Sagat (Street Fighter)
| Sagat | |
|---|---|
| Street Fighter series character | |
| File:SFASagat.jpg Sagat from the Street Fighter Alpha series. | |
| First game | Street Fighter I |
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. According to Street Fighter co-creator Finish Hiroshi, Sagat's style was probably modeled after dramatic television kickboxing personalities.[citation needed] It is possible he was named after Sagat Petchyindee, a legendary Thai boxer.
Story
Sagat won the title of Emperor/God of Muay Thai from Nuah Kahn as a teenager, and became a national hero in Thailand. He defended his title from a fighter named Go Hibiki, in a match that cost Sagat the use of his right eye, and cost Go his life. Go's son, Dan, swore revenge on Sagat.
Street Fighter I
Sagat trained Adon, and held the first World Warrior tournament to prove that he was not only the strongest Muay Thai kickboxer, but the strongest fighter in the world. Only one fighter managed to reach Sagat: a young martial artist named Ryu. Initially, Sagat was able to pin Ryu, and was sure that he was the winner of the match. However, Ryu became desperate to win the fight and was consumed by the Satsui no Hadou and executed the Metsu Shoryuken, grievously wounding Sagat and leaving a massive scar across his chest. Because of this event, Sagat has sworn revenge on Ryu.
Street Fighter Alpha
During the Alpha series, Adon mocked his teacher for losing to Ryu and challenged him for the title of God of Muay Thai. His rage blinded him, and Sagat lost to Adon, but not before beating the younger man so hard that he would be in traction for four months. Consumed with rage and hatred, Sagat eagerly joined the criminal organization known as Shadaloo. M. Bison had offered him Shadaloo resources to find Ryu and provide Sagat with a rematch. Sagat's nearly indomitable power provided him with the position of Bison's personal bodyguard, one of the feared Shitennō (四天王) or Four Heavenly Kings of Shadaloo.
During his tenure in Shadaloo, Sagat encountered Dan, now an adult seeking revenge for his father's death in the fight with Sagat. Sagat realized how anger can make people do things they regret, so he purposely lost the fight (Although Dan doesn't believe that he did), which allowed Dan to defeat him and satisfy his anger.
Sagat realized that his scar was a result of the killing intent which possessed Ryu called the Satsui no Hadou. Finally, he understood that true rivals should not be blinded by rage and hatred, nor be seduced by it, and realized Bison's real intentions.
However, Bison presented him with a brainwashed Ryu, and told Sagat he could have the rematch he always wanted. Despite Sagat's disappointment with fighting a corrupted opponent, Sagat still fought Ryu. To break Bison's mind control, he implored to Ryu that a true warrior would not give in to such treachery. Ryu awakened from Bison's control and, rejecting the Satsui no Hadou, drove Bison off. Sagat finally realized that rivalries must have their limits.
Street Fighter II
While Sagat's goal in the second World Warrior tournament was a clean rematch with Ryu, his hopes were eclipsed, therefore he dropped before his next match. Sagat continues to train his body and mind in Thailand, hoping to become the world's strongest fighter before he becomes too old to do so.
Appearance
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, except in one official artwork that shows him with a full head of long hair.
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, Sagat's eyepatch will appear to switch from eye to eye when Sagat faces another direction, since the left-facing sprite is a mirror-image of the right. The 3D Street Fighter EX games 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, to blue with red trim, to blue with yellow trim. 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, producing an array of alternating high and low fireball attacks can confuse and greatly damage an opponent. 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/Dragon Punch. 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. Sagat's supermoves such as "Tiger Genocide" have great priority.His and Ryu's rivalry is based off Japan's confrontation of the Tiger and Dragon,Sagat being the tiger and Ryu being the dragon
In SSF2T, "Old Sagat" is soft banned in Japan, because his fireballs combined with the occasional tiger blow make him overly effective and easy to use.
Actors
Since Street Fighter Alpha, Sagat has been voiced by Shinichirō Miki. In SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, Sagat was voiced by Kōji Suizu.
In other media
Live-action movie
In the live-action Street Fighter movie, he was portrayed by well-known Native American actor Wes Studi. In contrast to his rivalry with Ryu in the games, the film version of Sagat was depicted as Ken's opponent instead.
In the movie, Viktor Sagat is depicted as an underground mob boss in Shadaloo City and the secret gun-runner for the mad dictator General Bison. He was a cage fighter named Iron Fist before retiring to head the Shadaloo Tong, which controlled the city's criminal operations. Ryu and Ken (a couple of con artists) attempt to sell him fake guns, but Sagat uncovers the plot and orders them killed. Ryu and Ken manage to beat Sagat's men to a pulp until they are stopped by Sagat's bodyguards with real guns. Impressed, Sagat plans for Ryu and Ken to be the next opponents of his cage-fighting champion and best friend, Vega. But just before Ryu and Vega can fight, Colonel Guile crashes into the arena with his tank and arrests them all, including Sagat, Vega, Ryu and Ken, taking them to the AN (Allied Nations) headquarters.
