Bryan Fury

Bryan Fury (Japanese: ブライアン・フューリー, Hepburn: Buraian Fyūrī) is a fictional character from the Tekken fighting game series released by Namco Bandai Games. Bryan first appeared in Tekken 3 and he has returned to all the other Tekken games after the third one. A young, ruthless kickboxer and power-hungry former soldier who served as an officer in Interpol, Bryan was shot and killed by gunmen during a shootout in Hong Kong, only to be revived by Dr. Abel with the use of cybernetic equipment, effectively making him a zombie cyborg. Bryan is popular among fans for his ruthless personality, hard-hitting fighting style and his trademark evil laugh.

Appearances

In video games

In his former life, Bryan was known as a skillful detective, but on the other side, he was always followed by dark rumors. Investigating the Hong Kong drug trade, Lei Wulong discovered that Fury had connections with drug dealers. Bryan used to be an officer in the International Police Organization. He was killed in a shoot-out in Hong Kong. Bryan's corpse was transported to the laboratory of a man named Doctor Abel. This 88-year-old scientist was fairly famous in the underground society, but his findings were often preceded by Dr. Bosconovitch's. However, at last, he came to the last step of completing his master project... the Cyborg Army. Dr Abel thought that a perfect cyborg must have the mechanics built by his rival, Dr. Boskonovitch, so he reanimated Fury's body and sent him off to collect this data. Bryan sneaks into the King of Iron Fist Tournament 3, targeting Yoshimitsu, who has strong ties with Boskonovitch. In Tekken 4, Bryan realizes his life is coming to an end, but knows that the person who can help is his creator, Doctor Abel. However, Dr. Abel had gotten rid of him 2 years ago when Heihachi Mishima and the Mishima Zaibatsu recruited him as it's top scientific advisor. Bryan began despising them both as a result. One day, Bryan heard news of the King of Iron Fist Tournament 4, and decided to enter. With this death being impending, Bryan's body flowed with energy, making him stronger than before. He develops an uncontrollable rage that manifests itself into his physical appearance. Bryan stakes everything on one hope - that if he defeats Heihachi Mishima, he would become Head of the Mishima Zaibatsu. If this all goes according to plan, Bryan would order Dr. Abel to change his body, thus becoming the most incredible being in existence once again. Despite not winning, Bryan eventually finds Abel, and uses his last ounce of strength to knock Abel out before losing consciousness. Later on, he wakes up in the laboratory of none other than Dr. Bosconovitch, who tells him that Yoshimitsu rescued him while robbing Heihachi Mishima's mansion, and promises to transfer Bryan's mind into a new body, although it will take a whole year. Bryan silently agrees to let Bosconovitch put him to sleep. Bryan, however, awakens a month later and is told by Bosconovitch that his body was too complicated for himself to work with, but as a last resort, he had installed a perpetual power generator in him as an emergency measure. Upon learning this, Bryan attacks Bosconovitch and the Manji clan members assigned to guard him, and leaves the laboratory. Bryan enters The King of Iron Fist Tournament 5 tournament to test his performance with the generator installed, unaware that Yoshimitsu is pursuing him for revenge. Yoshimitsu's repeated meddling hinders Bryan's hopes of unlocking the generator's true powers in the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5. Soon afterwards, Bryan's frustration reaches its pinnacle, and he begins to destroy everything in sight after abandoning the tournament. Driven by rage, he joins various battlefields over the world, indiscriminately leveling everything in his way into rubble. However, he soon grows tired of the same thing repeating itself countless times. Around this time, he catches wind of The King of Iron Fist Tournament 6. Seeing another chance to test the generator's true powers, he signs up. Bryan will appear in the upcoming Tekken 7, being one of the eighteen characters available in the first location tests of the game.

Bryan also appears in Tekken Card Challenge, Tekken Tag Tournament, Tekken 3D: Prime Edition, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and Tekken Revolution. Bryan appears in Capcom-made crossover fighing game Street Fighter X Tekken as a DLC character with Jack-X as his official tag partner. His Swap Costume is modeled after Urien. According to the download blurb, with his powers and abilities being recognized by Urien, the second in command of a mysterious organization, Bryan is brought into their ranks. Additionally, M. Bison's Swap Costume is modeled after Bryan's appearance.

