Kategoriarkiv: International

Introducing: Supreme class Smokescreen

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A couple of years ago, I created my own version of my favourite Transformers character Smokescreen, building from an Alternator figure and replacing the Subaru body of it with a 1/24 scale Datsun 280Z model. With my limited skills and experience, I made it non-transforming, so it’s basically a statue. Still, I was very happy with my ”ultimate” Smokescreen figure. After all, it was much bigger than the original and looked a lot more like the original car, even if I had to make some modifications to make the front similar to the racer. ... Läs hela texten

Rare Soul Edge art: Cervantes

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Well, I finally sat down to get the last guy scanned: Cervantes de Leon. I liked him much better in Soul Edge and Soul Calibur before he turned into a Pirates of the Caribbean villain. Here, the old guy is old and grizzled but not entirely a ghost. Enjoy his beach outfit (now why wasn’t there a ”Cervantes!!”?) and a rather simple CG from the Soul Edge Official Fan Book and Official Guide Book, both from 1997.

Rare Soul Edge art: Taki

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Taki is obviously one of the characters who has had her art spread far and wide, and I think I’ve seen these pictures before. However, the render should be fairly new to most internet users. It’s interesting to note how Taki changed from a single blade user to a dual blade user between Soul Edge and Soul Calibur. I also preferred her look before it was unnecessarily busy. The red and metal creates a very simple, striking look.

Rare Soul Edge art: Hwang

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I’m not one of the people who bitch every time Hwang Seong-Gyeong doesn’t show up in a Soul Calibur game, although I did play with him quite a lot in Soul Edge. Back then he was mostly a Mitsurugi clone with a few moves borrowed from Mi-Na, and he basically only had a few cool throws and a nice design to show for himself. In fact, Hwang was originally there to replace Mitsurugi entirely since samurai were banned in Korea, and he was only available in the original non-Korean arcade game as a secret character. When the time came for Soul Calibur, he was relegated to a time release character, although the first to be released, and his design was already quite a bit plainer. This time he used Xianghua’s moves. So it wasn’t too surprising when he was replaced entirely by Hong Yun-Seong in Soul Calibur 2. ... Läs hela texten

Rare Soul Edge art: Seong Mi-Na

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Well, Seung Mi-Na or Seung Mina or what-have-you, she’s still one of my favourites. Around that time I had started learning jodo and I wanted to learn naginatado as well but it’s quite rare to find.

At one point, I had pretty much all pictures of her that were available online, then I quickly fell behind. The render here was scanned way back, but not in this quality. I’m also rather sure that all the drawn art wasn’t available before.

Rare Soul Edge art: Rock

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Back in Soul Edge, Rock Adams was one of my favourite characters. He played great, looked really cool, had a nice voice (courtesy of Robert Belgrade, the same voice actor as Alucard) and a fantastic stage with excellent music. There’s was also the nice background story with him rescuing Bangoo. However, Rock was pretty much forgotten and replaced by the boring Astaroth, and it seemed Namco only kept him around to fit him out in progressively crazier trophy hats. Adding insult to injury, his original axe was replaced by a mace. I mean, really? ... Läs hela texten

Rare Soul Edge art: Siegfried

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Pretty much since I first started playing Soul Blade (as Soul Edge was renamed in the west, probably because of that Langdell bastard), Siegfried was my favourite. The little guy with the huge sword and the cocky attitude was a blast to play, and it didn’t hurt that he pretty much became the main character after that. A kid of 16 in this game, Siegfried Schtauffen led a band of brigands who robbed their way around the Holy Roman Empire, which Germany was a part of at that time. Coming across a group of battle-weakened knights, Siegfried and his Schwarzwind fell upon them and killed them all in search for treasure. However, after killing the leader, Siegfried realized that it was his father, Frederick, just home from the crusades. Siegfried snapped… and yet this was just the beginning of his… eh… nightmare. ... Läs hela texten

Rare Soul Edge artwork: Sophitia

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With Sophitia’s son Patroklos confirmed to be the main character of Soul Calibur 5, who better to present today than the mother herself, back when she was a fair maiden of 18? I say rare, but Sophitia being Sophitia, most of these pictures have been shown online already. However, I can’t recall seeing the render elsewhere before. And how I long for the days when she actually wore some kind of armor rather than ”look, there’s a piece of metal here, it’s armor, really!”. ... Läs hela texten

Rare Soul Edge artwork: Mitsurugi

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I started scanning some Soul Edge books I’ve had laying around. I won these on Ebay some time ago and I was surprised to see loads of artwork that hasn’t really been available online, except in a few cases in circa 1997 era scans (i e, tiny and horribly compressed thumbnails). While I don’t want to break these books entirely, I also want to share this stuff so I’m scanning them as carefully as I can.

In last night’s blog I started out with Li Long who gets a few neat pictures with him and Chie. Today it’s Mitsurugi, who looks very awesome here. I really like how he’s actually painting the kanji on his jacket himself – sometimes nowadays you get the feeling that everyone gets their gear pimped for them at West Coast Customs or something. The kanji should mean ”tiger” but it’s slightly off. It’s also nice to see a younger, more care-free Mitsurugi. I always felt he became a bit too much of a badass in the later games. ... Läs hela texten