Hsien-Ko

Hsien-Ko
Hsien-Ko
Darkstalkers series character

Template:Vg-in-universe

Hsien-ko (Lei-Lei(泪泪) in Japan) is a video game character in the Darkstalkers series.

Hsien-ko was born around the 1730s with a twin named Lin-lin(鈴鈴)(Mei-ling in the English localization of Vampire Savior). During this time, ghosts and spirits of the dead arose from their resting places and attacked a rural Chinese village. After her mother was killed by a powerful demon (said to be Demitri Maximoff), she and her sister decided to use Tensei-no-Jutsu to save her, but they used a prohibited sub-division of this technique, Igyo Tenshin-no-Jutsu, and fought to release their mother's soul from the dark.

This turned the twins into a jiāngshī, a type of Chinese zombie. This, however, also gave the two unusual abilities which the two use to fight for their purposes. Mei-ling is actually the ward-paper (fú) on Hsien-ko's hat. Hsien-ko's powers cannot be fully controlled unless Mei-ling does so herself when she becomes the ward-paper. If she separates from Hsien-ko, many of Hsien-ko's abilities no longer work, so they essentially fight as one. Hsien-ko is the "body", and Mei-ling the "mind." Once in a while however, Mei-ling does come out to team up with Hsien-ko as seen by their Dark Force ability in Darkstalkers 3.

The two fight many battles during Night Warriors, and eventually win the freedom of their mothers' soul, but at the cost of their own lives. Before death however, the spirit of their mother claims she will not let oblivion become their reward, and the twins' souls are reborn as infants in a new life.

As of Vampire Savior, the two live a happy, normal life in their reincarnation. However, on their 16th birthday, weird things begin to happen to them. They have the same dream and the next night, they fall into a coma and their souls were transported to the Dark Realm, which called to them. They found themselves in weird costumes, and although their memories of their past life are sketchy, things begin to slowly come back to them. They regained their unique power of transformation they had lost during the death of the life preceding this one. Now as saviors and hunters once more, they must find their way home to Earth Realm.

Gameplay

Hsien-ko is an unusual character in that she excels at setups. Her huge variety of weapons gives you impressive reach, but also make her highly unpredictable making her an excellent punish and pressure character. She tends to fare quite well at tournaments.

Hsien-ko's odd stance and movements are attributed to her being a jiāngshī (or kuang-si), which are also known as Hopping Vampires. However, she mostly runs and "walks" with her big claws, hopping only when near enemies. She can also run on air almost acting as a human.

The weapons Hsien-ko uses include a saw, knives, a sword, a chain, a giant gong, a spiked flail, and variety of other weapons. She also once in a while throws some cameo items such as a statue of Akuma, Vega's claw, and Chun-Li's bracelets.

Portrayals in other media

Hsien-ko appeared in two episodes of the DiC Darkstalkers series, only she did not have blue skin and her "claws" were metallic and could be removed. However, she had a grudge against Demitri Maximoff, who was responsible for killing Mei-Ling and her parents. Also in this version, she was a "ghost creature" and not a jiangshi like in the games.

Hsien-ko appeared in the Night Warriors: Dark Stalkers Revenge anime, and was voiced by was Nicole Oliver in the English dub. She and her sister were central to the plot of the episodes.

She appears as a playable character in the crossover strategy game Namco x Capcom partnered with interestingly enough, Fong Ling from Resident Evil Dead Aim; in the game, Lord Raptor is infatuated with her, but she wants nothing to do with him.

She and her sister also appear in Ken's stage in SFA2 as guests to Eliza's birthday, along with other Capcom characters such as Strider Hiryu and Captain Commando.