Xianghua is one of my favorite characters in the Soul Calibur series. Even though I do not really have a strong love for Chinese history or their swords, she definitely carries a certain coolness about her.

Her jian sword is very unique and she has a distinctly elegant style when she is using it. Namco manages to make it appear like an art form rather than a brutal technique in martial arts.

And I like the flow of her movements, almost like a dance, and it makes her a very difficult character to play against. My stepdaughter Lily actually used her against me on her first try and beat me simply because I had a hard time reading what she was going to do next.

Luckily she is not one of those characters that always defeats me but I am bad at using them, such as M. Bison from Street Fighter 2.

She is not my top pick but I would say she is in the top eight. And it is also pretty cool that she is often canonically one of the wielders of the Soul Calibur sword.