SoulCalibur V beat 'em-up sequel out 2012, teaser trailer released
Namco Bandai has officially announced new weapons-based one-on-one fighter SoulCalibur V, which will be out on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 next year and is described as a 'true sequel' to the series.
There was nothing particularly wrong with 2008's SoulCalibur IV (or 2009's Broken Destiny on PSP) but it did overemphasis its Star Wars guest characters and gave every indication of being a tired franchise breathing its last.
Namco Bandai are keen to resuscitate it though, with a new game set 17 years later (based on Siegfried's ending from SoulCalibur IV) and featuring a new main character called Patroklos, son of Sophitia and Rothion.
Although Namco Bandai held a giant press conference in Dubai last night they've for some reason decided not to release any screenshot or trailers yet - although there are some shaky cam videos floating about the InterWeb.
According to Eurogamer Namco Bandai categorised the new game as a 'generational shift', including a new focus on short swords rather than two-handed swords - apparently with a story explanation of why.
The new fighting style is described as 'lighter, sharper, and more elegant', with improved online options. 'Gameplay in IV could be a little heavy, particularly when you were online – we wanted gameplay that was more fast and reactive,' said producer Hisaharu Tago.
'Maybe the hardcore fans will be afraid that we lose the core of the gameplay, but that's not the case. And for new players it's nice to have gameplay that is more continuous – you don't need to wait as much between moves,' he added.
The game will include the usual create-a-character feature and there will also be cameo characters from other series - although Namco Bandai aren't naming names yet. Previous games have seen appearances from not just Darth Vader and Kratos but also Nintendo's Link and comic book hero Spawn.
The game will be at E3 next month, so hopefully we'll find out more then.
At the same event Tekken boss Katsuhiro Harada has revealed to CVG that he hasn't even started work on Tekken X Street Fighter yet (as opposed to Capcom's Street Fighter X Tekken). Instead he's preoccupied with Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and a Tekken movie (God help us all).
Whether there'll be any SoulCalibur characters in the Tekken and Street Fighter crossovers isn't clear, but it's more than possible given the sharing of characters that has gone on
