Soul Calibur is a series that is packed
full of silly tradition from the
narrator's voice hesitating to say each
games number at the title screen Soul
Calibur - so caliber 3 the pre-fight
inspirational quotes she chooses her
path like a free bird a character
creator that lets you create absolute
abominations and a cast of characters
that range from stone-faced samurai to
an Elvis impersonator a BDSM Queen that
uses a whip for a weapon because of
course she does and Baldo soul calibers
strength lies in the fact that all of
this goofiness is wrapped in a
completely serious veneer on top of the
fact that it's generally been a pretty
good fighting game series but this video
is about one of the Soul Calibur
traditions that I actually enjoy the
most ever since the third game in the
series there have been crossover
characters from inside and outside of
the world of video games
so in this video I'll take you on a trip
through the stage of history to discuss
the guest characters of Soul Calibur -
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wait is over
let's begin
the console versions of Soul Calibur -
released in 2003 an age where console
works were still raging and middle aged
schoolchildren took their friends to
task on the consoles that they owned
with a level of vitriol that would make
Chad warden blush that said Namco didn't
exactly create peace among the fanboys
when they introduced not one not two but
three guest characters in Soul Calibur -
one for each console the game released
on in the year of our sword 2002 the
trio of Namco Sega and Nintendo all got
together to create an arcade board known
as the Triforce the board itself was
based off of the GameCubes architecture
and was critical in making titles like
the arcade versions of f-zero and Mario
Kart into a reality and it's from these
discussions that we get our first deal
for a console exclusive guest character
in the form of the hero of time The
Legend of Zelda's very own link based
off of his adult link version from
ocarina of time and more recently the
2000 space World Game Cube tech demo
before I go any further I should say
that Soul Calibur stands on the
shoulders of a well-crafted
well-balanced weapon based combat system
long weapons have range short weapons
have speed and etc etc often the weapons
these characters use are very closely
tied to their identities so what weapon
do you think that a GameCube exclusive
character like link would use the master
sword right well yes but actually no
within the single-player modes of Soul
Calibur 2 lies weapon master I already
covered the basics in my evolution of
single-player content video I'll link
the video in the description below but
if you need a quick refresher or have
never played it before you fight against
AI opponents under different parameters
and restrictions for in-game gold even
use that goal to purchase upgrades and a
variety of weapons for each character in
the game so yes while Link's default
weapon is the very same sort of hide
rule legend you can actually use swords
shields and other items from throughout
the history of The Legend of Zelda
series each with their own unique quirks
based off of the games they came from
take for example the razor sword from
Majora's Mask more powerful than Link's
starter sword it's one weakness is a
tendency to wear down and break overtime
reverting back to its original form
so Namco brings it over to Soul Calibur
- and gives it the same buff and attack
power but just as in majora's mask
replicates its tendency to fail under
scrutiny by letting through a small
amount of damage when blocking another
example is a link from the past and the
cane of beer nut in the SNES classic the
magical staff would shield link from
enemy and trap damage in Soul Calibur -
executing a soul charge with decane
equipped would refill a portion of
Link's health at the cost of lower
damage ended tendency to lose trades
this kind of series accurate
give-and-take can be found for just
about every one of Link's different
weapons outside of his main arsenal
though most of the rest of Link's move
list may feel familiar to Zelda veterans
link can use moves like his jumping
downwards stab his spin attack his bow
and arrow bombs and my personal favorite
the boomerang which can put your
opponents in some pretty tricky
situations all in all link is really the
only Nintendo character that made sense
to put in a game like Soul Calibur -
Namco was basically handed a ready-made
character on a silver platter complete
with a great move set and a variety of
weapons with story--it histories but
still they get points for a great
transition between genres and for
putting Lincoln to his very first
fighting game
so now let's talk about the PlayStation
version much like Nintendo Sony had a
large roster of potential guest
candidates since the ps1 released in
1995 they've done a great job of making
many characters feel essential to the
PlayStation brand even though many
weren't actually conceptualized and
developed by Sony themselves so who was
it gonna be well it was brought to light
on a 2017 edition of the eighth floor
podcast on giantbomb calm that Cloud
Strife of Final Fantasy Fame was almost
Sony's representative in Soul Calibur
too until the deal fell apart the finish
line no what are you gonna do you can't
you're untouchable now you're
untouchable you're originally apparently
they were working out a deal with cloud
apparently like a minute at the last
minute it got it fell through oh man
