Current Events > Remember back when they put Darth Vader in Soul Calibur

(+) Yeah! (+)

Dat was pretty weird and kinda dumb but also cool as heck

IIRC it's pretty normal for Soul Caliber to have weird guest characters.

I hated that they had 3 Star Wars characters in a game that's set in 16th century Asia and Europe. Absolutely jarring.

That said, Vader was a lot of fun and the most "balanced" of the three, with Starkiller and Yoda being absolutely broken in the right hands (though at least you could keep Yoda out with characters not named Talim).

RasterGraphic posted...

IIRC it's pretty normal for Soul Caliber to have weird guest characters.

Yeah, SCII opened up that can of worms with Link, Spawn, Heihachi, and Necrid (who was created by Todd McFarlane for the game). SCIII backed off of guests in favor of customization (which was awesome) but they ramped it back up in SCIV with the Star Wars dudes and haven't really looked back.

Vader was cool but Yoda absolutely sucked. Playing against him was super not fun.

They shouldve put in Luke or something but I guess they didnt because they wouldve had to pay to use his likeness.

I remember Yoda was broken af because he is so short that most high attacks would whiff and miss.

Loved link

El_Marsh posted...

I hated that they had 3 Star Wars characters in a game that's set in 16th century Asia and Europe. Absolutely jarring.

I mean, Darth Vader is basically just a samurai whose sword glows red for some reason

I remember reading in Game Informer prior to the announcement that guests from a certain "swashbuckling franchise" would be in SC4.

Naturally I assumed we'd be seeing Jack Sparrow or something, didn't even think of Star Wars

Evolician posted...

I mean, Darth Vader is basically just a samurai whose sword glows red for some reason

I suppose....if you ignore the spacecraft in the background of his stage

Murphiroth posted...

I remember reading in Game Informer prior to the announcement that guests from a certain "swashbuckling franchise" would be in SC4.

Naturally I assumed we'd be seeing Jack Sparrow or something, didn't even think of Star Wars

Wow that wouldve been perfect. Now I feel like we missed out.

Its a shame that SC5 was a flop because Ezio was truly the perfect guest character.

It will forever be bizarre to me Soulcalibur had the clout to get Star Wars guests at one point and now struggles to even exist

Rantman posted...

It will forever be bizarre to me Soulcalibur had the clout to get Star Wars guests at one point and now struggles to even exist

I think that has more to do with how Lucasfilm and LucasArts were just more chill back then. Back in the prequel era, they were just cranking out games and they werent afraid to get weird.

Nowadays, Disney keeps Star Wars on a tight leash.

I clapped when I saw Darth Vader!

It made me sad you couldn't make your own jedi fighters, that'd have been cool

they realized if they created a good customizable fighter we'd never buy another game again so now all the fighters are mid

Real shame, it had mastered the art of being casual-friendly while still maintaining depth for enthusiasts.

El_Marsh posted...

Yeah, SCII opened up that can of worms with Link, Spawn, Heihachi, and Necrid (who was created by Todd McFarlane for the game). SCIII backed off of guests in favor of customization (which was awesome) but they ramped it back up in SCIV with the Star Wars dudes and haven't really looked back.

Heihachi kind of fit in with the Soul Caliber characters.

I really wanted to be good with Starkiller, but holy shit did he just not manage to click for me.

ps1 masters of the teras ka or whatever is probaby why

WingsOfGood posted...

ps1 masters of the teras ka or whatever is probaby why

I sincerely guarantee you that game had absolutely nothing to do with it.

TFU had just come out and they wanted advertisement.

ablegator posted...

I clapped when I saw Darth Vader!

It broke NEW GROUND!

Out of all the guest characters, Ezio is the only one that makes sense story wise.
IIRC, Ubisoft actually made Ezio in SCV canon to his story

DrizztLink posted...

I sincerely guarantee you that game had absolutely nothing to do with it.

TFU had just come out and they wanted advertisement.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SoulCalibur/comments/tbao7l/huh_i_guess_soulcalibur_and_star_wars_were/

Honestly, Soulcalibur has generally done decent in getting guest characters that largely don't feel out of place in the setting. Really only the Star Wars guys and 2B feel like they don't fit at all.

I do with 2B had at least one weapon option that didn't look sci-fi for create-a-soul purposes. Like floating magic weapons wouldn't feel too weird and you could replace the bot with some sort of crystal/rune thing that shot magic. But nope all weapons are really sci-fi looking.

