The awakening of the greatest fighting game franchise, Soul Calibur.
Story: Many warriors sought the legendary sword Soul Edge, whom they believed it was a sword of blessing while others knew that it was a terribly cursed sword that sucks the souls of those who wield it.
There were rumors said that the sword was under possession of an evil pirate.
It was also rumored that Soul Edge wasn’t a single sword, but 2 swords paired.
Those who confronted the pirate perished before the might of the sword, however there was a mortal women who was send by the gods to banish the sword, while the mortal was able to shatter one sword the warrior was gravely wounded and as the pirate was about to suck her soul another warrior appeared and defeated the evil pirate. The pirate, overcome by the sword’s powers, was burned and his corpse lay in the port of Valencia and remained there for a time.
One day a young warrior who was driven by madness sought out the sword and discovered it in the port, laying next to a pirate’s corpse. As the young warrior reached out for the sword Soul Edge was brought to life and was ready retaliate. Driven by insanity the young warrior easily defeated the sword and was ready to claim it for himself. However as he grasped the sword’s hilt a bright light shined and evil energy rained all over the world, driving those who touch them into madness and slaughter, it was the most bloody and tragic day in history, many lives were lost and many evil were born, thus that day was dubbed “the evil seed”. The sword took advantage of youth’s madness and assumed control of a new host, thus giving birth to a new evil, a knight in azure armor.
The Knight now has one goal in mind, to seek souls and feed them to Soul Edge in order for it to recover. 3 years have passed since the azure knight began his slaughter, the knight even managed to gain followers whom helped him collect souls.
The sword now growing ever stronger by the hour was ready to prepare a large soul hunt and will drive the world into eternal darkness. However unknown to the world there were also stories of another legendary sword that was long ago carved with holy powers and was said to be the only force that is powerful enough to battle Soul Edge. If this sword were to exist, where could it be?
As the answer to that question remains a mysterious Soul Edge grows ever stronger in power.
Game design: There graphics are incredibly detailed, the new environments look unbelievable and the character’s motions and designs are perfectly detailed.
Characters from the previous game make a return such as Taki, Mitsurugi and Seung-Mina. The game introduces new heroes and villains that we all grow to love in future games such as Nighmare, Kilik, Ivy and many more.
There is the Arcade mode, VS mode and a new mode called Mission Mode, which is similar to Edge Master mode in the previous game, where you travel around the world with each character but this time you won’t obtain new weapons. Other traditional modes such as practice and time attack are also available. You can access special features such as arts and you can also customize the intro movie. Even thought the intro sequence isn’t in CG presentation you can alter which characters to put in a place.
Game play:
First of all this game is nowhere near the same as the last game. Soul Calibur is a fighting game involving the usage of weapons, characters will have weapons of their own (Even though there are some clone characters). The game play mechanics has drastically changed to suit the game’s style. The game introduces the revolutionary 8-way run system. Unlike other fighting games characters can move freely any direction they want, including left and right by simply tapping to the direction (unlike other game where you can only move back and forth, or have to tap twice just to move left or right). This new system gave way for new strategies and the feeling of freedom makes the game a lot more enjoyable.
Another new concept is that characters movements are a lot easier to execute, unlike the previous game where you had to do mindless button mashings, you will have full control of your character’s attacks, with a bit of practice you can even master them all, not to mention the 8-run way system will make developing combos so much easier.
Other basic movements such as guard, horizontal and vertical attack and guard impacts also make a return.
The game removed high jumping (You can still do a littlie jump by holding guard and pushing up), sword lock (which is very unfortunate they removed it) and, best of, all the sword meter (You no longer have to worry about losing your weapon).
Sound: There are new well-orchestrated music added to the game. Unfortunately there are no English voice-overs done to the game, only Japanese, so you will be reading dialogues. Sound effects have also improved.
Soul Calibur is clearly a fighting game you don’t want to miss. You will love the clash of swords, the incredible looking backgrounds, lots of game play hours especially when fighting a friend and story is incredibly interesting, which is unusual for a fighting game to have good stories. Soul Calibur is completely different from any other fightings.
If you want a good reason to get a Dreamcast this game is the answer!