As his body itself is a weapon they chose not to hide too much of the character's skin, especially the core 'heart' at the center of his chest. For Soulcalibur IV they returned to his original design but enhanced it to be more massive and vicious, using a design motif that represented a serpent, the symbol of the in-game cult that created him. Fans reacted negatively to the character's modified appearance once unveiled, complaining it was "monster-ish". Broken metal armor pieces protected his arms, legs, and chest, while a fauld surrounded his waist. Large stone spikes jutted from each shoulder, while a similar pair jutted from each knee. The remaining areas of his body featured several cracks over his build with red veins glowing from within. Facial features were completely removed, replaced with a large-mawed fractured head design with a headscarf covering the area around his forehead, eyes, and the back of his head. By Soulcalibur IV, Astaroth's appearance was completely changed, altered to resemble a "rugged rocky" golem.
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In subsequent titles of the series Astaroth's appearance changed, showing more signs of damage and armor loss in II and in III shifting to a dark maroon skintone. Astaroth stands 7 feet 3 inches tall, making him the largest character with a recorded height in the series. During development of the design, a flame positioned over his head alongside flaming eyes were considered, but were cut from the finished product. Two black straps of leather crisscross the vertical center of his chest from the gorget to the belt, in between which lies his exposed, protruding heart. A large black belt surrounds his abdomen supporting a fauld and cloth loincloth. Black spiked braces and boots cover his hands to the elbows and feet to the knees respectively, and black garters wrap around the middle of each thigh. A black mask wraps around and covers the lower portion of his head, while a black open gorget covers the nape of his neck and spiked spaulders cover his shoulders. Design Īstaroth is shown to be a large, muscular, bald, dark-skinned humanoid with solid white eyes.
However the background information in other character profiles instead refer to him as male, and his background information in later titles followed suit. Despite having a male voice and physical build, Astaroth was referred to as "it" in terms of gender for the character's Soulcalibur background information. Before finalizing his appearance several other designs were considered, ranging from a Frankenstein's monster-inspired character to a medieval berserker. ĭuring development, a golem devoid of facial features, armed with a sword and shield, and accompanied by a small girl was considered as a possible character, but scrapped. Soulcalibur IV lead programmer Masaaki Hoshino called Astaroth his favorite character, stating that because he is "so powerful there's always a chance to make a comeback".
During this phase the team additionally worked with the Soulcalibur story creators, refining the character's own role in the plot as needed throughout development. Astaroth was then animated mainly by Nobuko Nimura using motion capture and working directly with the team, while other motion designers created the movements for his grapple attacks.
Once established, his appearance and movement were fleshed out by the team's concept artist Aya Takemura and rendered as a 3D model by a design team that worked solely on the character. His design revolved around it, starting with gender, then physical measurements, and lastly background details.
Astaroth has been described as having easy-to-master gameplay and being popular with fans of strong, hard-hitting characters in fighting games.ĭuring development, care was taken to keep Astaroth's look uniqueĪs a character introduced in Soulcalibur, Astaroth's weapon, a giant axe, was decided upon before other aspects of the character were. Regarded as an iconic character of the series, Astaroth has been noted as fitting a gigantism character stereotype seen in fighting games, featuring strong attacks but slow speed. Though Astaroth has consistently pursued the sword, his character has changed as the series progresses, eventually transforming into a power hungering creature desiring to consume the sword. Introduced in the original Soulcalibur, Astaroth is a golem created by a cult worshiping the Greek god of war Ares to locate a cursed sword named "Soul Edge". Created by Namco's Project Soul division, he first appeared in Soulcalibur and its subsequent sequels, later appearing in various merchandise related to the series. Aya Takemura ( Soulcalibur II-IV), Takuji Kawano ( Soulcalibur II-IV, Soulcalibur Legends)Īstaroth ( アスタロス, Asutarosu) is a fictional character in the Soulcalibur series of video games.