Better than the disappointing SC4 and SC5.
So to get down to the review,
Tales of Swords:
- SC3 has the best story mode out of all SC games. Previous SC games told the story through a arcade game mode, not SC3. You can choose any character, and play through their specific story. You get decisions on where you travel on your quest to find Soul Edge, Soul Calibur, or the Azure Knight Nightmare depending on who you choose. Each character has replay value in going through their story too because of the many different options you have going through their specific story. The main story line is between Siegfried, and Nightmare. I guess the rest are "what if" stories if they gained Soul Edge or Soul Calibur, but they still do play relevant roles in the main story line. You can unlock characters, weapons, and items while going through each character's story. At the end you are awarded money according to how well you did.
Chronicles of the Sword:
- This is a strategy game mode exclusively for your custom characters. It's fun, but not as fun as Edge Master's mode in SC2. There are about 20 chapters You basically create the your main character, and can create your companions through the story. You come across other characters through this story that you didn't create, but can still play as. You unlock custom character armors, and items while playing through this mode. At the end of each chapter you are awarded money according to how well you did. It's a fun game mode overall.
World Competition:
- Its a tournament mode. It can be very long so don't do it unless you have time to spare. You have to win 12 matches in a row (I think) money is awarded at the end.
VS. mode:
- You can fight against your friends in this mode. There is a Special VS. mode which allows you to choose different weapons and allows all the upgrades each weapon has.
Soul Arena:
- Quick play is essentially arcade mode without endings for characters. There are 8 fights in all. You are awarded money according to how well you did.
- Mission are battles you have to complete in a certain way. There are rules you have abide by or else you won't win. Some of them are actually really fun. You can select them in easy, normal, and hard difficulties. The harder the difficulty, the more money is awarded.
Practice:
- There is a free practice mode and a tutorial mode. Tutorial will show you everything about the game, and if you complete it, you get "The Ancient" weapon with the character you beat it with. Pretty time consuming if you want to collect "The Ancient" with every character, but at least the weapons look cool. There is a mode that tells you what all the symbols in the game means too.
Museum:
- You can look at past cut scenes in each character you beat the Tales of Swords. You can look at each character's weapon demonstrations, artwork (pretty good art actually) and other videos. You can also look at all character's profile. It gives all details about the person. The most important part is each character has a backstory, and it explains the character's past involving the whole Soul Calibur plot.
Character Creation:
- This is where you create your characters. You can buy a lot of weapons and armor for your custom characters. You get to choose between male of female, and choose a class to play as. Some classes are bizarre, but most are very good. You get to equip your characters in any way you want, change the armor's colors, change your face and voice. It's pretty in depth. The only things you can't do is add muscle, fat, or height. You get to change the color of the standard characters as well. So a Siegfried with short black hair can be done. They give you 2 alternate costumes to customize, and keep the 2 standard costumes, so there is 4 different schemes for each character to play as.
Weapon, Armor, and Items Shop:
- You can buy weapons for the standard characters and custom characters in the weapon shop. You buy armor for custom characters in the armor shop. In the item shop, you get to buy artwork, character weapon demonstrations and different game modes.
Options:
- You can change the in game options, the output, and customize the controller layout to your liking.
The game has a ton of content and is worth a buy if you are still playing your ps2 time to time. Just try to avoid the Chronicles glitch, and you should be fine. Just about the best fighting game ever created in my opinion.