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Vega, known as Balrog (バルログ, Barurogu) in Japan, is one of the bosses of the Street Fighter fighting game series.

The style Vega uses to fight is loosely based on Zipota and Savate, both used as a means of self-discipline and defense by unarmed Spanish noblemen, sailors and honor guards of established families.

Story

Vega was born to a privileged Catalonian family in Spain. For reasons undisclosed, their status dwindled, causing Vega's mother to remarry for financial security. As he matured, Vega studied bullfighting, a cultural tradition. Afterward, he went to Japan and learned ninjutsu, a style he believed meshed well with his natural grace and agility. Combining bullfighting with ninjutsu, Vega went into an underground cage fighting circuit, and quickly became one of the best. His stepfather murdered his mother because he felt she did not respect him, and Vega killed him in return. The incident warped his mind, and he developed a dual personality: honorable nobleman by day, sadistic murderer by night.

Due to Vega's superb fighting ability and remorseless nature, the criminal leader known as M. Bison instated Vega as one of his three personal grand master bodyguards in the Shadoloo organization. Vega oversaw assassination operations for Shadoloo as well, and was associated with Cammy and the Shadoloo assassins known as The Dolls. Despite his savage and brutal fighting ability, Vega failed to protect Bison's secret Psycho Drive project.

It is unknown what Vega has been doing since the fall of Shadoloo, although it's assumed he still continues his murderous rampages.

Appearance

Early sketches suggest that Vega was going to resemble a medieval knight wearing a full suit of armor. This idea was scrapped because Street Fighter was about fighters from all over the world, not time. Remnants of this concept are apparent in Vega's final design including a mask and a sharp metal claw.

Vega is one of the few Street Fighter characters to constantly carry a weapon, and the only character to do so in Street Fighter II. This claw is useful for both stabbing and slashing attacks, and gives him a very long range compared to most characters. It is the same type of weapon worn by Geki in the original "Street Fighter".

Vega does not wear his expressionless mask to conceal his identity; he removes it after fights, during his win poses, as well as in certain character-select images in various games he appears in. The mask is purely to protect his face from scarring or bruising during battle, since he believes himself to be impossibly beautiful and is obsessively narcissistic. This mask is not particularly sturdy; it is smashed in during Vega's lose portrait in Street Fighter II, and Vega himself will crush it to dust with one hand if he loses due to a time over in Street Fighter Alpha 3.

Vega wears purple and yellow ceremonial pants, a red sash, loafers, and white leggings of a matador, suggesting his involvement with bullfighting. This decorative garb also offers matadors ease of movement, and is ideal for Vega's acrobatic maneuvers.

In the SFII series, he was depicted as having brown hair. Since SFA3, however, he has officially had blond hair.

Vega has a purple snake tattoo on his chest, which also circles his arm. This shows him to be a villain to a Japanese audience, where body tattoos are usually worn by Yakuza members.

Gameplay

Vega is one of the fastest characters in the Street Fighter series, but also one of the most delicate; his defensive rating is unusually low compared to other characters, to balance his incredible speed. Vega's swiftness and flying special techniques make him well-suited for multi-hitting combination attacks, confusing cross-ups, or long range poking attacks with the reach-advantage provided by his claw. It takes exactly fourteen blocked hits for Vega to lose his claw. This reduces his attack range significantly, and prevents him from doing certain super attacks. Since Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Vega can pick up the claw. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, he can lose his mask as well, though the effect is only cosmetic. In SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, Vega cannot lose his claw. In the Street Fighter EX series, Vega may reinforce or recover his claw with a super move.

Techniques

Vega possesses a unique technique in the back flip, making him leap away from an attacker, instead of countering them with an anti-air attack. In certain games, Vega does have the anti-air attack known as Scarlet Terror, making his playing style even more based on offense than before. Vega's Rolling Crystal Flash/Tumbling Claw has him roll forward on the ground and end with a fierce claw strike, a move integral to Vega's offensive posturing, as the move allows him to move forward after he has pushed himself away from the opponent with other attacks.

Vega's Flying Barcelona Attack and Izuna Drop were originally performed by the computer-controlled Vega by climbing on the chain fence that only exists in Vega's stage. For other stages, Vega must leap off the side of the screen. Later games removed Vega's ability to climb the wall altogether, thus making the character react the same way in every stage (except in SFA3 where players had to input a different special move to climb the cage in his stage).

