Soulcalibur is one of the longest enduring fighting franchises around, considering that it has been about 10 years since the first game graced the Dreamcast. Now with the release of the new Soulcalibur IV, this game is set to take the fighting world by storm again. Using a unique concept different from other fighters, Soulcalibur IV relies heavily on weapon based combat much like its predecessors.

Story

The Soulcalibur series are not really known for their story, but for the fighting style. Soulcalibur IV is no exception to its pedigree equipped with a barebones story for each character. Despite the shortcomings of the story, the story mode delivers a short yet fun experience that you could finish in just one sitting.

The game delivers many of the signature experiences known in the series such as an over the top announcer that often times say things such as “May the sun shine when the the clouds of the dark age are cleaved by his swords,” which literally doesn’t make much sense but nevertheless sounds awesome.

With a cinematic closing scene and brief cut scenes in between the single player experience leaves you wanting more in-depth background story for each of the characters.

In addition to the regular story mode there is a new mode called Tower of Lost Souls where you have to fight each level in order to advance to the next to gain rewards and bounty. This new mode is actually pretty fun as you get the feeling of gaining substantial rewards for advancing in the fights.

Controls

In the traditional style of Soulcalibur, a major focus is on weapons combat. Arguably Soulcalibur is probably considered of the best in the sub-category of weapons fighter.

One great characteristic of Soulcalibur IV is how approachable it is to those new to the series. Anybody can pick up a controller and start playing and even beat a veteran player at times with proper button mashing. This adds great appeal and value to the vast majority of the casual player audience.

However this fact can at times frustrate the hardcore players who try to memorize all the moves and special techniques to only get upstaged by a new comer delivering a wave of cheap moves.

The introduction of several of the Star Wars characters puts an interesting twist to gameplay as well. In the Xbox 360 version you get Yoda and in the PS3 version you get Darth Vader. You also get Darth Vader’s secret apprentice in both versions.

The Star Wars characters have an extra ability called the Force, which has its own meter. When the meter is completely depleted you are left vulnerable for a few seconds, this is to help balance out the Force abilities with the regular characters.

One of the issues with Soulcalibur IV, which I touched upon briefly before, is that many hardcore fans may have grips with the balancing. Some gamers may get frustrated when playing against characters having a plethora of cheap powerful moves at their disposal. However, in this unbalanced gameplay is what makes it so much fun and approachable to the casual audience.

Visuals

The visuals are stunning with attention to details from the levels and weapons to the physics of the female characters assets bouncing up and down. Its one of the better looking fighting game we have seen so far. You can definitely see the polish that was put into the game.

Design

One of the great aspects about the game is the RPG elements integrated into the game. As you fight more fights you gain more loot and with more loot you can buy items to customize your characters with as well as a leveling up system in place. We have seen this in other fighters such as Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection but Soulcalibur IV takes it to the next level allowing you to either to fully customize an existing character or create a new character with mish mash of moves.

With a wide variety of characters, the customizations are endless as users have been inventive and created replicas of characters from other games like Street Fighter.

You can also take your characters online and pit them against other players to battle it out and see who comes out on top. The online mode is sufficient but there is, at times an issue of lag and in a fighting game lag can mean life or death.

There are critical finishing moves which can be achieved by depleting an enemy’s Soul Gauge. The Soul Gauge gets depleted whenever you block an attack and once it becomes empty you are rendered vulnerable until your gauge is refilled by attacking.

When rendered vulnerable the opponent can engage in a Critical Finish by pressing all face buttons at once, which is a lot harder than it sounds. At times executing this move can be tough, often times missing the chance to execute the move in the short window.

The Critical Finish really increases the tempo of the game while prevents people from sitting back and just blocking while waiting for an opening. It really forces you to be aggressive and always stay on the offensive.

Wrap-up

Soulcalibur IV brings many inventive things to the table such as the in depth character customization and character advancement system. The online mode brings fresh replayability to the table as well, despite lag issues at times. The online mode is not for the hardcore players to take too seriously like a tournament, but it can be fun if you play online with light hearted aspirations against your buddies.

Despite a few snags, Soulcalibur IV makes up for its shortcomings by offering so much more with great replayability and new bold features it pushes the title near the top echelon of the other fighters out there currently on the next gen systems.

Score

4.5/5

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Entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 9:18 pm under Games, Microsoft, PS3, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Sony, Xbox 360.

Read more entries by Mike Ferro.
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