Soulcalibur VI General Roster Speculation Thread

[Rusted Blade]

So, since we already know who the next two DLC characters are, thanks to the leak. Should we expect Yun-Seong, Setsuka, and Aeon as likely candidates for Season 2? It looks that way since those three were placed rather high on the popularity poll. =/

Well, much of the current page of this thread, and in particular the second half, have already engaged with this question, so that's a good place to start in looking for perspectives regarding your inquiry. But basically I would say that the short list is Lizardman (or more specifically an Aeon style/Lizard man hybrid, but leaning heavily towards the classic build, but with axe and shield), Hwang (or Yun-seong), Li Long and Rock (or another guest character). I make this prediction based on the current pool of untapped early-narrative characters and the fact that the first season was all female; I feel pretty certain Namco/PS didn't do this by accident and that there will be roughly parallel (meaning among other things, all-male) structure to the second season pass. However, it is possible that the second season will map a little more closely to popularity and the benefit of varied styles, with an alternative make-up of Lizardman/Aeon, Hwang (or Yun-Seong), Setsuka, and Hilde (or a guest character). My money is on the former over the latter though.

 

[Heniek]

Yup, a sabre wielder is a pretty blatant gap to my mind as well. I think part of it comes down to demographics; until recently, eastern Europe was not a huge market for publishers and though plenty of weapons utilized in the SC franchise have come from cultures whose modern analogs are not big overseas markets for Namco, most styles reliably play to certain historical tropes (the knight, the samurai) or else more fantastical options. Eastern Europe, Africa, India, and central and southeast Asia (with the obvious exception of Talim) have all gotten short shrift. Anyway, getting back to the sabre, there are some weapons which, in form, are technically sabres for Raphael, Amy, and another of the characters in SCIII:CE, but they use the rapier/epee styles for the moves, of course. I think a dedicated sabre style in the mode of Pan Wołodyjowski with a szabla would be a great addition.

I would main the hell out of Wołodyjowski :D
Also other big offender was lack of a proper longsword user. I mean - we have Geralt and his swords are beautiful but I always wanted to have some more grounded in reality fencer, utilizing several stances (tho Sieg kinda fills that fantasy as well). This is also only a tip of the iceberg of possibilities but most likely they won't be explored since SC is falling into high fantasy more and more

 

[Rusted Blade]

I would main the hell out of Wołodyjowski :D
Also other big offender was lack of a proper longsword user. I mean - we have Geralt and his swords are beautiful but I always wanted to have some more grounded in reality fencer, utilizing several stances (tho Sieg kinda fills that fantasy as well). This is also only a tip of the iceberg of possibilities but most likely they won't be explored since SC is falling into high fantasy more and more

Well, I mean its always been teetering back and forth, right? Especially since III.

Edit: Actually, now that I think about, you're actually right. Although every game from II had at least as many characters that leaned distinctly fantasy as more grounded ones, since IV there haven't really been many new SC IP additions at all that utilize weapons with rough historical analogs, provided you exclude the characters in V who are rough copycats of earlier styles. If you drop Leixia, Natsu, Xiba, and so forth from consideration for this reason, think about everyone who is genuinely new to series from SCIV on: Algol, Hilde, Dampierre, Viola, Zwei (I refuse to spell the dumb name of that dumb character as an acronym, with periods no less; I'd rather take much longer to type out this needlessly long statement with all of its many dependent clauses and inefficiencies, if only to stress with every additional word how much we don't need characters like this presumably Twilight inspired nonsense), Azwel, and Groh. Of those seven, only one (Hilde) is more grounded than magical (or intentionally absurd in Dampierre's unique case). And even the way Hilde's weapon combo is utilized is pretty stylized as opposed to being based on actual weapon forms for either of those historical weapons. Sheesh, it really has drifted even more off the rails as we've gone along, hasn't it? I mean I knew the stable of fantasy tropes was growing but I hadn't stopped to consider that the influx of grounded styles has pretty much dried up to nothing. Actually, the irony here is that Geralt, a character who comes from an ostensibly fantasy setting, is actually the closest thing we've had to a new quasi-realistic martial fighter in a long, long while!

 

[sytus]

So, since we already know who the next two DLC characters are, thanks to the leak. Should we expect Yun-Seong, Setsuka, and Aeon as likely candidates for Season 2?

At this stage in time I don't think we will get a season 2, If SC6 sales have been decent then those characters will come to SC7.

 

[Rusted Blade]

At this stage in time I don't think we will get a season 2, If SC6 sales have been decent then those characters will come to SC7.

