Summary
For a time,Soulcaliburwas one of the big names in the fighting game genre. It’s hard to imagine a time when it got regular sequels in both arcades and on home consoles, and pulled in collaborations withThe Legend of Zelda,God of War, and evenStar Wars. Now, it hasn’t had a game in six years.
However, that doesn’t mean the series has been put on ice forever. Katsuhiro Harada - the director of the fellowBandai Namco-owned fighting series,Tekken- believes there’s still a desire to see the Soulcalibur series continue, even if it’s far from its heyday.
Katsuhiro Harada Explains Why Soulcalibur Has Struggled
Harada explained this in a lengthy Twitter post, going over the realities of working on a fighting game franchise in Japan. It’s too much to go over here, but the general idea is that it’s incredibly difficult to keep a series like this relevant for multiple reasons. Not only did fighting games have to adapt to the switch from arcade to home console play, they also have to navigate an industry that’s controlled by business types, not necessarily those with backgrounds in game development.
However, despite all of the setbacks that Soulcalibur has faced over the years, Harada remains optimistic that Project Soul, the internal team at Bandai Namco that handles the Soulcalibur series could return with another game.
“From my point of view, I don’t think the fire of Project Soul has been extinguished,” says Harada. “There are still a few people in the company who have the will to do it. I would like to believe that they are just not united now.”
Elsewhere in the thread, Harada is full of praise for the Soulcalibur series, even when it was a rival to the Tekken games.
“Project Soul certainly had a leader and staff with soul and clear vision,” he says, commending former lead dev Hiroaki Yotoriyama in particular. “The enthusiasm of the game designers on site could have surpassed that of the Tekken team.”
It remains to be seen if Bandai Namco ever decides to revive the Soulcalibur series. In the meantime, the most recent instalment isSoulcalibur 6, which launched in 2018.
