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Necrid
Necrid from Soulcalibur II.
Game series	Soul series
First game	Soulcalibur II
Designed by	Todd McFarlane
Information
Birthplace	Unknown
Blood type	Changed by the void
Fighting style	Original Style
Weapon	Maleficus (Enigma)

Necrid (ネクリッド, Nekuriddo^?) is a fictional character in the Soul series of video games. Designed by Canadian comic book artist and toy designer Todd McFarlane through a collaboration with Namco, he first appeared in all three console versions of Soulcalibur II and later as part of an action figure set created by McFarlane. Despite Necrid having spoken lines in the game, no voice actor has been attributed to the character.

Necrid was formerly a human warrior who searched for and found the cursed sword Soul Edge, only to become trapped in another dimension as a result. While there, his body and mind were warped until he escaped. Drastically mutated, he wields various forms of energy as weapons while searching for fragments of the shattered Soul Edge to alleviate his constant pain.

Since Necrid's introduction the character has received a mixed reception. Sources such as GameSpy have criticized his design for clashing with the game's aesthetic, while UGO Networks praised the visual appeal of the character when in motion. While some reviewers have cited Necrid as one of the best characters introduced to the series, others have cited him as one of the worst.

Conception and history

Series producer Hiroaki Yotoriyama learned Todd McFarlane was a fan of the Soul series, and had praised their character designs.^[1] McFarlane at the time was interested in creating a new Spawn video game, and during discussions with Namco the subject turned to toys,^[2] and a deal was formed to release a line of toys based upon Soulcalibur II. After the discussions, Namco proposed the idea of his company designing a new character for the title which McFarlane accepted,^[3] considering the opportunity to also create a toy based upon the finished design.^[2]

Necrid was designed for North American audiences, targeting American comic book fans specifically.^[1] While commonly referred to as a character designed solely by McFarlane,^[4][5] the character was instead a collaboration between the two companies.^[6] Namco presented an outline for the then-unnamed character's details such as in-game role and physical build to McFarlane,^[7] whose company built upon and completed the design.^[8] As a result, both companies hold a partial copyright for Necrid, with Namco's on the character as a derivative work in regards to McFarlane's illustrations.^[9]

Necrid's secondary outfit

Design

Necrid is depicted as a green, large, bald, muscular humanoid. His eyes glow bright red, and short bone protrusions jut out of his skin on his left arm, back, jaw and a mohawk-like ridge on his head. The fingers on his right hand end in claw points, while his left hand is much larger in comparison, with three fingers that end in large talon-like bone claws. Two large ram-like horns grow out of his left wrist on opposite sides, traveling up towards and slightly beyond the elbow. His clothing consists of dark blue pants, large metal sandals held together by bandages, and armor plating on the sides of his legs, abdomen, and the back of his lower right arm.^[10] Strapped to his chest is a circular piece of metal with a large swirling, pulsating red jewel set inside, described by McFarlane as a "power plant."^[3] Necrid stands about 6 ½ feet (196 cm) tall,^[11] making him the second tallest character with a recorded height in the series.^[12]

His secondary outfit is near-identical, but features scaly, reddish orange skin; additional changes to his color scheme include teal eyes, black pants and the jewel on his chest changed to blue. The bone protrusions are now isolated and enlarged upon his left shoulder and arm, changed to be crystalline in appearance. A pauldron covers his right shoulder, fastened to the jewel's support harness, and the armor on his legs is modified to incorporate a pair of greaves. The armor around his abdomen is now a fauld and bandages are wrapped around his stomach. A metal mask is fastened to his face, held by two straps that wrap around his head.^[13]

Necrid only speaks gibberish, and the vocal samples in his profile are named after emotions, such as "Determination" and "Indignation". He is the only speaking character in Soulcalibur II whose voice remains constant regardless of the game's language setting.^[14]

In video games

As introduced in Soulcalibur II, Necrid is a warrior who fought and defeated a former wielder of the cursed sword Soul Edge, and was pulled into the void that the sword's spirit Inferno inhabited. Instead of fighting he fled and became trapped there, warped physically and mentally over the years. During the closing events of Soulcalibur he escaped, but quickly found that without the void's energies he was in intense pain and would eventually die. Attacking travelers out of instinct, he happened upon a fragment of the first Soul Edge, and felt his pain dampened.^[11] He pursued other fragments of the sword, encountered Talim on his path to the second Soul Edge^[15] and helped defeat the resurrected Inferno. His memories and sanity restored by the battle, Necrid closed the entrance to the void and trapped himself within.^[16]

