Oboro Bishamon is a secret character from the Darkstalkers series of fighting games. He first appeared in Vampire Savior as a special encounter after Jedah, if certain conditions are met. He becomes a regular playable character in Vampire Hunter 2, Vampire Savior 2, and console releases of Vampire Savior/Darkstalkers 3.
Biography[]
Oboro Bishamon is Bishamon himself in total control of Hannya and Kien, instead of Bishamon becoming a puppet to their powers. Because of this, he does not have the burning souls surrounding him, and he undergoes transformation every battle to use those powers at will.
It is revealed in his ending that he returned to Makai to prevent the evil armor from causing yet more harm. However, it seems the armor and sword has already gained sentience and are merely biding time for another willing host after Bishamon seals the armor in the Dark Realm.
Appearance[]
Oboro Bishamon can be accessed from the Short Cut mode as a Select button variant playable character (as can all of the above with the exception of Shadow and Marionette) or fought in the Arcade Mode under set conditions. His sprite is essentially the same as Bishamon, although the color is different, he has no burning souls beside him, and some moves have been changed, while gaining totally new moves.
Trivia[]
- He is known as "Shin Bishamon" in Japan, which was originally his name in Darkstalkers 3, but it was changed to "Oboro" in Vampire Hunter 2 and Vampire Savior 2.
- The word “Oboro” means haziness, dreaminess or gloom in Japanese, reflecting the real Bishamon's current state of mind.
- This is likely in reference to Shin Akuma as both Bishamon and Akuma have oni related themes. Aside from both localized names for Akuma translating to demon or evil, he would later get a form called Oni and Bishamon is possessed by an armor named Hannya and in folklore hannya and oni are often seen as male and female equivalents of each other.
- Oboro Bishamon's other name is "Priest Bishamon", which is his name known in some parts of Europe, reflecting the fact he's an ascetic monk in atonement for his deeds.
- Some of his sprites are different from or similar to the regular Bishamon. The animations are slightly different specifically around the arm movement. He also has unique poses not found in the original Bishamon.
- Oboro Bishamon's boss color does not show on the Vs and the Winning portrait (it only shows up as regular color-Low Punch) but only when fighting.
- His winning theme, for some reason, exists in the game, but is not used in the arcade version of Vampire Savior, Vampire Hunter 2, and Vampire Savior 2. He instead uses the pre-boss fight music of the game he appears in. However, said theme is used in console releases of the aforementioned games.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