that is heart-wrenching ok well then
they're gonna get a call from Namco
and he would have been a fantastic
choice for years Final Fantasy 7 was a
system 7 widely considered to be one of
the best games of all time and with
plenty of unique weapons and a whole lot
of design space to make cool moves that
borrow from the source material cloud
would have been a fantastic fit but
ultimately it didn't come to pass so
Namco had to find a new guest character
and find them fast but they didn't have
to look too far because in clouds place
the Soul Calibur team was able to borrow
Tekken's heihachi mishima
from their co-workers a few cubicles
down if you're
that's fine by me hey Hachi still made
sense as a PlayStation representative
after all the Tekken series was founded
on the Namco system 11 arcade board
which was the technology that the
PlayStation 1 was based off of the
similarities between the ps1 and that
arcade board made it possible for easy
ports to console which is why the Tekken
series has always had a place in the
house but Sony built hey Hachi is the
first and only weaponless main roster
character in a Soul Calibur game and the
first and only main roster guest
character to be from another fighting
game franchise so in a game about weapon
on weapon combat how does a character
who doesn't have any use for weapons
work well in lieu of a blader staff the
elder Mishima Don's some pretty simple
wrist guards but none of them actually
have any history or significance to the
world of Tekken either the only one that
even comes close is heihachi's ultimate
weapon also named Tekken and that's not
even a weapon rather it's the lack of a
weapon because he takes the guards off
when you use it let me just put this out
ever anybody says one thing to looking
at his moveset the gangs just about all
here he still has all of his signature
moves and long strings and even some 10
hit combos but this hey Hachi plays a
fair bit differently than other versions
of himself not only does the old Tekken
control standard of one button equals
one limb not apply but Soul Calibur is a
completely different type of fighting
game with a totally different engine so
you won't be juggling someone across the
stage with jabs like you would in Tekken
4 but regardless he still hits like a
damn truck with big-time damage on
relatively simple combos with moves like
his up forward KK being a nightmare to
defend against and electric wind godfist
being + on block and hitting mid for
some godforsaken reason we were probably
pretty lucky that console exclusivity
kept him out of tournaments because we
would have probably
seen a lot of him if you were able to
compete looking back it seemed kind of
puzzling that with hey Hachi flying the
ps/2 flag and Link holding down the fort
for Nintendo Master Chief the pride and
joy of Microsoft wasn't considered for
the spot on the Xbox version of Soul
Calibur - unfortunately it seemed like
it all came down to a matter of timing
the Xbox and halo combat Evolved
launched in 2001 the arcade version of
Soul Calibur 2 released in 2002 with the
console versions launching a year later
in 2003 despite the fact that Halo was
selling well at the time it was still a
very new franchise on a very new
platform and it wasn't known if the
momentum would continue with later
releases Microsoft didn't have a mascot
for their console ecosystem and Namco
couldn't afford to wait around with the
release of the Soul Calibur 2 home game
right around the corner so they had to
find some character to be the flag
bearer for the Xbox brand but the funny
part about that is that the character
actually found them Todd McFarlane is a
prolific comic book artist he's worked
at Marvel and DC authoring and
illustrating comic books for famous
superheroes like spider-man and Batman
he was a rising star in the comic book
world in the early 90s
so after a spat with management at
Marvel he went on to create his own
comic book publisher Image Comics and it
was there that the world would be
introduced to the character that would
eventually become the third guessed
character in Soul Calibur to spawn if
you take a look at anything Todd
McFarlane has ever been involved in you
can tell that spawn is his pride and joy
think about the thing that you loved the
most
now double that that's the amount of
love that this guy gets out of spawn
after all he conceptualized the
character at 16 years old that it shows
spawn looks like the embodiment of every
teenagers drawings in the margins of
their school work with a brooding past a
grim dark personality and a disposition
that puts him about 3 steps away from
becoming a store manager at a hot topic
needless to say that MacFarlane puts a
spawn and just about everything he can
from movies and video games action
figures merchandise and more
so in the early 2000s McFarland was
shopping spawn around two different game
studios to see if anyone would be
interested in making another game based
off of his edgy little baby and he
eventually found a suitor in Namco who
just so happened to be looking for a
company to produce a toy line for Soul
Calibur - as luck would have it todd
mcfarlane is also the owner of McFarlane
Toys one of the most popular action
figure and toy manufacturers and because
Todd was already a fan of Soul Calibur
before everything seemed to work out for
everyone involved
so Namco agreed to produce McFarland's
game and even asked him to design an all
new character for Soul Calibur - who
we'll get to in a second and of course
