Soulcalibur VI DLC Discussion Thread

[Rusted Blade]

TLDR

Well I'm just crying a river of tears here, random dude on the internet I didn't know existed until this moment and who I definitely wasn't addressing, over the fact that you didn't read my random post about Soul Calibur marketing, and felt the need to let me know that you're not going to read it--seriously, my soul just aches. Happy holidays!

 

[Crash X]

Well I'm just crying a river of tears here, random dude on the internet I didn't know existed until this moment and who I definitely wasn't addressing, over the fact that you didn't read my random post about Soul Calibur marketing, and felt the need to let me know that you're not going to read it--seriously, my soul just aches. Happy holidays!

Happy holidays to you buddy. Do you plan to make a sweater out of those tears at all?

And no I wasn’t even directing my previous post to you. Otherwise I would have quoted yours and THEN posted mine after.

 

[Rusted Blade]

Happy holidays to you buddy. Do you plan to make a sweater out of those tears at all?

And no I wasn’t even directing my previous post to you. Otherwise I would have quoted yours and THEN posted mine after.

In that case, I apologize for the presumption, and the sarcastic response. I just couldn't see any other post which it might have been in response to, but crediting your response as an honest one, I gather the original comment was directed at the thread as a whole. I hope you'll take my apology.

 

[Alessa_Vice]

I don't want to think about next characters because it can disappoint me
But now big dissapointment for me is 2B's costumes body. Does anyone noticed what in CAS you can't make so thin and nice-looking body as this costumes gives? I hope namco will fix it

 

[SSfox]

At this point i think there is almost no doubt Amy and Cass will be the 2 next DLC characters.

 

[Benjafloozy]

a Kingdom Hearts character as another guest would be sooooo amazing

 

[Rusted Blade]

At this point i think there is almost no doubt Amy and Cass will be the 2 next DLC characters.

Frankly, I think that it was clear that they were the leading contenders even before the "slip-up" with the code, whether it was genuine or a clever bit of viral marketing. The only reason I wasn't certain those two would fill out the season is because it would mean an all-female DLC pack. But I suspected all along (after Tira and 2B being the first two releases) that they may go that route and then make season 4 an all-male release of four characters for parity. Now that we know what we know, I'll eat my hat if that's not what happens. And, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I think we have all the evidence we need to know basically which five or six contenders are likely to make it into those four spots. Sorry Setsuka and Hilde fans--better hope for that far outside chance of a season 3 or else better luck next time for SCVII (circa 2025).

a Kingdom Hearts character as another guest would be sooooo amazing

Aqua strikes me as the best fit. Although if they can find room for yet another sorcerous villain with spontaneosuly appearing/disappearing weapons, Master Xehanort, maybe? That's how you distinuish the old dude with the goatee from all of the other Xehanorts, right? It's impossible to keep track of even basic plot devices in that goofy story--hey, like Soul Calibur! See, perfect all around. But in all seriousness, I wonder just how many of its IPs Square is going to want to be licensing to Namco at once (or for that matter, how many characters Namco wants to cross-promote from one company rather than being more diverse) and Noctis is already in Tekken, so...

 

[Ardenwolf]

Frankly, I think that it was clear that they were the leading contenders even before the "slip-up" with the code, whether it was genuine or a clever bit of viral marketing. The only reason I wasn't certain those two would fill out the season is because it would mean an all-female DLC pack. But I suspected all along (after Tira and 2B being the first two releases) that they may go that route and then make season 4 an all-male release of four characters for parity. Now that we know what we know, I'll eat my hat if that's not what happens. And, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I think we have all the evidence we need to know basically which five or six contenders are likely to make it into those four spots. Sorry Setsuka and Hilde fans--better hope for that far outside chance of a season 3 or else better luck next time for SCVII (circa 2025).



Aqua strikes me as the best fit. Although if they can find room for yet another sorcerous villain with spontaneosuly appearing/disappearing weapons, Master Xehanort, maybe? That's how you distinuish the old dude with the goatee from all of the other Xehanorts, right? It's impossible to keep track of even basic plot devices in that goofy story--hey, like Soul Calibur! See, perfect all around. But in all seriousness, I wonder just how many of its IPs Square is going to want to be licensing to Namco at once (or for that matter, how many characters Namco wants to cross-promote from one company rather than being more diverse) and Noctis is already in Tekken, so...

No reason whatsoever to do all male with a season two, half the reason I suspect we got an all female DLC was to compensate for how sausage heavy the game itself was at launch. Making season two all male would make having done so pointless by undoing the whole point of an all female DLC. I personally suspect if there's a season two it'll be a mix of genders.

