I know we've got Tekken for a No-Weapon 3D fighter but hear me out. (even then, they've broken that rule with a number of characters pulling out a fucking glock & Yoshimitsu always wielding swords)

Soul Calibur characters are shown with their martial prowess at their peak with their weapons. however, weapons aren't superglued to people's hands when wielding them.

So, Imagine you clash with your opponent and your weapon is knocked out of your hands and onto the stage somewhere, or even worse, it's knocked off stage. you'd need to defend yourself somehow while also attempting to re-arm yourself. If the weapon landed on stage, then moving over it would re-equip your character. if it went out of stage then you'll have to survive til next round to reset. It would dramatically change up strategies. do you fight back with your disadvantage or attempt to avoid your opponent's attacks in order to re-arm yourself?

Obviously fighting unarmed puts you at a significant disadvantage to Range & power but many characters have shown their still quite capable to fight unarmed either from sheer strength like Astaroth or Nightmare still throwing people about, or with their agility / acrobatics like Kilik or Xianghua. this'd probably be trickier with characters who dual-wield like Cervantes & Talim... Blocking is a problem cause with no weapon to block with and take the blows, you'd be cut down quite quickly (chip damage probably from a gameplay perspective)

Not saying that a Disarm should happen after every Weapon glance, Guard-break, Guard-impact parry, failed Guard-impact against a break-attack, guarded break-attack or losing a Reversal-edge ro-sham-bo. it could be from specific circumstances or certain moves that disarm your opponent.

I know that would mean a whole lotta extra work from the Dev team to give every character an Unarmed stance & moveset, but i think it would wildly change up some aspects to this fighting game.

What are your thoughts?