Ok, so now that everyone has watched the video, I have a couple words to say about the inclusion of Star Wars characters in Soul Calibur IV, but first I have a couple caveats: if Vader and Yoda have the same size hitbox (which I doubt) and the exact same moves, or if there is an arcade version which has neither of them or both are eventually playable on both systems, then disregard this entire post. However, if not, then well fuck Namco.

Exclusive characters completely mess up the balance of fighting games. Most of the time they are shoehorned in after the main game's design has been completed, so they are not factored into the selection of characters and thus either end up way too strong (ie. gamebreakingly broken) or way too weak. Sometimes they even cause glitches in the system if they were designed too late in the process. But let's assume for the moment that's not the truth, and that there are no inherent problems in the two characters' designs.

The other problem is that there will be two versions of the game, leaving tournament organizers completely screwed when it comes to which version of the game to run. Half the players will have Yoda and the other half will have Vader, and there will undoubtedly be people who will use those characters as the main character they play. In fact, I would almost assume that some people will pick up a competitive interest in SC IV because of those characters. So what we'll have is a divided scene, which given the relatively small size of the fighting game community in America will only create smaller tournaments, or half the players will be forced to switch, possibly rendering the version of the game they have no help in figuring out matchups.

SC II and the previous Guilty Gear games—hell, even Tekken 5:DR—did it right: make an arcade version of the game without special characters, then add them in the home versions. That way, casual players will be able to play the cool new console-only guys, like Link, Heihachi and Spawn (also Necron), but they will be banned in official tournaments which are run using the arcade rules. If no arcade version exists, there is no standard with which to judge new characters.

Now, I may be getting way ahead of myself, as an arcade version could come later (like with SC III), but it's still a bit frustrating to say the least.