i compare him to Mavado from Deadly Alliance in a lot of ways. The character design is pretty damn good. Costumes are pretty cool, alternates are awesome. storyline is a little weak at first but has promise for the future perhaps. Fighting ability is mixed though. I feel like both characters could have been awesome fighters, but they were given garbage moves. I believe hotaru has a slight edge over mavado in gameplay but both characters lack the depth of others in their kombat techniques. I can still wail on ya with hotaru though, even when I pick him by accident over there by shujinko.