Darli Dagger

First Appearance: Samurai Shodown (2019)

Brief biography

A shipwright who has mastered the use of various tools. She washed ashore an island at an early age, where carpenters taught her how to make things and pirates taught her how to protect herself and survive. She is currently building a ship said to be unsinkable with her comrades at the island’s workshop.

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Background

Originally, the team had intended for a feudal Japanese firefighter character, Hikeshi, to join the roster, but the team couldn’t get the concept to work. Nobuyuki Kuroki says, “Although that original concept had an interesting visual design, we felt it was a bit too difficult to convey the nuances of the design to a global audience.”

Instead, Kuroki and his team came up with the idea of a carpenter who wielded a giant saw blade as a weapon. “Giving a large saw to a muscular male character didn’t feel distinct enough, which is why we decided to make the character a powerful and strong-willed female with African roots, a region not usually represented in the Samurai Shodown series.” With these details in mind, character designer Yumi Saji came up with Darli, leader of an all-woman group of carpenters.