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Taki (Soul Calibur)

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Taki (多喜　Taki) is a fictional Japanese character designed for the Soul Series of fighting games. Taki made her first appearance in Soul Edge and has returned for all three sequels: Soul Calibur, Soul Calibur II and Soul Calibur III.

Contents

Biography

Taki was a skilled ninja working as a demon huntress. Raised as an orphan by Toki (born December 5th), the leader of the Fu-Ma clan, she lived in seclusion surrounded only by other ninjas, learning their many techniques that the outside world had forgotten. Taki herself had supernatural powers, and with these powers, she decided to travel throughout Japan, protecting the people from harmful demons. She created her own weapons, of which her favorite was a tantō called Rekki-Maru. However, on the day that Cervantes de Leon's presence had resurfaced, the power of the Rekki-Maru was significantly weakened. She had begun to notice this upon being called to help a temple whose seal to hold horrible demons was weakening. When she arrived, she was immediately and completely surrounded by spiritual entities of evil. She slashed their leader many times until it disappeared, but she could not understand why her Rekki-Maru was unable to destroy it. Eventually learning through various sources that Soul Edge's existence was adversely affecting Rekki-Maru's own power, she questioned as to whether or not she should hunt after the Soul Edge for herself. But before she could leave, she heard news regarding another tantō of the Fu-Ma clan, the Mekki-Maru, which was watched over by Toki, who revered it as a spiritual tantō, although Taki had always suspected it of being evil in some small way. The former leader of the Fu-Ma ninjas, Hachibei, was reported to have stolen the tantō from the clan and run away. When Toki discovered this, he held a secret meeting declaring that Hachibei and his daughter, Chie, were now nukenin, who must be hunted down and killed for stealing his tantō. Taki worried about Hachibei's safety, as she had been a childhood friend of Chie, and he had always been more of a father figure to her than Toki; so she resolved to track down Hachibei first, before Toki could kill him. Using her massive intelligence network and intuitive observational skills, she succeeded in finding him before the others, but he had taken in a Chinese assassin, Li Long, and she was worried about confronting him while the warrior was still around. She waited until he had left so that she could talk to Hachibei, who trusted her enough to tell her that he had stolen it because Toki seemed to have become insanely obsessed with its evil energy; and he vowed to kill Toki himself if it was necessary to keep it from him. Taki was skeptical at first, but when she saw the look of desperation in Hachibei's face as he entrusted her with the tantō, begging her never to let Toki have it under any circumstance, she began to have her suspicions about Toki and agreed to hide the Mekki-Maru from him. She returned to the Fu-Ma clan, telling Toki that Chie's lover, Li Long, had taken the Mekki-Maru from Hachibei and murdered them both, causing Toki to give an order that Li Long must be hunted down and killed. Fearing that Mekki-Maru's increased influence, like Rekki-Maru's decreased influence, might have something to do with the Soul Edge, she finally decided to set out to find and destroy the Soul Edge with her beloved Rekki-Maru. While abroad, Taki encountered the dread pirate, Cervantes de Leon, and defeated him just as he was about to deliver a fatal blow to Sophitia Alexandra, who had already shattered one of the twin blades of Soul Edge by that time.

After returning Sophitia to her home and caring for her wounds, she managed to obtain a fragment of the evil blade from Sophitia's womb, and she returned home with it. She tried to meld the fragment with her own tantō but failed. But when she attempted to meld it with the Mekki-Maru, which she still kept hidden in a secret location, the process worked instantly, and the Mekki-Maru began to resonate immediately with an evil glow. She sought help from Hachibei, but he was unable to determine the cause of the reaction, and thus entrusted it back into her possession again to keep safe until which time she could destroy it. Toki eventually heard about this reaction, however, and became insanely obsessed with stealing the Mekki-Maru from Taki and learning more about Soul Edge's power. He sent his right-hand man, Geki, who personally had never liked Taki, to take the Mekki-Maru from her; he succeeded in capturing her. But out of morbid curiosity, he decided to unseal the sheath and investigate the tantō for himself, only for a terrible explosion to occur that blew his right arm to pieces, giving her the perfect distraction for making her escape. She had now become a nukenin, just like Hachibei, and could no longer return to the Fu-Ma clan. Rumors soon circulated of the azure knight, Nightmare, solidifying his reign of terror by murdering countless innocent victims surrounding Germany as the new wielder of the Soul Edge.

