Bandai Namco made headlines last night during The Game Awards when it unveiled SoulCalibur 6 — a follow-up to a series which hasn’t seen a main entry in five years.
The trailer was a sight to behold and it took everything that Bandai Namco has learned and acquired from Tekken in recent years and applied it to a franchise that fans have been anticipating for what seems like an eternity.
However, in the midst of the excitement, there was one thing that stood out: Sophitia and Mitsurugi. At first, their presence in the game doesn’t seem all that odd, as both are popular and are mainstays in the series — perfect for showing off a new game. Sophitia, in particular, is a very important character lorewise as her past actions are what serves as a catalyst for the events that take place during SoulCalibur 5.
But if you consider the franchises’ story and lore, than it actually makes no sense for Sophitia and Mitsurugi to appear the way they did in the trailer alongside one another.
First off, Mitsurugi appears to be younger than he did in recent entries. Considering, what Bandai Namco did with many of its characters in SoulCalibur 5, there was a small possibility that this character was a lookalike who inherited Mitsurugi’s fighting style (like Natsu did with Taki). Meanwhile, Sophitia shouldn’t have been fighting at all since she’s dead canonically. During the events of SoulCalibur 4, Sophitia’s daughter, Pyrrha, was kidnapped and spends much of the game trying to rescue her. Unfortunately, due to certain events that took place earlier and Pyrrha’s current condition, Sophitia ends up sacrificing her life so that her daughter could live. What’s more, she’s confirmed dead in the following game, as a grown-up Pyrrha and her brother, Patroklos, takes Sophitia’s and their aunt’s, Cassandra’s, place on the roster.
With that in mind, in seemed odd that in what should be a follow-up for SoulCalibur 5, includes what appears to be a younger iteration of one of its oldest characters fighting against someone who should be dead. Or rather, that was the case, until Bandai Namco revealed the first details about SoulCalibur 6.
In the update, it confirmed that the two characters fighting against each other are indeed Sophitia and Mitsurugi and openly states that game will “revisit the events of the original SoulCalibur to uncover hidden truths.” This is reinforced by the fact that Sophitia’s bio makes no mention of either of her children, but does mention Cassandra.
As such, it stands to reason that many of the older characters who appeared in the original game such as Kilik, Xianghua and Ivy would make an appearance as well. Furthermore, there was what looked like a teaser for a brand-new character, meaning that more could be introduced to the lore as time goes on. What will be interesting to see, however, is whether certain characters such as Talim will be added since she didn’t appear in the original.
SoulCalibur 6 has fans excited, so hopefully Bandai Namco keeps them happy by including the characters which helped them fall in love with the franchise in the first place.
In case you missed it, check out the announcement trailer below:
