Cervantes de León is probably the first notable unlockable character in Soul Calibur II. I did not realize it at the time, but he is technically (as a vessel for Inferno) the original final boss of the series and the first vessel of Soul Edge. I assume he is still evil, but in the main storyline he definitely takes a backseat to Nightmare, who is the corrupted Siegfried.

He is also the biological father of Ivy Valentine, and you can definitely see the family resemblance. However, according to the story, she never knew him growing up and was instead raised by an English family called the Valentines.

Cervantes is a Spanish pirate who wields two very unique swords, which is rare for any character in the series. His moveset is actually pretty solid. For an original big bad character, he definitely lives up to his reputation. I remember characters like M. Bison being playable in Street Fighter II and later games, and never coming close to mastering them, especially when facing computer opponents, and Cervantes gave me an opposite feeling.

He is a hard hitting character as well, maybe not quite on the level of Nightmare or Astaroth, but he still packs a punch. At the same time, he has fairly decent mobility and speed.

He is not my favorite character in the game, but he is definitely not a bad one to play as. As a kid, I never got far enough in Soul Edge to face him in his original final boss form, but I can definitely see why he was chosen as the first antagonist of the series, even if he was corrupted by Inferno and the Soul Edge sword.