Soul Calibur IV

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I am a huge fan of the Soul series. I remember sinking quarters into the arcade over a decade ago. When Soul Calibur first came out on the home consoles, it was like a dream come true. Many hours were spent playing that game instead of working on papers in college. Soul Calibur 3 was definitely my favorite. I even had the chance to work on the artwork for the UFS card game based on SC3. I think my huge involvement and love of Soul Calibur, especially the SC3, is what ultimately led to some of my disappointment with Soul Calibur 4...

The good:

-The graphics are incredible! The animations are smooth and the characters move with a beautiful fluidity. The faces in particular look much better with each iteration, and SC4 definitely made leaps and bounds in the character models.

-Online play at last! Not once did I experience lag. It's fun to practice on the CPU, but far more fun to take on complete strangers. Even if you lose, you get to see how other people play and you start improving so when your friends come over, you can summarily embarrass them.

-Best character-creation mode EVER. Sure SC4 did not reward you non-stop with character-creation items the way SC3 did, but the depth of the new system is something you have to experience to appreciate. I love the amount of customization you're allowed, though I miss the CC-unique fighting styles.

-Tower of Lost Souls. They call it that because you will sink hours of your life there.

-A cool tag-team dynamic that lets you switch characters in the middle of a fight. Definitely useful when you need a variety of styles.

-Critical Finishes are cool when conditions are right and you can pull them off. I'd rather be beaten with one of those than a Ring Out any day.

The bad:

-Yoda is cheap. You can't even grab him. In fact, the Star Wars characters seem FAR out of place, but this isn't the first time SC has done crossovers. What bugged me the most is that the Character Creation didn't allow you to make Jedi characters. How utterly unfair to add the license but not allow customized lightsaber wielders.

-No Team Versus battles. I can't understand why they would remove this, maybe Namco believed if you wanted to play against another human, it's better to do so online in standard/special vs mode?

-The storyline seems extremely thin, and the character endings are pretty lacking compared to SC3. There's no interactivity in the cutscenes or endings and some of the hidden characters don't even get animated endings.

-There are no shop girls from SC3!

-Chronicles of the Sword is gone. It was one of my favorite modes from Soul Calibur 3. It contributes to my overall feeling of a lack of story in this game.

I love most of the additions to the game, including the game modes and some of the new characters. I can't understand why Namco chose to remove some of the modes from the previous game though. They really need to release more downloadable content too. On its own, this is a fantastic game. It has great graphics, a balanced fighting system and enough features to keep you busy for a while. The character creation is something all fighting games should learn from. But ultimately, if compared to past games of the series, you get a sense that this game seems a bit rushed in the substance department. I hope this isn't really supposed to be the last of the Soul Calibur series, because it didn't really tie up a lot of the characters stories in my opinion.

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When the mechanics of a game franchise are fundamental to its success it is best not to tinker too much with how it controls and feels overall. The newest SC suffers from this slightly as it does feel like the same old game, but that is also its strength. There isn't anything new that takes away from the core enjoyment of this supreme fighter because other than the new SW characters everything is meshed together for a smooth experience. The new critical finish comes into play so little as to non existent. There is alot under what appears a shallow surface, however. The character creation only gets fun once you master it and unlock the cool equipment and weapons. Ideally the game wants you to take everyone through its 5 chapter story mode offering but the hardcore restart elements of mission mode (my favorite part of the old game(s) are redone in the somehow less fufilling TOWER mode(it is lacking the storyline text& map that made the original missions more fun.) Survival mode is redone as a backward crawl into the dungeon of the tower. The unlockables come easier but it feels right as this is a more challenging SC as well. Changes like these and the customizable skill and equipment set make SCIV VERY replayable. I know this my thumbs still burn especially after taking the unwieldy DARTH VADER through arcade mode which took me longer than I care to admit. Darth V. is tough to control as he should be with his mechanical legs, his forces powers and throws are tougher to use but with practice he can be worth the effort. The story text for each character is enjoyable, and the incredibly deep moves list for each fighter is accessible from the pause menu as always. SCIV is frustratingly hard at the right moments, and addictive in all the right places with an abundance of strategy and configurability, that plus its satisfying catalogue of fighters will have this disc running hot in my PS3 for awhile. BTW The install feature to hard drive doesn't shave as much off the load times as I was hoping for but I like having the option.

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I'm not much of a video game reviewer, and I'm certainly not a "serious gamer" but I do enjoy blowing off an hour or two every once in a while playing games. Up until we rented this on gamefly I had never played a Soul Caliber game before. I enjoy fighting games provided there are some speedy characters involved. My Hubby and I enjoyed this game enough to pay the extra loot to "keep the game" so we are now the proud owners of Soul Caliber IV.

