Fiery Souls

Fiery Souls is a Japanese action-thriller fighting video game series, being developed and published by (from 1995 until 1999) and Square Enix (since 2004) since October 15th, 1995.

Synopsis
The series follows the martial artist, Kyoko Shimura and her involvement in the recurring tournament of the Fiery Souls tournament.

First game
A rich billionaire, Lucian DeCarlo, forms the Fiery Souls tournament to gather the strongest fighters in the world as a young martial artist joins and gets involved with DeCarlo's true reasons why he formed the tournament.

Fiery Souls 2
Set a year after the first tournament, Lucian DeCarlo mysteriously announces a second Fiery Souls tournament as Kyoko joins the tournament to defeat Lucian for good.

Fiery Souls 3
A year after Lucian's death, his father, Giovanni, heralding him and Angel as failures, resurrects the Fiery Souls tournament, now wanting to do it specifically so he can get the chance to kill Kyoko, seeing her as the ultimate challenge.

Fiery Souls 4: Five Years Later
Set five years after the last Fiery Souls tournament, a mysterious figure calling herself Mary hosts a new version of the Fiery Souls tournament as several figures join the tournament, including the daughter of Lucian DeCarlo who joined the tournament after learning of her lineage and gaining a strange urge to fight.

Mainline

 * 1) Fiery Souls (1995)
 * 2) Fiery Souls 2 (1997)
 * 3) Fiery Souls 3 (1999)
 * 4) Fiery Souls 4: Five Years Later (2004)
 * 5) TBD (2007)

Spin-offs

 * TBD
 * TBD

Playable
Notes:
 * 1 = character returns in Fiery Souls 3.
 * 2 = character returns in Fiery Souls 4: Five Years Later.

Introduced in the first game

 * Kyoko Shimura1, 2 (voiced by [basically shonen protagonist energy] since Five Years Later) - a bubbly and energetic young martial artist who has been training and wants to get stronger and stronger, joining the initial Fiery Souls tournament, having the ability to generate electricity with her fast and rapid strikes. Five years after beating the DeCarlos, she continued training although she begun to believe she needs a bigger challenge, joining the new Fiery Soul tournament to find a protégée.
 * Lionel Girault1, 2 (voiced by [youngster charming] since Five Years Later) - a cocky and egotistical Frenchman who was born into nobility and due to that has a superiority complex, having trained in Jeet Kune Do once but no longer training due to his complex, joining the Fiery Souls to prove his superiority. After losing to Kyoko, he grows obsessed with beating the one person who beat him, actually training to fight her again. Five years later, he somewhat mellowed out, although he still has a rivalry with Kyoko, yet it is slightly more romantic.
 * Daniel "Danny" Creed1 (voiced by TBD since TBD) - a friendly yet noble movie star and martial artist who was convinced by his agent to join the tournament, as despite being famous, he has a noble heart. He ended up marrying Marina Quintana, deciding to focus on a final batch of action movies before retiring to be a father, not joining the tournament due to this reason.
 * Marcos Peña2 (voiced by TBD since Five Years Later) - a stoic Mexican judo champ who despite his stoic nature absolutely loves teaching children as after he hit rough times, joined the Fiery Souls tournament to get money to create a teaching school.
 * Zhuan Jiang1, 2 (voiced by TBD since Five Years Later) - a bubbly and ditzy Chinese waitress who can surprisingly use her ditziness as a weapon as she joins the Fiery Souls tournament to get the money to achieve her dream of owning her own restaurant.
 * Aleskei Dreykovich (voiced by TBD since TBD) - a Russian boxer known for his brutally hard hits as he joins the Fiery Souls tournament to get more experience in fighting as he is apparently a massive softie, loving cute animals and sad movies.
 * Marcy Law/Unknown1, 2 (voiced by TBD since Five Years Later) - a British teenager whose father worked for DeCarlo and was killed as she took the mantle of the masked vigilante known as Unknown, joining the Fiery Souls tournament to take down DeCarlo. After the second tournament, she retired from being Unknown to focus on studies although she is forced into the third tournament due to learning of a copycat Unknown. Five years later, she graduated from college and became a member of the Interpol, being sent to investigate the sudden resurgence of the Fiery Souls tournament.
 * Fox1 (voiced by TBD since TBD) - a near feral fighter who resides in the forests of Africa and attacks with claw strikes as he joins the Fiery Souls tournament to find someone to fight, loving the thrill of combat.
 * Angel DeCarlo - Lucian's sadistic and fight-loving younger sister who is a brutal fighter, focusing on punishing her opponents as she is the final fight of the official tournament before her brother reveals his hypno tech. She ends up being killed by her own brother for failing to enslave the "new champ". She is an unplayable sub-boss but becomes unlockable in the home console ports.
 * Lucian DeCarlo - the rich yet maniacal CEO of DeCarlo Innovations who believes that the world has been fighting each other and that the only way to bring true world peace is by enslaving it, gathering the world's greatest fighters in order to enslave them and use them as his generals in "uniting the world". His schemes end up being thwarted by Kyoko as he created a second version of the Fiery Souls tournament to get revenge on his humiliating defeat as well as to continue his schemes, ending up dying due to his ambitions. In both the first and second game, he is an unplayable final boss that ends up being unlockable in the home console ports.