 

[DanteSC3]

I truly, honestly, with everything I have, believe that a season two would not include characters introduced in SoulCalibur III or SoulCalibur IV. They'll save that for SoulCalibur VII, to introduce them properly with story context. One of SoulCalibur V's biggest failings was not establishing the new cast properly. It wasn't necessarily just because they replaced fan favorites with newbies, but that they didn't establish those newbies, so we couldn't care about them properly. Sure, we already know who Setsuka, Hilde, Algol, and Dampierre are, but for people who don't, it's not good to just drop these folks in without any details about who they are and why you should care about them.

Zasalamel got in because he was left out completely in SoulCalibur V, no one replacing his style, and his story allows for him to exist in all of the timelines, so it's acceptable. Tira, on the other hand, is just incredibly popular, and her story also was written so that it existed in this timeline. Setsuka, however, does not have this liberty, and they could potentially leave her out of one game, because it's not like they've never done that before, so she's a consideration for someone who could receive this treatment. Hilde and Algol were mentioned, and so we know that they do exist, but this is not their time to act, as Hilde is not leaving her throne, for now at least, and Algol is not yet re-risen. Dampierre is an enigma, but not mentioned, not popular, likely not doing anything yet, it just can't really happen, I don't think.

SoulCalibur II is our grey area, because this timeline sets up but doesn't actually do SoulCalibur II. So Talim's inclusion in the story was stilted, because it's just a setup for her journey to come that hasn't happened yet. But, like Zasalamel, she needed to make the game, because she was completely left out of SoulCalibur V without any kind of representation. Raphael (and Amy) had plot before SoulCalibur II, a full story to tell, like Tira, so this inclusion was a lot easier to justify. Cassandra is more like Talim, in this regard, but if she gets a story of her own, we might at least get some more specifics on her exact motivations, maybe her interaction with the gods, there's some room for story in there...

...and then there's Yun-seong, who is mentioned once, while Hwang is out and about doing things. Between the two, for this timeline, Hwang makes all the more sense that could possibly ever be made for inclusion. Neither character was really represented in SoulCalibur V, but you can make the argument of mental gymnastics saying that Leixia represented them like Xiba represented Seong Mi-na, but... no, to people who play the characters, I'm sure we're in agreement that the Koreans were not represented at all in SoulCalibur V. Including a weapon or two is not good enough. So, on the grounds of Talim and Zasalamel making it, one of these two boys "deserves" to be included in a theoretical season two more than anyone else. And even if Hwang makes the most sense, Yun-seong probably would make it, regrettably, as his character has far more exposure and recognition. But then, one has to wonder why they put him in so much of SoulCalibur VI if he wasn't going to be playable. It's bizarre.

All that being said, all we really have, in my mind, for candidates for a season two, would be Hwang (or Yun-seong), Lizardman, Edge Master, and Rock. While the fans of these characters would rejoice. This, in itself, is really not a compelling reason to get invested or excited for a season two, which is why I don't believe that we will be getting a season two. They might jazz it up, and add a guest, and leave out Edge Master or Rock (seems more likely to leave out Rock, from a narrative perspective -- though the outcry of a mimic character being paid DLC would be huge, so Edge Master might could be representing his signature but not ever wielded longsword, possibly), and then a couple more armor packs, but... it just seems super unlikely to me.

 

[sytus]

Tira, on the other hand, is just incredibly popular

TBH Tira's popularity seems to be overblown, I see her less than Voldo, Astaroth, Cervantes. The only character I see less of than Tira is Maxi and I think that's more to do with his stances being confusing for most people than a dislike of his design.

 

[DanteSC3]

TBH Tira's popularity seems to be overblown, I see her less than Voldo, Astaroth, Cervantes. The only character I see less of than Tira is Maxi and I think that's more to do with his stances being confusing for most people than a dislike of his design.

It's possible, of course, but you can't deny that Tira being objectively the worst character in SoulCalibur VI also has Tira mains trying other characters to even stand a chance at being competitive. That has to do a lot with your not seeing her so often.

 

[sytus]

It's possible, of course, but you can't deny that Tira being objectively the worst character in SoulCalibur VI also has Tira mains trying other characters to even stand a chance at being competitive. That has to do a lot with your not seeing her so often.

I agree her no soul charging in gloomy is a mistake, hell IMO her RNG stance change needs to be ditched but even still this wouldn't stop people picking the character if there are a ton of fans out there of Tira.

 

[Rusted Blade]

No reason whatsoever to do all male with a season two, half the reason I suspect we got an all female DLC was to compensate for how sausage heavy the game itself was at launch. Making season two all male would make having done so pointless by undoing the whole point of an all female DLC. I personally suspect if there's a season two it'll be a mix of genders.