In order to pit Mekki-Maru against Soul Edge in hopes that the two swords would destroy each other, and because she feared that the Fu-Ma clan would take the tantō from her with evil intentions, she abandoned the clan of ninjas and disappeared from Japan once again. Yet, deep in the dark recesses in her heart, she still held a desire to master the power of the demonic tantō; and when she was unable to accomplish her initial goal as the Soul Edge had been said to be destroyed by a group of warriors, Taki began to take the latter option and attempted to master the evil tantō instead. Four years later, several Fu-Ma ninjas appeared before her and tried to capture her, but she defeated them, only to discover that they had familiar metal shards in their possession. Toki undoubtedly had many more fragments of his own back in Japan, which could only mean trouble--perhaps even the birth of a second cursed sword; he was undoubtedly looking for her to gather more information. Taki had a new resolve: to keep both Mekki-Maru and Soul Edge away from Master Toki. But while Taki was concerned about the Soul Edge, fearing it had probably recovered much of its power, she was also more worried about Toki. She shook off her pursuers by leaking information to divert the Fu-Ma clans attention and then headed back to Japan to put a stop to this once and for all. Upon returning, Taki learned that the village of the Fu-Ma clan was suffering from fierce internal strife--sensing Toki's madness, a faction of the clan was planning to usurp power. Toki was in the Hoko temple in Kyoto, and Taki was certain that he intended to take the power of the evil spirits therein. She sneaked through the darkness, avoiding the obstacles, and arrived at the Great Buddha shrine constructed below the temple. It was finally time for her to face off against her master.

The name of Oni crossed her mind when she saw Toki. There was nothing left of the man that had once been her master. His body should have shown his age, yet it was swollen and covered with sinewy muscle, looking as if he wore a suit of heavy armor; his eyes and skin had taken on a dark red hue. He had been drawing in all the swirling spirits and energy of the temple, but Taki could not let this horrible knowledge overwhelm her. Drawing her treasured Rekki-Maru, she approached Toki's body; but at that moment, a ghost-like tortured cry echoed throughout the shrine. Toki had released the seal on the demons she had once sealed in this place years before; and the dark energy had been absorbed into Toki's body. The fierce battle ensued, and Taki eventually won using the very techniques that Toki himself had taught her; and the blade that finally pierced his tough body was the Mekki-Maru, the tantō he himself had once conspired to obtain. Looking down at his aged and huddled body, Taki struggled to maintain consciousness. She had received grave injuries and used all of her strength to restrain the Mekki-Maru from losing control. Just before she administered a finishing blow, the voice of her true master Toki became present again, his body trembling as he tried to talk to her. There was no sign of madness in his voice anymore, and Taki could not kill him. Just then, an unidentifiable aura-like entity emerged from his mouth. She tried to swing at it, but neither of her tantōs connected, and the entity escaped. This entity that Toki had become resembled neither a soul nor an evil spirit. She didn't know if it contained the will of the former Fu-Ma clan leader, but there was only one place Toki would head to revive his power: the Soul Edge. Taki had no time to wait for her wounds to heal. The cursed sword's presence felt weak, and this was the time to pursue and destroy it. She left at dawn.

Weapons

-- Rekki-Maru

Taki, partly out of need and partly as a hobby, made her own weapons and gear. Out of all the weapons she made, Rekki-Maru is her most treasured possession. It was made incorporating mystical powers in the blade, and has proven to be a valuable ally as a demon-slasher. During her battle with the dreaded Cervantes, Rekki-Maru was shattered, but Taki repaired it.
(Note: In the Soul Edge/Soul Blade game, Taki only used Rekki-Maru as weapon).