Introduced in Fiery Souls 2

 * Linda Crowley/The Black Queen2 (voiced by TBD since Five Years Later) - a heel wrestler known for her strength and loving to toy with her opponents, being invited to the Fiery Soul tournament as she tired her best to keep her intimidating heel persona. Five years later, she ends up becoming the new head of the Worldwide Wrestling Organization as she joins the new Fiery Soul Tournament to find new talent.
 * Marina Quintana1, 2 (voiced by TBD since Five Years Later) - an upbeat Brazilian capoeira fighter who absolutely loves the wildlife in Brazil and wants to save the rainforest, joining the new Fiery Souls tournament to gain enough money to hopefully stall the destruction of the rainforest. She ends up meeting and falling in love with Danny Creed, eventually marrying him during the five year time jump, rejoining the fourth tournament to get some extra funds for a potential baby.
 * Brody MacGorman (voiced by TBD since TBD) - an Irish bartender who owns a pub as he becomes strong while drunk, joining the new Fiery Souls tournament to make his pub even better.
 * Jinx1, 2 (voiced by TBD since Five Years Later) - a mysterious Canadian assassin known for her claim to be always lucky as she joins the Fiery Souls tournament to train her abilities.
 * The Count (voiced by TBD since TBD) - a cocky yet mysterious noble who is a surprisingly skilled fighter, joining the tournament for an unknown reason.
 * Lars Asper2 (voiced by TBD since Five Years Later) - a strong yet naive Norwegian bodybuilder who is built like a tank and really likes the thrill of getting stronger.
 * Mumina al-Khalil1 (voiced by TBD since TBD) - a Muslim scientist who worked for DeCarlo Innovations before being left for dead as she joins the tournament for vengeance.
 * Santiago Mallén1 (voiced by TBD since TBD) - a Casanova matador from Spain known for absolutely loving women as he joins the tournament to see the wonders of the world.
 * Dharya Nayar1, 2 (voiced by TBD since Five Years Later) - an Indian wanderer who has gained an unstoppable bloodlust, having slaughtered his home village, being found and forced by Lucian to be his new champion. During the third tournament, he was recruited by Giovanni to be his champion, growing even more addicted to the bloodlust. He was an unplayable sub-boss who gets unlockable in the home console port, having a similar role in the third game as that game's sub-boss.

