Geralt in Soul Calibur 6 Preview from Official Xbox Magazine

With the reveal of Geralt of Rivia as the Soul Calibur 6's guest character, more developer insights behind the merging of worlds have come out and this time it's from the Official Xbox Magazine. The staff at OXM got hands on time with an updated demo build of the game and detail the experience and polish to the game in the May 2018 issue (#163) of the magazine. Developer comments from both Bandai Namco and CD Projekt Red are added to express the level of care done in realizing The Witcher's Geralt in the world of Soul Calibur. Transcribed below are the developer quotes from the issue but if you're interested in reading the full Soul Calibur 6 gameplay preview including their experiences with the other characters in the roster, you can purchase the magazine online to read the section and context in full.

The White Wolf Joins The Fray In SOULCALIBUR VI (@daniellamlucas) ≫ https://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/gaming/official-xbox-magazine-subscription

▌OXM - SOULCALIBUR VI
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Marcin Momot (CD Projekt Red Community Lead)

The Soulcalibur series is known for featuring awesome guest characters. It's one of the series' staples. As a fan myself, and someone who's involved with The Witcher games, I always thought Geralt would be an awesome addition to Soulcalibur's fighter roster.

And then Bandai Namco reached out with the idea — we worked together on previous Witcher games — of having Geralt in Soulcalibur VI, which at the time, wasn't announced yet.

We have a lot of fans of the Soulcalibur series in the studio, myself included - it was a great opportunity for folks on the team to contribute to something they're passionate about. Most importantly, we thought this is something that The Witcher community would really enjoy.

Sebastian Kalemba (CD Project Red Animation Director)

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.

Paweł Mielniczuk (CD Project Red Character Art Director)

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.

Sebastian Kalemba

From there, we started setting up core silhouettes and establishing the character's centre of gravity — the latter is especially important. Geralt is always confident in battle - no unnecessary movements, very steady.

When he fights, he's always 100% focused on the here and now, very determined. That's who he is as a warrior and it's also something I wanted gamers to feel when controlling him in Soulcalibur.

Borys Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz (CD Projekt Red Director of English Adaptions)

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 curscenes, 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 Ive' 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.

[Topic: Geralt's Voice Actor]

How could we not go to Doug for the English Version? Had we recast, gone for a different talent, I daresay we would not have heard the end of it. And for those faithful fans of the Soulcalibur franchise have yet to try The Witcher, perhaps Geralt's presence, his voice, his characteristic grumpiness and the associated lore will encourage them to visit him in his home world.

Marcin Momot

Like I already said, I really love fighting games — I've been playing them since the early '90s and Soulcalibur has been one of my favourite series. I can't wait to be able to play Geralt. I won't venture into spoiler territory, but I love the way his appearance has been woven into the game. Geralt really feels right at home in Soulcalibur.

Motohiro Okubo (Bandai Namco SoulCalibur VI Producer)

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.

Marcin Momot on Kaer Morhen stage

There's a lot of history to the place. It's where Geralt trained to become a witcher, the keep played host to a lot of important events throughout the series. The stage is also complemented by 'Hunt or Be Hunted' from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt soundtrack playing in the background, adding that extra layer of The Witcher feel to it.