- "Night has lifted, dawn has come."
- —Rachel in Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate
Rachel is a fiend hunter from the Holy Vigoor Empire who debuted in the 2004 title, Ninja Gaiden, though she made her Dead or Alive debut in the 2013 title, Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate.
Cursed by her demonic fiend heritage, Rachel's life goal is to hunt down and destroy all demons in existence. She met Ryu Hayabusa while on a crusade to slay her own twin sister, whose fiend blood had corrupted her human side. With Hayabusa's aid, she was able to accomplish her heartbreaking goal and the two have been close friends ever since.
History[]
Early life[]
Since birth, Rachel and her twin sister Alma have been afflicted with a blood curse that turns humans into fiends. By the events of Ninja Gaiden, the curse has consumed Alma. Believing there is no cure for their condition, Rachel sought out Alma through much of Ninja Gaiden in order to kill her to redeem her soul.
The Fifth and Sixth Tournaments[]
Rachel's life's purpose is to eradicate fiends. As a half-fiend herself, her beauty belies a dangerous strength. She participated in the Dead or Alive World Combat Championships as an excuse to hone her fiend hunting abilities without the risk of killing her opponents. Although her cool demeanor may not show it, Rachel enjoys going face-to-face against familiar fighters once again.
Character[]
Appearance[]
- See also: Rachel's costumes
Rachel is a tall statuesque woman with fair skin, golden blonde hair, light blue eyes and a curvaceous and buxom figure. She has a number of different styles in Ninja Gaiden, but she primarily wears her hair pulled in a loose updo style ponytail, with some hair wrapped around the remaining hair that falls loosely, her hair is center parted and she has sidelocks that frame her face. She has notably full lips that she adorns with darkish red lipstick.
In Last Round, she is able to wear her waist length hair loose, and in her football outfit given to her in Ultimate as DLC, she can wear a short layered haircut but only in her secondary hair option that has her wear a football helmet. She is usually seen wearing a skin-tight black leather combat suit cut in ways that reveal her skin. She also often wear earrings with her outfits that vary in style depending on if they're her combat oriented Vigoor gear or her more casual outfits.
She wears alot of revealing outfits in-game, including a revealing nurse dress, short-shorts and a crop top that exposes her tattoos, and a more modest blue business jacket and skirt, all with a more mature, edgier style to them to differentiate herself from the other girls who often have more softer styles in comparison.
Personality[]
Rachel is a battle hardened warrior who is determined to hunt down and kill all demons. Though she feels the need to put on a tough face when dealing with people, she is a kind, generous and loyal soul whose only wish is to help people. Her cursed lineage has caused her to become a Fiend Hunter, but she truly fights to protect others. On a similar note, she also attempts to avoid killing any humans short of fiends, as implied by her motives to join the fifth and sixth Dead or Alive tournaments where she participates more to test her hand to hand abilities.
In combat, Rachel is very aggressive and confident in her abilities, telling her opponent she'll make sure they'll regret fighting her. During combat she talks down to her opponent, calling them pathetic, weak, or even yelling for them to die during certain throws. Her confidence is also reflected in her posture and movements, as she will often place one hand on her hip, indicating a relaxed and unfazed attitude. She can be quite patronising towards her human foes, whom she (justifiably) views as weaker than her part-fiend self. In her taunts she shrugs as she asks if they're tired already or remarks that they're "just a human after all..." She will also express disdain for her opponent's strength during certain hi-counter holds.
After a fight she seems somewhat more respectful as she comments "Not too bad", although it's unclear whether she's referring to her opponent's abilities or her own performance. She may also say they're pretty good "for a human" although she clearly doesn't expect too much from humans, with the exception perhaps of the highly trained "super ninja" Ryu Hayabusa (who, like Rachel, is not exactly entirely human). As of Dead or Alive 6, she also sometimes will thank her opponent for a satisfying fight if they are a ninja or if they happen to be a special guest character from a different series, like Mai and Kula, who hail from The King of Fighters. She on occasion also asks if they're stronger than a Fiend.
