The Look (2/10): For a British aristocrat, Ivy's first outfit is totally inappropriate even more so for someone who's supposed to be in a fight. She balances on heels and has little protection whatsoever in the shape of her bondage gear. The only guard she does have is the giant metal claw arm she has on her left arm.
For Ivy's alternate outfits though the story is much different. I normally play in Ivy's second outfit, the pirate costume, which relates to her real father, Cervantes. She is completely covered with a frilly shirt, pirate jacket, trousers and tights although still sports a pair of high heels. She does look more battle ready then in the first one. With bleach silver hair and a pirate costume, I think Ivy actually looks pretty cool. It seems to me quite strange that the designers would go from wearing nothing to wearing everything but I think most women will agree that Ivy's second costume is a nice alternative to her first look. Maybe this was an attempt to satisfy the needs of the female market?
Ivy's third outfit is more like the first but covers much more flesh. She wears a pink boob tube dress with elbow high gloves and still those silly heels.
Her entire body shape is quite disproportional, with a small waist and huge breasts which throughout the game tend to jiggle. If you put her in profile mode this is really bad as you can have a close up of her jumping left and right, making her breasts thump up and down. However, her outfit does actually support them with a halter neck top more so than Taki's does, I actually think she has less jiggle than Taki does. In the anime artwork, Ivy has exceptionally large breasts with visible nipples, which do seem unrealistic but then again most anime shapes are unrealistic. ^_^
Attitude (7/10): Ivy's attitude is not very well shown in the game but the fact she is willing to make up for past wrongs is defiantly a sign of a strong character. She bravely defies her un-dead father in the 'destined battle' towards the end of the game. She also seems quite concerned for other people, as she fears that her 'cursed' blood will taint other people. By the end of the game she is content to live out her life in total solitude to prevent this from happening.
Intelligence (7/10): This is always hard to judge in a fighting game but we know that Ivy learns alchemy to actually bring her blade to life in the first place, a skill which, takes a fair bit of academic learning. Her outfit counts against her but maybe Ivy feels that the outfit will 'distract' her opponent?
Stance (6/10): It's surprising that Ivy's keeps her balance in her shoes but for most of the game she does stand appropriately ready for battle. Some of her actual moves though are quite fun to watch as she flips people over her head with her whip. Her throws are some of the coolest throughout the game as she raises the opponent into the air and makes her sword split into a thousand daggers striking them. Her guard does look a bit strange though when her sword is in whip mode, as you'd expect an opponent's weapon to go straight through it.
Voice (6/10): In English Ivy does sound distinctly British but as a girl from the United Kingdom I can tell you that it is slightly overdone. It does at times sound a little bit sultry and seductive but it's tongue in cheek. Sometimes her moans and groans are quite distracting at times. Ivy laughs a lot during some moves and it does sound quite evil, reflecting the fact that Ivy is not sugar coated. Ivy also speaks in Japanese.
Scripts: (4/10): At times Ivy sounds like she should be in a bad X rated movie with phrases like 'squirm!' 'hmmm… I like that' 'give up already' and 'does that feel painful?'
Marketing Efforts Towards Women (5/10): In the previous Soul Calibur games Ivy was used a lot more to advertise the game, however her role has been played down in favor of the different characters you get for each console. In some ways this is better as she is horribly over sexualized in many ways. There really isn't any marketing here aimed at women, but obviously Ivy's whole look is aimed at men and particularly teenage boys
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