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Been making my way through Soulcalibur VI's single-player modes, albeit at a very slow pace. I'm in this weird place where I want more story-driven content in games generally but when it actually exists i don't have the patience or attention span to sit through it most of the time, and I feel guilty about it for some reason.
Anyway, opinion time:
★ This is basically the plot of the original SC but presented in like a pseudo-visual novel with illustrations and text with the occasional fight. There's not a lot that's different but it's nice to see more substantial interaction between Kilik/Maxi/Xianghua (the OT3 vibes are THROUGH THE ROOF goddamn) Astaroth is honestly hilarious because he YELLS ALL HIS DIALOG AND MOST OF THE TIME, IT'S ABOUT HOW GREAT DESTROYING STUFF IS OR HOW ANNOYING IT IS THAT HE CAN'T DESTROY STUFF RIGHT THIS SECOND.Ivy just kind of exists and does nothing but cut Xianghua just because she can???, as the only reason she runs into the trio in the first place is due to her abandoning Nightmare after finally realizing he's fucked the fuck up.
Notable retcons: The new character, Groh, doesn't do much here besides fight Kilik to ~test his mettle~ and later on leads Kilik and Xianghua to Nightmare's chambers after Maxi takes on Astaroth but it's a change nonetheless. Kilik actually has an evil/malfested form that he fights to keep under control throughout the story, and when he and Xianghua fight Nightmare/Inferno Kilik has to harness the power of said form to defeat the ~final form~ of Inferno. I'm a bit miffed that Xianghua is no longer the sole slayer of Inferno, but if the intent is to highlight the idea of balance between dark/light, in comparison to the idea of destruction/purification that exists in Siegfried's storyline, I can almost tolerate it. Almost.
★ I'm not exactly an unbiased source when it comes to anything regarding Raphael Sorel, but right now his storyline is significantly better written than everything else I've seen so far. He shows a surprising amount of gentleness throughout--not just to Amy, either; early on while still in the slums of Rouen he treats a peasant with an injury, who sneaks off without payment for obvious reasons, and instead of being angry about it Raphael observes that everyone he's met in the slums is utterly devoid of hope and it's upsetting. (Also nice: Raphael having medical knowledge is something of a plot point, actually there's a lot of subtle things aligning Raphael Sorel with Raphael the archangel and WHEW there's a lot to process for a fangirl)
Amy is absolutely great. "Raphael you DUMMY" becomes kind of a catchphrase for her and i don't care if it's dangerously close to cheesiness, I loved it every time it came up. There's a really nice contrast between Amy's worldliness and Raphael believing society should operate in logical ways and being subtly horrified that it doesn't. It makes his eventual decision to seek out Soul Edge more plausible--his ending chapter is mostly musing over how he's provided Amy with everything he had as a child, but he still feels like he needs to offer her something greater. Amy later says she never had anything or anyone she was afraid of losing until she met Raphael and IF THERE IS A LINE GUARANTEED TO DESTROY MY HEART IT IS THIS ONE.
Notable retcons: The wealthy lord Raphael ends up poisoning is named Dumas. SCV didn't outright state that Graf Dumas/Nightmare was using Raphael's body as a host but it was pretty strongly implied and this just adds to that. Also suggests that this is not a full-on reboot but more of a remake to make the lore laid out in earlier games line up more neatly with SCIV and SCV. The book that Raphael reads about Soul Edge is, I think, written by one of the new characters, Azwel, and at some point in Libra of Souls Azwel gives Raphael something intended to ward off the effects of malefestation which is intriguing. Maybe they're planning to retcon the entire vampire plot? I certainly wouldn't mind if they did.
It's not really a story thing, but if you armor break Raphael he is wearing this amazing bodysuit underneath. I question the historical accuracy of this undergarment but I appreciate the fanservice.
