Tokyo Game Show 2013 News Round-Up

SC2HDO： Soulcalibur II - SoulCalibur II HD Online: Spawn Gameplay - TGS 2013 (IGN)

Tokyo Game Show 2013 wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped it would of been in terms of announcements but we still did get a plethora of news and updates on both the Tekken and SoulCalibur front. I've rounded up all the interesting news and media to come out of this year's event with the sources so that anyone that wasn't keeping up with the event can just look here to check if they missed out on anything. Check it all out below.

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TR： Tekken Revolution's fan favorite 'Female Vampire' being designed with a 'different approach' (Polygon)

Harada said the Tekken team is in the midst of designing her fighting style, which he said will evoke the image of a 2D fighting game character in an attempt to have her stand out. 

Harada said "Female Vampire" will receive a few design tweaks after fans said the character's hairstyle was too close to Tekken veteran Anna's. He said the character is still on track to come to Tekken Revolution later this year.

TR： And Tekken Resurrection could be headed to Xbox. (Eurogamer)

Tekken Revolution came out in June on PS3, and currently there's no Xbox 360 version. Microsoft's historically been reluctant to host free-to-play games, but with the arrival of World of Tanks and the announcement of Killer Instinct on Xbox One it's beginning to soften its approach. So could Tekken Revolution end up on Microsoft hardware?

"The circumstances have changed a bit," said Harada. "It seems they've opened up to that model since Xbox One, and after we released the PlayStation Network beta they were kind of nervous and expressed an interest. We don't have concrete plans, but there's a possibility that we'll do it in the future."

TR： Tekken Revolution downloaded 2 million times, franchise to-date units crest 42 million (Joystiq)

"In three months we've achieved two million downloads," Harada said of Namco Bandai's free-to-play, PlayStation 3-exclusive spinoff Tekken Revolution. "The Tekken franchise," he added, "has told 42.5 million copies worldwide to date – making it the top in the genre – and 20 million of those or more have come from Europe."

Harada also pointed out that "most of the user audience" for Tekken Revolution exists in the United States, with the Japanese audience "a close second," and that these results are "different from the traditional numbers" typically seen with packaged Tekken releases.

TxSF： Harada says Tekken X Street Fighter is a 'long term' project. (Eurogamer)

"We do have assets created and some of the materials," Harada told Eurogamer. "It's just that we're looking at the circumstances and what direction people are going in, what platform as there's a change in the market. I'm thinking long term about that."

Street Fighter X Tekken, the Capcom produced first episode of the pairing, suffered from poor sales. Given Namco's embracing of free-to-play, with the latest Tekken and Soul Calibur both taking up the business model, could Tekken X Street Fighter go the same way?

"I don't see that the entire genre's going to go that way," said Harada. "There are some fans that perhaps would rather buy a package and be done with it, and play as much as they like."

SCLS： Why is Namco making a single-player only Soul Calibur? (Eurogamer)

"This was done intentionally because as we said people do enjoy fighting other people, but one thing we noticed with the Soul Calibur fanbase is that a lot of people really enjoyed the game for its story, setting and atmosphere," Hoshino said. "They didn't like playing against other people - when you lose it's not exactly a great feeling. So we decided to tailor something to this player base."

"This might seem unusual, but we've done a lot of research and noticed the Soul Calibur group was different to Tekken. That group like fighting against each other, whereas Soul Calibur fans really want to look at the characters and enjoy the atmosphere, and we had an overwhelming response in that direction, so that's why we chose that."

Hoshino said that fans who are after a competitive Soul Calibur can play the soon to be released HD remake of Soul Calibur 2, which is headed for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

There is no Wii U version planned, but when asked whether it'd be possible for a Nintendo version of the game that would feature Link, a guest character in the GameCube original, Hoshino said he was open to the idea if fan demand was there.