In prison, Sagat once again orders Ryu and Ken beaten up by his men, but Ryu and Ken hold off for a good while until Guile, Cammy and T. Hawk spot them apparently fighting against Sagat as possible allies to the AN. Guile makes a plan with Ryu and Ken to "escape" from prison and "kill" him in the process, while carrying a homing device which Guile and the AN will use to track Sagat to Bison's lair. The plan goes well, and Sagat accepts Ryu and Ken as his allies, unaware that they are actually spying on him.
Sagat and his men all flee the AN headquarters and seek refuge with Bison at the black market, where they all watch a magic show by the Benbelli Brothers (in reality Chun-Li, Balrog and Honda, all bent on revenge on Sagat and Bison). Here, Sagat shows Bison a sample of the weapons he will be supplying him with, and the crafty Bison attempts to pay him with a trunk of Bison Dollars which he will establish after taking the Earth over. An enraged Sagat refuses, and calls Bison a conniving lunatic, prompting them to terminate their partnership until Ryu and Ken (in a desperate attempt to get the homing device to Bison's fortress and call Guile) inform them of a lorry filled with explosives (by Chun-Li, Balrog and Honda) heading straight for them. Allied once again, Bison, Sagat, Vega, Ryu, Ken and the two armies flee the tent just before the explosion.
Sagat and his men then go with Bison to the hidden base, where they are "welcome to stay". Sagat is also present at Bison's attempt to blow Guile's stealth boat up with mines (Sagat is horrified to see Guile alive, and Bison taunts his eyepatch as the cause of his not knowing of Ryu and Ken's escape plan with Guile), and at the execution of the fifty-three relief workers Bison had taken hostage. After Guile and his army finally arrive just before the execution, Sagat and Vega deduce Ryu and Ken to have led them there, and plan to ambush and kill them in revenge.
Sagat and Vega corner Ryu in the locker room and start to beat him up, until Ryu knocks Vega aside and Sagat himself is punched aside by Ken, who found Ryu after getting separated from him. Ken and Sagat then fight their own battle in the base's gym while Ryu and Vega fight. At first, Sagat appears to have the upper hand, until Ken manages to use some of the gym equipment to hurt Sagat and finally score a knockout, hitting Sagat into a nearby wall. But just before leaving with Ryu, who knocked Vega out, Ken gives Sagat a "thank-you" present in the form of a golden figurine (he supposedly made him what he now is).
With the base collapsing, Sagat abandones Vega and escapes with Dee Jay through a secret passage to avoid being arrested by the AN. They make it out just before the explosion, and swim through a river to shore with a trunk full of Bison's money. But in the end, Sagat and Dee Jay both get their comeuppance when they open the trunk and see that it's actually filled with the useless Bison Dollars (Bison is presumed killed in the explosion, thus ending the war).
It is unknown what happens to Sagat afterwards.
Street Fighter II V television series
In the Street Fighter II V anime series, Sagat is the former "Champ of Muay Thai". A drug syndicate known as Ashura tells Sagat to throw a match in return for 15 million dollars, but he refuses. As a result, the Ashura secretly puts illegal drugs in his house and tips the police off, and Sagat is arrested and taken to prison, where he becomes the first ever prisoner to get through Warden Nucci's torture welcome without screaming in pain. This and Sagat's Muay Thai reputation quickly gain him the other prisoners' respect, and he (in a way) becomes the "boss" of all the prisoners.
Around ten years later, Ashura plays the same drug trick on a Japanese fighter named Ryu, who is arrested and taken to prison. Ryu also braves his way through Nucci's torture, but is bullied and humiliated by the other prisoners. Sagat sees this, and is slightly impressed by Ryu's resistance. Sagat demands that they bring Ryu to see him, but Ryu refuses, and after he beats up the two prisoners sent to get him, Sagat intervenes to "put Ryu in his place".
Sagat and Ryu then fight their own battle, and with Ryu using Muay Thai (at which he is unexperienced), Sagat easily gets the upper hand and defeats Ryu, eventually scoring a knockout with his trademark Tiger Knee Kick. But Ryu doesn't give up, and switches to his own fighting style which topples Sagat. Impressed at Ryu's skills, Sagat tells Ryu the story of his career and downfall with Ashura, and calls the fight off. Nucci, unhappy about losing his money (he had made a bet on the fight), tries to force Sagat to fight Ryu, but Sagat takes no notice. Just before Nucci can crack and shoot Sagat, Ryu intervenes and they both knock Nucci out. Sagat and Ryu then form a close friendship, both of them earning the respect of the other prisoners.
After Ryu is released from prison on bail, Sagat bids him farewell with a wish to have a rematch with him sometime. However, after the Ashura Syndicate is brought down and Ryu's innocence is proven, so is Sagat's, and he is also released from prison. He gratefully thanks Ryu and Ken for their part, and advises them to go to India and see a monk named Dhalsim to learn Hadou.
Unlike in the game, Sagat has no eyepatch or scar on his chest. His rivarly with Ryu is more of a friendly one than the fierce one depicted in the games.
External links
- Sagat's Street Fighter II, Street Fighter Alpha, and Street Fighter EX entries at StrategyWiki.org