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Boss Doggie · Jul 23, 2015

Whether fictional or real life, plenty of video game characters tend to be inspired by/based from an existing character, or is a homage to said character. Unsurprisingly enough this is quite apparent on early 90's fighting games and even today you still see shades of them.

While I wouldn't mind "this character looks like <person>" stuff, let's at least focus more on official ones that are outright inspired by characters.

Let's get the most common one out of the way - Fei Long, the Marshals, and Kim Dragon from World Heroes (sadly unrelated to Kim Kaphwan though some attribute Kim to this guy) all reference Bruce Lee. Then there's Hon Fu and Lee who reference Jackie Chan.

First off is Jojo. Fucking Jojo man. Inspired a lot of fighting game characters. Especially Part 2. It's why it's the best part.

Rose and Lisa LIsa are one of the common examples, complete with the scarf.

Gill and Kars even share the homoerotic muscular look, and with being gods and all.

There's also Dio, the boss from World Heroes, who resemble Kars. But aside from that, he goes WRYYYYYY! and MUDA MUDA! too like the other Dio.

People say Brocken (from World Heroes) is a clone of M. Bison / Dictator, and I agree. But there's also another reference to him - our lovable Nazi cyborg of course. In fact he and Stroheim even share the same origins of sorts. And of course, Guile mimics Stroheim too (kinda hilarious when you think about it). Brocken himself is apparently named after Brocken Jr.

Away from Street Fighter, we got Polnareff and everyone's favorite electric guy, Benimaru. He himself has moves named after various shows (Electrigger from Red Baron, Shinkuu Katategoma and Genei Hariken from Hurricane Polymar).

We also get Juri and Part 6's protagnost, Jolyne. Surprisingly enough we don't references to other protagonists.

Besides Jojo, there's also Hokuto no Ken for reference.

Colonel, the guy who either (in the anime) is Shin's servant or (in the manga) believed in the coming of god, and a sub-villain in the first arc, is referenced by Rolento and Heidern.

Zeus from World Heroes definitely screams Souther. It doesn't help that Tetsuo Hara did the character art.

Some miscellaneous stuff.

Muscle Power (World Heroes) is Hulk Hogan

And of course, K9999 is a character based on Tetsuo from Akira

Know any other character similarities/basis?

Beelzebufo · Jul 23, 2015

Pretty much the entire cast of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.

Boss Doggie · Jul 23, 2015

I dunno, some are fresh from them. Like people said Zangief and Vega/Claw were from HnK but the closest they resemble were random flunkies (and I think the supposed Zangief one is anime only).

LiK · Jul 23, 2015

Berserk in x Japanese action game.

Platy · Jul 23, 2015

Mix 2 art of fighting guys and you have Dan ! =D

And some say that Robert Garcia himself is basicaly Steaven Seagal

Boss Doggie · Jul 23, 2015

LiK said:
Berserk in x Japanese action game.

Ahh right, Guts is Ike, Arngrim, etc.

they sure enjoy the dude

lazygecko · Jul 23, 2015

Bruce Lee is an archetype for countless video game character. WatchMojo even has a video on it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc167MGiTJo

Nymerio · Jul 23, 2015

Dota 2 - The Thread

Beelzebufo · Jul 23, 2015

Boss Doggie said:
I dunno, some are fresh from them. Like people said Zangief and Vega/Claw were from HnK but the closest they resemble were random flunkies (and I think the supposed Zangief one is anime only).

Well maybe not other characters, but real people. Zangief is based on a guy named Zangief, Ryu is based on some karate legend, Bison is based on an anime villain, Johnny Cage is JCVD, everyone is Bruce Lee, etc. Blanka and Dhalsim may be original creations but I honestly kinda doubt it.

Sephzilla · Jul 23, 2015

IIRC, Johnny Cage was originally supposed to be kind of a parody/shot at Jean Claude Van Damme

DeathoftheEndless · Jul 23, 2015

Snake is a ripoff of Snake Pliskin from Escape from New York.

