- ""You have a sharp eye.""
- — Hualin
Hualin (ファリン Farin?, Chinese: 花麗) is a fictional character in Namco's Soul series of fighting games. She is the shopkeeper created for the Weapon Shop within Soulcalibur III, and an unlockable Bonus Character in the main game as well. She represents the "Staff" Create-a-Fighter discipline.
What lies in her soul is Business.
Biography
Hualin started her life as a weapon seller when she entered as a servant in a weapon store set on a small village at the foot of a mountain where a martial artist master is said to dwell. While she did her daily chores and weapons caring, she found her life's career. From that point, she put all her efforts into becoming the finest weaponsmith in the world.
Because of the store's location, Asian weapons were the predominant kind, but she also was able to obtain some western weapons and Arabic knives. But there was so much around the world, she started wishing to know all weapons she could.
One day at the end of year she met Cepheus. He was returning from a big purchase in Ming and stopped to visit an old friend. He was astonished at seeing Hualin's smithing skills, but lamented her situation, for even if her handling of Ming weapons were excellent, she was inexperienced in other kinds of weaponry. Cepheus decided to ask the store's owner if he would let him take Hualin to his store, in a city where east and west met and where she could train her skills further.
The store owner recognized Hualin's talent as well, but he knew her departure would be a great loss to him and his store. Upon much debating, he finally decided to let her go with Cepheus.
Hualin installed in the store of Cepheus, and started taking care of his weapon management, training daily under the old man's supervision to refine her skills even more.
Weapon
Stages
Hualin has no stages of her own, but she appears on Tales of Souls mode as a "Prepare to Defend Yourself" challenge in the Lakeside Coliseum (caged version) among the other shopkeepers as the second opponent of a 3-characters Team Battle.
Quotes
- "Hi there!"
- "No no no...you can't put it on the tab."
- "You have a sharp eye."
- "Are you really going to buy something?"
- "You lookin' for something?"
- "Come again!"
- "Welcome."
- "Thank you."
- "Rascal"
- Here we go!
- This is your end.
- Let's go.
- It can't be! I lost...
- Thanks a lot!
Trivia
- Hualin appears first in the game's Shop, in charge of the Weapons section. In her shop, the player can buy the various extra weapons for both Standard and Bonus/Custom characters.
- Hualin's entire costume is made from Create-a-Fighter parts. Her dress and pants have a somewhat unique design.
- Her in-game model looks much older than her artwork concept.
- Apart from some moves, some of the Staff extra weapons are originally used by Kilik in Soulcalibur II, such as the Duel Rod.
- Hualin and the Staff discipline contain possible references to the Street Fighter character Chun-Li, as Hualin resembles her slightly and the Staff movelist contains two moves that resemble Chun-Li's Spinning Bird Kick and Houyoku Sen.
- Hualin's former employer appears to be the unnamed character that was introduced alongside Edge Master in one of the Japanese Soul Edge guidebooks. That would mean the "martial artist master" is Edge Master.
- Interestingly, in Olcadan's ending, when he sells Soul Edge, both Lynette and Valeria appear, but Hualin doesn't, even though she's the one who actually sells the weapons.
- Hualin is the first character in the Soul series who uses glasses.
- Hualin's Destined Battle during Quick Play is Xianghua.
- Hualin is the most cheerful and lively of the shopkeeper girls.
- In addition, she appears to bear a slight resemblance to Ling Xiaoyu from the Tekken series.
- The extendable staff is the weapon used by Sun Wukong (the Monkey King) in the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West.
- Hualin's qipao outfit makes an appearance in Soulcalibur IV.
- Some of her kicking moves come from Lee Chaolan from the Tekken Series, & is used twice at once.
Series' appearances
Gallery
| Bonus characters | |
|---|---|
| Soul Edge | Siegfried! • Seong Han-myeong • Sophitia! • Sophitia!! |
| Soulcalibur II | Lizardman • Assassin • Berserker |
| Soulcalibur III | Abelia • Amy • Arthur • Aurelia • Chester • Demuth • Girardot • Greed • Hualin • Hwang • Li Long • Luna • Lynette • Miser • Revenant • Strife • Valeria |
| Soulcalibur IV | Angol Fear • Scheherazade • Shura • Ashlotte • Kamikirimusi |
| Soulcalibur V | Devil Jin (Katsuhiro Harada) |