I don't think your analysis adds up there. Why would Namco not follow up on the current entry with DLC for as long as it stays lucrative? In fact, not only does it make sense to keep releasing content, but they actually receive a significantly increased profit margin for DLC: 1) the work on the basic mechanics and engine is already done, and 2) the amount of money they can get away with charging for a given amount of content goes up; as matter of consumer expectations, basically nobody in the industry can afford to charge more than $60 for a base game, which in Soul Calibur terms (or at least this most recent one) means about a dozen stages, scores of hours of cutscenes (including plenty of voice work), 20 base characters (including their movesets, animations, balancing, and alternative weapons and skins) thousands of art assets, lots of music, hundreds of creation items, a dozen modes, countless hours of coding and/or tailoring the menus, engine, and netcode, millions of dollars in publicity to get the new game off the ground and into the public eye--the list goes on and on. And they get $60 per unit for that. Now consider what they have to provide in a DLC pack for the average SC consumer to go away happy. Four characters, one stage, and 100 CaS items. And they get $20-30 dollars for that. So why would they be in a rush to make SCVII while this game is still profitable and attracting attention, when that means a significant investment of capitol and divergence of development resources away from other properties (and a fair deal of risk of an outright failure and epic financial loss), when they have a cash cow to milk, and can finely tune their output by releasing content in more profitable chunks that also have the benefit that they can tapered off as it becomes clear that there is no more money to be had (or more accurately when they begin to see diminishing returns), thus massively reducing costs and minimizing the normal risks associated with a full-scale production? Plus an expanded roster (particularly where they include guests characters from hot franchises) broadens the appeal of the base game to more players (at least marginally anyway), which players must then purchase base product in order to gain access to their favourite character (whether its an old SC main or 2B or whoever), which means yet more revenue.

And I'm not saying that all of this makes a season 2 a forgone conclusion; its a complex issue with many moving parts. What I'm saying is this: if sales really are "decent" (and I haven't been paying close attention in recent weeks, but I think that's basically what they are--decent and about as good as PS/Namco were probably hoping but not selling like gangbusters) then that's all the more reason to expect a second season, rather than to expect that they are going to leap straight into development on SCVII. Which would also make for the shortest turn around in the history of the franchise when the trend has actually been for more and more time to pass between entries. I think you've got the analysis backward.

 

[DanteSC3]

If we're believing that, like 2B, Cassandra and Amy won't get Soul Chronicle stories, then it would be a waste to bring in the likes of Yun-seong, Setsuka, and Hilde, just for their being playable, with the new structure of game that they've made with SoulCalibur VI. It's clear that the narrative is a very strong focus, which is why I feel like it would be dropping the ball already if Cassandra and Amy don't get Soul Chronicle stories, but you could argue that we've already seen them in Sophitia's and Raphael's respective stories, at least. For the ones who we haven't even seen their faces to not get any proper story introduction? No, I can't believe that they would do that, personally. SoulCalibur VII would be a much better framing device to introduce these characters.

 

[Ciruxxx83]

I couldn't agree more. I've always preferred characters who use actual historical (or at least somewhat realistic) weapons over the nonsense fantasy weapons (such as bladed hula-hoops and other such goofiness where the leverage and biomechanics make absolutely no sense, even in the context of a series where one is used to accepting a high degree of creative license in the physics and practicalities involved). There are obvious exceptions to this--Ivy's blade remains cool twenty years on and I am really digging 2B, to the point that I expect I may be using her as my secondary main this generation--and obviously the movements of Voldo, Yoshimitsu, and Lizardman were grandfathered in a long time ago and we don't even blink at how silly they can be anymore. But seriously, we have enough of these goofballs who look flashy and fun to anime fans but whose weapons really make zero sense, and I seriously groaned (Grøhned?) pretty hard when I saw what the two new in-universe characters looked like. I've since warmed to Azwel a little; I always play his style via a creation because his default model looks like a 1950's stage magician / sex offender, but of the three meta-weapon styles to date (Necrid, Algol, Azwel), I've found his to be the most fluid. But count me in as someone who feels strongly that there is still a whole universe of actual historical weapons that have not been explored that should be the basis for some future styles before we get the next oddball that fights with a hopscotch rope, or a sword with three blades sticking out random angles, or someone who fights while standing on their hands...

In that vein, I'd be down for a tower-shield and western halberd wielder--that sounds like a great addition (especially, as you say, because we are really short on heavy hitters so far). I wonder if For Honor has any upcoming sequels or major DLC packages? Adapting one of its characters (even if just a generic class) as a guest to fit this role could check a lot of boxes at once, and on account of Ezio, we know that Ubisoft is willing to play ball on the cross promotion.

Yup. Totally in line with the above mentioned. There are still a bunch of old school and/or realistic styles to be used instead of just ripped-out-of-an-anime stuff. The For Honor crossover makes the most sense imo, given its realistic nature both in terms of actual weapons being used and grounded styles for such weapons. Even if most weapons present in FH are already present in SC, there are some pretty cool ones that haven't been included yet, and would not only bring variety, but also more ppl to buy the game, thus increasing the chance for another game in the far future. I'm talking about flail and shield, as mentioned before, the hookswords (hats off to Kabal in MK3, he started it all ;} ), the chained-kusarigama (am I spelling this correctly?) among others. Not even gonna mention the dao user, too obvious. Damn, there could even be a whip and dagger user (enter the Belmonts) as someone mentioned before, or a mace and shield heavy much like an RPG cleric/paladin, or even a bow user (if you think bow and arrows would be imba/broken, please refer to Azwel/2B -at least one could see where the arrows are coming from). But again, it's only my opinion, and since I'm a huge fan of the game I tend to think my thoughts are aligned with the game's best interests (I believe all of us die-hard fans think pretty much alike when it comes to the game's "health"). Still keeping high hopes for S2 anyway :-]

