So we get two single player modes this time around even though one sounds like a proper campaign with the other being a more fleshed out version of earlier challenge modes. Regardless, many SoulCalibur entries showed experiments with offline content longevity. Challenges, Conquest, Story and what have you, in a genre that puts as little effort as possible, more often than not, in such content. There must be some underlying philosophy that keeps you pushing and experimenting in that direction, game after game. So what is this philosophy and why do you stick to it so ferociously after all these years?
So the modes that we announced, what we call story modes, are about, firstly you create the character and then the character drives the story. And the way you drive the story is about basically you move from place to place, all over the world, and you collect things. So, while you’re travelling around the world, there are missions and of course then you have the battles but that’s what you’d call a Challenge Mode perhaps, because you have conditions in battle.
That was the point. You always had some sort of challenge mode to keep the player going with the game even he/she doesn’t want to play online. We asked this in terms of content balance. About whether this mode is supposed to be in terms of content and overall engagement what the Challenge Mode used to be for the series in the past.
When we first started to make SoulCalibur VI, we reviewed all of the SoulCalibur series and we realised that although it’s a fighting game people prefer to play in the single player modes and not so many people were playing online and people seem to enjoy playing alone to enjoy the world of SoulCalibur. Of course there are people who fight online. In that sense, in SoulCalibur VI we put two story modes, so the single player side is the biggest so far in the series. Among that, we have Libra Of Souls which has conditions as challenges.
You mentioned the when analysing the whole series, you noticed most players prefer staying offline. Do you think that’s a particular attribute of a SoulCalibur fan?
I actually produced Tekken 7 as well so if I compare that, I feel that maybe SoulCalibur has a higher rate of people who enjoy the world of SoulCalibur alone, compared to other fighting games.
During the presentation of the game we heard there might be some back and forth between the story modes, with characters appearing in the second story line etc. Does this extend to developments in the plot? Does what a player does in one story mode matter and does it affect the other story mode In any meaningful way?
Actually the stories do not interact. What happens is that both modes are happening at the same time and of course you can just enjoy one mode and that’s totally fine but if you play both modes, you can better understand the meaning of the story.
So both stories are part of a whole. Different aspects of the same story.
First of all, the story mode that was announced before is about experiencing the origin of SoulCalibur and Soul Edge. The main character is Kilik and that’s how you follow the story. What we announced then was the Libra Of Soul story mode and it’s actually, if you think of the Chronicle Mode as the kind of on the surface, obvious story of SoulCalibur and Soul Edge, then Libra Of Soul is talking about what’s behind the scenes, it’s another story that’s happening at the same time.
When you announced the first paid DLC character that’s coming out at launch, from the time we spent gathering reactions, we noticed there was backlash for offering paid characters as DLC from day one. Obviously that’s part of a financial plan that aims to make this game stand in time but do you think you could have handled it a different way in terms for communicating it?
The first reason why Tira is now DLC is that when we first announced SoulCalibur VI fans started asking for Tira and we couldn’t make the decision. The fans kept asking for Tira and I personally asked the development team if they can include Tira. But it’s not so easy. That’s why Tira couldn’t be in the original roster. In the end Tira became DLC so that is kind of a bonus for Season Pass holders but, of course, it was not just my opinion, it was other people’s opinion as well. Personally I feel like maybe we could think about the options a little more carefully.
We’re curious though. You just said it was going to be tricky to include Tira in the game. Why’s that exactly?
What happened was, basically, when we were more or less deciding on Tira, it was just missing the deadline to include any new character into the original lineup, because the development had gone too far, so rather then being in the original lineup, Tira had to be DLC and that way people can still enjoy her.
It was kind of a production pipeline issue then.
It’s not exactly that we couldn’t meet the deadline, it’s more like, if you start with more characters, then you have to change the menu, the interface and everything. So rather than, basically, compromising the design of the menu, we decided to improve it without worrying, at the time, for any additional characters.
To this day, the opening from the original game in the series, Soul Blade, is still considered one of the finest examples of a game opening. Openings for the rest of the series, we feel they’re now more formulaic, not as stylised or aesthetically pleasing, although that last part we concede is more of a personal opinion. We feel that the original game’s opening was, by comparison, crafted with love.
There are lots of reasons that affected the decision in previous titles, so it’s hard to comment on that. Maybe you’re going to be more disappointed because SoulCalibur VI doesn’t have an opening sequence. Of course there is a movie at the beginning of the story, but you don’t have a movie when you first launch the game.
It’s not a real issue.
But you’re talking about the love and passion behind that.
Exactly. Since SoulCalibur fans tend to be very vocal about that particular opening sequence from the original game, we though that, maybe, we don’t know, you could make their day.
Of course the reputation an opening has is always up to the players and for this game, we’ll have to wait for the launch and see what players will have to say. But if you ask me, now, we had a hard time developing SoulCalibur VI. The company didn’t approve it at first as a new numbered title in the series. But as Project Soul, we really wanted to make a new, numbered SoulCalibur entry. So what I can say for now is that Project Soul members, the development team, they have big passion, they work very hard so I hope that passion and the love for the project will be noticed by the player. That’s what I expect. But the reputation of the end result is up to the players.
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