I’m not one of the people who bitch every time Hwang Seong-Gyeong doesn’t show up in a Soul Calibur game, although I did play with him quite a lot in Soul Edge. Back then he was mostly a Mitsurugi clone with a few moves borrowed from Mi-Na, and he basically only had a few cool throws and a nice design to show for himself. In fact, Hwang was originally there to replace Mitsurugi entirely since samurai were banned in Korea, and he was only available in the original non-Korean arcade game as a secret character. When the time came for Soul Calibur, he was relegated to a time release character, although the first to be released, and his design was already quite a bit plainer. This time he used Xianghua’s moves. So it wasn’t too surprising when he was replaced entirely by Hong Yun-Seong in Soul Calibur 2.

Seeing this art, I’m actually a bit sad for him. He looks great in the drawn artwork and the render shows a tender side. With him gone Mi-Na also lost a lot of her original charm since she had to grow up and babysit Yun-Seong. I wouldn’t mind seeing him back. At the point of Soul Calibur 5 it wouldn’t be strange for Seong Han-Myeong to be dead, and Hwang would be the obvious replacement as the older, wiser master. And maybe with a new student since Hong hopefully grew up at some point. But alas – the producer confirmed that Hwang wouldn’t be in the game. I assume that means as a playable character but I really don’t see where they’re going to take the entire Korean thing from here.