Okay, who doesn’t remember this awesome button masher that was right up there with fellow hack ‘n’ slashers Tekken? If you said aye, then you haven’t lived until you’ve gone all berserker with the all-powerful necromancer Nightmare, and unleashed all hell on your opponent!
Yes, it’s SoulCalibur, the brilliant weapon-based fighting game brought to you by Bandai Namco, and they’re announcing some pretty interesting additions in the sixth edition of the game that’s set for an October 19th release on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
What is the Soul series?
For the unfortunate few who have not (yet) had the pleasure of being acquainted with the arcade game, Soul Edge, this might come in handy.
The Soul series set in a reimagined 16th century world, follows two swords: the evil Soul Edge, corrupted by years of spilling blood on the battlefield, and its twin, Soul Calibur, that possesses the power to put an end to the evil spread by her tainted counterpart.
Only the valiant King Algol could wield Soul Edge without being possessed by the evil spirit within, however, through a series of twists and turns, it ends up falling into the hands of lesser men, most notably a Spanish pirate who goes by the name Cervantes de Leon, or just Cervantes, and a tussle between good and evil to restore balance ensues.
Or, it’s a kick-ass game with some of the coolest characters to ever hit consoles, featuring a stellar cast of badass characters, and some fan favourites from other franchises, including Master Yoda and Spawn. Your call.
Soul Customization
And so it is, after five main instalments of the hit video game series, Namco have decided to do something a little different for the sixth. During Gamescon 2018, the company revealed that the latest release will include a second story mode, adeptly called Libra of Souls.
Essentially, players will be able to create their own custom character, and guide him or her through a single-player campaign. There are 16 different races to choose from, and a number of customizable options from body type to facial features, as well as fighting style, armor and weapon. Basically, they’re memojing the crap outta the series, although being able to choose fighting style and weapon might be interesting.
So you’ve got your custom character, what next? A bout of nostalgia (pun kinda intended), as your character will be put through the test against an evil mastermind whose soul (deliberate) mission is to gather Soul Edge shards. And this is where you get a blast from the past.
Along the way, your character will rub elbows with some familiar faces from Chronicles of Souls, which takes us way back to the beginning of the SoulCalibur franchise as you get to experience the events of the first game, but with your very own personalized character.
Tira returns
Okay, existing fans of the game may be more excited about this than newcomers, but Namco also released a brand new gameplay trailer, featuring DLC fighter Tira.
Just a little recap. Tira made her Soul debut in SoulCalibur 3, and has since become integral to the Soul plot, making appearances in both SoulCalibur4 and 5. She is an interesting character, because her fighting style basically changes with her personality traits, of which she has two: Gloomy and Jolly.
When she’s Gloomy, her attacks become more powerful, but at the expense of her own health. With some of her moves, you can actually spontaneously switch between moods, but in other instances, she decides for herself, and sometimes Gloomy may be brought on after being struck by certain attacks. Kinda like a weird defense strategy, I suppose.
Whatever it is, it’s a neat little quirk that fans can now look forward to again in SoulCalibur 6, or at least that’s what we can gather from the trailer, although Namco hasn’t given a definitive verdict on this yet.
In case you missed it
Here’s the trailer released at Gamescom 2018, and might I say, it looks dope.
