14 DAY TRIAL // Namco Bandai, the developer and publisher of the upcoming SoulCalibur V fighting game has released some more details about the surprise guest fighter, Ezio Auditore from Ubisoft's extremely successful Assassin’s Creed series, saying that he's going to be an easier player to master than the previous guests from SoulCalibur IV, Star Wars' Darth Vader and Yoda.
Namco's SoulCalibur series saw its latest installment appear back in 2008 and, since then, we've seen a true revival of the fighting genre, with Capcom release multiple new titles, including Street Fighter IV or Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, while lots of other games, including Tekken 6 or Mortal Kombat, also appeared.
Now, Namco is getting ready to debut SoulCalibur V, a return to the core of the series with faster fighting and lots of new refinements, not to mention a brand new guest fighter, in the form of Ezio Auditore, who we saw presented last week.
Now, Namco Bandai community manager Rich Bantegui presented some more details on Ezio's appearance in the game on the PlayStation blog.
"In terms of his fighting style, his flow, and his weapons, Ezio fits in perfectly. Ezio should’ve been in this series a long, long time ago! In general, I think that guest characters have taken a bit longer to evolve in terms of gameplay; Darth Vader and Yoda took a little more time for players to master in a competitive setting. I don’t think you’ll see that with Ezio. He’s straightforward. You’ll be able to hop right into it, and he’s got one of the easier Brave Edges. And hey, he’s got a crossbow. You can’t beat that," he said.
"Our relationship with Ubisoft has been good; I’ve heard that they’re very happy with how he’s turned out. You’ve never seen him at this close a range with this many moves. Controlling him in Soulcalibur V lets you see him in a new light. "
Bantegui then went on to describe the fighting style of Ezio and how he definitely uses his own special powers to stand out from the rest of competitors that will appear in the game.
"He’s very much his own character, but his closest comparison is probably Mitsurugi in terms of his range and his damage. He hits like a dump truck! He’s not a super fast character, though, so he’s not going to stand toe-to-toe with his opponents — you’ll want to space him out. He’s got cool techniques that enable him to sidestep around incoming attacks and manipulate 3D movement to evade his opponents. His ranged crossbow attacks are quite powerful as well."
SoulCalibur V is out on January 31, in North America, and February 3, in Europe, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.