Sophitia - Creation and Conception

Creation and Conception

As a character introduced in Soul Edge, Sophitia's weaponry, a sword and shield combination designed to be unique amongst the other weapons in the game, were selected before other elements of the character. Her design and concept were then built to revolve around it, starting with gender, then physical measurements, and lastly background details. After her appearance and movement were fleshed out by a concept artist, her character was rendered as a 3D model by a design team that worked solely on her, and then animated by Tomoe Yamashita using motion capture to create her in-game movements. Tomoe, who additionally created the "struck" movements for many other characters in the game, noted particular fondness for Sophitia while designing her.

During her creation, designers focused on maintaining an innocent appearance for her face, to give the character a sense of feeling fresh and young. Freedom of movement between the sword and shield were also emphasized, with the intention to allow for the blade to rotate around the shield for cyclonic attacks. An alternate character called Azula was conceived during the development of Sophitia's secondary outfit in Soul Edge, but was abandoned. The character concept would later be revisited in Soulcalibur IV, appearing as an ally character in Sophitia's story mode and using her fighting style.