Etymology[]
Rachel (רחל) is Hebrew in origin, and means "ewe", which is a term used to describe an adult female sheep.
Relationships[]
Ryu Hayabusa[]
Hayabusa and Rachel's relationship was initially complicated due to Rachel's coldness towards Hayabusa, while Hayabusa didn't like Rachel when she was testing him during the Dark Dragon Blade Incident in Ninja Gaiden. Despite their differences and ideals, the two have come to mutual terms, forming a working relationship as well as a close friendship, and slay the evil Fiends together whenever they meet, with Rachel slowly beginning to trust Hayabusa over time because of him rescuing her from enemy capture multiple times while she was on a crusade to slay her own twin sister, who had become evil due to the fiend blood in her veins. Her respect and admiration for Hayabusa can be seen in Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate when she says he's like having the strength of a hundred others. In the 6th entry of the series, her respect still shows, and she even thanks him for a satisfying fight upon emerging the victor.
Ayane[]
Rachel seems to share a working partnership with Ayane since they first met, though they don't share a win tag pose. Rachel calls Ayane's name during the fight.
Momiji[]
Although they have highly contrasting personalities, Rachel and Momiji seem to have a mutual respect for each other, perhaps united by their common aim to protect the innocent. They form working partnerships very often and help each other out on their missions. They have a full tag alliance and seem perfectly in synch with one another, proclaiming "Evil, begone!" together in unison for their tag intro. After a match, Momiji declares that the match goes to them and Rachel voices her approval as they both gaze at each other with respect and admiration for one another.
Gameplay[]
- See also: Rachel's command lists
Rachel's fighting style is an improved version of SPARTAN-458's: she utilizes brawler style attacks, but Rachel doesn't seem to use any formal martial art or style. She has a high damage output, and her throws do very good damage. She can also throw the opponent while they're in the air, causing them to bounce and allowing her to perform longer air combos. Her combos are damaging, but they are short, and relatively easy to hold and counter; her speed is also below average, making her easy to predict, as she lacks many moves, and her combo starters lack many follow up attacks that can confuse the opponents.Still, a lot of her moves are safe on block. She is also a heavy weight character, allowing less juggle options to be performed on her. She also has a special sidestep that can follow up with a launcher or a tracking low kick, and she also has a light ground attack that can force the opponent up while they are on the ground that gives Rachel a slight frame advantage.
Her holds can help her win in extremely tense matches, and since most of them involve hitting the opponent away, they do downright horrific damage when her opponent is near a wall. She is recommended for all skill levels, due to her simplistic combos, high damage output and wide range of safe moves. She overall is a fairly balanced character, with her speed and lack of move mix-ups being her only major disadvantages.
In Dead or Alive 6, Rachel plays mostly the same, with only a few adjustments to her safety on guard and advantage after certain attacks, and she also now has a bound property attack as well as different stun and knock down properties from certain moves. She's also gained an offensive hold that while slow, can be charged and if charged to the max, it'll deal increased damage as well as environmental damage, making it dangerous. She also gained an on hit throw attack from two of her mid punch attacks, and her stomp still forces the opponent up leaving them at a major disadvantage which gives her an edge over the other characters. She still remains an overall solid character and is lethal in the right hands despite her limited moveset and slower speed, as well as lacking a standalone jump attack and a mid kick besides her wake up kick that tracks, limiting her tracking options to mid punches and high attacks. She can best be described as a more grapple oriented striker type character who lacks somewhat in speed, but her safety, damage output and her damaging throws more than make her a threat .
Stats[]
The following are Rachel's official stats as listed in the games.
| Game | Strike | Throw | Hold | Power | Speed | Moves |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate Dead or Alive 5 Last Round |
4/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
Appearances[]
Dead or Alive series[]
- Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate (playable, 2013)
- Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate Arcade (playable, 2013)
- Dead or Alive 5 Last Round (playable, 2015)
- Dead or Alive 6 (playable DLC, 2019)
Non-Dead or Alive appearances[]
Ninja Gaiden series[]
Rachel made her debut as an NPC in Ninja Gaiden (2004) before becoming a playable character in Ninja Gaiden Sigma.
