Improved gameplay/graphics... But what happened to the story?
Firstly, it's very short. Only five matches. Secondly, the movie sequences, while very high quality, are usually pretty lame. I liked the opening text crawls, but from there, story mode fell apart for me.
I know I may sound a bit harsh, and SC IV's story is still miles better than most fighting games, but compared to SC III's it isn't much to speak of.
Something else that bugged me was how armor/clothes broke when they took enough damage. That could be cool, if you made it look all tattered and torn instead of just being completely removed.
Another thing is that the Star Wars guest characters really don't fit... I mean, they really don't at all.
I'm not hating on Star Wars, on the contrary I'm a big star wars geek, but Soul Calibur and Star Wars just don't mix.
Another thing is the lack of team battle mode...
Overall, though, Soul Calibur IV is a worthy fighting game and I imagine I own't be getting bored with it any time soon.
The Good
*Movesets have been refined further
*Graphics are stellar
*Character creation is better than in SC III
*Gameplay is of no less quality than previous installments
The Bad
*Equipment damaging needs work
*Star Wars characters don't fit in
*Namco still hasn't reintroduced team battle mode
*I miss Siegfried's old voice, lol
The Just Plain Ugly
*The step down in story
Now the scores.
Graphics: Very well made (9.5/10)
Gameplay: Great (8.5/10)
Story: Not horrible, just not as good as III's. (6.5/10)
Sound: Good sound effects and decent voice overs. (7.5/10)
Multiplayer: Great. (9/10)
Re-playability: I imagine it'll hold my interest for quite a while, (9/10)
Overall: (8.5/10)