Vega (Street Fighter)

Vega, also known as Balrog (in Japan), is a fictional character from the Street Fighter fighting game series by Capcom. Vega is a mask-wearing, claw-wielding fighter from Spain who uses a personal fighting style combining Japanese ninjutsu and Spanish bullfighting, earning him the nickname of "Spanish Ninja".

Vega first appears in the original Street Fighter II in 1991 as the second of four boss opponents the player faces at the end of the single-player mode, a group known as the Four Devas, Grand Masters, or the Four Heavenly Kings. From Street Fighter II: Champion Edition (the second version of the game) onwards, Vega and the other three boss characters became playable. He reappears as a playable character in Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter EX2 and EX3, the Capcom vs. SNK series, SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter X Tekken, Ultra Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter V.

Conception and design
When producing Street Fighter II, game director Akira Nishitani and character designer Akira "Akiman" Yasuda first focused on a list of countries to include fighters from in the title, and then developed each character for them. Nishitani wanted to include a ninja in the roster, however at that point in development Japan already had karate and sumo martial arts characters representing it, and the only remaining countries available to assign a fighter to were Spain and Thailand. Nishitani suggested trying to develop a Spanish ninja, something Yasuda was unsure would work and questioned if someone like that would actually exist. The concept was handed to Mizuho "Katuragi" Kageyama, where she was instructed to "Draw a Spanish ninja. Could also be a Thai ninja." With only a two-month window between design and final content, Katuragi first focused on a Thai design, but then Akiman directed her to focus instead on a Spanish design. He pointed to Fist of the North Star as possible inspiration, specifically a nameless masked character that appeared in it hailing from the "Lands of Asura".

Several designs followed, his initial appearance consisting of a masked man in a ripped shirt with long, frizzy hair, followed by a heavily muscled masked man dressed as a matador with shoulder pads. A masked templar with a broadsword and cross on his chest was considered next, but unused due to concerns about Western market reactions to religious imagery at the time. Another concept followed, featuring a masked ninja in a bodysuit armed with a long metal claw on his right hand, taking inspiration from a character that had previously appeared in the first Street Fighter game, Geki. At this same time they considered fighting styles that would fit such a character, and realized bull fighting could be adapted, implementing elements of a matador's appearance and technique into the character, and the claw taking the place of a matador's traditional sword.

Vega's finalized design is a culmination of the various concepts, appearing as a muscular half-naked matador with a snake tattoo up his right arm, a long three-pronged claw on his left, long hair in a ponytail, and a mask covering his face. In the character's backstory, the mask was reasoned as necessary to protect his face, taking inspiration from Shakespeare's portrayal of Spaniards as highly vain through his character Don Adriano de Armado in the story Love’s Labour’s Lost. They built on this further by giving him a deep hatred of visual "ugliness", with Vega valuing beauty above all else and killing what he found unsightly.

Vega was originally named "Spanish Ninja" as a placeholder during development, before being changed to "Balrog" in Japan. According to Street Fighter II director Akira Nishitani, the name was chosen due to it "sounding strong". Towards the end of development, the North American branch of Capcom voiced concerns that the game could get into legal trouble over a different character, boxer Mike Bison, due to the similarity to real life boxer Mike Tyson. As the name graphics had already been created, they chose to shuffle the names of three characters around, resulting in several characters having different names in North America: the boxer became Balrog, the game's antagonist became M. Bison, and the Spanish ninja became Vega. The team felt of the three Vega was a poor fit for the character due to his attire, but acknowledged that the risk of a lawsuit was a greater concern.

Vega's inclusion in Street Fighter Alpha 3 was the result of heavy fan request.

In video games
Vega's backstory reveals that he was born to a noble family in Spain. As he matured, Vega studied bullfighting, a Spanish cultural tradition. He later traveled to Japan to learn ninjutsu, a style that he believed would mesh well with his natural grace and agility. Returning home, Vega combined bullfighting with ninjutsu and entered an underground cage fighting circuit, where he quickly became one of the best.

For undisclosed reasons, his family's status dwindled, causing his mother to remarry for financial security. Vega's new stepfather, incensed that his wife only valued him for his money, murdered her right in front of Vega, who killed him in return. The incident warped his mind and caused him to develop a dual personality: suave nobleman by day, sadistic masked murderer by night. Brandishing a three-pronged, razor sharp claw gauntlet, Vega embarked on many murderous rampages, taking great pleasure in mutilating his victims, especially those he perceived as "ugly". The murder of his mother caused him to view "beauty" as a trait of heroism and strength, whereas "ugliness" represented cowardice and evil. Eventually, Vega's insatiable bloodlust and brutal fighting skills caught the attention of criminal leader M. Bison, who accepted the young nobleman into Shadaloo as his personal assassin and one of his three Grand Master bodyguards. Vega accepted Bison's offer purely to improve his own aesthetic senses. His official tag partner in the crossover fighting game Street Fighter X Tekken is Balrog, although they are shown to loathe each other due to their clashing personalities.

