Tyris Flare

Tyris Flare (ティリス=フレア Tirisu Furea), written as "Tyris=Flare" in her early appearances, is one of the main protagonists of Sega's video game franchise Golden Axe and the sole playable character in Golden Axe: Beast Rider. She was introduced as a princess-turned-warrior in the original Golden Axe in 1989.

Appearances

In the Golden Axe games

In the early Golden Axe beat 'em up games, Tyris the former princess of the Firewood Kingdom, where she lived happily with her parents, the king and the queen. One fateful day, an evil army led by Death Adder invaded her kingdom. Her father and the kingdom's army tried to fight them off, only to be defeated. After her father was slain by Death Adder, her mother escaped with her to the canyons. After momentarily evading Death Adder's army, her mother told her to remain hidden deep within the canyons no matter what happens just moments before one of Death Adder's minion suddenly appeared and killed her. Tyris was then adopted by the amazons who trained her in the arts of swordsmanship and fire magic. Tyris has the shortest range among the heroes, but is most agile and has the most powerful spells; her magic attacks are all fire-based, including the summoning of a giant, flame-spewing dragon.^[1]

The first Golden Axe begins with the 23-year-old Tyris and her friends Ax Battler and Gilius Thunderhead find their mortally wound friend Alex, who tells them that the king and the princess have been taken by Death Adder and asks to avenge him before passing away. Tyris fights her way through the land of Yuria to the castle of Death Adder. Even though he is wielding the legendary Golden Axe, Tyris is victorious and saves the king and his daughter. A few years after Death Adder's defeat, Dark Guld claims the power of the Golden Axe conquer the land in Golden Axe II and the three warriors go into battle again to deal with this new menace. She makes a cameo appearance in the action-adventure game Golden Axe Warrior. One of playable characters in the fighting game spin-off Golden Axe: The Duel is also Tyris' relative Milan Flare.^[2]

Tyris is the sole playable character in 2008's Golden Axe: Beast Rider, wherein the developer Secret Level said the focus was on her reimagining.^[3] In this game, she is a "half-gladiator/half-barbarian"^[4] defender of the Axirian Priestesses, a female sect worshipping the Great Dragon in the Island of Axir. After the sisterhood is wiped out by Death Adder's forces, she takes up sword and sorcery to avenge them and stop him from taking over the world. She is depicted as a long-haired in skimpy red or red-and-white costumes and various hair colors. She has darker skin, shorter red hair, and white warpaint around her green eyes, and wears several different tribal-like outfits throughout the game, depending on which stage she is in, which are unlocked and can be used in other stages.

Other appearances

In the early-1990s Golden Axe II sequel comic serialized in Sonic the Comic, the blonde Tyris is the leader of the trio (depicted on the issue #5 cover). In the story "Citadel of Dead Souls", she gets captured by the dark sorcerer Blackspell and his female apprentice Ul-Tima to be sacrificed for the resurrection of Dark Guld, but escapes and leads her friends to destroy the villains and secure the Golden Axe. While taking it back to Yuria in "Plague of Serpents", they are attacked by Cobraxis and his wizard priests, but manage to defeat them too. In 2015, Tyris was announced to be featured in the crossover comic series Worlds Unite.^[5]

A figurine of Tyris was released by Yujin as part of the SR Sega Girls Collection 2.^[6] Easy Mode in the 1996 beat'em up game Dynamite Deka changes the player character Cindy Holiday into Tyris and allows her to fight Death Adder replacing one of the game's bosses.^[7] She also makes a cameo appearance in the arcade version of the 1990 beat'em up Alien Storm.

