If you’re a fan of the SoulCalibur series, then you’ll know that there are a huge variety of characters of all shapes and sizes. And while some may be evil and make demons blush with how violent they can be, while others are pure hearts of gold, today is not a day to be talking about the sizes of the personalities of SoulCalibur‘s female cast.
This little artifact comes out of the development team of Project Soul and Namco, creators of the beloved SoulCalibur franchise. Listing all the relevant data in Japanese, we are treated to the exact sizing of the entire female cast’s bosoms. Everything is drawn at a side angle, to make sure all can be appropriately seen, all the way from the youthful Amy on the small end, to the well-endowed Ivy on the larger end of the spectrum, along with everyone in between. For the record, Ivy wears an E-G cup if you were hoping to buy her any belated Valentine’s Day gifts.
While it may be easy for some to start hollering about representation of women, it should be noted that for artists and creative teams, a document like this one uncovered from the SoulCalibur devs is incredibly valuable. While it may seem silly, the task of 3D modeling a wide variety of characters is no easy task, especially those who are as diverse and detailed as those that appear throughout the Soulcalibur franchise. The alternative is to have every single character have the exact same 3D model in the same sense as a Call of Duty or Battlefield game. When a game relies very heavily on the visual appeal to sell their content – especially one in the fighting genre, where eyes are focused on the characters at all times – it’s critical for those modelling the characters and the artists who are designing them to be able to know the exact physiological anatomy of each and every character.
That being said, SoulCalibur as well as its peers in the fighting genre have a notorious history with their extremely well endowed female characters. While some games like Super Smash Bros. are able to bypass this issue, Dead or Alive‘s franchise is consistently making headlines for the characters’ revealing outfits, most notably their bathing suits. Heck, Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball is essentially the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition of the gaming world, strictly showing off their female cast in all their boobie bouncing glory, featuring the skimpiest of tops and bottoms to choose from, as well as a specified physics engine to handle the bouncing of breasts. Yep, that’s a thing.
The Dead or Alive series is the bad contender, however, as the majority of their cast has enough DD bra-sizes to keep a chiropractor booked for years to come. To contrast, this picture from the SoulCalibur devs is honestly quite tame, with quite a huge variety of female figures, at least in the breast department. We’ll probably have to wait a little longer (read: a lot longer) for any plus-sized women. Then again, this picture also doesn’t list SoulCalibur‘s Elysium, who would give all the other ladies including Ivy a run for their back support’s money. Although we can also see how much Sophitia’s character design has changed over the years as well, and surprisingly, things began very humbly before she had a… ahem, growth spurt. Either way, the endless discussion of female bodies being realistically represented in video games will only continue to be fiercely debated.
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