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Soul Calibur II 
Release date: 27 Aug 2003
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Mygamer review
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Soul Calibur II
PS2 owners, put your giant mechs in the hangar. Gamecube owners, hang up your pointy-green hats. And Xbox owners, put down your lightsabers. Still warm, no doubt. It's time for school. Soul Calibur 2, one of the most anticipated fighting game titles of this year, is here. Take all the best parts from the first two games, add next-gen graphics, and you've got an awesome weapons-based fighter that'll keep you coming back for quite some time.
Okay, so it's like this: you're one of...well, a bunch of fighters, ranging from a stalwart samurai, to a staff-wielding monk, to a Grecian warrior woman. You're looking for the Soul Edge, an insanely powerful, and insanely evil, magical sword. And woe betide anyone who stands in your path. There's a great deal to do in this game. You can go through the simple Arcade mode, or kick a friend's tail in VS mode. Time attack, survival, and practice round out the rest of your standard fighter fare. The real draw is the Edge Master mode. In this, you're given a bunch of missions to fight through, mostly normal fights, with special handicaps thrown in. There are some where you start with half life, fight against multiple opponents, and watch for things like earthquakes, or keeping off the ground. There are even dungeons for your fighter to wander through, fighting from room to room before finally facing off against a boss. Doing this gains your profile experience and gold, the former gaining you access to new missions, and the latter allowing you to purchase new weaponry and features.
Yes, new weapons. Each main character, (save one), have a total of eleven weapons each. This, of course, was a popular feature in Soul Blade, the Playstation incarnation, but was removed from Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast. These weapons modify your attack and defense, and have other various effects, such as longer reach and life absorption. But the weapons aren't the real stars of the show, the characters are. They're all near perfectly rendered, and most fit very well in the renaissance styled settings. And the moves..my god..the moves! This is, by far, one of the deepest fighting games on the market. There are literally tons of combos, counters, and signature techniques to tear your hair out trying to perfect, then marvel at when you get them right. It's fast paced and easy to flow from one move to the next. To simply take Soul Calibur II for pick up-and-play purposes, things are fairly easy. However, to master its fighting nuances requires considerable practice. Lots and lots of practice.
The graphics are just beautiful. There are plenty of exotic locales to kick ass in, from an Olympian temple, to a decrepit pirate ship, and the aforementioned deep, dark dungeons. The characters are, as stated previously, extremely well animated: hair and costumes blow in the wind, swords gleam, heavy weapons kick up dust as they slam into the ground, and special attacks display impressive fire and lightning effects.The sound is just as good, too. The music is mostly upbeat orchestra, the perfect background for a dangerous adventure across Europe and Asia. The sound effects are dead on; I could actually hear the *Thwap!* of Kilik's staff when it hit the ground. Overall, the sound is great...but not perfect. The character voice acting is a little overdone, and some of the corny lines don't help. Some gamers may like this approach, but I'm afraid that I don't.
Another gripe regards the addition, console specific, exclusive characters. Gamecube owners get Link from Legend of Zelda, while PS2 players get Heihachi from Tekken, and Spawn finds himself on the Xbox. Personally, I have the Xbox version, and I've found Spawn to be a mite overpowered. Nothing too bad, though. And I haven't heard much in the way of bad things about Link and Heihachi, either--really, though, a bare-knuckle brawler in a weapons-based fighter? Doesn't make much sense if you ask me. Also, a couple of other characters from the previous games have been excluded in Soul Calibur II, and replaced with new, slightly modified versions. Now, in general that wouldn't bother me, apart from the fact that some of the excluded characters pop up later in the game anyway. For example, Sophitia as an old main character is replaced by Cassandra, her younger sister, even though Sophitia is unlockable later. But a guy named Yunsung takes the place of Hwang, and Hwang's nowhere to be seen--again replaced by some unnamed assassin. Poor guy, rejected twice in one game.
Aside from that, there's nothing major that really detracts from Soul Calibur II's impressive performance. It's a fighter game with depth, with cool moves, and a ton of stuff to unlock. There are plenty of characters to choose from and discover, along with awsome graphics and sound. Every gamer who's a fan of the fighting genre should have a copy of Soul Calibur II in their collection. It's available across all three main platforms, so no excuses. You'll thank me later, trust me on this.
Review by Tony Schell on 27 Aug 2004
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