Soulcalibur 6 released in 2018 to a decent reception, though it’s fair to say it didn’t set the world alight. The best thing about it was a ludicrously impressive character creator, though on PC even further treats would await thanks to modders: how about a fight to the finish between Bernie Sanders and Geralt?
Things have gone quiet on the Soulcalibur front since then, while stablemate Tekken’s star has continued to rise. Bandai Namco has developed these two very different flavours of fighting game simultaneously since the late 1990s, but with no new entry seemingly even planned some fans are beginning to worry that the success of Tekken will see Soulcalibur fade away.
Harada begins by addressing the idea that various game mechanics affect a series’ survival or otherwise: “things are not that simple.” He points out that these games began in the heyday of arcades (the first Soulcalibur, Soul Edge, was an arcade cabinet before home conversions followed) where people could experiment more with games, and move between favourites, but in the home market your players have already purchased the game.
He calls this a “paradigm shift” in how games are marketed and sold, and for “historical video game franchises” this can be a big problem.
“It is too naïve and innocent a point of view to leave everything to game mechanics when talking about the survival of a game franchise,” writes Harada. “If they are so innocent, why did that game title that was so fun to play disappear?
“Where are those arcade titles that we were so crazy about? Where did that fighting game franchise with those great mechanics go? Why did that fighting game with those good mechanics disappear?”
Harada says there are many beloved titles that have disappeared, and points out how many different fighting game series there were in the late ’90s compared to now, joking that “there must have been some titles you rated as having much better mechanics than Tekken!”
