Soul Calibur is one of my favorite fighting game series, because it’s easy to get into and play, and a lot of the characters are fun and interesting. So here’s a blog about the fighters in the new Soul Calibur V. Keep in mind that this blog isn’t meant to be informative. I was just having fun writing it so it’ll be a bit silly.

And if you haven’t seen it yet, here’s my article about the unboxing of the Collector’s Edition of SCV. Please read it when you get a chance.

SCV First Impressions

Before we get started with the characters, here are my first impressions of SCV. So keep in mind that this isn’t a full review. But so far I think I like SC4 a little better. But maybe I just need to warm up to SCV a little more. I really can’t tell you much about gameplay changes since I’m not very good at fighters. So I don’t know anything about Guard Breaks or Critical Impacts or whatever. I just push buttons and my fighters swing a sword around, that’s all I know.

I just don’t see that big of an improvement from SC4 to SCV. I don’t notice any graphical improvement, and I enjoyed the gameplay modes in SC4 better. So far I’m not liking SCV’s story mode that forces you to play as certain characters. I just liked the more ‘arcadey’ story mode of SC4 where you just pick a character, battle a few guys, and watch that fighter’s ending. SCV also seems a little harder, too, but that just may be me. I haven’t played online at all, but you can play against me if you like. I guarantee you’ll win since I stink at fighting games.

My favorite part of SC4 was creating my own characters. I think I spent more time making my own characters than actually playing the game! In fact, I think the only other 360 game I clocked more hours than SC4 was Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. The character creation mode in SCV is pretty much the same, which is OK since it was so darn good in SC4. One improvement I’ve noticed is you can change the size and muscle mass of various body parts instead of all at once. You can give your fighter thunder thighs and even make them slightly chubby now. I only wish you didn’t have to be at such a high level to unlock the joke weapons! So what characters do you think I should make? What will you make? Let me know in the comments section.

Characters

And that’s my first impressions of SCV. Now let’s look at the fighters in the game! Feel free to fill me in on any mistakes or things you want to add to my descriptions!

Aeon

This is basically Lizardman. Except here he has two axes. I’ve always wondered if Namco made Lizardman as a reference to an enemy in their classic Tower of Druaga game.

Algol

Supposedly he’s the last boss in SCV. I probably won’t ever see him since I stink at fighting games so much.

Asteroth

He’s just a big brute with an axe. Asteroth has some secrets that he’d rather not share, but I’ll give you the inside scoop. One of his alternate outfits in a past SC had silly bunny ear looking things. And did you know that he was in a Mario Party clone with other Namco characters called Pac-Man Fever? It was on the last generation of game consoles. It wasn’t very good, but at least it was a heck of a lot better than their most recent party board game: Pac-Man Party.

Cervantes

I think he’s like a zombie pirate guy. I hear he’s also Ivy’s dad. I kind of feel sorry for Ivy now. But not much because Ivy is creepy.

Leixia

I guess I should mention that the story in SCV takes place 17 years after SC4. So Leixia is Xianghua’s daughter. Although if you called her Xianghua I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, as they both act and fight the same to me. I liked Xianghua because she was so annoying; I just had to laugh at her. Plus I just like annoying characters. I kind of wish they would’ve stayed with Xianghua in this game instead. It would’ve been interesting to see her older. Would she act more mature or still be silly and annoying?

Dampierre

Can’t say much about this guy. He’s an exclusive character you get if you purchased it at Best Buy. I imagine eventually he’ll be unlockable as a download for everyone sometime, though. Supposedly he’s a magician with a top hat and curly moustache. Reminds me of Dick Dastardly. I wonder if he has a snickering hound.

Edge Master

He can use all weapons and fighting styles, so he looks a little silly when he adopts a fighting stance from one of the girly characters. I think he’s only in this game for people who like a little randomness in their battles.

Elsyium

I’m not sure if this is a playable character, but I read on the Internet that it’s the human form of Soul Calibur, kind of like how Nightmare is with Soul Edge. Looks like an angelic female, or a powered up version of Sophitia. Anyone want to fill me in on this character? Looks pretty cool.

Ezio

He’s SCV’s guest character. It’s a tradition for SC games to have a guest character, like Link or Yoda and Darth Vader. Since I don’t have any interest in Assassin’s Creed games, I don’t care much for this guy. The only thing I know about the game is the main character can jump from a ten story building and land in a pile of hay on the ground and still be OK. So I call him Hay Man. Maybe if he had a pink dinosaur sidekick who threw cupcakes at bad guys, then I would play an Assassin’s Creed game. I didn’t realize how popular the games were until I went to PAX last year and attended a panel that my brother Jeff wanted to watch. Everyone in the auditorium was gushing over the preview videos they showed of the new Assassin’s Creed game, but I think I was the only one there who was falling asleep! I guess that’s another reason why I liked SCIV better. I like Star Wars more than Assassin’s Creed.

Mitsurugi

One of my complaints of SCV is that since it takes place 17 years after SC4, a lot of my favorite characters are missing. I would’ve liked to have seen older versions of them. I guess Namco did have older versions of some of the characters, just not ones I wanted. Mitsurugi is one of them. He’s basically the same except he’s got flecks of gray hair now. He and Haomaru from Samurai Shodown always reminded me of the main character from Brave Fencer Musashi. And there’s good reason for that. All three characters are based on a real life legendary historic Japanese swordsman named Musashi! I wonder how the real Musashi would feel about that.

