Soul Calibur Guest Characters

Namco's Fighting Games Include Warriors from Zelda to Star Wars

Jun 5, 2009

Namco has a history of bringing gaming, comic, and movie icons to its weapons-based fighting series.

“Transcending history and the world: A tale of swords and souls eternally retold.” The quote appears in the opening cinematic of Soul Calibur II and is used again in later versions of Namco's 3D weapons-based fighting series, and the games have literally transcended its 16th-century setting in finding new faces for players to pick.

While these guest characters look out of place and generally have no story other than getting in on the mystic-sword action, they do their job in terms of getting casual fans interested in the series.

Soul Calibur

The Robin Hood ninja and man-of-a-thousand-faces Yoshimitsu was the first SC character to originate from a property outside the series, and the only guest character to actually remain in the series after his initial appearance.

Coming from Namco’s hand-to-hand fighter Tekken, Yoshimitsu added a banner pole to his collection of katanas and unorthodox attacks. While his basic sword swinging is ripped from series mainstay Mitsurugi, Yoshimitsu brings along his Tekken tricks like unique stances and a selection of unblockable attacks.

Soul Calibur II

Released on multiple consoles, SC2 included one unique character in each version of the game. PlayStation 2 owners got another Tekken regular in Heihachi Mishima. Unlike Yoshimitsu, Heihachi fights with his bare hands, making him fast if extremely short-ranged. While both Tekkan characters have their bread-and-butter techniques, only Heihachi can do the series-famous 10-hit-combos.

Xbox owners got Todd McFarlane’s demonic superhero Spawn. McFarlane’s company produced the figures for the game, and he also designed the character Necrid. Spawn was also a short-ranged fighter with his cape-turned-battle axe, but his strong hits and levitation abilities make up for it.

Link from The Legend of Zelda appeared in the GameCube version. Link brought more fanservice than the other system-exclusives, including the Zelda theme playing in the Athenian Temple stage during his fights. As for Link himself, his Master Sword attacks had good reach (if not very safe), and he had several projectiles at a time when projectiles in SC were a novelty.

The drawback of system-exclusive characters is that it’s unfair to use them in a tournament against people who don’t have the same version. While Heihachi, Link, and Spawn were marketed heavily during the game’s release, they were banned from the majority of competitive tournaments.

Soul Calibur III

There weren’t any official guest characters in SC3, though the new character-creation system gave players some freedom to put whoever they want in the game. Namco even supplied the parts to create KOS-MOS from its Xenosaga series. Still, there is a difference between a combination of general-purpose parts and the real deal.

Soul Calibur Legends

This Wii hack-and-slasher only gets a nod due to the appearance of Lloyd from the Namco RPG Tales of Symphonia.

Soul Calibur IV

System-exclusive characters returned in force with the appearance of Star Wars characters. Just think that the characters’ souls burn so strongly they can repel lightsabers. Besides three new characters an Imperial starship served as a locale, with four themes from the saga’s score as ambiance. Each character also operated under a special Force bar used for special attacks.

The PlayStation 3 initially got Darth Vader. Besides choking people with The Force and the gorilla press from Return of the Jedi, Vader’s slow, powerful movements contrasted with the regular cast of nimble swordsmen.

The Xbox 360 version came with Yoda, whose design fouls regular conventions. Most high attacks miss completely and he couldn’t be thrown, forcing opponents to adjust their play style. In return, Yoda’s movement speed, defense, reach, and attack power were terrible. The Jedi had to be aggressive with throws, lunges, and Force-powered leaps, and even then some characters can turn the fight into a joke. Eventually Namco made both characters available as DLC, but Yoda is banned from the community’s national tournaments.

Both consoles received The Apprentice, the main character from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed that was published around the same time. Apprentice uses the Force to do everything from projectiles to throw breaks to continuing combos. However, due to his subpar basic moves meter management is vital.

The series’s upcoming appearance on PSP will mark the appearance of Kratos from God of War, who was rumored to appear in SC4. Kratos will have his dual chain blades and other GOW weapons at his disposal, but his playstyle and ability to attract newcomers remain to be seen…

The copyright of the article Soul Calibur Guest Characters in Action Games is owned by Chris Hoadley. Permission to republish Soul Calibur Guest Characters in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.