What I liked:

1) I didn't have to hit 40 sequential buttons to get the character to do something cool, in fact my inner button masher was quite happy with the moves that I was able to do right off just by smashing in patterns.

2) The graphics are good, the surrounding areas are cool to look at and you can smash up your surroundings, which is always fun. The playable characters come in a wide variety and all look fairly good (some of the women are ridiculously proportioned but whatever). They have a variety of weapons that are quite fun and all look great.

3) The characters level, meaning the more you play with one, the more options you get with them.

4) The online option is interesting, but for some reason the pairing doesn't seem up to snuff, I mean why would the computer match up a level 1 with a level 41? It seems that it should be a bit more balanced as to who it sets up against who.

5) The tower is a blast, and it's HARD! basically you have to fight different groups of baddies on each level of the tower to ascend to the next one... we're on level 20 or so now and it's no walk in the park! The good thing is that each level has a way for you to unlock another article of clothing to use in your character creation.

6) Character creation, this can be quite fun, and I'm really bad at it. My hubby can spend over an hour tweeking his dude... I just slap some clothes on them and go.

7) The other options are your standard Arcade mode and the story mode, both of which allow you to unlock different playable characters.

What I don't care for:

1) When you are either beating the tar out of someone or they are laying the smack down on you, armor can break... effectively leaving your character almost completely in the nude. Now I'm not sure who gets their jollies from video game semi-naked people, but I'm not one of them.

2) It would be great if the female characters weren't trapsing about with their boobs hanging out wearing thongs... and the closeups of the boobs and booties gets to be rather tiresome... men wonder why more women don't play video games... this is one of the reasons.

3) The commercial showed Darth Vader fighting Yoda... um... you only get Vader on the PS3 version, apparently Yoda is on the Xbox version. It would have been nice to have had both.

4) The loading times from fight to fight get a bit tiresome, especially in the tower when you just got your derrier handed to you and you have to re-fight the same guy for the 15th time and there you are; waiting for 2 minutes or more to reload the battle.

5) In the character creation I should be able to pick some better undergarments for my people just in case all of their clothes get busted off so that they aren't standing there in a bra and thong.

Still, I love the game, it's an absolute blast and well worth a purchase (especially used)

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Overall I'm quite disspointed with this game.

Let's break it down though.

Graphics 5/5: As far my opinion goes, this is the most graphically superior fighting game there is at the moment, the scenes are beautifully rendered and the characters are rich in detail.

Controls 5/5: The controls never change and no exceptions here, the game is easy and can be jumped right into.

Character Creation 1/5: What a HUGE step back here...SC:III had so many innovative things here a "profession" made it feel unique and special. Now it's just "What character do you want to rip off?!" Which is extremely lame and lazy in my opinion. The different combos of clothings/faces are alright not as extravagant was SC:III was.

New Features 2/5: The "Tower" is quite bland and more like just a scenario mode nothing overly special about it.

The online mode I will admit I haven't tried yet but...I imagine it's no different then having someone sitting aside of you playing. I most certainly miss the strategy mode as it gave a real personal feeling to the game.

Main Guts of the Game 2/5: Let me start by saying the Star Wars characters compared to the rest of the group...are ridiculously overpowered. In Arcade mode you go from classic SC scenese to a...space ship? To fight "The Apprentice?" What the @#$@? The Apprentice is ridiculously over powered and if you're playing on medium expect hard diffuculty Hard expect Soul Edge...etc...The first time I went through I spent around 1 min. on each opponent and 9 min. on The Apprentice.

The story mode is VERY dissaspointing as it starts with about a 4-5 paragraph introduction then just like...arcade mode until the last fight. About a 1 minute clip a sentence or two pops up on the screen...that's it. Not a whole lotta point to "Story Mode" if you don't actually make the character have a FREAKIN' STORY!

Overall: I wish I would have rented this game instead of paying salty for it...It's just...not as good as any of it's previous bretheren. I'd be even willing to say a step BACK.

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With Soul Calibur V hitting store shelves, it seemed apt to go back for a change and pick up Soul Calibur IV. The game came out in the midst of the revival of the fighting genre. It had to compete with the likes of Street Fighter IV, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Tekken 6, and BlazBlue just to name a few contenders. In terms of sheer combat and gameplay, Soul Calibur IV is remarkable. It may, in fact, be the most fun of all the Soul Calibur games from a multiplayer standpoint.

