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A-D
- Acting for Two: Largely avoided in both languages, with the handful of cases present usually falling under Significant Double Casting.
- As Nightmare is Siegfried possessed by the will of Soul Edge, they understandably are voiced by the same actors: Nobuyuki Hiyama in Japanese, and Kirk Thornton in English.
- In English, Wendee Lee voices Xianglian during her appearances in the story in addition to her role as Xianghua. Fittingly, they're long-lost sisters and two very important people in Kilik's life.
- Due to a Role Reprise from her home series, Kira Buckland voices 2B in addition to Talim.
- Actor Allusion: Even as early as his Soulcalibur debut has Kilik embodied aspects of Sun Wukong (albeit less overtly compared to his son Xiba in V). While his Evil Seed-influenced berserker state can be likened to the Monkey King's rampage in heaven, this time around we see Kilik's Possessed State induce stark physical changes in the monk, including his hair growing out into a wild mane. (Story artwork from Soulcalibur indicates Kilik's appearance didn't originally change when in a trance.) Interestingly enough, when his diadem is removed/destroyed, a similar transformation is exhibited by the Son Goku of Saiyuki—another character voiced by Soichiro Hoshi.
- All-Star Cast:
- The Japanese version of the game is full of some of Japan's biggest voice actors, whether it'd be industry vets who've been around for decades or major up-and-comers who've made waves comparatively recently. This includes Nobuyuki Hiyama, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Soichiro Hoshi, Yukari Tamura, Ryuzaburo Otomo, Hiroshi Tsuchida, Masumi Asano, Chie Nakamura, Norio Wakamoto, Miyuki Sawashiro, Takahiro Sakurai, Kazuhiro Yamaji, Aya Suzaki, Chinatsu Akasaki, and Masashi Ebara. That's not even all of them yet.
- That's not to say the English version is a slouch. Similarly, you have longtime mainstays mixed with relative but high-profile newcomers such as Wendee Lee, Kirk Thornton, Grant George, Lani Minella, Keith Silverstein, Michael McConnohie, Xander Mobus, Ray Chase, Erica Lindbeck, Kira Buckland, Erica Mendez, Kate Higgins, Taliesin Jaffe, and Patrick Seitz. Likewise, that's not all yet.
- Author Appeal: Though he wasn't completely direct with it
out of a fear of copyright issues, Okubo stated that "movies" were his inspiration for Grøh's twinblade Double Weapon style. It's incredibly obvious that it takes inspiration from Darth Maul.
- Awesome, Dear Boy: Motohiro Okubo jumped at
the chance
to lead Project Soul after Masaki Hoshino left, due to the passion the members of the team had for the series and he didn't want them to lose it.
- Big Name Fan:
- French pro player Kayane has been one for many years and was at the forefront of the community many times during Soulcalibur VI's road to launch, including interviewing Okubo on numerous occasions.
- As mentioned below, Xander Mobus, Kira Buckland, Erica Mendez, and Cristina Valenzuela are major Soulcalibur fans.
- Yoko Taro is a major Soulcalibur fan, and publicly supported the idea of 2B being a Guest Fighter long before it became completely official.
- Yohei Shimbori, the director of Dead or Alive 6, is a player of this game. He also commented on it in an interview, saying he's perplexed by the Double Standard of Soulcalibur getting away with being chock-full of fanservice but Dead or Alive always getting a beating over it.
- Content Leak:
- Months before the character was unveiled, Azwel's name and general role in the story was leaked by a 4chan user claiming to have worked on the game files. The same user also correctly confirmed that Raphael was flagged as a playable character in the files, when certain other supposed leakers were suggesting he wasn't going to make the cut this time.
- Namco themselves accidentally confirmed the inclusions of Cervantes and Raphael by sending the wrong build to a tournament in Melbourne, which included the two before their intended announcement. They ended up shutting the whole thing down and taking all the videos off YouTube to prevent it from leaking out, but by that point it was too late. They also had a bad habit of uploading trailers to YouTube early and not properly marking them as private only for them to be pulled quickly, but YouTube being what it is, copies were already everywhere.
- Amy and Cassandra
were leaked in the code to be the remaining two DLC fighters after 2B came out. Indeed, Amy and Cassandra would eventually be given official announcements, Amy at Evo Japan 2019 in February and Cassandra at Evo 2019 in August.
- Six codenames, specifically Stone, Yell, Star, Snow, Reptile, and Yellow, were datamined later on after the 1.11 update,
all taking up DLC character slots that haven't been announced yet. It's widely believed these are placeholders for Season 2.
- Creator Backlash: A minor case; Okubo expressed regret that Tira's announcement as DLC wasn't handled as well as it could've been following the backlash that she wasn't in the base game.