It could reasonably be simply a product of a gender imbalance in the base game roster, as you suggest, but I tend to think not, for a number of reasons. This kind of content has careful marketing and when there is an absolute gender bent to it, it tends to be by design. As to your suggestion that this is an orchestrated effort to balance the gender of the roster some, I think that's unlikely; the gender imbalance at launch is roughly comparable to previous games (which is to say, about 40% female, and 60% male, give or take a random genderless, or sometimes vaguely masculine, demon thing or two), so I doubt there was a perceived need to correct it to a near 50/50 parity (which would be unprecedented for the series) where it will be if your prediction of six female dlc characters, 2 male were to occur.

This just looks much more likely that it is a part of a sales angle to help further generate palatability for sequential season passes. Two DLC packs, same price point, and a roughly identical amount of content (3 series stalwart characters (with or without soul chronicle stories in general, we shall see), one guest character with a stage, and 100 CaS items), so the ultra petulant game content consumer has nothing to bitch about whether it's season one or season two. And one each devoted to female and then male gender, so that two different vocal sectors of the fanbase--those who would rabidly attack an all-female dlc for vaguely misogynistic reasons if it didn't have a male counterweight and those who want more female characters for reasons that range from respectable to salacious--also are effectively addressed.

Lastly, it fits in the larger framework of who would be likely to be chosen from the remaining characters who fit within the narrative arc and clear design priorities the devs have chosen so far, both as regards what they have divulged in interviews and what we see of SCVI as a product so far. After Amy and Cas are confirmed, we are left with passingly few characters who make for next logical choices, and virtually all of them are male. Setsuka, and Hilde both come significantly further into the original narrative than do Hwang, Rock, Li Long, Lizardman and Yun-seong. That's not even the end of the factors that all seem to be pointing in the same direction here, but I begin to feel like a broken record in this and the other two relevant threads on this topic. Suffice it to say, I think if we weigh all available evidence, we can arrive at a reasonable guess as to who the season two characters, should it come to pass, will be:

• An axe and shield wielding Aeon/Lizardman,
• Hwang or Yun-Seong, with the survivor maybe having some of the other's moves folded in, since Soul Charge allows for a deeper overall moveset,
• a male guest character (my guess: a returning Kratos, but truly this could be any one of three dozen roughly equally likely picks from currently hot and marketable properties whose owners will be open to cross promotion and who could be more or less easily translated into the Sou Calibur format), and
• Rock or Li Long,

There is also of course the possibility that there will be no further guest characters and that four stalwarts will fill out the second season. So could they slip Setsuka in there to satisfy some fans in place of the much less popular Li Long or Rock (some of the latter of whom's moves have been rolled into Astaroth now)? Yeah, it's possible. But if there ever were such a silly betting pool, I'd put money on the all male second season.

All that being said, all we really have, in my mind, for candidates for a season two, would be Hwang (or Yun-seong), Lizardman, Edge Master, and Rock. While the fans of these characters would rejoice. This, in itself, is really not a compelling reason to get invested or excited for a season two, which is why I don't believe that we will be getting a season two. They might jazz it up, and add a guest, and leave out Edge Master or Rock (seems more likely to leave out Rock, from a narrative perspective -- though the outcry of a mimic character being paid DLC would be huge, so Edge Master might could be representing his signature but not ever wielded longsword, possibly), and then a couple more armor packs, but... it just seems super unlikely to me.

I want to note that I think the majority of your observations in the first few paragraphs of your post here are spot on, and I'd like you to keep that in mind as I nevertheless savage your final conclusions in the bit quoted above. :) Because I think you may be a visitor from an alternate reality if you think there is any chance that they wouldn't be willing to find four characters to fill that roster if they decide a second season is a profitable move. Fighting game developers aren't moving slowly but unerringly towards a serialized bonus content format because it allows studios to fill out their rosters (but only where thematically and narratively appropriate) but because it allows the publisher (/typically parent company, as here) to extract a higher return on profit. See, in an industry where consumers have managed to freeze the perceived fair market value of a new release base game for about thirty years, during a period when production costs have sky-rocketed, making the kinds of profits large companies want to see (and to some degree depend upon) becomes harder and harder. Consider everything you have to do for the base game of SCVI, from the coding and production, the design of dozens of characters (the creation and production of their movesets from their design through animation, hitboxing and balance work), work on the basic engine, the creation of many thousands of arts assets including a soundtrack, thousands of modelled items and character features and a dozen levels, engineering the netcode, setting up serverside support and maintaining and patching the system thereafter, licensing, contract, business and administrative costs, initial marketing to get the new entry off the ground and make sure the whole thing is not an entire flop, the list goes on and on and on.

