Season 3 Wishlist

[Rusted Blade]

For season 3 I want more stages and hella lot more CaS parts. Preferably I want all legacy parts from SC4 and SC5 back so that SC6 can finally become the ultimate CaS game of it's generation (and by generation I don't mean console generations, but the fact SC4, 5 and 6 all share the same basic asset libraries).

As far as characters go I want Aeon for Season 3, also should Season 3 happen, Aeon will be basically 99,9% confirmed by default, which is great.
Otherwise I don't really have any strong opinions.
I don't care for Yun-Seong, but I recognise he'll be as inevitable as Aeon, so hooray for his fans.
Between Rock, Li Long, Algol, Dampierre, Viola and Zwei the best option for me is Le Bello, but I'm not going to cry if he is not included. Rock or Li Long will be the most boring options, but whatever, maybe even those guys can be made cool somehow.

As for the guest character, I thought one from Devil May Cry can be cool, also it may be too late now, DMC5 is not a new game anymore and most people are over it.
Some posters here suggested Tifa from FF7 Remake, I think I'd like her inclusion alright (never played FF7 or any other game in the series, yet Remake clips actually look incredible to me, not gonna lie), the only problem is FF7 Remake is currently a PS4 exclusive with big fat hints suggesting a later PC release, with no word about an XBox version at all as far as I'm aware, which is a barrier for a multiplatform guest appearance. Not sure how much Sony is involved and how restrictive their agreements are.
Now something nobody mentioned so far (or at least I personally haven't seen anybody talking about) is that Haohmaru's inclusion tells us guests from other fighting games are very much on the table, also there are currently not one, but two fighting games with weapons not called SoulCalibur right in the spotlight. Those are of cause Granblue Fantasy: Versus and Guilty Gear -Strive-. Both are PC/PS4 games with no Xbox support, which might be a problem, yet in this particular cases I think it's much less about Sony throwing money at developers and much more about developers themselves simply not carring about MS consoles, so platforms might not be an issue. Also Guilty Gear -Strive- is actually published by Bamco in parts of the globe, so that partnership can obviously sweaten the deal between Project Soul and Arc System Works. Both games have a lot of cool characters to borrow.

I would have said those two franchises are both too cartoonish and too low profile to make for attractive candidates to source a guest from...but then Haohmaru happened. I suppose SamSho is a bit closer in tone to Soulcalibur, but clearly everything is up for grabs now: it might sometimes be more about who they decide they want to work with. Because while Geralt and 2B could be justified in large part by their cross-promotion potential alone, it seems as if Haoh got sucked in simply because a developer decided to reach out to their counterpart at another company over twitter. So that's in a way very cool, even if it does leave the question of the next possible guest more open than we would have previously though (or I would have anyway). You know, After Night In-Birth is a weapon fighter with a thriving community and an aesthetic that is not terribly imcompatable with SC....

 

[sytus]

If we got a guest instead of Li Long, I would say Kazuya Mishima to complete the triad of iron fist styles, since we’ve had Heihachi and Jin already.

I would be livid if that happened. Both are my boys but to have that happen would make me think someone up there is having a laugh mocking me.

 

[DanteSC3]

As far as Final Fantasy is concerned, we’ve had two recent examples of PS4 first, then PC, then Xbox and Switch, in Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age and World of Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy VII Remake may do this as well, and the amount of time it takes for the subsequent releases to happen might could coincide with when we’d actually get a season three.

 

[Rusted Blade]

As far as Final Fantasy is concerned, we’ve had two recent examples of PS4 first, then PC, then Xbox and Switch, in Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age and World of Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy VII Remake may do this as well, and the amount of time it takes for the subsequent releases to happen might could coincide with when we’d actually get a season three.

There's also the fact that even if FFVII remake does end up a console exclusive, that says absolutely nothing about who owns the license for those characters; Namco and Square-Enix will still be within their rights to reach an agreement for putting FFVII characters in any number of games on any number of consoles. I mean, technically, it's possible that the licensing agreements for FFVII Remake could include clauses about peripheral licensing for anything attached to that IP--but it's highly, highly improbable under these conditions.

In other words, even if FFVII Remake ends up being a PS4 console exclusive (and I kind of doubt it will stay that way), that doesn't mean that every FFVII character has to be console exclusive when appearing in a completely different product. In fact, given Square-Enix's bargaining power in this situation and the fact that it has numerous other FFVII products out there across a wide assortment of platforms, it's virtually impossible that they would have agreed to such a condition.

