SoulCalibur VI ’s second trailer dropped today, offering players a glimpse at the 20-year-old fighting game’s upcoming roster. One constant throughout SoulCalibur ’s shifting cast of fighters is the cursed villain Nightmare, whose new design was revealed today.
Nightmare is the antagonist of the series and the living avatar of the evil sword Soul Edge. When I was a little gaming baby playing SoulCalibur II , Nightmare’s demonesque appearance and weird sentient sword freaked me out. It has a moving eyeball on it! Over a decade later, developer Project Soul has iterated on and experimented with his design, culminating in today’s so-called “Azure Knight.”
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Let’s take a look through all the Nightmares of yore leading up to today’s:
In the first SoulCalibur, released in 1998 for arcades and 1999 for the Dreamcast, Nightmare’s design focused on three things: His claw of a right arm, the Soul Edge blade, and the horned helmet. His armor was plain and broken up by small bits of chainmail. That armor’s design isn’t very interesting, but it didn’t have to be: his torso-sized claw and gory sword said what it needed to say. Source: SoulCalibur Wiki . Nightmare’s signature look appeared in SoulCalibur II . His spiked deep purple armor and gold detail gave him a more royal and boss-like look than his previous incarnation. His long red hair trails behind him, which works well with his helmet’s winged attachments (his helmet horn is gone here). Not pictured are the festering bits of flesh, including his claw arm, that Nightmare’s armor doesn’t cover. Designers went all out on the Soul Edge, too. With pulsating flesh, nerves, and a bloodshot eye, this design messed me up when I was a kid. Credit: TheInnocentSinful SoulCalibur III was when Nightmare got extra. He’s sporting both the helmet fin and the horn. His claw arm has evolved into a half-formed demon with a mouth and also horns. There’s another demon mouth on his armor’s breastplate. And he’s got gold detailing everywhere. Credit: The Owen SoulCalibur IV ’s Nightmare has so much going on that it’s hard to grok even one aspect of his design. The most notable change, obviously, is that he’s severed in half by a toothed mouth. Nightmare here has lost almost every remnant of his humanity. He doesn’t have a demon growing out of his shoulder anymore, but he does have daggers surrounding his waist. Credit: Andi Crimson Advertisement You can skip ad after 1 second
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Project Soul reeled in Nightmare for SoulCalibur V . Here, he’s back to his SoulCalibur II look: Long red hair, a whole suit of armor, and no demon appendages. He looks very Dark Souls here. Credit: Onirockman . Revealed today, SoulCalibur VI ’s Nightmare goes all in on the gold detailing. His armor looks way more refined than in previous incarnations. Here, he looks more like a dark knight than a possessed suit of armor. Project Soul sacrificed grit for glitz in this design—he’s way less scarier than he’s ever been. Credit: Bandai Namco.