And for all of that Namco gets $60 per unit--for the first year or two anyway, provided the game does pretty well. It's a huge amount of cost and serious risk, even for larger companies. Now consider what they have to provide in a season pass: four characters, one stage, and 100 CaS items. And for that they get $20-30. And they can tailor the amount of content they release in this fashion according to demand as the seasons play out, and ditch further development for a given game at a point where their cost-benefit return is highest. It's way more profit relative to amount of work, time and resources expended, requires a smaller internal staff allocation (freeing up some talent for other IPs), involves a lot less financial risk, and allows for a measured release schedule responsive to market research. They would be absolute idiots not to do it, provided they are confident that they can meet a certain minimal buy-on threshold among the consumer base.

All of which is to say, if there was ever anybody on Project Soul who for some reason suggested they shouldn't do a season two because they couldn't narratively justify four solid characters for a second season (when SCIII alone had 40 playable characters with their own moveset), the Namco execs would make it clear that clueless designer (whatever their position) was not to be invited into any of the meetings with the adults any more. So long as it is profitable, they will keep releasing that content gravy train. It's up to us, as consumers, whether we make that new model worthwhile for them. Personally, I get so many hundreds upon hundreds of hours for each game in this franchise (probably thousands each for SCII and SCIV), I think I get my value's worth even if I have to pay more than games conventionally go for, and I'd keep buying characters at the current price point if they released six seasons roughly identical to the current one. I'm an outlier of course, so that's not going to happen. But I think a season two is virtually a lock now, based on what we've seen so far and upon the fact that Namco has been willing to do this with its other fighter properties of late.

Anyway, they still have plenty of characters to contemplate before they have reach towards SCV, SCIV, or even SCIII in terms of how far forward in the original story they come.

 

[Crash X]

It's possible, of course, but you can't deny that Tira being objectively the worst character in SoulCalibur VI also has Tira mains trying other characters to even stand a chance at being competitive. That has to do a lot with your not seeing her so often.

Nah, I’d say Astaroth is worse. He’s constantly fighting his lack of consistent hitboxes more so than his actual opponent. In his current state he honestly feels like he was rushed out the door.

 

[Klimat]

Frankly, I think that it was clear that they were the leading contenders even before the "slip-up" with the code, whether it was genuine or a clever bit of viral marketing. The only reason I wasn't certain those two would fill out the season is because it would mean an all-female DLC pack. But I suspected all along (after Tira and 2B being the first two releases) that they may go that route and then make season 4 an all-male release of four characters for parity. Now that we know what we know, I'll eat my hat if that's not what happens. And, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I think we have all the evidence we need to know basically which five or six contenders are likely to make it into those four spots. Sorry Setsuka and Hilde fans--better hope for that far outside chance of a season 3 or else better luck next time for SCVII (circa 2025).

Nah, I'm pretty sure Project Soul don't give a flying damn if their seasons end up being all female, all male or all Charade. It's all about individual merit and character popularity. Japan thankfully hasn't gone crazy with gender nonsense yet like some other countries did in recent years. The most popular characters left from vanilla SC6 happened to be all females, so there goes the season pass. Why were they left from SC6 in the first place? Because SC6 is a remake of SC1, so it made sense to not initially include SC2/3/4 characters.
I bet if we ever get Season 2 it is guaranteed to have Yun-seong, Setsuka and Hilde. The rest of the pass is up for a debate and also depends on how many characters we can expect in total to begin with. We can get a proper Lizardman/Aeon (I would have no doubs about his inclusion if not for the fact that Lesser Lizardman is already in the game and could potentially stay the way he already is), or we can get another guest, or maybe a new character completely (maybe one based on Viola's fighting style, or maybe not). I think SC5 inventions are not coming back in their original forms no matter the popularity though due to lore reasons and for the same reason I don't think we'll ever see Algol in SC6 (you don't just casually drop a final boss of one of the games in a late DLC). Rock and Li Long are toasted since nobody likes them and they are way too similar to other better characters on top of it. La Bello is unfortunately most probably also toasted due to low popularity alone (which is a shame).

