Chai Xianghua

Chai Xianghua is a character from the Soul Calibur games.

Xianghua’s mother was from the prestigious Chai family in Beijing, and taught Xianghua swordsmanship from a young age, treating her with a firm but loving hand. Xianghua sensed these moments held some deeper significance than her mother was letting on. Perhaps it had something to do with her father, a man she never knew and was told had passed away. Two years after her mother’s death, she decided to focus on the way of the sword. With every passing day, her passion burned stronger than before.

Appearance
Chai Xianghua bears strong physcial characteristics of a Chinese Woman in her era, like the hair and fashion style. During her initial development, she was made reference to that of a Chinese child, which also made obvious in her facial features.

In Soulcalibur, her first outfit is a light pink qipao top, light pink sleeves, blue pants with aqua bows and blue slippers. Her second outfit is a red short-sleeved qipao top, dark red mini shorts with light green linings, green bracelets and red and green shoes.

In Soulcalibur IV, her first outfit is similar to her bonus costume from the original Soulcalibur, except with some changes. Her outfit is entirely light blue and has a different pattern on it.

Personality
Chai Xianghua is a cheerful young woman. She is kind and seems to sound a little childish. She never gives up and is faithful to her friends. She shares many similarities with Ling Xiaoyu of Tekken and Lei Fang of Dead or Alive.

Abilities
Xianghua's fighting style resembles that of a Wushu practitioner, although some of her moves were derived from Hwang. She is known for being unpredictable and confusing for an opponent as she has a lot of feint attacks in her arsenal. Her speed is on par with other quick Soul Calibur characters, allowing her to punish attacks more easily. However, most of her attacks lack damage and range, but once she catches her opponent off guard, she can connect combos to maximize damage. She also has a repertoire of auto guard-impact moves to further put opponents off guard and open further options. Given these combination of strengths and weaknesses, she is considered versatile by many players.

Xianghua can cancel most of her attacks and attack with a different one immediately to put the opponent off guard and exploit its weakness. A great example of this is her Silent Xia Sheng (SXS) stance (introduced in Soul Calibur 4) in which keeping the button held down with certain inputs places her in a stance and allows her to use a different attack. An "invisible meter" is filled depending on her actions in SXS. Once the "meter" is filled to a certain point, she will begin flashing and the properties of her attacks will change, opening up new combos and possibilities. The "meter" will go down when she uses an attack while flashing. Xianghua can fill it up again with actions from SXS.

What Xianghua lacks is strength; but her combos that veteran players use deal impressive damage to make up for this weakness. In tournaments, she is considered a high-tier character.

Torrential Chi Blast: Attacks her opponent rapidly with her feet and blade before delivering what appears to be a blue energy bubble explosion.

Trivia

 * The three treasures of the Ling-Sheng Su Temple are all named after the Yugas - the names of eras in Hindu philosophy. The Krita-Yuga refers to the age of meditation, a Golden Age free from unhappiness. Hence, the Krita-Yuga/Soulcalibur's reputation as a force of good.
 * Xianghua's No Name looks exactly like Krita-Yuga in Soulcalibur and does not match Edge Master's jian. Krita-Yuga obtains a different look in Soulcalibur II.
 * Xianghua's nickname in Soulcalibur is "Flower in the Breeze."
 * Xianghua's Destined Battle in Soulcalibur is Nightmare. In Soulcalibur II her Destined Battle is Kilik, and in Soulcalibur III, her Destined Battle is Cervantes. In Soulcalibur IV, she must fight Algol as her final boss in Story mode.
 * Xianghua has a strong fondness for Kilik, bordering on romantic feelings. This is shown in one of her Soulcalibur III endings, as well as in all of Kilik's endings within the same game. This relationship is greatly expanded upon in Xianghua's Soulcalibur IV ending. It is implied in both this ending and Kilik's good ending in Soulcalibur III that the feeling may be reciprocated. In the official artbook for Soulcalibur V, it is revealed that Xianghua and Kilik parted ways some time after the events of Soulcalibur IV. Shortly after, Xianghua gave birth to his son, Xiba.
 * Xianghua and Kilik are the only characters to have a weapons demonstration in which both participate together, as shown if the controller is untouched in the Soulcalibur III title screen.
 * Xianghua's Japanese voice in Soulcalibur II was also used for Rikku's voice in Monty Oum's Dead Fantasy.
 * In Xianghua's Story Mode in Soulcalibur IV, she is accompanied by Kilik throughout all of the stages. In Kilik's Story Mode, Xianghua does help him for the first two stages, but then Kilik leaves her behind and carries on ahead.
 * As a suggestion of her husband, Wujin, Xianghua pays a visit to Kong Xiuqiang and Xiba once a year. Xiba is not aware that the woman who visits him is his mother, however.
 * Some of Xianghua's moves are similar to Ling Xiaoyu's (and a few from Jun Kazama/Asuka Kazama) from the Tekken series.
 * Xianghua's Soulcalibur II hairstyle is available as one of the hairstyles in character creation in the Chinese MMORPG Perfect World.
 * Xianghua has a "joke" attack where she slams on the floor like a child in temper.
 * Listening to Xianghua's "Destined Battle" line in her Soulcalibur II profile and listening to it in the actual game leads to an inconistency; according to her profile, her line is; "I can't let you go any further, Kilik." However, in the game, she says "Kilik..." and then Kilik says his lines, and then she answers "I can't let you go any further.". In the Japanese version, her line was "Get out of my way, Kilik." This is the same in the profile, which is probably how the mistake came about.
 * Xianghua's 1P outfit in Soulcalibur IV is similar to Xianghua's bonus costume in the original Soulcalibur.
 * Her Soulcalibur IV 1P costume (color-wise) and her left side throw are similar to Asuka Kazama's from the Tekken series.
 * Xianghua's English voice actress, Wendee Lee, is known for voicing Umi Ryuuzaki and Princess Emeraude from Magic Knight Rayearth, Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop, Takeru "T.K." Takaishi from Digimon Adventure, Haruhi Suzumiya from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and Konata Izumi from Lucky ☆ Star.
 * Xianghua's joke attack in Soulcalibur changed as the series progressed. Reason being is that the attack in Soulcalibur depleted a good amount of health but as the series continued, the depleting of health decreased.
 * In early conceptions, Xianghua was supposed to made similar to that of a Chinese child.
 * Xianghua's marriage with Yan Wujin has not received many positive reviews as many fans were such fans of her relationship with Kilik.
 * Xianghua's hairstyle in Soulcalibur IV resembles that of Fon Master Ion from Tales of the Abyss. Ironically, Ion is male & his hair is green.