[Sairus]

This was officially announced at a Namco event in Dubai last night.

Very little was actually explained at the event, but it is a sequel to SCIV and is set 17 years later. The new main character will be Patroclus - Sophitia's son.
Finally, it's got a 2012 release date.

You can see some very minor footage below. It's basically a bunch of SCIV footage spliced with a couple of frames of new animation at the end.



There's not much to go on, but I've always loved SC. Here's hoping this is a return to SC1 and 2 form as they've gone downhill pretty bad in the last two iterations :/

Also, Odashima recently posted on his Twitter about the restrictions a character's height puts on their bust size. Of course.



The teaser site for what is presumably SCV will also unlock at about 1700 today. http://www.bandainamcogames.co.jp/cs...ter/index.html

[Scavenger XIII]

Not sure if want, SC used to be one of my fave games before the steaming pile that was SC4 soured me on it.

Get the old dev team if possible, no guest characters, no rushed release, no DLC for integral parts of the game, DO IT RIGHT!

...but bring back Hilde - she could still look good in her 30's.

[UberPrinny_Baal]

Wasn't SC one of the "best games ever".

I never owned a Dreamcast, but I'm pretty happy with my copy of SC2 on Gamecube with Link.

None of the games after that really impressed me.

[Sairus]

SoulCalibur is one of the best fighters I've ever played. I still like SoulCalibur 2 better than it, but there's a good chance I'd change my mind if I actually went back to play it.
Ivy wasn't unusably complicated back then too!

[hartnett_mark]

Soul Calibur is great series i played each one and each was great for me, i hope this one will be great too

[Scavenger XIII]

SC1 on DC was well ahead of its time and it stands up surprisingly well today.

[Doctor DooM]

This is one I will be watching closely.

I always liked Sophitia though, pity it sounds like she won't be in it

[Sairus]

Originally Posted by Doctor DooM

This is one I will be watching closely.

I always liked Sophitia though, pity it sounds like she won't be in it

It's SoulCalibur. She'll pray to Hephaestus who will give her her youth back or something. They have a million excuses to keep most of the cast in the game despite the time jump.

Cervantes, Maxi and Ivy are all undead in one form or another, so they can be kept along with no real explanation.
Siegfried, Nightmare, Astaroth, Algol, Zasalamel, Raphael, Amy are all immortal.
Lizardman is just one of a whole species.

That's 11 characters who don't even need new explanations to explain their presence - there are so many Gods and magics and sciences available in the SC universe anyone could be kept in the series for any amount of reasons.

[UberPrinny_Baal]

Originally Posted by Doctor DooM

This is one I will be watching closely.

I always liked Sophitia though, pity it sounds like she won't be in it

I think Sophitia was taken out of the regular character rotation a couple of games into the series to take a backseat to Cassandra.

The game seems to do that frequently enough with new characters taking the moves/weapon of old characters and playing almost the same.

The jump from Blade to Calibur lost a fair few characters I was familiar with. The most traumatic was the pretty cool and tragic assassin Li-Long being replaced with some kind of Chinese Pirate Elvis

[Sairus]

Some minor information over at Eurogamer

Namco Bandai has lifted the lid on Soulcalibur V at its press event in Dubai this morning.

The game, set 17 years after Soulcalibur IV, features guest characters, Project Soul producer Hisaharu Tago told Christian Donlan for Eurogamer.

The main character is Patroklos, son of Sophitia. Patroklos is "inspired" by the gameplay of Sophitia, but is "sharper" and "more agile". He has new moves, but they're all inspired by Sophitia's.

V takes the Siegried ending of IV and builds upon it. Seigfried, now 39 years old, no longer wields the Soul Calibur sword.

V is described as a "generational shift", complete with new characters, but SCIV characters will return. "SC 1-4 was a continuous story," Tago said. "We want to make a generational shift with a new story this time."

The Soulcalibur series is famous for the inclusion of characters from other universes, such as Link from The Legend of Zelda and Yoda from Star Wars. Will other non-Soulcalibur characters feature?

"Difficult question," Tago said. "We will have guest characters as we did with Star Wars. Please stay tuned for more information on that."

V marks a shift from two-handed swords to short swords, Tago announced. The story includes "the enigma as to why the swords have become short swords".

The game's new fighting style is described as "lighter, sharper, and more elegant". The online mode has been improved with new features. "Gameplay in IV could be a little heavy, particularly when you were online – we wanted gameplay that was more fast and reactive," Tago said.

On the shift in gameplay: "Maybe the hardcore fans will be afraid that we lose the core of the gameplay, but that's not the case. And for new players it's nice to have gameplay that is more continuous – you don't need to wait as much between moves.

"There is quite some change in the gameplay from SCIV. The pace of the game has been improved, and the combos will be easier to perform, and the moves will be easier to pull out."

Elsewhere, Tago confirmed the create a character feature from previous games in the series returns, but refused to divulge details.

Namco Bandai is yet to show actual gameplay, but promised more information at E3 next month.

V marks a shift from two-handed swords to short swords, Tago announced. The story includes "the enigma as to why the swords have become short swords".

Siegfried and Nightmare with short swords.

What.

[Scavenger XIII]

Originally Posted by UberPrinny_Baal

The most traumatic was the pretty cool and tragic assassin Li-Long being replaced with some kind of Chinese Pirate Elvis

Just as traumatic Hwang being replaced by essentially a younger douchier version of himself.

Both were back as full fledged characters in SC3 AE but we never got a sniff of that which is a damn shame 'cause I think it would've been great, SC3 without the glitches (which in fairness I think were fixed in the PAL version anyway) and stupid bonus characters.

Lizardman is just one of a whole species.

Actually SC2 was the only game to have a generic Lizardman, all the others were the same guy called Aeon Calcos who had a decent backstory about seeking revenge on his god for abandoning him to become a monster while the sisters just keep on being top tier but ended up played for laughs anyway.

[Sairus]

There's definitely going to be at least two benefits of this 17 year shift.
Firstly is middle aged Mitsurugi. He already keeps getting more haggard and pissed off looking in every game - after 17 years he's going to be a train wreck of awesomeness.
And Voldo is going to be pushing 70. What's creepier than an overly flexible, S&M bound pensioner?

[GorySnake]

Astaroth is gonna be in it right? Astaroth ftw.

Originally Posted by Sairus

Siegfried and Nightmare with short swords.

What.

Lame.

But they did say Siegfried no longer has Soul Calibur so, he might be still throwing around those stupidly awesome swords.

[Orim]

The important thing is that the height to bust ratio is right. God forbid they should mess up something that important.

[bush]

Is Li Long not still in this ****? The gruelling battle ended with the victory of ............ Li Long