I've been traveling across the country so I missed the news that Soul Calibur V was announced yesterday. I decided to comb through the complete transcript of Producer Hisaharu Tago's presentation in Dubai to see what else has been officially revealed. We know that the Soul Calibur V release date will land somewhere in 2012, but what do we know about Soul Calibur V's new characters?

As we reported yesterday, Sophitia's children will play a central role in the story -- specifically her son Patroklos. Soul Calibur V will take place 17 years after Soul Calibur IV and represents a "generational shift" in the series. As you Soul Calibur fanatics might already know, Patroklos and his sister Pyrrha were touched by the evil of Soul Edge as children and might now be bound to the sword's fate. Perhaps one will fight for good and the other for evil? Additionally, both Soul Edge and Soul Calibur have new designs and are now short swords as opposed to two-handed weapons. The story of Soul Calibur V will touch on this change in some way.During the presentation, Tago stressed that the developers at Project Soul want the combat in Soul Calibur V to feel light and elegant. Moves and combos will be easier to execute and more approachable for newcomers. Tago also noted that the team is focused on enhancing the online experience.During the question and answer segment of the presentation, Tago revealed that character creation will return, as well as the appearance of guest characters (Darth Vader and Yoda showed up in Soul Calibur IV). Old favorites like Siegfried will also return, but will have aged significantly.There isn't much else I know about Soul Calibur V at the moment, but we'll continue to cover Soul Calibur V during E3 2011.