Japanese SoulCalibur VI Tier List for Season 2

EVO Japan is this weekend and for the occasion, the Dengeki writer Kurita Oyakata compiled his and other player's thoughts on a tierlist for Season 2 of SoulCalibur 6. I have to say, this is kind of a hard game to make a good tier list for with loads of differing opinions between regions but this Japanese tier list makes a decent case for the base of a current list. At the time of writing, this list was made just before EVO Japan and comes with some comments on each individual placements. You can check out the tier list at the source, as well all the other info on EVO Japan put together in the Dengeki Online article. Thanks goes to Maimai for the assistance in translating these notes.

Source ≫ https://dengekionline.com/articles/23738/

▌SoulCalibur VI Season 2 Tier List
￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣

Written Format:

S TIER

• RAPHAEL, MITSURUGI, SIEGFRIED, SEONG MI-NA, SOPHITIA, XIANGHUA

A+ TIER

• IVY, AMY, CASSANDRA, KILIK, MAXI, CERVANTES, VOLDO

A TIER

• TIRA, YOSHIMITSU, 2B, NIGHTMARE, AZWEL, ZASALAMEL, GERALT, TALIM, TAKI, GROH, ASTAROTH, HILDE

▌Tier List Comments
￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣

[S TIER]

RAPHAEL

Raphael obtained greater damage efficiency with the versatility in combo damage that comes from his strong vertical pressure, which includes moves like his long-reaching and 10f 6B. He has a high skill-ceiling and he makes for the most versatile character in the game so he doesn't have any particular bad match-ups. Personally, I have a stronger impression of Mitsurugi and Siegfried, but most of the players chose this character as the best overall.

MITSURUGI

With Skyll from France already displaying why Mitsurugi was a top candidate for the strongest character in Season 1, Mitsurugi became even better with the addition of Shura Blade in Season 2. The nerf to his Critical Edge from 12 frames to 14 frames seems to be painful but, Shura Blade can be said to be an enhancement that more than makes up for it. (It's going to take a more time to determine this though.)

SIEGFRIED

Siegfried has been given his time to shine after invincibility was added to his side movements from Chief Hold stance. When it comes to pressure from up close characters, Siegfried doesn't seem to have big problems dealing with them since he has options that heavily counter and reverse the momentum when you guess right. He also controls space in the mid-range really well which makes a lot of players consider him the best character. Last year's EVO Japan's tier rating had Siegfried at the very bottom so this is quite the incredible breakthrough.

SEONG MI-NA

Blessed with new moves added in Season 2, the character's strength has improved. Although her ring-out ability, which made us call her "The Queen of the Desert" has decreased a little (especially in stages with half fences) there's a different more damaging combo from season 1 to learn due to the new additions, so maybe an improvement overall? Like with Siegfried, she is a little weak against close-range characters, so she is considered 4th, but she has the advantage of being more consistent against favorable match-ups than the above three characters.

SOPHITIA

Her new combo damage and options from Soul Charge, which had been modest until now, is greatly improved in Season 2. The solid tools of the moveset remains the same, so she becomes a fundamental character plus extra as a result. She doesn't have the overwhelming strength of the above four characters, but she can fight in a solid and simple way with the combination of low kicks and low risk mids.

XIANGHUA

The new moves (mids and lows) from a 'low risk and middle return' stance in Season 2 are very strong, which makes up for her low damage from Season 1. She can chip away at the opponent's lifebar with the use of her stance and like Sophitia, she is fundamentally solid which we feel makes for a more consistently winning character in favorable match-ups.

[A+ TIER]

IVY

Her ability to control space is the best in the game with long reaching attacks and a long-range command throw (Calamity Symphony) making her the hardest match-up for most shorter range characters. She does suffer more against characters who can reach her from a distance unlike the stronger characters though. It's possible to say that if you made a match-up diagram for Ivy, the number of points from favorable match-ups might put her at No. 1.

AMY

The complete opposite of Ivy, an up-close character. She becomes really scary when she gets Purple roses, but suffers when she doesn't like at the start of matches making a main weakness to the character. Considering the lack of consistency, such as the tendency to struggle against characters with long reach like Ivy, I chose A+. But if you get carried away (when she unlocks stronger attacks), she's easily the scariest character to deal with.

CASSANDRA

A new character added at the end of season 1. Her rating in Season 1 was neither good nor bad, but she soared in Season 2 when her A attack was buffed from 12 frames to 10 frames. By improving the up-close fighting that she was originally good at, she's become a more rushdown version of Sophitia / Xianghua.

KILIK

The character's moveset is pretty balanced and regarded as good early on, but Kilik started drifting to the 'jack of all trades, master of none' territory. However, with the addition of the projectile that can be used during Soul Charge, his Soul Charge state became even more dangerous. With the system changes made in Season 2, he also benefits from the new Resist Impacts which he can just use over and over again, so he's definitely a competitively viable character.

MAXI

In Season 1, Maxi suffered a lot if you labbed the match-up and prepared against his stance options, which perhaps makes him the worst character in Season 1? In Season 2 however, he gained a new option from stances with the Resist Impact addition. Furthermore, the buffs to his stance transitions and getting all Seven Stars have given him a big power-up. Maxi has become a better character now that you can't just beat by picking the best option from each stance now.

