#876 Soul Edge ver. 1 (ARC) Hidden Character: Hwang playthrough.

Channel:

AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters

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Published on April 20, 2018 6:01:04 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPvmDi1NaBU

Game:

Soul Edge (1995)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 5:58

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A playthrough of the hidden character Hwang in version 1 of the arcade version of Namco’s Soul Edge/Soul Blade.

I’ll get into Hwang’s backstory in a later video (as we will see him a few more times), but he’s certainly something of an anomaly.

Many people know that Hwang replaced Mitsurugi in the Korean release of Soul Edge. Indeed, Hwang is literally just a model-swap of Mitsurugi, and plays exactly like him, something he’ll never quite shake off, despite being a Korean warrior. Unbeknowst to many however, Hwang is actually accessible in non-Korean releases of Soul Edge via a hidden code, which will allow him to be selected off screen.

The player has to put this in every time they are on the character selection screen, however the input is so simple that this isn’t a problem:

“Hold start for the entire code.
Highlight Mitsurugi and press Up, then Down
Highlight Taki and press Up, Up, Down Down
Highlight Rock and press Down, Up, Down, Up
You'll then hear a sound. Move left of Rock and he's there.”

I only even found out about this by looking at an old guide on Gamefaqs, which tend to be a surprising fountain of forgotten knowledge for classic games. I didn’t know about Hwang being unlockable for years, so it’s yet another lovely oddity which typifies Namco’s classic titles.

Hwang eventually gets more fleshed out as a character (to an extent, anyway), but he’s very basic here. For the international versions of the game, he’s simply a small bonus in a game which is otherwise devoid of hidden content. Indeed, unlike Tekken 1’s numerous sub-bosses, Soul Edge has very little in the way of hidden content or features, which makes Hwang not only noteworthy but also appreciated. This will change later in the series, however, but Soul Edge is surprisingly bare for a Namco title.

Hwang is little more than an anomaly here therefore, but hidden content is hidden content. His voice is unique, which is also nice, but I suppose it had to be. If you’re interested as to why Mitsurugi was replaced by Hwang in the Korean version of the game, I’d recommend looking up my reply to the user ShadowFeline on my Tekken 2 Jun video; I go into it a bit there, but I’ll be explaining it in future videos as well.

There isn’t much point playing as Hwang here (or playing the arcade versions of Soul Edge in general) with the exception of the novelty of it, but he’s an interesting if basic character to cover regardless.
Up next, I get to take a short look at version II of Soul Edge.

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