Skyrim, The Queen & Obama: Having Fun With Soul Calibur 5’s Character Creation

A large part of Soul Calibur 5 is its character creation, a tool that enables gamers to create all sorts of odd characters to then pit against their friends or take online.

So why waste this fantastic feature on creating another typical Japanese beat-‘em-up character? We see how far we can go with Soul Calibur 5’s character creation to finally discover the answer to that ever-hypothetical question ‘Who would win in a fight between…?’

For our fights we used our creations in a 1v1 battle with both characters played by a ‘Hard’ level CPU.

Dovahkiin Versus Lightning

It’s a battle of the RPGs: East meets West in the ultimate fight where we try to find out once and for all, which type of RPG is the best? 

Creating Dovahkiin

A lot of the gear available in Soul Calibur 5 – with a hefty amount of editing – is actually well suited to our Dragonborn. The horns were added as a separate custom item, however, tweaking them and adding a striped pattern to recreate that iconic helmet.

It’s just a shame Dovahkiin might be spending the rest of his life as a guard in Whiterun though, courtesy of the arrow he’s taken to the knee.

Creating Lightning

Final Fantasy XIII’s popular protagonist was a little trickier than Skyrim’s Dragonborn. Her hair wasn’t long enough, the clothes weren’t always spot-on but, with a few palette changes, she turned out all right.

We even picked Z.W.E.I. as her fighting style so she could battle alongside an accompanying summon. And for real fans, we even named her Claire.

But who will win?

Zelda Versus Link

How emasculated is Link? He’s spent his entire life rescuing Zelda, and yet he still doesn’t get the game named after him. Link’s got a lot of pent-up aggression to let out…

Creating Zelda

There needed to be a decision made here: blonde or brunette? We opted for contemporary Zelda, whose appearance in Twilight Princess made her curiously shift hair-colour.

The clothing options seemed to match her outfit fantastically, and with the dress we were even able to apply a fancy effect to crudely resemble the pattern on her dress in Twilight Princess.

Creating Link

Link might look a little effeminate, but the man walks around in a dress – it’s hard for anyone to butch that up. His outfit was simple enough, though the addition of a quiver and bow helped complete the design.

Unfortunately there wasn’t a hat that specifically matched Link’s trademark cone cap, so we had to opt for the ridiculous wizard’s hat. Crude, but you get the point.

But who will win?

The Queen Of England Versus President Obama

The ultimate British toff fighting the American symbol of change? Two polar opposites duking it out, but more than that – it’s the UK taking on the US. Who saved who from the war?

Creating Queenie

Lizzie was a tough one to create. Her clothing itself was fine – but then she’d look the part in any combination of awkward pale yellow clothes and a big crown.

The biggest irritation was the revelation that only young ladies can be made in Soul Calibur 5. That’s right, no aging women for you. Oh, and of course the Queen fights with two bloody big axes. "Orf with his head!"

Creating Obama

Obama’s fairly simple really. Since the president is really only ever spotted in a suit, we just need to pair the right pieces together to resemble that, with white ‘shirt’ layer underneath.

As for the frilly scarf… there weren’t really many other alternatives for a tie, so now Obama resembles a bohemian theatregoer.

But who will win? 

Hitler Versus Ghandi

A man known for horrible war atrocities pitted against a man recognised for his pacifist approach to revolution? It’s a battle that’s never going to happen, so here’s what would have happened if it could…

Creating Hitler

The most disappointing creation here, there were no clothes to match Hitler’s common threads and his most distinguishing features – namely moustache and hairdo – couldn’t be recreated.

So we’re left with a man with vaguely militaristic fatigues, pathetic lip fuzz and Nightmare’s Soul Edge. Ah well.

Creating Ghandi

Ghandi was the easiest of the lot to recreate realistically, seeing as all he really needed was a bald hairstyle and something to hide his modesty.

We opted for a Kilik 2 (sorry, Xiba) fighting style for Ghandi. Not because Ghandi is cheap in a fight, it just seems like he’d prefer thwacking someone round the head with a staff than the more-than-a-little-mean slicing someone up with a sword.

But who will win? (we're rooting for Ghandi, unsurprisingly)

Jill Valentine Versus A Licker

Those Lickers are nasty little buggers, right? Crawling on the walls, licking us: horrible things. Jill will have encountered a number of them in her time, but will she survive this time?

Creating Jill

Using classic Jill as a foundation – rather than the silly, unitard-clad modern version – the outfit itself is fairly basic. It’s really only the beret and armguards that help make the design so successful.

Most important is getting the colours right, with the varying degrees of blue being topped off by the stars stickers to resemble the badge of the special ops team Jill famously works for.

Creating A Licker

Without a doubt this is the most ridiculous creation here, which was created by spraying a human body entirely pink, making it bald and altering the eye colours so they’re entirely red.

Voldo is the obvious style, bringing in the Lickers trademark claws and giving it a wormy style of movement. Yes, we’re aware how daft it looks.

But who will win?

Kaz Hirai Versus Steve Ballmer

The Big One. Sony versus Microsoft and, by association, PlayStation versus Xbox: the battle to end all battles. Proof certain of which console is the best, and who wins the current the generation.

Creating Kaz Hirai

There’s not really a trademark style for Kaz, so we opted for his light brown suit combo he is often seen wearing. Just like Obama, all this really required was tinting a couple of clothes the required colour.

The fight style is Yoshimitsu – for no real reason other than the ability to change his banner blue and because he’s Japanese. Yes, we’re being stereotypical about this…

Creating Steve Ballmer

The only thing most remember Steve Ballmer for is his sweaty blue shirt. It’s unfortunate, but that’s just the way it is. Again, it’s fairly simple to recreate alongside a basic pair of pants.

The sweat patches were a little tougher, however, and not easily identifiable in the final design. We used a few stickers of darker blue to replicate it, but you’d be forgiven for not even noticing. We’re sorry.

But who will win?