SCV- New CHARACTER ideas

[REPROBEAN_CHILD]

That's all fine and good but Namco wants unique characters and fight styles instead of variations of the same types of characters. What country a character is from has nothing to do with how relevant they are. Believe it or not, other countries have more to offer beyond skin tones and marketing ploys. If anyone wants only Japanese and vaguely Germanic warriors more than anything else, then give Samurai Shodown a try.

So in other words Hilde and Siegfried are the same type of character just because theyre both german? Their weapon styles and personalities arent that unique from each other? The character being from a certain country isn't what would make them irrelevant. It's them being in the series with no purpose other than being from a certain country. The series takes place in just a few parts of the world, it shouldnt include characters from every part of the world. I don't know what's with the Samurai Shodown recommendation. There's nothing wrong with cultural diversity, but its just not something Namco focused on and, to an extent, it shouldn't be since that's not the focus. Since its about weapons, they can only do so much on cultural diversity anyway.

 

[Leshain]

I really like the snake woman, I think she'd be an amazing addition, though with a different weapon.

Yeah a snake woman would be an interesting playstyle, considering the unique tail and movement attacks that could be done.

And it is "Culturally Accurate" Greek meaning Medusa.

Here's some more ideas to which are also "Culturally Accurate" Myth or Not, SoulCalibur has guys with owl faces and man sized fire breathing lizard that can fly so might as well add more freaks. :P

Spoiler: Egypt

Spoiler: Arabian

Spoiler: THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAAA

 

[Master_Thespian]

So in other words Hilde and Siegfried are the same type of character just because theyre both german? Their weapon styles and personalities arent that unique from each other? The character being from a certain country isn't what would make them irrelevant. It's them being in the series with no purpose other than being from a certain country. The series takes place in just a few parts of the world, it shouldnt include characters from every part of the world. I don't know what's with the Samurai Shodown recommendation. There's nothing wrong with cultural diversity, but its just not something Namco focused on and, to an extent, it shouldn't be since that's not the focus. Since its about weapons, they can only do so much on cultural diversity anyway.

I don't know if you're being purposely dense for the sake of your position but you don't seem to think Project Soul is capable of making characters from other countries important/unique/whatever beyond filling some imaginary diversity/affirmative action quota. Which is moronic. The bottom line is if Project Soul want characters to stand out more from one another (here's a hint: they've stated as much) they can use other parts of the map and the weapons and styles those destinations bring to help.

Why is that so hard for you to grasp?

 

[jtdam09]

There's nothing wrong with cultural diversity, but its just not something Namco focused on and, to an extent, it shouldn't be since that's not the focus.

And then you go to their hand-to-hand counterpart, which has many styles, and at the same time has people representing different countries. Even to the point where Namco now has them speaking their native languages on Tekken Tag Tournament 2. In other words, Leo now speaks German, Lili speaks French, and the Capoeirists speak Portuguese.

But language isn't the issue here. It's weapons and design, right?

Persian/Arabic is one of the simplest new character ideas at the moment, and with their location being in between Europe and Far East Asia, there isn't an excuse to say "that won't work, because he/she would serve no importance to the story" when they are right in the middle of it all. You can just slide them right in and have them be a protagonist, an antagonist, or just have him/her be Neutral like Mitsurugi. It's that simple. Weapon of choice? Yun-Seong's weapon tops that list. Personality and full story is up to them to just fling around and all a day. Why they won't do it? Probably controversy as the Arabic tends to be.....a little sensitive when it comes to things representing them, but with Mitsurugi and Li Long's nunchuckus in Soul Blade, it's not like they haven't faced controversy before.

It's just something that Namco has to 1. Research, and 2. Put their creative minds together to create.

 

[Reave]

Again I say why do yall care where characters come from?

 

[jtdam09]

Well, while representation could be a possible factor for some characters, it benefits Namco from not being so desperately in need of thinking about new characters when they have the Internet to help them. They were already trying to fuse history with the game anyways (Mitsurugi's profile says it all). Why stop now?

Research is probably one of the key elements of making a character.

Plus characters need names, and names have origins in itself.

 

[optymuss]

an Assyrian character with a an assyrian sickle sword (sappara)

Yohannan is our family name. Most Assyrian first names were originated from the bible. idk though in ancient times.

