Inspiration from Another Game?

[Shadsie]

You may have all heard this one before. I don't know.

Anyway, I was playing Soul Calibur II tonight, the GameCube version, which, as we all know, includes :) .

Link's design and profile history were based on Ocarina of Time. His scenario for being in the Soul Calibur world was that a wizard had taken over in Hyrule and had spread disasters and ominous dark clouds over the land. Link defeated the wizard to bring back the sun. Upon learning that the wizard was being controlled by a fragment of Soul Edge (evil sword) from another world, he bid Zelda farewell and went off into that other world to hunt for it with the goal of destroying it.

It's a pretty generic scenario, and Soul Calibur II is NOT canon for LoZ. Still, since SC II was made before Twilight Princess, I had to wonder if their little "clouds of darkness blotting out the sun over Hyrule" was a bit of inspiration to Nintendo. It reminds me, superficially, of the "clouds of Twilight."

So, what do you think?

If I'm being stupid, please be easy on me... I'm going through a hard time right now and would rather just delete this if people think this is a stupid thread than deal with people calling me stupid for it.

[Megamannt125]

Twilight Princess took inspiration from both A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, two of Aonuma's favorite games, the first one he played, and the first one he worked on. So in saying that, I don't think it took inspiration from Soul Caliber, but that is however a possibility, just an unlikely one.

[Shadsie]

I wasn't thinking full inspiration. The ALTTP and OoT inspirations are obvious... I was just talking about a mild inspiration from that minor plot-point. Just the "dark clouds blotting out the sun" thing.

[basement24]

I think it's a generic enough fantasy idea that they probably didn't get the concept from Soul Calibur. Even if they were to click that this was once somewhat discussed, I imagine Nintendo might have even had to provide the details about Link to the company so the character was handled right. They would have, of course, had all final approvals, but they may have even written the bio themselves.

Also, the version with Link came out in 2003, and if TP was to have an original release of 2005 (mainly pushed back to coincide with the Wii really), then the main TP story would have been locked in place already. I know the SC development would have been earlier than 2003's release, but to add one character in with a bio could take a couple months at best. He didn't have to be in there from the beginning of the development cycle. In fact, all console specific characters were most likely added as an after through when porting the game to consoles.

So, it could be that Nintendo didn't get inspiration from Soul Calibur, but actually gave a bit of a nugget of info on the next title out in SC instead as the inclusion of Link to SC and the development of the TP story probably happened at the same time.

[Shadsie]

I think it's a generic enough fantasy idea that they probably didn't get the concept from Soul Calibur. Even if they were to click that this was once somewhat discussed, I imagine Nintendo might have even had to provide the details about Link to the company so the character was handled right. They would have, of course, had all final approvals, but they may have even written the bio themselves.

Also, the version with Link came out in 2003, and if TP was to have an original release of 2005 (mainly pushed back to coincide with the Wii really), then the main TP story would have been locked in place already. I know the SC development would have been earlier than 2003's release, but to add one character in with a bio could take a couple months at best. He didn't have to be in there from the beginning of the development cycle. In fact, all console specific characters were most likely added as an after through when porting the game to consoles.

So, it could be that Nintendo didn't get inspiration from Soul Calibur, but actually gave a bit of a nugget of info on the next title out in SC instead as the inclusion of Link to SC and the development of the TP story probably happened at the same time.

That sounds likely, and very cool! Thanks.

Post limit, post limt... argh. There?

[Gohma]

"Controlled by a fragment of the sword"

Sounds familiar to me... Fused Shadows.. maybe? =D

[Shadsie]

"Controlled by a fragment of the sword"

Sounds familiar to me... Fused Shadows.. maybe? =D

That's actually kind of a standard part of the Soul Calibur series as far as I know, independant of Link and Nintendo entirely. I've only plaed SCII on the Cube, myself... But there's this whole thing about fragments of the evil sword, Soul Edge and people trying to find Soul Edge for their own purposes - to gain power/the ultimate weapon, or to destroy/seal the evil. For example, there's an evil undead pirate character who kills people for souls to fuel the part/version of Soul Edge that he's got in his quest to obtain the whole thing... There's another character who's a young wind priestess who's after it to destroy it because a traveler brought a fragment of it to her village and it made her people sick..stuff like that. I actually find the "plot" of the game rather confusing and just like the fights - since it is a fighting game. You can probably find people better versed in SC's plot. I don't think it has much, if anything to do with the Twilight Mirror fragments or Fused Shadows, - it's just that "shadows blotting out the sun" thing that peaked my curiosity.

[Axle the Beast]

Well, it's definitely an interesting similarity. I'm not sure whether or not Nintendo drew inspiration from this, as they could have done the same from other sources, but it's still pretty intriguing.

The one aspect that stands out the most is definitely the dark cloud and returning light stuff. Definitely sounds similar to Twilight Princess.

Good observation, Shadsie! ^^