Necrid has only appeared in one Soul series title to date. When asked in an interview by Electronic Gaming Monthly if he will appear in Soulcalibur III, Yotoriyama replied "Necrid? Necrid has gone on vacation.”^[17] A nod, however, is made in Soulcalibur IV to the dialogue between Necrid and Talim, reused in reverse order in Talim's initial Story mode battle.^[18]

Gameplay

Necrid's weapon can take on a variety of shapes and forms

Using a fighting style Yotoriyama described as "horrific splendor,"^[19] Necrid fights using a transforming energy called Maleficus, a physical manifestation of the same energy contained within Soul Edge,^[20] controlled through the jewel on his chest. This energy can take the form of various bladed weapons channeled through his hands, and can be set aside in multiple solid forms as needed or absorbed back into the jewel.^[21] Necrid can utilize other forms of energy as weapons, such as ignis fatuus,^[22] æther,^[23] and chaos,^[24] with varying effects and attributes. Necrid also implements acrobatics into his fighting style, utilizing a variety of flips and kicks.^[3]

In game, the majority of Necrid's attacks are based upon existing attacks used by other characters in the game. His weapon attacks will manifest and disappear into his hands for each, presenting different visual cues than the original character.^[25] Some of Necrid's attacks are a combination of parts of two existing moves; for example, Dragon Blaze combines the beginning of an attack used by Maxi and ends the move with an attack from Nightmare's moveset.^[26] He does feature some original moves however, such as Elder Topaz, an attack stance that allows an altered moveset to be used for a short time, and Void Cannon, an attack which creates a small explosion of varying distance from Necrid on the ground.^[27]

Cultural impact

Promotion and merchandising

Necrid was announced early in Soulcalibur II's production for the Xbox, first mentioned in an interview by Japanese magazine Famitsu with Yotoriyama.^[1] Later interviews with Yotoriyama and McFarlane discussed the character and prior to the game's console release,^[7] and particular attention was drawn to Necrid on the text for each version of the game's box art.^[28][29][30] Promotional items featuring the character such as an animated emoticon, artwork and screen shots were later distributed by Namco to news outlets such as IGN.^[31][32]

McFarlane Productions distributed one thousand copies of a limited edition lithograph to promote the character at E3 2003. Drawn by Greg Capullo, it featured a comic book rendition of Necrid fighting Spawn in one of the game's arenas^[33] In August 2003, they released a Necrid sculpture amongst a set of five based on characters from Soulcalibur II. The figure was modeled after Necrid's secondary outfit and stood six inches tall with a base and posable arms and head.^[34] The sculptures and game were later used as prizes in a sweepstakes held by McFarlane Productions that utilized Necrid's name.^[35]

Critical reception

GameNOW called Necrid's design "silly", comparing him to an "old-school He-Man villain", but added that despite Necrid's appearance the character was decent to play as.^[36] GMR described him as "taken straight from the pages of Bad American Comic Book Design 101."^[37] IGN's Kaiser Hwang called Necrid a "disappointment", questioning the character's design in comparison to others in the series and felt Necrid was more "filler" than an actual character.^[5] GameSpot shared the sentiment in their review of the game,^[4] as did GameSpy.^[38] IGN's Xbox article editor stated Necrid did not "vibe" with the rest of the game, adding that new characters made without McFarlane's involvement would have been more welcome, and describing the event as an unnecessary marketing ploy.^[39] 1UP.com's Retronauts criticized the design as well, noting that the character's name for a time was used as a synonym for "shitty".^[40]

However other reviewers instead gave the character positive reception, praising both its gameplay and design.^[41] X-Play stated that while Necrid did not seem to fit the aesthetic, the character did have some appeal.^[42] PGNx Media stated that "Todd McFarlane made this character for this game, and I thank him for it. Necrid is very fast, and can fight just as well...[He] is a great addition to the Soul Calibur family."^[43] Netjak editor Chan Clayton described Necrid as a character that "looks kind of stupid initially, but after playing him you'll see him materializing weapons out of midair and discover that in motion he looks much cooler than he does in any stills."^[44] UGO's Doug Trueman stated Necrid's weapon had to be "seen to be believed", and cited him amongst several other new characters as "[adding] something spectacular to the Soul Calibur pantheon."^[45] Insert Credit's Tim Rogers called Necrid "a work of digital art both in form and function", adding "as far as console-only characters go -- everybody wins with Necrid."^[46]

Despite their negative reception, IGN listed Necrid as one of the top eight characters contributed to the games by designers outside of Namco's Team Calibur, placing 8th in the list. Though they described the character as unbalanced, they said that this added to the character's appeal, adding "what do you expect from a man who shares a symbiotic relationship with the very energy that powers Soul Edge? If you needed to clean house in SCII, Necrid was the man for the job."^[47]

References

External links

Video games portal

• Soul Archive page on Necrid (Japanese)

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