Felicia was first introduced in Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors as one of two female characters alongside Morrigan Aensland. She has appeared in every game in the series and in numerous cross overs including Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes along with Morrigan, Baby Bonnie Hood and Anakaris.
Background
Felicia is a Catwoman who was taken in and raised by a Sister named Rose who gave her the name Felicia from the word Felicity. Despite her identity as a Darkstalker being exposed, she was not turned away by her as Felicia had feared. When Rose passed away, Felicia left her town hoping to be a musical star.
She knew that the outside world was not pretty as it was filled with much prejudice towards Darkstalkers for being different. Despite this, Felicia never lost hope, as she remembered what she was told before that one has to obtain happiness on their own. She wishes there to be a way for peaceful coexistence between Darkstalkers and humans alike. For that, she pursues her dream of becoming a famous musical star to serve as a bridge between the two races.
During her travels, she met many other Catgirls of her kind. With her newfound friends, she set out for her dream of being on stage. Eventually, she and her friends successfully started a musical with Felicia being the main star after being scouted by a talent agent.
In the events of Vampire Savior, she wondered about how she could make others happy. In her ending, she constructed an orphanage named the 'Felicity House'.
Personality
She is an energetic and optimistic catgirl who enjoys singing, dancing and making friends with people. All she wishes for is peaceful coexistence with humans and doesn't resort to fighting unless she cannot avoid it. Because of this, she stands out among all the other Darkstalkers, many of whom are antihero at best. Her nice attitude has made some people tolerate Darkstalkers more and this gives her more motivation to persuade more humans to accept them since Felicia loves humans due to their personalities and open-mindedness, despite some not accepting Darkstalkers easily she doesn't give up her passion to make friends with the ones that care.
Powers/Abilities
Being a Cat and human hybrid, Felicia has abilities corresponding from both; she's one of the fastest Darkstalker characters and most agile being able to do flips, jumps, including fast lunges and leaps off walls and people. Most of her attacks are fierce and she utilizes her claws for damaging effects on her enemies, usually scratching and striking them with her hands and feet. While Felicia's not as strong as other Darkstalkers she's still capable of lifting humans and some objects heavier than her; one minor ability she can do is turn into a cat.
Weaknesses
Felicia isn't lacking any power. However, her kind demeanor can be seen as a weakness and her enemies can take advantage of this if she drops her guard.
Felicia's companions
| Alto | |
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Alto is a child with a ribbon in her hair. She's 10 years old and her birthplace is unknown. Alto was kept as a rare pet by a rich family until she escaped. She lived in the mountains but was saved by another catwoman, Grace. She is described as being shy and afraid of strangers.[2] |
| Grace | |
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Grace, a 24 year old catwoman from Utah is tall and wears her hair in a pony tail. She has the ability to transform into a cat.[3] |
| Lucy | |
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Wearing a bandanna. She is 18 years old and was born in Virginia. She used to work in a circus. When one of her few understanding human friends died of a sickness, she left the circus. While she was wandering, she met Felicia. She's very cynical and likes to make cynical remarks. She is known for her physical strength.[4] |
| Nana and Mimi | |
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11-year-old twins with ribbons. Both were born in Hong Kong and raised in Saitama, Japan. They arrived to Japan after being mixed up with cargo on a smuggling ship. They were found and raised by an understanding old couple. Both are described as easy going.[4] |
| Nonno | |
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Friends with Nana, they became friends in the mountains behind their house. Her age and background aren't clear. She likes to hide in a ball.[4] |
| Piko | |
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Piko is small and wears keeps her hair in braids. She is 7 years old and was born in Minnesota. She used to live in an orphanage, but after she saw Felicia's stage show, she left her orphanage to seek Felicia. She said to be filled with curiosity.[4] |
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
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Grace
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Nonno
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Piko
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Lucy
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Curse of the Cat Woman
In 1967, the same year chosen as Felicia's birth year, Edward Field wrote the poem Curse of the Cat Woman.
It sometimes happens that the woman you meet and fall in love with is of that strange Transylvanian people with an affinity for cats.
You take her to a restaurant, say, or a show, on an ordinary date, being attracted by the glitter in her slitty eyes and her catlike walk, and afterwards of course you take her in your arms and she turns into a black panther and bites you to death.
Or perhaps you are saved in the nick of time and she is tormented by the knowledge of her tendency: That she daren't hug a man unless she wants to risk clawing him up.
This puts you both in a difficult position-- panting lovers who are prevented from touching not by bars but by circumstance: You have terrible fights and say cruel things for having the hots does not give you a sweet temper.
