Rachel (Ninja Gaiden)

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Rachel
Ninja Gaiden series
Rachel as seen in Musou Orochi 2 Special
First appearance	Ninja Gaiden (2004)
Created by	Tomonobu Itagaki
Voiced by (English)	Tara Strong (Ninja Gaiden series) Erin Fitzgerald (DOA5U)
Voiced by (Japanese)	Michie Tomizawa
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Fictional profile
Birthplace	Vigoor
Weapon	Inferno Hammer, Type 666 Heavy Machine Gun (Sigma 2)
Weapon name	Inferno Hammer, Type 666 Heavy Machine Gun (Sigma 2)
Occupation	Fiend hunter

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Rachel (レイチェル, Reicheru) is fictional character from the Ninja Gaiden series of video games by Team Ninja and Tecmo, introduced in Ninja Gaiden in 2004, where she is a sidekick type non-playable character. Rachel is playable in Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, as well as in Musou Orochi 2 Special and Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate.

Appearances

Koei Tecmo's official cosplay of Rachel and Momiji in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 at the E3 2009

Rachel is a fiend hunter whom the protagonist Ryu Hayabusa meets in the Holy Vigoor Empire, where she is on a mission to destroy the fiends, as well as find her missing sister, Alma, who has become a Greater Fiend. Rachel wields the Great Hammer, a powerful weapon designed to eliminate fiends.

In Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate, her first fighting game appearance, Rachel is a heayweight power-type fighter of a weight class is similar to that of Leon's and her fighting style is reminiscent of Spartan-458's in Dead or Alive 4.

Rachel also appears in Musou Orochi 2 Special and in the smart phone action card game Hyakuman-nin no Ninja Gaiden. A 1/6 scale PVC figure of Rachel was released by Kotobukiya in 2006.

Reception

Ooh Rachel. She has a bad-ass attitude, fights with a giant war hammer and has immense breasts that wiggle as she kicks demons in the face. Our dream girl.

CVG in 2012

Rachel was mostly very well received and included on many lists of the sexiest female characters in video games. As such, she topped the countdown of "gamer babes" by GameTrailers in 2007, ranked third on the list of top "video game chicks" by ActionTrip that same year, and was included among the top nine "video game vixens" by Maxim in 2009. She was ranked as the 23rd "hottest game babe" by GameDaily in 2008, showcased among some of the sexiest "babes of computer games" by Fakt in 2009, and chosen as the 11th "hottest" video game character by Larry Hester of Complex in 2012. MSN had her featured in their 2008 lists of "the best-looking game characters with perfect figures" and most remarkable heroines in video games.

GamesRadar's Ben Schroder predicted that "buxom femme fatale Rachel" would be "perhaps the biggest selling point" of Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Eurogamer's Rob Fahey opined that Rachel's mission in Sigma were so interesting that they addition is "arguably the biggest headline feature after the graphical upgrades." Gavin Ogden of Computer and Video Games also agreed with this sentiment, calling her "one of the biggest draws to Sigma for those who hammered the Xbox version to death," including himself, and praising Rachel for her gameplay traits; their very positive (9/10) review stated that in the headline the "sweet" addition of Rachel "brought sexy back to the hardest ninja game ever." In a similarly rave (also 9/10) review by GameSpot, Kevin VanOrd wrote "the biggest addition is that Rachel is a new playable character. She's a badass buxom babe who ... may be top-heavy, but she still manages a good number of terrific moves." In their 8.5/10 review, PSU.com too stated that "the biggest addition in Sigma is the ability to play as Rachel herself," adding that "despite the gameplay with Rachel being a tad stark, watching her gracefully end an enemy’s life is more than satisfying." Less impressed with Rachel, but not the game overall (a nearly-perfect review score of 9.3), Chris Roper of IGN opined her levels were "a decent addition, but they're not fantastic" as "she's not as fun as Ryu;" reviewing Sigma Plus (8/10), IGN's Jack DeVries likewise called her "a fun, though less exciting, foil to Ryu."

GameSpot's VanOrd wrote the "heroine Rachel (the buxom beauty from Ninja Gaiden Sigma) ... is so impossibly curvaceous that it is a wonder she can stand upright, let alone wield her heavy hammer with such aplomb." PLAY ranked her as sixth top "hottest" blonde in games in 2010 and UGO.com ranked her as one of the top 25 "hot ninja girls" in all media in 2011. Her bust was chosen by GamesRadar UK as one of 2007's best of the year and placed at the 17th and seventh place 2011's lists of top breasts in video game history compiled by GameFront and Joystick Division, respectively. Winda Benedetti of NBC News's InGame included her outfit among the five most preposterous getups in games, commenting that it might not be a practical costume to wear even for a magical battle against demons. Calling Ninja Gaiden the "whoriest game in history" while ranking it as the fourth best game of 2004, Eurogamer staff wrote they did not even mean how "Rachel dripping in beastie-ooze is one of the least PC sights of the year." GamesRadar chose her as one of defining characters of the post-2004 Ninja Gaiden games, and later also used listed her alongside Lara Croft and Tekken's Nina and Anna as "top-heavy examples" and her image to illustrate "the average bust size is EE" in the article about "10 lies games tell us about women". Samir Torres of VentureBeat noted that "Team Ninja sexualy exploits all of their female characters, yet Rachel somehow got axed from every modern Ninja Gaiden box art."

References

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