Vega



Vega, known as Balrog 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, as well as ninjutsu.

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 Shadaloo organization. Vega oversaw assassination operations for Shadaloo as well, and was associated with Cammy and the Shadaloo 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 Shadaloo, although it's assumed he still continues his murderous rampages or has been arrested and sent to prison for his crimes. He is also rumored to have returned to bullfighting.

Appearance
Early sketches suggest that Vega was going to resemble a medieval knight wearing a full suit of armour. 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 trousers, 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, although his endings in the first two updates of the original Street Fighter II,Street Fighter II' Champion Edition and Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting, states that he has blonde hair and his endings in Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II Turbo shows him with blonde hair. Since SFA3, however, he 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. In Capcom vs. SNK 2, as a victory pose, Vega will hold his arm out, with the tattoo coming to life and hissing at the opponent.

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).

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.