What a pleasant surprise to see my main return to the stage of history. I'm glad Project Soul put him in the base roster, where he belongs.
Looks like I'm one of the few who likes his design. He looks classy and the glasses suit him well, which also sets him apart from the rest of the cast design-wise. However, I do wish he would've had a sash similar to the one from his SCII/SCV 1P, as it looks a bit incomplete without it. I'm already getting sick of everyone trashing his outfit even though it looks fine... It's a shame the colours don't really match the artwork, especially for Cervantes.
I'm going to enjoy Raphael's moveset in this game. Apparently he can do Critical Edge and Reversal Edge during Preparation, and he can cancel Reversal Edge into a stance, which is very neat. Overall, he seems to have gained some extra stance transitions into Preparation, including a low attack and he seems slightly more complex than in SCV. I like how he has a BBBB string, a Guard Break property for Shadow Evade B, that his 1K low sweep can be done from neutral again, and that he has multiple just frames. It's also nice to see he has two of his older stances again. His Critical Edge and Reversal Edge animations look very cool. The only thing I don't like, is that his SCV 33KB seems to be removed. It's a great whiff punisher and the BE version was one of his best moves (one of the best in the whole game, in fact).