hwang

:Voiced by (English): SungWon Cho (''SCVI'' (Version 2.30))
:Voiced by (Japanese): Toshiyuki Morikawa (''SE'' (Arcade)); Wataru Takagi (''SE'' (Console)~''SC''); Naoki Imamura (''SCIII''); Subaru Kimura (''SCVI'' (Version 2.30))
, is a young Korean man with a strong sense of justice; he joined Korea's coast guard and was sent to find the "Sword of Salvation", which in reality is the cursed sword Soul Edge, in order to protect his country. However, he returned after learning of an impending Japanese invasion of his homeland, bringing his friend's daughter, Seong Mi-na, back with him. When he set out after her again, he discovered the true nature of the sword and informed his superiors of it. They dismissed him as a result, but upon learning that the Japanese were also after the sword, he was instead sent to stop them. Heading westward, he plans to join forces with Seong Mi-na to destroy the blade. In ''Soulcalibur IV'', he was in Ostrheinsburg when he crossed paths with Hong Yun-seong, a student of the Seong dojo. Hwang tried to warn him the danger of Soul Edge, though the young warrior did not heed his warning and continued his journey to find the sword. After Soul Edge is destroyed, he is deemed a national hero and begins training in the new generation, alongside Mi-na and Yun-seong.

In a new timeline depicted in ''Soulcalibur VI'', Hwang was forcefully being implanted with the evil seed and almost transformed into a malfested by Won Gabok, a servant of Soul Edge. He managed to injure himself and was thought to have committed suicide. However, Hwang survived and was saved by Woo Soo-yun, an ally of the Aval Organization and by extension, the Wolfkrone Kingdom, including Hwang's deceased parents. Hwang masters Taoism for three months to suppress the malfestation from taking over his body and countermeasure any other malfestation threats.

During development several weapons were considered, including a zhanmadao like Seong Mi-Na's and a bladed nunchaku like Li Long's. Several different outfit components were also considered at this time, such as the inclusion of head or arm guards and an arm bandana. With Hwang's appearance in ''Soulcalibur'' his attire was changed. Chinese style costumes were considered, including an outfit with an open jacket and a bandaged design with a Chinese martial artist's attire. The developers based his look around the concept of a traveler, implementing subtle hints such as his torn pant legs. Hwang appears in ''Soulcalibur VI'', although he was not playable until being made available as downloadable content. He eventually learns Taoism to combine its power with his original sword technique.

Inferno

is the physical manifestation of the cursed sword Soul Edge's own soul and the true antagonist within Soul series as his Nightmare incarnation, where it mostly started out as the final boss in ''Soul Edge'' (originally listed as "SoulEdge") until ''Soulcalibur II'', including the reboot/retelling game ''Soulcalibur VI''. It fights using the attack style of other fighters from its memories of past battles and will switch to a random one at the start of each round. Though it exists in its own dimension, Astral Chaos (a realm where time and space never exist), it has used duplicity such as in the case of tricking Siegfried into expanding its will, and in more extreme cases utilized Cervantes' flaming corpse and later the remnants of Nightmare's armor to create an avatar for itself. Within Astral Chaos, Inferno can manifest itself as a flaming and mostly skeletal body for itself, creating weapons to match whichever fighting style it currently uses, particularly Siegfried's being its primary likeness at most part.

Inferno, along with Soul Edge is destroyed by Siegfried at the end of ''Soulcalibur IV'', though its will continues to live in the leftover shards of Soul Edge and later manifests itself in a new Soul Edge. However, after the new Nightmare, Graf Dumas (heavily hinted to be Raphael Sorel) was slain, Inferno choose Pyrrha as its new host until being defeated by her brother and Soul Edge along with Soul Calibur were both sealed away in the Astral Chaos realm. Its will and power has, directly and indirectly, affected several other characters in the series, such as the Evil Seed event that caused many to turn somewhat evil or insane. It has also caused the creation of several life forms or modification of them, such as Ivy's sword, Charade, Necrid, and Abyss.

In ''Soulcalibur VI'', Inferno's gameplay is similar to his original Soul Edge counterpart, as being more of an enhanced version of certain Soul Edge wielders than as a mimic fighter; in this case, its main alter-ego Nightmare instead of Cervantes. Due to his final boss role despite being an unlockable character, Inferno is banned from online matches and official tournaments.

Mitsurugi

:Voiced by (English): Scott Keck (''SCII''); Ed Cunnigham (''SCIII''); Ray Chase (''SCVI'')
:Voiced by (Japanese): Toshiyuki Morikawa (''SC''~)

In the backstory of ''Soul Edge'', is an orphaned son of a Japanese farmer, who after suffering years of witnessing his homeland being ravaged by bandits and war, decided to take up swordsmanship. At the age of 14, having picked up a sword and the last name Mitsurugi, he went to train under the Murakami clan. Mitsurugi, noted as a great warrior, received numerous commendations and rose in the ranks, but his only true desire was a worthy opponent. After leaving the Murakami clan, Mitsurugi continued to fight in the great civil war in Japan as a hired mercenary. Having originally dismissed the firearm as a novelty, he was shocked to see the riflemen obliterate the Takeda