Talim (Soulcalibur)

Talim (タリム, Tarimu) is a fictional character in the Soulcalibur of fighting games. Created by Namco's Project Soul division, she first appeared in Soulcalibur II, followed by Soulcalibur III, Soulcalibur IV, and the reboot Soulcalibur VI.

Talim
Soulcalibur character
First appearanceSoulcalibur II (2002)
Designed byAya Takemura and Takuji Kawano[1][2]
Voiced by
In-universe information
Fighting styleWind Dance
WeaponElbow blades (Syi Salika and Loka Luha)
OriginVillage of the Wind Deity, Visayan Islands[5]
NationalityFilipino

Hailing from the Village of the Wind Deity, located in the Philippines during the time of the Spanish colonization, Talim is the daughter of a priestess who could control the wind to perform miracles. She would also take the position eventually, but after receiving a fragment of the cursed sword, Soul Edge, and sensing its malicious impact on humanity, she decides to travel the world so she could return it to its rightful place and restore balance to the world.

The character has received positive reception, often noting her unique speed-driven fighting style as well as her sexual appeal, despite her relatively young age. Her absence in Soulcalibur V has induced criticism from various outlets.

Conception and design

Talim is regarded as the first Filipina character introduced to the fighting game genre.[6] In the character's native Tagalog language, her name means "edge" or "sharp". Her design and concept were built to revolve around them, starting with gender, then physical measurements, and lastly background details. Once established her appearance and movement were fleshed out by the team's concept artist Aya Takemura[2] and rendered as a 3D model by a design team that worked solely on the character.[7] Talim was then animated by a motion designer using motion capture and working directly with the team.[2] During this phase the team additionally worked with the Soulcalibur story creators, refining the character's own role in the plot as needed throughout development.[8]

As a character introduced in Soulcalibur II, Talim's weapons, a pair of elbow blades, were decided upon before other aspects of the character were.[2] Originally considered for the first Soulcalibur, the weapons were selected to be unique amongst the others characters' weapons in the title.[9] Talim's weapons were built around the concept of dual-weapon usage, with special emphasis that while bladed, the weapons themselves were not actual tonfa. During development it was considered to allow them to transform and be sentient, however the idea was abandoned. Talim's character concept was designed around the idea of introducing a young female character that the developers felt the series lacked, while at the same time making her appear androgynous.[10]

In video games

In the Village of the Wind Deity (Nayong Anito ng Hangin), Samar island, there lived a tribe of people who could control the winds. Talim was the granddaughter of this village's elder, Kalana, and daughter of its shaman, Lidi.[11] Due to turmoil caused by the influences of Spanish and Portuguese culture, she was reared to be its last priestess (babaylan). The day that the Evil Seed spread across the world, Talim felt the winds, and an evil aura that devoured everything in its path surged into her body, causing her to lose consciousness for days.

Years later, when Talim was 15 years old, a man from the west brought with him a strange metal fragment, claiming it to be a vitality amulet. Talim, however, recognized the evil energy as the same energy she had experienced years before and left on a journey, believing that if she were to return the fragment to its rightful place, peace would eventually be restored, despite the elders' misgivings. Having collected several of the fragments, she eventually learned that the source of the evil energy was an evil sword called Soul Edge. Sensing another source of evil energy, Talim traveled to a mountain range, eventually locating it in a sick child living at a watermill. A young man named Hong Yun-seong arrived later as Talim settled into the watermill to try to heal the child, also searching for clues regarding Soul Edge, and came to stay with her. Talim ultimately healed the child by releasing the evil energy from within him all at once into the wind.[12] She then left the watermill with Yun-seong and continued to search for Soul Edge in Soulcalibur IV. They met Seong Mi-na on their travels, and together she and Talim tried to convince Yun-seong of the dangers in attempting to attain Soul Edge's power. However, Yun-seong vanished the next day, leaving both of them worried but hoping he would make the right choice. The two parted ways: Mi-na to look for Yun-seong, while Talim carried on the search for Soul Edge alone.

In the rebooted timeline of Soulcalibur VI, Talim had to prove herself to her people, especially her grandmother, that she could return the fragment of Soul Edge to its rightful place. After passing her grandmother's test, Talim began her journey westward.

Gameplay

Talim wields Syi Salika and Loka Luha, a pair of tonfa-like weapons called Elbow Blades, used by the wind-worshipping people of Southeast Asia in ceremonial dances and thus are more ritual items rather than weapons. Her movement and fighting style were designed around her culture and a bird-theme, emphasizing close horizontal strikes upon opponents as well as freedom of movement.[10] In Soulcalibur III, these weapons, and Talim's "Wind Dance" fighting style are available under the discipline Soul of Talim to characters created under the Saint class. The names of her moves are mostly in Tagalog. According to 1UP.com, Talim is a difficult character to master as the player using her "has to rely on tricks, gimmicks, and stuns to really apply any damage, and these need a bit of time -- and timing -- to set up."[13]

