It’s been five years since a proper SoulCalibur title, and little hints and signs give hope of a new release sometime soon. The PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam–the modern platforms–lack the fabled weapon-based fighter that’s been with Sony’s console for 20 years now. Is Bandai Namco actually going to change that, and if they do, how will they go about it? Let’s look at some of the telling actions of the company, and what can they pull from the past games to improve over its predecessors.
In the middle of 2015, Bandai Namco conducted a SoulCalibur character popularity poll on its Facebook page. Everyone from every installment figured on the list. It’s easy to speculate that the company is doing research to see who fans really like–especially given that SoulCalibur V replaced many old-school characters with younger, slightly tweaked versions.
Come late 2016, a celebration page launched and–although only in Japanese–it provided a retrospective on the series that leads up to the very latest release in its brand, a pachinko slot machine. And, coming up in 2017, far from going off the rails like the disastrous Konami train, Bandai Namco celebrates the game’s music with an Orchestral Memories Concert. These are all signs that the franchise is still alive, somehow, even if there isn’t a main game announcement on the horizon yet.
But if those smoke signals actually mean anything, then Bandai Namco is cooking up SoulCalibur VI for the current generation–as it soon should be done getting its weaponless brother, Bandai Namco’s Tekken 7, out of the way. There’s a big legacy to live up to when it comes to SoulCalibur, as everything is riding on whether the company strikes a balance between appeasing longtime fans and bringing in a new audience. Looking at the past games, each of them have something interesting to offer, although SoulCalibur II universally remains as the most revered.
Soul Edge/Soul Blade
It all started with an amazing opening cinematic, and the nearly cliché line about tales of swords and souls. The 1996 PSOne game stunned with its detailed models, engaging backgrounds, and an impactful combat feel. Play it today, and the movement feels incredibly clunky–but the game established a horizontal/vertical/kick triad that, when coupled with the movement and ring-out system, introduced a formidable amount of strategic depth.
The rich clashing sounds, impressive Critical Edge attacks and Guard Impacts, good music, and memorable cast solidified Soul Blade as a fan-favorite. What stood out around that time is compelling single-player content, particularly for a fighting game. Arcade Mode featured an individual ending for every character, but the unique thing about it is that by pressing specific buttons, players could influence the outcome and get one of two endings. The Edge Master Mode had a narrated storyline, with fighters traversing the world map and beating fights with wacky rules–fighting barehanded, ring-outs only, damage only by throws, and so on. Soul Blade had some great ideas, and unfortunately, not all of them made into the future titles.
I’d like to see similar content return to SoulCalibur VI. Having customizable weapons to unlock breathes some fresh air into local, non-competitive play. I’m a fan of the weapon gauge, though if it doesn’t come back, I won’t mind, because fighting barehanded is a little over-the-top.
SoulCalibur
SoulCalibur truly brought 3D to the series, thanks to 8-way running–a breakthrough, yet simplistic-in-thought movement principle. Hold the stick in the desired direction, and behold. The fighter walks in one of the eight directions, positioning around the ring, and avoiding vertical blows. Revamps to the Guard Impact system made the combat more dynamic, and the graphics impressed, especially on the Dreamcast in 1998. With added input-buffering, SoulCalibur felt much better and smoother to play.
While the game added nine characters, a few of them had movesets largely borrowed from other characters, like Kilik and Lizardman. They also abandoned the custom weapons idea from the first title, but added the Soul Charge technique. All in all, SoulCalibur was a must-have for anyone who owned a Dreamcast.
There’s not much that I would like from here that isn’t in the next title.
SoulCalibur II
This is when the soul truly burned. The triad of platforms, at what some could say was the pinnacle of console wars, had a different edition of the game each with an exclusive character. Spawn, Link, and Heihachi guest-starred on the Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 respectively. Released in 2002, this time the visuals were truly stunning and well-ahead of their time. Namco refined the gameplay of SoulCalibur, creating a title to be played in tournaments for years; especially since this is the one to receive a modern port with HD treatment.