One night you are walking down a dark street And hear the pad-pad of a panther following you, but when you turn around there are only shadows, or perhaps one shadow too many.
You approach, calling, "Who's there?" and it leaps on you. Luckily you have brought along your sword and you stab it to death.
And before your eyes it turns into the woman you love, her breast impaled on your sword, her mouth dribbling blood saying she loved you but couldn't help her tendency.
So death released her from the curse at last, and you knew from the angelic smile on her dead face that in spite of a life the devil owned, love had won, and heaven pardoned her.
Appearances
Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors
- Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors
- Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge
- Darkstalkers 3
- Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower
- Darkstalkers Resurrection
In Japanese only games:
Felicia's Magical Step
- Capcom Fighting Jam
- Cross Edge
- Felicia's Magical Step (cell phone game)
- Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes
- Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
- Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
- Namco × Capcom
- SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters' Clash
- SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters 2 Extend Edition
- SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS
- SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium
- Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (Pocket Fighter)
- Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
- Capcom Girl no Mind Puzzle
- Onimusha Soul
- Project × Zone 2
| Game | Placement |
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| Street Fighter Alpha 2 | Felicia is seen relaxing in the pool in Ken Masters' stage along with Lord Raptor, Hsien-Ko, Mei-Ling and Morrigan. |
| Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds | Deadpool's and Taskmaster'sending. |
| Dead Rising 3 | costume in Super Ultra Dead Rising 3' Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX + α DLC. (Xbox One exclusive) |
| Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition | Appears as a DLC costume for Menat. |
Felicia was a central protagonist in Darkstalkers the Animated Series, who, with other Darkstalkers such as Jon Talbain, Rikuo and occassionally Donovan Baine, fought against Pyron. Rather strangely, the show portrayed her as a centuries-old shapeshifter wearing a costume, rather than an actual catwoman. She also appears in the Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge OVA, as the lead of one of the three major plotlines of the miniseries.
Sprite
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Darkstalkers
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Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
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SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium
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Card Fighters' Clash
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Card Fighters 2
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Card Fighters 2¹
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- Felicia with SNK's Cham-Cham, SNK's cat girl. Hitoyasumi is Japanese for "Taking a Break".
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Card Fighters DS
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Card Fighters DS¹
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- Felicia with SNK's Athena Asamiya in the counter card. Athena happens to be a J-pop star, something which is touched upon when both appear in The Match of the Millennium: SNK vs. Capcom, where they have special intro and endings with each other.
Trivia
- Felicia was originally was going to be designed as a werepanther. Even earlier, the initial idea for her character was a large African woman with the power to become a leopard and maul the opponent.
- Some people believe that Elena from Street Fighter III: New Generation was inspired by the original concept of Felicia as an African woman. Felicia was inspired by the Maasai people, an ethnic group from certain parts of Kenya and northern Tanzania and in later games the country Elena comes from is Kenya (originally her country was just listed as "Africa"). The two share many similarities such as having bright and energetic personalities, white clothing/fur with a slightly similar appearance, bright/light colored hair with dark/tan skin and bright blue eyes, with the blue eyes being more of a color error on Felicia's design rather than her canonical appearance but is still common in various art and media.
- Felicia has the largest bust of the Darkstalkers females, beating even SNK's Mai Shiranui from the Fatal Fury/King of Fighters franchise by one centimeter. Her idle stance also displays some of the only jiggle physics in the series.
- Although her fur preserves her modesty, Felicia is fully naked and wears no clothing. Her bare butt remains uncovered and can be seen during some attacks.
- She has the second-most appearances outside of Darkstalkers behind Morrigan Aensland.
- In Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, her win quote against Frank West has her mentioning her goal of extending her career from musicals to films. This could also be seen as a reference to her Pocket Fighter storyline where she sought out Ken to gain a movie contract.
- Felicia is the first barefoot female fighter in a fighting game.
- In Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, for that matter, Felicia is the only barefoot female character.
Felicia, Yellow Iris DLC costume in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
- Felicia's DLC for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has her play as Yellow Iris from Battle Circuit, a classic Capcom beat 'em up. Yellow Iris was heavily inspired by Felicia, even having some of Felicia's attacks in her moveset.
- Like Morrigan, Felicia was voiced consistently in the games up to Cross Edge by her original Japanese voice actress, Kae Araki. As of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, she is now voiced by Kana Asumi.
