Gameplay   8 Graphics   9 Sound   8 Value   8 Curve   8 8.2 Distinguished

A new Soul Calibur.  I remember it like just yesterday when I was still but a humble subordinate, toiling away in the PS2 section, debating whether to get a Nintendo Revolution or a Microsoft Xbox-2 or Xenon or…well…a Playstation 3 (there was never much question on the name for that), when I was tasked with writing the review for Soul Calibur 3.  I ended up giving the title a nine out of ten.  In retrospect, it is probably the single most overrated game reviewed on this site.  And I wasn’t the only one who mistook this game for a well-made, precisely-crafted fighter that would eventually usher in the return of fighting games to prominence.  Indeed, the entire Soul Calibur series has the incredible ability to make writers rush out to review the games because they make such a strong, resoundingly positive impression.  But, as the months drag on and those who actually make the strides to learn how to play the game well will tell you, except for the possible exception in the original, these games are not deserving of their solid media average scores.   But while there are still people who will defend Soul Calibur 2, nobody (including me) will assert Soul Calibur 3 should be coupled with an 86.2% average on www.gamerankings.com (for those who don’t know why, look up “variable cancel” on Youtube).  And this is in the back of my mind as I write all this, knowing that there is an 8.2 right up above this paragraph. 

As with the other Soul Calibur titles, this game is as easy and fun to pick up as it gets.  With a free-moving fighting engine with simple execution, it’s a game anybody can enjoy for a fairly long time.  There are still four buttons; horizontal attack (A), vertical attack (B), kicks (K) and guard (G), and all attacks are still done by simply pressing a direction and a button (sometimes two) with the occasional quarter-circles thrown in.  While there are some difficulties in the controls stemming from the fact the game isn’t optimized for console play (like, say, Dead or Alive 4), it is generally effective and simple.  At first glance, the cast of the game seems pretty well-balanced.  Obviously, there’s no way to be particularly accurate in labeling a game as balanced or not a couple weeks into its life, but there doesn’t seem to be any massive disparity between the characters from the get-go.  Most importantly, Soul Calibur 4 can be patched, so even if there are the hugely destructive glitches and potential issues with balance, infinites and unintentional unblockables, they can get fixed up  over the PSN, rather than never being addressed, and then having a fixed version in Japan. 

Namco-Bandai tried to jam in some additions to the gameplay, none of which really matter (and shouldn’t, as Soul Calibur has a solid fighting engine, which they should focus on making perfect, rather than slapping on some flashy features that don’t make the core of the game better).  The best feature in the game is the much-improved character creation system, which allows you to create new characters who use an existing character’s fighting style, or edit how an existing character looks.  What is annoying as hell, however, is the stupid ability and stat system attached to the character creation mode.  Each piece of armor and weaponry you attach to them boosts different statistics, and ability points, which boost attack, strength, defense, or give you different abilities with various effects (like HP Drain, which saps health after landing attacks or Auto Grapple, which can automatically push off opponents who are trying to use throws).  These abilities, though, are best labeled “annoyances,” as the computer preventing you from being able to throw an opponent, or being unable force a ring out subtract more from the actual game than having the silly abilities add.  There is also a goofy armor destruction thing, where as you do more damage to a particular area, there is a chance that the opponent will lose parts of their armor (for example, doing leg attacks will eventually make an opponent lose their boots).  What this results in is numerous punishments for editing the character.  Want to make Yun-Seong look like Hwang?  Want to make make Taki actually look like a ninja?  Want to strip Sophitia down to nothing but a bikini?  Well, you can.  But you’re not getting abilities (or your stats will be so wild you won’t be able to get any GOOD abilities), and you’re going to be more-easily damaged when you’re beaten down.   None of these really add to the gameplay, though.  To be frank, the game would be better without them, and I hope they get patched away.  They aren’t horrible, but I’m definitely not a fan.

There are three single-player modes; Story Mode, Arcade Mode, and the Tower.  Story Mode does the same thing it did in Soul Calibur 3 did, with quilting together a nonsensical story from a series of shared cut-scenes and pre-battle commentary, where everyone fights either Siegfried, Nightmare or Algol at the end.  You will not get a particularly interesting, compelling, or even intelligible tale about all the characters in the game making a consistent beeline for the Soul Edge until they explain just what happened in the next game (which, apparently, there won’t be).  Arcade Mode is what you would expect it to be.  It is eight enemies, lined up in a row, and you have to beat all of them consecutively.  Last but not least is the Tower of Souls.  The Tower basically has you fighting super-powered enemies a few at a time.  Eventually, the enemies become so over-the-top powerful, you actually have to specially make three characters just to play the Tower of Souls.  And even then, the only reason to tackle this labor of “love,” is for more items for character creation.  There’s also another part of the Tower which…well…is basically SC4’s Survival Mode.  The most important inclusion remains the versus mode, of course and full online battling is, at long last, present.  Both the offline and online battling allows you to use the silly “special” abilities, or fight straight up (you know…as God intended).  Online battling is pretty good…but not that great.  It’s better than most games, but doesn’t measure up to SNK’s Xbox Live titles, or what I’ve seen from the upcoming Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: HD Remix, but it is still a very enjoyable online experience, and doesn’t make you angry when you lose a match entirely because you can’t move frame-by-frame as effectively as your opponent.

Graphically, I found Soul Calibur 4 to be one of the best games of this generation.  In fact, the only game I can definitively point to as better is Metal Gear Solid 4.  The interactive environments are still genuinely stupid.  Railings will break in a terribly unrealistic manner, and doing hard up-and-down attacks will break the floor in the arena…until you do it again and the first cracks are magically gone.  Character design, I’ve found to be spiraling downward since Soul Calibur 2, with essentially every character looking their best.   From Yun-Seong’s slick orange-and-white, changing to his new Jack Sparrow-esque pirate gear, to Sophitia and her sexy, blue, laced-up shirt and skirt, becoming her current “angelic” outfit, the characters have just been looking stupider and stupider as time goes on.  This also applies to the voice acting.  Nightmare had a human, but still creepy voice in Soul Calibur 2, but now he has a generic evil entity voice, and Yun-Seong, Cassandra, Mitsurugi and just about everyone else just don’t sound as good anymore.  Oh yeah…and Darth Vader.  I’d have to say Vader is significantly better than Yoda in terms of how well-made his character is.  He doesn’t have the idiotic hopping around garbage, and his moves are a lot better at paying homage to the movies (for example, Vader’s front throw is his Emperor-killing body slam, and all of his attacks are no-fluff hacking-and-slashing). 

So yeah…is this game better on the PS3 than the 360?  Not really.  I’ve played both, and I didn’t find one or the other particularly superior.  If you’re buying based on the Star Wars character…then you’re stupid…but you should get the PS3 version.  It’s all a matter of where your friends are for the online play, and whether or not you like the Sixaxis/Dual Shock 3 or the 360 pad (assuming you don’t just get arcade sticks).  It’s worth picking up, though.  Even if it doesn’t pan out to be a great tourney title, there’s plenty of fun to be had in the meantime.