- Dawson Casting: Despite the Sequel Gap, many voice actors from both sides have reprised their roles, but there are some roles that are examples of this, though it isn't a bad thing:
- Japanese
- Talim is the youngest playable female character in the game at 15, but her Japanese voice actress was 42 at the time of the game's release, making her the oldest compared to the other Japanese voice actresses for the playable characters.
- With the reveal of Amy in February 2019, she now is most likely the youngest playable female character in the game. Her Japanese voice actress, Hitomi Nabatame, is the same age as Talim's, except a few months younger, making her the second oldest voice actress in the game.
- As of August 2019, we now gave the crown to Cassandra. Though the character is 21 (given the chronology and details provided in past character biographies), her voice actress, Reiko Takagi, was 45 at the time of Soulcalibur VI's release and was roughly four months out from her 46th birthday when Cassandra was announced as a playable character. While Cass is towards the younger end of the age pool, her VA is actually the oldest of all the female seiyuu present so far. Additionally, her VA is older than Sophitia's, though she made Cassandra convincingly sound like the younger sister she is to Sophitia. note
- English
- Siegfried's English voice is provided by Kirk Thornton in this game. Siegfried is roughly 19 in Soulcalibur VI, while Thornton was 62 at the time of the game's release (even giving quite the impression). The gap between Siegfried and Thornton is approximately 43 years. By contrast, Roger Craig Smith (Siegfried's previous voice actor) is almost two whole decades younger than Thornton.
- Xianghua's English voice is reprised by Wendee Lee, who returned after a gap of ten years and was 58 at the time of the game's release (and many would say she sounds pretty convincing too!), while Xianghua is in her teens in this game (16 according to the original Soulcalibur), with the gap between her and her voice actress's age being over 40 years.
- Julie Ann Taylor's return as Hilde makes for a downplayed example. With the negation of the 17-year Time Skip introduced in V, the princess of Wolfkrone is presumably back to being 18, the same age she was during her IV debut. When the Sequel Gap between IV and VI is factored in, however, that means Taylor, who was 53 at the time she recorded her lines for the character (and a few months away from her 54th birthday when Hilde's trailer dropped), is voicing a character approximately 35 years younger. And like Xianghua above, she sounds just as youthful as she did over a decade ago.
- Japanese
- Development Gag:
- One piece of artwork
◊ from Soulcalibur depicted Nightmare riding on a Hellish Horse, but his not-so-noble steed never appeared alongside him in the game proper or any installment thereafter. Here, Nightmare conjures up a phantasmal unicorn somewhat reminiscent of said demonic creature for an animal-assisted mauling in his Critical Edge.
- Another piece of artwork
◊ from Soulcalibur depicted an upbeat young woman carrying a double saber as her weapon, which was a possible newcomer that never saw the light of day. Twenty years later, the idea of a double saber would indeed be introduced through newcomer Grøh, albeit as a male character with a decidedly less upbeat look to him. Considering just how much his weapon resembles hers, it's hard not to imagine that they looked back at some old concepts when developing the character.
- One piece of artwork
- Doing It for the Art:
- As explained above, Motohiro Okubo immediately took up leading Project Soul to make VI not for any monetary reason, but because the other members had such passion for the series and he didn't want it all to disappear, which would render all that hard work worthless. This is especially notable in that Okubo had no prior experience with the Soul series at all, only co-producing Tekken 7 with Harada. Said passion definitely shows considering how much effort and dedication is clearly being put into the game to revitalize the series once again. The Awesome Art, Awesome Music, and Visual Effects of Awesome are all products of a team putting so much into a game that was once considered dead.
- CD Projekt RED, rather than just signing off the character for an easy paycheck, actually worked with Project Soul to rebuild Geralt's style from the ground up to fit the fighting game genre while staying true to the character's style.Sebastian Kalemba: Our role was making sure Geralt in Soulcalibur VI moves, feels and plays like Geralt in The Witcher 3. However, since movement time, display, perspective and general responsiveness are very different in a fighting game, we had to go back to the drawing board and reinvent the way Geralt behaves in certain situations.
- One really must admire how much attention to detail went into making 2B play properly as a fighter, with many of her moves being adapted from NieR: Automata without a hitch. Notably, a common argument against her inclusion was that her over-the-top, completely different style of play would make it impossible for the team to do justice, but they did.
- Dueling Games: With Dead or Alive 6. Both games are 3D fighters that are the sixth numbered installment of their franchises, both coming off Sequel Gaps since 2012, both from series well-known for Fanservice, and both are touted as their series' major comebacks. A major point where they diverge comes in the form of said fanservice — Dead or Alive 6 chose to dramatically scale back its sex appeal whereas Soulcalibur VI instead fully embraced it as a core part of its identity. In terms of sales, acclaim and general recognition, Soulcalibur VI won out easily.
F-K
- Fandom Nod: A common theory was that the Assassin character(s) in Soulcalibur II was a disguised Hwang due to sharing his moveset. Somewhere between this trope and Ascended Fanon, Seong Mi-na's story shows Hwang in a disguise that looks exactly like Assassin.
