I'm sorry, but this game just isn't a worthy entry to the series I've come to know and love

User Rating: 6 | SoulCalibur V X360
3 years. It's been 3 years since the release of Soulcalibur IV. It overall was a great fighting game with some annoying problems. While the roster was great, the guest and bonus characters were lousy (with the exception of Darth Vader). While we have an awesome character creation, we don't have a lot of options for single-player. Now Soulcalibur V was released...*sigh*...I want to like this game, I really do, but there are just too many problems with the game. I might as well talk about the pro's and con's so you'll understand. Gotta warn you, this is my biggest review yet so yeah

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Presentation:6- Okay, cool intro, nice menus, and then everything is crushed when you go to the character select. Alright, a "new generation" is fine if done right, like Street Fighter 3 or Tekken 3. These games are even considered the best the series. The reason for this is because the characters were LIKABLE. I pretty much want to punch every single new character until my knuckles start bleeding.

rnWell some classic characters return like Siegfried, our original hero, Mitsurugi, who now has a beautiful head of hair, Ivy, who's boobs are even bigger now, Maxi, the love child of Elvis and Bruce Lee, Cervantes, who now looks like Hulk Hogan, and of course Tak- wait, where's Taki? Okay well maybe Sophitia's her- WHERE'S SOPHITIA?! CASSANDRA? ROCK? YEUNG-SEUNG? TALIM? *sigh* all these characters and more have been removed or replaced. Now Yoshimitsu and Astaroth have been replaced though by descendants. Alright that's understandable. Kilik has been replaced by Xiba, some idiot who's only motivation is food. Xianghua has been replaced by Leixia, who's boring. Both Patrokolos and Pyrrha replace Sophitia and Cassandra. New original characters include, Viola, who has a Freddy Kruger hand, ZWEI, the only awesome new character, and Elysium, who's basically the counterpart to Inferno. Now Edge Master makes a return which is nice, he serves as the copy-cat character. Oh hey, Kilik is in this too...as a copy-cat character? Wait, so is Elysium. So there are 3 copy-cat characters? Wow, it's almost as if they ran out of ideas! The special guest they at least got right. He's Ezio from Assassin's Creed. he's a fun, balanced character who isn't broken like Yoda, or useless like The Apprentice.rnrn

Now let me talk about Patrokolos. I had high hopes for Patrokolos because a new hero CAN work. A perfect example is Lars from Tekken 6. Lars was likable, noble, you wanted to see him win. PATROKOLOS ON THE OTHER HAND IS NOW ONE OF THE WORST SOULCALIBUR CHARACTERS I'VE EVER SEEN. He's annoying, he's stubborn, he's unlikable. I actually wanted Nightmare and Tira to destroy the world. In fact, at the final boss fight, I LET myself lose on purpose just to see that IDIOT fall on the ground in shame. There, my anger's out on to storyrnrn

Story:5- Okay, so the story sucks. I really wasn't expecting much from the story. I mean, come on, name me 1 fighting game with a good story....okay but MOST fighters don't care about story. Anyways, the game takes place 17 years after Soulcalibur IV. Siegfried kicked Nightmare's ass and... well that's it. He went back to be the leader of Shawzar....Shewaysar....Sh-shaway....his gang and the world lives happily ever after.... OR DOES IT!!? Meet Patrokolos, our new hero, the son of Sophitia. He works for Vega- I mean Graf Duma hunting down people he claims are "malfested" which means you've been corrupted by Soul Edge. Anyways he finds out Graf Duma is evil, the people he killed were innocent, and Graf Duma is actually Nightmare who now has to possess people again like he did before Soulcalibur III. Now Patrokolos wants to kick demonic ass, find his sister Pyrrha who's malfested with the help of Siegfried, ZWEI, and Viola who doesn't do anything. So yeah, that's the summary of the story. What really annoys me are the cutscenes. While I wasn't expecting much of the story I was hoping for nice looking, actioney cutscenes. And I do get those... for 1/5 of the entire story. The rest of the story is shown in these stupid storybook like images. That would be fine IF I NEW WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON!!! Sometimes I can't tell what's happening like when Patrokolos meets Ivy. In the end story sucks, though that was expectedrnrn


Gameplay:8- This one's gonna be brief since overall, it's still Soulcalibur. Same controls as before so yeah. New to the table are Critical Edges. Remember how in Soulcalibur IV had the Critical Finish which were like Mortal Kombat's fatalities. Well they've been replaced by Critical Edges which are the Super moves from Street Fighter. They're forgettable like the Critical Finishes so nothing spectacular. Stages are nice, single player game modes are...crappy. Seriously if you hated the Tower of Lost Souls in IV then you'll REALLY hate quick battle which is exactly how it sounds. Though character creation's still fun, you can even give characters the move set of Devil Jin from Tekken! Multiplayer, both local and online are still fun. So yeah that's itrnrn


Sound:8- Great music with some good voice acting... with a view exceptions (Xiba, Yoshimitsu, etc.)rnrn


Graphics:9- Great graphics, simple as thatrnrn


Lasting Appeal:N/A- I put no score since it's more of a personal preference. Gamers who wanted some nice options for single player will be turned off by the game. While multi player gamers will be playing for a whilernrnOverall:6- I want to like this game, honestly I do. However, annoying characters and a lack of single player modes makes this game a total letdown.