Stand by Sidekicks... The game announcement I have been waiting ages for has arrived! Soulcalibur V is on its way! Time to brush up on the exquisite art of the samurai sword!

The premiere fighting game, the Soulcalibur series launched with Soul Blade (or Soul Edge in other territories) waaaaay back on the original PlayStation in 1996. The title's unique selling point was the weapons used by the characters to beat the shinola out of each other - made a change from getting bloodied knuckles!

Details are very thin on the ground but, in famous Sidekick fashion, here's a round-up... And the teaser trailer!

Follow up:

A Tale of Souls and Swords, eternally retold...

Announced at Namco Bandai's Level-Up conference this year, Soulcalibur V will be with us at some point in 2012. More details should arrive at E3 but for now we've got a few details and teasers from the developers, mainly producer Hisaharu Tago...

Set 17 years after Soulcalibur IV, the main character will be Patroklos, series stalwart Sophitia's son. Patroklos's move-set is "inspired" by the gameplay of Sophitia, but is apparently "sharper" and "more agile".

The story takes the Siegried ending of SCIV and builds upon it. To remind yourself of what happened to everyone's favourite German knight at the end of SCIV, take a look at this.

Seigfried, now 39 years old, no longer wields the Soul Calibur sword and SCV's Soul Calibur will be a short sword rather than a two-handed monster weapon. The story will apparently address "the enigma as to why the swords have become short swords", according to producer Hisaharu Tago. He continued that "Soulcalibur 1-4 was a continuous story... We want to make a generational shift with a new story this time."

The game's new fighting style is described as "lighter, sharper, and more elegant". Specifically, producer Tago stated that "Gameplay in IV could be a little heavy, particularly when you were online – we wanted gameplay that was more fast and reactive." So it seems that the online mode will be improved with new features.

Discussing the gameplay further, Tago addressed the Soulcalibur faithful. "Maybe the hardcore fans will be afraid that we lose the core of the gameplay, but that's not the case. And for new players it's nice to have gameplay that is more continuous – you don't need to wait as much between moves... There is quite some change in the gameplay from SCIV. The pace of the game has been improved, and the combos will be easier to perform, and the moves will be easier to pull out."

The official line also indicated that the "series revolutionary 8-way run, allowing for true 3D movement during matches," would return along with a "refined battle system."

Finally, for the confirmations at least, guest characters and the "Create a Character" will return although there are no details for either at the time of writing.

The rest of it begins to slip into conjecture, with apparent hints that we may one day see a modern day setting for the series, which is currently set a some point in the 16th century. In addition, and following on from the newly announced Tekken: Blood Vengeance animated movie, there could be a chance we'll see a full-length Soul Calibur anime... Fingers crossed!

So, we've had the blurb and now it's time for the tease... Popcorn at the ready!

So what did we see?

Didn't we see the Siegfried ending from SCIV above, right up until the bit where he cuts Nightmare's head off? But then, instead of that, we see the Soul Calibur shatter, a glimpse of Sophitia (or perhaps her daughter, Pyrrha) in the shards and then Patroklos in the eye of Soul Edge? That's what I saw anyways...

What I also saw was the return of my number one fighting game and a day 1 purchase for me! I like to think that I am (or at least was - I've not played for ages) fairly handy on SCII and SCIV. My favourite character, Mitsurughi, is bound to return as he has featured in every title up until now and so I am already looking forward to that.

I did try, belatedly and perhaps somewhat half-heartedly, to make a name for myself on the SCIV tournament scene. I managed to come 2nd in an XLeague tournament just before the site pretty much shut down and then after that I couldn't find any tournaments that I could easily get to or didn't have some other excuse not to go to... My plan had been to address this issue with SCV and now it looks as if I'll have the chance to make my bones. Or just be referred to this blog and laughed at...

We shall see, but the only way you'll see is to, as is always the case, keep it on Sidekickcast!