◊
- Fan Nickname:
- "Twinblade Man of Mystery" for Grøh, prior to his official reveal. Post-reveal, he is commonly known as "Edgelord" for his cliche, anime Anti-Hero design and mannerisms. Others, tired of trying to pronounce and spell his name correctly, decided to just call him "Gyro."
- He's also been called "Gah." Hmm... Norwegian, hunky... ARE YOU A NORWEGIAN SUPERMODEL!?
- Upon seeing Zasalamel's new Critical Edge, fans were very quick to christen it "ZAS WARUDO."
- "Wizard" or "Wizardman" (for a play on Lizardman) were the most common names applied to Azwel before his name was officially revealed. "Jafar", "Nicolas Mage", "Zhang Jiao", and "Shang Tsung" were also common.
- Thanks to his namesake (Siegfried of the Nibelungenlied epic) being featured in Fate/Grand Order and gaining a humorous meme there, it's not uncommon for fans to now refer to Siegfried as "Sumanai." It helps that, as usual, Siegfried Apologizes a Lot for his atrocities as Nightmare. Unsurprisingly, players were quick to make Siegfried CASes based on the FGO character actually named Sumanai.
- Geralt has many of these. Gerald of the Riviera (or as Mitsurugi spells it, Jerald), Jerry of the River, and Geraldo Rivera,
to name a few.
- "Shin Voldo" after a short-lived glitch allowed Voldo to use his Critical Edge and Soul Charge from certain stances without using any meter. It saw a resurgence during Evo 2019 when Japanese player Yuttoto managed to take his Voldo all the way to Grand Finals and come out on top, only losing once during the entire tournament
(a reset during GF).
- 2B's second player Palette Swap is occasionally treated by fans as another YoRHa unit named "2P." Amusingly, this name would later be officially used: in Final Fantasy XIV's crossover story with NieR: Automata, the player teams up with 2P, who wears the same Palette Swap outfit from this game (albeit with a lighter skin tone).
- With his new Darker and Edgier outfit in conjunction with his flashy and athletic fighting style, Hwang has been nicknamed the "Bloodborne Ninja." "Bloodborne Kamen Rider" has also become common due to his fighting style and Critical Edge.
- "Twinblade Man of Mystery" for Grøh, prior to his official reveal. Post-reveal, he is commonly known as "Edgelord" for his cliche, anime Anti-Hero design and mannerisms. Others, tired of trying to pronounce and spell his name correctly, decided to just call him "Gyro."
- Flip-Flop of God: Motohiro Okubo said the theme of the game is "reboot" early on after the announcement, but as the game appeared to very closely follow the original Soulcalibur, it caused much debate in the fandom as to whether or not it even is a reboot or a simple retelling, culminating with Okubo stating in a later interview that he wasn't sure if "reboot" was the right word. When the game finally released, this turned out to be mostly true... except Zasalamel's secret final chapter unambiguously confirms that VI is indeed a reboot. Then, if there was still any doubt, Cassandra's epilogue makes it even more clear that this is not the same timeline as the old games. (Or, more accurately, events are set to diverge significantly from what was seen in II onward going forward.)
- Franchise Killer: Project Soul's actually making an attempt to defy this and redeem the series, but it was stated by Okubo
that should Soulcalibur VI fail to meet a satisfactory sales goal, it would be the last game ever made. Fortunately, this was avoided and Namco reported the game as successful, likely saving the franchise that Soulcalibur V nearly killed. The fact that VI got a second season, announced after EVO 2019 hosted the biggest Soulcalibur tournament in series history, likely indicates that series is in good health.
- God Never Said That:
- It was echoed through the community that Okubo hated the idea of 2B being in the game and that she was ruled out as a future DLC guest. In reality, Okubo was annoyed that one player (Kayane) got a bunch of people on Twitter to spam his account with requests for her, but the character herself was never ruled out at all. Sure enough, 2B would be the second DLC character revealed for the game and the first post-launch DLC character.
- Okubo was often quoted on saying that VI would be the most content-packed game of any Soulcalibur, even more than III, and many were disappointed when that wasn't the case. What he actually said was that it'd have the most story content of any game in the series, and that much is true, as there is far more story in this game than any previous entry.
- A common citation used by those who didn't think VI was a true reboot was that Okubo once said that he wasn't sure if "reboot" was the "right word." Thus, they thought he was backing out or that it was misunderstood what he said. However, he made it explicitly clear the game was a reboot well beforehand, calling it the theme, and was sticking to it. What he was likely referring to is that this is an Alternate Timeline from the original games, and that factors into the story itself. As in, the old games are canon, in their own timeline. Zasalamel receives visions from his future self—likely his OT self—that leads him to abandon being a Death Seeker and instead to guide humanity to a bright future (a plan that Zasalamel originally didn't turn to until IV). Then, in Cassandra's Soul Chronicle, a rift opens up at the Shrine of Eurydice, whereupon Cassandra discovers the OT version of herself, having gone mad from being trapped in Astral Chaos. Once she's regained some of her sanity, OT!Cassandra warns her present-day self of the future to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. In fairness to this one, no one had any idea of these things back then, and VI looked to closely follow the old games without deviation, and thus fans took the simplest explanation at face value, even if that didn't end up being the right one. It might even be a case of Lying Creator overlapping with Exact Words, considering that it's technically accurate to say that the old games are still canon even if not in the same timeline, since they are having an impact on the new timeline.
