With Zasalamel returning, and undoubtedly Tira and Astaroth, I think I'm beginning to see where they want to take the story now and it definitely seems like it'll be more in a direction that the Soul series has always struggled with; an actual bonafide villainous organization.
Sure, Soul Calibur has touted in the past with the Cult of Ares, Lizardmen and all, but where SC3 actually gave us a full-on follower for Nightmare in the form of Tira, the series has never really given us a strong villainous front. There's obvious villains, but never have they really truly felt organized or menancing enough to be a credible. More or less, aside from Tira, the villains are basically doing their own villain thing.
Not at all. In SC4, they're all pretty much working together, Tira, Astaroth, Voldo and a very sad Sophitia are all working for Nightmare, in addition to that, all of them have their specific followers, from minor isolated characters like Azola and Solnhofen to Astaroth's guards and Voldo's Shadows. So there was actually quite an army of evil guys.
This of course, also brings up the issue of whether Ares will continue to be retconned out of the series from SC2 onwards or if he'll have another role. One wonders if Groh's father will end up being the mastermind of this new villainous bunch and if that's the case, I can kinda see who and who isn't coming back for SC6's initial roster. Zasalamel's role in this retelling may be less personal and more overarching as he may end up being the so-called "Edgemaster"/Guide in bringing the heroes together to defeat Soul Edge, or perhaps manipulate the inevitable conflict.
I really hope Ares is not retconned, the idea of a god interfering with the lifes of the characters is cool and he would be a great boss. Also, speculating about Groh or his father right now is fairly pointless, at least until we actually get a story trailer.
As a small aside, I don' t think Z is connected with the Aval organization, and to once again reiterate, Zasalamel is not Egyptian, but Sumarian. Ancient Uruk, Iraq. The names of all his moves are a key indicator of his origins and always have been. The Aval Organization seems to be rooted in Nordic realms but could have originated elsewhere, but Zasalamel - if he were a member of the organization, even its Grandmaster - probably would have had some iconography in his character art, and there's no indication of that.
Thank goodness, because the idea of Zasalamel suddenly becoming member of an organization we had never heard about is simply ridiculous.
I'm trying to verify any bit of this information in particular with my main SCVI source who's been spot on so far, especially the very specific stuff they might be able to find out, vet and crossreference to give us all a better idea if this is true or not, but I wound up being contacted by someone new who claims to have a ton of Bandai Namco information today, making some pretty bold claims about various games, which I'll get into later elsewhere.
Hmmm, lets see what you got now:
But they had Soul Calibur VI information to share, which included:
- The full roster as far as they knew will be 22 characters at launch with 6 more as DLC (their information was admitted to be around a month old, which they mentioned something of later as to something that did change since they last knew)
Annoyingly low, but maybe it won't be too bad if the rest of the game delivers.
- Some specific characters they knew about included Hwang, Talim, Grøh's adoptive father is named Friderich, Maxi's lover named Jacker (and yes he is a guy), and Roronoa Zoro from the One Piece anime/manga as the guest.
There is no better opportunity to bring back an old character like Hwang, and I really hope they do, Yun-Seong is hot as fuck, but he is an idiot with really idiotic purposes. Hwang is easier to take seriously and, since he doesn't have much story, more flexible. Also, you mean, Frederic, maybe? Like Siegfried's father... weird, I really hope they don't suddenly force such a connection as in adoptive brother of Siegfried, it would suck. Also, Maxi's lover as a playable character? Well, that likely means he won't die as a backstory at least, but its still weird to add him. Zoro is somewhat fitting as a guest character, Okubo said in Kayane's interview that anime characters were a possibility, so there is that.
- 3 of the 6 DLC characters they knew about included Zasalamel, Cervantes, and that there would be a female guest character in the pack, which they mentioned the Zasalamel as DLC plans obviously changed last month.
Which means that the roster now may be of 23 characters and 5 more as DLC, unless, maybe, its still 6 more as DLC, you never know. Still, Cervantes feels like a weird choice for DLC, I know he isn't that much important right after the events of Soul Edge, but he is still a fairly popular character to be just DLC.
As I said, I'm currently in the process of trying to confirm any of this that's super specific like Jacker being the name of Maxi's lover, and if Friderich is the name of Grøh's papi for instance.
One thing I mentioned here last month was the rumblings of Zasalamel being changed to a launch roster character as he was originally DLC.
But wow if Cervantes is DLC, they really are being ballsy with this game's DLC choices....
Anyways, just take this new information with a grain of salt because it IS NOT FROM MY MAIN SOURCE aka the one who's been right on the money with this game so far. I am trying to see if any of this stuff lines up with my main source's info or if they can see if any of what this new person claims to have heard is legit.
Side thought: IF this new person's information is true, is this "Friderich" meant to be Frederick aka Siegfried's father? That would make Grøh Siegfried's brother. Not by blood since Grøh is the adoptive son as mentioned, but that's a very interesting monkey wrench thrown into the story now.
Well, we'll have to wait for more info.
I agree. I'm big on the lore and Siegfried's my favorite SC character next to Ivy. So them doing that would retcon a lot of things in regards to Siegfried's development, unless they just make Frederick playable and die in the story the same kind of way, which leads to problems between Siegfried (as Nightmare) and Grøh. But ehhhhhhh I don't know. The whole thing's weird.
Agreed on both points in regards to Ivy and Zasalamel.
As for the Jacker thing, I guess? Listing him alongside playable characters leads to the assumption, at least.
Indeed, giving Siegfried an adoptive brother out of nowhere is just weird if the guy was never mentioned before, if they added someone like Lucius Alexander, it would be different, but Groh and Siegfried as brothers is just weird. Well, Jacker could be just a bonus character, you never know, I just hope that, if he is included, he does more than being a lover to Maxi, it would suck to have a character become playable just for that.
I got a response from my main SCVI source regarding that stuff:
"They know about Groh's father, which shows they have some info right and 22 Characters sounds about right, but I was under the impression it was going to be 24 on launch. I did say Hwang had WAAAAYYY more chance of making it in over Yunseong to you.
His SC6 info while I can't confirm it does sound believable. I would just call it a rumor for now though and not confirmed.
I can't say anything about the Guest Character either, but I feel like I have seen something about Zoro in relation to this game. I wasn't told the name of Groh's dad yet, even if he was just an adoptive father or not."
So it's up in the air. Take that new information I was given with a grain of salt since my proven source can't confirm anything just yet.
It's a curious rumor for the time being.
Ha, I knew it, like I said, Hwang is much more flexible, they can give him a different personality and do lots of stuff with him without making him feel out of character, unlike Yun-Seong, who is already established as this young idiot deluded to think Soul Edge can do any good. Everything else, I guess we'll just have to wait.
