Soul Calibur VI: General discussion

I recently saw someone on one of the soulcalibur forums ask how a Lizardman story would work in SC6.

Given the nature of the character and his lack of humanity, how do you think they could give us a worthwhile soul chronicle?
 
RyujiSakamoto said:
I recently saw someone on one of the soulcalibur forums ask how a Lizardman story would work in SC6.

Given the nature of the character and his lack of humanity, how do you think they could give us a worthwhile soul chronicle?
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Whatever they did for Voldo's story, I guess. Mostly narration of his objectives and other characters commenting on stuff probably. And then possibly a flashback or two to pre-transformation. I doubt they'd make it an hour romp like they did for Setsuka or some of the other characters, though.

They could make it work if they wanted. But the question is would they want to do it over another character.
 
RyujiSakamoto said:
I recently saw someone on one of the soulcalibur forums ask how a Lizardman story would work in SC6.

Given the nature of the character and his lack of humanity, how do you think they could give us a worthwhile soul chronicle?
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Not really sure if Aeon is sane/not malfested enough to have this but maybe they can give him some sort of inner voice? It's also an excellent way to humanize him a bit more as a character so that audiences wouldn't just simply see him as "the lizard guy".
 
bagazstormy said:
Not really sure if Aeon is sane/not malfested enough to have this but maybe they can give him some sort of inner voice? It's also an excellent way to humanize him a bit more as a character so that audiences wouldn't just simply see him as "the lizard guy".
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While I see what you are trying to do here, I'd say that would take away a bit of his "the lizard guy" identity. I mean, we all know he's more than that, but not showing what he thinks is as much a part of his character, so I'd opt more for flashbacks and sudden memory surges between whatever lizard stuff he's doing.
 
RyujiSakamoto said:
I recently saw someone on one of the soulcalibur forums ask how a Lizardman story would work in SC6.

Given the nature of the character and his lack of humanity, how do you think they could give us a worthwhile soul chronicle?
Click to expand...
Considering the events of SC5, a possible scenario of mine would be for Aeon to travel back in time through the Astral Chaos to remember himself. He would then see his human self, his transformation and even fight along side him, preparing him to rebel against Fygul Cestemus and lead the other Lizardmen, giving him purpose and then probably plans to seek Soul Edge to destroy the Greek patheon for abandoning him.
 
Personally I want the 'retelling of SCI' to be completed by having Rock, Li-Long and Lizardman. I don't like any of those characters personally but those are the ones I feel SHOULD be in the game if they want to make it a true retelling. And honestly with the successful redesigns of characters they've already done (like Hwang, etc.) I'd be more than open to seeing what they can do with some of these other characters.

I think the way SCVI tells stories would make it quite easy to, as others have said, humanize Lizardman/Aeon a little more and make him stand out more as a character outside of his appearance. Though I don't really care too much for the character, the idea of a tortured soul trapped in the body of a 'monster' is quite cool and definitely gives them something to work with for a story.

The fourth character could be a guest I suppose, but I'd honestly prefer a newbie, like Acht or whatever, if this would be the final season (which it probably would be).
 
sytus said:
Considering the events of SC5, a possible scenario of mine would be for Aeon to travel back in time through the Astral Chaos to remember himself. He would then see his human self, his transformation and even fight along side him, preparing him to rebel against Fygul Cestemus and lead the other Lizardmen, giving him purpose and then probably plans to seek Soul Edge to destroy the Greek patheon for abandoning him.
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How cool would it be for SC5 Aeon to go back in time to save "himself" FROM the transformation?
 
I can't be the only one who wants a season 3 consisting of Aeon, Rock, Yun seong and Li Long? With Edge Master as a free update to fully complete the SB-SC3 roster (guests, mimics and bonus characters aside)!

I guess I'd sacrifice Li Long for a new character (possibly Acht using Viola's moveset) or at worst, yet another guest, if I had to.
 
KarotConCarne said:
How cool would it be for SC5 Aeon to go back in time to save "himself" FROM the transformation?
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I thought SC5 AEON had embraced his lizardmaness and was raising a new species of civilized lizardmen which means he would not go back in time to undo the curse. However i can be wrong SC5 had no lore
 
@fjphoenix

New Legends of Project Soul 096.jpgNew Legends of Project Soul 097.jpg
 
RyujiSakamoto said:
I recently saw someone on one of the soulcalibur forums ask how a Lizardman story would work in SC6.