Story has rarely been a strong suit for Soul Calibur. The relationship between characters is often interesting, but aside from that the main story isn't quite as interesting. Soul Calibur IV seems to be self aware of this as the actual story mode with each character is really short and isn't really filled with a lot of story at all. There is, however, a nice little handy chart that gives you character biographies and shows the relationship between characters that actually can make the cast of Soul Calibur IV interesting. And while the story mode is laughable, each character has their own journey you can play through. It consists of five battles. Two standard fights, a mid boss, another standard battle and finally the actual boss. It's a simple thing, but seeing as how you've got quite a few stories to play through it can suffice. For those who just want straight shot battling there is always the Arcade Mode which puts you through eight different battles where you score as many points as you can and finish as fast as you can.

As far as single player content goes, Soul Calibur IV doesn't quite go to the depths of the second or third installment. There is the Arcade and Story Mode. There is also the Extra Arcade Mode and Extra Versus, which we'll talk about shortly. At the very least, however, Soul Calibur IV does have the Tower of Souls which can be quite attractive to those looking for a challenge. Here you can either ascend or descend the tower. Ascending has you going to different floors and taking on various challenges. Such as taking on a horde of enemies with only a single life gauge, or defeating an enemy before time runs out. There are also bonuses and unlockable content to behold should you fulfill certain conditions in some of the challenges. For example, you might just have to defeat the enemy, but the game might reward you with treasure (usually a piece of equipment) or gold if you do something more such as pull of three grabs in a match, or switch characters three times, or perform a certain amount of impacts. It gives you reason to play through some of the challenges a second or third time.

Descending is a different story. This is effectively a survival mode with a strange boss character appears every five floors. It's much more of a challenge than previous survival modes. As you descend your health will regenerate a small amount should you emerge victorious on each floor. But it is definitely a challenge.

The Tower of Souls is indeed a nice addition but it has nothing on the single player content offered by Soul Calibur II or III. On the other hand what you do get is an extremely good multiplayer suite. And when I say good, I mean VERY good. Soul Calibur IV has one of the best multiplayer experience of the entire series. The single player stuff will be over and done with soon (depending on how well you can get through the tower of souls, that is) but the multiplayer almost never gets old. It's fast paced and intricate in the sense that newcomers and veterans will be able to step on in. There are complex combos and such for those familiar with Soul Calibur, but for those just learning the series for the first time, there are plenty of simple moves to pull off. Although this can lead to some people winning fights through button mashing, it's still a ton of fun given that anyone can pick up and play, and those who have already learned Soul Calibur aren't exactly punished thanks to what it offers. It's always fun to pull of a surprisingly difficult combo and watch it succeed. Especially because everything is flashy. Soul Calibur IV also offers up a nice handicap system so that people can play according to their own experience and style against someone else. Are you a beginner playing against an expert? You can set your total health to be higher and his to be lower to give you a fighting chance. And the game leaves this up to be your choice.

There are certain elements to Soul Calibur IV's combat that make it stand above all else. The first and most obvious change from the third game is that every person in battle has a piece of armor they wear. There are three. Top, middle and bottom. Dealing enough damage causes a piece of armor to break. If the armor breaks, attacks that correspond to that area will deal more damage (i.e. if your top armor breaks, high attacks will do more damage). It adds an element of desperation when all your armor pieces are broken.

The second big new element is the critical finish. These are really flashy attacks that seem clearly inspired by Mortal Kombat's fatalities. The idea behind critical finishes is genius, although the stipulations for pulling one off are quite hard to obtain in a battle. You're likely to see one or two, but you won't use them that often. In past games, players were known to block. A lot. Critical Finishes were implemented for to punish those who relied far too heavily on blocking. Every character has a Soul Gauge. The more attacks you land the brighter it glows until it's blue. The more attacks you block the weaker it gets until your gauge is red. When you're gauge is red and starts flashing your next guard might cause you to stagger. At this point your opponent can execute a Critical Finish. A critical finish is just that... a critical finish. It doesn't matter how much life you have left, the battle ends. You're more likely to actually pull these off on CPU opponents rather than actual players, however. The critical finish definitely discourages blocking, but you're rarely likely to need them. Like Mortal Kombat's fatalities, you'll be interested to see everyone's, but in order for that to happen you'll likely end up going into the training mode and setting it up to easily see it for yourself.

What really makes Soul Calibur IV's multiplayer fun is that there are a ton of fighters to choose from. Certainly there are clones, but the various fighting styles and diverse move lists of the characters make it so that everyone will be able to find someone they can play as with little to stand in their way. But a layer of strategy is actually added to Soul Calibur IV thanks to the ability to create custom characters.

