@SSfox The reason I feel Hilde doesn't have a shot is because they have to have something held back for SoulCalibur VII, and to put an arbitrary cutoff point, not that I'm defining it, but as it appears to be defined by the game, stopping with SoulCalibur III seems to be the direction they're leaning towards. SoulCalibur VII can add Hilde, Algol, perhaps Dampierre and his flunkies, along with a couple of new faces such as Grøh or Azwel, stretching forward to SoulCalibur IV timeline events, to give these characters proper structure and narrative relevance, which, like it or not, is a big part of the game's ideology as of right now, and I would think it reasonable to expect that SoulCalibur VII will continue this trend.
As for using who has appeared in the game as an argument, this is valid against Li Long and Rock, since neither actually appeared, but you could say the same of Setsuka and Hilde. They are mentioned (Setsuka only on a technicality, even), but not seen. Another candidate that did appear that no one suggests (not that there's not good reason to not suggest him) is Edge Master. I don't believe Edge Master is one of the six, but I feel like he does warrant an appearance, ideally given as a free DLC, perhaps to cap the end of the first season pass as an unexpected surprise bonus character, considering that he's a mimic and having to pay for a mimic wouldn't look good from any angle. A free mimic, though? They've already got an updated HD model from SoulCalibur V, and his appearance still hasn't changed, so adding him really would be a doddle, if you ask me. Hwang and Aeon are the only two supposed candidates for season two who did appear in the game, with Aeon having one actual fight (as Lesser Lizardman style, of course), while Hwang had none.
It's a complex issue, sure. Look at the discussions we've had for evidence. But the overbearing premise, for now at least, seems to be restricted to cast members of SoulBlade to SoulCalibur III, which is why I can't believe Hilde. Assuming no guests, and we do get Hilde, then the only one left out would be Li Long, in all likelihood, and having one missing character would be such a glaring non inclusion that it couldn't help but attract attention to the fact, so we may as well just have everyone. They could have easily, extremely easily, even, given Li Long a subquest in Libra of Soul like Arthur, and yet they didn't, but still did mention his name. We even got Han-myeong, someone who hasn't appeared as a fighter in-game since SoulBlade itself, as a fight in Libra of Soul. Just something to think about, to potentially up the believability of Li Long's inclusion.
