Hisaharu Tago: Yes, we are proud that we are the first ones to use that gauge system in Soul Edge [laughs]. But everyone got used to it with Street Fighter, so we took that into account - we have to make sure that everyone will still be able to play our game, after all. So in that sense we adjusted it.
SPOnG: Was it a challenge creating and designing a world that’s based 17 years after the previous game, in terms of introducing new characters and making sure they age and act appropriately?
Hisaharu Tago: Rather than changing the characters or making one of them more mature or anything, we wanted to push out the ‘17 Years Later’ concept in order to have the feeling that SoulCalibur V is new. If we just staged it as a straightforward sequel in terms of the timeline, and we talk about a world of detailed changes nobody would really get the impact. So by saying it’s set 17 years after SoulCalibur IV we can create the impact that it’s new.
SPOnG: It’s funny because one of the first things I realised when I first saw SoulCalibur V was that Ivy hasn’t changed at all! I imagine the reason she’s not changed so much is because of what you said earlier.
Hisaharu Tago: [Laughs] Moving the timeline 17 years is something that this team will have to take on for future instalments as well, but we wanted to show a character that didn’t change so much during that period. If we showed a character that aged so much, with all these wrinkles, the audience would be quite shocked. So I chose characters that wouldn’t look all that old over that 17 year gap.
Hisaharu Tago: [Laughs] Ivy is very important to the storyline too, which is why she won’t age much in this instalment. There are new characters who are very young, and characters from an older generation - Ivy is the character in-between because she doesn’t actually age. She ends up actually leading the younger group of characters, so to speak.
SPOnG: You already mentioned the Critical Edge, but what other of elements from previous SoulCalibur and Soul Edge games have you taken on board to bring this game back to its roots?
Hisaharu Tago: We actually took inspiration from a lot of elements in past games that we were told were better or more fun than what we were doing now. For instance, the controls and the reaction speed between hitting the buttons and seeing your move executed on screen. That was taken from SoulCalibur II.
SPOnG: It’s interesting that you mention the speed - it seems that SoulCalibur V, especially with the younger generation of characters, has quite a lot of focus on speed. Was that an obvious decision from the get-go?
Hisaharu Tago: Yeah - from the beginning of development stage, the director (Daishi Odashima) had blueprints of different characters and how they were going to act in the game. It was already in his head, so in that sense the speed was already there.
Hisaharu Tago: Well, the first step was the support we had from Katsuhiro Harada from the Tekken series. Harada-san asked the fanbase whether they would like to see another instalment of SoulCalibur, and he was overwhelmed with positive responses. He came to us and said, “Look! Everyone wants a new instalment. Why not make one?”
The reason for the disbanded Project Souls studio? Maybe the company and other development teams wanted to take advantage of the skills that each of the very useful Project Souls team members had. And perhaps that was considered instead of making a new instalment, originally. But we heard that the fans wanted a new game, and that support really helped out. It allowed those same developers to come back.
SPOnG: Did you guys want to make a SoulCalibur V originally? Or did the higher-ups at the company call time on the series and disbanded the team, before Harada-san came along and presented this feedback?
Hisaharu Tago: There was always a desire by the team to make SoulCalibur V, but they weren’t really sure if it was wanted by the audience. Harada-san was able to call upon those fans and say that the development team was wanted, and they were confident to step up to the challenge then. But before that they really needed a catalyst.
Hisaharu Tago: He’s a really strong friend. And on the other side, he’s a very strong rival to the SoulCalibur team [laughs]. He really helped us out in getting the development started up for SoulCalibur V... but, although I’m not supposed to say it too much, we always think that we want to surpass Tekken!
SPOnG: Maybe it’s time to settle the rivalry with Tekken X [i]SoulCalibur?
Hisaharu Tago: [Laughs] We are rivals in a good way! It’s not like we’re punching each other in the face when we see each other in the street or anything! But it’s a rivalry in a good sense that we have Tekken, so we are always pushing ourselves to better SoulCalibur. And it’s the same the other way around for Tekken too. We’re passing on positive influences to each other.
You mentioned Tekken X SoulCalibur... that kind of a collaboration would be fun as well.
Hisaharu Tago: [Laughs] Even though SoulCalibur fighters have weapons, Tekken characters are really macho and strong! Maybe they could grab the swords with their hands and crush them or something!