Also not to be picking anything out, but you are literally contradicting yourself. When you say " the next three pages will be filled with yet more speculation about Hilde, Algol, Viola, ZWEI, and even Dampierre, from those who either don't read more than a page back into the thread or just want to keep on convincing themselves that there are reasons their favourite choice will prevail against all evidence: Reptile=Lizardman, Star=Yun-Seong, Yellow=Hwang, Stone=Rock, Snow=Setsuka, and Yell=Li Long."
You are literally doing the exact same thing you said other people are doing? Li Long hasn't even APPEARED since SCIII AFAIK, but you are still convincing yourself that it is Li-Long. But the main point is: There is no evidence. Other than the codename Yell, we don't have anything to go off of. We can't say there is evidence when there isn't. As much as I'd like to see Li Long, I doubt he's the first candidate for yell , but if Li Long is in I will, uh, do... something. Eh, I'll think of something funny. Yeah.
No, I'm afraid I have to disagree with you that the situations are parallel. For one thing, I have no particular attachment to Li Long, nor was I prognosticating that he was a particularly likely candidate until the evidence started to add up. And there
is evidence, plenty of it, as to what the devs' likely intentions here are. In many interviews they have made it explicit that this game is a retelling of the early arc of the series. Every single last character they have released so far for the game, and every single last one hinted at to date, has come from the first four games. Now all indications are that there are six upcoming characters in the next DLC grouping. Six is the exact number needed to finish the cast from those same exact four games they have been culling characters from to date, and which games are the basis for the plot lines they have explored thus far in VI. Five of the six names are obvious-to-the-point-of-being-undeniable allusions to five of those same characters. The sixth name would fit with a known, rather exagerrated trait of the sixth character that would be needed to complete that roster.
Look, I'm not saying that this is evidence sufficient to consider the matter a fait accompoli, I'm just saying it is
by far the
best evidence we have as to what to expect. Far better than "Hilde yells a lot" (does she really, compared to the usual Soul Calibur character?--I don't think so, I think that's huge confirmation bias) or "If you take the last half of Dampierre's name and then translate it into Japanese, it is spelled with he same syllabified characters as Yell would be! Also, if you then say it ten times backwards and look into a mirror, Okubo appears and says "Yes, you have unlocked the mystery! We are going to place the least popular character in the franchise into a DLC pack where narratively he doesn't it, just for shits and giggles! Hahahahah!'" We can either predicate our expectation on things the development team have actually said, and the indications found in the product they have delivered so far (particularly a pattern in releases that has held perfectly to this point) or we can choose the characters we
want to see and then try to twist the codenames into a shape that seems to work to confirm those biases. I know which one I'm going to put my faith in.
DLC is made to make money. Li Long wouldn't sell nearly as well as a well-known character like Hilde. Namco and PS know that.
I think this is a rational consideration, but one which breaks down when taken to an extreme. Every time a new game is released in a fighting franchise, the devs
could just fall back on their market research and composite their roster out of only their most popular characters. But that's never what happens--there are too many design objectives which thwart such an overly-simplified approach. The game has to work as a cohesive whole and the dev's will settle on decisions about what that means (in terms of both mechanics and narrative), and cuts will be made accordingly. I think the devs have been about as clear as they could be, under the circumstances, about what their thematic objectives are with this game, and it doesn't seems to include SCIV. Hopefully sales on the second season pass will remain strong and that may yet change, but I think they will only go there once they have exhausted characters within the games that have provided the basis for SCVI's story and roster so far.
Oh i've read the comments, most of them anyway. I just dont agree with a lot of it. You're exaggerating things to support your bias as well. Just because this is a retelling, does not at all mean they are locked into digging up every classic SC character. There hasnt been any significant evidence other than vague statements during interviews that can be taken any number of ways concerning PS's priorities.
We'll have to agree to disagree about that, but it would be a mess at this moment in time to drop forty quotes on this page and five hundred details about what we've actually got in SCVI so far that I believe refute that argument rather absolutely.
One major issue with your predicted DLC lineup is that with the exception of Setsuka it is a lineup of clones and/or duplicated weapons... without a guest.
Hell it even dulicates two of the same weapon on the same season pass. I cant imagine the amount of eyerolls in reaction to Hwang and Yun reveals. That isnt going to sell. You're kidding yourself if you think a sizable amount of people will care about the original roster coming back.
Let's be clear about our nomenclature here: they aren't "clones". Clones in fighting games are characters who fight with the same style but have a different model. These are simply characters who have similar weapons...and that's like saying you can't have two hung gar fighters in the same Tekken game. Why? Since when was that a barrier in any fighting game, let alone Soul Calibur? Literally every single one of the pairs you are talking about here have appeared next to eachother in at least two Soul Calibur games in the past, and that was always considered perfectly normal, acceptable, and feasible. They've played very differently in the past, and now with Soul Charge and the advancements in the mechanics over the years, this is easier to accomplish than ever.
Furthermore, this particular design team has succeeded in making characters who originated as
actual clones (but who have been drifting apart in play style for decades) play more differently than ever. I'm sorry but this is evidence of absolutely nothing other than people's willingess to complain about things that never were a problem in the past and are less likely than ever to be a problem now. I am surprised that they decided to drop Hwang and Yun-Seong together, but I think that's just evidence that the decision to close out the entire roster wasn't finalized until relatively recently.
One thing we can agree on is that it is surprising that they are not going for another guest character. But then again, there is only one game that had more than two guests characters in a single edition, and there were special licensing factors at work with getting those Star Wars characters in for IV. It's entirely possible that Namco was just not willing to pay for licensing to cross-promote any of the other options they had open to them. And they may yet still return to more guests if further season passes prove viable based on profits for the first two.
Don't forget Cassandra and LIZARDMAN, not AEON!!! Fuck, he was named AEON only in one game
I actually expect they are going to call Lizardman "Aeon" from the get-go this time.
Ok maybe you dont. I know i've seen many on this site call Rock, Aeon, Yun and Hwang a clone.
Well, they are using the term in a way which is inconsistent with how it has typically been used in fighting game communities for decades now. Probably as a means of registering their ire/being dismissive about likely outcomes they don't like. But Aeon plays no more similarly to Sophitia the last 15 years than either of them plays when compared against Dampierre, frankly. They don't share so much as a single move. Same for the other similar weapon/different approach styles.
