Edge (エッジ), also known by his real name Eiji Yamada (山田 栄二 Yamada Eiji), is a fighting game character from the Rival Schools 3D fighting games.
Biography[]
Personality[]
Edge is best known for being irresponsible and unfair. No matter who his opponent is, he always has some Army knives ready with him, earning him the moniker "Army Knife's Edge". He is somewhat vain; if he sees his clothes get wrinkled a little, he grabs the chest area or collar and fixes the crease. He strongly dislikes being called by his real name.
Appearance[]
Edge has long blond hair, which is spiked upwards, with comical tall spikes. He wears a pink headband. His primary outfit is a purple school short jacket under a pink high-neck sweater, purple school pants and white boots. The interior of his jacket is white and he has a knife holster inside his jacket where he keeps his army knives.
Concept[]
From a design perspective, Edge, his hairstyle in particular, is similar to Benimaru Nikaido from SNK's The King of Fighters series of fighting games. In addition, Edge is more likely inspired by Jean Pierre Polnareff from the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, whose hairstyle has served as the inspiration for several fictional characters' haircut, including Benimaru and fellow Capcom fighter Guile.
Edge is also somewhat similar to Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters character Ryuji Yamazaki, both using dirty gangster tactics in their own respective fighting styles.
Story[]
Rival Schools: United by Fate[]
Edge is a student from Gedo High School who also doubles as a loyal member of the school's gang. Edge and Gan are two of the Gedo High students who joins a disguised Akira in finding the whereabouts of Gedo High's gang leader, Daigo who had disappeared from within his personal mission of solving the recent school kidnappings. Though Edge is initially suspecting of Akira at first, and even engages in a fight against her alongside Gan in a handicap match to test and see if she is really indeed their boss' younger brother, he eventually comes to accept her as a true friend, especially after she reveals her own true gender to both him and Gan. His ending has him initially choosing to stop picking fights with other students, but changes his mind at the urging of several of his classmates.
Project Justice[]
In Project Justice, Edge (who surprisingly made it to the second year of high school) becomes very suspicious when a returning Daigo has him and Gan performing various, irrational attacks against other schools. Edge is the only person who later discovers that Daigo has been ordered by Momo Karuizawa to deal with the students in Gorin High. When Daigo silently leaves to "take care of" the Gorin students, Edge begins to suspect and question his boss' own disturbing actions. When both Gedo High and Seijyun High begin to have a school gang war against each other, both Edge and Gan soon realize that Daigo is not the same gang leader that they truly respect and that something unexpected had happened to him from within his personal training journey.
They eventually come to realize that Daigo was brainwashed by Kurow as a part of Kurow's evil plan to cause tension and distrust among the schools themselves. Edge and Gan wastes no time in coming to Akira's aid as she tries to wake her older brother up from his brainwashed state, but to no avail. She is then forced to fight against him with their assistance. While that's happening, Zaki hears an unexpected whistle noise and soon realizes that Yurika is playing Kurow's flute in order to control Daigo from within his brainwashed state. As Daigo is eventually freed from his brainwashed state, he reunites with both his younger sister and his friends, stating to them that the unified strength of their own combined punches had truly freed him from his brainwashing.
After Kurow reveals his true identity to the group at the mountain area near Justice High, he attempts to brainwash Daigo once again by playing his flute, with Edge attempting to attack Kurow in order to stop him, only to be blocked by Momo. Luckily, Zaki manages to get Kurow's flute with her chains and that Daigo himself soon returns back to normal in due time.
After both Kurow's defeat and Hyo's death, Daigo, who recovers from his brainwashing and realizes that he needs to improve himself both physically and mentally in order to make sure and see to it that something like this doesn't happen again in the future, leaves Edge and Gan in charge of watching over Gedo High until he returns while also giving his school jacket to Akira, saying his good-byes to them as he leaves to train once more from within another personal training journey.
Gameplay[]
Arsenal, combat style and fighting strategy[]
Special Moves[]
- Backstab (Japanese: 裏斬り Uragiri) - Edge does a knife throw. Depending on the punch button being pressed, Edge may end up with his back turned towards the opponent, or remain facing the opponent. Either way, he can still do another knife throw. Edge is more vulnerable to counterattack when his back is facing the opponent. This can be done up to four times.
It can also be done in the air, where Edge may simply throw a knife 45 degrees downward, or may do it after a forward flip. Unlike the ground version, this cannot be done four times. The first aerial version, however, can be followed by another Air Combo if the player is fast enough. It is of note, however, that the aerial version cannot be done four times in succession as in the ground version.
This move also has an anti-air version, the Anti-air Backstab (Japanese: 対空裏斬り Taikuu Uragiri). In this version, Edge throws his knife 45 degrees into the air. This is a ground-only attack, and can also be done up to four times in succession as the normal Backstab.
- Abuse (Japanese: 罵倒 Batou) - Edge kicks some dirt into the opponent's face, blinding the latter momentarily. Depending on the kick button pressed for this move's button combination, he may either do this move with a simple snap kick, or turn his back on the opponent before doing a forward flip that does the same thing as the first version.
- Destruction (Japanese: 破壊 Hakai) - Edge sidesteps and does a dive towards the opponent. Depending on the kick button pressed for this move's button combination, the attack may either aim at approximately knee-level, or for the midsection.
This is also usable in the air, also with two versions. The attack may be delivered at a steep angle, or at a 45-degree angle.
Burning Vigor Attacks[]
- Grand Backstab (Japanese: 壮絶な裏斬り Souzetsu na Uragiri) - Edge throws numerous knives at once towards the opponent. Deals only one hit, but the damage is massive. If the opponent blocks this attack, he/she has to block all the knives; otherwise, this will still cause damage, albeit lesser. Also usable in the air.
- Bloodbath (Japanese: 血祭り Chimatsuri) - Edge does a sidestep, then dashes forward and executes quick knife throws and ends with a knockdown kick. It can be activated for up to approximately four steps away from the opponent. Highly recommended for a Tardy Counter due to its almost instantaneous startup.
Team-Up Technique[]
- Bloody Prison (Japanese: 血゛獄 Jigoku) - The active character starts with a jumping spin-kick, pushing the opponent a few paces away. Edge and the active character then do three dashing slashes, circling the opponent.
Party-Up Technique[]
- Edge does the Gedo Top.
Cameo Appearance[]
Edge makes a cameo appearance in Capcom vs. SNK in the Kyokugen Dojo stage and he appeared as a card in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash. Edge also had a small cameo appearance in UDON's Street Fighter Legends: Sakura comic.
Trivia[]
- The following details on Edge's life is as described:
- Being a delinquent, he obviously fares poorly in any subject taught in school.
- He has tried several part-time jobs before (e.g. coffee shops, video stores), but he never lasted that long in any of those jobs, leaving him jobless prior to the start of United by Fate.
- He is the youngest of three siblings. Both his brother and sister are of upstanding socialities, and so are his parents, making him the family's "black sheep".
- His official epithet is "Bloody Knife".
- He is the only character to have an official alias in United by Fate. This is because another character introduced in Project Justice also has an official alias, Zaki.
- The Japanese reading of his Team-Up assist (Jigoku), is actually a pun on the Japanese word 地獄 (also read as jigoku) which means "hell" or "earthly prison".
- He is voiced by Yoshiharu Yamada (山田義暒 Yamada Yoshiharu) who coincidentally share the same last name.
Gallery[]
For more of this character, see their gallery.