- I Knew It!:
- From the beginning, it was speculated the series would go back in time following the backlash of Soulcalibur V as a way to bring the old characters back, which gained more and more traction over time. When Soulcalibur VI was finally revealed, that was indeed the case.
- Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher was one of the top picks as the potential guest character for the game. It was later confirmed in March of 2018 he would indeed appear in the game, even getting to share the cover with series posterboy Mitsurugi.
- An odd example in the case of Siegfried's inclusion. Being one of the main characters of the series, in terms of both recognizability and integrality to the narrative, most fans assumed he'd be returning for VI. However, a smaller portion of the fandom expressed doubt because, technically speaking, Siegfried had already been revealed to be on the roster (as Nightmare), perhaps not realizing that the original Soulcalibur had both characters as separate fighters long before their split in III.
- Like Geralt, 2B was a very highly requested DLC character, and she became the first post-launch character added as DLC.
- The 3/11/19 stream that covered more information for the then-upcoming Amy confirmed she and Viola were one and the same, which was originally Jossed in an attempt to pull a plot twist later in the original timeline (had the story been allowed to continue from where the previous installment left off).
- This kind of happened in regards to Cassandra. It was a fairly recurring idea to have the playable Cassandra be from the original timeline as—according to the lore—Cassandra fell through a wormhole into Astral Chaos after being knocked out by Sophitia sometime during IV. Cassandra's character trailer
beginning with her narration set over a hazy shot of Astral Chaos only added fuel to the fire. In the actual game, the Cassandra that's playable is the new timeline version — but the original timeline version appears in her Chronicle, having gone mad from a combination of her time in Astral Chaos and Sophitia's death. After fighting and being defeated by her present-time counterpart, Cassandra regains enough of her senses to tell her VI incarnation what will happen in the future and entrusts her to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
- Irony as She Is Cast: Hwang is The Not-Love Interest to Seong Mi-na despite the Ship Tease between them in Mi-na's Soul Chronicle, and they aren't anything more than friends. Which is kinda funny, seeing how Hwang's first voice actor Lucien Dodge is married to Seong Mi-na's voice actress Erica Mendez in real life. Completely coincidental, but hilarious.
- Jossed:
- The person that leaked/revealed the game's existence prior to the game's official announcement was told VI would be heading to the Nintendo Switch and skipping the Xbox One. When it was announced, the opposite happened. When asked in an interview if a Switch version of VI would be released, Motohiro Okubo replied "No" only to later state that a Switch version could be possible only after the initial release if there was interest from the fanbase and the developers.
- The same leaker above claimed that Roronoa Zoro from One Piece was going to be the guest character for Soulcalibur VI. The third official trailer shows that it's not him, but Geralt of Rivia.
- It was also indicated by several leakers that Seong Mi-na would not be returning in the game, at least not in the base roster, due to this being a reboot and Kilik filling the "rod user" role that could be used as justification for cleaning out the roster of "clones". Cue the announcement at Evo in August 2018, where Seong Mi-na was indeed announced for the game (and made much more distinct from Kilik to boot).
- It was reported that Maxi would be made gay this time around and have a lover named "Jack", in an attempt to give the series more representation. In the actual game, Maxi's sexuality isn't portrayed as anything other than being straight as an arrow — not only does he flirt with a woman named Lyla, but it's mentioned that he has a weakness for them by his first mate Kyam.
- While Azwel was predicted due to a leak, it was also reported that he would be Grøh's father. The two do indeed have a connection as part of the Aval Organization, and are arch-enemies, they are not related by blood. Azwel would only think of Grøh as his son in the same way he thinks everyone is his children.
- Many believed the Aval Organization was founded by Algol, due to it being mentioned that the group was formed by a king who used Soul Calibur to defeat Soul Edge, making it easy to mistake the Hero King for this character. In reality, it was a different king — King Arthur, that is. note
- Zig-zagged in regards to how the game is rebooting the franchise. In general, it was widely assumed that the story would be akin to Mortal Kombat 9 in that it would feature major deviations of the plot as we know, creating an explicitly new timeline. In truth, the story is largely the same, but expanded upon, made better connected, and with lore from all over the series being integrated as if it were there from the beginning. That being said, Zasalamel's hidden chapter in his story implies that he is indeed receiving visions from his future self and then Cassandra's current incarnation meets her original timeline counterpart, who advises her on how to avoid the Bad Future the original canon led to, implying that it might go in that direction in a sequel.
