After the long and overdue and successful release of Tekken 7 from Namco-Bandai, fans are definitely ready for a sequel to the fantastic Soulcalibur series too. Although Soulcalibur V was a bit of a disappointment for fans in terms of its story modes it still retained many of the solid mechanics that fans have come to love about the series since the release of the original Soul Blade on the PlayStation in 1996.

Long before the Mortal Kombat and the Injustice series popularized a deep single player experience within a fighting series, the Soul fighting series perfected it nearly twenty years ago. With the sudden reemergence of fighting games hitting the shelves, it would be the perfect time for Namco-Bandai to announce Soulcalibur VI sooner rather than later, especially considering how much they're pushing for Tekken 7 to be one of the top fighting games international tournaments.

All great fighting games need great characters, but even the great ones can be considered overpowered and worse still some can be outright terrible. Here's a list of 8 characters who suck and 7 characters who as good as they are, are overpowered.

15 Weakest: Danpierre

Dampierre has made appearances in Soulcalibur V and Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny. He was Namco’s attempt at a funny tongue-in-cheek and lighthearted character, whose design looks and sounds like it was based on the character Professor Fate from the 1965 film The Great Race. Unfortunately, he’s ended up one of the least popular characters in the entire series.

It’s not just because he’s a silly and comedic character that makes him one of the lowest rated characters with a fighting style that focuses primarily on deception and pretending to be hurt to land surprise attacks. As a result, Dampierre is predictable rather than surprising and due to the nature of his weapons he has the shortest range and low attack damage.

14 Powerful: Maxi

Maxi made his first appearance in Soulcalibur replacing Li Long as the nunchaku wielder for the remainder of the series by appearing in Soulcalibur II, Soulcalibur III, Soulcalibur IV, Soulcalibur V, and all of the Soul spinoffs.

Maxi’s style resembles that of Bruce Lee through the use of Jeet Kun Do, as well as his high-pitched attack cries in battle. He’s an easy character to pick up and play with, as even inexperienced players are capable of stringing together devastating combos and moves which can knock opponents to the ground. Maxi’s biggest weakness is he can ring himself out through his combinations. To counter this, however, he has several moves that can knock his opponents out of the ring and several throws which he can use to pull opponents away from the arena edges. Maxi is a character that’s capable of being dangerous in a seasoned player's hands (and for button mashers too).

13 Weakest: Leixia

Leixia made her first appearance in Soulcalibur V, cloning and essentially replacing her mother Xianghua in the Ling-Sheng Su Secret Arts of the Sword fighting style. However, there are some significant differences that have been made to Leixia, that actually makes her a much weaker character overall. Xianghua’ Silent Xi Sheng stance from Soulcalibur IV has been dropped, she’s also noticeably slower and has much lower attack damage than her mother too.

Worse still, many of her attacks and mix-ups are easy to telegraph and easily defended either by using guard or quick-stepping, allowing her opponents to deal massive damage very easily. Leixia is definitely one of the low to mid-tiered characters in the series which is frustrating for long time fans of Xianghua’s fighting style.

12 Powerful: Siegfried

Siegfried is considered to be one of the most central characters in throughout the entire Soulcalibur storyline. He appeared in the first in Soul Blade and has been in every installment ever since including the spinoffs and mobile games.

Siegfried is a very dangerous and powerful character to use, and in the right hands, those who can command his move set effectively, can be almost unstoppable in a match. The reason for his effectiveness in combat is down to the fact that once he gathers momentum, he becomes almost unavoidable, due to the amount pressure he can continue to pile on until the end of the match. He has fantastic throws at close range, which can result in many ring out defeats for his opponents. He does have the disadvantage of being quite slow, but that’s never put off players who have used him continuously since the very first game.

11 Weakest: Tira

Tira is a character who made her debut appearance in Soulcalibur III, and his since appeared in Soulcalibur IV, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny and Soulcalibur V. She’s referred to as The Misguided Servant of Death and is totally loyal to the evil sword Soul Edge.

Tira fights with an unusual weapon called the Ring Blade, and it is reminiscent of a bladed hula hoop. She fights with a style that relies on speed, attacking and moving her body through a series of dance moves and acrobatics. Tira has two mood types which affect the way she fights her Jolly (light) side and her Gloomy (destructive) side, which are activated at random. However, it’s these counterintuitive and unpredictable stance changes that leave her open to attack, and worse still the Gloomy stance drains Tira of her health making her one of the worst characters in the entire series.

10 Powerful: Cervantes

The Immortal Pirate Cervantes has appeared in all of the Soul series fighting games, he was the main antagonist of both the original Soul Blade and Soulcalibur Legends and is considered one of the evilest characters in the series – even before he was corrupted by the Soul Edge.

Cervantes always has been one of the most devastating fighters in the entire series and is still considered one of the most powerful top-tier characters in Soulcalibur V. He hits his opponents with mid to close range rush downs and features moves that can knock down and launch another fighter in the air for a heavy damage or an easy ring out victory. His most devastating move is the instant Geo Da Ray which actually deals much more damage than the charged version of the same move which is activated by inputting the commands as fast as possible thus bypassing the charge altogether.

9 Weakest: Raphael

Raphael made his first appearance in Soulcalibur II and returned for Soulcalibur III, Soulcalibur IV, Soulcalibur V, and Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny. He started Soulcalibur II as its protagonist but switched as the game's antagonist throughout the story line.

