No matter how much I love Bandai-Namco and their Soul series of games, seeing fight always makes me feel really disappointed in them. Now, I don't know how well-researched the other Soulcalibur characters are, or if their fighting styles are really styles rooted in the cultures of the countries they're from. But Talim's just...wow.
Don't get me wrong, I like her well enough, and I do think she's cute. It's just that it really annoys me that her fighting style and her costumes are so very un-Filipino even though she was introduced as a Filipino character.
Well, okay, some of her costumes may look a teensy bit like some of the costumes of the pre-Hispanic cultural minorities in the country, but come on. In Soulcalibur IV and Broken Destiny she looks more like something that would pop out of a magic lamp or a belly dancer from a faux-Arabian bar than a proper tribal Filipina.
That aside, I am still glad that they didn't make her wear a or any other Spanish-influenced costumes. While the baro't saya is the alleged "national costume" for Filipinas, it's still distinctly Spanish.
Talim's fighting style is like a bastardized version of our local martial arts (Arnis, Kali, or Eskrima). ...oh wait, I take that back. I barely see any trace of them in her moves, and even the move names are hilarious. Sure, Double Abaniko is an actual term in Arnis, but Spinning Hiwa and Tuhod Slicer? That's just sad.
What's even sadder is that another fighting game, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, actually showed characters using Filipino martial arts properly (Quan Chi using Eskrima, Sonya Blade using Kali). Goes to show that it isn't so hard to go out and research Filipino martial arts thoroughly.
Let's move on to Talim's weapons. Her weapons are tonfa, for fuck's sake. Tonfa were popular in Japan and may have originated in China, or in another Southeast Asian nation (Indonesia), but not in the Philippines. If they wanted to do it right, they would have given her dual arnis sticks. Or, if they insisted on having blades on her weapons, they should've given her dual or .
And I'm not the only Filipino who feels annoyed with Talim's fighting style.
Come to think of it, Talim is no longer specified as Filipina in the games; the Philippines was only specifically mentioned when she debuted in Soulcalibur II. Maybe Bandai-Namco realized their mistake in labeling her Filipino, and thus opted to just say that she's from somewhere in "Southeast Asia" in the games that came out after SCII. Too little, too late. They never should have tried to put a Filipino character into the game in the first place if they had no intention of doing the proper research. Filipino characters rarely appear in video games, and it's just disheartening to see that one of the most prominent ones is badly researched.
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Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny FAQ
07 September 2009 | No Comments
I agree on most points.
Your analysis of Talim character wise is interesting and quite
detailed.
I think Talim should be more mature looking,
and that she should finally be made as a mature woman,not a child
as she is right now.
Thanks. I have no qualms against Tali’s age though, it’s nice to have some variety in the ages in games. It’s just all of that *points at post* that bothers me.
Late reply is late but… OMG, THIS.
I took up kali (I refuse to call it arnis or eskrima now, they are Spanish names too) back in college and I have fallen in love with it since. It is extremely annoying how none of Talim’s moves resemble anything I actually learned, or for that matter anything I’ve read or looked up on magazines and websites about modern kali.
Haha, I know how you feel. I took up arnis (sorry, but that’s what it was called in my school) in college too, which is why seeing Tali’s moves always ticks me off. Like I said, I think the only move familiar to me was “Double Abaniko”, and I don’t think Talim even does it right.