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Soul Calibur 6 Hands-On: A Cut Above The Rest

They slice and they dice, but these soul swords have a little more going for them than your average cutlery. 

Blake Morse

January 26, 2018 10:00 AM

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Soul Calibur 6 hasn’t been on the radar for very long and there’s still a lot that’s yet to be revealed. But at a recent press event, Bandai-Namco pulled back the curtain just a tiny bit to reveal a few more fighters, including a brand new character, and give a more in-depth look at some new and returning combat features.

First off, there are three familiar faces returning to the arena: Xianghua is back with her sword in hand, Kilik is ready to smack people around with his staff, and Nightmare has returned to brutalize his opponents. Along with the returning fan favorites, Soul Calibur 6 is getting at least one new character, a one-eyed, blue-haired brawler who goes by the name of GRØH.

GRØH uses a double blade, sort of like Darth Maul’s lightsaber if it was with swords. Unlike the ill-fated sith, this guy can actually detach his blades from one another for even more versatility to his attacks. Most of his moves seem based on quick, blink of an eye attacks, or at least they did to me during my brief hands-on time with the character.

Along with the new character several new features are looking to add even more depth to combat. The brand new reversal edge is sort of a Rock, Paper, Scissors gambit somewhat akin to the clash system in the Injustice series, but with a less detrimental outcome. During a reversal edge, players must choose to choose to attack vertically, horizontally, or kick their enemy. If both opponents choose the same attack then it’s a wash, but if that happens twice in a row, the win will go to the instigator.

Critical edge super moves are back and just as powerful as ever. I was particularly enthralled by Nightmare’s when he came charging out of a dark void on an evil looking horse to devastate his challenger. But there is brand new use for the power meters beyond the critical edge attacks.

Players will now be able to execute a “Soul Charge” to either pull off a last moment of desperation win or to really drive home a victory with an early lead. When activated, a Soul Charge will do a damageless AoE kickback to give a player a little breathing room. The charge also boosts a player’s strength and does heavy chip damage to an opponent if they try to block. Some characters, or at least Kilik will lose health when in Soul Charge mode, which can make it even more of a gambit to use.

As I said earlier, Soul Calibur VI is still very much in its initial stages of the revealing process, and there were many, many more character slots on the select screen that need to be filled in before we get anywhere close to a release date. For now, check out the exclusive gameplay footage below and keep an eye out for more SCVI news in the future.

Blake Morse

Events Coordinator

Blake has been writing and making videos about pop-culture and games for over 10 years now. Although he'd probably prefer you thought of him as a musician and listened to his band, www.cartoonviolencemusic.com. If you see him on the street, buy him a taco or something. Follow him on twitter @ProfRobot