SoulCalibur as a series has been struggling for a long time. SoulCalibur II on the PlayStation 2 set a high bar, and the property was never able to recapture that magic. SoulCalibur III, IV, and V were all decent games in their own right, but they were either hampered by very specific issues or they just never quite caught on like the now legendary SoulCalibur II did back in the day.
It comes as no real surprise, then, to hear that Bandai Namco wasn't hugely interested in another SoulCalibur title. According to SoulCalibur VI producer Motohiro Okubo -- speaking to DualShockers -- the publisher took a lot of convincing in order to make the project happen.
"The first thing is that the IP itself of the SoulCalibur franchise had low expectations from the company. It was actually facing a crisis of maybe disappearing. It took time for me to convince the company," Okubo states.
Unfortunately for the series, this also means that if SoulCalibur VI doesn't do well, it might never return. When asked if this is the case, Okubo gives a blunt reply: "Yeah, that's right." However, Okubo wants to make it clear that he's not giving fans an ultimatum. "We don’t want to blackmail the users by saying that it could be the last one, but as it is, yes."
It's going to be interesting seeing how successful SoulCalibur VI ends up being. Off the back of Bandai Namco's significant success with Tekken 7 and Dragon Ball FighterZ, it's safe to say that the publisher knows what it's doing. What's more, early impressions of the game from those who have played it at various events have been positive -- let's just hope that Okubo and the team can pull it off with the finished release in October.
[source dualshockers.com, via siliconera.com]
Comments 14
Can someone explain to me what was wrong with soul caliber 3-5? I only ever played 1 and 2 (2 was awesome) and don’t know what happened after.
I used to like fighting games back in the Psone and 2 era but just cant get into them these days mainly due to the awful dlc practices whats the point of paying full price on day one when your not going to get a complete game.
@Kogorn733 They all had various issues that kept them from being really great SoulCalibur games like SoulCalibur II. Some crappy game modes, some rubbish guest characters, and some questionable gameplay design.
SoulCalibur V in particular didn't go down well with fans — it scrapped most of the roster because it was set years in the future, and it featured some borderline broken gameplay mechanics. It was dropped by the competitive scene very quickly.
@ShogunRok @bindiana I actually think III was the peak of the series, but it’s just one of my unpopular decisions 😂
I was always a fan of the Soul Calibur games, so hopefully the new game sells well.
I played every game except for the first and I have to agree, II was great.
@ShogunRok I just dont understand that there way to sell the game i to ransom main characters behind a paywall? Companies are really strange Namco Bandai isnt really a clean company either the sell everything even lvl up for RPG's if they where not so niche they would probably be up there with EA, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft in the most hated companies. It sucks for me that they have the Tales series at least they have a lot of different style games.
I reeeeally hate it when companies say, "buy this game or it's the last one!", even if they "hate to say it!" Between this and announcing paid DLC before the whole roster is even revealed, I've already got a disgusting taste in my mouth for SoulCalibur VI.
I've had it pre-ordered for a while now, but still...they need to just stop trying to shove the season pass down people's throats and the begging. Seriously!
I'll always prefer Soul Blade on PS1 because when Soul Calibur came out I hated the fact Critical Edge combos where taken away
@keihtg To be fair, it sounds like the producer didn't want his words to come across that way:
"However, Okubo wants to make it clear that he's not giving fans an ultimatum. "We don’t want to blackmail the users by saying that it could be the last one, but as it is, yes.""
@keihtg I think he’s saying it because it’s true. I don’t think he’s trying do anything else.
I can definitely say that I did not enjoy V. That game was the worst one.
@Jaz007 @ShogunRok I'm sure he's got a ton of pressure from his superiors about making sales or the series is canned, but I don't think the public needs to hear about that. For one thing, it goes without saying, but more than that...it just sounds like blackmail no matter how you put it, and it makes it seem like he doesn't have confidence the game is good enough to sell well!
The biggest reason I took a break from this series as well as Tekken is that I experienced fatigue with both. Regarding SC, I would have rather had this game be a reboot that told more of a complete story and have the characters look slightly different. I see this new one and it doesn’t appear new to me, I haven’t played it yet and it gives me a been there done that feeling already.
@Kogorn733 SoulCal3 was perfectly fine. It had massive balancing issues, but since this was before NetPlay most people didn't care... The introduction of CaCs and the incredibly fun RTS Chronicles of the Sword mode were great.
4 was lazily made overall. It was far more balanced, but stripped away CaC classes, had a shoddy story mode, and felt like the NetPlay took up most of the disc space.
5, on the other hand, was an incomplete game that was rushed to market by the very company that now threatens to remove the game from future development. Blame BamCo for being jerks.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...