Soul Calibur II to hit arcades this July

Namco has confirmed that Soul Calibur II will hit arcades as early as July 5 worldwide. The game will feature several modes--arcade, time attack, training, survival, and conquest. The conquest mode is a time-based release and is expected to appear a month after the game arrives in arcades. In it, players will first enter their user name and password, then select a character, and pick one of four factions. Players will then engage in eight consecutive battles against opposing factions, and their performance will affect their faction's territories and improve their character's skills. Unfortunately, characters will only be saved onto the arcade cabinet players initially register on, so they will be forced to play the conquest mode on a regular basis or face the possibility of having their character deleted.

Though the release of the arcade version is just around the corner, the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube versions of Soul Calibur II are expected for release early next year in Japan.