Soul Fighter Date and Details

We recently sat down with Piggyback Entertainment to check out the latest version of Soul Fighter for the Dreamcast in action. The game is coming along nicely, and according to producer Louie Beatty, there are only a few more levels, enemies, and effects still left to be put in place. We played through a good portion of the game's stages - some essentially completed and others currently without enemies. All of them were looking quite good and are very different from each other. For example, in one stage you'll be required to explore dungeons, and in another you'll battle enemies near the shore at sunset.

We also got to play with some of the new characters, Orion and Yaomi. Orion is the wizard character we spoke of earlier. He uses magic to defeat his enemies (but unfortunately in the version we played the magic effects weren't in place yet). And Yaomi is a female character who battles enemies with knives.

One feature we should mention is the game's intro song - a J-pop tune. It sounds very Japanese, and it truly makes it feel as though this title is directed toward a Japanese audience.

Speaking of the Japanese audience, we asked Piggyback about the status of the game's arcade version, which is to be released in Japan. If you'll remember, we hinted previously that the game could end up on the Naomi hardware in Japan. We've now heard that it's very likely.

As for Soul Fighter's US release, Piggyback is planning to have the game ready by mid-October. The company is currently working with a US publisher, whose name we will reveal shortly. For new screens and video of the version we played, check out our updated preview by clicking on the link to the right.