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Maxi is the young
leader of a carefree crew of pirates from
Shuri in the Ryūkyū Kingdom (present-day Okinawa). Maxi can turn
any battle to his advantage by using his six ever-changing stances to confuse
the enemy and attack blows to throw off the enemy's attack timing. He uses
the nunchaku with the fighting style of Shissen Karihadi.
Maxi's father was a confident merchant of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, but he
wasn't allowed to commerce to the foreign countries, forced to commerce with his
country only. Maxi spent most of his first years traveling from harbor to harbor
with his father. He also learned to use the nunchaku as a way to defend himself,
eventually turning into a strong youth. During one of his father's travels, he
met a man from Ming known as Zhang Wu. The man carried a bladed nunchaku, which
Maxi noticed. He, full of pride, challenged the stranger to a fight. Not hearing
Kyam (his sworn brother)'s pleas, Maxi faced the man and was defeated.
Recognizing the world was wider than he thought, he asked the man to be his
teacher for the remainder of the travel. The man agreed and as time passed Maxi
studied his style, and despite being different from his, he was able to further
improve his abilities. Li Long left after reaching the port, but Maxi kept
studying his work.
After his father's
death, Maxi took his vessel and decided to turn into a freelance pirate, to see
the world his father couldn't because of his ties to the country. He embarked
with the crew, his "new family", and Kyam and sailed towards the west.
They docked on an Indian Port town and, while Maxi was out, Kilik
approached the ship searching a way to go west. He argued with a pirate of the
ship, who wanted Dvapara-Yuga as fee for the trip, until Kyam stepped in. Kyam
sympathized with Kilik and let him stay until Maxi, the captain, would return.
But when Maxi returned,
he found his ship under attack by a hoard of golems and lizard-like creatures
led by Astaroth. With
Kilik, both joined forces in the battle against the monsters. Eventually, they
had repelled the golems, but not before Astaroth had temporarily snatched the
holy mirror Dvapara-Yuga from Kilik, causing him to lose his sanity and savagely
attack Maxi. Maxi was able to suppress Kilik and return the Dvapara-Yuga to him,
but only after Maxi's sworn brother, Kyam, had been murdered and most of the
other members of the crew were dead or missing. With his dying words, Kyam told
Maxi of Kilik's quest and, having lost everything, Maxi decided to travel with
him, swearing an oath of revenge against Astaroth. Eventually, the two met Xianghua,
a member of the Ming Dynasty Imperial Guard, who also aided them in their
travels.
With Kilik and
Xianghua's help, Maxi stormed Ostrheinsburg Castle, where the creatures that had
killed Maxi's crew were waiting for them. After defeating the creatures,
Astaroth presented himself and blocked the entrance to the castle. As Kilik and
Xianghua ran past Astaroth, Maxi stayed behind to fight him to the death. He
succeeded in killing Astaroth, but the god of war Ares, in bitter rage,
commanded the ground to open up and swallow Maxi. When Maxi woke up, he was on a
riverbed near an unfamiliar village, where an old man rescued him. Due to the
severity of his wounds, Maxi's traveling days were over, and he stayed behind in
the village, quickly becoming popular with the local residents. Four peaceful
years passed, until a rumor of a horrendous creature wielding a large bearded
axe reached the village. Maxi had a horrible feeling that that man was Astaroth.
He wanted to chase after him, but his body was too weak. Maxi went to see the
village medicine man, who performed a secret ritual using a strange metal
fragment, which was actually a fragment of Soul Edge, and several days later,
Maxi left the village, promising to return some day. He did not realize,
however, that all memory of his traveling companions had been lost as a result
of the ritual.
Maxi's search for
Astaroth led him to the ruins of the shrine where the golem had been created.
While inspecting the ruins, he found a man in tattered clothing at the ruins,
clutching something and muttering incoherently. This man was Kunpaetku -
Astaroth's creator, who had managed to escape the shrine's destruction at the
last minute. Kunpaetku mostly ignored Maxi until he asked him about Astaroth.
Kunpaetku cursed Astaroth, calling him a failure. It was then that Maxi realized
that Kunpaetku created him.
A strange urge to kill
Kunpaetku began rising within Maxi. As he drew his weapon, the object in
Kunpaetk's hand, a fragment of Soul Edge, began to glow with a faint red light.
Kunpaetku then looked at Maxi madly, noticing that he had Soul Edge inside his
body. Upon hearing this, Maxi killed Kunpaetku and kicked the fragment of Soul
Edge into the ruins below. He felt an uneasy throbbing in his heart, born from
his desire to kill Kunpaetku. Maxi then suddenly remembered a man who became
lost to evil after having lost everything, and how he suffered after returning
to his senses. But Maxi couldn't remember who this person was, no matter how
hard he tried. Despite this, he decided to continue his search for Astaroth.
During his travels, Maxi
visited the Indian Port to pay homage to his fallen comrades. There, he reunited
with Kilik and Xianghua, and he even regained his memories of them. But he could
not travel with them because he had a fragment of Soul Edge within his body, and
Kilik had a piece of the Dvapara-Yuga. So he forced himself to leave his friends
behind. As Maxi took shelter from a storm in the woods, he was approached by Tira.
She told him that she knew of Astaroth, and that he was getting stronger. Maxi
was no match to the golem with the conditions he is in right now. Then Tira
informs Maxi that the only way for him to kill Astaroth is to obtain Soul Edge.
Before leaving him, Tira tells Maxi that both the evil sword and his revenge
were waiting for him in Ostrheinsburg.
By this time, the storm
had stopped, but the dark clouds were still lingering in the sky. Maxi noticed
that even the forest was even darker now. But he convinced himself that he must
brave the darkness. Every time he took a step, there was such great pain, but he
could not stop himself. Maxi must obtain the evil sword and destroy the Black
Giant.
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Page Updated: June 8th, 2021
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Maxi proved to be a
great successor to Soul Edge's Li
Long, debuting in Soul Calibur with one of the most fluid and
well-animated martial arts fighting styles ever seen in a video game, period. Namco did
a brilliant job on Maxi's nunchaku style - which simply "became the
character". In
addition to his awesome and authentic nunchaku techniques, Maxi's got
plenty of charisma to boot. Waaataaah! Maxi
is sort of a cross between Bruce Lee and Elvis Presley, which actually makes him
pretty damn cool.
Maxi is understandably a popular character for beginner Soul Calibur
players, since mashing buttons can lead to some diverse and cool-looking combo
strings. However, "mashing buttons" with Maxi doesn't work
against real players, and Maxi indubitably looks best when controlled by a
skilled player. I'm surprised
Maxi didn't age much over all these years, even in SC5... 17 years later and you look the same?
Apparently, he's a healthy fellow... props
to you Maxi. My goal is to look the same at 40 too, lol. ;)
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Style / Moveset |
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| Personality
/ Charisma |
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| Outfit(s)
/ Appearance |
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| Effectiveness
in series |
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| Overall
Score |
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