Cassandra Alexandra

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Cassandra Alexandra (カサンドラ・アレクサンドル　Cassandra Alexander) is a fictional character from the Soul series of fighting games. Cassandra made her first appearance in Soul Calibur II and has returned in Soul Calibur III.

Biography

Cassandra, the sister of Sophitia Alexandra, was the only person who believed Sophitia's story of fighting the powerful evil of Soul Edge on behalf of Hephaestus. Afterwards, Cassandra had witnessed a mysterious Asian woman, Taki, bring her sister back from her journey and draw shards of the evil sword out of her sister's flesh while treating her wounds.

Three years later, Sophitia disappeared, leaving Cassandra certain that her sister had left to contend with Soul Edge once again. Now, four years after this past journey, Cassandra had visited Sophitia's home, only to be greeted by the sight of Sophitia's two children fighting greedily over a familiar metal shard that Sophitia's husband, Rothion, had found. It was a fragment of Soul Edge. Angered by her sister's panicked reaction to the fragment, Cassandra ran to the Eurydice Shrine, screaming at Hephaestus for endangering her sister on behalf of his ego. Cassandra collapsed on the floor, worn out from shouting. When she awoke, she saw the metal fragment resonating with the holy Omega Sword blessed by Hephaestus. She realized then that Soul Edge was still alive, but she could not allow her sister to exhaust herself once again, especially with a husband and children to care for. Stealing the weapon her sister had used twice before, Cassandra sneaked from her home in Athens to deal with Soul Edge on her sister's behalf, hopefully to succeed in finishing the task that her sister had started--to quell the evil sword once and for all.

At first she travelled out of sheer determination, until she felt a strong evil energy at Greece's east. Walking along a mountain pass she found herself on a town covered with evil energy, and which habitants were also contaminated and their minds lost. Seeing the reaction of the fragment with the evil energy, Cassandra decided to help the people here, thinking, 'If Sophitia can do this, so can I!'

She discovered that the center of the evil appears to be a castle in the mountains. As she tried approaching the castle, she notices the sacred weapons has cracks all over, rendering them useless. As she wondered how divine weapon can break so easily, she didn't notice being surrounded by the people contaminated with evil energy. Lacking weapons to defend herself with, Cassandra has no other choice than to flee the city.

Once out of the town, Cassandra started to feel helpless. She though she wasn't cut out to be a warrior, and her determination started to fade. But then she thought of her sister, and her sister's children, and forced her hesitation away. Since her holy weapons had been rendered useless, she decided that it must be because of powerful evil energy and returned to Greece. She will ask her brother-in-law, Rothion, to forge new weapons, or go to the shrine if she needs to. But bad news awaits her upon her return.

Rothion informed Cassandra that Sophitia left on a new quest, since she felt it was her responsibility to destroy Soul Edge. Thought Rothion said it was Sophitia's own decision, Cassandra still cursed Hephaestus for this. Rothion gave the young woman new weapons while asking her to help Sophitia. Cassandra thought that, 'Once Soul Edge is destroyed, we can save the town infected with evil as well.' She'll stand at her sister's side.

Now with a new determination on her heart, Cassandra starts a new journey.

Weapons

-- Omega Sword & Nemea Shield

A sacred sword once used by Sophitia. The sword was made by Rothion using sacred ore received from Hephaestus, the Greek god of forge. After Sophitia's return from her second journey, they were placed on an ancient shrine. Cassandra took it from the shrine to go on her own journey. The Nemea Shield is a shield taken by Cassandra to go on her journey. Both weapons has been cracked during her pass in a corrupted town.

-- Digamma Sword & Nemea Shield (Reforged)

The sacred weapons Cassandra stole from the shrine cracked during her journey, so she went back to see her brother-in-law Rothion. He handed her a new sword, the Digamma Sword, and reforged the Nemea Shield.

Stages

-- Eurydice Shrine Gallery (SC2)

This shrine is built high up a snow-covered mountain that is as beautiful as it is harsh. The scale of this temple is such that it is easy to believe that Olympian gods once dwelled in this place. Legends say Hephaestus, the God of fire and forge, built the main shrine on top of the summit. This is evidenced by the stairway that leads up to the shrine - the enormous steps are impossible for mortals to climb. Humans built this gallery around the giant stairway for their priests' use. In one corner of this meticulously built gallery is the place where a blacksmith couple gave an offering of a sword and a shield to Hephaestus. The arms have disappeared from the altar, however. Who could have taken them?
(Note: Cassandra shares this stage with Sophitia).