- Though I Knew It! is a common response, it was still held that 2B had been ruled out due to Okubo supposedly hating the idea of adding her to the roster. She would be the first DLC character announced post-launch.
- It was believed that Amy's Soul Chronicle would have her turn into Viola earlier. While the crystal ball that Viola used as a weapon did appear and turned violet as a reference to the Amy is Viola theory and there was indeed a deviation from what Amy did in Soulcalibur II, she instead realizes that Raphael might be in danger and is trying to stop him from becoming malfested like what happened to him in the original timeline.
- While Hwang being the final DLC character for Season 2 was already seen coming by many due to a leak,
detractors claimed that he would be the exact same generic CAS from Libra of Soul and that his moveset would either be very similar to Mitsurugi/Xianghua/Yun-seong's (as was the case in his previous appearances note ) or an amalgamation of several characters'. Hwang's official unveiling shows this clearly is not the case: he has a unique model, new outfit, and fully unique moveset of his own for the first time.
- Shortly after Hilde's release, theories immediately cropped up claiming Wilhelm was likely Z.W.E.I. due to similarities in their designs and the sword the Aval Organization gave him resembling Z.W.E.I.'s. This was shot down with the 2.30 update made available in December 2020, which revealed Z.W.E.I. is indeed another character... and is the attendant of Johan Durer!
L-R
- Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: The game comes in Deluxe and Collector's Editions. The Deluxe Edition has the game in a metal case with a voice box that has four announcer quotes, a physical soundtrack, and the season pass. The Collector's Edition comes with everything from Deluxe Edition, along with an art book and a Sophitia figurine.
- Lying Creator: Zig-zagged. Okubo stated the theme of the game is "reboot", which caused one half to take this as confirmation that the game is a Continuity Reboot, and the other half to think it's merely a Soft Reboot and a Revision, but still fully in-continuity. It seemed that Okubo swung towards the latter, when he said that he wasn't sure if "reboot" was the right word, especially as the game appeared to stick very closely to the events as they were originally told. When the game was released, the game indeed changed very little from the original, which combined with Okubo's backtracking, seemingly Jossed the idea that this a reboot and the "New Timeline" was just an idea made up by those who believed it. But Zasalamel's secret final chapter confirms beyond doubt that Soulcalibur VI is a hard reboot as originally described. The epilogue of Cassandra's Soul Chronicle hammers it home even further.
- Milestone Celebration:
- Marking the twentieth anniversary of Soulcalibur hitting arcade stores, Soulcalibur VI is a reboot that very fittingly is based on what is widely considered to be the most classic game in the series. It was even confirmed that Project Soul chose this era to begin with because it was effectively the beginning of the series launch into the mainstream (though not technically the beginning overall) and the point that defined the series as a whole.
- The announcement of Season 2 (August 4, 2019) came just one day shy of the 20th anniversary of the original Soulcalibur's home console release on the Dreamcast (August 5, 1999).
- The Original Darrin: Nightmare in the Japanese version is voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama, who last played him in 2002's Soulcalibur II. A Justified Trope, since Hiyama continued to voice Siegfried in all appearances thereafter and, this being a reboot of the Soulcalibur era (where Siegfried served as Soul Edge's host), he's also donning the mantle of Nightmare once again.
- The Other Darrin: Not surprising given the Sequel Gap and some characters having been absent for a decade, some characters have been recast on both sides of the Pacific.
- Japanese
- Xianghua is no longer voiced by Ryoko Shintani, and instead is now voiced by Aya Suzaki.
- Taki isn't voiced by Sachiko Kojima anymore either; instead she's now voiced by Nanako Mori, an otokoyaku (male role) actress in Takarazuka musicals, just like Nanaho Katsuragi, Setsuka's first Japanese voice actress.
- Seong Mi-na is not reprised by Sanae Kobayashi, and instead the role is handled by Chinatsu Akasaki.
- Cervantes is not reprised by Jin Urayama, and instead the role is taken over by Hiroshi Shirokuma.
- Setsuka now has Yo Taichi as her voice actress in Nanaho Katsuragi's stead.
- English
- Mitsurugi is not voiced by Ed Cunningham this time around, instead played by Ray Chase. note
- Sophitia is now voiced by Erica Lindbeck, who replaced Eden Riegel (credited as "Claudia Lenz") from Soulcalibur III and IV.
- Nightmare, who is confirmed to once again be Siegfried in this game, isn't voiced by Roger Craig Smith either, with Kirk Thornton now providing their voices.
- Talim is not reprised by Kate Higgins, with Kira Buckland instead taking over the role. Higgins is in the game, though; she's been recast to Tira.
- Seong Mi-na isn't reprised by Erika Lenhart; Erica Mendez now voices her.
