For better or worse, Soul Calibur 4 is just as good as any other game in the series.
(-) very little has changed from Soul Calibur 2 and 3 / not a lot of people playing online / light on single player modes / sometimes button-mashy controls
Dark Vader. What's his place in the Soul Calibur universe? We've all always knew him to be part of the Star Wars lineup, but somehow he fits in just fine with the other characters. Unfortunately, that's really the only change that truly happens when we're talking about any sequel to this long-standing fighting series that was first brought to life on the Dreamcast. It's the very definition of a by-the-numbers sequel. Does that make Soul Calibur 4 a bad game? By no means. In fact, the online support and overhaul in graphical quality are enough for people to go out and bring it home if they aren't already smitten with the solid, intense, and satisfying combat that almost excuses the lack of evolution in the series. But don't be surprised if it seems more like an expansion of an existing game than a new game.
Soul Calibur 4 doesn't try to overwhelm you with a bucket load of content, many of which is undesirable to play through to achieve a certain goal, like Soul Calibur 3. Story mode is your standard beat-through-enemies to get the the boss, mixing it up a little bit by adding numerous enemies in one match to put some emphasis on endurance, as well as some rival matches, and even some tag team support to summon another character in case things don't go so well in your part. Playing through story mode won't take you very long, maybe thirty minutes at most, then you'll see some brief but surprisingly authentic story sequences full of emotional weight and spirituality, depending on which character you've selected. You'll need to play through story mode to unlock certain characters, as well as gather money up to pay for other ones along the way.
Most of the characters, quite frankly, you've seen before. Nightmare, Talim, Xianghua, Kilik, they're all there. And some of the new additions are forgettable at best. There's really nothing wrong with the character list though, Xianghua is still beautiful and flirtsy as ever, and Nightmare is still bent on aggressive revenge. I do sometimes wish they would add Olcadan as optional downloadable content though. The character list does add to a certain level of Deja Vu, because most of the game does feel very familiar, even when first booting it up. While the graphics are, as naturally expected, much improved over previous games, with characters that somehow look even more detailed on their bodies and clothing, sometimes caps and other garments fall off upon getting hit, special attacks look fierce and eye popping, and the cut-scenes are rendered with beauty (see the look on Talim's face and you'll see what I mean quickly), still you'll get the sense that this is just a prettied up version of the same game you've played before. There's a handful of new arenas, but still it does tend to feel recycled at times, following a similar pattern of the earlier available levels.
While that may sound like a bad thing, fans of the series will be glad that the great fighting engine is still left unchanged. You can still feel a great level of horse power as these characters pull off devastating blows, not out of anger but spirituality, which was always what made Soul Calibur unique, The controls do continue to follow the same principle of hitting buttons thoughtlessly as fast as you can to perform attacks, making the more sophisticated special attacks difficult to pull off, but you'll live. Characters tend to say and do similar things before and after matches (the incredibly rouchy but beautiful way Xianghua bends down and smiles at the camera never seizes to amaze me), while other more unwanted occurrences still continue to haunt players (Talim still infuriates me by jumping out of the ring when she does that jumping attack. Grr!). And who can forget how the enemy continues to scream time and time again even after they were finished by one of your attacks, something that's difficult to differentiate between an unintentional error or an irrelevant joke. In a nutshell, if you loved Soul Calibur before, you'll love it here, but don't expect that much that's new or different.
One instant weakness to this game is a thin level of single player content. The story mode is, while entertaining, very short. It was wise to keep it that way though so those who wish can see every ending story for each character without using more time than they're comfortable admitting. Arcade mode is essentially an endurance mode, but it's so unbalanced that most players probably won't tolerate it for long. The game prompts you to defeat enemies without losing a life, but the Apprentice from Star Wars seems to be both super-quick and overpowered, requiring you to die many times before actually passing him. But there's something unsettling about losing against the same enemy 20+ times, and the typical player will rush to the quit button before long. There's the tale of swords, which is a longer lasting mode with fights that have other sub-objectives like defeating the enemy with a special attack or bouncing against a wall. The only other option on offer for the single player is the training mode. There is multiplayer for 2 and an online component with basic ranked and player matches (though there aren't many people making use for it), there just isn't much for the single player to do except replay though story mode.
At least you can customize your characters any way you want, which adds some well-needed life to a package struggling with replay value. You can edit any existing character (I personally was quick to change Talim's white hair, shivers), and have a strong line-up of clothing and colors to choose from. Or you could create something totally different as another character, though they appear generic compared to the proper line-up of stars.
Soul Calibur 4 is, just like its predecessors, a very flashy, approachable fighter with lots of great characters and an excellent battle engine. But only the fans will likely want to purchase it, because aside from online play and some improved visual quality, very little in this package hasn't been seen before, three times in fact.