EloKa · Jul 23, 2015

I think Nathan Drake from Uncharted is a homage to Indiana Jones from the Movies. And Indiana Jones movies are based on the games.

Game > Movie > Game

delSai · Jul 23, 2015

Sephzilla said:
IIRC, Johnny Cage was originally supposed to be kind of a parody/shot at Jean Claude Van Damme

I think Johnny Cage was supposed to be motion captured by JCVD. I might be wrong though.

DrArchon · Jul 23, 2015

Nymerio said:
Dota 2 - The Thread

Does that count when they actually used to BE those characters?

Anyway, half the cast of MK1 is just dudes from Big Trouble in Little China.

SolidSnakex · Jul 23, 2015

Sephzilla said:
IIRC, Johnny Cage was originally supposed to be kind of a parody/shot at Jean Claude Van Damme

He is and Boon has even recently asked fans if they'd like a JCVD skin for Cage.

jmdajr · Jul 23, 2015

sixteen-bit · Jul 23, 2015

I-no from Guilty Gear is inspired by Shiina Ringo.

RPGamer92 · Jul 23, 2015

Wiktor · Jul 23, 2015

Warcraft's Athras is such a painfully obvious Elric of Melnibogne rip-of. It feels like if some kid decided to make a clone of Elric, only make him even more "badass" in a way that only kids would consider badass

Lulubop · Jul 23, 2015

The million fighting game characters based off of Bruce Lee

Boss Doggie · Jul 23, 2015

DrArchon said:
Does that count when they actually used to BE those characters?

Anyway, half the cast of MK1 is just dudes from Big Trouble in Little China.

So that explains it!

lazygecko · Jul 23, 2015

Sephzilla said:
IIRC, Johnny Cage was originally supposed to be kind of a parody/shot at Jean Claude Van Damme

I'm pretty sure that they were even working on a JCVD fighting game when MK was in its very earliest stage of development.

Whompa02 · Jul 23, 2015

Does this count?

SolVanderlyn · Jul 23, 2015

AdrianWerner said:
Warcraft's Athras is such a painfully obvious Elric of Melnibogne rip-of. It feels like if some kid decided to make a clone of Elric, only make him even more "badass" in a way that only kids would consider badass

First I have heard of this Elric. Nice info.

jmdajr · Jul 23, 2015

Platy · Jul 23, 2015

DrArchon said:
Does that count when they actually used to BE those characters?

Anyway, half the cast of MK1 is just dudes from Big Trouble in Little China.

...BE those characters ?

is suposed to be

????

Tizoc · Jul 23, 2015

Beelzebufo said:
Pretty much the entire cast of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.

wut

Tyrant Rave · Jul 23, 2015

Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes is based off of Johnny Knoxville

Blobbers · Jul 23, 2015

Donte from DmC: Devil May Cry is Tameem, the game's creator.

Ishida · Jul 23, 2015

You disappoint me, GAF...

Beelzebufo · Jul 23, 2015

Tizoc said:
wut

Other people have explained it here and there are lots of articles about it, I suggest you look it up! Even Q

I mean just off the top of my head for Street Fighter alone:
Ryu
Sagat
Dee Jay
Alex
Hugo
Zangief
Bison
Balrog
Q
Gill
Urien
Necalli
C. Viper
El Fuerte
Fei Long
Vega
Dan
Juri
All of the ones mentioned in the OP

Watch Da Birdie · Jul 23, 2015

Can't think of a character directly based off him (closest is Machamp, who I always wondered if his horned-head and big lips were supposed to mimic Kinniku a bit), but a lot of fighting games have homages to moves used in Kinnikuman like the Kinniku Buster.

Sephzilla · Jul 23, 2015

Blobbers said:
Donte from DmC: Devil May Cry is Tameem, the game's creator.

