Voldo (Japanese: ヴォルド, Hepburn: Vorudo) is a character in the Soulcalibur series of video games. Created by Namco's Project Soul division, he first appeared in Soul Edge, and later in all games of the Soulcalibur series with the exception of Soulcalibur Legends. Servant to a long-dead weapons merchant, Voldo guards his treasure vault, attacking intruders while occasionally wandering out in search of a cursed sword named Soul Edge. Designed by Aya Takemura and Takuji Kawano around his dual hand katars, Voldo went through several designs, and in the early design phases was called "Psycho Murder". Having no spoken dialogue and instead strictly moaning or hissing deeply while fighting an opponent, his high mobility and flexibility influenced his outfits throughout the series, with several designed to take advantage of his unique traits. Voldo is considered one of the most prominent characters in the series as well as one of its mainstays, his likeness having been used for merchandise and promotional material related to the series. Animated by Naotake Hirata utilizing a mix of handmade animation and motion capture, his movements coupled with his appearance have led him to be described as one of the most horrific and unsettling characters in fighting games. As a whole, Voldo has drawn prominent reactions from both games journalists and scholars, with some of the later describing him as either a positive or negative example of sexuality in gaming.