People have been piling on Soul Calibur IV for months. Many fans of the franchise seem agitated that Namco decided to include popular Star Wars characters in the next installment of the franchise. Gamers seem especially vexed by Yoda’s inclusion. Some have compared him to Gon, the pint-sized dinosaur from Tekken 3, who was difficult to hit due to his small stature.

A recent post over at Kotaku detailed the release date and box art for the Japanese version of the game. Two of the guest characters, Darth Vader and Yoda, will be prominently featured on the cover when the game releases in Japan on July 31. This seemed to be too much for the author, who declared the Soul Calibur franchise dead.

Find out why this was a gross overreaction, after the jump.

Complaining about cover art is pretty ridiculous. The quality of a game is not determined by the picture on the front of its box (see Mega Man 2). I think most rational people would agree. The focus really should be on the quality of the game. Soul Calibur IV is not the first game in the series, or in the genre, to feature guest characters. Soul Calibur II had three platform-specific guests. The PS2 version got Heihachi, the Gamecube featured Link and the Xbox nation got to fight as Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. As expected, the game was great, regardless of the guest characters.

I purchased the Gamecube version because my “fat” PS2 had been struck by the dreaded D.R.E. (disc read error). Link never really appealed to me. I always felt he, more than the other guests, was out of place. He didn’t really fit with franchise regulars like Astaroth and Nightmare. The other guests, Spawn and Heihachi, were much more appropriate choices. Spawn came from Todd McFarlane, who also created Necrid (a character exclusive to SC II). Heihachi was lifted from Tekken, another fighting franchise from Namco.

Though Link stuck out like a sore thumb, I never thought his inclusion was detrimental to the game. I simply never played as him. Wow, that’s a novel idea. If you don’t like a certain character, don’t use them. The same rules will apply to SC IV. Namco is not going to force players to choose Darth Vader and Yoda. They are simply fan service.

I often wonder if part of the problem is that lightsabers are perceived to be too powerful. Sure, in the real world, they would probably overpower kitanas and axes. However, that doesn’t make it a valid complaint. Soul Calibur is obviously not steeped in realism. Just look at the shield-wielding Lizardman (a fixture of the series since Soul Calibur), or the outrageous breast physics… Also, no matter how many times the same character gets stabbed with a sword or a giant axe, they always seem to be ready for the next fight. Apparently ,they don’t even suffer from flesh wounds. Soul Calibur isn’t realistic.

It’s a videogame. Get over it.

The big problem, as I perceive it, is that the hardcore crowd believes that the franchise will be overrun by Stars Wars geeks and casual gamers. Allow me to quell your concerns. Soul Calibur is a hardcore franchise. Casual gamers usually don’t purchase fighting games. At least they haven’t for the last couple of years or so…

Yoda and Vader might appear online occasionally, but the majority of players on XBL and the PSN will be hardcore fans. Based on their reactions to the guest characters, I imagine that most core gamers will avoid Yoda and Vader in favor of the franchise regulars. After all, when facing the scum of the Internet, you want to have your best warriors on the battlefield.

The inclusion of three Star Wars characters (rumors suggest a total of five) does not make this any less of a Soul Calibur game. According to game’s official site, each version will feature a roster of 25 characters. That means that three (Vader, Vader’s apprentice and Yoda) out of the 25 officially-announced characters will come from the Star Wars universe. Personally, I don’t consider those odds to be overwhelmingly in favor of the Star Wars crew. Until I see Kilik fighting Ewoks on Endor, this will remain a Soul Calibur game.

In the end, Soul Calibur IV will release (on July 29 according to IGN) and fans of the series will flock in large numbers to purchase it. All of this pissing and moaning about the roster will disappear once gamers get their hands on the latest installment in the franchise. Besides, look on the bright side, at least Soul Calibur fans won’t have to make as many concessions as Mortal Kombat fans (i.e. the alteration of fatalities in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe). That is something we can all agree on.

Source: Kotaku

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