 

[Angrel-San]

I have faith that Edgemaster will be released eventually.

For Season 3, Rock, SC3 AE version of Li Long, Algol and new character.

 

[werewolfgold]

Just to complete the set, I'd want Li-Long, Rock, Lizardman, and Yun-seong. But if one of those has to go for a guest, I'd say Lizardman would be the likely culprit because you can already make jank versions of him in CAS and everyone else would have a more interesting Soul Chronicle. But, on the other hand, maybe they could just update the Lesser Lizardman move set and it'd be all the more easier for them to do.

Edge Master and Algol can sit out a game if it comes down to it.

As for other stuff to maybe be added to the game:

• Team Battle (It's already in Soul Chronicle and Libra. WTF are they doing?)
• 2P Outfits for everybody, even if they're mostly copypasta from SC4 and 5. Amy, Cassandra, Hilde, and Siegfried are already covered.
• Make it so custom outfits are selectable from the character on the screen like SC4 and 5 rather than having to sift through the creation menu
• Option to set music by character instead of stage

 

[RyujiSakamoto]

is there any way they can add Viola without it being incredibly convoluted? I feel that there is no way they can do so until a sequel for her to "fit". I can't imagine the SCV characters coming back with the way the story is now....

 

[sytus]

is there any way they can add Viola without it being incredibly convoluted? I feel that there is no way they can do so until a sequel for her to "fit". I can't imagine the SCV characters coming back with the way the story is now....

A dream sequence. Viola having flashbacks of her past battles but instead of her younger self, her avatar is her current self.

 

[Rusted Blade]

is there any way they can add Viola without it being incredibly convoluted? I feel that there is no way they can do so until a sequel for her to "fit". I can't imagine the SCV characters coming back with the way the story is now....

The most obvious choice I think would be to just accelerate her story beats so that her transformation takes place at an earlier point in time. That, or just set her narrative at a period that is quite a few years later than anything that has taken place in the soul chronicles thus far, perhaps just after she comes to her senses as Viola with no memory of her past. After all, if the narrative is going to present her as largely oblivious as to who she is and what has previously transpired, they could easily engineer the story (especially in generic, low-stakes Soulcalibur terms) to not need to give away too much/paint themselves into a corner for future storytelling. SCVII could be left to then discuss, via Amy's narrative, how Viola comes to be, presumably with heavy involvement from Azwel.

Honestly, if they held her in reserve for the very last reveal, and then just dropped her at the end of the story, selectively teasing through her soul chronicle where things are going to go, I would actually call that pretty clever narrative mechanic: as a fish out of water protagonist, her story can be presented in such away that its never confusing as to why its not more clear what exactly is going on, but each of her encounters can introduce a limited little window into what all has transpired for various characters in the intervening years (i.e. a period to be covered by SCVII and possibly other games). I think you could do worse for a conclusion to the game's narrative that leaves everyone curious and wanting more. it could also be a good time to drop 2Ps for a number of characters.

Also, unless something like Tifa as a guest happens, that last spot in this theoretically third season is likely to be proceeded by four straight male characters, if best guesses as to their contents hold true, so ending with a female character may be seen as desirable. The pre-SCV legacy cast is tapped in that regard after Setsuka, and of the SCV female characters, Viola is the only one who has been previously hinted at in SCVI, and has the best narrative justification for being utilized in this fashion. I don't know...I still don't think I see her as one of the most likely contenders and yet...as more and more time passes and increasingly unexpected (that is, not very SCI-ish) developments in the soul chronicles occur, the more realistic she seems.

And personally, I would be pretty happy. Her style was always one of the major silver linings in SCV--one of the magic movesets I can actually get fully behind. And hopefully the treatment of her style would be a little better than Amy's here, which I felt was too experimental and removed from her previous movesets. And I kind of like the idea of her progressing from being setup in this game, more fully explained in SCVII (whether it includes her in addition to Amy as a playable character or not); then SCVIII featuring perhaps both or perhaps just Viola; and eventually Amy getting her memory back, perhaps with the possibility of a hybrid duelist/oracle moveset--depending on how things work out, as early as SCVII or as late as SCIX (you know, in 2046, haha).