- Tira is not reprised by Alison Lees-Taylor and is now voiced by Kate Higgins, the previous voices of Talim and Natsu.
- As far as NPCs go, Xianglian—or rather, an illusion of her—appeared back in Soulcalibur IV, voiced by Michelle Ruff (who also voiced Kamikirimusi). Here, Xianglian is instead voiced by the same actress who portrays her younger sister Xianghua, Wendee Lee. Humorously enough, Ruff herself is still present as part of this game's voice cast, voicing a handful of NPCs including the swindling merchant Lyla.
- Japanese
- The Other Marty: In Seong Mi-na's Soul Chronicle, Hwang was originally voiced by Lucien Dodge, who also voiced various other characters such as the Fygul Cestemus cultists. As of the 2.30 update (December 1, 2020), which added Hwang into the game, all of his dialogue in Mi-na's story was re-recorded by his new voice actor, SungWoo Cho.
- Playing Against Type: Kate Higgins doesn't normally play clear-cut villains, but here she's cast as the demented, twisted Tyke-Bomb Tira. Also noteworthy in that she previously voiced Talim, the most kindhearted and pure character in the entire series, making the casting choice stand out even more.
- Pre-Order Bonus: Depending on where you pre-ordered the game, you could get an Ivy pin or a Talim figure.
- Promoted Fanboy: Xander Mobus, Kira Buckland and Erica Mendez were Soulcalibur fans and each were very happy to announce their joining of the series as Grøh, Talim and Seong Mi-na, respectively. The same goes for Cristina Valenzuela, another longtime fan
who lent her voice to one of the CAS choices ("Zealot") and a few side characters.
- Reality Subtext:
- The stories of Zasalamel and Cassandra both establish a bright future in a new timeline by preventing V from happening, while also canonizing the old as a Bad Future that the world needs to be saved from. This is not unlike the general opinion that V needed to be undone and ignored, seeing it as a dead end that would only sink the series further. The meta subtext behind these reveals are very obvious.
- New character Iska Acht being a massively reworked, gender-flipped version of Iska Farkas, the Hidden Villain of Soulcalibur Legends, as well as the revelation of Farkas being a mere hallucination made by the being who would become Acht to manipulate the traumatized Siegfried and make his insanity worse, is a very thinly veiled jab at the non-canon status of Legends and how negatively it is viewed by much of the fanbase.
- Recast as a Regular: Kirk Thornton previously performed the "Veteran Knight" CAS voice in Soulcalibur V. Here in VI, he lends his voice to Siegfried and Nightmare, along with the "Veteran Knight" voice returning from V.
- Relationship Voice Actor:
- Japanese
- Grøh and Mitsurugi are Cloud and Sephiroth, old and new incarnations of Griffith, Rohan and Kira, Bizon and Alfred and Tentomon and Malomyotismon.
- Mitsurugi, Geralt and Cervantesnote are Nick Wilde, Mr. Big and Finnick respectively in the Japanese dub of Zootopia.
- Ivy, Yoshimitsu, Takinote , Pod 042, and Geralt are Cammy, M. Bison, Satsuki, Guile, and G.
- Talim and Tira are Nanoha and Linith.
- Sophitia, Talim, Mitsurugi, Grøh, Kilik and Azwel are Sakura, Tenten, Minato/Kimimaro, Sasori, Yashamaru and Might Guy. Season 2 adds Haohmaru as Inoichi.
- Kilik and Mitsurugi are Goku and Homura.
- Kilik and Hilde are Seto and Kido.
- Geralt, Ivy, Grøh and Mitsurugi are Silver Fang, Mosquito Girl, Zombie Man and Boros.
- Kilik and Grøh are Kazuki and Kagami.
- Xianghua, Siegfried/Nightmare, and Talim are Mako, Sanageyama, and Nui.
- Xianghua, Amy, and Seong Mi-na are Akatsuki, Hatakaze, and Zara, among others.
- Yoshimitsu and Edge Master are Igniz and Yamazaki.
- Amy, Geralt, and Grøh are Mana Aida, Bel, and Joe Okada.
- Azwel, Astaroth, Siegfried/Nightmare, and Mitsurugi are "God Arm" Joshima, "God Foot" Hoshino, Nakazato, and Ninomiya. Season 2 adds Haohmaru as Suetsugu. Edge Master also joins the ride as one of the Two Guys from Tokyo.
- Grøh and Siegfried are the voices of the Orb Ring and Geed Riser.
- Talim and Ivy are Ranpha and Mint, Rika and Miyuki, and Frederica and Dlanor, with Kilik as Keiichi in the middle case.
- Siegfried/Nightmare and Mitsurugi are Batsu Ichimonji and Roberto Miura.
- Mitsurugi, Siegfried/Nightmare, Grøh, Cassandra, Astaroth, Edge Master, and Pod 042 are Isshin Kurosaki, Ikkaku Madarame, Izuru Kira, Hiyori Sarugaki/Rurichiyo Kasumioji, Aaroniero Arruruerie's top skull, Dordoni Alessandro Del Socaccio, and Yasutora "Chad" Sado.