Remember when they put Yoshimitsu in Soul Calibur

i think what makes some chars cool is theyre obviously from somewhere else.

yoshimitsu roles btw

Can I just get a musou style star wars. Don't pursue darth vader! That is all.

doesntcare posted...

Can I just get a musou style star wars. Don't pursue darth vader! That is all.

It's almost the perfect musou collab. I imagine the licensing must be a pain tho or no one over at Koei/Omega Force has pitched it for whatever reason

El_Marsh posted...

I hated that they had 3 Star Wars characters in a game that's set in 16th century Asia and Europe. Absolutely jarring.

Star Wars is set "a long time ago". It could be in the 16th century.

I like how nobody has mentioned Geralt

Rantman posted...

It will forever be bizarre to me Soulcalibur had the clout to get Star Wars guests at one point and now struggles to even exist

SC3 was the start of the downfall for the series. It was the first time they were in the red when SC2 sold so well. The CAC took soo much of the budget and time that they could only put it to one system and couldn't add in any guest character (which at the time was rumored to be Dante). Team Project Soul chose PS2 to be the exclusive console specifically to cater to the Japanese audience (which is weird because Soul Calibur series as a whole sells better internationally). They realize that SC2 was a huge success specifically because of its guest characters and purposely made the them "console exclusive" like they did in the Gen 6 consoles. Apparently it still didn't sell well enough (might have still been in the red) because the director had a very hard time to convince Bandai Namco to fund SC5. They were able to win them over when they tried to "reboot" the series with a brand new cast of characters that will replace their protege...which made a series struggling to basically become non-existent. It also didn't help that the game still felt incomplete and the online was still ass like it was in SC4. SC6 then did an actual reboot to try to salvage the series. The biggest obstacle it ran into was the online not having rollback netcode and ultimately fading away for good during COVID.

I don't care if people hate this answer, but even Harada said that having customization in Tekken takes a lot of resources and tried to justify nickle and diming with the Tekken store. While the CAC is iconic in Soul Calibur, to me it was the biggest reason the Soul Calibur series struggled. They could never get in the green the moment it was introduced to the series because it's very difficult and hard to make.

El_Marsh posted...

I suppose....if you ignore the spacecraft in the background of his stage

Ohhhh...I thought those were Portuguese Jesuit merchant ships.

IcyWind14 posted...

Star Wars is set "a long time ago". It could be in the 16th century.

The movies are mostly set in the 1800s, if you go by that one non-canon comic where the Millennium Falcon crashed on Earth and was found decades (maybe a century?) later by Indiana Jones.

IcyWind14 posted...

Star Wars is set "a long time ago". It could be in the 16th century.

While I'm not arguing that the Star Wars guys thematically fit into the franchise, they don't, Soulcalibur does play pretty fast and loose with its era to begin with. Like why are the Alexandra sisters and Aeon styled like they are ancient Greek and worshipping Greek gods in the 16th century? Like Athens was fully in control of the Ottoman Empire at that point and its temples converted to mosques.

Instead of cramming 10 blue haired sword fighters into Smash Bros, Nintendo should make their own Soul Calibur with Fire Emblem characters and have Link be a guest again.

Compsognathus posted...

While I'm not arguing that the Star Wars guys thematically fit into the franchise, they don't, Soulcalibur does play pretty fast and loose with its era to begin with. Like why are the Alexandra sisters and Aeon styled like they are ancient Greek and worshipping Greek gods in the 16th century? Like Athens was fully in control of the Ottoman Empire at that point and its temples converted to mosques.

I mean for goodness sakes, both sisters are suppose to be Greek but have blond hair with blue eyes when the majority of Greeks have brown/black hair with fair to olive skin. I doubt the Japanese really do that much research and just assumed any Caucasian/White character has blonde hair and blue eyes.

Evolician posted...

Its a shame that SC5 was a flop because Ezio was truly the perfect guest character.

Agreed. Ezio fit perfectly into the SC world and had an amazing moveset to boot. I actually mained him in SC5 because his moveset was so fun. Out of all the past guest characters, Ezio is the only one that I would actually want back for a second appearance.

Evolician posted...

Instead of cramming 10 blue haired sword fighters into Smash Bros, Nintendo should make their own Soul Calibur with Fire Emblem characters and have Link be a guest again.

Better yet: a Namco x Nintendo crossover fighter with Soul Calibur's weapons-based gameplay style. Throw in some Soul Calibur and Tales characters on the Namco side, some Zelda, Fire Emblem, and Xenoblade characters on the Nintendo side, some random picks from other franchises like The Tarnished, Meta Knight, Sirfetch'd, maybe a guest character or 2... that would be awesome.