Friday, August 5, 2011

Why Sophitia? (Part 1)

Something from fighting games (we could call it dilemma), is that they have plenty of playable characters; as there is no "main hero" and it is the player the one who takes the character all the way to the end in order to know that character's finale.

Though to prevent "confusions," in some series there is already a designated "main hero character." The best one known would have to be Ryu from the Street Fighter games, who represents the "standard" of a fighting game hero; have basis on some traditional martial art (like karate) and be the most balanced character of all in order to fit both experienced and novice players.



Other examples are: The King Of Fighters games where Kyo Kusanagi is the main hero (though K' and Ash have been the main characters of their respective sagas) and Mortal Kombat has Liu Kang (though after he "died" the hero role was switched onto various characters and some people consider Scorpion the hero as he has become quite popular).



There are many other examples, but now I wish to mention that of Killer Instinct as it is a case similar to SC and Sophitia.



KI was a fighting game made by the company Rareware with Nintendo back in 1994, to show the potential the Nintendo 64 had to offer. We really don't want to focus on the story, but when KI was released, it was not clear who was the "main hero" character.

Maybe the game didn't had one at all. But by taking judgement on what we said on Ryu, Kyo and Liu Kang, it all seemed to point out that the hero was the ninja Jago. However no clue was given on this, aside that he was younger than the sole female character from the game; Black Orchid (or just B. Orchid). Usually there is the un-established rule that the main hero character might have some romantic relationship with the "first main" female character of the game. Plus there is another un-established rule in that the male must be older than the female to have a "better watchable" relationship for the audience.

Well, in this case Orchid is way older than Jago; but still that doesn't stop the possibility of them being a couple.


Finally all things were cleared on Killer Instinct 2. It turns out that the one who defeated the final baddie in KI 1 (Eyedol) was none other than Orchid! Making her so far with this as not only the main female character, but the "main heroine character overall the game." She is the "hero" of the KI games! And to make things more odd (specially for those that shipped these 2), it turns out they are both long lost siblings!!!!


Could Orchid really be the main character of the whole KI series? Let's remember, KI 2 appeared back in 1996. The story deals with most of the characters getting sucked into the past after Orchid defeats Eyedol; in the past, they face Eyedol's rival and fellow warlord Gargos.

KI 2 was (so far) the last game of the series. No other has been made and it seems less likely KI 3 will exist as Rareware is no longer affiliated with Nintendo. If KI 3 had been made, we could had known the canon aftermath of KI 2 (though there really is no need of it, if Nintendo or Rare say something; but nothing has come from them so far regarding this).

So it is not clear if Orchid once again saved the day, remaning the undisputed heroine of KI. Or if someone else was the one to beat Gargos, and become the permanent new hero (or heroine) or/and rivals Orchid for the title.

(Notes: We are not sure if before Orchid, there was already an "overall" heroine in a fighting game; that doesn't involve an all female (or at least most of it) cast, or at least unannouced by surprise like in Orchid's case. That is why so far here at SSBC we consider her the very first fighting video game heroine.

Also, we are not saying Orchid is the very first female videogame character overall nor in fighting games. It seems Mrs. Pac Man was the very first one overall, as some say it is Samus. And sadly we dare to say as that not many people noticed or believed that Samus was a woman; one could say that it was thanks to Chun Li that female characters were taken seriously; despite she was not the "overall" main character of her series, but yes the "main/first" female one).

But what does all of this have anything to do with Sophitia? Well we didn't expect for this to take quite a lot, so stay tunned for part 2.

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