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Nightmare (Soulcalibur)

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Fictional character
Nightmare
Soulcalibur character
Nightmare from Soulcalibur III
First appearanceSoul Edge (1995)
Designed byAya Takemura and Takuji Kawano
Voiced byEnglish
Ted D' Agostino (Soulcalibur II)
Patrick Ryan (Soulcalibur III)
Japanese
Nobuyuki Hiyama (Soulcalibur I-II, VI)
Fumihiko Tachiki (Soulcalibur III)
Kōsei Hirota (Soulcalibur Legends, IV)
Yasunori Masutani (Soulcalibur V)

Siegfried Schtauffen (ジークフリート・シュタウフェン, Jīkufurīto Shutaufen) and Nightmare (ナイトメア, Naitomea) are two interconnected fictional characters in Soulcalibur, a series of fighting games by Namco. Introduced as a tragic hero in the 1995 game Soul Edge, Siegfried has been a mainstay and lead character for most of the series, especially Soulcalibur Legends, until Soulcalibur V. Nightmare is an evil, mutated form of Siegfried that later becomes an entity entirely separated from Siegfried in Soulcalibur III onward, the living incarnation of Soul Edge / Inferno (インフェルノ, Inferuno).

Siegfried is a young German knight that, driven mad after unknowingly killing his father, becomes possessed by the evil sword Soul Edge and physically transforms into the demon known as Nightmare. Though Siegfried does temporarily regain his sanity after Nightmare is defeated by Xianghua in Soulcalibur (only to be taken over by Soul Edge again shortly after), it is not until after the events of Soulcalibur II that he is freed from the sword's control entirely and went on to pierce the cursed sword using Soul Calibur. He then seeks atonement for the atrocities he committed as Nightmare. In their final confrontation in Soulcalibur IV, Siegfried successfully destroyed Soul Edge and freed himself from the evil power.

Nightmare first appeared in one of the possible endings for the Siegfried character in Soul Edge. In the sequel Soulcalibur, he was given a name and featured as a central character. Ever since then, Nightmare has been the owner of the powerful evil sword Soul Edge, and thus the target for most other characters in the story. Appearing in every game of the series, Nightmare has served as a recurring antagonist in contrast to the protagonist role played by Siegfried, as well as serving as Siegfried's archenemy.

Appearances

Even though Nightmare originally debuted in Soulcalibur, its predecessor, Soul Edge, featured a prototype of his character. In the home version, an extra character named "Siegfried!" was added as an unlockable character. "Siegfried!" was an alternate version of normal Siegfried taken from his no-input ending, where he was consumed by the cursed sword Soul Edge. This early version was much different from the former Nightmare, having crimson armor and a more flesh-like design, almost as if he were part of Soul Edge itself. He has no story nor ending, and only used Siegfried's Soul Edge without effects. In the conclusion of Soul Edge, Siegfried battled with the corrupted pirate Cervantes de Leon and eventually came into possession of the Soul Edge with its lingering spirit, Inferno. Soul Edge tempted Siegfried to wield it with a promise to resurrect his dead father in exchange for gathering souls for its consumption. Not knowing that he is just being used, Siegfried agreed and started killing people to gather souls. Eventually, Soul Edge consumed him and Nightmare is born.

Allying himself with Astaroth, Ivy, and Lizardman in the city of Ostrheinsburg, Nightmare attempted to completely restore Soul Edge. However, the attempt failed when his castle was attacked by Kilik, Xianghua, and Maxi, causing his allies to abandon him. Nightmare was eventually defeated by Xianghua, which caused Siegfried to realize that he is the one who killed his father and managed to briefly break free from Soul Edge's control. He then hid the sword and himself out from civilization to atone his sins that he committed when he was consumed by Soul Edge.

By Soulcalibur II, the balance between the restored Soul Edge and Siegfried was broken, and Soul Edge was able to take over Siegfried's mind. At first it was for short periods of time during his sleep, but eventually he took Siegfried's body completely and used him to cause destruction once more. Raphael Sorel, a French former-nobleman pursuing the blade for his own scheme, challenged Nightmare and was completely defeated, but managed to pierce Soul Edge's eye with his rapier in one final attack. The sword now in agony lost control over Siegfried, and allowed him to defeat Inferno and break free once again. Siegfried then discovered Soul Calibur, released from Inferno's body after its defeat, and impaled Soul Edge's eye with it. Both swords sealed, Siegfried abandoned his old armor and left with them.