 

[Rusted Blade]

Nah, I'm pretty sure Project Soul don't give a flying damn if their seasons end up being all female, all male or all Charade. It's all about individual merit and character popularity. Japan thankfully hasn't gone crazy with gender nonsense yet like some other countries did in recent years. The most popular characters left from vanilla SC6 happened to be all females, so there goes the season pass. Why were they left from SC6 in the first place? Because SC6 is a remake of SC1, so it made sense to not initially include SC2/3/4 characters.
I bet if we ever get Season 2 it is guaranteed to have Yun-seong, Setsuka and Hilde. The rest of the pass is up for a debate and also depends on how many characters we can expect in total to begin with. We can get a proper Lizardman/Aeon (I would have no doubs about his inclusion if not for the fact that Lesser Lizardman is already in the game and could potentially stay the way he already is), or we can get another guest, or maybe a new character completely (maybe one based on Viola's fighting style, or maybe not). I think SC5 inventions are not coming back in their original forms no matter the popularity though due to lore reasons and for the same reason I don't think we'll ever see Algol in SC6 (you don't just casually drop a final boss of one of the games in a late DLC). Rock and Li Long are toasted since nobody likes them and they are way too similar to other better characters on top of it. La Bello is unfortunately most probably also toasted due to low popularity alone (which is a shame).

Well, about a third of the base roster is actually SCII/SCIII, while there are obvious SE/SCI absenses, so clearly the "only characters who would make sense for a SCI reboot" rule is pretty far from absolute. But I agree with you insofar as the DLC drops so far (if Amy and Cassie turn are ultimately confirmed as expected) have tended to follow the principle of filing in characters from earlier in the overall-narrative. And let me be clear about why I think we are likely to have two gender specific seasons: it's not because I think they set out to do this from day one, but rather that, once they got into the final stages of development on the base game, they realized they had about ten legacy characters left who realistically made any large degree of sense being in SCVI. One or two of these would need to be dropped for the purpose of accommodating a guest character, but that still left five obvious male candidates and five obvious female candidates, and that if they chose three to four for each season (again per accommodating a guest in at least one or maybe both of the first two seasons), it only made sense to divide them accordingly, because a matched set with a thematic divide makes for a good marketing strategy. And once they knew 2B was the next guest character, the female character season pass (which would also allow them to introduce three huge fan favourites: Tira, Amy, and Cassie) became the default choice. Think about it this way: most of the remaining likely choices actually appear in the story before the three legacy characters found in the first season, and yet for some reason they are being introduced first. Now again, we have to contend with the fact that the base game has been willing to flub some dates and details in the rebooted narrative, in terms of consistency with the original, but I still believe this is yet more evidence that particular marketing factors have dictated the order here, even if the character choices are a product more of Project Soul's notions on the best thematic and gameplay fits.

There's just so many different overlapping forms of evidence that, once you consider those overlays, I believe make the form of season two an almost foregone conclusion, provided it occurs at all (which will certainly depend in large part on season one's sales, though I daresay PS is already well into the planning/early development stages for some of the season 2 content). Honestly, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that my projection is by far the more accurate, but since even that kind of silly bet is impracticable here, I'll make you the same good-natured wager I made to someone else in this thread earlier: pick another character to round out your four and we'll compare it against mine in a year and a half's time (or whenever we know the season pass 2 characters) and whichever of us is the more accurate gets to pick the other person's main for a couple of months. :) Confident enough to put your "soul" on the line? After looking at this from all available angles that I've been able to identify, I believe my selection is by far the most likely.

 

[Klimat]

I'll make you the same good-natured wager I made to someone else in this thread earlier: pick another character to round out your four and we'll compare it against mine in a year and a half's time (or whenever we know the season pass 2 characters, and whichever of us is the more accurate gets to pick the other person's main for a couple of months. :) Confident enough to put your "soul" on the line? After looking at this from all available angles that I've been able to identify, I believe my selection is by far the most likely.

Let's do this.
Just to keep it all in one place, here are your bets:

• An axe and shield wielding Aeon/Lizardman,
• Hwang or Yun-Seong, with the survivor maybe having some of the other's moves folded in, since Soul Charge allows for a deeper overall moveset,
• a male guest character (my guess: a returning Kratos, but truly this could be any one of three dozen roughly equally likely picks from currently hot and marketable properties whose owners will be open to cross promotion and who could be more or less easily translated into the Sou Calibur format), and
• Rock or Li Long

My 4 characters bet is:
1). Yun-seong (or Hwang, but most probably Yun-seong)
2). Setsuka
3). Hilde
4). Guest (must be from a multi-platform franchise/movie, so no Kratos, hopefully a Devil May Cry 5 character, which in such a case would mean a male guest)

Also I think there most probably will be a fifth character (probably Aeon), but if only 4 guesses are allowed for the sake of betting, those above are my four.

P.S. I wouldn't mind a male-centric season pass 2 if there were enough viable males yet not available in the game, but that's not the case. People won't be happy to pay extra for Rock and li-Long, that's just unreasonable.