Given the nature of the character and his lack of humanity, how do you think they could give us a worthwhile soul chronicle.
Click to expand...
The questions about the mechanics of this story arc and how they are going to render it in a cogent fashion are even more complicated than that. There's been some inconsistency (surprise surprise) in how Aeon/Lizardman's story and personal character have been presented, but the narrative runs like this, in broad terms: Aeon is the holy warrior of holy warriors, and is sent by "the gods" to destroy Soul Calibur, but is first driven insane by the Evil seed and then shortly afterwards captured by the Fygul Cestemus cult and transformed into a lizardman (it's never been clarified with an certainty how many of the other Lizardmen utilized across the various SC games were also transformed in this manner and whether or not the entire race is just one of those many species of mythical creature in the franchise lore or if the entire race is a result of the cult's activities).

Interestingly, Aeon is described at several points in the lore as a Spartan, despite the yawning two millenium plus gap between the Pelloponnesian era and the time frame of most the Soulcalibur narrative. Now, this could just be explained by the usual hackneyed throwing around of ethnonyms that make no kind of historical sense that is common in Soul Calibur lore, or it could possibly be and indication that Aeon has lived as a beast for a very, very long time--but the lore from Soulcalibur I seems to preclude that latter option in that it seems as if Lizardman was transformed not long before being sent to capture Bangoo. In any event, that's going to have to be one of the first issues reconciled by a potential SCVI soul chronicle--the exact nature of his origins and the timing of these events.

Regardless, it seems that after Aeon breaks free of Fygul Cestemus, his narrative bounces back and forth between him retaining some aspect of his humanity and a hope of restoring his human body and self, and falling into a more bestial mindset, throw some combination of the transformation becoming more complete regardless of his desires and his bitter, trapped soul accepting the role of monster after he is abandoned by his gods. By Soulcalibur 3 he has discarded his original holy warrior weapons in favor of an axe and shield, and by SCIV he apparently has no memory of his human life or motivations and is, for all intents and purposes, just another Lizardman, albeit a particularly dangerous one.

Soulcalibur V introduces a new wrinkle into this narrative by indicating that his human self awakens dimly from some sort of spiritual communication with some force, which urges him to start devouring the flesh of his fallen enemies, with the promise that this will somehow restore his humanity. It's never really explained what this force is, and whether there is any truth to this promise or if the Lizardman-Formerly-Known-a-Aeon is being wholly manipulated, but two things do result from these grizzly feasts: 1) Aeon does apparently get back some of his human thought and drive to restore himself and 2) he starts absorbing the memories and powers of those he consumes (whether he switches to two axes as his preferred weapons at this point or before he hears the voice is uncertain). Still, it's pretty hard to square the notion of these increasingly monstrous acts and the consumption of human flesh with the idea that he is going to be purified and returned to a human form--especially since every transformation seems to be taking him in the opposite direction.

So all of this raises some pretty interesting questions not just in terms of how they will reconstruct this lore, but also how, as a design matter, they will structure his narrative arc to coincide with what you see as you play him. Will his human origins only be discussed in flashbacks and talking head segments? Or will you start out playing him as a human, perhaps using Sophitia or Cassandra's style? He could even fight with his more monstrous moveset in a human form immediately after being driven mad by the Evil Seed, but before his transofmration--that of course presumes his moveset will be a CaS option and thus will not utilize too many crazy elements of his reptilian physiology: I think that's highly likely based on how his style has been approached in past titles, but the question is somewhat open at this point. In any event, we can see that the questions of his story and his gameplay are intertwined in many respects.

Of course, as a narrative matter, a lot of the old details can (and probably should) be retconned to some extent. And I do suspect there's going to be some effort to humanize Aeon as we see him in the new narrative (be it in a Season 3 or a SC7--and more likely SCVI-S3, I think) and make him into something of a tragic figure: though whether that means him ultimately being an inhuman fiend or someone struggling towards redemption and restoration, I honestly don't know--though I would have to guess that at least SCVI's soul chronicle will end with him in a pretty dark place and solidly as one of the games villains. Mechanically, I would like to see him using an axe in this game, for variety's sake, and I would like to see some of his more bestial SCV aesthetic moveset (if only just hints of it) rolled into his soul charge moveset. But with story taking such a center stage in this entry, it's clear that his moveset and his story have to be developed in tandem to perhaps a greater extent than in past games.

