These were the final lines of text displayed after a very brief series of images portraying The Next Chapter of Soul Calibur. For some, it was the end to just another E3 software reel. To others, it was the beginning of a new era. Namco talked about the game existence in their Fiscal 2001 end of the year report, but there have been no other details since then. The Japanese AOU arcade show came and went. Then the Spring Tokyo Game Show. Finally, something has surfaced at the 2001 Electronic Entertainment Expo.
While very little information is available on the next installment to the Soul series, what we do know is somewhat intriguing. The E3 video consisted of images from Soul Blade, followed by images of Soul Calibur, then three character portraits from The Next Chapter of Soul Calibur. Obviously, the most important part of the video reel was the three character portraits. Namco has yet to announce who these three characters were, but we have our own speculations.
The first character shown in the video resembles Heishiro Mitsurugi. However, Mitsurugi yields a Katana. This character is not holding a Katana in his hand. You can clearly see that the blade is much wider than a Katana. This leads us to believe that he or she is indeed a new character to the Soul series.
Judging from the character images and the tentative title of the next Soul game, we can assume that the game takes place after Soul Calibur. The second character portrayed in the video looks to be an older Xianghua. Now, other Soul fans have claimed that this character could easily be Taki or Seung Mina. We rule out Taki simply because of the unknown character\'s stance. Taki is a stealth ninja. The character pictured is standing tall in a boasting position. Very uncharacteristic for a ninja. While Seung Mina is a plausible choice, Xianghua is very important to the storyline. She currently holds the Soul Calibur.
The third and final character shown we firmly believe to be Siegfried Schtauffen. Either as himself, Nightmare, or some sort of hybrid. Our belief is based, once again on the character\'s full body silhouette. You can clearly see what appears to be the end of Nightmare\'s left glove. It\'s been modified and slightly smaller, but it definitely appears to be Nightmare\'s.
Beyond those three character\'s there isn\'t much else to be said. The Next Chapter of Soul Calibur will run on Namco\'s System 246 arcade hardware. It\'s slated to release on the PlayStation 2 by March 2002 in Japan. Hopefully Namco will release more information on the game after Tekken 4 releases later this summer. Until then, we\'ll keep you posted on any new Soul Calibur-related news that comes our way.
This is from cloudchaser.com.
http://www.cloudchaser.com/cc/sony/previews/index.cgi?id=262It\'s almost a lock ps2 is getting soul cailbur 2 and it could come to gamecube as well but I doubt it. Just read this quote "The Next Chapter of Soul Calibur will run on Namco\'s System 246 arcade hardware. It\'s slated to release on the PlayStation 2 by March 2002 in Japan. " That pretty much confirmed its coming to ps2. Plus ps2 is getting Snk vs. Capcom 2, VF4(new issue of gamepro saids it ps2 only), tekken 4, and soul cailbur 2. With that line up of fighting game I could care less what gamecube is getting at this point.
