Hibiki Takane
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hibiki Takane | |
|---|---|
 Hibiki Takane in Last Blade 2 |
|
| Game series | Last Blade series SNK Vs. series |
| First game | The Last Blade |
| Voice actor(s) | Kyoko Hikami |
| In-Universe Information | |
| Fighting style | Musou Maden Ryuu |
Hibiki Takane (高嶺 響 Takane Hibiki?) is a character in the Last Blade fighting game series.
Contents |
[edit] Background
Takane Genzou was a renowned swordsmith known throughout Japan during the Bakumatsu era. He had retired to an isolated area in the country side with his daughter Hibiki but continued his work with various swordsman around the country.
One fateful day, a silver-haired man approached Genzou and requested that he forge a sword for him. Though the man radiated an aura of pure and depthless evil, the master swordsmith found himself unable to refuse his request. He spent a time of almost 3 months to forge this sword which he called the "Yasomagatsu Hinotachi", or "Blade of Eighty Days", detailing the amount of time he invested into the weapon. The labour rendered him ill however, and he was soon permanently bed-ridden.
He told his daughter that the silver-haired man was the reason for his condition, and that she should pursue him and the sword that he had forged. With a concerned Hibiki by his side, he uttered his last words. "The thing that I saw.. that I felt, even you must understand."
Though she was confused by her father's cryptic request, Hibiki gathered her belongings and left in search of the silver-haired man.
Several days later, a man named Hyo Amano came by hoping that Genzou would repair his weapon the "Otokomae."
[edit] Gameplay
Hibiki's fighting style has drawn heavy similarities to Ukyo Tachibana of Samurai Shodown fame and she is obviously another tribute to Rurouni Kenshin's main character Himura Kenshin, where one keeps the sword sheathed and draws it quickly to attack the opponent whenever they come in to range. This style is known as iaido.
Her gameplay is characterised by a much more deliberate pace than most of the characters in the game as many of her moves (while damaging), have an enormous amount of lag time afterwards, leaving her vulnerable to attack if her offense is mis-timed.
She is considered by most to be a solid but not top-tier character. Her strengths include a relatively quick and far reaching desperation move which allows her to easily punish a missed swing or parry.
[edit] Trivia
- Hibiki seems disgusted by the prospect of death. If her opponent is killed during the bout (indicated by a special death animation, note that this will not happen by default in the European and American versions of the game), she will appear visibly shaken, and shocked by her own actions. However, if one continues to kill her opponents for 7 matches in a row, she will grin mischievously, as though she has grown attached to the killing (note that this only works in a single player game). Her ending dialogue also changes to reflect this.
- Many are enamoured by Hibiki's conservative design, unique seiyuu (Kyoko Hikami) and great shows of emotion in a genre where female characters frequently tend to fall into certain clichés. As such, she has drawn quite a following and even made it into the SNK vs. series, one of only two characters to do so (the other being Akari Ichijou.)
- In Capcom vs. SNK 2, it seems that Capcom decided to use the murderous prone persona for Hibiki, instead of the one disturbed and appalled by death. A winning pose from The Last Blade 2, in which Hibiki doesn't kill her opponent, yet still seems worried about them is removed in Capcom vs. SNK 2 and replaced with her other winning poses. During her intro before battle in The Last Blade 2, Hibiki says "Anata wo... kiru" (which is Japanese for "you will be cut"), but she hesitates to say it. However, she says the same phrase with confidence in Capcom vs. SNK 2.
- Hibiki has named her sword Kodama, and refers to it as her only friend.
