Sagat

General CVG character
name=Sagat


caption=Sagat in "Super Street Fighter II", as illustrated by Bengus.
series="Street Fighter" series
firstgame="Street Fighter"
artist=
voiceactor=
japanactor=Shinichirō Miki ("Street Fighter Alpha" series, "Capcom vs. SNK" series)
Sakai Albright ("Street Fighter EX" series)
Kōji Suizu ("")
Daisuke Endō ("Street Fighter IV")
liveactor=Wes Studi
inuniverse=Street Fighter character
nationality= Thailand
fightingstyle=Muay Thai
likes=Strong opponents
dislikes=People who do small things, "Shoryuken"
specialskill=Diving under water (able to stay for over 20 minutes)nihongo|Sagat|サガット|Sagatto|based on Thai สกัด is a boss character from the early editions of Capcom's "Street Fighter" fighting game series. He was later turned into a regular, playable character.

History

Sagat made his first appearance in the original "Street Fighter". After the player defeats the eight initial opponents, their character Ryu (or Ken on Player 2's side) is taken to Thailand to face the final two opponents: Adon, Sagat's apprentice and Sagat himself. After being defeated, he tells the player that they're the "strongest Street Fighter in the world".

His next appearance was in "", where he appears as one of the four Grand Masters, being the last CPU-controlled boss in the single player mode before M. Bison. He appears in this game with a scar across his chest that he received from Ryu as a result of his loss in the first game.cite video game|title=Street Fighter II ' - Champion Edition|developer=Capcom|quote=Sagat: COME BACK RYU! GET TOUGHER AND LEARN WHAT IT IS TO BE A LOSER... TODAY, MY GREAT SCAR SHOWS I HAVE LEARNED AND OVERCOME... UNTIL THEN, I'LL BE WAITING!] Like the other bosses, he became a playable character in the subsequent revisions of the game beginning with "Street Fighter II': Champion Edition".

He appears in the prequel series "". In addition to fleshing out his rivalry with Ryu, a rivalry with his former apprentice Adon is introduced as well, and Dan, a character whose father was killed by Sagat years before, is introduced.

Characteristics

Sagat is menacingly tall, a trait he uses to his advantage in his long-reaching attacks. His natural size drove him to become a powerful fighter. His hands are massive enough to close around the entire head of many of his opponents. He is depicted as being totally bald.

In the "Street Fighter II" series, Sagat's in-game sprite does not display the highly muscular build of the "Street Fighter Alpha" series, although even at that time he had been consistently portrayed so in his "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" ending, and other Capcom artworks. Later on, the game graphics developed to match those of the comics.

Sagat wears a black eyepatch over his severely damaged right eye, though the lack of depth perception and loss of peripheral vision do not seriously hamper his ability as a powerful fighter.

Due to a technical limitation in the "Street Fighter" series, when Sagat faces another direction, his eyepatch will appear to switch from eye to eye while his scar will appear to switch from one angle to another. Because of this, the left-facing sprite is a mirror-image of the right. However, 3D "Street Fighter EX2" and "Street Fighter EX3" do not feature this limitation.

The massive scar on his chest is a constant reminder of Ryu's victory. Sagat makes no attempt to conceal the disfigurement, and in fact draws power from the hateful memory it invokes; in "Capcom vs. SNK 2", Sagat's scar glows while he charges energy for his "S-Groove" super meter.

Sagat wears traditional Muay Thai kickboxing shorts and classic wraps. The trunks have colors varying from purple with yellow trim in the original "Street Fighter", to blue with red trim in "Street Fighter II" and to blue with yellow trim in "Street Fighter Alpha". He wears tape around his fists and feet to protect his hands and ankles.

Gameplay

Sagat plays similarly to Ken and Ryu, with some notable differences. Foremost is his attack range: his low attacks and standing horizontal kicks have impressive range. In "Street Fighter II", his "Tiger Shot" could be thrown high and low, limiting the opponent's ability to move. This technique is less viable in later games where projectiles do less damage, or can otherwise be avoided. In "Capcom vs. SNK 2", Sagat's normal attacks, particularly his crouching fierce punch, have unusually high power and priority, making him one of the easiest characters to use effectively in that game. He is also known for his multiple-hitting "Tiger Uppercut" ("Tiger Blow" in the "Alpha" series) which is similar to Ken and Ryu's "Shoryuken". "Tiger Blow" had low priority against "Shoryuken", but the priorities of "Tiger Blow" and "Shoryuken" were equaled in "Alpha 3". Sagat's attacks do much more damage than Ryu or Ken. In "Street Fighter II': Hyper Fighting", Sagat gained the "Tiger Knee" (known as the "Tiger Crush" in later games), which allowed him to pass through fireballs and quickly move closer to an opponent.

"Super Street Fighter II Turbo" gave him the Super Combo "Tiger Genocide", which was depicted as a "Tiger Knee" followed directly into two "Tiger Uppercuts". In later games, he also had the "Tiger Raid", low kicks which were followed by a rushing, fiery flaming kick, and the "Tiger Cannon", a multi-hitting fireball. In "Alpha 3", he also had the ability to do a super taunt which made his scar glow and made his next "Tiger Blow" very powerful.

The "Old" version of Sagat in "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" throws fireballs very quickly with short recovery and has a highly damaging one-hit "Tiger Uppercut". Despite not having a Super Combo, these abilities have made him powerful enough to be "soft banned" in Japan.

Actors

Since "Street Fighter Alpha", Sagat has been voiced by Shinichirō Miki. In "", Sagat was voiced by Kōji Suizu.

In other media

* In the Japanese animated film "", Sagat appears in the opening scene fighting against Ryu during a thunderstorm, receiving his iconic chest wound at the climax of the fight. The battle takes place at a grass field during a stormy night, a scenery which was remade as a stage in "Street Fighter Alpha 2" for Sagat's final match in the single-player mode against Ryu. He was voiced by Shigezo Sasaoka in Japanese and Peter Spellos (as David Conrad) in English.

* In the live-action film version of "Street Fighter", Sagat was portrayed by Native American actor Wes Studi. He is depicted in the film as a black market arms dealer who gets conned by Ken, leading to an enmity between the two (in contrast to his rivalry with Ryu in the main games). He is also depicted with his eye patch over his left eye, instead of his right. He also appears in the arcade and home versions of the "" video game, where he wears yellow boxing trunks and lacks his chest scar from "Street Fighter II".

* In the Japanese "Street Fighter II V" animated series, Sagat is a former Muay Thai champion who was falsely incriminated by a drug ring known as the Ashura. He encounters Ryu after he is imprisoned in the same jail as a result of a frame-up by the same gang. They start off as rivals, but eventually develop a mutual respect for each other and team up against the prison's corrupt warden. The Sagat in this series lacks the eye-patch and scar from his video game counterpart. He also has a darker skin tone and wears a Mong Kon on his head.

Promotion and reception

IGN ranked Sagat at number eleven in their "Top 25 Street Fighter Characters" article, noting him as one of the few characters in the original "Street Fighter" and adding "The shaved head, the scarred chest, and most of all the eyepatch, they come together to make a guy who means business." [ [http://stars.ign.com/articles/895/895027p5.html Top 25 Street Fighter Characters - Day III] . IGN. Retrieved on 2008-08-15]

References