I swear to god if they replace Amy with Viola AGAIN...
Who do they think they're pleasing? Viola is NOT Amy. They need to get this into their thick skulls. Putting Viola in does NOT satisfy Amy fans, it just punches them in the face. Yes, biologically speaking, she may be the same person, but she has amnesia, ZERO memory of who she is, so she has developed a new personality (albeit with some similarities) and completely changed her fighting style (to one that, whilst interesting, I didn't like and couldn't play), her connections to other characters, etc.
I imagine the fighting style is the only reason to continue doing this because of how popular it is, but in that case, just make them separate characters. Why does one have to replace the other? Amy plays completely differently to Raphael, and Viola is completely unique, so it's not like they need to worry about duplicate styles. Stick Amy in the base roster or Season 1 DLC and stick Viola in Season 2 DLC to space 'em out a bit.
I also picture it like Nightmare/Siegfried. If they can both exist in the same roster under the plot-guise of 'Siegfried broke free and now he and Nightmare are separate' then is it so crazy to have Amy first and then 'oh she gets amnesia and now Viola is a thing' and have them both available? Yeah it's not quite as fitting timeline wise but if they make her DLC then shouldn't matter. Not to mention the difference between Amy and Viola's fighting styles are miles larger than Nightmare/Sieg.
I would say 'save it for Soulcalibur VII' where they could do the Amy-Viola-Raph story more justice and be timeline appropriate, but it sounds like that's not likely going to happen and I'd rather see them botched into SCVI for all prosperity than never exist again. I officially despise Namco for how they've apparently treated Project Soul in SCVI's development. Sounds like Okubo has as much heart as we do but the higher ups couldn't care less and are practically TRYING to f*ck them over, and that's really soul destroying to know that we COULD have gotten an even bigger and better game had Namco actually given them free reign and a better budget. It's alright sitting there and saying "Oh we don't believe you'll sell well, so here's a crappy budget" but how do you expect them to make a game that WILL sell well if the budget is so low that the roster and stages are the smallest yet and we don't even have 2P costumes? It's a vicious circle. I just hope those in the community who are able to can help keep the franchise alive, and that the team can work within Namco's sh*tty limitations and prove them wrong and that the soul still burns strong. #Cheese.
Rant aside, I do believe that if Cassandra is in Sophitia's story mode (and presumably voice-acted) then Amy will be in Raphael's since his entire story revolves around her. It's better than nothing and I hope they do it justice. I hope CAS is powerful enough to make a decent Amy with Raph's style like I had to in SCV. Heck it'd be awesome if they had Bonus Character CAS's like in III with Amy's debut and you could play as her for a battle in his story or something.
