It was revealed earlier that Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher series will make a guest appearance on Soulcalibur VI. The Soulcalibur series is known for featuring some great guest characters and fans are certainly excited to see their favorite monster-slayer in the latest addition to the Soulcalibur series. In an interview with Official Xbox Magazine (Issue 163, May 2018), the team behind Soulcalibur VI and the team behind The Witcher discussed different aspects of their collaboration.
First of all, Soulcalivur VI’s Producer Motohiro Okubo expresses his admiration for The Witcher games, “We have not felt pressure, but more so a sense of mission. There are many fans of Witcher and it’s the best game featuring a Middle Age-style world. It’s just natural for gamers to think ‘I’d like Geralt to fight in a weapon action game.’ We have to meet their expectation.” CD Projekt RED’s Community Coordinator Marcin Mamot also spoke about how their team consists of fans of the Soulcalibur games and they had always thought it would be a great idea if Geralt was featured in one of these games. This seems to be a case where things worked out well for both companies.
Other members of CD Projekt RED also discussed their contributions in this collaboration. You can read their statements below:
Animation Director, Sebastian Kalemba: “Our role was making sure that the Geralt in Soulcalibur VI moves, feels and – ultimately – plays like Geralt from The Witcher 3. And it’s not as simple as one might think. It’s not copy-pasting something from one game to the other. Timings, perspectives, responsiveness – these work very differently in a fighting game and in an open world RPG. Basically, in order to make this work, it boils down to having to go back to the drawing board on many things. We decided to start with a detailed brief on the character – who he is, what he’s like, why he moves the way he does and so on.”
Lead Writer, Borys Pugacz Muraszkiewicz: “Aside from providing art and assets and reviewing those, there’s more that went into the process. We worked on polishing proposed battle barks and dialogue in cutscenes, oversaw remotely the recording of Geralt’s voice for these lines, and generally acted as ‘lore keepers’ for Geralt’s appearance in Soulcalibur. I was thrilled to hear Geralt would be traveling to a new plain and embarking on an adventure there. It seems a nice extension and a fuller fleshing out of the kind of travel through time and space he did with Avallac’h for a brief spell in The Witcher 3. And from what I’ve seen, I must say that Geralt seems very much himself and not at all out of his element in this world. Kudos to the developers for the idea and its subsequent implementation.”
Character Art Director, Paweł Mielniczuk: “We also shared dozens of The Witcher 3 assets with creators of Soulcalibur VI as part of that briefing. We wanted artists at Bandai Namco to have ample source material to use as reference when working on Geralt’s model – his weapons, animations etc. Everything needed to be perfect. It’s the little things that sometimes make all the difference. We’ve helped with the hair, face and body – little tweaks here and there. I think they really did an outstanding job transitioning Geralt into the world of Soulcalibur.”
SoulCalibur VI is set to release for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One sometime this year.