In other media

Bryan appears in three Tekken comics, Tekken Saga (1997) (unreleased issue), Tekken: Tatakai no Kanatani (2000) and Tekken Forever (2003). In the 2010 live action movie Tekken, Bryan is portrayed by Gary Daniels. He is depicted as a man who has had cybernetic upgrades. He is blackmailed by Kazuya Mishima into killing Jin Kazama to keep his cybernetic upgrades a secret. After Kazuya changes the rules of the tournament making it so that the competitors are forced to kill each other in order to win, Bryan is pitted against Sergei Dragunov. Dragunov, despite putting up a valiant effort, is ultimately killed when Bryan strangles and eventually slits his throat with a spiked chain. He later fights Jin Kazama and although he has the upper hand through most of the fight, Jin flashes back to Jun Kazama's training and follows her advice by exploiting Bryan's weak spots. Bryan is defeated and killed by Jin. Also, prior to his death, Bryan held the title as the 'current' King of Iron Fist Tournament. Bryan appears in the prequel, Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge, with Daniels reprising his role. A dossier on Bryan is briefly seen in the CGI film Tekken: Blood Vengeance when Anna Williams opens a file containing dossiers on various persons of interest.

Character design

Bryan is depicted as a muscular man in his 30s. He has a tribal tattoo on his neck, a scar on his face, a big cross shaped scar on his back and wears a trademark red bandana on his left arm. Before becoming a cyber-zombie, Bryan was a cop, so he has numerous outfits with police motifs. In his first appearance, He wears a vest with "SWAT" written on the back, city (a.k.a. urban) camouflage trousers, a pair of black boots, black gloves, and black knee guards. In Tekken 4, he wears a green, unbuttoned military-style jacket, blue trousers with a snake band full of bullets on his right leg, and a small pocket knife beneath. From Tekken 5 and onwards, he is not wearing the green jacket. He now has more bullet magazines with shotgun shells in them tied around his waist and left leg and a small grenades tied around his lower left leg. He also gains brass-knuckles with spikes on them. His Player 2 costume usually consists of snake leather pants with black shoes, black gloves and black T-shirt. Bryan's looks and overall storyline share similarities to that of Blade Runner character Roy Batty, as portrayed by Rutger Hauer.

Gameplay and fighting style

Bryan is an unorthodox character who heavily relies on a ferocious punishment game. Bryan is capable of doing heavy amounts of damage with his counter hits and makes sure no move goes unpunished. He also has good pressuring capabilities, keeping opponents on tilt. Bryan, however, is very unsafe, so risks must be taken in order to be rewarded with near 30% combos. He also lacks good range. In all, Bryan is a consistently strong character with a great toolset for instilling fear in his opponents. Bryan is well known for his Fisherman Slam, a move in which he lifts his opponent by punching him in the stomach and slams him into the ground while delivering his evil laugh. Bryan will laugh whenever specific moves are performed on him, e.g. Volcano Blaster or Nina Williams's Bad Habit. He is the only character whose ten hit strings consist of no low attacks. Bryan fights using kickboxing.

Reception

In 2012, Cheat Code Central ranked Bryan as the "6th baddest video game fighter", commenting "On paper, Bryan Fury is a kickboxer; in practice, Bryan Fury is insane. He's a cop, he's a zombie, and he's ready to tear your face off if you look at him funny."^[1] In 2013, Complex ranked Bryan as the "14th best Tekken character", commenting " It starts with the laugh – that insane, cackling laugh that he belts out at the beginning of his matches. For a zombie, Bryan sure is lively, not to mention crazy."^[2] TopTenz listed Bryan as the "2nd cockiest video game character", adding "he’s one the few characters in the Tekken series with a dedicated taunt, and one of his victory poses simply has him beating the lifeless body of his fallen foe for several seconds."^[3] 4thletter placed Bryan's Tekken 5 (alongside Tekken Tag Tournament 2) ending at 24th place in their list "The Top 200 Fighting Game Endings".^[4] GameStop ranked Bryan's Mach Punch as the "5th best fighting game signature move", stating "It's actually just a strong right straight to the face but the effect is quite cool and a bit devastating."^[5] The Killers Guide named Bryan as the "3rd top video game fighter" in their 2012 list.^[6] In GamesRadar article for Street Fighter X Tekken, they stated "Sometimes searching for a way to extend his artificial life ala the villains in Blade Runner, other times simply entering the tournaments to test his powers, Bryan is one of the tougher customers in the Tekken series."^[7] PlayStation Universe included Bryan Fury and Yoshimitsu among the top 5 rival pairs in Tekken Tag Tournament 2, commenting "Bryan is your heavy hitter, with his meaty kicks and punches delivering some health-zapping blows, while Yoshimitsu can confuse and abuse his victims with some intricate juggles and mix-up combos."^[8] In 2015, Bryan was named as one of the "honorable mention" characters in WatchMojo list "Top 10 Tekken Characters".^[9] In the official poll by Namco, Bryan is currently ranked as the 10th most requested Tekken character to be playable in Tekken X Street Fighter, at 9.72% of votes.^[10]

References