While custom characters will be based off the style of other characters, there's actually quite a bit you can do with them. There are tons of different outfits to put on and tons of different weapons to unlock. And you'll slowly unlock all of this stuff as you play. And there is a lot to unlock, giving you incentive to play through the Tower of Souls and to constantly revisit the various story modes. At least all of this is fun, but what makes it unique is the layer of strategy. The different pieces of equipment have an impact on stats. Mainly our HP, Attack and Defense. But they also enhance certain skillsets which will allow you to equip various skills. This not only gives you reason to jump in... but to experiment as well. There's a surprising amount of depth. You can also customize the characters who already exist and give them better weapons or equipment as well.

Figuring out just how to customize a character is actually a lot of work, however. If you're having trouble in the Tower of Souls it's likely because you need to create a custom character and assign abilities to them to give you the edge. And these abilities range from basic, "Increase attack power of vertical or horizontal strikees," to others that can be extremely helpful when you learn how to use them correctly, such as the Venom Fang or the Impact Heal. Yes, Soul Calibur IV will reward smart players. Especially in the Tower of Souls, which seems to be catered toward the hardcore of Soul Calibur. Button mashing in the Tower of Souls will get you no where, but creating characters with the right skill set for the right challenge definitely will. If you don't actually take time to learn the various mechanics of the system... the Tower of Souls WILL crush you. And this is why Soul Calibur IV manages to have depth where it's sequel does not. It's important to master the various guard impacts. It's important to figure out which pieces of armor to put on to improve which stat... and which weapons to use based on their attacks or the inherent skills they may possess. Soul Calibur IV can be surprisingly addicting just based off this mechanic alone. Mainly because it gives you a lot of different ways to approach some of the challenges brought up by the Tower of Souls (or to power your way through each character's story mode).

You can also use custom characters with their weapons and abilities in Versus Mode as well. You can also do this for arcade mode. And this can really make the multiplayer aspect fun. And even those who just want to use them for aesthetic purposes can do this, as the "Standard Versus" grants no actual bonuses based on your weapons or equipment.

This all adds up to make Soul Calibur IV more fun than meets the eye. The extra layer of strategy used by this as well as how the game encourages players to learn the mechanics through the Tower of Souls. You could easily spend hours on Soul Calibur IV thanks to this. But playing against friends is also a lot of fun. Especially when you both design custom characters and go into the Extra Versus Mode.

Namco will not skimp on the presentation of a Soul Calibur game and it shows. Soul Calibur IV is by far one of the most gorgeous looking and detailed games you'll find this generation. Characters move smoothly and in conjunction with their weapon. The stages you'll fight in are also incredibly detailed. Soul Calibur IV has excellent presentation coupled with a great soundtrack to present it. The music is absolutely astonishing. As are the sound effects. In terms of production the game is just all around good. Degrading as always, however, is the voice acting. Although by now fans are probably immune to it. Some of the cheesiness of the characters dialog may even be comforting. There's not too much of it, though. And it's not like you'll want to jab your ears with something sharp that you'll go deaf. Eventually the voice acting just becomes background noise. The voices themselves actually compliment the characters. What might be the take away is that some of the lines are just not so great. Take the announcer who, upon gaining victory just simply says, "Victory belongs to the last one standing..." you kind of expect him to say more but it just ends there. The words are spoken but it doesn't feel like they were there to mean anything. Just feels like they were spoken because they know it can be done at times.

If anything, Soul Calibur IV is a great game to play. The multiplayer, especially, is incredibly addictive. The game also goes online. Your mileage is likely to vary from one match to the next. I played in some rounds that did me some good, but I connected to some that just simply weren't playable. For the most part the experiences were good rather than bad. From a multiplayer standpoint, Soul Calibur IV is the best in the series. From a single player? That's a different story. While Soul Calibur IV offers enough, the previous outings offered much more content. While Soul Calibur IV will keep you busy to unlock all the various equipment, weapons, etc... you'll find that were it not for the multiplayer and in depth character customization you wouldn't really have a whole lot to actually do in Soul Calibur IV. At the very least, Soul Calibur IV actually lets you set up a battle against the CPU if you like... this is something that previous Soul Calibur games simply didn't do. If there wasn't a second controller plugged in you ONLY had access to the single player portion. Here you can set up exhibition battles against the computer if you simply don't feel like diving into the Arcade, Story or Tower of Souls modes. And yes, it's actually a lot of fun given how you can adjust the difficulty, life gauges and even set up battles among custom characters. This is, of course, nice if you simply don't want to go online for the moment or if there are no friends to fight against at the time. And because battling is so much fun, even going up against the CPU is perfectly fine. One could easily spend hours just setting up their own custom versus matches alone.

Soul Calibur IV manages to be fun because it's got mechanics that really work. The single player experience isn't quite as big as one would expect, but at least it offers up something for players. The multiplayer is fantastic, especially the online component and there is a lot of customization. It isn't quite the essential Soul Calibur in terms of a complete package, but from a multiplayer standpoint... it stands tall.