Rusted Blade
[14] Master
I doubt Raiden is likely to ever be licensed out by a company owned by Warner Bros.; as far as I can tell, they like to be the ones doing the licensing. Are there Mortal Kombat cross-overs that I'm forgetting, other than the ones NetherRealm or another WB Games studio developed?
Noctis is also unlikely, having already been tapped for Tekken--if he was going to be licensed again (which we can't be certain Square-Enix would even agree to) they would have done it in the base game, as is evidenced by the fact that Azwel, a knock-off Noctis (Knockoftis?) exists: he is pretty clearly the expression of a frustration that Okubo and co. must have had that the Noctis license was negotiated for Tekken when the character so obviously would have fit better as a thematic and gameplay matter, in Soulcalibur. Not that I blame Namco personally; time was of the essence to make that cross-promotion viable and better Tekken than nothing. The thing is, that same time constraint might mean we win out big here. Because I suspect that if Square were going to be tapped for yet another character, we might well end up with a FFVII remake character. I think it would make for beautiful symmetry if that were Tifa; afterall, Tekken got the FF character who most obviously fits in Soulcalibur, so why not invert the formula here? I also just really want a brawler style in the game. Well, it's a fantasy, but a marginally realistic one, I think.
Now Bushido Blade is an awesome game, don't get me wrong: the fact that it didn't survive into further iterations is one of the great misfortunes in the history of this genre of game. But let's be realistic: the second and last Bushido game was released more than 22 years ago; this is not a property that is on Namco's radar for a cross-promotion. I also kind of would not want to see that, and hear me out as to why. Around 1997, there were two popular armed 3D fighter sims, which adopted radically different approaches to the question of how to represent armed combat. One, borrowing from the traditional fighter mold (and a common game mechanic) went with a "hit point" model, where singular blows were not necesarily lethal or even typically debilitating; until your life was whittled down, you were as spry and deadly as at the beginning of the round. This is of course our community's raison d'etre, Soulcalibur, long may its continuing support markets persist.
But Bushido Blade took an entirely different stab at the question of what happens when you, uh, stab something. :) In Bushido Blade, most fights end in a second with the very first strike of the match, and even non-lethal blows are likely to leave limbs maimed and disabled. It's by far the more realistic system--I mean, we are all pretty clearly desensitized to the silliness of someone being stabed six to eight times through the head and torso with a two-foot-wide blade, be thrown off a cliff and then be standing eagerly for the next round, but even for somebody who has been playing these games for close to 25 years, sometimes the cognitive dissonance brakes through.
I can't imagine ever not having continued playing Soulcalibur, even if Bushdio Blade hadn't faded into obscurity almost immediately after the second game. But for my money, Bushido Blade is just a more interesting study on realistically rendering actual classical armed combat. And, bringing this long-winded diatribe around back on course, I feel like it would be almost distasteful to put a Bushido Blade character into an entry in a series that represents the mass-appeal/expected approach that beat it into non-existence! Unless of course they designed it such that said guest character kills with the first blow to the head or torso, but also similarly dies to all similar blows, hahah--that I would really pay for! :,)
Yeah, I'm more worried for Season Three if I am honest: I think that Season Three was probably all but officially greenlit, given the apparent performance of the continuing support model for all of Namco's current generation of fighters, and the fact that they and other publishers in this genre have long wanted this to be the default approach for fighters, and consumers are finally beginning to ease up about the idea. But now? Eeeesh. I'm not sure what the industry is going to look like in seven or eight months, likely in the middle of a deep recession and with the esports scene that was helping to carry the load of promoting the DLC probably also in recovery. I think we'll get Season 2 only somewhat off schedule, but I really worry about whether there will be Season Three now, while a little over three months ago, it seemed a sure thing.
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