Don't know what to say, its a awesome game. However, it has a couple of flaws that I want to point out for this game.
The gameplay and the graphics are pretty good. The game controls also works fine. But it still more I can tell about this game.
Alright. I'm gonna talk about the new things. The characters' clothes can get ripped to shreds and stuff like that. Then of course, this thing called the soul gauge that is next to the lifebar where player blocks attacks and it will decrease to red and starts flashing, which means it close to get a soul crush and player will perform this new thing called the critical finish.
This game has couple of modes like Story, Tower of Lost Souls (which I definitely don't like), Arcade, Training, Versus Modes, and the Online Play. What I really play the most is Versus Modes where you can battle against the computer. Now that's one of the things I like about the game since you can select your custom characters too.
And yeah, I think its pretty decent and all but as for story mode, I'm kinda disappointing that its only 5 stages, but some characters' ending is not that great compared the endings in III because it felt like it don't tell you nothing and they don't really explain that well.
Create-A-Soul is alright. I do liked the idea of the voice pitch, physique & muscularity. But the major downfall about it is that its been dumbed down because they left out a lot of environments from CAS in III. First off, the lower torso, mid torso & upper torso were replaced by upper body. Then of course, the lower legs & upper legs were replaced by lower body. And not that only, the shin, waist, chin, & color lips were left out too. Plus their aren't that many equipments either. Even the young male faces. However, in IV, you can only select standard character styles when you about to create a character, which is a let down. They should've kept some of the preset styles like Katana & Shuriken for example. I also don't like the stats system where you can equip certain clothes. Mostly because equipping certain clothes will make your stats very crappy. There's one of the things I don't like about the Create-A-Soul system in this game. Honestly, I prefer the CAS in III more.
Now for the people complaining about 3 Star Wars characters in the game, well I kinda agree with them, but at the same time I don't. I do understand that the series suppose to take place in the 16th Century. To be honest, I wish it would've make sense if they added two or three guest characters that's kinda related instead, but not having sc-fi type characters because it doesn't work that way. And you know like the Star Wars series was taking place in the galaxy far, far away. I mean I don't had against with Star Wars, it just that having them in this game doesn't fit.
Overall, I still like the game. Even though I kinda felt disappointed, but not as much. Although one of the things would've been better if it has more contents. If they probably ever make the next one, hopefully they'll probably make it more playable.
PROS
+ Cool gameplay
+ Cool new features
+ Good game modes
+ Cool characters
CONS
- Story mode felt too short
- Not that much explanation on the story
- Tower of Lost Souls
- Create-A-Soul has less equipments and less environments.