My grandfathers name is Khamu Yohanan

also most modern assyrian names are associated with some russian influence.
EX: cousins have Yakob/Yakov/Yakhof as a last name, which is "Jacob"

Yosip = Joeseph.
Maryam = Mary
Gahbrel = Gabriel
Eesho = Jesus
Geewrges = George
Pileepoos = Phillip
Shimoon = Simon
Andreeoos = Andrew
Yakhoo = James (Kamu is also a variation)
Meteu/Matehee = Matthew
Baartooma = Bartholomew
Yookhena = John
Pootroues = Peter
Yehooda = Judas
Aday = Thadeus
Mooshee = Moses
Owrraahim = Abraham
Nookh = Noah
Adam = Adam (The second A is more stressed like Adaam)
Khaawaa = Eve

Interesting/fun stuff: http://www.learnassyrian.com/aramaic/
It also helps with pronounciation if you dont know =)

other names: http://www.20000-names.com/male_aramaic_names.htm
http://www.atour.com/~fred/docs/assyriannames.html

bottom one is cool.

i figured the style can work like using the "hook"part to trip and grab the opponent. Unfortunately, this would be kinda like zasalamel's style.........

if possible can he/she speak modern Aramaic? its a rare language. My family speaks it.

chicago university made a dictionary for the ancient aramaic also....

The assyrian people were called the "lords of massacare" in ancient times.

1st costume:

2nd costume:

not like this one just a reference to how its weared

More physical structures:

 

[Leshain]

Okay im putting these two out here just because they look amazing in design. there culture? Fantasy.

Spoiler: NEW GUY

Spoiler: NEW GIRL

 

[Bailster]

So in other words Hilde and Siegfried are the same type of character just because theyre both german? Their weapon styles and personalities arent that unique from each other? The character being from a certain country isn't what would make them irrelevant. It's them being in the series with no purpose other than being from a certain country. The series takes place in just a few parts of the world, it shouldnt include characters from every part of the world. I don't know what's with the Samurai Shodown recommendation. There's nothing wrong with cultural diversity, but its just not something Namco focused on and, to an extent, it shouldn't be since that's not the focus. Since its about weapons, they can only do so much on cultural diversity anyway.

I think the point is that weapons and culture are linked intrinsically - you can't have one without the other. When thinking of new weapons for the series, which you see as the main point of reference, surely those weapons must first be associated with a particular country/culture/character type? They can't just keep creating characters from "unknown" (yawn) locations! The game is set in the real world, and that requires characters to have a nationality. I'm not saying they should shoe-horn in characters for the sake of representing a nation, but any new fighters should have more careful thought applied to their bios, if they are to be fully rounded new characters. Zwei's bio is nearly all "unknown" - that doesn't add appeal, it just makes him seem even more vague and out of place in the series than his design/fighting style already implies.

Let's say, for example, they added in a ball and chain style, scimitar style and a kris style - surely those new styles would need wielders from backgrounds that suited the style? In other words (hypothetically):
Ball & chain - new big fat character from the Kingdom of Norway (could be from anywhere, but I'd love to see a Scandinavian fighter.)
Scimitar - Arabian character (that's where the weapon originates)
Kris - character from the Kingdom of Siam (Thailand) character (again, this weapon originates from the Indonesian/ southern Thai region.)

I really don't see why they couldn't have just stated that Zwei is German, Tira is Romanian (for example - plus it fits her gymnastic/acrobatic style) and Zas is ......Babylonian? Plus, pre-SCIV, the Dev team were really clever and creative about adding fighters from new regions with each iteration of the series - from Okinawa, to France to the Philippines etc. This seems to have stalled, and lead to a slew of characters from "Unknown" backgrounds. I'll say it again, "Unknown" is not mysterious - it's lazy.

 

[Leshain]

Also as a bonus, a design that how Bangoo could look, as well as a neat design for the final boss of SCV. :D

Spoiler: BANGOO!

Spoiler: NEW BOSS OF SCV

 

[Neclord]

What i think may push variety on the actual cast
-A fatass.Very fat and round,wich use his weight as advantage.

Yea I agree.
I just faced this guy in the game Dark Souls:

He has all the things the gaming community likes in a FG: badass armor, big weapons and big breasts. xD

 

[optymuss]

http://www.learnassyrian.com/aramaic/
http://www.aina.org/brief.html
http://www.atour.com/
http://www.assyrianvoice.net/
http://www.atour.com/~history/1500/
http://www.aina.org/aol/peter/timeline.htm
http://www.aina.org/aol/link4.htm
http://www.assyrianvoice.net/forum/index.php?topic=18234.0
forgot to mention.....these links contains alot of history and facts about the assyrian culture.
its in a seperate post for updates and i didnt get feedback on the last post.....

second dark age of assyrians is the current era for SCV.

EDIT: (copy/paste from the second link)

Second Dark Age: 1300 A.D. to 1918 A.D.