-- Mekki-Maru

A mysterious weapon. Handed to her by the runaway Hachibei, former leader of the Fu-Ma Ninja. Originally a strong spiritual sword, Taki greatly increased its power forging a fragment of Soul Edge in it, and since then it emanates a very strong an evil aura every time its unsheathed. Even Taki uses this weapon with caution, aware of the great powers it possess.
(Note: In the PSone version of Soul Edge/Soul Blade, Mekki-Maru was one of the extra weapons Taki could obtain in the Edgemaster Mode)

Stages

-- Shrine of Confined Demons (SB)

A shrine found on Oni Isle, surrounded by a vast bamboo forest. This shrine was built by Taki to seal off powerful demons, called Fury-Demons. There used to be a ring of protection around the shrine, but is since been broken. The tatami (made of Furuki and layers of rock) serves as a strong spellcaster to seal the demons.

-- Hoko Temple (SC)

Hoko Temple was constructed in Kyoto (the capitol of Japan at the time) in the 17th year of Tensho (1589) under the proposal of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. The temple's was officially created to pray for the peace and stability of the nation, but it had a hidden agenda of "katana-gari" to prevent the constant rioting of farmers. In a secret underground hall there is a standing Buddha statue 24 meters tall set within the center of a huge fusui-ban which Yin-Yang masters would consult in their advice to Hideyoshi and his strategists for conquering the country. However, in construction of the great hall Hideyoshi cut down a several thousand-year-old cedar tree on Yakushima Island and used the weapons collected from the katana-gari for iron for the huge Buddha statue. In ancient times the Japanese word "ki" meaning wood and another word "ki" meaning spirit were one and the same. People believed wood and trees had holy spirits and the word "kodama" literally meant "spirit of a tree" and now "echo". Thus by killing a great life to make the hall and using the statue forged from iron that had tasted the blood of men it was only natural that this place would bear the seeds of disaster as it shed its dark pulse. In fact Hideyoshi drove the Yin-Yang masters out of temple in the 2nd year of the Bunroku when their fortune telling affected the Toyotomi Clan. It is also well known that the kanji carved on the great bell of the temple became the direct cause of the fall of the Toyotomi Clan. The bell's creation was sponsored by the son of Hideyoshi (deceased by this time) and his mother Yodo-gimi under recommendation of Ieyasu Tokugawa (eventually the first shogun of the Edo Era, at the time he was a subject of Toyotomi, though he was equal in power to the lord). The eight kanji carved on the bell meant, "May the nation be in peace so lords and subjects may enjoy wealth". However the order of the kanji could also be translated as "Cut Ieyasu in two pieces, Toyotomi will become the emperor and prosper forever". Though the Toyotomi Clan did not intend this, Ieyasu saw this as a curse of magic that wished the fall of the Tokugawa clan and challenged the Toyotomi Clan formally. Thus began the Winter Campaign of the Osaka-jo Castle, followed by the Summer Campaign and ending with the fall of the Toyotomi Clan. Taki came to this temple to have a decisive battle with the ghost Gel-o-fury, which had broken the seals of the bamboo forest with its newfound power from the Evil Seed. Outside the temple Toki's assassins awaited the outcome, how could Taki hope to survive this situation?
(Note: Known as Hokko-ji Temple on Arcade)

-- Kaminoi Castle - Sakura-Dai Gate (SC2)

The Kaminoi Castle, built on a desolate mountain plateau, is an impregnable fortress. The castle's study walls and the beautiful cherry blossoms won high praises. But during the era of Japan's unification, the ruling government felt that an accessible location was more befitting for the capital, and thus this castle was eventually abandoned. The new era had no use for a remote fortress such as Kaminoi Castle. Since the castle was in such remarkable condition even after it was long abandoned, rumours began to emerge about the grounds being haunted by ghosts. People have stayed far clear of the castle ever since.

-- Underground Buddhist Sanctum (SC3)

There is a secret place within the Hoko temple -- a knowledge forbidden to be spread. That place is an underground Buddha shrine which was constructed using sprititually twisted methods. The shrine contains feng shui bowls made of felled jomon cedar trees severed from their natural chi. There is also a bizarre Great Buddha made from the iron of weapons confiscated during Hideyoshi Toyotomi's great disarmament of the country's peasants. This place includes a tributary of the spiritually rich underground waterways that crisscross Japan, and is a place in which dark powers gather. Once before, in this place, Taki, with her sword Mekki-Maru in hand, sealed an ancient evil spirit. Through the dark power of Soul Edge, the head of the Fu-Ma clan, Toki, had become a demi-demon and had merged with several evil spirits, including the evil spirit that Taki had sealed. His fight with Taki occurred in this sinister great Buddha shrine. Bathed time and time again in powerful spiritual forces, this shrine has become a nest for all sorts of creatures, demonds, and spirits.