 

[Rusted Blade]

If we're believing that, like 2B, Cassandra and Amy won't get Soul Chronicle stories, then it would be a waste to bring in the likes of Yun-seong, Setsuka, and Hilde, just for their being playable, with the new structure of game that they've made with SoulCalibur VI. It's clear that the narrative is a very strong focus, which is why I feel like it would be dropping the ball already if Cassandra and Amy don't get Soul Chronicle stories, but you could argue that we've already seen them in Sophitia's and Raphael's respective stories, at least. For the ones who we haven't even seen their faces to not get any proper story introduction? No, I can't believe that they would do that, personally. SoulCalibur VII would be a much better framing device to introduce these characters.

Well you might be right in-so-far as they may very well invest in creating Soul Chronicle stories for Amy and Cassie. Personally, I really don't care if they do or do not--they didn't garuntee me that when I bought the season pass and if you want to know my thoughts on the general quality and necesity of Soul Calibur's plot, you can see my comments in my sole post in this thread. But all of this is academic, because you aren't going to see a Soul Calibur VII for four to five years at a minimum--that's a fact, you can take it to the bank. So if the choice would have been between waiting for that and the prospect that those characters might get included that time around, and just accepting a moveset now without an hour's worth of arcade setups clumsily stitched together by pointless exposition between generic background characters intermingled with silly tin-eared melodrama dialogue...is that really a choice in any realistic sense? The more we demand in terms of peripheral features for the movesets themselves before we'll agree to buy a given DLC, the lower we drive down the returns for Namco and the less chance there will be that Project Soul will be afforded the needed opportunities to fill out the roster of playable characters in this game. I think we have to have priorities here as consumers.

Now if you felt like that story was worth your money, fair enough. Myself, I haven't the time at this stage in my life (if ever I did) to care to know how Raphael and Amy became malfested vampires or what greek god sent Cassandra to destroy whatever silly artifact and how many cookie-cuter pirates, ninjas, and assasins she had to talk to and trade bland repetive banter with, or which other cast members she crossed paths with and what she said about their hair. I just want my beautiful Amy sword ballet, my brutal Cassie fury of blows. Well-rounded, balanced movesets that re-introduce a new iteration on these styles, to see what I can do with them inside the current mechanics and against this new roster and a revitalized community of players. I care about the nuts and bolts, not the bells and whistles (and to the extent I do care about content other than movesets, it's stages, modes, and CaS resources). I don't expect every additional character to come bundled with an expansion of every aspect of the game, and I feel that if we try to force such a demanding, all-encompassing approach to bonus content upon the devs, as consumers, we will shoot ourselves in the foot and end up with much less altogether, especially as gameplay options are concerned. Again, priorities, we need priorities.

 

[sytus]

@DanteSC3

IMO Amy and Cassandra will get the Talim treatment in that their arcs will be at the end of SC6 timeline setting them up for SC7.

I'm annoyed that Hwang is being ignored for SC6. I know here's not as popular as the rest of the cast but still that overall weapon style he has is missing from SC6 and from what I've seen of Hwang in SC6 it's been a missed opportunity for the character to shine.

 

[Rusted Blade]

Yup. Totally in line with the above mentioned. There are still a bunch of old school and/or realistic styles to be used instead of just ripped-out-of-an-anime stuff. The For Honor crossover makes the most sense imo, given its realistic nature both in terms of actual weapons being used and grounded styles for such weapons. Even if most weapons present in FH are already present in SC, there are some pretty cool ones that haven't been included yet, and would not only bring variety, but also more ppl to buy the game, thus increasing the chance for another game in the far future. I'm talking about flail and shield, as mentioned before, the hookswords (hats off to Kabal in MK3, he started it all ;} ), the chained-kusarigama (am I spelling this correctly?) among others. Not even gonna mention the dao user, too obvious. Damn, there could even be a whip and dagger user (enter the Belmonts) as someone mentioned before, or a mace and shield heavy much like an RPG cleric/paladin, or even a bow user (if you think bow and arrows would be imba/broken, please refer to Azwel/2B -at least one could see where the arrows are coming from). But again, it's only my opinion, and since I'm a huge fan of the game I tend to think my thoughts are aligned with the game's best interests (I believe all of us die-hard fans think pretty much alike when it comes to the game's "health"). Still keeping high hopes for S2 anyway :-]

Just for a baseline, Link used a bow in the Gamecube variant of SCII and I didn't find it particularly game breaking or out of place feeling, among that game's repertoire of moves. I hadn't thought of Kusarigama myself (one of the bonus styles in SCIII:CE was vaguely similar with crooked blades that were like a cross between a khopesh, a minaiture scythe and praying mantis forearms...in other words a slightly more goofy, fantastical version of the same basic premise), but it's really not the same.