CERVANTES

From the start, Cervantes had a lot of fundamental tools that were good if you were an expert and could pilot the character really well, so the new moves he got in Season 2 are simple power-ups. Unlike Kilik or Maxi, Cervantes has less ways to exploit players that don't know the match-up so he fights in a fairly straightforwardly manner. He excels in the mid to long-range so he doesn't suffer from too many particularly bad match-ups.

VOLDO

Mantis Crawl was nerfed, but his normal fighting outside of stances was majorly improved. He earned big buffs to his combos and damage output, and the advantage from stance transitions to Blind Stance after his lows became better. If you were to look at all the fine details to the character, Voldo's buffs leaves him more unpredictable making it even easier to kill opponents that don't know the match-up very well. I'm looking forward to seeing more players, including the EVO champion who rated Voldo very low in Season 1, to show-off the character's potential this time around.

[A TIER]

TIRA

It's easier to stay in Gloomy state and getting to Coda state was made easier, so Tira has been buffed in a way that matches the difficulty of using the character. Although there's not too many Tira players around, I have a feeling that the Tira loyalists will be more active in Season 2.

YOSHIMITSU

In Season 2, other characters were either rejoicing or heart-broken from the changes, but it seems like Yoshimitsu hasn't gone under any major changes. In Season 1, he was rated pretty high competitively because of his mix-ups which included fast unblockables during Soul Charge, but for Season 2, other character's Soul Charge were buffed across the board so Yoshimitsu's rating dropped as a result. His attacks that link into his Skull Splitter on block can now be dodged with side movement which also makes it more harder for him.

2B

The lady Android who's Aggresive Shift offense completely runs over unfamiliar players. Even in Season 2, the aggressive style is still very strong but she now can collect Analysis Points to recover guard stamina gauge which is a big buff to her defense.

NIGHTMARE

Just like Yoshimitsu, the changes from Season 1 to Season 2 were rather moderate with Nightmare maintaining his same strengths but still suffering from the same weaknesses. Nightmare is strong with his use of Revenge armor attacks, but no-so much against characters that can deal with it so I settled in this position for the rating. However, if you do manage to hit with his stuff or if you defend very steadily with the use of GIs, the damage return is very rewarding so it all depends on how you use the character.

AZWEL

In Season 1, Azwel had placed high in a lot of tournament results with his best low hitting 'Muscle Buster', but in Season 2, Azwel's strength has been firmly weakened. The current situation is that Azwel players are forced to change their play-style because of the nerfs. Personally, It's weird to think of him as being this weak (I'm not even sure if he has been nerfed as a whole lol) but if I summarize the community thoughts on the tier list, Azwel fits around here.

ZASALAMEL

The nerfs to his Abyss (where you will lose against Highs and throws unless you have curses) was more severe to Zasalamel than expected. Although his new moves are not bad, they're not major and I have the impression that he's slipped from the mid-field in first season to this placing. However, he's still well balanced in that he can fight in both long and short distances, so if the right person can pilot him well and make use of his skill effectively, he still has a fighting chance. (This is what I tell myself lol.)

GERALT

Although he received buffs in most places, Geralt's buffs aren't particularly outstanding in Season 2 compared to the other characters. He is fundamentally strong as usual, but his rating was low overall due to the lack of game winning tools. However, since his main moveset is still compact and good, and if a player can make good use of Yrden, then he can compete with any character in the game.

TALIM

The buffs to her 6B and her options from Back Turned, improves her overall, and changes up how she's played, but this evaluation depends on how well the opponent comes prepared to counter it. Since it is easy to rush down an opponent with her offense, it's not so easy to crack the defense of an experience opponent. Still, it's hard to fully implement her style of offense, so it's interesting to see the potential for the character grow depending on the player's sense.

TAKI

Like Talim, the key is whether you can move and act faster than the opponent at close ranges as Taki is a technical character. Her new moves have made her more flashy, but players have improved over the past year, making it harder to win at higher levels. On the other hand, there is a strength to Taki that can be taken advantage of against opponents that do not know the match-up. (By the way, I am a very weak opponent.)

GROH

With the power of now shouting his moves more often in the middle of a battle, it actually doesn't have much to do with a tier list. Of course, there are some things that got improved in Season 2, but other than the buffs to moves in Soul Charge, they all seem minor. He's not weak at all, but he's definitely not the kind of character you can easily win with a lot of powerful moves.

ASTAROTH

High damaging attacks and really strong command grabs means he dishes out big damage, but because the moves themselves are rather slow, it leaves large gaps making him hard to play. To make the most of his throws, you have to move in close but it is also important to take advantage of his long reach so contrary to his appearance, the way you have to play him makes him a rather technical character. Because it's hard to play him as purely as the strong command grappler archetype, this position as usual, is the result.....

HILDE

Since Hilde is a brand new character from Season 2, her max potential is still unknown, but there are already a lot of things leaving a negative impression, like her inability to keep side movements in check making her suffer fighting in long-ranges. Even if we make up for the difficulty of using her with the button charging, it seems Hilde still lacks some strengths compared to the higher tiers. Since there are upcoming tournaments around this time, perhaps it's possible for Hilde to pierce through and beat players that are not yet familiar with the character?