Soulcalibur II on Sega Dreamcast: Who Would the Exclusive Character Have Been?

One of my earliest memories as a Dreamcast owner was playing Soulcalibur and frankly being amazed at how it looked and played. I had never even heard of the "Soul" series before, let alone seen the arcade game it was based on. My purchase had been entirely fuelled by magazine reviews in all their static glory, so finally seeing it running was one of those special moments of awe you'd get as a gamer during that era.

Despite not being a Sega game, it is a title that is culturally linked to the Dreamcast by many. Yet by the time the sequel hit in 2002, the Dreamcast had sadly stepped out the ring (RING OUT!), leaving the follow-up to find its new home split between the Xbox (Dreamcast 2) the GameCube (the other Dreamcast 2) and the PlayStation 2 (Dreamcast stand). 

Each edition came with an additional fighter exclusive to that console. For the GameCube it was Link from the Legend of Zelda series, Xbox had Spawn, and the PS2 had Heihachi Mishima, who is apparently from Tekken (who I had to look up for this article as I honestly had no memory of the PS2 special guest).

The point of this whole preamble is actually to set me up to share a question that I've long pondered...

"If the Dreamcast had actually received Soulcalibur II, which character would have been the console-exclusive fighter?" 

In an alternative timeline where the Dreamcast had powered through and continued to succeed where we saw it fail, it would've ultimately received Soulcalibur 2 and other Soulcalibur sequels on follow-up Sega consoles. Also in that universe, there is a fan blog of PS2 fans moaning that if only people had been more into DVDs as a concept, the PS2 could have succeeded and Sony would still be making consoles today, rather than eventually being acquired by Philips Electronics...

Anyway, let's get to looking and speculating at the Dreamcast-exclusive characters that we might have had a chance to play as. 

Obvious characters tier

Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue

Given that Shenmue was based on Virtua Fighter tech and design principles, it's perfectly conceivable that Namco would've just did the obvious and slotted Ryo straight into the game. The only problem is that Soulcalibur is a weapon-based fighting game and Shenmue is more about advanced fisticuffs, but Ryo does find a sword guard in the first Shenmue, so maybe he could've just pivoted to using a sword? Failing that, he could even just have used one of the forks from the front of his forklift if needed, or the handle bars from a Hang-On arcade machine. To be fair, the PS2-exclusive Heihachi was weaponless in that version of Soulcalibur 2, although this does seem at odds with the rest of the roster to me.

Every bout could have ended with "I won't let you down, Father" or some other stoic phrase about loss and regret, or maybe a "Maybe I'll have some more fun?" This would've opened the way for having Lan Di potentially as a boss too, similar to what they would later do with Yoda, Darth Vader and Starkiller in Soulcalibur 4.

The Hunt for the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox versions of the Sega Dreamcast

Over the years, fans of the Sega Dreamcast have had the opportunity to see many interesting and artistic case mods, but some of the oldest to make a splash in the Dreamcast scene were the ones you see below; case mods designed to look like the Dreamcast's sixth generation competitors: Microsoft's Xbox, Nintendo's GameCube and Sony's PlayStation 2.

Cool designs? Or heresy against the Dreamcast? These case mods have had many fans and detractors over the years.

Long-time fans may dimly recall seeing pictures of these customised Dreamcasts making the rounds on Dreamcast forums and fan websites as early as 2002. The pictures have continued to show up over the last 20 years on various forums, fan sites and social media pages across the internet (including a 2006 post on this very blog), although genuine information about their origin has tended to be scarce. Given their relatively polished-looking designs and their appearance around the time of the Dreamcast’s commercial death, theories and rumors have spread that a Japanese gaming magazine or even Sega themselves may have commissioned them to use in conjunction with a story or announcement about Sega’s decision to create games for third party systems. Some critics have even gone as far as to argue that the images were mere Photoshop creations and never even truly existed.

After being reminded of these designs through a chance encounter with a fan who had found the GameCube design for sale on an online marketplace, I set off on the complex mission of discovering the truth about these mysterious custom Dreamcasts. I searched my own memory, trawled through defunct websites of yesteryear on the Internet Archive, and even managed to track down and discuss the case mods with the original Japanese creator. After all of this, I can finally provide the authentic story of these early and unusual custom designs.

The Creator

Enter G-Cube – the name of a group of Japanese model kit builders. In the early 2000s, G-Cube was a group of three people who would get together and use their extensive modeling, graphic design and painting skills to cosmetically enhance existing model kits, toys and other items. 

One of many logos used by G-Cube

Their projects involved assembling things such as retail model kits with highly detailed custom paint jobs, some of which would also have significant modifications, including custom fabricated parts, to make finished products that were substantially different from their original design. The group’s work often included designs for mecha, figures, spaceships, and other vehicles from anime and video games. Over the years, G-Cube’s creations would be profiled in Japanese hobby magazines, and the group would even display their work at public exhibitions and festivals. The group would also take commissions from customers, and to this day, G-Cube puts recent creations up for sale on Yahoo! Auctions Japan from time to time.

Various older works by G-Cube

I was fortunate enough to find contact information for a Mr. Fuminori of G-Cube, who as luck would have it, was the designer behind all three of the Dreamcast case mods shown above. The following is a summary of information about each of the case mods...