 

[Ramusu20]

The most obvious choice I think would be to just accelerate her story beats so that her transformation takes place at an earlier point in time. That, or just set her narrative at a period that is quite a few years later than anything that has taken place in the soul chronicles thus far, perhaps just after she comes to her senses as Viola with no memory of her past. After all, if the narrative is going to present her as largely oblivious as to who she is and what has previously transpired, they could easily engineer the story (especially in generic, low-stakes Soulcalibur terms) to not need to give away too much/paint themselves into a corner for future storytelling. SCVII could be left to then discuss, via Amy's narrative, how Viola comes to be, presumably with heavy involvement from Azwel.

Honestly, if they held her in reserve for the very last reveal, and then just dropped her at the end of the story, selectively teasing through her soul chronicle where things are going to go, I would actually call that pretty clever narrative mechanic: as a fish out of water protagonist, her story can be presented in such away that its never confusing as to why its not more clear what exactly is going on, but each of her encounters can introduce a limited little window into what all has transpired for various characters in the intervening years (i.e. a period to be covered by SCVII and possibly other games). I think you could do worse for a conclusion to the game's narrative that leaves everyone curious and wanting more. it could also be a good time to drop 2Ps for a number of characters.

Also, unless something like Tifa as a guest happens, that last spot in this theoretically third season is likely to be proceeded by four straight male characters, if best guesses as to their contents hold true, so ending with a female character may be seen as desirable. The pre-SCV legacy cast is tapped in that regard after Setsuka, and of the SCV female characters, Viola is the only one who has been previously hinted at in SCVI, and has the best narrative justification for being utilized in this fashion. I don't know...I still don't think I see her as one of the most likely contenders and yet...as more and more time passes and increasingly unexpected (that is, not very SCI-ish) developments in the soul chronicles occur, the more realistic she seems.

And personally, I would be pretty happy. Her style was always one of the major silver linings in SCV--one of the magic movesets I can actually get fully behind. And hopefully the treatment of her style would be a little better than Amy's here, which I felt was too experimental and removed from her previous movesets. And I kind of like the idea of her progressing from being setup in this game, more fully explained in SCVII (whether it includes her in addition to Amy as a playable character or not); then SCVIII featuring perhaps both or perhaps just Viola; and eventually Amy getting her memory back, perhaps with the possibility of a hybrid duelist/oracle moveset--depending on how things work out, as early as SCVII or as late as SCIX (you know, in 2046, haha).

You know... I said in the beginning of this thread that I wanted Viola. But after playing Amy's Soul Chronicle and seeing all those Viola's references, not to mention a few moves of Viola, I can say I'm pretty satisfied with this regarding her. What I mean is I won't be sad if Viola is not included, but I would absolutely love if she joins the roster :)

 

[Ramusu20]

You know... I said in the beginning of this thread that I wanted Viola. But after playing Amy's Soul Chronicle and seeing all those Viola's references, not to mention a few moves of Viola, I can say I'm pretty satisfied with this regarding her. What I mean is I won't be sad if Viola is not included, but I would absolutely love if she joins the roster :)

I also think all those references kinda deconfirm Viola to be in the game, because I believe they are aware they can't include SCV characters due timeline, but since Viola is the most popular character among the SCV newcomers, they decided to highly tease her in Amy story. No wonder why they teased Viola in Amy's trailer.

 

[DanteSC3]

is there any way they can add Viola without it being incredibly convoluted? I feel that there is no way they can do so until a sequel for her to "fit". I can't imagine the SCV characters coming back with the way the story is now....

I believe that Amy’s Soul Chronicle absolutely lo out Viola from appearing in SoulCalibur VI. Amy is going to effectively be one of the protagonists of SoulCalibur VII, and she can’t be that if she gets jumpstarted into Viola for some convoluted reason.

A Viola of the future having memories of the past, as was surmised above, also breaks the pattern that they’ve gone out of their way to keep, in that every story takes place before the events of SoulCalibur II even get off the ground. Viola doesn’t and won’t exist prior to those events, because Viola cannot justify an appearance prior to her transformation.

Cassandra of the future visiting her past self doesn’t break this, either, because the core of the story is still about present Cassandra, and future Cassandra isn’t the character who is on the roster, lest her moveset would be more like SoulCalibur IV or Lost Swords, and they went out of their way to make present day Cassandra obnoxiously different.

They can absolutely write any story they please, and they could even use Edge Master to send Natsu into the past to stop Taki from discovering her so that the fanbase won’t lose their shit if/when Natsu would replace their beloved booby-ninja in the future and have a good laugh at the irony of the situation, but that borders on absurd levels of silliness, so that won’t happen, not with their serious approach thus far.

