Where most fighting titles focus on fists-and-feet combat, the Soul Calibur series heavily focuses on weapon combat. The result is an added layer of variety that fisticuffs cannot provide–from slashing and piercing, to longer range combat, just to name a few.
Naturally, it wouldn't be very fun if this aspect of the SC games was realistic–a jab of a sword, for instance, could end a match instantly. Who wants to play that? Thankfully, we don't have to: damage done by weapons does not incapacitate an opponent any differently than a non-weapon attack would
In an interview with Gamasutra, the series producer, Hisaharu Tago, revealed that this aspect of the games might change in the future.
"I do think that's something Soulcalibur needs to tackle in the future. The thing with that is, if a character actually took an appropriate amount of damage for the weapon he was hit with, he wouldn't be able to respond in any sort of quick manner. He'd wind up taking more hits and the fight would just get worse for him. That'd be realistic, but in a fighting game that'd mean whoever strikes first wins.
Right now Soulcalibur has the same general taste as a punch-and-kick fighter, but if the series evolves in the future, we'd like to have the game more centered around the weapons used in it," he explains.
This change in the series is probably not making it into Soul Calibur 5, though. "Doing that right now, though, would just confuse our audience," Tago clarifies.
As long as the hypothetical changes don't unbalance the game, it'll be interesting to see how future Soul Calibur titles might change up the way weapons work.
