SoulCalibur VI: Setsuka Revealed as New Character

On Friday, various Japanese fighting game developers joined together for a roundtable discussion about the state of the genre sort of designed to replace Evo Online, which got the ax earlier this year due to accusations lodged at the event’s CEO. The two-and-a-half-hour roundtable featured representatives from Capcom, Arc System Works, Arika, SNK, Koei Tecmo, and Bandai Namco Entertainment.

While most of the roundtable came and went without many big reveals, Namco had just enough to keep people interested. The publisher finally had an announcement for SoulCalibur VI.

The last piece of Season Pass 2 DLC we got was Samurai Shodown’s Haohmaru back in March. Due to delayed caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, there’d been no word about the game’s future until now.

On Tuesday, August 4, the next DLC character to join the SoulCalibur VI cast is Setsuka. She’s the third of four DLC characters for this season, joining Hilde and Haohmaru.

Setsuka was introduced in SoulCalibur III and returned in SoulCalibur IV. Setsuka grew up in Japan as an outsider due to being Caucasian. She ran away from home and was later taken in by a swordsman who gave her a new name, raised her, and trained her in the art of sword fighting. When Setsuka returned from an errand, she found her master gravely wounded after a fight with the wandering mercenary Mitsurugi. The master bore no ill-will towards Mitsurugi and continued to train Setsuka with the order that her skills should not be used for revenge. Regardless, once he finally died, Setsuka dedicated herself to finding and defeating Mitsurgi for what he did to the only person she ever cared about.

We have at least one more character joining the SoulCalibur VI roster. Really hoping that it’s Olcadan, the gruff warrior cursed to have an owl head on a human body. How is it that he was in SoulCalibur III and somehow never showed up ever again? Was the introduction of Star Wars characters in SoulCalibur IV so bizarre that they only had so much room for the more batshit members of the roster?

SoulCalibur VI is getting some other updates, too. There’s a new background and a new story mode chapter for Groh. There are new ostume pieces, not only for Setsuka but also costumes that allow you to dress your created characters up like various Tekken fighters. I guess Super Smash Bros. Ultimate isn’t the only game that’s suddenly allowing you to dress your characters up like Heihachi Mishima.

Speaking of Tekken, a trailer was released announcing Tekken 7’s Season Pass 4:

There’s not too much to talk about here other than the shot at the end that hints at the return of Kunimitsu. The fox-mask-wearing ninja has shown up in the non-canon Tekken Tag Tournament games but hasn’t appeared in a canon game since Tekken 2 back in 1995.

Bandai Namco Entertainment is also the publisher of Dragon Ball FighterZ, but didn’t have anything to announce for the game just yet. The publisher promised that there will be news on that front sooner rather than later.