Gameplay
Vega is at least 6 ft tall and he is one of the fastest characters in the Street Fighter series, and also one of the most fragile. His strength is in long-range attacks, with the reach advantage provided by his claw, his speed and jumps. During fights, Vega is capable of losing his claw. This reduces his attack range significantly, and prevents him from performing certain moves. Since Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Vega can pick up the claw again if lost. Other games allow Vega to lose his mask, lowering his health but increasing his attack power as a result. In Street Fighter EX2, Street Fighter EX3, and Street Fighter IV Vega can take his claw and mask off manually. Vega becomes able to switch freely between clawed and bare-handed in his most recent rendition, Street Fighter V.

In other media
In the 1994 live-action film version of Street Fighter, Vega was played by American actor Jay Tavare in his film debut. He is depicted as a member of the Shadaloo Tong working for Sagat. Along with his trademark mask and claw, he has very few lines during the whole film and utters them while his face is obscured or when he is off-camera. He forms a rivalry with Ryu, and in the film's final battle, he is defeated by Ryu and abandoned by Sagat to presumably die when Bison's base explodes. He also appears in the arcade game based on the film titled Street Fighter: The Movie, as well as in the home video game also based on the film. In the arcade version of the game, Vega has the ability to take his mask off and throw it to his opponent. In the home version, this ability was removed and Vega fights unmasked.

In the 2009 live-action film Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, Vega is played by rapper Taboo of the group The Black Eyed Peas as an assassin for Bison's Shadaloo corporation. This version of Vega retains his claw and mask, but the mask is made of metal and he appears dressed in black from head to toe. The film changed the reason Vega wears the mask, from protecting his face to concealing his identity.

In the 1994 anime film Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Vega was voiced by Kaneto Shiozawa in Japanese and Richard Cansino in the English dub. In the film, he works for Shadowlaw under Bison, and is sent to New York to kill Chun-Li. He almost succeeds through a vicious and bloody duel that takes its toll on both fighters, but after baiting Vega into a rage by attacking his face, Chun-Li eventually defeats him by Hundred-Burst-Kicking him through her apartment wall into the streets far below where he presumably dies.

In the 1995 anime Street Fighter II V, Vega appears as a young amorous bullfighter who tries to seduce Chun-Li. Envious over Ryu and Ken's friendship with Chun-Li, Vega invites the three to a party in his castle, which is actually a trap to lure Ryu and Ken to a caged death match with him. Since Ryu does not attend the party, he subsequently fights only Ken, and is finally defeated after a brutal match. He is given the surname of Fabio La Cerda in the series. Kaneto Shiozawa provided his voice for the Japanese version, while Vic Mignogna provided his voice for the English dub from ADV Films and Richard Cansino provided his voice for the Animaze English dub. In the Spanish dub, his full name is listed as Fabio Antonio de la Vega.

Vega appears in two episodes of the 1995 American Street Fighter animated series, "Eye of the Beholder" and "Face of Fury", where he is a former henchman of Bison promised eternal youth who develops a rivalry against Blanka. He was voiced by Paul Dobson in the series.

Vega makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in 1999 anime miniseries Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation, where he ends up pulverizing, though not outright killing, his opponent Dan Hibiki during an underground fight. Vega reappears in the Shadaloo helicopter near the end of Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind.

Reception
In 1992, he was ranked 16th on Japanese magazine Gamest ' s list of the best video game characters introduced in 1991. Vega was voted fifth in Capcom's own poll of 85 characters for the 15th anniversary of Street Fighter, making him the most popular male character.

IGN's D. F. Smith heavily praised the originality in the character, adding "There's never been a Street Fighter character quite like him since." GamesRadar's staff described him as one of the best Capcom characters, calling him their favorite villain from the Street Fighter series, and added that due to his character and unique gameplay the "pretty boy Spaniard and his Wolverine-esque blades are burned into the minds of all fighting game fans." The further complained that he was underused in the series, questioning if perhaps he was "too creepy" for fighting game fans. Gavin Jasper of Den of Geek ranked him highly on their list of Street Fighter characters, stating "Few people in this world have ever had their shit figured out more than Vega," noting how the character was contradictory in many ways, including that he "has his own personal sense of honor, but in a disgusting, self-serving, prejudice way." He further added that while he had a hard time playing as Vega, he praised how well the character's gameplay was done, and was elated when a version of Street Fighter II was released that made him playable. Paste noted "His womanizing character can be a little tired at times, but his style is second-to-none with his mask-and-claw combo," and called him easily one of the series' most memorable villains. In a retrospective of Street Fighter II, a writer for Retromaniac discussed his fascination with the character, due to his own kinship as a Spaniard and the different aspects of his character, such as his claw and mask which his young mind mentally likened to Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees respectively. He added that even after he discovered the character's actual identity "This amalgam of sensations, evidently influenced by the blessed pop culture references at the time, gave a special aura to Vega."