#899 SoulCalibur I (ARC) Region-Exclusive Character: Arthur playthrough.

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AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters

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Published on May 17, 2018 8:06:27 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKtGXd8wCEw

Game:

Soulcalibur (1998)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 5:50

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A playthrough of the region-exclusive character Arthur in the arcade version of Namco’s SoulCalibur/ Soul Calibur 1.

Yeah, a region-exclusive character. Don’t see those too often. I’ll need a vid on Norimaro at some point when I return to the MvC series, come to think of it.

Here’s another oddity of this already rather odd series which gets brought up from time to time. After Hwang was made a regularly playable character from Ver 2. of Soul Edge onwards, Namco had to think up another character for this game to avoid offending the Korean audiences they wished to profit off of. You see, after the end of the Warring States Period of Japan (Sengoku Jidai) in the late 16th century, the unified Shogunate of Japan set its sights on conquering the Korean peninsula, a feat which Japan would eventually fulfil 300 years later after their victory in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. Although the shogunate’s invasion failed, Japan’s occupation and brutal treatment of the Korean peoples during the 20th century has kept in the minds of both Korean states ever since and has understandably made them less than cordial towards other historical instances of Japan’s attempts to subjugate them. As Samurai were the basis of the Shogunate army which attempted the invasion, well, Namco rather correctly assumed that Koreans wouldn’t be too fond of them. What was the solution they came up with? Take Mitsurugi and rework him into an Englishman pretending to be a samurai for shits and giggles. This is just a little bit inaccurate to say the least, but as the English aren’t exactly personas non gratas to Koreans (by contrast, most of the Korean friends I’ve had have been quite Anglophilic) it was a pretty good move on Namco’s part. Of course, in the same year (1998) the South Korean government lifted the ban on the direct importation of Japanese goods, and so Arthur was never needed again, as imports did not have the same cultural restrictions or expectations which they did prior.

I rarely get to cover one of my fellow countrymen (from what I recall) so, well, it’s nice to get to cover Arthur at least, for what he is. Which is more or less basically a joke, as the British back then saw themselves as superior to the Japanese (most people, in fact, which is a sentiment which hasn’t really changed since) and so emulating a foreigner would have probably been seen as a sign of madness. That said, nowadays we do have weeaboos, but they don’t exactly have the best reputation either. Arthur is just English phony samurai Mitsurugi therefore, but hell if he isn’t an interesting anomaly to say the least, in a game which did its best to emulate the enticing secrets of the Tekken franchise. Luckily, we will get to see Arthur again, though like here there won’t be a ton of effort put into it.

I’ll be moving onto the fantastic Dreamcast port of SoulCalibur soon, but first I want to take a look at another interesting anomaly.

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