Raphael uses a fencing style and as a result is capable of hitting fast thrusting and slashing attacks. Although these attacks are his main strength, they can be avoided with relative ease by the use of side-stepping because of his lack of diversity. His kicks, despite being fast, lack any of the dodging features of his thrust moves and leave him wide open for counter attacks. It could be argued that Raphael is best used defensively, but less experienced players would struggle with this approach especially against the likes of Taki or Maxi.

8 Powerful: Taki

Before Natsu arrived in Soulcalibur V, Taki was the fastest and most deceptive character in the series. Prior to Natsu’s arrival, Taki has been featured in every Soulcalibur game since the original Soul Blade/Edge.

Taki’s fighting style and speed allowed her to be able to easily evade and counter attack her opponents in a variety of ways, using moves like somersaulting, rolling, teleporting. Her most powerful attacks and unblockable moves can be combined with tech traps which can deal massive amounts of damage. Taki is unique because she’s very easy to use for new players and experienced players have always put at top tier due to the character's success in tournaments.

7 Weakest: Strife Astlar

Strife Astlar's only appearance was in Soulcalibur III as a bonus character found the game's side quest mode. It’s possible Strife’s look, and his name is derived from both Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII – he even wields a sword that resembles Cloud’s Demon Knife – and the original 1980’s He-Man with that awful bob-haircut. Strife had significant relevance in regard to the storyline, and he was just essentially a weaker and smaller clone of Siegfried who would never be seen again.

Those familiar with Siegfried and Knightmare will be familiar with Strife’s move set but will be frustrated at the complete lack of originality and the pointlessness of the character when you already have stronger originals that for some reason handle and certainly look smoother. With that haircut and lack of any real individuality, it’s no wonder he never made it back.

6 Powerful: Algol

Algol is a character that made his first appearance as a boss and unlockable in Soulcalibur IV and returned for Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny and Soulcalibur V. His character is depicted as being the oldest recorded wielder of the Soul Edge, the creator of the Soul Calibur and the primary antagonist of the entire series.

Algol’s fighting style revolves around using fast and close combat attacks, which are combined with very powerful special combos. He uses purple projectile bubbles with his attacks to juggle and often set his opponents for a further combo or other powerful moves. He has a variety of moves which can keep opponents at long range and can close the distance at ease with his teleportation moves and forward leaps. Algol was considered so overpowered that the use of his character was banned in tournaments for Soulcalibur IV.

5 Weakest: Rock

Rock is a barbarian berserker style character that was featured in Soul Blade/Edge, Soulcalibur, Soulcalibur III, Soulcalibur IV, and Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny. Although the Astaroth character began as a Rock clone, Rock is far less popular than the giant demon.

The biggest issue with Rock is his complete lack of speed. Although it’s usually a given that large powerful characters are slow, Rock’s move set seems to leave him very vulnerable, he has quick short range kick which can be useful as can his charge attacks but over-reliance on these moves make him a very a predictable character. He has strong low and ground attacks, and he completely lacks the ability to perform low vertical attacks. It’s hardly any surprise that the Rock character was dropped completely from Soulcalibur V.

4 Powerful: Natsu

Natsu made her appearance as a character in the series with Soulcalibur V, and as the student of the demon-fighting ninja Taki, she acts as her replacement and successor for the most recent installment. Her name, appearance, and personality are said to be based on the popular anime and manga character Naruto.

Natu’s fighting style is an improvised and somewhat improved version of Taki’s move set. Natsu retains Taki’s Possession stance from Soulcalibur IV and similarly focuses on very fast close and mid-range attacks. She’s able to catch opponents off-guard with delayed input attacks and more deceptive options in her Possession Stance. She has the fastest attacks in the game and can pressure opponents with combos and unblockable bombs. Natu is also much stronger than Taki making her a devastating combination of speed and power.

3 Weakest: Kilik

Kilik has been one of the main characters of the series since the first Soulcalibur, and up until Soulcalibur IV, Kilik was one of the most accessible and useful characters that almost anyone could pick up and play with. His staff had long and short ranges, his combos were quick, powerful and quite easy to pull off, and he was one of the best characters in the game to interrupt an opponent's attack strings — only really seasoned players knew how to exploit his openings.

However, in Soulcalibur V the developers saw fit to ruin one of its longest running characters by throwing away his unique move set and making him a character who mimics most of the male roster, making his inclusion in SCV completely pointless.

2 Powerful: Mitsurugi

Mitsurugi like Siegfried is one of the Souls fighting series most recognizable and significant characters. He made his debut in the original Soul Blade and has featured in all of Soulcalibur sequels and spinoffs. Mitsurugi is actually based on a real-life undefeated swordsman and famous author known as Miyamoto Musashi.

Mitsurugi’s fighting style is not only one of the easiest to pick up for new players, but he’s also one of the strongest and fastest in the entire series. He can counter his opponents at ease through the use switching his stances. He has the most effective low attacks in the series, and almost all can be chained into a quick and devastating combo. He has several attack throws which are capable of catching his opponents off-guard as well as doing a great of damage. Mitsurugi is one of the most used characters in the series and for good reason.

1 Weakest: Every Mimic Character Ever

In addition to pointlessly making Kilik a mimic character, there has been several over the years throughout the series. The first mimic style character was the Edge Master from the original Soulcalibur. The mimic character is meant to represent the fact that they are highly skilled warriors who have mastered every martial art and fighting style in existence, but the mimic has always felt like cheap filler when the extra slot could be used for more useful and unique characters.

Soulcalibur V was probably the worst offender when it came to using mimic characters by including Kilik, Inferno, Elysium and Edge Master. Most players have found these kinds of characters a waste of time because each game already has the ability to select a character at random rendering the use and need for such characters completely pointless.