Reception

Talim's initial addition to the series has been received warmly, with reviews of Soulcalibur II describing her as a welcome addition to the series as well as a "speed demon".[14] GameNOW described her as "profoundly unique not only to SC2, but to fighting games in general."[15] GameSpy's Christian Nutt stated Talim's "unpredictable nature" made her interesting, though added "she's almost too cute to fit in with the rest of the SCII crew."[16] Insert Credit's Tim Rogers called Talim "the cutest of the young girl characters [in Soulcalibur II] by far," and a preference for her symmetrical outfits.[17] Electronic Gaming Monthly noted a positive impression in her ability to fight against the title's much larger male characters,[18] an effect University of Delaware professor Rachel Hutchinson described as "entertainment through deviation from the norm" against stereotypical gender expectations.[19] In 2013, Complex ranking her the eighth best character in the series.[20] In 2015, Talim was voted the most popular Soulcalibur character in the West in an official poll by Namco Bandai.[21]

Despite her age, Talim has been utilized in material revolving around her sex appeal as a female character, such as PSM's swimsuit issues[22] and Play's "Girls of Gaming" publications,[23] and The Village Voice noted concern over the character's portrayal in such material, describing it as "troubling".[24] An absence of Talim in Soulcalibur V was criticized in the reviews by some outlets such as Kotaku and Game Revolution.[25][26] However, Brittany Vincent of Cheat Code Central featured her on the 2011 list of top ten most overrated video game characters, stating that "she grates on the nerves with her angelic personality and 'never give up' spirit. Now, Taki on the other hand..."[27] In 2012, Kristie Bertucci of Gadget Review ranked her as the 14th "hottest" female video game character for her "curves in all the right places" and "a very sexy and skimpy outfit."[28]

See also

References
  1. "Game Credits for SoulCalibur II". MobyGames. Archived from the original on 2010-07-14. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
  2. Staff (2007-12-07). "Behind the Game: Soul Calibur III". 1UP.com. UGO Networks. Archived from the original on 2006-02-06. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
  3. "Talim Voices (Soulcalibur)". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on 20 June 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2019. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of the title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its closing credits and/or other reliable sources of information.
  4. "resume.pdf" (PDF). Kira Buckland Voice Actress. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 December 2019. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  5. Deats, Adam; Joe Epstein (2008). Soulcalibur IV. BradyGames. pp. 136–143. ISBN 978-0-7440-1006-0.
  6. Staff (2000-01-01). "Soul Calibur II Review (Xbox)". 1UP.com. UGO Networks. Archived from the original on 2005-01-27. Retrieved 2008-12-03.
  7. De Marco, Flynn (2007-09-20). "Tgs07: Soul Calibur Director Katsutoshi Sasaki on Weapons, Characters and Storyline". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 2007-10-14. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
  8. Staff (2005-10-10). "Soul Calibur III Interview". CVG. Archived from the original on 2007-08-25. Retrieved 2008-09-05.
  9. "Archived copy" 開発者公募１. Project Soul (in Japanese). Namco Bandai. Archived from the original on 2008-06-05. Retrieved 2008-09-06.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. "「ソウルキャリバーII」開発者インタビュー" (in Japanese). Impress Watch. Archived from the original on 2008-04-30. Retrieved 2008-10-18.
  11. Soulcalibur II, Talim Character Profile
  12. Soulcalibur III, Talim Character Profile
  13. "Soul Calibur 4 Character Spotlight: Talim". 1up.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2014-05-25.
  14. Silverman, Ben (2003-09-01). "Soul Calibur II video game review". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
  15. GameNOW staff (September 2003). "New to SC2". GameNOW
  16. Nutt, Christian (2003-08-26). "Soulcalibur II Review". GameSpy. Archived from the original on 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
  17. Rogers, Tim (2003-04-07). "Soul Calibur II Review". Insert Credit. Archived from the original on 2008-10-29. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
  18. Eliot, Shawn (2000-01-01). "Soul Calibur II (Gamecube)". 1UP.com. UGO Networks. Archived from the original on 2012-07-17. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  19. Hutchinson, Rachel (October 2007). "Performing the Self: Subverting the Binary in Combat Games". Games and Culture. 2 (4): 283. doi:10.1177/1555412007307953.
  20. Knight, Rich (November 29, 2013). "The 20 Best Characters of the "SoulCalibur" Series". [Complex. Archived from the original on June 27, 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
  21. "Talim, Taki, and Mitsurugi Top Project Soul's Official Soulcalibur Character Poll". Shoryuken.com. 2015-06-15. Archived from the original on 2015-07-01. Retrieved 2015-07-01.
  22. PSM Staff (June 2003). "Girls of Summer". PSM.
  23. Play Staff. "Girls of Gaming 5.5". Play.
  24. Hodges, Gary (2008-08-06). "Lightsabers and Tits in Soul Calibur IV". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on 2008-10-12. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
  25. Evan Narcisse, SoulCalibur V : The Kotaku Review Archived 2013-01-28 at the Wayback Machine, Kotaku, January 31, 2012.
  26. Daniel Bischoff, Does the Soul Still Burn? Archived 2012-09-18 at WebCite, GameRevolution, 02/03/12
  27. Brittany Vincent, Cheat Code Central: Top 10 Most Overrated Video Game Characters Archived 2012-11-25 at WebCite, Cheat Code Central, 2011.
  28. Kristie Bertucci, 20 hottest female video game characters (list) Archived 2014-09-19 at the Wayback Machine, Gadget Review, 05 July 2012.
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