handed to the Galactic Empire, the Emperor demands
drastic measures for a swift retribution against the
Rebel Alliance.
The Emperor calls upon the services of a mysterious
young woman, Arden Lyn, wise in the ways of an ancient
and almost forgotten fighting art known as Teräs Käsi.
Under the watchful eye of Darth Vader, Arden Lyn
is assigned the duty of eliminating key members
of the Rebel Alliance and thus neutralizing the
thorn in the Empire's side. But the Alliance hears
of this threat and they prepare for battle...
Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi is a Star Wars Legends fighting game developed and published by LucasArts, which released for the PlayStation in 1997.
Taking place in-between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, the Emperor seeks retaliation for the destruction of the Death Star and recruits the mysterious Arden Lyn (seen standing behind Luke on the game's cover) to battle in the art of Teräs Käsi, an unarmed combat discipline, against leaders of the Rebel Alliance. The game features Legends-exclusive characters, including the Emperor's hand-turned Jedi, Mara Jade.
There are 13 characters to choose from, small for a fighting game's roster, but they include perennial favorites such as Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Princess Leia, and Hoar.
Tropes
- Action Girl: All of the female fighters qualify naturally, but Mara Jade is in-universe quite prolific in fights. Arden Lyn-a very minor Legends character-was created for this sort of role.
- Adaptational Badass: Princess Leia in her Slave Bikini outfit (Mind you, already badass in the film for choking out Jabba).
- Badass Normal: Any of the characters without Force powers, but of note is
Hoar, a Tusken Raider; Thok, a Gamorrean guard; and a generic Stormtrooper, who all have just as much of a chance to take out other characters as anyone else. - Canon Foreigner: Arden Lyn and Hoar were created for the game.
- Canon Immigrant: The martial art of Teräs Käsi would later appear in the new Disney canon, and Qi'ra even namedrops it in Solo.
- Excuse Plot: Or very nearly one: The Emperor sends his best agent (and other forces) to seek out the rebels and... fight them in hand-to-hand combat.
- Final Boss: Darth Vader - who else? If you play as Vader, it becomes Mara Jade instead.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: "Teräs Käsi" refers to a martial art used in the game; both words have been borrowed from Finnish and they literally mean "steel hand". The way it's written, however, is grammatically incorrect; the words should be written together as a compound word, "Teräskäsi", not separately.
- Impossibly Cool Weapon: Lightsabers, even if —for ostensible balancing reasons— they work like glorified baseball bats in this game.
- Motion Capture: This was used to animate all of the characters.
- Moveset Clone: Beating the game with Han Solo unlocks a playable Stormtrooper, however, with the same moves as Han.
- Nerf: Understandably, lightsabers don't cut off limbs or bisect foes in one strike like they do in the films in order to keep the game challenging.
- Promoted to Playable: Very few other games can boast having a playable Tusken Raider or a Gamorrean guard! So, the game's got that going for it.
- Real-Time Weapon Change: Each character can either fight bare-handed or draw a weapon. The majority use melee implements, but a few draw blasters.
- Recycled In Space: The game's combat and graphics make it a poor man's Tekken 3, but in a galaxy far, far away.
- Ring Out: A common feature of every stage
- Secret Character: By completing the game on Jedi difficulty with certain characters, players could unlock Darth Vader, slave-outfit Leia, a Stormtrooper, Mara Jade, or Jodo Kast.
- Shout-Out: Leia's slave outfit puts her HUD name as "Princess Leia!", like the similarly fanservicey "Sophitia!" from Soul Blade.
- Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: This was the attempted angle when the game first came out, however its low roster count, untested genre insertion for Star Wars characters (Darth Vader eventually made his way to another fighting game where he fared much better in combat and critical acclaim), and lackluster hardware (this was the first Playstation game made by LucasArts and it shows) made the whole concept fizzle out.
- A Winner Is You: Except for maybe Luke, none of the characters' endings really give any kind of closure, just being an FMV of them doing something. The unlockable fighters don't even get that, just getting some text on the screen.
