Is Namco only try to get quick bucks with this fan service?
In the 5th game, It feels like Project Soul start to abandon this series. For you who looking for improvements or anything that's new from Soul Calibur V, prepare to be dissapointed. Not only there's nothing new, this game is a stripped version of the previous game.
The Story, Soul Calibur V take place 17 years after the 4th and now the story focus on the children of Shophitia, Patroklos and Phyrra. While Patroklos chosen to wield the Soul Calibur, Phyrra -who is not so lucky- become malfested with Soul Edge's evil power. After the death of Sophitia and the disappearance of her sister, Patroklos decide to fight the Malfested and find a way to rescue his sister before it's too late. Unlike any other fighting game from Namco, this is the first game that only have one story to be told. Yes you heard that right, beside this story of Patroklos and Phyrra which involved all the new characters, there are no story for other characters. So, following the logic that Project Soul only need to focus on one story, the story should be an epic journey of one man try to rescue the world and his sister right? Wrong, the campaign only consist of 20 episode and it's very rushed, confusing, and if you're a Soul Calibur veteran, only last for 2-3 hours (including watching the movies). No one hoping for Oscar material from fighting game's story but when a big developer team of a legendary fighting game have a couple of years to make just one story, it's not wrong to hope for something special right? Not only the laziness of the writer that make this story mode ridiculous, the developer decide to tell the story through picture slideshow that looks like a cheap rough sketches and they didn't even bother to color it (definitely not at the same league with Max Payne's graphic novel). All of this really show the efforts Project Soul gave to this story mode which is, a very big zero.
The Gameplay, the fighting is pretty much the same with the 4th game. Soul Project only simplified the critical edge system. By successfuly hit your opponent (or taking a hit), you will fill your critical gauge that later you can use for guard impact, or unleashed a flashy unblockable attack. Every character have their own unique and stylish attack that you can execute with the same button input. No more rpg-like items, traits, and perks which in my opinion a good thing.
If you intend to play Soul Calibur V offline (like i do), there is not much you can do here. Except for story mode, there are arcade battle which you fight 6 random characters with increasing difficulty, quick battle where you fight continously against made up characters, versus battle, and...well, that's all. It's really bad considering Soul Calibur series known for its heavy content.
The new rooster probably gonna let down any Soul Calibur fans too. Almost half of them are new characters. Old characters like Xiang Hua, Seung Mina, Yun Seong, Talim, Taki, Sophitia, Amy, Cassandra, and Setsuka are all gone. Some of 'em replaced by their daughter, son, or successor, others just simply vanished.
Natsu is Taki's successor, Lei Xia is Xiang Hua's daughter, Xiba is Kilik's successor, Patroklos and Pyrrha are Sophitia's children. These characters are truely just a new skin for the old characters. The only new characters with new style are Z.W.E.I., this guy fight with a sword and his awesome floating werewolf, and Viola, this girl fight with a crystal ball!
Now i understand that Project Soul need to replace some of the characters because this game take place 17 years from the previous game but seriously, who cares? They completely erase Talim, Yun Seong, Seung Mina, Amy, and Setsuka while Raphael, Mitsurugi, Sigfried, Maxi, and Tira stay, don't they get old too? If you look at Tekken's roster, do anyone complain about Jun that never gets old, or Nina that looks almost the same age with Steve or Heihachi that suddenly become young again? No one care! This is very annoying.
While the 4th game has stars from Star Wars as cameo characters, the 5th only get 2, Ezio Auditore from Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed, and Devil Jin as fighting style for your custom
characters.
If you sick of looking at the original characters, as usual you can create your own soul. This time, the creation mode is gettin' deeper. Now you can adjust your avatar's body. Its height, body shape, and muscle mass, you can even adjust her breast size! Now you can also put stickers, tattoo, scar, and put pattern on your avatar clothing and body. But of course don't expect it to be like Forza's vinyl customization. But the downside is that your custom characters are still nothing but new skin for the original characters because there are no unique styles for custom characters. So, if you ask me wether Project Soul give their best efforts on gameplay section, the answer is not much.
The Graphics, now this is the part where Project Soul really put their efforts. The graphics looks beautiful, the characters animation are fluid and fast. The flashy weapon effects looks great, and the motion blur looks fantastic. And it all runs in smooth 60 fps. The only problem is Project Soul didn't put any facial animation for custom characters. They also didn't adjust the lip animation for the Japanese dub. Pretty lazy huh?
The Sound, as usual, the music of Namco's fighting game is great. Although some of them are just remix of the previous scores, overall the music is awesome. In my opinion, the japanese voice cast doing a great job voicing the characters while the English dub...not too good. They always sounded lack of emotion. The sound of the swords and other weapon clashing is great as usual.
Verdict, Soul Calibur V looks like a simple fan service by Namco to Soul Calibur fans. In my opinion they just want to make a quick bucks with small efforts. The extremely lack of content compared to previous games, the laziness of creating new characters, all of these make me wondering if Namco really want to continue this series or maybe they just want to focus on Tekken series? It is still a solid fighting game but unless you are a Soul Calibur big fans, this half-done game only worth a rental.