Dark Elf
Image from Puyo Puyo (video game, 1992; English translation)
The Shadow Songstress
Shadow/Nature Type
Original Media: Puyo Puyo (video game, 1992; English translation)
Story
The 1992 Puyo Puyo game saw an unusual form of release outside its home country of Japan: The English version of the game rewrote much of the script, renamed many characters, gave them new personalities, and in one case, changed their design, with the angelic-looking “Harpy” being changed to the shadowy “Dark Elf”. This version of the game was forgotten to time, though, and sequels to the game use the original Japanese cast, story, etc.
In the world of The Chaos Zone, this forgotten translation is its own world, itself stagnantly forgotten to time. So when a strange opportunity allowed Dark Elf to travel the main world of Chaos Zone, she decided to try and take it over, vengeful over her own world being forgotten. Her plans, however, ultimately ended in failure, with her last bid to try and conquer the world leaving her as silent and forgotten as she was before…
…or at least, it would have, had a forgiving power not saved her (alongside the heroes of the world) from an otherwise-lethal attack (which she was rushing towards during her aforementioned “last bid”). With a newfound positive thought of how she could explore the world, the songstress chose to become a hero in a great battle. That said, her sins weren’t forgotten, and aware that redemption and forgiveness don’t always come hand in hand, Dark Elf atoned by secluding herself from society, living in a cottage in a quiet forest where she wouldn’t bother anyone.
That said, the whole deal slowly became water under the bridge, and eventually she was not only accepted by others in the world of The Chaos Zone, but invited; after some adjustment to this change, Dark Elf ended up finding herself many new friends (and one old friend) to experience life with, even if she still enjoyed living in the quiet forest.
Abilities
Dark Song
Dark Elf sings a melancholy melody, dealing rapid damage and recovering her health equal to the damage dealt.
Shadow/Sound Type
Searing Symphony
Dark Elf sings a shrill melody that ignites anyone or anything it targets.
Flame/Sound Type
Off-Tune
Dark Elf sings or screams at the top of her lungs at a cacophonous tone powerful enough to create a wave of energy that deals heavy damage, and can knock opponents far away.
Explode/Sound Type
Image is edited from Shovel Knight (video game, 2014).
Slammer Wall
Dark Elf summons a wall of blob creatures known as Garbage Puyo, and propels the wall in front of her for a powerful attack.
Shield/Impact Type
Garbage Puyo images are from Puyo Puyo (video game, 1992).
Voice
General Description
Adult/Young Adult; normally calm; raises her voice significantly if stressed enough
Example Voice
Source: Super Dialogue Audio Pack (asset pack, 2017)
Original Context: A set of audio files intended for use in video games. The voice clips chosen as examples for this character are specifically credited to Karen Cenon.
(VOLUME WARNING FOR THE ABOVE VOICE CLIP)
Behind the Scenes
The elusive nature of the English version of Puyo Puyo (1992) has always been interesting to me; being well acquainted with what the Puyo series is today, I found it interesting to see an early attempt at bringing it overseas (and for a while, one of the only attempts at such until Puyo Pop released in 2002), and how much it deviated from the source material. If this page wasn’t enough of a sign, Dark Elf was the most interesting element of it to me, seeing how one of the game’s characters was effectively redesigned from a winged angel-like figure to a simple clothed humanoid (even if I’m no stranger to angelic or generally religious-looking imagery being censored in games at the time the game was released).
Due to my interest in this strange piece of Puyo history, Dark Elf was the first character I introduced to The Chaos Zone not from a Mega Man game, with inspiration sparking from one user bringing in an influx of Puyo Puyo characters. The choice to make Dark Elf a villain with grand motives was inspired by a recently-concluded storyline where a cast of characters were defeated rather easily due to not being as powerful in the world of Chaos Zone as they perceived; throughout Dark Elf’s debut, I tried to play with the idea that she was the opposite, trying to tiptoe the line between “too much” and “crazy, but still acceptable by the rules of Chaos Zone“.
While that didn’t succeed too much in hindsight, the big game-changer for me was how a storyline concurrent to Dark Elf’s (and a much grander one in scope) was ending, with a large force of energy being used by a powerful villain in an attempt to wipe out the whole world. While I was willing to have this be the end of Dark Elf’s story, my mind was changed when it turned out that the attack had been blocked by Kirby, of the Kirby video game series (who is written by a user besides me in Chaos Zone). As a fan of said series, I was aware of several instances where Kirby forgave characters who had done malicious things, and with how vague the description of who Kirby protected was, I decided that Dark Elf was on the receiving end of this forgiveness.
The resulting idea of trying to handle writing a character who had found redemption, but not immediate forgiveness (since not everyone is as forgiving as Kirby), was what really got me into writing The Chaos Zone the way I do today; the unique conflict it gave Dark Elf to deal with, and how it shaped her into a more well-rounded character, greatly influenced how I introduced and wrote stories about characters from that point onward, and because of how long-lasting and influential she’s been to my writing, I see Dark Elf as one of my “main” characters, alongside Dyna Man and Mack.
Images
Brash Buster 