- Felicia shares some similarities with Sonic the Hedgehog. Their battles techniques, involving rolling into a ball (her rolling bucker and his spindash) and their kicking moves (her delta kick and his numerous kicking attacks). They're also the fastest characters of their respective worlds, have blue hair/fur with green eyes and are both animal/human-like creatures. In the 2020 Sonic The Hedgehog film, Sonic's powers are given much more of an electrical effect to them and Felicia transforms into a humanoid via lightning.
- Felicia's official art for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is visually similar to her official art from the original Darkstalkers game.
Revelations: Persona
- In Revelations: Persona, the catgirl-type enemy Nekomata has the same name (in the English version) and traits as Felicia.
- Felicia's "Midnight Bliss" form is a shout-out to the famous skirt blowing action of Marilyn Monroe.
- Some of Felicia's artwork depicts her incorrectly with blue eyes instead of green, and it seems to have become an increasingly common error in recent years, with even her Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds' character model having this incorrect eye color.
- She breaks the fourth wall in one of her win quotes in Vampire Savior/Darkstalkers 3; mentioning her appearances in Night Warriors, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, and Darkstalkers. She also mentions Blanka from Street Fighter in her ending for Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge.
- According to the YouTuber known as The Nostalgic Gamer, in one of his videos, Meet the Darkstalkers: Felicia - The Nostalgic Gamer, Felicia's final design is based off of the Bakeneko, creatures of Japanese Mythology that start their lives off as normal cats but grow up to possess supernatural powers like the ability to assume the form of a human being. Also, Felicia's design is based off of Edward Field's 1967 poem, The Curse Of The Catwoman.
- The catwomen in Darkstalkers share similarities to the bakeneko but seem to be a partially inverted interpretation of them. The difference is that instead of normal cats they start out as normal humans who gain catlike traits as they grow while the similarities are more obvious as they are still shapeshifting supernatural cat-humanoid beings who start changing and gain new abilities once they reach a certain age.
- Although her birth year coincides with the release of the poem The Curse of the Catwoman, the 1942 and 1982 remake of the horror movie Cat People also come to mind, in where themes of romance, forbidden desire, and human psychology regarding an attractive yet dangerous werecat woman are prevalent themes in its story.
- According to Darkstalkers - Plot Guide, the catwoman race (seemingly) age twice as slow as humans or simply have a different way of aging. Going by Felicia's birthyear and her physical appearance it seems that Felicia does not age like this for some unexplained reason or this could be a plot error. For example; Felicia would have been chronologically in her 30s during the events of Vampire Savior but still can look like a human woman in that age group.
- Catwomen start out as normal humans but have a varied age range of when they become a catwoman, that being from 4 to 10. It is a possible reason that each catwoman has a different type of way of aging and that the ones Felicia met just happen to be of the slower aging kind.
- Another possible reason is that because all of the main Darkstalkers were created first and other members of their species second, it's possible that her unique aging compared to her species and/or birthyear was part of something early in development but was something that was forgotten to be removed in the finalized games.
Official artwork
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| The full image gallery for Felicia may be viewed here. |
Videos
| The full video gallery for Felicia may be viewed here. |
| Darkstalkers cast |
| Main cast |
| Anita • Anakaris • Baby Bonnie Hood • Bishamon • Dee • Demitri Maximoff • Donovan Baine • Felicia • Hsien-Ko • Huitzil Jedah Dohma • Jon Talbain • Lilith • Lord Raptor • Morrigan Aensland • Pyron • Q-Bee • Rikuo • Sasquatch Victor von Gerdenheim |
| Secondary cast |
| Belial Aensland • Dark Talbain • Le Malta • Mei-Ling • Oboro Bishamon • Ozom |
| Other cast |
| Harry Grimoire • John Stately • Majorette/Thomas • Marionette • Shadow • Jack |
External Links
- Felicia - Strategy Wiki
- Felicia - Mizuumi Wiki
- Felicia - Capcom Database
- Felicia - Marvel vs. Capcom Wiki
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Capcom, (2008). Darkstalkers Graphic File. Udon Entertainment Corp, pg. 64. ISBN 1897-37604-9
- ↑ Capcom, (2008). Darkstalkers Graphic File. Udon Entertainment Corp. p.141 ISBN 1897-37604-9
- ↑ Capcom, (2008). Darkstalkers Graphic File. Udon Entertainment Corp. p.142 ISBN 1897-37604-9
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Capcom, (2008). Darkstalkers Graphic File. Udon Entertainment Corp, pg. 143. ISBN 1897-37604-9