★ Nightmare's story is extremely dull, it's literally just Nightmare stalking the countryside and people being horrified that he actually exists and then he kills them. This goes on for like, 5 chapters. At some point, Nightmare kills most of the Aval Organization that Groh is a part of, and Astaroth sounds kinda gay for Nightmare, and unfortunately Ivy continues to come off as incredibly naive because she only starts to question the immense amount of slaughterin' being done after, like, she's seen a ton of it. There's a short conversation between Soul Edge pretending to be Fredrick and Nightmare, where Soul Edge encourages him to continue killing people in order to resurrect his dad, and while it adds some emotional weight to the tragedy of Siegfried's life it's also not new.
Siegfried's story is, uh...kind of a mess??? The writing is trying to be dark and tragic but ends up being, more often than not, maudlin and embarrassing. The first chapter is entirely made up of Siegfried weeping over his fate in a forest. Alone. He actually says the line "I want to peel my skin off!" and it's not like I expect incredible dialog from Soulcalibur but Y I K E S on the edge there, y'all. The second chapter opens up with someone asking Siegfried if he's Nightmare and Siegfried responds with sobbing. When comparing the English version to the JP one, the difference between the takes is like night and day (in the JP version the sobbing is significantly toned down) and it makes me think this part of the story is a, uh, personal stylistic choice of either the translator or the English VA director. The melodrama gets turned down around Chapter 3 when Siegfried encounters Sophitia but the cringey lines don't disappear. OH WELL.
Notable retcons: Siegfried's ending is this kinda weird, metaphysical moment where Soulcalibur, apparently trapped by/in Soul Edge after Xianghua and Kilik fight Inferno, calls out to Siegfried in his sleep and leads him to the Astral Chaos in order to free it and....he does, but it's not clear what happens after that. I think he gives up control of his body to Soul Edge in order to keep Soulcalibur from being devoured by Soul Edge (or the Astral Chaos?) but like, I have no idea. How does that even work? Whatever, guess I gotta wait for SCVII. :/
Also not story related but Siegfried is stunningly beautiful in this game. Full on pouty-lipped, sad-eyed bishonen in the game illustrations, and in fights his hair is perfect 100%, like....there's almost no clipping. It is truly a marvel. Thanks, Bamco.
Anyway, opinion time:
★ This is basically the plot of the original SC but presented in like a pseudo-visual novel with illustrations and text with the occasional fight. There's not a lot that's different but it's nice to see more substantial interaction between Kilik/Maxi/Xianghua (the OT3 vibes are THROUGH THE ROOF goddamn) Astaroth is honestly hilarious because he YELLS ALL HIS DIALOG AND MOST OF THE TIME, IT'S ABOUT HOW GREAT DESTROYING STUFF IS OR HOW ANNOYING IT IS THAT HE CAN'T DESTROY STUFF RIGHT THIS SECOND.Ivy just kind of exists and does nothing but cut Xianghua just because she can???, as the only reason she runs into the trio in the first place is due to her abandoning Nightmare after finally realizing he's fucked the fuck up.
Notable retcons: The new character, Groh, doesn't do much here besides fight Kilik to ~test his mettle~ and later on leads Kilik and Xianghua to Nightmare's chambers after Maxi takes on Astaroth but it's a change nonetheless. Kilik actually has an evil/malfested form that he fights to keep under control throughout the story, and when he and Xianghua fight Nightmare/Inferno Kilik has to harness the power of said form to defeat the ~final form~ of Inferno. I'm a bit miffed that Xianghua is no longer the sole slayer of Inferno, but if the intent is to highlight the idea of balance between dark/light, in comparison to the idea of destruction/purification that exists in Siegfried's storyline, I can almost tolerate it. Almost.