That longwinded breakdown done, there is a major caveat that I might as well have started with, when answering the question of how they will do a "worthwhile" soul chronicle: specifically, they won't. Not a single one the soul chronicles in this game to date even begins to justify the resources that went into making them. They are pretty universally awful and clumsy and utter chore to get through, if you ask me. But the point of the above is to explain that I don't think Aeon's has to be especially a problem, just because of his status as a killing machine, Afterall, they've made Astaroth work--or at least, his narrative doesn't work any less than those of the other soul chronicles. Aeon's inability to use human language is really the only significant additional complication.

sytus said:
@fjphoenix

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What I like about that it is that it establishes something expressly that is strongly implied by the overarching SC story but never really addressed explicitly in the "cannon" of the series previously: namely that the "gods" that Aeon and the Alexandrias serve are really pretty capricious and indifferent to what happens to those they call to action on their behalf--even to the point of gaslighting and manipulating them. It will be interesting to see if the precise role of these entities are better fleshed out in the continuing titles of the reboot and whether or not their pawns are going to work out just how badly they have been used and rebel against this abuse in time to make a real difference form themselves in the new timeline.

Of course, if the aim of these gods was to seal Soul Edge and Soulcalibur away permanently, as per the conclusion of SCV, and they were just playing the longgame to that end, then maybe the manner in which they have sacraficed their most devout servants is defensible. But one thing is for sure: being called as a "holy warrior" seems to almost always be a one-way ticket to Painsville for both you and pretty much everyone you love.

HD_Reed said:
I can't be the only one who wants a season 3 consisting of Aeon, Rock, Yun seong and Li Long? With Edge Master as a free update to fully complete the SB-SC3 roster (guests, mimics and bonus characters aside)!

I guess I'd sacrifice Li Long for a new character (possibly Acht using Viola's moveset) or at worst, yet another guest, if I had to.
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I think it makes a huge degree of sense to reserve as many of those spots as possible for the remaining SE-SC2 roster characters. That said, PS have defied expectations in this regard over the last season by situating Hilde and Setsuka as they did. If nothing else, I would be immensely surprised if there wasn't a guest in the third season. So I think its really likely that either Li Long or Yun-Seong will be left out in the cold in the next season. I also would not be blown away to see either Algol or Viola be introduced, based on how their emergence into the plot has been provided for in recent soul chronicles. I guess if I had to choose, based solely on what I think they would bring to the gameplay variety and the balance of the roster in all respects, I'd want to see Aeon, Rock, a guest and Viola.

I can't help but note also that two additional seasons, each with their own guests, would leave exactly enough slots to account for all of the aforementioned characters: Aeon, Rock, Yung-seong, Li Long, Algol, and Viola. That would result in a roster compromised of all of the SE-SCIV mainroster cast (minus the guests of those games, of course), plus Azwel, Groh and Viola, and five guests: without question the most glorious moveset collection in the history of the franchise.

Now, with Season 3 not even confirmed yet, and moving into a new generation with a declining install base of players engaged with last gen products, I have a hard time having a high degree of confidence for four seasons (I find my fingers crossed just for the third, particularly considering we aren entering into a massive recession, the depth of which we can't predict at this point). But you gotta think there are developers in the remaining staff for SCVI's continuing support who have that "we're so close--can't we just push through this entire classic cast game??" mentality. I know I'd certainly love to see things go that way and would eagerly pay for the necessary products. But I'm not sure the hardcore alone can sustain that support enough to tempt Namco into continuing work on this game another two years, in effect, right when they'd ideally be transitioning much of their 3D fighter staff towards design/early development of their first Tekken on the new hardware.

Edit: Oh, but I think we can all agree that Edge Master as a freebie (or a surprise season pass bonus released after the rest of the season is delivered as promoted) really needs to happen before this game concludes. And I'd personally love to see a Proving Grounds cave as a bonus stage too (a cave stage is a missing archetype in this game, and we always see those cave entrances in the background of those Proving Ground stages). But at least the character as a mimic is such an easy, no-brainer decision, I can't imagine what they are waiting for. Maybe they've always planned to deliver him last? Or maybe they just won't do it because they know there is a certain obnoxious, self-entitled (and yet not statistically insignificant) segment of the fanbase who would actually bitch and moan if we got Edge Master without at least some generic Soul Chronicle material..
 
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Ok, I don't exactly know if this is the right place to ask, but I need some help.

I recently bought the DLC for Hwang and the new CAS Pack on my account on the PS4. Up until now, me buying the DLC has allowed both my account and everyone else on the system's account to be able to play with the new DLC.

This is my dad's first time playing the game since I bought the DLC. Not since the update hit, but specifically since I bought the DLC. His save data is now corrupted, and now he had to reset it. He suspects it could be that the update made it so if you buy DLC for one account, it is only available for that specific account on the system, rather than before, where it was available for everyone to play.

Has anyone else playing PS4 with other people had this problem?

UPDATE:
Ok, I think everything is fine now? He downloaded an older save from the PS4, and it seems like everything is back? Maybe it was just some weird glitch or something?
 
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