Soul Calibur III dated in Japan
Later than the West? Curious.
Namco's weapons-based beat-'em-up extravaganza, Soul Calibur III, will be released in Japan on November 24th, according to Famitsu. That's a pretty much a whole month later than the US and European release for the PlayStation 2 title. Namco [hearts] j00.
Famitsu also had some juicy details on the characters and modes that will feature in the sequel. Returning from previous games will be Maxi, Seung Mina, Xianghua, and Yun-Sung, joining the total roster of over 25, including three new ones: Zasalamel, Tira and Setsuka. Not to mention the rather sweet option of creating your own characters, too.
The game will also feature a number of additional modes. There's a battle arena mode, for fighting challenges under certain conditions, presumably a selectable version of the fights experienced in the Weapon's Master modes from the prequels. For example, there's a coin-collector challenge, where you journey around car boot sales examining bits of silver found in somebody's attic (or at least, where attacking your opponent forces them to drop coins that you have to collect).
Another mode has you fighting against a large, slow and powerful stone statue, while 'soul squash' creates a scenario where the only way to deal damage is by using the exaggerated physics to slam your combatant into the wall. And then there's 'wisp shoot', which has the proviso of damage only being allowed from soul charge attacks.
Expect more on what could potentially be Namco's finest, in the coming months.