Namco has officially announced that Soul
Calibur V will be arriving on Xbox 360 and PS3 next year. The game will be
set 17 years after the events of Soul Calibur
IV with some of the main characters having aged significantly and the power
struggle having shifted towards the younger generation.
One of the major differences from Soul
Calibur IV will be the inclusion of a more reactive combat system with
combos that are simpler to perform. The game's producer, Hisaharu Tago, admits
that in Soul Calibur IV there was some delay in the time it took the on-screen characters
to react to the player pressing a button and he insists that Soul Calibur V will feel "much
lighter, sharper and more elegant."
The game's characters will be a mix of the series' favorites as well as
some new additions which may include children of some of the older characters –
we can also expect an updated version of the character creation mode seen in
previous games. As with the special guest Star Wars characters in Soul Calibur IV, Hisaharu Tago hinted
that we will again see some guest characters from outside the franchise.
Very few other specific details were given with the game's initial announcement
but we have been shown a brief official trailer. As with most games that are
being announced at the moment, we can expect to see and hear a lot more about it
during E3.
