Street Fighter 6’s new Native American challenger reminds me of my favorite fighting game character

I don’t play fighting games as much as I used to, but there was a time when I loved them more than almost anything else. Since I’ve never had the lightning-fast reaction time of an expert fighting game player, I used to practice with my favorite characters constantly. I’d spend hours playing with my favorite characters, repeating combos over and over until I’d committed them to muscle memory.

While I tried a variety of characters, my favorite challenges were usually small, speedy, and adorable. I loved playing as May in Guilty Gear X, and I spent a ridiculous amount of time with Kasumi in Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore. However, no character captured my heart as completely as Talim from Soulcalibur II.

Like most of my favorite fighters, Talim is much more powerful than she appeared to be. Standing at just 4'8", she’s incredibly tiny, which makes it easy for her to dodge enemy attacks. Taki is technically the fastest character in Soulcalibur II, but Talim feels faster, and she can outspeed nearly everyone on the game’s roster.

Talim is also equipped with some seriously cool weapons. She fights with tonfa, a set of baton-like weapons that was once used by warriors on the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. I’d never heard of tonfa before, but I wound up buying myself a set to play around with at home. I spent hundreds of hours with Talim in Soulcalibur II, and I racked up even more hours in Soulcalibur III and IV.

I never stopped loving Talim—or Soulcalibur—but the increased demands of my adult life made it harder for me to get in the practice I needed to consistently pull off combos. Eventually, I began to play fighting games less and other genres more. When Talim was left off the roster for Soulcalibur V, I dropped the series for good.

My passion for fighters has faded, but a new character in Street Fighter 6 might be able to reignite those old flames. Her name is Lily, and she’s a member of the Thunderfoot clan, the same fictional tribe that another Street Fighter character, T. Hawk, belongs to. Even though she and Talim are from different fighting game series, the characters feel like they’re cut from the same cloth.

At 5’3”, Lily is a little taller than Talim, but she still appears to be a tiny powerhouse. She has a natural affinity for animals and can speak with the spirits of nature. Like most Street Fighter characters, she spends most of her time fighting, but she also has other passions, like cameras. She might look clumsy at first glance, but she’s clearly a force to be reckoned with.

Lily also fights with some incredible-looking weapons. She uses a set of pogamoggan, which is a type of war club used by many Native American tribes. Thanks to these clubs, Lily can hit enemies hard, and she can also get in ranged attacks. Based on the gameplay footage I’ve seen, it looks like Lily has wind attacks, which is something that Talim uses as well.

I’m not sure I’m ready to go back to all-day fighting game practice sessions, but I can’t wait to play as Lily when Street Fighter 6 comes out this June. Not only does Lily remind me of my beloved Talim, but she helps me remember why I got obsessed with fighting games in the first place. I may be awkward in the real world, but when I play with my favorite fighters, I can transform myself into a deceptively strong warrior.