Baiken

Baiken is a character from Arc System Works' Guilty Gear series who appears as a DLC guest character in Samurai Shodown (2019).

She is voiced by Mayumi Asano, her current Japanese voice actress since Guilty Gear Xrd series.

Personality
Hailing from an alternate reality where not only her family but Japan itself have been destroyed by Gears – living weapons created from infusing humans with magic that rebelled against their creators – Baiken is an aggressive, impulsive and anti-social person motivated solely by revenge, and her sole drive is wanting to kill a demonic-like culprit who goes by the name "That Man", not the Gear Maker. She has remained bitter over her family's demise and intensely hates Gears. She tolerates a small handful of characters, such as Anji Mito, to a certain extent. Though she dislikes the idea of the Japanese being treated like a special race, she occasionally shows pride towards her heritage. Baiken also comes off as a masculine female character, but despite her rough personality, she is capable of showing compassion and mercy.

Powers

 * Ki Manipulation: Being of Japanese descent, Baiken seems to possess the ability to manipulate Ki in the form of seals, although she is not reliant upon it nor as versatile in its usage as others in the series.
 * Object Summoning: She also seems to have knowledge of summoning magic in order to conjure tatami mats for her attacks.

Fighting Style
Boasting the claim that there is nothing her blade cannot cut, Baiken is considered to be a fearsome fighter, using her secret weapons and traditional Japanese katana with great skill, despite the loss of her left eye and right arm. Her secret weapons, designed to surprise her opponents, are hidden within the sleeve of her severed right arm: a Japanese mace, a feudal cannon, a bladed fan, a chain rope, a hook, a claw and a spear.

Music

 * Smoking Hot - Samurai Shodown (2019)
 * ROKUMON - The King of Fighters All Star (also her theme in Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2)

Games

 * Samurai Shodown (2019)

Mobile

 * The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match Online
 * The King of Fighters All Star

Trivia

 * Baiken is likely named, although using different kanji, after Shishido Baiken, an kusarigama- wielding Edo period samurai who had a duel with legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. Notably, the song "Sun and Steel" by Iron Maiden is in tribute to Musashi.


 * Baiken appears as in Samurai Shodown (2019) as a DLC guest character, despite not being playable in Guilty Gear -Strive-, the 2021/2022 entry in the Guilty Gear series at the time. Her design in SNK's game is based on her appearance in Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 (a 2017 game).
 * Baiken would later appear in Guilty Gear -Strive- as DLC a few months after her SNK apperances, and was released in January 2022.


 * Her theme in Samurai Shodown (2019), Smoking Hot, contains elements from "Momentary Life" (her theme in Guilty Gear: The Missing Link, Guilty Gear X & the Guilty Gear XX series), and "ROKUMON" (her theme in Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2).


 * In her second ending for Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus ' s story mode, Baiken was said to had cast away her gender after becoming a serial killer (being dubbed "Baiken the Killer") and being warranted for arrest by Ky Kiske.
 * However, Baiken's confrontation with Ky was a what-if scenario, with Baiken killing I-No prior within the same ending after giving into her bloodlust and losing her morality in the process . With I-No making canonical appearances in later installments in the series, this would make the ending be one of the many noncanonical ones within the entry. Thus, it is currently unknown Baiken had actually cast away her gender canonically, especially considering the difference in Baiken's personality between the ending and her later appearances in Guilty Gear.


 * Baiken and Gongsun Li are the only characters which are not cut in half when the function "Blood and Dismemberment" is active.


 * Baiken appears as a guest character in The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match Online, a mobile game authorized by SNK.
 * She also appears in another authorized SNK mobile, The King of Fighters All Star.