In Soulcalibur III, Zasalamel revived "Nightmare" in essence. Created as an avatar for a disembodied Inferno using the original armor as a shell, he pursued and eventually recovered his true body, Soul Edge. Nightmare also met Tira, who became his servant and manipulated others into protecting Soul Edge and sacrificing souls for Nightmare, to eventually become sacrifices themselves. Meanwhile, Zasalamel manipulated Siegfried, leading him to Nightmare, and wielding Soul Calibur, he clashed against Soul Edge. At the moment the swords struck a burst of energy was released; Siegfried was mortally wounded, while Soul Edge and its body were pulled into a warped dimension, eventually returning to Ostrheinsburg.

In Soulcalibur IV, Soul Calibur revived Siegfried, while Inferno restored Soul Edge fully and strengthened his hold over the animated armor that was Nightmare. Inferno then claimed the entire city of Ostrheinsburg as a vessel due to the fact that Nightmare lacked the capacity to contain his consciousness, and as a result, the city became cursed and many of its inhabitants were corrupted. Tira continued serving Nightmare and manipulating Astaroth, Sophitia and others into serving Soul Edge, in order to weaken Soul Calibur and provide Nightmare with the strength necessary to destroy the spirit sword. Nightmare would then clash against Siegfried in a final duel, though his plans were interfered with the appearance of Algol and the Tower of Remembrance.

As revealed in Soulcalibur V, Soul Edge shattered with Nightmare ceasing to be during his final duel with Siegfried. However, the blade regained consciousness with what little pieces of it were found and collected by its servants; allowing Nightmare to gain a new body and assume the alias of Graf Dumas. From there, Dumas worked his way into the grace of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to be awarded the Kingdom of Hungary, exploiting the war with the Ottomans to initiate a widespread search to find the remaining fragments to restore Soul Edge to its former glory, while simultaneously wanted to consume more souls under the guise of massacring the "malfested". Unknown to him however, his former servant, Tira had been working to create a new Nightmare as she is not satisfied with Dumas. One of his soldier, Patroklos Alexander; whom he manipulated for the massacre in exchange for searching his sister Pyrrha, revolted and fled from service. Dumas eventually met with Patroklos and Pyrrha again; this time revealing himself as Nightmare, and forced Pyrrha's hidden Soul Edge power to consume her, causing Patroklos to abandon her. Nightmare then initiated a war throughout Europe with his newfound power, but is eventually struck down and killed by Z.W.E.I., a young man whom he previously tried to hunt before. Though after Pyrrha Omega kills Z.W.E.I., Inferno made her his new host for Soul Edge,but was eventually defeated by Patrokalos and together the siblings use Soul Edge to Piece Soul Calibur and sealing them back into the Astral Chaos.

Nightmare will return as a playable character in Soulcalibur VI. As the game will revisit the events of the original Soulcalibur, Nightmare will be possessing Siegfried once more.

Outside of the Soul series, Nightmare appeared in Seme COM Dungeon: Drururuaga where the player can obtain him as an "ally" and use his armor along with Soul Edge. Soul Edge also appeared in Namco x Capcom where its shards became Charade and was fought as enemies, and made a cameo in Retro Game Challenge.. Nightmare along with Soul Edge appeared in Outcast Odyssey as a limited card.

Other appearances

Outside of the Soul series, Nightmare appeared in Seme COM Dungeon: Drururuaga where the player can obtain him as an "ally" and use his armor along with Soul Edge. Soul Edge also appeared as an enemy in Namco x Capcom where its shards became Charade and was fought as enemies, and made a cameo in Retro Game Challenge. A Sackboy costume of Nightmare was released as a DLC for LittleBigPlanet 3.

In 2000, Epoch C-Works released a series of action figures based upon the original Soulcalibur, amongst them Nightmare. The semi-posable figure came with equipable weapons from the title in the same package. In 2003, Todd McFarlane Productions released a Nightmare sculpture amongst a set of five based on characters from Soulcalibur II. The immobile figure was modeled after his primary outfit and stood six inches tall with a base.

Siegfried and Nightmare both appear in Soulcalibur manga and make a guest appearance as cards in a mobile video game Outcast Odyssey and in many cards in Universal Fighting System. They are also both featured on the official Soulcalibur VI arcade stick.

Promotion and reception

In 2000, Epoch C-Works released a series of action figures based upon the original Soulcalibur, amongst them Nightmare. The semi-posable figure came with equipable weapons from the title in the same package. In August 2003, Todd McFarlane Productions released a Nightmare sculpture amongst a set of five based on characters from Soulcalibur II. The immobile figure was modeled after his primary outfit and stood six inches tall with a base. Nightmare's likeness was used as the basis for a costume for Sackboy in LittleBigPlanet 3, as part of a Soulcalibur themed costume pack for the title.