Edit: Typo fix.

 

[Rusted Blade]

A Viola of the future having memories of the past, as was surmised above, also breaks the pattern that they’ve gone out of their way to keep, in that every story takes place before the events of SoulCalibur II even get off the ground. Viola doesn’t and won’t exist prior to those events, because Viola cannot justify an appearance prior to her transformation.

Nope, read again, because it seems you must have misread the first couple of paragraphs of that post in their entirety. I was not suggesting a far future Viola having flashbacks of the past, but rather a post-transformation Viola having encounters just after her transformation. Which, due to her lack of context, owing to her amnesia, might allow them to tell a story set a little later than the other soul chronicles (thus allowing for Viola to be playable without rushing her transformation for this or the next game) without completely giving away the game on future events (because she herself will have very little context for what is going on), while still allowing for some slight teasing of where certain characters might be at that point in time.

And no, I'm not saying this a terribly likely outcome, but that was not Ramusu's question: they asked if there was a way that Viola could be introduced into this game that wouldn't be highly convoluted. And as far as I can tell, if one were determined to add Viola, there would be only two straightforward ways to do that: 1) just accelerate her plot, or 2) leverage Viola's amnesia to create a vignette soul chronicle set in the future but soon enough after her transformation that she doesn't know much about the state of the world, and thus there's a narrative excuse for just spoon feeding tidbits about where things are going, so the devs don't paint themselves into a corner on anything, but still get to end the game's narrative on a quasi-preview of the future. Which is, after-all, a very common narrative tool to end a story on.

If I was a content writer and the senior devs came to me and told me that they wanted Viola worked in to the story, because of some combination of her popularity among the remaining legacy characters and the fact that they just wanted to add her style in because they like her moveset and think it would add variety, that is how I would do it. And while I don't know that I'd put her super high on the probability list, I don't know that she's anywhere near as low as you put her because "it just doesn't work" with certain presumptions you have about their narrative priorities. I think with the right combination of financial motive and designer's interest in the moveset, they would add anybody, and the goofy story would just be expected to work around it. This is a game and a product first and foremost, after-all.

 

[DanteSC3]

No, I read what you said. The problem is, any post-transformation Viola is after SoulCalibur II, at the earliest, or even, devil’s advocate, Amy’s quest to save Raphael fails due to her falling prey to the transformation earlier, during SoulCalibur II. Either case breaks the standard that they’ve created for themselves, in that every Soul Chronicle must conclude before SoulCalibur II begins.

Your 1) just accelerate her plot is the devil’s advocate scenario I described above, because Amy’s Soul Chronicle, the latest Soul Chronicle we have, I might add, concludes with her still being Amy. So we have a bookend where she hasn’t transformed yet, and so she is excluded. Then your 2) leverage Viola's amnesia to create a vignette soul chronicle set in the future... is the first scenario I described above, where, at the earliest, it would have to be after SoulCalibur II where this is set, which would not be allowed by their current standards either.

The answer to the question if Viola can be included in SoulCalibur VI, assuming she follows the same rules as everybody else, which Project Soul has gone above and beyond to cement it in the hardest stone imaginable that they are staying the course, without any convoluted mess, is quite simply, no. They can do what they want, sure, but it would be more of a fit if they continued to follow their own rules. I would even take their decision to go with Hwang instead of Yun-seong as another indicator that they plan to continue on following their standards.

 

[Rusted Blade]

No, I read what you said.

Then I'm confused, because this:

A Viola of the future having memories of the past...

Is a description of something else entirely.

Anyway, moving on from here:

The problem is, any post-transformation Viola is after SoulCalibur II, at the earliest, or even, devil’s advocate, Amy’s quest to save Raphael fails due to her falling prey to the transformation earlier, during SoulCalibur II. Either case breaks the standard that they’ve created for themselves, in that every Soul Chronicle must conclude before SoulCalibur II begins.

You're begging the question here, in that your "standard" is just the rule you are asserting should be so, but the very question is whether they would move beyond that point. I'd also challenge your assertion that no previous part of anybody's narrative has gone beyond the events depicted in SCI: Cassandra's narrative clearly covers SCII events, as does Amy's (Amy is a child when we see her in the prologue movie of SCII, an event that clearly takes place early in Amy's SCVI chronicle (her age in SCIII also seems to be younger than that of her final age in SCVI). And the same for Hilde: her story clearly ends close enough to the events of SCIV that at least some portion of her narrative is virtually certain to have taken place contemporaneous with events in SCII and SCIII.

