I hear ya!  Hwang was also my favorite character.  I always thought  Yunsung  was meant to be Hwang's replacement in SCII but he also had some Hwoarang blood mixed in the moveset  (I like Hwoarang a lot in Tekken too, but Yunsung was simply not as effective as either Hwang or Hwoarang, just 'fancy').

Great review.  Informative, concise and well-structured.  Good to know they adapted Ezio well in the game.  Also, totally agree with Vic there - Soul Edge  (US read: Soul Blade) and Soul Calibur 2 were also top for me.  Since then everything started feeling "same-y" about this frachise, just like with Tekken, even though they are all very fun games.