The Assyrian missionary enterprise, which had been so successful throughout the Asian continent, came to an abrupt end with the coming of Timurlane the Mongol. The indiscriminate destruction leveled by Timurlane against the civilizations he encountered put to a permanent end the Assyrian missionary enterprise. A large segment of the Assyrian population escaped the ravages of Timurlane by fleeing into the Hakkary mountains (present day eastern Turkey); the remaining Assyrians continued to live in their homelands (presently North Iraq and Syria), and Urmi. The four Assyrian communities, over time, begin defining themselves in terms of their church affiliation. The western Assyrians, all of whom belonging to the Syrian Orthodox Church, began identifying themselves as "Jacobites". The remaining communities belonged to the Assyrian Church of the East. After the division of the Church of the East in 1550 A.D., the Chaldean Church of Babylon, a Roman Catholic Uniate, was created, and members of this church began to call themselves Chaldean. By the end of the nineteenth century, these three communities no longer saw themselves as one and the same.

ancient Assyrians ( often called Pheonicians)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punic_Wars

World Timeline:
http://www.localhistories.org/world.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1607
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1608

look at 1607 A.D.... you will be excited i think...

This is the closest i can find to the era of 1607 but its in concerns of the assyrian church but its a catholic/greek orthadox church so its VERY helpful. Its wiki though.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_Church_of_the_East

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Christianity






*I will update this post in concerns to the history

 

[Leshain]

Where have i heard the word Assyrian before... i swear i heard it alot Q3/Q4 2010 and Q1/Q2/Q3-ish this year... but where...? *Ponders*

 

[REPROBEAN_CHILD]

http://www.learnassyrian.com/aramaic/
http://www.aina.org/brief.html
http://www.atour.com/
http://www.assyrianvoice.net/
http://www.atour.com/~history/1500/
http://www.aina.org/aol/peter/timeline.htm
http://www.aina.org/aol/link4.htm
http://www.assyrianvoice.net/forum/index.php?topic=18234.0
forgot to mention.....these links contains alot of history and facts about the assyrian culture.
its in a seperate post for updates and i didnt get feedback on the last post.....

second dark age of assyrians is the current era for SCV.

EDIT: (copy/paste from the second link)

Second Dark Age: 1300 A.D. to 1918 A.D.

The Assyrian missionary enterprise, which had been so successful throughout the Asian continent, came to an abrupt end with the coming of Timurlane the Mongol. The indiscriminate destruction leveled by Timurlane against the civilizations he encountered put to a permanent end the Assyrian missionary enterprise. A large segment of the Assyrian population escaped the ravages of Timurlane by fleeing into the Hakkary mountains (present day eastern Turkey); the remaining Assyrians continued to live in their homelands (presently North Iraq and Syria), and Urmi. The four Assyrian communities, over time, begin defining themselves in terms of their church affiliation. The western Assyrians, all of whom belonging to the Syrian Orthodox Church, began identifying themselves as "Jacobites". The remaining communities belonged to the Assyrian Church of the East. After the division of the Church of the East in 1550 A.D., the Chaldean Church of Babylon, a Roman Catholic Uniate, was created, and members of this church began to call themselves Chaldean. By the end of the nineteenth century, these three communities no longer saw themselves as one and the same.

ancient Assyrians ( often called Pheonicians)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punic_Wars

World Timeline:
http://www.localhistories.org/world.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1607
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1608

look at 1607 A.D.... you will be excited i think...

This is the closest i can find to the era of 1607 but its in concerns of the assyrian church but its a catholic/greek orthadox church so its VERY helpful. Its wiki though.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_Church_of_the_East

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Christianity






*I will update this post in concerns to the history

No offense, but what does the the church has to do with Soul Calibur and Soul Edge returning.

 

[REPROBEAN_CHILD]

I don't know if you're being purposely dense for the sake of your position but you don't seem to think Project Soul is capable of making characters from other countries important/unique/whatever beyond filling some imaginary diversity/affirmative action quota. Which is moronic. The bottom line is if Project Soul want characters to stand out more from one another (here's a hint: they've stated as much) they can use other parts of the map and the weapons and styles those destinations bring to help.

Why is that so hard for you to grasp?

There's nothing dense about my view. My concern is if they start introducing several characters from a bunch of different countries, we would lose purpose of what Soul Calibur was about. How would that happen? With all these cultures, the story will focused on them rather than Soul Calibur or Soul Edge. Both have been major to the series and I don't want them to become less important because they want to try to add and represent as much cultures as possible. It wouldnt be SC anymore and it would change the series atomspere more than some 17 year time jump.