★ I'm not exactly an unbiased source when it comes to anything regarding Raphael Sorel, but right now his storyline is significantly better written than everything else I've seen so far. He shows a surprising amount of gentleness throughout--not just to Amy, either; early on while still in the slums of Rouen he treats a peasant with an injury, who sneaks off without payment for obvious reasons, and instead of being angry about it Raphael observes that everyone he's met in the slums is utterly devoid of hope and it's upsetting. (Also nice: Raphael having medical knowledge is something of a plot point, actually there's a lot of subtle things aligning Raphael Sorel with Raphael the archangel and WHEW there's a lot to process for a fangirl)
Amy is absolutely great. "Raphael you DUMMY" becomes kind of a catchphrase for her and i don't care if it's dangerously close to cheesiness, I loved it every time it came up. There's a really nice contrast between Amy's worldliness and Raphael believing society should operate in logical ways and being subtly horrified that it doesn't. It makes his eventual decision to seek out Soul Edge more plausible--his ending chapter is mostly musing over how he's provided Amy with everything he had as a child, but he still feels like he needs to offer her something greater. Amy later says she never had anything or anyone she was afraid of losing until she met Raphael and IF THERE IS A LINE GUARANTEED TO DESTROY MY HEART IT IS THIS ONE.
Notable retcons: The wealthy lord Raphael ends up poisoning is named Dumas. SCV didn't outright state that Graf Dumas/Nightmare was using Raphael's body as a host but it was pretty strongly implied and this just adds to that. Also suggests that this is not a full-on reboot but more of a remake to make the lore laid out in earlier games line up more neatly with SCIV and SCV. The book that Raphael reads about Soul Edge is, I think, written by one of the new characters, Azwel, and at some point in Libra of Souls Azwel gives Raphael something intended to ward off the effects of malefestation which is intriguing. Maybe they're planning to retcon the entire vampire plot? I certainly wouldn't mind if they did.
It's not really a story thing, but if you armor break Raphael he is wearing this amazing bodysuit underneath. I question the historical accuracy of this undergarment but I appreciate the fanservice.
★ Nightmare's story is extremely dull, it's literally just Nightmare stalking the countryside and people being horrified that he actually exists and then he kills them. This goes on for like, 5 chapters. At some point, Nightmare kills most of the Aval Organization that Groh is a part of, and Astaroth sounds kinda gay for Nightmare, and unfortunately Ivy continues to come off as incredibly naive because she only starts to question the immense amount of slaughterin' being done after, like, she's seen a ton of it. There's a short conversation between Soul Edge pretending to be Fredrick and Nightmare, where Soul Edge encourages him to continue killing people in order to resurrect his dad, and while it adds some emotional weight to the tragedy of Siegfried's life it's also not new.
Siegfried's story is, uh...kind of a mess??? The writing is trying to be dark and tragic but ends up being, more often than not, maudlin and embarrassing. The first chapter is entirely made up of Siegfried weeping over his fate in a forest. Alone. He actually says the line "I want to peel my skin off!" and it's not like I expect incredible dialog from Soulcalibur but Y I K E S on the edge there, y'all. The second chapter opens up with someone asking Siegfried if he's Nightmare and Siegfried responds with sobbing. When comparing the English version to the JP one, the difference between the takes is like night and day (in the JP version the sobbing is significantly toned down) and it makes me think this part of the story is a, uh, personal stylistic choice of either the translator or the English VA director. The melodrama gets turned down around Chapter 3 when Siegfried encounters Sophitia but the cringey lines don't disappear. OH WELL.
Notable retcons: Siegfried's ending is this kinda weird, metaphysical moment where Soulcalibur, apparently trapped by/in Soul Edge after Xianghua and Kilik fight Inferno, calls out to Siegfried in his sleep and leads him to the Astral Chaos in order to free it and....he does, but it's not clear what happens after that. I think he gives up control of his body to Soul Edge in order to keep Soulcalibur from being devoured by Soul Edge (or the Astral Chaos?) but like, I have no idea. How does that even work? Whatever, guess I gotta wait for SCVII. :/
Also not story related but Siegfried is stunningly beautiful in this game. Full on pouty-lipped, sad-eyed bishonen in the game illustrations, and in fights his hair is perfect 100%, like....there's almost no clipping. It is truly a marvel. Thanks, Bamco.
