#896 SoulCalibur I (ARC) Hidden Characters (6/8): Seung Mina playthrough.
0A playthrough of the hidden character Seung Mina in the arcade version of Namco’s SoulCalibur/Soul Calibur 1.
So, here we actually have the reverse of Eddy, where a really good female character gets pushed aside for an underwhelming replacement. I get that the point of Kilik is he’s a reference to Sun Wukong from Journey To The West, but that already sums up the more fantastical direction this soft reboot was attempting to go in.
As with Tekken, SoulEdge/SoulCalibur has consistently great female characters. Seung Mina is one of the most exemplary of that, as she contributed to the Korean quota of the game while still feeling that an extremely worthwhile addition. Namco was really onto something when they were coming up with the styles of Soul Edge, and while the Souls series will continue to get some new additions here and there it never has quite the same quality in terms of designs, in contrast to Tekken which has never really “lost it” as far as I’m concerned, notwithstanding a few duff characters.
Like some of the other characters covered here, Mina usually returns as a hidden character in the later games, being shoved into the background in favour of a younger character for some odd reason. Man, you never quite realise how odd these two series are (SC and Tekken) until you really have to think about it. I mean, at least Tekken had TWO games before it dropped most of its cast. I have to wonder why they decided to go in such a different direction with SoulCalibur over Soul Edge. I guess they were just inspired by the Tekken series to go down a more fantastical route, and to try changing things up as a part of that. It worked well for them in the end I suppose, as SC remains a…well, relatively beloved series, at least up to the 3rd game. After that, it gets a lot more polarised.
Mina here was effectively replaced by Kilik, a character who I do actually like and think was a decent choice for a de facto protagonist, but as I’ve said before shoving established characters into the background to make way for new ones is kind of a dickish thing to do, particularly if your audience really grew to like the previous ones. And this won’t be the only SC games that does this, either! I think nearly all of them have that to some extent. Mina’s moveset while a derivative of Kilik’s, by contrast is just…well, honestly, it’s just awful from what I could tell. Her attacks have some of the awkward, most inconsistent hit-boxes I have ever seen, barely hitting her opponents most of the time. This is not helped by the fact that the majority of her attacks are either slow to act (and so she gets countered), or their hitbox is extremely fucking small and they barely if ever work. I don’t know if it’s an emulation glitch or something, but she just plays like shit to me, being wholly unable to counter and her range advantage being effectively annulled by just how inconsistently her attacks land. Still, I like her as a character, and if memory serves she does improve down the line.
I’m glad they included Mina, just like with most of these hidden characters, and as with Rock it’s great that she gets brought back for so many of the sequels. Always as a hidden, but at least it’s something. Poor Hwang/Li Long.
Up next, a curiosity to look at.
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