Saying no other cultures isnt what im saying, but if they want to prevent the series from stirring into a different direction, they can only do countries that could be worked with what was already given. Personally I wouldn't mind an Egyptian character (a stage was set in Egypt, so that's a reasonable choice). Someone like Tekken's Zafina would be cool to see. But again, I don't want them to lose their focus on weapons and fighting styles to be about a game only about culture. I didn't buy SC for that.

 

[optymuss]

No offense, but what does the the church has to do with Soul Calibur and Soul Edge returning.

It doesnt have to do with the swords ,it has to do with how the character will fit into the plot for SCV with info we have so far.

Rudolf II was involved in the occult and alchemy, this proved he didnt trust/acknowledge the catholic church. The catholic church, in a way, had ruled him. He was against religion and supported the more classical greek philosophy. I find this akward because people acknowledge religion as philosphy. I'm guessing they were very serious about religion in that era.

Now in the 1550s to 1570s a schism had occured in the church of the east. It had splitted the churches into 1) a catholic church following the roman catholicism and in communion with the roman catholic church., which its people later became known as chaldeans (kaldayans) and 2)into an assyrian church of the east which is associated Nestorianism. Nestorianism isnt in communion with Eastern orthadox, catholic, and Oriental Orthadox.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestorianism



The important part to connecting this character with the plot is the schism. Both acknowledge christianity/philosophy in some way. Since the schism occured 30 to 50 years ago and since to this day the assyrians and chaldeans are defined as different, then the schism most likely divided the people as time went by and resulted into different views of philosophy/religion.. If it was 1) of the Chaldeans (chaldeans are the same race as Assyrians but their cultures are different) who are in communion with the catholic church, then if there was an assyrian character, he/she would be against rudolf II in some way. 2) if the character was sided with the Assyrian Church of the East, which followed more of philosphy and since the greek and assyrian philosphies were pretty much alike then their views are in support of Rudolf and the character would either be neutral or ......supporting rudolf and his cause.

 

[DevilsDisguise]

This is what leixia should look like being asian right?

 

[DevilsDisguise]

I agree that this isn't deadlest warrior or Street fighyer... I actually forgot that myself but yes, racial diversity isnt a priority for this series. This is just another game with a story to tell. Actually, its one of the only fighters that has a serious story.

The series is just about certain individuals that the creator invisions intitled to want either sword or great power and who they are is irrelevant, its what role they play that matters. It's fictional, not a documentary.

Weapon uniquness and originality is the ideal preeminence which we are lacking. I dont think you should play as a character just because you feel it represents you. That in itself is racist to me. You should play a character for their persona and prefered weapon usage. I dont know how all of a sudden the mindset of the series was converted into a "we are the world" pickiting protest.

 

[jtdam09]

I really don't see why they couldn't have just stated that Zwei is German, Tira is Romanian (for example - plus it fits her gymnastic/acrobatic style) and Zas is ......Babylonian? Plus, pre-SCIV, the Dev team were really clever and creative about adding fighters from new regions with each iteration of the series - from Okinawa, to France to the Philippines etc. This seems to have stalled, and lead to a slew of characters from "Unknown" backgrounds. I'll say it again, "Unknown" is not mysterious - it's lazy.

Exactly, I really don't see the appeal of that either.

It really is simple to create a character. Just create a character from a different country, and give them a personality.

Next is to research on any native inspiration for their attire, as they have been doing. Hence Talim.

Next is their weapon, and there are countless lists of weapons from various countries. If already taken, just make something original, as they have been doing from the likes of Setsuka, Talim, and Hilde. No one is bragging about the weapons of the character. Just where they are from. They can create an original weapon, but add a native twist to it.

Once they are done, just think of how they could be put into the story. Protagonist, Antagonist, Neutral, or......Pyrrha's role in the story.

Just doing that could create some extent of originality within the series. It's just something that needs to be explored more. Arabic/Persian is one of the easiest examples, as it has never been done before in the series, and it includes a group constantly in conflict with the southwest side of Europe during the historic times.

Soul Calibur is supposed to be "fictional, but based on a historical setting." Soul Blade/Edge even tried to tie characters with history/myths (e.g. Mitsurugi formally being a part of a historical clan, Rock migrating from Great Britain to the New World and encountering Native Americans, Sophitia and her encounters with Olympians, Korea in conflict with Japan, Mentions of the "Wokou" on Li Long's profile, etc.)

While characters like Tira being unknown could be understandable at the whole "orphan" thing, she could at least know when her birthday was, unless she has a birthday for each of her personalities or something.

 

[optymuss]

forgot to mention......Assyrians are NOT arabic....they are hardly related to persians. They are more close to the greeks if anything, but they are just about their own race/culture.