Hyperlink fits the world of Soul Calibur. The elf-like little twink match into the roster in addition to any sword-wielding fantasy hero might – going through off in opposition to the likes of the machiavellian Frenchman Raphael, the inhuman hellspawn Astaroth, or the attractive gimp Voldo, the Legend of Zelda visitor character suits proper in. Weaponry, aesthetic, transfer set… all of it gels with Soul Calibur’s camp excessive fantasy world – even whenever you’re pulling huge bombs out of God-knows-where and hurling them throughout the stage. It simply suits.
You already know what doesn’t match, although? Lightsabers. No quantity of sci-fi reasoning, magic, or blaming it on wizards could make Yoda, Darth Vader, and (eurgh) Starkiller match within the war-torn European and Silk Street settings of Soul Calibur. It simply doesn’t observe. Why Bandai Namco determined to shoehorn the trio of characters into the fourth Soul Calibur recreation, then, stays a thriller; it’s damaging to each manufacturers, it is mindless canonically, and – greater than the rest – it’s simply all a bit cheesy (or ought to that be Taki?)
And but, I like them. All of them. Even Starkiller and his silly every-00s-action-game protagonist face. As visitor characters in a preventing recreation, they’re enjoyable – a surprisingly low bar, however one which may be very typically tripped over and mashed into the bottom beneath (right here’s taking a look at you, Negan).
As playable characters, the fighters supplied one thing fairly completely different to the core Soul Calibur solid. Bear in mind Gon in Tekken 3 – the farty little dinosaur that no-one might hit, that couldn’t be thrown, and that had a ranged fireplace assault? Properly, as a result of it clearly by no means discovered its lesson, Bandai Namco made all those self same errors, once more, with Yoda (an Xbox 360 unique character, to start with). The little inexperienced bastard was ludicrously onerous to hit due to an apparently elasticated hitbox, and he might zip everywhere in the stage on a whim like a hyperactive Jack Russell… not a dignified Jedi Grasp.
Yoda was enjoyable to play as – you probably have no consideration span – however a correct nightmare to play in opposition to. Arising in opposition to a Yoda participant on-line at all times elicited a groan, realizing that even your finest Hilde most likely wouldn’t get to land a significant combo in opposition to a flurry of lightsaber and inexperienced pores and skin. The one upside? The irritating outdated man would, as a rule, ring himself out after some ridiculous leap from one nook of the sector to a different. No variety of midi-chlorians will prevent from that, will it?
Over on the PS3, there was Darth Vader. A grasp of the lightsaber preventing fashion of Djem So, Anakin was a barely slower attacker than different characters within the recreation – however the payoff was stupendous injury. He felt extra like a Samurai Shodown character than a Soul Calibur one. Popping off with a Power Eruption / Power Cannon mega-move from virtually each one among his actually-useful combos can be sufficient to tear a 3rd off an enemy’s well being, simply. Then there’s the Darkish Vortex; an especially quick collection of guard-breaking assaults that at all times ended up penetrating the opponent’s guard.
For newcomers – y’know, the kind of gamers that may decide up a Soul Calibur recreation just because there’s some Star Wars gumpf on the quilt – Vader was simple to make use of. His particular assaults had easy inputs, they usually did not take up an excessive amount of meter. He taught you dangerous preventing recreation habits. And he had only a few prods and low-attack utilities to make him a risk in opposition to gamers that truly knew what they had been doing.
And that’s what was enjoyable about him! He was silly, and damaged. Each Vader and Yoda had been banned from aggressive play very early on, as a result of – from a preventing recreation standpoint – they had been completely busted. Their tales had been ludicrous (Vader used Soul Calibur and Soul Edge to bolster the Empire’s energy, go determine). When it comes to an influence fantasy in a preventing recreation, this was sensible – and rightly so! That’s what you get whenever you convey a Lightsaber to a sword battle.
And you recognize what, in the event you step again and put your finest GCSE-level criticism hat on, you’ll be able to nearly justify the pondering behind the Star Wars x Soul Calibur crossover, too. Each collection completely love a lightweight vs darkish theme, and it underpins just about each thread of each narrative each properties have ever flirted with. Yoda and Vader as fated opponents, doomed to this fruitless rivalry whilst they’re transported to a different world, makes some kind of perverse sense and abides by each universe’s guidelines in an irritatingly elegant manner.
The Soul Calibur collection has been one thing of a bastion of visitor characters in the case of preventing video games (in the event you ignore Spawn). Even Soul Calibur 5’s Ezio Auditore was match, in his personal manner… regardless of these bullshit crossbow strikes. Extra just lately, we’ve had 2B and Geralt – each of whom match the fantasy and look the half, too. Heihachi and Satan Jin – each kind of made in the identical engine – had been good additions to the roster in Soul Calibur 2 and 5, respectively. Even when they had been solely there to maintain Harada pleased.
The Star Wars characters had been the low tide of Soul Calibur visitor characters, and but they nonetheless represented a enjoyable and undeniably distinctive providing in preventing video games at giant. Now that Disney has sunk its company claws into Star Wars, we’re extremely unlikely to see something like this occur once more; the IP is now safeguarded in a extra accountable manner (except you rely that entire Quantic Dream factor…) With that extra curated, considerate possession comes much less experimental and weird crossovers like this – and that’s at all times going to be a disgrace.