- English
- Grøh, Sophitia, Zasalamel, Pod 042 and Siegfried/Nightmare are Ren Amamiya, Futaba Sakura, Masayoshi Shido, Suguru Kamoshida and Igor.
- Cervantes, Sophitia, Zasalamel, Pod 042, Seong Mi-na, Talim/2B and Siegfried/Nightmare are Ragna, Yuzuriha, Waldstein, Azrael, Orie, Heart and Jubei. Hilde and Setsuka join them in Season 2 as Izayoi and Mitsuru/Elizabeth, respectively.
- Cervantes, Seong Mi-na, Sophitia, and Pod 042 are also Wiseman, Brownie, McOnie, and Schroeder.
- Cervantes, Astaroth, Mitsurugi, Kilik, Grøh, and Hilde are DIO, Captain Tenille, Rubber Soul, Steely Dan, D'Arby the Younger, and Holly Kujo.
- Tira, Siegfried/Nightmare, Setsuka, and Zasalamel are Sakura, Kisame, Temari, and Kimimaro.
- Wilhelm von Krone from Hilde's Soul Chronicle, Setsuka, and Seong Mi-na are Dimitri, Edelgard, and Bernadetta.
- Japanese
- Role Reprise: Despite the Sequel Gap, the game is filled with reprises on both sides of the Pacific whenever possible.
- Japanese
- From Soul Edge (1995):
- Nobuyuki Hiyama as Siegfried and, by extension, Nightmare note
- Toshiyuki Morikawa as Mitsurugi note
- From Soulcalibur (1998):
- Soichiro Hoshi as Kilik
- From Soulcalibur II (2002):
- Yukari Tamura as Talim note
- Ryuzaburo Otomo as Astaroth note
- Yasunori Masutani as Raphael
- Reiko Takagi as Cassandra note
- From Soulcalibur III (2005):
- Hiroshi Tsuchida as Zasalamel note
- Masumi Asano as Tira
- From Soulcalibur Legends (2007):
- Chie Nakamura as Sophitia note
- From Soulcalibur IV (2008):
- Norio Wakamoto as Yoshimitsu note
- Hitomi Nabatame as Amy note
- Yuko Kaida as Hilde
- From Soulcalibur V (2012):
- Miyuki Sawashiro as Ivy
- Shigeo Kiyama as Maxi
- Kouji Ishii as Edge Master note
- From Samurai Shodown (2019):
- Daiki Nakamura as Guest Fighter Haohmaru note
- English
- From Soulcalibur II (2002):
- Wendee Lee as Xianghua note
- From Soulcalibur III (2005):
- Grant George as Kilik
- Lani Minella as Ivy
- Keith Silverstein as Zasalamel note
- Cynthia Holloway as Taki note
- Mitch Urban as Yoshimitsu note
- Steve Van Wormer as Maxi
- Michael McConnohie as Astaroth note
- Charles Klausemeyer as Raphael
- Heather Hogan-Watson as Amy note
- From Soulcalibur IV (2008):
- Heather Halley as Cassandra note
- Julie Ann Taylor as Hilde
- Tara Platt as Setsuka note
- From Soulcalibur V (2012):
- Paul St. Peter as the narrator
- Patrick Seitz as Cervantes
- T.J. Storm as Edge Master
- From The Witcher (2007):
- Doug Cockle as Guest Fighter Geralt of Rivia
- From NieR: Automata (2017):
- Kira Buckland as Guest Fighter 2B
- D.C. Douglas as Assist Character Pod 042
- Japanese
S-Z
- Sequel Gap:
- VI released in October 2018, nearly seven years after V was released in January 2012. This makes it the longest gap between mainline SC games in series history.
- Additionally, VI is tonally much more of a sequel to the games before V than the Soft Reboot that game attempted, with the last of said games being IV in July of 2008.
- Talking to Himself:
- Siegfried and Nightmare are both voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama and Kirk Thornton, justified by the latter being the Soul Edge-possessed version of the former. Furthermore, Thornton's original "Veteran Knight" custom voice from V returns as well.
- Also in the English dub, Talim and 2B are both voiced by Kira Buckland, the latter reprised from NieR: Automata.
- Trolling Creator:
- At the Game Awards in December 2017, Katsuhiro Harada came out first, with everyone thinking it was an announcement of something related to the Vaporware Tekken X Street Fighter or Tekken Mobile. However, when the man next to Harada, Motohiro Okubo, finished talking, he had five words to say before they announced the trailer: "Do Your Souls Still Burn?"
