January 10th, 2008 -Soul Calibur and Star Wars fans gather 'round -- while haters grab a six pack of Haterade and their always-ready flamethrowers -- because Namco Bandai has finally released new info on the rumored secret characters set to appear in their highly-anticipated fighter, Soul Calibur IV, and 1UP has 'em first. In case you don't believe your eyes as they scan over these screenshots, you are indeed seeing the legendary purveyor of the Dark Side, Darth Vader, and his Force-wielding nemesis, Yoda.


Yes, we know what you're thinking. You're thinking "What the hell are Darth Vader and Yoda doing in my Soul Calibur sequel?" But how are these two any less logical (or illogical) than Link or Spawn (we'll let Heihachi slide since he's in Tekken)? You're probably also wondering "Where the damn is Luke Skywalker, Darth Maul and Boba Fett?" Well, Boba Fett doesn't really use melee weapons, unless you count that stick on his back that he never uses. But Luke and Darth maul make a lot of sense. While we can't answer all of these questions just now, we suspect that Namco Bandai still has plenty of stuff up their sleeve. Given their recent Ace Combat 6 shenanigans, we wouldn't be surprised to learn that additional Star Wars characters are paid-for downloadable content. It's unlikely that the company would go through all these negotiations with LucasArts to obtain the rights to only two characters, so expect more announcements as we get closer to SCIV's release date.





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I have to say, this seems a bit out of place, but then again they did a similar thing with Soul Calibur 2, featuring different special characters on each platform. So perhaps Soul Calibur will continue to be the home of out of place characters!

I bet they got this idea from 'Super Mario Brothers Bash Melee' or whatever its called after Solid Snake decided to show up in the game. I don't think they should've used Star Wars characters since they're already featured in 10,000 Lucasart games whereas the other characters were used sparingly. Some DOA or Street Fighter characters would work better in Soul Calibur

Or how about a NAMCO Vs Lucas Arts fighting game .. i'd pay good money for that any day.

I've posted it everywhere else, and I'll do so again.
The characters REALLY don't fit.
At least Link had some place in the medieval/fantasy setting.

But yeah, do not want.

Heh, it's Super Smash Bros Brawl the third game in the series :P The difference with Smash Bros is that it's always been a crossover game, i.e. characters from different franchises (all of them NOT fighting games) coming together, so while the inclusions of Solid Snake and Sonic in Brawl is random and WHOA!! because of them being 3rd party characters, they still fit in quite well, since Smash Bros is a sea of random characters and always has been :)

But yeah, Star Wars in Soul Calibur doesn't make any logical sense :/

Soul Calibur and Star Wars? Truly bemusing. These odd cameos could eventually degrade the series as a whole. It doesn't fit at all. And Darth Vader being PS3 exclusive is somewhat disappointing, Yoda really seems like a second prize when compared with the bad arse Sith Lord.

^ No way!
I'd rather Yoda he's freakin awesome. But hopefully Vader comes out as downloadable content or something eventually... for free :P
Also, I was talking last night in IRC with some people and it only doesn't fit in cause it's from another galaxy (A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away)... Although Necrid is from another dimension...

Also sci fi and fantasy while both awesome, don't exactly mix together well... :/

Got to agree... they don't fit - I'm really disappointed that this idea's actually been gone ahead with.

I wouldn't mind so long as thay stay as strictly bonus characters. If they try to tie them into the storyline canonnicaly (as the trailer implied), well, the results could be a bit interesting (and disasterous).

That said, the prospect of taking up a lightsaber in one of my favourite fighting games is damn cool nonetheless. I'm not sure at what point the graphics in SCIV became brilliant since the first batch of screenshots, but they're pretty goddamned brilliant.

I WANT JAR JAR BINKS DAMNIT! :P

No. You don't.

I don't think we can be friends anymore slashy :P

Borat say: Very nice, how much?!

:P

Seriously I think that while they do look a bit out of place, they're just bonus characters that'll add a bit of variety to the game like Link/Spawn/Tekken guy did in SC2. I reckon Darth Maul would be a good addition...

Oh shit yeah, Darth Maul would rock. But then you might as well be making a fully fledged Star Wars fighter if more Star Wars characters were to be included.

As long as I get to kill Ewoks I don't care. :D

Tee hee.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Bad Catfish. :P

Well now this comic makes sense...

:D
It simply had to be done!

I"m thinking this is as many characters in Soul Calibur from star wars as we get, because otherwise everyone would do nothing but play as yoda or vader. It's like how many n00bs only play nightmare because of his massive damage (i do it for the lulz, seriously. Also voldo (and raphael to piss people off when they're winning too much by spamming with talim or xianghua))

I reckon it's possible people will do nothing but play as vader and yoda anyway though.

If I get this I'll probably get the PS3 version because the dpad is in a better position for fighters than on the 360 controller.

So looks like I'll be stuck with Vader then :( Yoda would be so much cooler

Wouldn't it be better to buy an arcade stick?

you know he's completely right.

I played SCII at a friend's place the other day, he had a duke and a 3rd party controller. Nearly killed all of me in team battle.


Voldo 4-hit kill combo FTW though.

It was unplayable on his Xbox. I am soo buying a converter for all consoles so I can plug in what i need when i go over to friend's houses.

You've obviously never played SC2 on a GC controller if you're complaining about the Xbox controller for fighters :P

But funnily enough, I've never been any good with arcade sticks, and have found the PS controller best for fighters, simply because of the dpad position.

Actually the GC one is what I normally use, because I have one... and bought it because i was all OMG TRAILER LINK IS IN IT!!! so I liked it lots.

I own the GC version as well, and have played it a shitload, but yeah, the button layout isn't exactly the best for fighters :P

Bit late to the table here but I welcome the addition.

I mean yeah sure it's slightly in the odd department, but I have never taken Soul Calibur as a serious franchise. Like, it is one but the abstract additions like Link or Yoda don't detract from the awesome gameplay.

I play Soul Calibur because I prefer the weapons based fighting over say, fists and kicks in Tekken. If I get to kick Voldo's arse with Yoda then that's fine by me.

While the button layout on the GCN controller wasnt ideal for fighters it actually worked out pretty well for Soul Calibur II.

I was skippin' through my new Game Informer Mag and I saw that caught my eye looks like its going to be a good game and yoda common' hells ya!

oh great. just great. star wars characters in soul calibur? this could just about ruin the entire series...