SCLS： SoulCalibur: Lost Swords Singles Out Single-Player (Gamespot)

Let's start with weapon affinities. In the early images for Lost Swords, you likely noticed Mitsurugi or Siegfried using some very colorful attacks. That's not because they're fighting at a rave; those colors represent a weapon's elemental affinity. Each weapon has an affinity, such as water or fire, and there are five affinities total. Affinities are also balanced against each other in a rock-paper-scissors fashion, such that each is stronger against one type and weaker against another.

While affinities offer a fixed benefit, individual weapons can also be upgraded through weapon forging. As you defeat enemies in Lost Swords, you will be rewarded with various weapons and pieces of equipment. If those items aren't to your liking, you can melt them down and use them to increase the capabilities of your more preferred items.

Earning items means diving into one of the game's many dungeons, battling a series of opponents, and finally defeating the boss lying in wait at the end. When pressed on how these encounters would play out, and whether they were comparable to the missions in SoulCalibur II's campaign, all the developers would say is that they're exploring such options.

One area they were very definite about was player-versus-player combat. Since the SoulCalibur series is built on competitive play, I was stunned to learn Lost Swords isn't being designed as a one-on-one fighter. However, there is player-to-player interaction in the form of support characters.

As you battle through Lost Swords and customize your fighter, you can choose to upload that fighter online. This is more than just a bragging tool; other players may download your fighter and use him as a support character in battle. The best way to think of these support characters is like an assist attack in Marvel vs. Capcom: when called upon, your assist character will pop into battle, use his attack, and then leave--possibly followed by a witty catchphrase.

SCLS： 19 New In-Game Screenshots (Gematsu)

SCLS： Soulcalibur Lost Swords - PS3 - Forged Anew (Trailer Tokyo Game Show 2013) (YouTube)
SCLS： SOULCALIBUR LOST SWORDS slashes exclusively onto the Playstation®3 System this Winter

SC2HDO： Soulcalibur 2 HD could get post-release content or Wii U version if demand is there

At a pre-TGS event, we asked the developers if it would be possible for there to be some sort of post-release content for the HD remake. It wouldn't be the first HD rerelease to get DLC that wasn't available for the original--Age of Empires II's HD remake was followed by totally unique DLC--and there have been plenty of characters added to the Soulcalibur franchise since SC2 came out a decade ago. We were told that, if the game does well, it's definitely a possibility.

 

But there's one character that couldn't be added to the 360 or PS3 version of the game: Link. The Hylian hero was exclusive to the GameCube version, but as of now, there's no Wii U release in the works. When the developers were asked about a Wii U version (and, of course, the ability to add Link back into the game), we were told that it could happen if Namco Bandai sees a demand. They even suggested an outlet for the demand, saying that gamers could spam the producer's Twitter (@hoshino_calibur) if they're interested. In other words: Wii U owners, get to it!

SC2HDO： Soulcalibur II - SoulCalibur II HD Online: Spawn Gameplay - TGS 2013 (IGN)

And finally..... The 22/9 TGS Tekken Make-Up event. Katsuhiro Harada and Asahi Sasaki get on the Namco Bandai sub-stage to put on Heihachi and Ancient Ogre make-up. The event was broadcasted on YouTube but they made the archive private once it finished. You can see images of the event below however.

Famitsu： 『鉄拳』シリーズの原田勝弘Pが“三島平八”に大変身!?　“鉄拳 特殊メイクでなりきり！究極再現”ステージをリポート
4Gamer： 三島平八ならぬ原田平八が爆誕!? 鉄拳プロジェクトディレクター原田氏が鉄拳キャラに変身した「鉄拳 特殊メイクでなりきり！究極再現」イベントレポート

Comments

[Reality]

Thanks for your hard work with this article

[Forest]

Soul Calibur 2 is the only thing that excites me that is coming out soon. Too bad that Soul Calibur 5 was so mediocre or whatever. I own an XB360, so I don't even read the Lost Souls news.