Siegfried's overall reception in the series has been positive. Outlets such as Eurogamer, Gameplanet and GamesRadar commented positively on his redesigns for Soulcalibur IV, and Soulcalibur VI. IGN has too praised Siegfried for an appealing design and a powerful yet graceful fighting style while listing him together with Nightmare at a top of their top ten list for the series in 2008, where they both were called "a perfect representation of the series' core conflict," and opining that "a Soul game simply feels incomplete without an appearance by the warring personalities of Siegfried and Nightmare." In 2013, Complex ranked Siegfried/Nightmare the best character in the series, citing his duality as the reason that makes the character "one of the most fascinating characters in the entire series." The Gamer listed him as the 12th most powerful Soulcalibur character in 2017, praising his role and impact in the series.

Nightmare placed first in UGO.com's "Top 11 SoulCalibur Fighters" article, with the writers statement "Was there ever really any question? Not for us..." and praise for his strength and role as a "badass, playable villain." IGN listed him as a character they wished to see in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a playable guest villain, though noted he was also "too extreme" for the series. In a later article on the Soul series itself, they noted "a Soul game simply feels incomplete without an appearance by the warring personalities of Siegfried and Nightmare", and praised the contrast between Siegfried's angelic figure and Nightmare's demonic form. In Game Informer's 2009 list of best fighting game characters, Nightmare placed second.

In a 2002 poll by Namco prior to the release of Soulcalibur II regarding their favorite character, Siegfried placed ninth with 2.5% of the tally, tied with Mitsurugi. In Bandai Namco's 2015 poll, Siegfried was voted the sixth most popular characters from the series, followed by Nightmare.

In a retrospective of how his design evolved between the along the course of the series, Cecilia D'Anastasio of Kotaku stated "When I was a little gaming baby playing SoulCalibur II, Nightmare’s demonesque appearance and weird sentient sword freaked me out." She added that while his armor design in Soulcalibur wasn't very interesting, "it didn't have to be: his torso sized claw and gory sword said what it needed to say." Describing his Soulcalibur II appearance as his "signature look", she praised the additions of his long red hair and extra organic detail added to Soul Edge, and stated the return to element of this look in Soulcalibur V as looking "very Dark Souls here". Lastly, she was critical of his appearance in Soulcalibur VI, saying the development team had "sacrificed grit for glitz in his design—he's way less scarier than he's ever been.

References

  1. Namco Bandai Entertainment America. "SoulCalibur V - Behind The Game". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2023-04-26. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  2. ^ "Nightmare Voices (Soulcalibur)". Behind The Voice Actors. 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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  3. Cite error: The named reference SCL was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. Cite error: The named reference brokendestiny was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. "SOULCALIBUR™ Nightmare Costume – LBP™ 3". PlayStation™Store. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  6. Nightmare (Completed) Package 1. Hobby Search. Retrieved on 2008-09-07
  7. Nightmare Soul Calibur II. Spawn.com. Retrieved on 2008-08-02
  8. "『ソウルキャリバー VI』デザインのアーケードスティックが登場！人気キャラクターをあしらったオリジナルモデル | インサイド". インサイド (in Japanese). Retrieved 2018-08-17.
  9. Nightmare (Completed) Package 1. Hobby Search. Retrieved on 2008-09-07
  10. Nightmare Soul Calibur II. Spawn.com. Retrieved on 2008-08-02
  11. Sony Interactive Entertainment. "LittleBigPlanet™ 3 SOULCALIBUR™ Costume Pack". PlayStation Store. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  12. "Soul Calibur IV review". GamePlanet. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
  13. "Soulcalibur IV - updated impressions". GamesRadar. August 24, 2007. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
  14. "Here's Siegfried and his massive sword in Soulcalibur 6". Eurogamer. 13 April 2018. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
  15. Jesse Schedeen (2008-07-30). "Soulcalibur: The Top Ten Fighters". IGN. Retrieved 2011-11-08.
  16. Knight, Rich (November 29, 2013). "The 20 Best Characters of the "SoulCalibur" Series". Complex. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
  17. "A Soulcalibur: The 8 Weakest Characters (And 7 Who Are Powerful AF!!)". The Gamer. 7 July 2017. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
  18. Top 11 SoulCalibur Fighters. UGO.com. Retrieved on 2008-08-29
  19. Thomas, Lucas M. (2007-06-27). Smash It Up! Volume 2. IGN. Retrieved on 2008-09-13
  20. Schedeen, Jesse (2008-07-30). Soulcalibur: The Top Ten Fighters. IGN. Retrieved on 2008-07-30
  21. "Top Ten Best Fighting Game Characters". Game Informer. GameStop Corporation. August 2009. ISSN 1067-6392.
  22. Soul Calibur 2 -- New Screens And Character Info. Retrieved on 2008-08-02
  23. "Talim es coronada como la protagonista más popular de la franquicia Soul Calibur". 3DJuegos (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-08-17.
  24. D'Anastasio, Cecilia (2018-01-30). "How SoulCalibur's Nightmare Has Changed Over 20 Years". Kotaku AU. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
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