Hilde

I always liked Hilde because she fights with full armor instead of running around half naked. And she carries a flag on a pole everywhere, like she’s ready to sink a putt in golf.

Ivy

I don’t like Ivy. She’s creepy and scary and mean and the whole leather and whip dominatrix thing just isn’t my bag. I do like her joke weapon in SC4, though, as it was a big link sausage. She’s one of the older characters in SC games, so for her to still be fighting 17 years later, she must eat her oatmeal and spinach every day. I guess one cool thing about Ivy is she looks tough and strong, which is a good thing to be when you’re in a fighting game. If only she were nicer.

Speaking of Ivy, when I pre-ordered the game at GameStop, I got a little silly bobble head of Ivy. While I would’ve rather had it be a character I like more, it is fun to see a cartoony version of Ivy in bobble head form. Also, when you pre-order a game at GameStop, you usually get a recorded message the day before it comes out letting you know to pick up your game the next day. But for SCV, the recorded message was from Ivy! I thought that was kind of funny. Although I hope GameStop isn’t giving my phone number out to other video game characters! I don’t want Mario calling me when I’m trying to eat dinner. See I told you this blog was going to be silly.

Kilik

That’s what you do with a computer mouse, right? I didn’t know he was in the game, but the Internet says he is, so it must be true, right? He fights with a big stick and in past games, he was friends with Xianghua, so I guess he’s kind of cool.

Maxi

He always reminded me of young Elvis. I liked his joke weapons from SC4: a pair of maracas. Now I want to play Samba de Amigo again!

Natsu

She’s Taki’s young apprentice. I would’ve rather have had Taki be in the game instead, though. Natsu just reminds me of a female version of that cocky Naruto punk. Only cool thing about Natsu is that she’s a ninja and in one of her throw moves, she tackles the other player. I think from now on I’m going to call her Katsu instead of Natsu, because Katsu is one of my favorite things to eat at Japanese restaurants, and Katsu is also the name of one of the drums in Taiko no Tatsujin. Oh great, now every time I see her in the game, I’m going to be hungry for chicken Katsu.

Nightmare

Believe it or not, Nightmare is one of my favorite characters. Even though he’s mean and scary, he looks cool and his big sword makes him easy to use. I guess he’s also cheap, but oh well. I kind of wish the recorded message I got on the phone from GameStop was from Nightmare and not Ivy. Then it would’ve been like, “RAAAAAHHHRRRR! This is Nightmare speaking on the phone! Your pre-ordered copy of Soul Calibur V will be in tomorrow, so you’d better come and pick it up or I’m going to get you! RAAAAARRRR!”

Patroklos

This is Sophitia’s son and one of the main characters in the new story. I don’t like him because he’s a bit cocky and his name is too hard to spell.

Pyrrha

That’s what a cat does when it is happy. She’s Sophitia’s daughter and plays kind of like Cassandra except she’s more whiney. She lets out these annoying squeals when she fights, and one of her throw moves looks like she knees the other player in the groin. Ouch! I would’ve rather had a more mature Cassandra instead of this annoyance. I liked Cassandra. Mainly because one of her alternate outfits was from the classic Namco game: The Legend of Valkyrie.

Raphael

Too bad it’s not the ninja turtle. I didn’t like how they made Raphael be a vampire in one of the past games, since I don’t like vampires. In this game he looks like Robin Hood what with the foresty travelers clothes they gave him.

Siegfried

In the Soul Edge arcade game (which was the first game in the series), I first picked Siegfried when I played it because he had a big sword. And the only reason why I put quarters into the arcade game in the first place was because on the attract screen when they showed the Namco logo, Pac-Man ran past it so I thought he was in the game!

Tira

Only thing I like about her in SCV is she still uses a hula hoop as a weapon. But I liked her better in Soul Calibur 3 because she had neat blue/green/teal hair. She’s really mean, too, so watch out.

Viola

This new character is a witch girl who uses finger claw things as weapons as well as a floaty orb doohickey. She’s pretty cool because of that. Only thing is sometimes she’ll leave the ball on the ground, and I wish I knew how to get her to pick it up again.

Voldo

Isn’t that a kind of car? Just joking! But oh I hate Voldo. Even though in SCV he wears these furry rainbow things on his arms and legs, he’s still just so creepy and scary! I hate the way he moves and writhes around and groans. And his mask is scary, too. I don’t even like talking about him, so that’s all I’m going to say about Voldo!

Xiba

This new guy reminds me of a young Kilik, as he uses a big stick, too. He wears a lot of animal furs, so he also reminds me of Gau from FF6. But he’s totally nuts because his win quotes all revolve around food. It just seems bonkers to beat someone up, and then talk about how awesome steamed buns are.

Yoshimitsu

I always liked him because his moves and attacks were silly. He’s also in the Tekken games, so like Ivy, he must eat his oatmeal and spinach since he lived that long!

Z.W.E.I.

I don’t know what that stands for, but ‘zwei’ is just ‘two’ in German. I feel sorry for anyone named ‘Number Two.’ This new character is interesting because he can summon a ghost-like wolf thing to help him fight.

Devil Jin?

Not really a fighter, but worth mentioning because you CAN unlock this Tekken character’s fighting style for use in the creation mode. Since he can fly and use lasers, that’s kind of cool. Might be able to use that when I make my own characters.

Conclusions

And that’s all the fighters in Soul Calibur V! In the comments section, let me know who YOUR favorites are. And let’s see if you can guess mine! Later! –Cary

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