There are only two possible ways to resolve these facts: entire portions of the story take place earlier than they previously did, or certain events for certain characters now occur at different times, relative to those of other characters. Whichever it is, it invalidates your premise that there is a strict and inviolable standard here that precludes anyone not introduced before SCII being added. And honestly, I would have thought that Hilde would have disabused you of the belief that we could make grand proclamations about who will get in based on such an assertion.

Your 1) just accelerate her plot is the devil’s advocate scenario I described above, because Amy’s Soul Chronicle, the latest Soul Chronicle we have, I might add, concludes with her still being Amy. So we have a bookend where she hasn’t transformed yet, and so she is excluded.

Wait, what? How does that exclude anything? Viola's story would always have to take place after Amy's--there's never been any doubt about that.

Then your 2) leverage Viola's amnesia to create a vignette soul chronicle set in the future... is the first scenario I described above, where, at the earliest, it would have to be after SoulCalibur II where this is set, which would not be allowed by their current standards either.

Again, you're begging the question. And I might add, that all of this is premised on your belief that the events of the previous games will be absolutely, unerringly (and boringly) repeated, ad nauseum--a belief the rest of us as a class pretty much completely reject. In fact, I'd go farther and say that the last few Soul Chronicles have already clearly demonstrated events that are either absolutely at variance with the previous story or which heavily imply such a variance.

But even if the auto-pilot repeat was the objective, that would still not rule out a soul chronicle that took place later in the narrative (that's just your rule) and the entire selling point of an immediately-post-transformation/amnesiac Viola is that it permits for preview chapter that doesn't create many problems for the future storytelling. Which is A) what Ramusu was inquiring about, and B) really the only practical issue here: there is no reason to believe that a rule you believe you perceive will hold, nor is "they haven't done it yet" a compelling argument--they hadn't added a SCIV original character until Hilde either, and they hadn't had a late-series tie-in until future Cassandra came back. Clearly the farther they get in, the more the classic vibe is eroding.

The answer to the question if Viola can be included in SoulCalibur VI, assuming she follows the same rules as everybody else, which Project Soul has gone above and beyond to cement it in the hardest stone imaginable that they are staying the course, without any convoluted mess, is quite simply, no. They can do what they want, sure, but it would be more of a fit if they continued to follow their own rules. I would even take their decision to go with Hwang instead of Yun-seong as another indicator that they plan to continue on following their standards.

Eh, those sound more like the standards which would match up most cleanly your over-arching theories regarding the plot, and which you are putting in the devs' mouths. They certainly have said nothing explicit about having such standards, and as to contextual evidence in the plot itself, most of us think the 'absolute redux' is already a dead-in-the-water theory based on the contents of the recent soul chronicles (and never was that likely to begin with).


Anyway, I'm stating all of the above to play devil's advocate to some claims you make about what "absolute cannot happen" (or sometimes only slightly more softly phrased as "they would clearly never do that"/"they have clearly decided not to do that") That's just way too much of an overstatement of the certainty of your pet theory. There are any number of reasons why they may choose to include here, and any number of ways to bend the plot to accommodate that if they choose to. Do I think she is the most likely character? No, I think there are probably three, four, maybe five characters that are more likely than she is to take one of those last three or four legacy spots. But is it a "they would never even think about it" kind of situation? Not remotely. She's a popular character as the remaining legacy characters go, her moveset is unique and would bring a lot to the game mechanically, she's the only remaining female legacy character after Setsuka who is alive early enough to be added, and her story (particularly if she is added last) could be a narrative bridge to future installments, giving a little glimpse of the future--which is a pretty standard story trope in pop speculative fiction.

 

[DanteSC3]

Alright, getting back to this thread, sorry for the delay. I saw/read this post yesterday, but it was in the middle of my Yakuza Kiwami session, and I was going to respond to it when I finished, but my internet decided to go on the fritz, and I wasn't going to type this on my phone, so... I slept.