Actors

In the Street Fighter movie, he was played by Jay Tavare. Along with his trademark mask and claw, he has only three lines during the whole movie and utters them while his face is obscured or when he is off-camera.

In the anime Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Vega was voiced by Richard Cansino in the English dub, and by the late Kaneto Shiozawa in the original Japanese version.

Character basis

Vega is a common Japanese stock character, the narusisuto (narcissist) ナルシスト, often depicted as a long-haired, effeminate self-lover. Therefore, he resembles many anime and manga characters, including Shura and Yuda from Fist of the North Star. His personality also reflects that of Zarbon from Dragonball Z. The character model for Zhang He in the Dynasty Warriors series of games bears a resemblance to Vega, also bearing a tattoo on his chest and wielding clawed gauntlets.

Name change

When Street Fighter II was localized in America, Capcom was afraid of a lawsuit from boxer Mike Tyson over a character with his likeness and a similar sounding name (Mike Bison). Additionally, when the designers presented the game to Capcom USA's marketing department, they believed that the name Vega was a weakling's name. They decided to rotate the names of three of the four boss characters in the following manner:

The African-American boxer is known as M.Bison in Japan and Balrog elsewhere.

The Spanish assassin-bullfighter is known as Balrog in Japan and Vega elsewhere.

The evil dictator and head of Shadowlaw is known as Vega in Japan and M.Bison elsewhere.

In discussions among American and Japanese players, Vega is frequently called simply "Matador".

Trivia

• His Japanese name "Balrog" is meant to be ironic, seeing as the Balrog is a mythical hideous creature, contrary to Vega's immaculate beauty. "Vega" is the name of a star in the Lyra constellation. Vega is also a Spanish word, meaning "small valley"; it's also a common Spanish last name, which helped fit Vega's Spanish ancestry and matador background in the storyline, and an uncommon female first name.
• When Vega performs a custom combo, the shadows that trail him are not masked.
• It is hinted that Vega may engage in hematophagy; he had a strong fascination with his victims' blood whether or not he actually partakes of it.
• Vega appeared as an unplayable boss character in the Capcom/Psikyo shooter Cannon Spike in 2000, as part of an elite group of terrorists in the future. Here he is known as Fallen Balrog (even in the North American release), has two claws, no mask, and a sickly palor, resembling the undead monsters present in that stage of the game.
• In Capcom vs. SNK 2, during Vega's fight intro he will throw a rose to characters he respects (M. Bison) or finds attractive (all the female fighters). He will turn away and shake his head at characters he finds unattractive (Blanka, Yamazaki).
• Vega was given the surname Fabio Lacerda (ファビオ・ラ・セルダ, Fabio ra seruda) in the anime series Street Fighter II V, but it's not officially canonized by Capcom.
• In his original Street Fighter II appearance, the CPU-controlled Vega had a special attack where he could jump onto the cage wall in the background of his stage, climb it for a few seconds, and then leap, dropping down onto the player from the top of the screen. This gave Vega a rather unique advantage as he was the only opponent that could directly interact with the background of his stage. Because he was not a playable character in the original incarnations of Street Fighter II until Champion Edition, this technique could not be replicated by the player unless the battle occurred in his stage. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, when on Vega's stage, Vega has a Super Combo that recreates this ability for a short time (even though the player cannot control him until he leaps off to attack).
• In Street Fighter II "The World Warrior", the flag of Spain is the preconstitutional one, with the black eagle symbol on it. On "Champion Edition", appears the constitutional one, with the royal label. On further editions, it appears without any symbol, only the red and yellow flag.

Appearances

• Street Fighter II (non-playable character)
• Street Fighter II': Champion Edition
• Street Fighter II' Turbo: Hyper Fighting
• Super Street Fighter II
• Super Street Fighter II Turbo
• Street Fighter Alpha 3
• Street Fighter EX 2
• Street Fighter EX 3
• Capcom vs. SNK
• Capcom vs. SNK 2
• SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom

External links

• Template:WikiKnowledge-FGM

Template:Major Street Fighter Characters

• Street Fighter characters
• Fictional ninja
• Fictional henchmen
• Spanish video game characters