November 25th is a major day for Soulcalibur VI fans: My girl Hilde comes to the game! Not only that, season 2 begins as patch 2.00 drops for Soulcalibur VI, so I guess we should probably talk about the patch too.

Personally, I’m way more excited for Hilde, as she is one of my all-time favorite characters. The update itself is filled with balance improvements for characters and new moves. The new moves will offer some incredible new combo possibilities.

Unlike MOBAs, fighting game patches tend to be few and far between. This is a new season update, so it changes every single character in the game. So, I’m going to focus on the big mechanical updates which ought to be fun for players. For the full patch, you can find it in their pdf here.

Soulcalibur VI Patch 2.00 New Mechanic: Soul Attack

Soul Attack is one of the two new features added to Soulcalibur VI in Patch 2.00. These special attacks will put players into a Soul Charged state while attacking. The Soul Charge will create a shockwave to knock opponents back, so it’s hard to follow up.

The idea behind it was to use Soul Attack to deal with powered-up attacks. These Soul Attacks are a great way to use Soul Charged moves while also staying on the offense. They aren’t cheap though – they cost a full Soul Gauge bar.

They can be done by all characters, by using:

Not all Soul Attacks will be the same. Some will allow for follow-ups, and some might offer special stances for extra, awesome attacks. However, Soul Attacks don’t grant immediate invincibility (unlike Soul Charge). This is not a defensive option, but an aggressive one. Soul Attacks, generally speaking, can’t be done in a Soul Charged state. Some characters can still do this though.

When I play Soulcalibur, I tend to play hyper-aggressive, so this might really help me find new ways to aggress on my foes as Raphael (and Hilde).

New Mechanic: Resistance Impact

Tired of dealing with Unblockable Attacks and Break Attacks in your matches? Soulcalibur Patch 2.00 has you covered with a costly, but useful way to deal with them: Resist Impact!

All characters can perform it for the cost of half a Soul Gauge and the following input:

Unlike a normal Guard Impact, Resist Impact doesn’t cost your Guard Stamina. What’s more, successfully using Resist Impact restores a great deal of guard stamina. This ought to be used before being Guard Crushed so you aren’t vulnerable to your opponent’s hardest-hitting moves.

Another fun fact about Resist Impact, while in a Soul Charged state, it doesn’t cost any Soul Gauge! It will however slightly decrease your Soul Charge time, like all Soul Charged moves. It’s also key to know that successfully repelling an attack will not increase your Soul Gauge.

Resist Impact looks pretty easy to do on paper, but I imagine you’ll have to really be aware of what each character can do and when. Timing it sounds similar to me as Street Fighter III’s parry system. That tells me already I’m going to be very bad at it!

Mechanics Changed in Soulcalibur VI Patch 2.00

Several mechanics were changed in this update too, such as Reversal Edge, Grapple Breaks, and Vulnerability During a Step. There was a wealth of changes to various in-game behaviors too, such as Jump Attacks, Wall Hits, Midair Hit Behavior, and Attacks that Count the Number of Hits.

To me it sounds like the whole of the game has shaken up in pretty serious ways.

Reversal Edge:

Until now, certain conditions would shift players to using a Reversal Edge clash on hit and guard. These were:

• Holding the attack button for the maximum duration
• Immediately after successfully parrying the opponent’s attack.

This would only shift upon hit though. You won’t be shifting to a clash upon guard anymore, it will increase your soul gauge a great deal. The amount increased has also been boosted when attacks lands on an opponent that cannot shift (a jumping or downed opponent, for example).

To replace the clashes triggering on a guard, Season 2 allows for Reversal Edges to guard crush instead. When guarded, Reversal Edges now deal chip damage. As an aggressive player, I’m so glad to see more options for guard crushing.

Grapple Breaks:

Two changes were offered up for potential tactical options after a grapple break:

• The soul gauge increases for the attacker even if the opponent performs a grapple break.
• You still receive some damage when successfully performing a grapple break.

It’s also worth noting that this damage will never cause a K.O. You can’t knock someone out from a grapple break, but you can follow up.

The following abilities do not see these grapple breaks changed:

• Seong Mi-na’s “Opening Treasure” and “Holding Treasure”
• Kilik’s “Trick Bo” and “Dirty Bo”
• The second attack of Sophitia’s “Heaven to Hell”
• The second attack t Talim’s “Monsoon Season”
• Cassandra’s “Cyclops Hammer” and “Cyclops Drop”
• Yoshimitsu’s “Soul Siphon” and “Soul Possession”

So can those moves still K.O. players regardless? Sounds like even if your opponent guard breaks you for most characters, you can potentially follow up with an awesome charged attack. This lets you continue pushing your opponent around.

Vulnerability During a Step:

Players who take a step backward or to the side are temporarily placed in a vulnerable state where you can’t guard. But now you will remain vulnerable, even if you change direction to move forward.

You’ll be able to guard again after a fixed amount of time has passed; this was not revealed though. Changing direction to take a step forward still cannot be run countered. I feel like it needs to be risky to side-step and backstep, so this is a neat idea. I just want to know how much time you’ll have before you can block again.

Final Thoughts

I’ll keep this brief: I. Love. Season 2. This is going to be absolutely wild! Characters have new abilities and a mountain of balance adjustments. One thing to point out: Not a single character was safe. Everyone saw adjustments! There were no characters that got buffed that did not escape with at least a slight nerf. I cannot wait to dig out my Soulcalibur VI disc and start experimenting again.