-- Old Toledo - Burning Gallery (SC3)

After the capital was moved to Madrid, Toledo ended its role as capital of Spain, but it still continues to flourish as a center of activity. This mansion, standing in the wealthy district of town, belongs to a wealthy merchant who is on a personal quest to pursue the trail of the massacres caused by Nightmare. Through extensive independent research, he collected records and reports regarding the incidents, and it is said that he hired a famous artist to draw a portrait of Nightmare based on the information he had collected. However, perhaps he had learned too much. The mansion fell victim to a suspicious fire and now burns fiercely. The voracious flames race to consume everything. It will surely not be long before all is reduced to ash... It is probably no surprise that rumors spread that the fire had been caused by arson. However, mixed in with the rumors were accounts of human figures seen within the flames. These rumors of a man with a scythe and a brave swordswoman who jumped into the flames might perhaps be surprisingly close to the truth.

Character Analysis

Initially in Soul Calibur II, Cassandra was thought to be a low-mid tier character. However, during the Evolution 2004 fighting game championships, Marquette Yarborough (Mick) took her all the way to the championship game. This proved that Cassandra was capable of holding her own against traditionally upper-tier characters.^*

Similar to her sister Sophitia, Cassandra is an excellent pressure character due to her Crouch Dash stance. Her Angel Exile (also known as 236B) is similar to Sophitia's Angel Strike in that both are great punishing moves. They differ in that Angel Exile has Ring Out ability while causing less guaranteed damage. They also differ in SC3 in punishing potential, since Sophitia's 236B executes one frame faster, which allow a significant number of moves which were not punishable in SC2 to suddenly become punishable, while Cass' RO game considerably improved due to the added just frame to her 236B. The speed and air from Cass' 236B and the full crouch properties of the move gives Cass among the best ring out games from that move alone, and is worse only to characters such as Talim and Nightmare with more RO tools in their movelists. The constant threat of ring out from 236B alone, as well as its speed to damage ratio, create a constant mind game that discourages ducking and sloppy playing, especially at the edge. Since her punishing game is of vital importance to her strategy, Cassandra is not recommended to those who are unable to punish on reflex.

In Soul Calibur III, Cassandra has improved quite a bit, due to higher damage output from just frames and combo setups, and now more players consider her to be top-tier. Her new tools incude crouch throws, which somewhat unnecessary to her game due to already having strong duck punishers are good 50/50's especially when used during a crumple stun such as CH 2B+K. Her lockdown game changed considerably, her new long range tools being 22B+K, and her 22B_giving tech trap opportunites at mid range, her old A+B had been toned down with worse step coverage and inconsistencies with the second hit making it far less useful then it had been in SC2. Also, her tech crouch game has improved with high damage output from moves such as 66B, 2B+K, and 4[A.

Trivia

Cassandra's name is a reference to the daughter of King Priam of Troy who, in Greek mythology, is said to have predicted the fall of Troy as well as her own demise.
Cassandra has appeared in Sophitia's profile since Soul Edge, although in that game, her name was mistranslated as Kathandra.
In the Soul Edge section on the old Soul Archive site there are some design sketches of her, which differs greatly from her actual look.
One of Cassandra's weapons is the Red Crystal Rod, which comes from Namco's Tower of Druaga and its sequels.
Cassandra's third costume in Soul Calibur 2 is modeled after the Valkyrie character from Namco's Valkyrie no Densetsu.
Like her sister Sophitia and the shopkeeper Lynette, she refuses to reveal her body weight, making them the only characters in the game with unknown weight.
Cassandra's voice sounds quite different in SC3 compared to her voice in SC2, in spite of having the same voice actress. This has caused some confusion among fans (this is most likely because her voice actors voice changed by becoming deeper, higher, etc.).
Cassandra's Destined Battle in Soul Calibur II is Charade and in Soul Calibur III her Destined Battle is Raphael.

Series' Appearances

External links

Soul Series characters | Greek computer and video game characters | Fictional heroines