- At Evo 2019, Okubo trolled the fanbase once more remarking "Every journey has an end" after revealing Cassandra's trailer, implying that all support for the game would cease. This was not helped by the reaction from the audience, especially considering the lack of information about future content up until that point. Okubo then showed one more video as a "thank you" to the fans... which turned out to be the trailer for a second season of DLC complete with reworked game mechanics and four more characters. The "end of the journey" was really referring to the end of Season 1, much to the fans' relief.
- Troubled Production: Not a whole lot of solid details are out, but it's known that the road from development to release and beyond was a very bumpy one. It's stated that the game began development sometime in 2014, which was the same year that Lost Swords was active (to the fans' dismay) and it was likely that the plans for VI were there but on the backburner. The original lead on the team, Masaki Hoshino, left sometime in 2017 after Pachislot failed, and there were several unnamed producers who took his place before leaving too, leading to current head Motohiro Okubo to step up and get the game made. Keep in mind that Okubo only produced Tekken 7, and had no prior experience with Soulcalibur. However, he didn't want to see the series die, nor did he want the passionate members of Project Soul to be without jobs, so he took charge. The game was finished through 2017 and 2018 on a modest budget, and things went relatively smoothly from there. However, Okubo went on record saying that if VI didn't perform well enough, that Namco would pull out of the series, and they were only barely convinced to greenlight this game to begin with. This wasn't a lie, as back when the game launched, Okubo and the team didn't expect a Season 2 to be greenlit. Fortunately, the game performed well enough that the series will continue; Namco openly reported it as successful and having helped raise their value, followed by their approval of a second season.
- What Could Have Been:
- Soulcalibur VI was planned many years back, but this was when V head Daishi Odashima was in charge. Back when Soulcalibur V was announced, it was also announced this would be the start of a new series, and in fact had stated there was going to be VI, VII, VIII, and IX. That being said, the plan was that all games afterwards would've followed that game's status quo, which would've resulted in Soulcalibur VI looking very different from the one we actually got. This being a Continuity Reboot instead of a direct sequel to the previous game, it's anyone's guess as to what Odashima's vision of VI would've been like.
- Okubo wanted 2P costumes in the game just as how all previous games had them, but Project Soul had to cut this particular corner due to constraints.
- Noctis Lucis Caelum appeared as a Guest Fighter in Tekken 7. A common response to his surprise inclusion was that, as with several of the other new additions to the T7 cast, Noctis tonally clashed with the general atmosphere of Tekken, perhaps the most out of anyone. Many noted that his sword-based fighting style, use of magic, and Teleport Spam would've made him more fitting as a Soulcalibur guest than a Tekken one. Okubo implied that the only reason Noct wasn't a guest in Soulcalibur VI was because Tekken 7 was out first and they already had the rights to use Noct for that period, so he was put there instead of here to make sure it wasn't wasted, with Geralt of Rivia chosen as the VI guest instead. It's anyone's guess as to if Noct would be duking it out with the Soulcalibur cast instead of Geralt if Soulcalibur VI were announced just a little bit earlier.
- Given his prominence in the story mode and the artwork (complete with a new look), and how reportings of unique moves belonging to him have been found as used by NPCs have turned up, it's a pretty fair bet that Lizardman was intended to be on the initial roster but was likely cut due to time constraints. It's widely expected that he'll turn up as future DLC, for that reason.
- Additionally, there is the fact that Amy, Edge Master, Cassandra, and Hwang appear in the Soul Chronicle story mode with updated appearances and unique voices (the first three even being reprised by their current voice actors). There's a very good chance that they may have been planned for the base roster at one point, but couldn't make it. Amy and Cassandra would eventually make the jump to playable status, with Cassandra's announcement also coinciding with the reveal of a second season of DLC content which included the return of Hwang as a playable character.
- Word of God:
- In an interview with Kayane,
Motohiro Okubo — the producer of both Soulcalibur VI and Tekken 7 — noted that Noctis, who was a guest character in the latter, would have been a better fit for Soulcalibur VI, but that Tekken 7 was made first.
- Okubo also acknowledged that many have indeed noticed VI being filled to the brim with Hotter and Sexier fanservice compared to the already fanservice-heavy older games and especially so compared to the Tamer and Chaster V (some websites like Kotaku, Polygon and Fandom even having complained about the "objectification"). He stated that this wasn't made to be their focus, but rather it was done in an effort to be true to the characters as they were created to be.
- According to Okubo, there were no plans for a second season of DLC
when the game was released. Thankfully, the game's critical and commercial success plus the strong support of the community gave Project Soul the go-ahead from Bandai Namco to continue supporting the game with new content.
- In an interview with Kayane,
- You Sound Familiar:
- Kate Higgins does this a third time, having voiced Talim in III and IV and then Natsu in V. She now voices Tira, but doesn't reprise Talim who's returning in the same game for whatever reason (perhaps a decision on the director's part to avoid a plot-unjustified case of Talking to Himself).
- D.C. Douglas did a custom voice in IV and returns in VI as the voice of Pod 042, assisting Guest Fighter 2B.