A similar emphasis on single-player content returned with an expansive Weapon Master Mode, which took a page from the original Edge Master Mode. Featuring a bevy of challenging stages, players were able to unlock armaments with various properties for every character. Particularly compelling were the ultimate weapons, whose effects the designers intentionally didn’t reveal–which gave them just a little bit of that legendary mystery.
I’d love to see similar “Ultimate” weapons and the return of this Guard Impact system. SCII just has the right pace and tempo of combat.
SoulCalibur III
Many would agree that this is where the burning soul dwindled. Somehow, the visuals looked worse than its three-year-old predecessor. The smaller character models looked less detailed, and gameplay was riddled with bugs and gimped options, like a significantly worse 8-way run and weaker Guard Impacts. Battle flow changed, as this is the first SoulCalibur with a more robust combo system.
Still, the new characters fit right in with the universe, as Setsuka, Zasalamel, and Tira found themselves battling the original cast and a host of new styles that custom characters used. The Character Creation Mode established new ways to play, and has returned to every game onward. There was also a good attempt at mixing the game with the strategy genre in one of the single-player modes.
I’m into the Just Impact mechanic and the new characters, but I didn’t like how ineffective 8-way run is, and the longer combos. The added variety of custom fighting styles was nice, but it seems like it took needed development time to polish the game.
SoulCalibur IV
The next-generation SoulCalibur graced two platforms this time as opposed to SoulCalibur III, which was a PlayStation 2 exclusive. The fourth installment had Star Wars characters, Darth Vader for the PlayStation 3 and Yoda for Xbox 360 [Not to forget Starkiller, in a move to promote The Force Unleashed games. – Editor]. It’s a bit more on the ridiculous side, but that didn’t help the game much anyway.
Somehow, this iteration just lost that feeling the previous games had. Blows lacked the impact they used to have, making it feel like the fighters swipe at each other with feathers. The customization features expanded, but a bland story compounded with a “meh” combat feel didn’t make this one nearly as memorable as II. Having different armor parts reduced turtling, but leaving your opponent in undergarments just added more to the ridiculousness.
There’s not a lot that I would like from SoulCalibur IV apart from the deep customization mode and the return of the concept of guest characters, though not as outlandish.
SoulCalibur V
It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost five years since the release of the last proper fighter in the series. Although the fighting formula received some tune-ups–advanced Just Guard pushed Guard Impacts out of the way, which in turn utilized a new power meter–the game battled with some controversial decisions that marred its returning glory.
Bandai Namco promised a dramatic, expansive storyline, but due to development constraints, they ended making a botched, basic slideshow, only one-fourth of the volume they intended. Other than Character Creation, there put out hardly any single-player content, which still matters a lot to the general audience. It also didn’t help that a lot of the “classic” characters were replaced or simply missing–you won’t find Talim, Yun-seong, or Zasalamel, and a new generation of fighters took place of the majority of the cast.
SoulCalibur V felt good for the most part, but I would much rather have dynamic, meterless Guard Impacts rather than having to burn meter for them. Just Guard was a little unwieldy to use. As for the power meter, I prefer to just have a Critical Edge associated with it rather than spending it to extend combos. Long combos don’t feel as fun in SoulCalibur. More single-player content and the return of the classic characters obviously would please a lot of fans.
What’s Next?
Namco Bandai needs to reforge its fighter for the modern age, where fighting games are more social than ever thanks to instant sharing from consoles to Twitter, YouTube, and Discord. There needs to be that “meme factor” that drives fans to be excited about the characters and lore again, not just about the fighting or competitive aspects. The hardcore community will always be there, but Bandai Namco needs a bigger market to justify continuing the series.
An esports push would also be welcome, since that’s the bread-and-butter for most triple-A fighting games now. The Soul series has always enjoyed popularity in Europe, particularly France, but other countries certainly can find room for it, should the fans accept the new iteration.
Which characters do you want to come back? Do you prefer the classic or new fighters? And if you could select mechanics across all games, which ones would you like to see in SoulCalibur VI? Let us know in the comments, and let’s hope Bandai Namco is listening.