As much as I hated DmC, to be fair, in the final game Dante looks less like Tameem (granted all of the complaining about self-insert Tameem happened before they revealed Reboot Dante's final look, so its entirely possible his look was updated after people called out Tameem on this).

DrArchon · Jul 23, 2015

Platy said:
...BE those characters ?

is suposed to be

????

I know about Lina. I'm just talking about how they all used to be Warcraft/Diablo/Starcraft/Whatever characters back in the days of Dota 1. That's why Windranger used to be Windrunner and why everyone still calls Nature's Prophet Furion after all.

Bishop89 · Jul 23, 2015

.

Altazor · Jul 23, 2015

Wasn't Rockman/Megaman greatly inspired by Astro Boy?

Gunstar Ikari · Jul 23, 2015

From The Legend of Dark Witch:

Miiverse will never let them live it down lol

Shanlei91 · Jul 23, 2015

Alx · Jul 23, 2015

I always assumed that Lau Chan (Virtua Fighter) was a rip-off of Taopaipai (Dragon Ball)

But maybe there's an older reference that I'm not aware of.

BadWolf · Jul 23, 2015

KOF's K9999 was a major homage to Tetsuo from Akira, they even got the same voice actor:

Cheng-Fu from Double Dragon (Neo-Geo) was based on Jackie Chan from Drunken Master:

Wiktor · Jul 23, 2015

SolVanderlyn said:
First I have heard of this Elric. Nice info.

Yeah. Recent years haven't been too kind to his recognizability. Lack of movies, tv shows or games will do that. But it wasn't long ago (90s) where he was easily one of top3 most recognizable fantasy heroes.

SolidSnakex · Jul 23, 2015

Tizoc said:
wut

The original cast of character from both games were heavily based on real power or manga. For example, Sonya is based on Cynthia Rothrock.

miku · Jul 23, 2015

No one posted this yet?

Lulubop · Jul 23, 2015

Watch Da Birdie said:
Can't think of a character directly based off him (closest is Machamp, who I always wondered if his horned-head and big lips were supposed to mimic Kinniku a bit), but a lot of fighting games have homages to moves used in Kinnikuman like the Kinniku Buster.

Yea, Zangief's ultra 2 in SF is the Kinnikudriver and El Fuerte's is the Kinnikuspark (incomplete)

bennywhatever · Jul 23, 2015

Everything Pokemon.

Shuggananas · Jul 23, 2015

Platy said:
...BE those characters ?

is suposed to be

????

lina is pm supposed to be lina inverse, even the spells are taken from the manga

Blobbers · Jul 23, 2015

melonboy said:
No one posted this yet?

God damn Nomura.

SerTapTap · Jul 23, 2015

Maybe it's cheating, but Neptunia, being a parody of gaming, has tons of these:

Broccoli, based on the company of the same name, is just basically Puchiko from one of Broccoli's IPs. It's even called out explicitly (the main character simply calls her Puchiko)

MAGES. (you have to remember the .) is basically Okabe from Steins;Gate in her dialogs, she loves Dr Pepper (it's given an off-brand name ingame), talks about The Organization and is basically a mad scientist/magician.

Cyberconnect2/CC2 is a mix of Kite and Blackrose from .Hack. Her EXE skill also has some similarities to Data Drain.

Note that all the above characters are licensed directly from the companies they're named after.

S Sha (Square Enix) is Paine mixed with Squall from the final fantasy series, and also has Sora's crown in her Golden form.

I could go on for days though

KittenMaster · Jul 23, 2015

Bishop89 said:
.

IMO I think it was just the idea of the character and his name they used at first; they never really started borrowing from Snake Plissken's appearance until MGS2. Until then they've used what IIRC was Mel Gibson's face for his in-game portraits in MG2 and apparently his MGS1 appearance was based on Christopher Walken.

Gunstar Ikari · Jul 23, 2015

Also, Tung Fu Rue from Fatal Fury is totally Master Roshi.

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