 

[Rusted Blade]

Let's do this.
Just to keep it all in one place, here are your bets:


My 4 characters bet is:
1). Yun-seong (or Hwang, but most probably Yun-seong)
2). Setsuka
3). Hilde
4). Guest (must be from a multi-platform franchise/movie, so no Kratos, hopefully a Devil May Cry 5 character, which in such a case would mean a male guest)

Also I think there most probably will be a fifth character (probably Aeon), but if only 4 guesses are allowed for the sake of betting, those above are my four.

P.S. I wouldn't mind a male-centric season pass 2 if there were enough viable males yet not available in the game, but that's not the case. People won't be happy to pay extra for Rock and li-Long, that's just unreasonable.

Awesome! :) Now, I am fairly convinced that the DLCs will be kept of consistent size, but one more of my picks is a two person pick than is yours, so to equalize your odds a little, let's increase the list to five selections with the provisio that "I believe four of these five are likely to be the characters selected". Making my picks: 1) Aeon/Lizardman, 2) Yun-seong or Hwang (and I lean just ever so slightly towards Hwang, so this could possibly be a tie-breaker. ;), 3) Li Long 4) Rock, 5) guest character. And yours will be: 1) Aeon/Lizardman, 2) Yun-seong or Hwang (and you lean a bit toward Yun-seong), 3) Setsuka 4) Hilde, 5) guest character.

So when we break it down like that it's clear that we really just disagree on whether Li Long and Rock are more likely than Setsuka and Hilde. I won't lie, those two fellows are definitely the two in my list I am least confident about, and I can see the arguments for Setsuka and Hilde returning as quasi-fan-favourites who would bring much more unique styles to the roster than "another bruiser and another nunchuku dude", especially considereding some of Rock's moves have been folded into Astaroth now, which makes me feel he was never contemplated for inclusion in this entry. So I'm not entirely certain about my chances.

But I'm going to stick with believing there's a method behind the madness here and that PS want the older faces and are preparing a thematically similar second season. Plus, because I would actually prefer Setsuka and Hilde personally (I just don't think its likely to happen), I get to be in some way happy with the result regardless of whether or not I win the wager. ;) But in any event, now the fun part begins--trying to figure out which character would be funnest to make the other person play--mwhahahaha!

 

[Klimat]

@Rusted Blade
Deal!

 

[AMillionHP]

I don't think the list can tell us very much, if anything, at this point; sure, when you pull it apart like that and note that the two most recently added DLC characters are at the top, it can look like there's a little something going on there, but that's only because it strips out a lot of context that is important to reaching any statistical and analytical conclusions reliably. In other words (and said with respect and collegiality for you as a fellow massive fan), I think you are unintentionally cherry picking through a subconscious confirmation bias regarding who you think ought to get in. For one, note that there are no fewer than seven characters well below Amy and Cassie who made it into the base game--where was the popularity poll then?

Note that I'm not saying that popularity plays no roll here (clearly it always will), and I'm not saying that there might not be a bit of a parallel between what those few thousand fans voted on that one poll a while back and larger trends in the consumer base for this franchise. But the statistical links there are tenuous and corporation that has decades of experience marketting media is going to know that. Namco probably wants to ultimately hit a sales target of 2.5-3 million units if it wants to consider this entry a run-away success for a game in this genre with the budget it received at this point for fighters in the game industry (though they probably would be quite happy with 1.8 million, all things considered regarding the market and the extra income they will bring in on DLC content this time around). They are right on track to land somewhere in the middle of that range if projections based on past sales for similar games released around this time of year are any indication, but a lot can change in the roughly year and a half to two years when the bulk of the sales for this game will be made--and notably the season pass model could keep that gravy train running a little longer, though its by no means guaranteed.

Now compare those figures against the largest number of people who voted for anyone remaining on that list, which is roughly 300. With a sales target of 2.5 million, that means those people represent .00012% of the people that Namco hopes will buy this game (to say nothing of the size of the entire pool of consumers whose attention they are jockying for in an extremely crowded industry). That is what a statistician, whether they are a researcher or a marketer, would call statistically meaningless; the sample size is just too insignificant from the total population to draw any reasonable conclusions about what would pull consumers, especially considering that only a small sub-portion of players who buy this game (particularly if it does well) will be returning players. And Namco is big and experienced enough to know all of this, and to have taken it into account long before the first coder even sat down to work on this game.