Reception

Early games

Many video game publications noted the character for her sex appeal,^{[8][9][10][11][12]} in particular for her large bust.^{[13][14][15][16]} Reviewing the first Golden Axe in 2010, GamesRadar's Justin Towell wrote "Tyris Flare is still hot, in a 1980s Barabarian chick kind of way."^[17] According to Retro Gamer, "This sexy Amazonian fighter is a firm favourite with players due to her excellent fire magic and extremely flimsy clothing."^[18] Retro Gamer included Tyris among the nine memorable "leading ladies" of video games^[19] and also commented of "thinking back to when we first saw that enormous dragon head hove into view and roast the occupants of the arcade cabinet to charcoal while Tyris strutted her stuff in a medieval bikini. That was something you didn't see every day back then."^[20] According to ABC's Good Game retrospective about early female video game characters, while in early games Tyris "forgot to put her armour on over her underwear. These days, she's much more properly attired for combat."^[21] GamesRadar's Jim Sterling included "this flame-haired temptress [who] seems to think that doing battle in a bikini is a wise idea" on his 2011 list of the sexiest sprites of all time, adding: "She has 16 bits of world class tits and nobody's taking that away from her."^[22]

Beast Rider

The character's reimagined version in Golden Axe: Beast Rider received a very mixed critical reception. GamesRadar criticized the game for removing the other heroes "leaving only a super-slutted-up version of Tyris Flare," but added: Again, we're sort of fine with that it's a chance to re-invent the series for a new age, maybe even position it as competition against God of War or Heavenly Sword. Instead, all the attention went to Tyris and her barely covered man magnets."^[23] IGN's Juan Castro questioned how "the hot" Tyris is wearing "a bikini-type outfit" for "riding bore creatures while fighting to the death. But hey, she certainly looked good."^[24] GameSpot's Chris Watters opined Tyris in the game "wears an outfit is every bit as fantastical and cliched as the adventure she embarks on."^[25] WP.pl review of Beast Rider noted a possibility of donning a "skimpy bikini that would be envied by many in adult film actress."^[26] GameTrailers review twice stressed the "sassy" Tyris is "likeable" even as her battle cries can get "especially annoying."^[27] According to GamesRadar US, however, "Tyris herself is phenomenally unappealing," as "despite her nicely rendered model, she animates like a dysfunctional paper puppet, promptly subtracting any sex appeal she might have had from the equation."^[28] Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead lambasted Tyris' animation in the game as "hilariously bad, her movements stiff and laughably doll," comparing her run to the scene in The Muppet Movie "when they'd cut away to Kermit's legs being moved around on sticks to show him moving."^[29] Play's Dave Halverson wrote: "Tyris is a beautiful heroine; so beautiful, in fact, that the absence of dynamic animation is all the more puzzling," singling out her "limited boob animation" as his special concern.^[30] Conversely, Destructoid's Conrad Zimmerman compared Tyris to a drug addict prostitute and not because of costume as "after all and it's not an unexpected wardrobe choice for women in these sorts of games. It's just that her face and hair look really awful."^[31]

Legacy

Kristan Reed of Eurogamer included the "three big, bold, diverse characters," including Tyris, among the reason for why Golden Axe had a "huge" impact on gaming in 1989.^[32] A "squat, cartoon version of Tyris Flare" is featured as Golden Axe homage in Mooff Games' Maximus.^[33] According to USgamer's Jeremy Parish article about the controversy surrounding Dragon's Crown in the West, the game's "Amazon's red-trimmed chain mail serves as a dual homage to Red Sonja and Tyris Flare."^[34] GamesRadar's David Houghton opined Tyris should have make a guest appearance in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim despite the region's cold climate as it is "no stranger to heroes in ridiculously inappropriate clothing."^[35] The freeware fanmade prequel game Golden Axe Myth features Tyris as a playable character,^[36] and an unofficial mod adds her as a recruitable player character in the role-playing video game Baldur's Gate II.^[37] In 2014, Retro Gamer were close to choosing her as one of the classic "ingredients needed to make the ultimate scrolling fighter" for the category "Player 2 character", ultimately choosing Blaze Fielding from Sega's own Streets of Rage.^[38]

References