Soulcalibur has been a veteran pillar in the fighting game community for nearly twenty-five years, standing alongside titles such as Street Fighter and Tekken. A solid 3D fighter in its own right, Soulcalibur has created expert-level gameplay with spectacular graphics since it was first released on the Dreamcast.
Recently, Playstation's free games for PS Plus have been revealed, and Soulcalibur 6, the newest edition to the series, is among the ranks. With many new players flocking to their download queues, once in the game, players may feel a bit lost with the wide variety of characters available. Here are some of the best characters to play for beginners, in particular.
8 Mitsurugi
Mitsurugi is an all-around solid character for new players and has been a staple character in the Soulcalibur roster since the beginning. His move set and combos are easy to learn but take a bit of skill to master. Mitsurugi specializes in strong slashing combos that are fast and hard to react to, a mix of different height attacks can keep the opponent on their toes, never knowing where the next strike is coming from.
Mitsurugi also has a special move that is good for punishing missed attacks or ending a particular combo string called “Ribb Ripper”; this move is better used while dodging incoming attacks to dish out some heavy damage to an overzealous opponent.
7 Nightmare
Nightmare is another Soulcalibur original, having served as the main antagonist of the series since its creation. Nightmare is a master in close-range combat, having a brutally damaging moveset.
While Nightmare may suffer in speed compared to other characters, utilizing movement and special moves that capitalize on powering through opponents' attacks make him a more than reasonable threat. Nightmare has special properties on some of his attacks that allow him super armor and increased damage while taking damage when attacking.
6 Siegfried
Siegfried is the other half of the coin that Nightmare resides on; he has been a character in the game that new players have flocked to since the beginning of the franchise and also uses the "Big sword" archetype. Siegfried's moveset is a bit more tactical than Nightmare's, having stance switches and feints to keep the opponent off guard.
Siegfried specializes in mid-range combat but does have a few special moves that give him the range advantage to close gaps quickly or dictate the pace aggressively. The main position where Siegfried suffers is his start-up and recovery; his moves are very slow, so a misplaced input can be the difference between victory and defeat.
5 Kilik
Kilik is perhaps the perfect character for new players; he is a fundamental and straightforward character with a lot of range and broad arcing attacks. Kilik specializes in mixing up opponents and exploiting slow attacks.
There have been many changes to Kilik in Soulcalibur 6; however, he still maintains his fast and loose playstyle, which places him at an advantage against most opponents. In addition, there have been several moves that have been locked behind the game's new "Soul Charge" mode that players must achieve to expand the character's moveset.
4 Maxi
Maxi is a safe and overwhelming character that new players can use against opponents to get a good feel of combat and attack speed. Maxi utilizes nun-chucks and fast moves that are hard to block and react to.
Maxi’s speed and combo links make it easy to overwhelm opponents with moves that could come from anywhere and set up an easy guard crush situation that will leave large openings in the opponent's defense. However, new players should be aware that there are gimmicks in Soulcalibur that can work against multi-hit combos such as deflects and super armor.
3 Astaroth
Astaroth is a reasonably easy character to learn and plays well with a strong set of powerful special moves that make opponents think twice before moving in aggressively. Astaroth is a very large character, and with this comes a moveset with long-range and a series of grapple abilities that decimate opponent health bars.
Most of Astaroth’s moves are slow to start and easy to see coming, especially his grapple abilities. However, the character does have a shortlist of abilities to even out the pressure when faced with faster characters such as Kilik or Talim.
2 Xingqhua
Xingqhua is a relatively new character to the roster of Soulcalibur; she utilizes close proximity combos with an extensive moveset. Xingqua’s normals are very fast but lack range for odd hitboxes for characters. She excels in fighting as close to her opponent as she can, throwing fast strikes and feints while having several stance-switching abilities.
Additionally, she excels at keeping her opponent off guard of punishing opportunities. Xingqhua has a lot of potential and does not take severe practice to do well when utilizing her, which makes her very suitable for new characters.
1 Groh
Groh is also a new edition to the Soulcalibur franchise, first appearing in the fifth installment of the game. Groh is a very solid mid-range fighter with higher speed than most other characters on the roster. Groh has a bit of a learning curve and does not have such extended combos as Seigfried or Killik but does excel in controlling the pace of fights as well as spacing.
While Groh has speed on his side, he does not do well with punishing or guard breaking. In addition, Groh’s recovery after a missed move can be detrimental to his survivability, and players should be very cautious with the moves they choose to use and when.
Soulcalibur 6 is currently available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.