Musou Orochi 2: Special[]
Rachel, along with Seimei Abe, appear in the Japan only Musou Orochi 2 Special, the PSP port of Warriors Orochi 3. She later appeared in the world wide WiiU port of the game, Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper, with series newcomer Momiji and Shennong. Her special stage is New York merged with Jiang Dong.
In popular culture[]
Dead Fantasy[]
Rachel appears in the fan-made CG series Dead Fantasy created by Monty Oum and her main opponent is Rinoa Heartilly from Final Fantasy VIII.
Rachel debuts in Dead Fantasy II as she decides to aid the Dead or Alive girls as they are being overpowered due to the effects of Tifa's Haste. When Rinoa and Kairi arrive to join Yuna, Rikku and Tifa, she along with Kasumi, Ayane and Hitomi faces off against the group. The fight ends when Rinoa creates a portal to transport herself and Rachel to another place that leads on to their fight in Dead Fantasy VII.
In one of the teasers for Dead Fantasy VII Rachel is shown chained up, similar to in Ninja Gaiden, when she was going to be sacrificed to her sister, Alma. Monty Oum died suddenly on February 1, 2015, before completing Dead Fantasy, as he was more focused on RWBY after releasing the preview of Dead Fantasy VIII.
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Rachel in the upcoming remake version
Three years after Oum's death, an animator named Uiyahan created a remake of Oum's Dead Fantasy series as a tribute to him. On his near completion of the remake version of Dead Fantasy I, Uiyahan made a render for Rachel for the upcoming remake version of Dead Fantasy II. Rachel's appearance in the remake remains largely the same due to the definition of its animation graphics, resembling her playable appearances in Dead or Alive 5 and Dead or Alive 6.
Fighting quotes[]
Music themes[]
The following are the music themes used for Rachel throughout the series.
| Theme | Game appearances |
|---|---|
| "El Diablo ~DOA5 Ultimate mix~" | Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate (default theme) Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate Arcade Dead or Alive 5 Last Round (default theme) |
Gallery[]
- See: Rachel gallery
Trivia[]
- Rachel's fighting stance is similar to Sarah Bryant's stance.
- Since SPARTAN-458 couldn't be included in Dead or Alive 5, Rachel was given a similar fighting style.[1]
- Even though she was added to Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate, it is unknown if she participated in the tournament or not. However, her official Last Round website bio implies that she did indeed participate as it mentioned that she loves DOA fights since it allows her to utilize her innate fighting abilities for means other than fiend-hunting.
- Rachel's 2013 Halloween DLC costume from Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate is a reference to her twin sister Alma.
- Prior to her formal debut in Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate, a woman in a red dress was seen interacting with Maria who bore a similar appearance to Rachel in Christie's flashback in Dead or Alive 4.
- The woman can also be seen in Christie's ending for the same game. Itagaki himself confirmed that she was indeed Rachel, and admitted that he added her presence as a joke.[2]
- One of Rachel's win quotes (Night has lifted, dawn has come) originated from Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2.
- Rachel is the second human hybrid in the franchise (the first being Ryu Hayabusa).
- Rachel and Momiji were initially excluded from Dead or Alive 6, with Shimbori stating that his reason for this was because they hailed from Ninja Gaiden. However, both were later added as DLC characters.
- Unlike prior DLC characters in the game, however, they do not appear in story mode.
- Largely because of her hailing from the Ninja Gaiden series prior to her debut in Dead or Alive 5: Ultimate, she is the only fighter to have a fictional nationality (ie, the Holy Vigoor Empire), as all the other fighters have a real-world nationality.
- Her Break Blow is based on her Blades of the Ouroboros ninpo spell from Ninja Gaiden Sigma.
- Rachel, Mila and Nico are the only female fighters that have not appeared in the Xtreme series yet.
- In a Famitsu poll for who people would want to have included in Xtreme Venus Vacation in the leadup to the game's fourht anniversary, Rachel won last place (sixth).[3]
