Sagat (Street Fighter)

Sagat (japanese: サガット Sagatto, thai: สกัด Sagad) is a boss character from the early editions of Capcom's Street Fighter fighting game series. He was later turned into a regular, playable character. Sagat is depicted as a well-renowned Muay Thai expert fighter known for his incredible power. He is often called the "Emperor of Muay Thai" in his home country.

History
Sagat made his first appearance in the original Street Fighter. After the player defeats the eight initial opponents, their character Ryu (or Ken on Player 2's side) is taken to Thailand to face the final two opponents: Adon, Sagat's apprentice, and Sagat himself. After being defeated, he tells the player that he or she is the "strongest Street Fighter in the world".

His next appearance was in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, where he appears as one of the four Grand Masters, being the third CPU-controlled boss in the single player mode before M. Bison. He appears in this game with a scar across his chest that he received from Ryu as a result of his loss in the first game. Like the other bosses, he became a playable character in the subsequent revisions of the game beginning with Street Fighter II': Champion Edition.

He appears in the prequel series Street Fighter Alpha. In addition to fleshing out his rivalry with Ryu, a rivalry with his former apprentice Adon is introduced as well, and Dan, a character whose father was killed by Sagat years before, is introduced. It was also revealed that Sagat lost his eye while fighting Dan's father. The Alpha series also show him to become part of M. Bison's criminal organization Shadaloo, but leaves in Street Fighter Alpha 3 after he discovers that Bison had wanted to experiment his Psycho Power against Ryu. Sagat is an unlockable character in Street Fighter EX3, where his story has his resentment for Ryu fading. He returns in Street Fighter IV once again as a playable character with the animosity in his feud with Ryu no longer there and even referring to him in his ending as a "friend".

Characteristics
Sagat is very tall at 7'4" (224cm), two heads taller than Ryu in Street Fighter, a trait he uses to his advantage in his long-reaching attacks. He possesses a hulking, muscular build. His hands are massive enough to close around the entire head of many of his opponents. He is depicted as bald.

In the Street Fighter II series, Sagat's in-game sprite does not display the highly muscular build of the Street Fighter Alpha series, although even at that time he had been consistently portrayed so in his Super Street Fighter II Turbo ending, and other Capcom artworks. Later on, the game graphics developed to match those of the comics.

Sagat wears an eyepatch over his severely damaged right eye, though the lack of depth perception and loss of peripheral vision do not seriously hamper his ability as a powerful fighter. Sagat lost his eye due to a fight with Go Hibiki, the father of Dan Hibiki, in the same fight in which Sagat killed Go.

The massive scar on his chest is a constant reminder of Ryu's victory. Sagat makes no attempt to conceal the disfigurement, and in fact draws power from the hateful memory it invokes; in Capcom vs. SNK 2, Sagat's scar glows while he charges energy for his S-Groove super meter.

Sagat wears traditional Muay Thai kickboxing shorts (which have the word "Tiger" printed on the waistband) and classic wraps. The trunks have colors varying from purple with yellow trim in the original Street Fighter, to blue with red trim in Street Fighter II and to blue with yellow trim in Street Fighter Alpha. He wears tape around his hands and feet to protect his knuckles and shins.

Actors
In Street Fighter Alpha series and Capcom vs SNK series, Sagat has been voiced by Shinichirō Miki. In SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, Sagat was voiced by Kōji Suizu. In Street Fighter IV, Daisuke Endou provides his Japanese voice.

In other media

 * In the Japanese animated film Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Sagat appears in the opening scene fighting against Ryu during a thunderstorm, receiving his iconic chest wound at the climax of the fight. The battle takes place at a grass field during a stormy night, a scenery which was remade as a stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2 for Sagat's final match in the single-player mode against Ryu. Afterwards, he is seen working for Bison. He was voiced by Shigezo Sasaoka in Japanese and Peter Spellos (as David Conrad) in English.


 * In the live-action film version of Street Fighter, Sagat was portrayed by Native American actor Wes Studi. He was given the full name of Victor Sagat and is depicted in the film as a black market arms dealer that runs the Shadaloo Tong and gets conned by Ryu and Ken. He is also depicted with his eye patch over his left eye, instead of his right. In this version, he was a former cagefighter who went by the Iron Fist before retiring. In the film's climax, he is defeated by Ken. In the video game versions of Street Fighter: The Movie for the arcade and home consoles, the film version of Sagat is a selectable character, where he wears yellow boxing trunks and lacks his chest scar.


 * In the American animated TV series Street Fighter, which combined plot elements of the game and the live-action movie mentioned above, he is depicted as Bison's second in command. Once again, he is given the full name of Victor Sagat.


 * In the Japanese Street Fighter II V animated series, Sagat is a former Muay Thai champion who was falsely incriminated by a drug ring known as the Ashura. He encounters Ryu after he is imprisoned in the same jail as a result of a frame-up by the same gang. They start off as rivals, but eventually develop a mutual respect for each other and team up against the prison's corrupt warden. The Sagat in this series lacks the eye-patch and scar from his video game counterpart. He also has a darker skin tone and wears a Mong Kon on his head. This version is not antagonistic and is not affiliated with Shadaloo as opposed to other versions.


 * Sagat's name is mentioned in "Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation".


 * In Imaginationland, an Emmy-winning South Park episode, a representation of the character is included in a shot along side other noted imaginary villains, including the fellow Street Fighter antagonist Akuma.


 * Sagat has been confirmed to be a playable character in Street Fighter X Tekken.
 * While not appearing in the Capcom video game Resident evil 5 His signature move the Tiger uppercut appears as a melee attack for Albert Wesker in The Mercenaries mini-game.

Critical reception
IGN ranked Sagat at number eleven in their "Top 25 Street Fighter Characters" article, noting him as one of the few characters in the original Street Fighter and adding "The shaved head, the scarred chest, and most of all the eyepatch, they come together to make a guy who means business." Gamespy named him one of the "25 Extremely Rough Brawlers" in video gaming with comments focused on his appearance. GameDaily listed him at number eight on their "Top 20 Street Fighter Characters of All Time" article, citing his role as the first boss in the series and praising his appearance. Sagat also ranked at No. 22 in the list of Best Characters of 1991 from the February 1992 issue of Gamest magazine in Japan. UGO Networks listed him eleventh in their article of best scarred character as the scar symbolizes Sagat's defeat at the hands of Ryu and his desire to continue fighting. UGO also placed him at #1 on their list of "Top 50 Street Fighter Characters", stating "Sagat is arguably the strongest fighter in the series and an important part of the overarching storyline of the series.". In a humor article by GameSpy, Sagat was labelled as an overpowered character in his Street Fighter II incarnation. Similarly, his Street Fighter IV received similar complaints to the point of being compared with the game boss, Seth. In response to this, Ryota Niitsuma, assistant producer of the arcade version of the game, admitted that the two ended up being overpowered, but players could still defeat them without too many difficulties.