You're begging the question here, in that your "standard" is just the rule you are asserting should be so, but the very question is whether they would move beyond that point. I'd also challenge your assertion that no previous part of anybody's narrative has gone beyond the events depicted in SCI: Cassandra's narrative clearly covers SCII events, as does Amy's (Amy is a child when we see her in the prologue movie of SCII, an event that clearly takes place early in Amy's SCVI chronicle (her age in SCIII also seems to be younger than that of her final age in SCVI). And the same for Hilde: her story clearly ends close enough to the events of SCIV that at least some portion of her narrative is virtually certain to have taken place contemporaneous with events in SCII and SCIII.

There are only two possible ways to resolve these facts: entire portions of the story take place earlier than they previously did, or certain events for certain characters now occur at different times, relative to those of other characters. Whichever it is, it invalidates your premise that there is a strict and inviolable standard here that precludes anyone not introduced before SCII being added. And honestly, I would have thought that Hilde would have disabused you of the belief that we could make grand proclamations about who will get in based on such an assertion.

And I'll defend my position that I'm only going by what they've shown me. There is a bias in my beliefs, to be certain, and there's no illusion that there isn't, before I say anything else, but... Cassandra's story doesn't cover SoulCalibur II events, because everything she did predates the birth of Pyrrha and Patroklos, which is between SoulCalibur and SoulCalibur II. There's some mirroring in what she does, but it's not the same. This Cassandra stole Sophitia's old weapons from SoulBlade, while SoulCalibur II Cassandra stole Sophitia's reforged weapons from SoulCalibur. This jaunt about her getting god power blessings in the weapons and her visited by her future self is "new", but it's still all before SoulCalibur II.

Amy's doesn't either, as that child version of Amy in the SoulCalibur II opening is a prologue of sorts to Raphael's story, as that Raphael is also before the beginning of SoulCalibur II, being chased by the soldiers. Chronologically, it doesn't clash. Amy's SoulCalibur III appearance versus what she looks like in SoulCalibur VI, I feel is mostly a design clash and the general ever-expanding proportions of SoulCalibur. Compare SoulCalibur VI Talim to SoulCalibur II Talim, and you'll see a similar discrepancy, or any other female character, for that matter. But no, if you consult with Raphael's SoulCalibur II bio, it covers the events that we saw play out for the first time in SoulCalibur VI, of child Amy saving Raphael, and she becomes a teenager by SoulCalibur II-IV time.

Hilde's is the only one that's a bit ambiguous, because there's some sort of a timeskip during her last chapter, the part where Wilhelm departs and then the part where Hilde addresses her people. She speaks of Nightmare returning, but it isn't clear if she's referring to Siegfried coming back for SoulCalibur II (my interpretation, of course) or the Nightmare from SoulCalibur IV. The only thing that really makes it uncertain is that she's wearing her SoulCalibur IV armor in the scene, where in even just before, where Wilhelm leaves, she's still wearing her SoulCalibur VI armor. It could be extrapolated, however, that her SoulCalibur IV armor is her official armor when she ascended the throne, though why it's less gaudy than what she had before is anyone's guess. Hilde's got a long-standing grudge against Nightmare, so her bout with the one from SoulCalibur IV is not her first. You could say it's a "retcon", but that's more in-line with everything else they've done, using SoulCalibur VI as if everything created after SoulCalibur existed, but was in SoulCalibur.

So no, my stance hasn't changed, everything in SoulCalibur VI is before SoulCalibur II begins, and everything to come is almost certainly as well.

Wait, what? How does that exclude anything? Viola's story would always have to take place after Amy's--there's never been any doubt about that.

Because Amy's SoulCalibur VI story concludes right at the precipice of SoulCalibur II, and it can't possibly go any further, due to the standards set.

Again, you're begging the question. And I might add, that all of this is premised on your belief that the events of the previous games will be absolutely, unerringly (and boringly) repeated, ad nauseum--a belief the rest of us as a class pretty much completely reject. In fact, I'd go farther and say that the last few Soul Chronicles have already clearly demonstrated events that are either absolutely at variance with the previous story or which heavily imply such a variance.

I haven't been led to believe otherwise, so I'm not sure why it's so alien to believe that history will repeat itself. We have Cassandra and Zasalamel with knowledge of the future, but that's really it. No one else is the wiser, and they won't be, as both of them are sworn themselves to secrecy. As it stands, due to this, because of this, or in spite of this, history could still very well repeat itself, because the majority of the cast is unaware that they are repeating themselves, so they have no reason to behave differently, unless they are given external stimulus by some overarching change, in the bigger picture. So far, this has not happened.