Long story short--the poll was a low-cost effort to generate initial marketing buzz among the dedicated fans the devs/publisher knew were dying for any news on the franchise, because some of those hyper fans would go on to work as minute-scale influencers. to pave the way for Namco's own in-house marketing. Considering putting a poll up online costs them roughly .000000000001% of their annual marketing budget, and it continues to generate buzz for them two years later as players continue to debate its meaning and thus maintain hype for the DLC, it's a pretty cost-efficient form of marketing. But to update an old saying for the modern era, that poll is not worth the amount it costs to light up the pixels on your screen when it comes to the value it has in terms of indicating what characters to expect next. Yes, Cassie and Amy were at the top of that list, but honestly, we would have known that they were coming regardless; they have decently-sized collections of dedicated fans (which we knew long before there was a poll), but they also fit in neatly with the latter end of the narrative being told in the game.

Elaborating on that last point, remember that correlation is not causation: in other words, Cassie and Amy were selected (in part) because of their overall popularity and they may also appear towards the top of that list because of their relative popularity, but that doesn't mean the list was taken by the devs/publisher to be a reliable indication of that popularity, or that the development team (or Namco in general) have ever used that list to make so much as a single decision on whom to include. In fact, I would suggest that the fact that the initial picks for inclusion came scattershot across that list (especially if you remove the SCV characters that were never going to be included because of the soft reboot/narrative period of SCVI and the fact the SCV is as close to being reviled as any game in the series, for taking things in an odd direction), is rather striking proof that it is has played no role in deciding who comes in and when, and that is has taken a back seat (as one would expect and indeed hope for) to internal development decisions as to which characters best serve gameplay mechanics and creative decisions. I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say popularity plays no role--I'm sure it does, especially with key devs having a social media presence these days--but I'm guessing that mental calculus takes place in the mind of the devs based more on a) the troves of other marketting data they possess and b) (probably more important than anything for the creative team) their combined hundreds of years of experience working on the franchise and being familiar with its community. Not some raw figures from a few thousand fans in that one poll, that one time.

Lastly, even if the poll had guided decisions at any point, its now come up against pragmatic marketing and development factors which all but guarantee that the next four names on that list are not going to be the next four in a season 2 DLC pack (if it happens). And yes, I said four there. I know you keep reaching very hopefully towards six, apparently based solely on the fact that Tekken had six guests in its second season pass, but every time you do so, I'm going to (hopefully with good humor that is obvious!) try to snap you back to reality, because I can almost guarantee you that it's going to be four characters if it occurs at all. I won't re-belabour all of the reasons I've already detailed above in this and the other speculation threads recently, but I will point out that the marketing and development situations (and initial DLC approaches) between Tekken 7 and Soul Calibur VI are apples and oranges. Namco have telegraphed an approach to DLC content for this game that I think is pretty clear for anyone --at least, where the observer also pays attention to how companies, development and marketing work in this industry--who really wants to look closely enough at everything they've said so far and (more importantly) everything they have done with the game and bonus content to date. The second season pass, if it happens, will almost certainly roughly parallel the content released in the first, in terms of the amount and type of content offered: it will be four characters (probably including a guest, who will also get their own stage), along with about 100 CaS items. I believe it's also almost a certainty that all of those characters will be male, to achieve parity with the first season. Based upon the narrative era, gameplay considerations, marketing factors and a number of additional considerations that otherwise constrain the choices, I'd say this is roughly what we are looking at (and I bet my order is close even on what order they are announced in):

1) Liz-aeon-man: a lizardman who leans heavily towards classic lizardman with a shield and axe, but with some later Aeon aesthetics worked in. I don't think your suspicion that they would not include both a CaS race and a character is likely to in fact be a barrier here. Afterall, human is (for obvious reasons) a selectable race for CaS characters, despite the regular cast being made up almost entirely of humans. In a similar vein, each game in the series since SCI has been establishing the lore that there is a lizardman species and one particular dude, named Aeon, who was transformed into one. I don't think this is likely to cause too much confusion among even newcomers. The devs will simply retcon their labelling approach from earlier games a little and start calling this character Aeon, as they did in SCV--though again, I suspect his moveset will be more legacy oriented. Afterall, its clear from supplmental materials in earlier games that he was called Aeon all along and that his name on the selection screen was a conceit for the convenience of players who, at the time, cared very little about the lore. (ah, the good old days, when SC's fanbase had their priorities straight!).​

2) A male guest character: Presuming the announcement comes six months into the new year, I still give a reworked Kratos the lead here; I think he could be our first returning guest ever. But admittedly, the marketting timing is not perfect and, in any event, this could be any one of about four dozen obvious choices.​

3) Yun-Hwang: Either Yun-seong or Hwang will return, but I suspect the one left out in the cold will have at least a handful of his moves rolled into the dao wielder that does get in--similar to what has happened with Rock and Astaroth now (and has happened occasionally throughout the series), probably in this instance by locking some moves behind soul charge.​