Character Analysis

In Soul Edge/Blade, Taki can be a solid mid-tier fighter. Her strength lies on her quick movements and backflip abilities. Her playstile focuses around her quick and safe pokes and attacks at close range, and the use of evasive moves to catch the enemy off-guard. Even with a short range and not too high damaging combos, she can come in and out of range easily, forcing long-range character to keep the distance and close-range characters to rely on simple tactics. To help her style she has two evasive moves: a forward roll (useful to avoid highs while counterattacking) and a backflip. Add to that she's one of the few characters able to use reversals, Taki can be used best at close range.

In Soul Calibur, Taki is one of the quickest characters in the game, though she also has the shortest range and not too strong single strikes. The core of Taki's playstile is a quick face-to-face offensive taking advantage of her speed, quick strikes, wake-up game, excellent lows and mix-ups. Taki is also capable of maneuver her position on the arena with special moves (Wind Roll and Stalker), so her spacing and positioning play a big part as well, as she can't do much at long range combat.

In Soul Calibur II, Taki is regarded as a mid-upper tier character. She excels at close range, where her Possession stance, widely considered the best stance in the game, allows for powerful mind games. Her most powerful ability out of Possession is her Exorcism Cancel. The idea behind this cancel is that her Exorcism move is a relatively fast unblockable whose initial animation frames involve a lot of flash. When her opponent begins to see the move, they will try to attack and hit her out of it. But she can immediately cancel the move--hence its name--and link together other attacks. Because she is one of the fastest characters in the game, it is likely her attack will interrupt her opponent's attack, with increased damage from the "counter hit." Thus, the idea behind the Exorcism Cancel is to lock down her opponent by seemlessly linking together quick and unpredictable strings of attacks. Once the opponent freezes, she can execute the full Exorcism, a powerful and unblockable blow, and succeed.

In Soul Calibur III, Taki remains one of the strongest characters, and is seen as a solid mid-upper tier character (possibly even top-tier). Her close-range game is as excellent as always, her possession stance is still great, and she is still swifter than the wind. So basically, most of the modifications in SC3 are for the good: she has been awarded some better running-moves (66A_B), and finally, we get to see some of those magic-like ninjutsu-bombs we saw at the opening for SC2. One significantly good addition to her already great list of moves, is a jump throw which has to be executed while performing the jump "Stalker" (SC2: A+B, SC3: A+K). -so after pulling of the ninja bomb combo at e.g. (A,B,4A+B), which sends your opponent up flying, you can finish with the in-air-throw. There are few other throws in SC3 which looks as smooth as this one. Although one significant change for the bad was that she lost Exorcism Cancel so she can no longer cancel Exorcism but her improved moveset makes up for the loss although this significantly affects her mind games aspect.

Trivia

Series' Appearances

External links


Soul series by Namco
Main Games
Soul Edge | Soul Edge: Version 2 (Soul Blade) | Soul Calibur | Soul Calibur II |
Soul Calibur III | Soul Calibur III: Version 2 ()

Main Characters
Amy | Astaroth | Cassandra | Cervantes | Charade | Edge Master | Hwang | Ivy | Kilik |
Li Long | Lizardman | Maxi | Mitsurugi | Necrid | Nightmare | Olcadan | Raphael | Rock |
Seong Han-myeong | Seong Mi-na | Setsuka | Siegfried | Sophitia | Taki | Talim | Tira |
Voldo | Xianghua | Yoshimitsu | Yun-seong | Zasalamel |

Minor Characters
Other Characters | Bonus Characters

Boss Characters
Abyss | Inferno | Night Terror

Soundtracks
Soul Edge Original OST - Soul Edge KSS OST - Soul Calibur Original Soundtrack

Miscellaneous
Soul Weapons

 

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