SoulCalibur VI could very well have started to make the changes to set up the future, but they didn't. They gave us hints and teases about both a new future (Cassandra, Zasalamel) as well as the future we already know (Raphael, Amy, Siegfried). It's like they covered their bases for both scenarios, and so SoulCalibur VII will be the game to have real answers one way or the other. It stands to reason that all remaining SoulCalibur VI content will continue to do as the content up until now has done, playing it safe, catering to fans, and not rocking the boat too much.

But even if the auto-pilot repeat was the objective, that would still not rule out a soul chronicle that took place later in the narrative (that's just your rule) and the entire selling point of an immediately-post-transformation/amnesiac Viola is that it permits for preview chapter that doesn't create many problems for the future storytelling. Which is A) what Ramusu was inquiring about, and B) really the only practical issue here: there is no reason to believe that a rule you believe you perceive will hold, nor is "they haven't done it yet" a compelling argument--they hadn't added a SCIV original character until Hilde either, and they hadn't had a late-series tie-in until future Cassandra came back. Clearly the farther they get in, the more the classic vibe is eroding.

It's not my rule. I didn't make it, I've just observed what's been given to us so far and reported on it. To have a story breach the start of SoulCalibur II would be to start a new trend. Not impossible, no, but nothing has done it yet, so I'm not sure why, all the other content playing by that rule, all of a sudden, why Viola would be allowed to break it. The bigger issue lies with that it's presumed that Amy will continue to be Amy through, at the absolute bare minimum, barring a story divergence, the events of SoulCalibur II. She could transition either during or after the events of SoulCalibur II, or even make it all the way through SoulCalibur IV. As of right now, we do not know. But Viola will not exist prior to SoulCalibur II, and that's the important key factor in deciding whether or not she's allowed to have a story in SoulCalibur VI. I've explained above why Cassandra and Hilde also aren't breaking anything, as they are. I'm also not really convinced that Setsuka would have anything in her story that would break anything, and Hwang certainly won't.

The other folks who don't have stories, 2B and Haohmaru, are justified in not having them, not because they're guests, but because their stories take place in the distant future and the not-so-distant-but-still-distant-enough future where they cannot coincide with the events of the present. Geralt got a pass because he caught a portal from his world into SoulCalibur's world, which is also our world. Both Nier and Samurai Shodown also use our world as a base, much like SoulCalibur does, but The Witcher does not, which is what allowed it to be the exception for guests having stories. I guarantee you that if we actually got a period-specific guest from another franchise, they could and would probably have a story. But that's the thing, they may have chosen the guests specifically because they couldn't have a story, to save the costs/time to make a story, to put some real-world logic to it.

Eh, those sound more like the standards which would match up most cleanly your over-arching theories regarding the plot, and which you are putting in the devs' mouths. They certainly have said nothing explicit about having such standards, and as to contextual evidence in the plot itself, most of us think the 'absolute redux' is already a dead-in-the-water theory based on the contents of the recent soul chronicles (and never was that likely to begin with).

Of course they do, as is the nature of any such speculation, you speak from your heart, what you believe is happening and what you believe will happen. I'm calling it like I see it. No, they haven't said it explicitly, and they won't, because they're leaving their options open. Same goes for this being a "reboot", they pretty much went silent on that soon after Okubo's statement that "reboot" wasn't really the correct term to use, which is what spurred my beliefs in the first place. The game has done almost nothing but support me at every turn, save Cassandra's and Zasalamel's potential influence.

As for the "absolute redux" thing, as I mentioned above, it is that, except they have more things to work with now than what they did back in the late 90s. They used everything that has been created before, during, and after SoulCalibur to remake SoulCalibur into a "what it would have been" if all of that stuff had existed from the beginning. That's my position, if I'm not being clear enough. Cassandra's goal to save Sophitia, albeit with information that she may or may not have had before, hasn't changed. Zasalamel's goal has changed, to cultivate humanity instead of just wishing for his own death, but you could even see his cultivating humanity notion in his SoulCalibur IV ending, where he exists in the future where business suits and helicopters do, and he's still doing his overseer time lord thing. So this could be a jumpstart rather than a change, a way to avoid revisiting Abyss, perhaps to give Night Terror center stage for the canon this go-around. SoulCalibur III never was really clear as to what exactly happened during its ending, whether it was canon to fight Abyss or to fight Night Terror, and Night Terror definitely exists in canon, while Abyss didn't return to SoulCalibur IV, sooo... yeah.

