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).

Although the games are usually credited to Namco itself, the team established its name to draw attention to the group's combined accomplishments.

[3] The series has been dormant after development support for Soulcalibur VI ended and its producer, Motohiro Okubo, departed Bandai Namco.

This is the first game in the Soulcalibur series to feature characters from non-Namco media, such as Link from Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda, playable on the GameCube.

Soulcalibur IV introduces new gameplay mechanics into the series in the form of damage-absorbing armor (that can be shattered) and Critical Finishes (both tied to the new Soul Gauge).

[11] It is a strictly single-player game based on Soulcalibur V in which the goal is for the player to collect loot, including raw materials and weapons, through battles in the new Quest Mode.

[15][16][17] Released on May 8, 2014, Unbreakable Soul is a card-based fighting game where players can pick different attack cards to strike enemies.

In the fifth game, Guard Impacts were slightly altered by giving the Parry maneuver the new property of slamming opponents to the ground rather than just easing their weapon off course.

While things seemed to go normal afterwards, Zasalamel had returned to try and free both swords, intending to use their power to break his cycle of reincarnation induced by Soul Calibur.

Seventeen years later, however, Soul Edge had reformed itself, as did Nightmare, who had possessed a swordsman and became the king of Hungary under the alias "Graf Dumas".

Though successful in advising her to attack and kill the people who had ostracized her, Tira was confronted by Pyrrha's long-lost brother, Patroklos Alexander, formerly a warrior under Graf Dumas, who had made his life's goal to find his sister and avenge his mother's murder.

Patroklos was named as Soul Calibur's new wielder afterwards by Siegfried and also purified the holy sword through the help of several Asian warriors, before going on an all-out battle in Europe.

However, Patroklos was trapped subconsciously to fight Soul Calibur's spirit, Elysium, the one who had guided him all this time, as she was angry at him for sparing his malfested sister.

Zasalamel received a warning from his future counterpart of the mistakes that he would make, and decided to be a leader for mankind instead of seeking for a permanent death.

Cassandra Alexandra, younger sister of the holy warrior Sophitia, was given a warning by her original timeline counterpart, who had been stuck inside the Astral Chaos and became malfested.

The warning was about Sophitia's death and Pyrrha's malfestation in the future, and the new Cassandra set off to prevent the tragic fate of her family.

A Malfested (referred to as Evils (イヴィル, Ivuiru) in the Japanese version and Outsiders (異分子, Ibunshi) by the Aval Organization is a being corrupted by the power of Soul Edge be it by the sword itself or shards of it if it's in pieces.

Berserkers(バーサーカー) are names given to various warriors who have been driven mad with blood lust due to exposure from Soul Edge and care for nothing else other than to cause as much death and destruction as inhumanly possible.

The traits gained by the victims are possibly based on their personality and physique, as Tira may have stopped aging due to being part of a clan that valued survival above all else.

Male Malfested often display physical transformations while females generally don't, though exceptions like Pyrrha Ω, and Maki exist.

These downsides add a layer of tragedy to the characters affected: Breaking the curse of malfestation is a complex and often tragic process.

The exact method can vary depending on the game's storyline and the character(s) involved: Soul Calibur plays a crucial role in counteracting the curse.

As the game is set in the late 16th century, many real-life events happening during the timeline often influence the story, one example being Oda Nobunaga as the initiator for Yoshimitsu's journey to find Soul Edge.

Guest characters who have appeared in the series include Heihachi Mishima, Devil Jin, King, Ling Xiaoyu, Asuka Kazama, and Jun Kazama from Tekken (the latter five as attires for custom characters), Link from The Legend of Zelda, Spawn from Spawn, Lloyd Irving from Tales of Symphonia, KOS-MOS from Xenosaga (as an attire for custom characters), Darth Vader, Yoda, and The Apprentice from Star Wars, Kratos from God of War, Ezio Auditore da Firenze from Assassin's Creed, Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher, 2B from NieR: Automata and Haohmaru from Samurai Shodown.

translation: Spirit Holy Sword) was released in 1998 that retold the events of the first game but with Hwang as the central character in a setting with Sci-Fi elements.

A two-volume novelization was written by Tobita Mandom (supervised by Project Soul), illustrated by JUNNY, and published by Shueisha in Japan in 2012.

The film was to be directed by Hung and would be produced by Alan Noel Vega, Michael Cerenzie, Sam Kute and Joseph Jones.

According to a statement posted on his website, the film budget would need to be $50 million, locations were to include Eastern Europe and China, and the special effects would be done by Rhythm and Hues Studios because of their relationship with Namco.

[21] In 2004, Warren Zide's Sony-owned Anthem Pictures acquired the rights to adapt the game to film, which would be produced by Matthew Rhodes and Noel Vega and released in 2007.

The game's story is based on, and uses assets such as music, graphics, and models from Soulcalibur V along with the some of its more notable characters across various in-game modes.