Introduced in Fiery Souls 3

 * Evan Hill/Unknown II (voiced by TBD since TBD) - a sociopathic college student who learned of Unknown and their goal to take down DeCarlo Innovations, taking the alias of Unknown and becoming far more brutal and wants to rid the world of corruption, joining the tournament to kill Giovanni.
 * Theresa Krauser (voiced by TBD since TBD) - a tomboyish German biker known for her code of honor and surprising amount of strength, joining the tournament to prove herself.
 * Lavender Blaze2 (voiced by TBD since Five Years Later) - a giddy fortune teller who has begun to see terrifying visions of death and destruction coming from the Fiery Souls tournament as she enrolls to try and stop her visions.
 * Jason Partridge (voiced by TBD since TBD) - an aging Australian veteran whose family was killed by Dharya while he was on the run after the second Fiery Souls tournament, joining the third one to take revenge on the man who killed his family.
 * Polka-Dots (voiced by TBD since TBD) - a goofy clown martial artist whose circus is starting to decline in attendees as he joins the Fiery Souls tournament to hopefully get more people to see his circus.
 * Lateef Kuiper2 (voiced by TBD since Five Years Later) - a South African football star turned sportscaster who was given the chance to participate in the tournament, actively looking forward to a challenge.
 * Emiko Kawasaki2 (voiced by TBD since Five Years Later) - a bubbly and giddy yet somewhat childish idol who is famous all over Japan as her manager, wanting her to try new things, signs her up for the tournament.
 * Qiu Chun2 (voiced by TBD since Five Years Later) - a stoic Muay Thai champion known for being extremely cold and dangerous, as he joins the tournament for the thrill of battle.
 * Red River2 (voiced by TBD since Five Years Later) - a Native American who was trained to fight for honor for her tribe as she believes fighting is the only way to bring peace, joining the tournament to gain cash to help her tribe.
 * Claudia Robinue2 (voiced by TBD since Five Years Later) - an eccentric French fashion designer who is also a skilled taekwondo fighter, joining the tournament to try and find new inspiration for fashion.
 * Giovanni DeCarlo - Lucian's terrifying and hulking father who has taken control of DeCarlo Innovations and created the next Fiery Souls tournament for the sole purpose of being able to fight the woman who took down his son. After being defeated, he ends up allowing himself to be killed, enjoying the fact he had one last thrill before his demise. He is the final boss of the game being unlockable in the home console port.

Introduced in Five Years Later

 * Francine DeCarlo (voiced by TBD) - the shy and anxious daughter of Lucian DeCarlo who wants nothing to do with her father's legacy as she was forced into the tournament due to some urge to fight, soon learning that she is infected by the same bloodlust that turned Dharya into a monster, finding Kyoko and starting to train under her.
 * Vishnu Nayar/Unknown III (voiced by TBD) - a young man who claims to be from the future and that he needs to win the tournament or something terrible will happen, taking the identity of Unknown to hide who he actually is. It is eventually revealed he is the son of Dharya and a woman he raped as he absolutely despises the monster his father is.
 * Kenji Sakai (voiced by TBD) - TBD
 * [female]
 * TBD
 * TBD
 * TBD
 * TBD
 * TBD
 * TBD
 * Paloma DeCarlo (voiced by TBD) - Francine's mother who was once a kind-hearted individual as she was captured and brainwashed by Mary into becoming "the mastermind" of the tournament and a pawn in freeing Abyss. She is the game's sub-boss and unlockable.
 * Angel II/Mary (voiced by TBD) - the person who formed the tournament who seems to be an assistant to Paloma as it is revealed she is a clone of the deceased Angel DeCarlo with new memories as she formed the tournament to free an ancient dark god known as the Abyss. She is the game's boss who is unlockable.

Gameplay
The games play as a 2D fighter as every character has a light, medium and heavy attack as well as a grab button. Each match is two rounds as there is a super bar with three bars. Initially there are three ways to spend the bar which all cost one bar: a super move, an unlockable dash attack where you rush at your opponent and do a devastating attack: called a Fury Assault and a move where you can break away an opponent from a combo known as a Guard Shatter.