they asked MacFarlane for the right to
put spawn in their new game which he
obviously agreed to
unfortunately spawns presence in Soul
Calibur - feels a little inconsistent
and a bit half-cocked if you know
anything about this character you should
know that his bread and butter items are
his iconic cape and chain combo but
Namco actually had to cut back on both
of those weapons due to their intricate
nature and the lack of processing power
on the Xbox to handle the physics that
both of spawns main symbols would need
luckily Namco still had and out because
spawns Cape agony is actually a living
being able to transform into anything
that its wearer needs which is why spawn
wields a battle axe against the
characters of Soul Calibur - his in-game
motivations line up with the motivations
from the comics and he can fly around
and throw fireballs which are powers
that he does canonically have his
alternate costume is based off of a mid
nineties comic book arc where spawn gets
bad aranged in the goddamn face which is
a deep cut that fans of the series will
appreciate but after reading some comics
and doing some more research I think the
biggest miscarriage is weapons
I mean spawn definitely is used axes
before so I was expecting at least a
medieval version of his main weapon but
there doesn't seem to be anything like
that in this game
as a matter of fact it doesn't seem like
any of his weapons are references to the
deep history and lore of the spawn
franchise the only tenuous link I was
able to find was that one of his weapons
is named Redeemer which correct me if
I'm wrong but that just so happens to
share a name with one of his enemies so
if you can tell if there are any direct
references to spawn or characters within
that universe in his alternate weapons
or play style please feel free to let me
know in the comments below yeah you
happy lastly I wanted to talk about the
first pseudo guest character in the Soul
Calibur series I say pseudo because
there exists a character in Soul Calibur
too that was designed specifically for
this game by someone other than Namco
that character is nekron designed by
Todd McFarlane as a part of his deal
with Namco nekron is a large gross
looking abomination of a fighting game
character within human origins that
looks more at home in a comic book which
say what you will about todd mcfarlane
he is nothing if not consistent did you
know that neck word was actually banned
in tournament play along with link hey
Hachi and spawn during the game's heyday
balance changes were tested only arcade
version of Soul Calibur - and being
exclusive to the console version
characters like neck red lizard man song
Mina and Sophie Tia went untested in a
competitive setting and were banned as a
result years later the community
eventually unbanned most of those
characters but nekron stayed banned as a
result of allegedly being an out-and-out
busted character seeing bands and major
tournaments like evolution 2004 however
the community seems to have eased up on
the big boy lifting his ban had more
recent tournaments like combo breaker
2019 but unlike the other three guest
characters from this game neck word is
actually a canon presence in the
narrative of Soul Calibur - the long and
short of it is that neck word was once a
human warrior who fought and failed to
defeat soul lunch he was trapped in the
abyss known as the astral chaos
eventually making his way out but due to
the physical and psychological hardships
that the Shadow Realm inflicted upon him
he found himself in a men's pain until
he was able to gather the shards of the
soul edge and once he did that he
defeated inferno reopened
the portal and hopped back into the void
never to be seen again
nekritz disappearance into the astral
chaos is likely to be the last time we
ever see the monster man in Soul Calibur
unless we also get spawn to make a
comeback as well that's because while
Namco outlined and programmed nekron
into Soul Calibur - they were only
following the designs and concepts of
his creator Todd McFarlane who owns a
partial copy right along with Namco
effectively splitting the ownership of
the character into the proof look no
further than the title screen of Soul
Calibur - which clearly indicates a
collaboration between the two parties
and when neck red has been brought up
for interviews and subsequent entries in
the Soul Calibur series producers
haven't really been shy about the fate
of the character saying that neck red is
quote on a permanent vacation which is a
pretty funny image to think about two of
the three console exclusive guests of
this game live on in Soul Calibur 2 HD
for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
Nintendo have been somewhat generous
with their characters but it looks like
letting link play on their competitors
consoles is a step too far the only way
that I see the guest trio fighting
against each other all at once is if
Soul Calibur 2 HD gets ported to the
switch and with Tekken showing up on the
Wii U and Todd McFarlane's need to shove
spawn into every nook and cranny in
existence that idea is honestly not that
far-fetched this won't be the last of
the Soul Calibur videos that I bring you
you can look forward to at least two
more about the guests of Soul Calibur
coming in the future and I'm incredibly
proud of the work that I've put into
them thus far and I think you'll really
enjoy them so for now once again my name
is a stumble b and you can support me on
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everyone