Anyway, I'm stating all of the above to play devil's advocate to some claims you make about what "absolute cannot happen" (or sometimes only slightly more softly phrased as "they would clearly never do that"/"they have clearly decided not to do that") That's just way too much of an overstatement of the certainty of your pet theory. There are any number of reasons why they may choose to include here, and any number of ways to bend the plot to accommodate that if they choose to.

I stand by my convictions pretty heavily, I guess, is all I can really say about it. It's the way I'd prefer it happen, for various reasons, and they've more than framed things in a way that they seem to be on the same page, or at least in the same book, as I am. At the end of the day, yes, if they want to include Viola, they will, and they'll write in a way to make it happen. I've never said that they couldn't. But that also was not the original question, either. It was, and I quote:

is there any way they can add Viola without it being incredibly convoluted? I feel that there is no way they can do so until a sequel for her to "fit".

No, they cannot do it without it being incredibly convoluted. Our back and forth about what they're doing, what they plan to do, what they can do, etc., should more than be evidence enough to quantify that statement. There is not a way to "fit" Viola into the story of before SoulCalibur II, which is the story of SoulCalibur VI (from the end of SoulBlade to the beginning of SoulCalibur II), unless they pull something completely out of left field like time travel, portals, memory transmission, deadly premonition, what have you. And they certainly can and are within their rights to do so, I'm not disputing that. It's just that as it stands, Viola showing up, saying, "Hey guys, I exist now." (except super cryptically with references to the moon and wine), wouldn't be something that I would consider normal or well-reasoned.

Do I think she is the most likely character? No, I think there are probably three, four, maybe five characters that are more likely than she is to take one of those last three or four legacy spots. But is it a "they would never even think about it" kind of situation? Not remotely. She's a popular character as the remaining legacy characters go, her moveset is unique and would bring a lot to the game mechanically, she's the only remaining female legacy character after Setsuka who is alive early enough to be added, and her story (particularly if she is added last) could be a narrative bridge to future installments, giving a little glimpse of the future--which is a pretty standard story trope in pop speculative fiction.

Gameplay is the only thing she really has going for her, honestly. But you could say the same of Z.W.E.I., and we both know how you feel about him. They were both reasonably popular, far more popular than the kids who replaced the veterans. Viola more popular than Z.W.E.I. for a few different reasons, but practically speaking, Z.W.E.I. was, hands down, the worst character of SoulCalibur V, and support was dropped before he could be retooled into a competitive beast. He could stand to see a second chance, his style brought up to speed, especially with SoulCalibur VI's gimmick appeal and general flashiness, Z.W.E.I. would feel right at home. But I harp on about Z.W.E.I. because she and Viola are practically joined at the hip, as it relates to their character identities, and having one without the other would feel strange. Which is, to the core of my beliefs, why I will stand by the feeling that they plan to hold on to Viola (and Z.W.E.I.) for the sequel. They teased Amy traveling with a male companion on her quest to save Raphael for the SoulCalibur II events. It is very likely that this gentleman will be the one who will turn out to be Z.W.E.I., whoever he is at the present time (ooo mystery).

And I'll put this here, because it addresses the last thing you said:

Is a description of something else entirely.

It was a possible interpretation of what you said, in that any Viola would be necessarily from the future (as she is Amy and Amy is Viola, and Amy, right now, is pretty busy being Amy), and the framing for such a story would thus need to be her recalling her past, or at least trying, with her memory loss issues. This kind of plot revelation, however, I feel is more appropriate for when we get back to her, she does get her memories back (if she does), and is ruminating to herself the events that transpired to lead her to her current state.

Edit: Typo fix.

 

[FleshMasher]

TL;DR :P

 

[DanteSC3]

TL;DR :P

tl;dr version — SoulCalibur VII is gonna be a doozy and might be Viola’s home, but her chances at SoulCalibur VI are relatively slim, due to narrative constraints. Unless they want her in anyway, in which case they’re free to do as they’d please, but it would be a convoluted mess. Also Z.W.E.I. needs more love.

 

[RyujiSakamoto]

TL:DR Rock has a better chance than Viola to be DLC

 

[Ramusu20]

I did read somewhere that Okubo liked a tweet that mentions another Samurai Shodown character as a suggestion for a possible Season 3. It seems like Okubo wants to do a S3, but maybe he can't tell if he will be able to do one...