DanteSC3
[14] Master
That's the thing, though, like in my example about Amy and Viola as would be in this game, Siegfried starts at the very beginning as Siegfried, becomes Nightmare, and then becomes Siegfried again. At the end of this game, he is Siegfried. If there's no justification to bring Nightmare back (but there will be, see SoulCalibur II, SoulCalibur III, and SoulCalibur IV), then SoulCalibur VII would only logically have Siegfried, but not Nightmare. It's not odd that characters being one in the same coexist in the same game where they both do, in fact, appear as either identity in the same game.True but in SCVI (and SCI), Sieg and Night are the same so they shouldn't coexist, yet nobody seems to find it odd (which is perfectly fine). Viola and Amy being the same person and both available to fight each other is "as odd" as Sieg and Night ^^
The game spans on several years, there's no big deal in adding two characters who are the same and play differently, so let's not focus on "how chronogically correct" it is, but rather on "how complete" the game would be once we have all the fighting styles from the previous game ^^
Just like how having Nightmare and Raphael both was okay in SoulCalibur V, though that story was incomplete, if it was complete, then we would have seen Raphael regain control of his body and pursue Amy in the story after Nightmare was defeated and discarded off the ledge by Z.W.E.I., who was then knocked off the same ledge by Pyrrha. That's where the idea that Raphael and Z.W.E.I. would have worked together to find Viola and Amy comes from.
So it's not an issue right now, in the game that does span multiple years, but in SoulCalibur VII, which would start in 1590 and move forward to... we don't really know, but at least 1591, probably a few years after to show the aftermath of the events of SoulCalibur IV, then for two versions of the same character to exist, then both versions of the same character would both need to be involved in those years of the story.
I agree with you that it would be better, as a game, to be fully inclusive, and include everyone, but if someone is canonically killed off or transformed permanently into another state, then it doesn't make lore sense for them to be here, and the older SoulCalibur games would have an easier time getting away with that than SoulCalibur VI, and presumably SoulCalibur VII, would, with how seriously they're taking the story now, where every event shown in any story mode is canon, with no what-if scenarios and false endings.