Soul Calibur (Game)

Soulcalibur (ソウルキャリバー, Sōrukyaribā) is a weapon-based fighting game franchise developed by Bandai Namco Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. There are a total of seven main installments and various media spin-offs, including music albums and a series of manga books in the Soulcalibur series. The first game in the series, Soul Edge (or Soul Blade outside Japan), was released as an arcade game in 1995 and was later ported to consoles; the widespread success of its second main installment Soulcalibur in 1998 led to Soulcalibur becoming the name of the franchise, with all subsequent installments also using the name onwards. More recent games in the series have been released for consoles only and have evolved to include online playing modes. The central motif of the series, set in a historical fantasy version of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, are mythical swords, the evil weapon called "Soul Edge" and the subsequent sword used to oppose this evil, "Soul Calibur" (parsed as two words, while the series' title is written as a single word). While it has developed during its various iterations, some of the characters and gameplay elements have remained consistent throughout the series. Project Soul is the internal Namco development group responsible for the Soulcalibur franchise after the release of Soulcalibur II. Although the games are usually credited to Namco itself, the team established its name to draw attention to the group's combined accomplishments. The series has been dormant after development support for Soulcalibur VI ended and its producer, Motohiro Okubo, departed Bandai Namco.