4) Li Long or Rock: Normally I'd say Rock is the more likely candidate, being as he has an at least somewhat more unique moveset, but I think the fact that some of his moveset was rolled into Astaroth is a strong indication that the devs made a decision some time ago not to include him in this entry. Algol is another outside contender for this last spot, but I think his place in the over-all narrative, his lack of anything but passing mention in the story modes, and the superficial similarity of his weapons (and for that matter, story role) to Azwel's all tend to argue rather strongly against him. I think it's going to be Li Long, entering into the fray as a dark horse.​

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Believe me, in certain respects I am hoping I am wrong about this. As someone who wants to see as robust a roster as possible (particularly for returning characters) I'd like to think that future season passes could be upgraded to six characters, but I can't fathom Namco opting to do that in this situation (for a variety of reasons that I've detailed previously relating to net profits, cost-efficiencies and pragmatic development and marketing decisions with regard to how they constitute and price something like this); it would basically involve them doing a u-turn that would reduce their overall revenue and make it less predictable while at the same time opening themselves up to (perhaps irrational but certainly inevitable) complaints about the consistency of their pricing model. I just can't see why a major publisher with a developed marketing division would ever do something like that. In a similar vein, I'd much rather see Setsuka or Hilde coming in than Li Long, Rock, or Algol, but I think the reality is that the writing is on the wall for that pair, unless the multiple season pass model is such a runaway success that we see a third sequential season. (I love that idea, but I'm skeptical the profits will extend that far for VI, though I hope each game from here-out anticipates a larger and larger extension of the core cast through DLC; I think it's just a matter of time before this model becomes increasingly profitable, if game consumers can just get over being quite so impulsively defensive about how much they pay for their content on the whole, when it is solid content like this).

All things considered, if it were practical, I'd even bet good money on the list above being more or less what we will see if there's a season 2. I tell you what, let's do it this way as a gentleperson's bet: whoever's guess ends up closest once all of season 2 is revealed (assuming there is a clear winner at that point) gets to pick the other player's main for a two month period. That's almost bigger stakes. ;) You game? :D

Sorry, i've been kinda busy through the holidays so it took a while to reply. I'll try to address your points to the best of my ability on a mobile phone.

Concerning the poll, im aware this was a minscule number of people but if i look at the rankings i posted, they do seem to line up with a lot of the random demands i see spammed over the internet (youtube, twitter, etc.) The only exception i see to that is Amy. I havent noticed a real strong demand for her unless Viola counts for that as well. So i believe its a decent guideline for future DLC.

You brought up the point that certain characters made the base roster despite being lower but story significance has to play a role. As popular as characters like Cassandra or Amy are, what do they do accomplish really? Certain characters have to make it in because they have more important roles.

That goes into another point which is Lizardman. He's kind of the opposite in that he has some importance but was thrown to the side. I'd say in his case PS decided to do just barely enough work to identify him with a moveset and that is it. They even copy/pasted his SC4 armor. Lizardman is different from other characters in this series because his race is the majority of his identity. He is just defined as a beast, with a savage, beast-like moveset. A major appeal to even selecting this character is the lizard model. That is why a lot of people would even select that character in the first place. He is identified as the leading figure among Lizardmen but how does that look when people can just select ninja, sorcerer, or monk lizardmen? It makes Aeon look rather primitive and ridiculous. We dont have human characters in the game who are just named "human man". There is a little bit more to them than that. Such as language, a personality, backstory. Lizardman has growls and not much else. Of course he's got fans who wont appreciate him being gone but so do a lot more popular characters.

I dont even know what to say about Li Long. I dont want to come off like an ass. Everyone has characters they like but umm... really Li Long? Ok.

Did i have some bias with my prediction? I dont know, i suppose maybe. I was an Algol main and i did put him at the bottom of that list but if i had my way he would be selectable already. Aside from him and maybe some cool guest possibilities, i dont personally care about anyone else. I MIGHT consider Cassandra but that is about it.

As far as the character count for DLC, i dont really know at all. I was just using Tekken as the example. They went from two characters and a bowling side game to 6 characters. I dont think a season 2 will follow season 1 perfectly because i really dont think they are going to give us another 100 CAS parts. We may get some here and there but i doubt it will be that much.

Not sure where the emphasis on genders for DLC is coming from but a lot of popular females just happen to be left over and that i believe is why season 1 is all female. Now, did they maybe decide to push back Yun so they could make season 1 all females because "waifus sell"? Maybe.

If its 4 characters, we are looking at Yun, Sets, Hilde for certain. If there isnt a guest then Rock. I'll accept your wager, what characters do you currently play?