Soul Calibur: Lost Swords Is F2P Solo Fighter For PS3

As promised, Namco Bandai delivered some new Soul Calibur: Lost Swords details during Tokyo Game Show today, revealing this latest free-to-play fighter will be coming exclusively to the PlayStation 3 sometime this winter with fan-favorite Sophitia set to join the cast.

After rumors starting making the rounds across the internet, Soul Calibur: Lost Swords was confirmed to actually exist last week, though Namco Bandai revealed little else about the game save that Siegfried and Mitsurugi would be among the playable characters. This led to my speculating about what the game could actually be, resulting in some admittedly outlandish (though still decidedly awesome) possibilities. With Soul Calibur 2 HD Online already primed to launch, I thought it unlikely that Lost Swords would simply be a free-to-play fighting game in the same vein as the recently released Tekken Revolution. My money was on something more akin to a 3D beat-em-up, and I still hold that that type of a game set in the Soul Calibur universe would be fantastic news.

But it’s looking like my dream of mercilessly mowing down countless mobs of enemies as Nightmare will remain unfulfilled for the time being, as a new trailer for Lost Swords was recently launched during the ongoing Tokyo Game Show event.

“Choose from a legendary cast of characters spanning the Soul Calibur series and fight through life-or-death battles in an engaging and highly customizable solo gameplay fighting experience,” according to a statement from Namco Bandai.

So, in short, it looks like we’re getting something very similar to Tekken Revolution, only without online multiplayer. As I stated last week, I can’t very well understand omitting multiplayer from a free-to-play fighting game but, as details are still a bit on the scarce side, maybe the publisher has something creative planned in order to convince would-be brawlers to drop some extra cash on their gratis fighter.

The press release goes on to say that a brand new item discovery and forging system will be at play, offering elemental-based fighting mechanics to the series. It sounds a lot like a rock-paper-scissors mechanic has been bolted on to the regular gameplay with players encouraged to pick the proper opposite element to attach to their weapon before going into each battle. I’m guessing that those weapons and crafting items will also be available for purchase if you don’t want to grind through fights but, again, I can’t imagine that would be enough to encourage many people to start spending money.

Namco Bandai, though, seems to disagree.

“The Soul Calibur series has long been known for its substantial single player moes over the past 14 years,” said Senior VP Olivier Comte. “Soul Calibur: Lost Swords allows the development team to expand the solo-fighting game concept further than it has ever gone before with new loot-drop gameplay, elemental-based weapons and deep character customization options that the series is known for.”