snickothemule
March 7th, 2009, 23:41
Soul Calibur IV
The Stage of History
When Soul Calibur was released for the Dreamcast and the arcades it marked a new age for deep and varied weapons based fighting games. Sure there were the Tekkens, and the Virtua Fighters for intricate strategy fighting, but Soul Calibur and its predecessor Soul Edge were of a much different breed. After being heralded by many as the greatest fighter of all time, it was one of the best reasons to own a Dreamcast and to this day is still a fantastic game to get involved with. Team Project Soul released a sequel for the Gamecube, PS2 and the Xbox with exclusive characters for each console and saw a roster update. A third game was made for the PS2 and saw another roster update, but didn’t really expand on too many new ideas, after all there was no real reason to update the established and silky smooth gameplay, and for a fourth time Bandai Namco are set to unleash the tale of two swords once again, but have they run out of ideas?
http://i44.tinypic.com/ok6kl.jpg
With fencing, the key is all in the THRUST!
As is the norm for most fighting sequels, the story is not a real continuation from the previous games, but it isn’t really a re-telling either, just a different set of events with fresh characters, but once again, Soul Edge and Soul Calibur, two of the most powerful weapons in history are once again sending fighters from around the world on an endless quest to complete the evil blades and introducing a new era for the world. This time, a long forgotten king has been reawakened and is in possession of the two blades which are the only sources of power keeping him alive and tied to the physical realm, and he needs a human sacrifice to make his resurrection complete. It is the goal of every fighter to stop him and use Soul Edge for their own reasons, be it revenge, retribution, resolution, or any number of multi syllable words describing some heroic or evil deed, so pretty much a standard story on offer then.
Crossing Swords
Keeping the well established fighting element of horizontal, vertical kick and grab attacks SCIV hasn’t done anything to improve the already perfect fighting system save for minor tweaks to hit detection and balance. What has been added are a few new tactical changes to the health system. First of all is the equipment destruction, where once you attack a specific part of the body enough times the body armour will break away exposing their bodies enabling bonus damage to be awarded. A new element to the health system called Soul Crush, where if a character is spamming the block button or ‘turtelling’ then a few heavy strikes will weaken their soul gage and once it has been broken down and flashing red, and a heavy strike is performed then their block will break allowing the attacker to give an instant match ending strike with the press of a button, disregarding how much health is remaining. This has been the biggest implementation to the proceedings as it effectively stops people from blocking the whole time and forcing them to either use the counter system or to actually go on the attack. It may seem cheap to some, but stopping people from whoring the block button goes a long way in making online matches a bit fairer.
http://i44.tinypic.com/15wx6k7.jpg
Beat you around your ring, I will
Keeping with fighting game tradition and lore there are several new characters to choose from, some of them well placed, others seem questionable and out of place. On the upside, there is Hilde a female knight who is after Soul Edge, so that she can destroy it and return peace to her kingdom and to achieve this she wields a pole and a short sword. There is also Amy, a character tied to Raphael and shares a similar fighting style. These two are fine additions to the ever expanding roster and with the total count at around 30 or so fighters, there is never a shortage of people to choose from. Or you can simply create your own character from scratch, with a wide variety of options at hand to make a fighter that is tailored to your own style of fighting. Disappointingly you are unable to create your own move sets, as right from the beginning you must choose your characters fighting style off one of the existing characters, and all the moves that come along with it. That being said however, the ability to manipulate the looks and powers of the character is quite substantial, with options ranging from how tall, short, busty and buff we want them to be, to their hair style and colour, to what shape their eyes are. All of these are superficial, save for the equipment they wear as this determines how well your created character will survive in the new fighting mode.
Yes, a new single player mode has been added to the established arcade and story mode (both of which are now tied with online rankings) and this mode is known as the Tower of Souls, with 60 odd floors to climb and descend, and can be done either with an existing character, or with one of your own creation. In this mode, each floor has a challenge that must be met, be it block 5 times in a row, throw the opponent 3 times or never lose any health, but the game never straight out telling you what you have to do, rather it gives you a cryptic clue such as ‘lure the enemy into the abyss’ flat out means that you must throw the enemy out of the ring. Meeting these challenges are required to unlock new equipment for the character creation element, of which is necessary to meet the increasing challenge as the floors go higher and higher. It is this new mode that is the meat and potatoes of Soul Calibur IV and is the most addictive part of the game. Forever changing the equipment to get a few extra points for spending on supplemental abilities such as health bursts or auto counters becomes an exercise in endless manipulation and late night fine tuning. And once the ascension part is complete you can descend the tower, fighting an endless stream of opponents, unlocking equipment once every 5 levels.
http://i43.tinypic.com/2d1nuq8.jpg
I'm going to start swinging my arms like this. If you get in the way it's your own fault!
The Dark Side
Along with the new tier of fighters Namco Bandai have decided to reach into other franchises for expansion of the roster and on this occasion they have chosen to dip into the Star Wars franchise to pinch some iconic characters as exclusive fighters for the two rival consoles, with Yoda for the Xbox 360 and Lord Vader for the PS3. Both consoles do receive the Apprentice from the Force Unleashed. On the surface these characters seem ridiculous to be included in the proceedings and the back story justifying their presence is even more confusing, but for the most part they are fine additions for the game. Vader fits in well with his powerful and intimidating style and the apprentice is more of a sleek ranged fighter with some particularly cheap projectile attacks. And then there is Yoda, who will no doubt be the favourite for most, not only because he is so quick and nimble, but because he is a balance breaking short fighter where a good portion of attacks simply fly over his head and grabbing him is near to impossible. These three also have a force gage giving them some extra moves, but because it drains when in use and if it runs out then they are especially vulnerable to attacks. These may seem like odd choices for a fantasy based fighting game, but as individually designed characters Project Soul have done these fighters great justice bringing them to HD gaming.
http://i40.tinypic.com/29yk3dv.jpg
Pole dancing: the early years
Fully utilizing the power of the 360 and PS3, Soul Calibur IV has to be one of, if not the prettiest fighters ever to be released. Characters are hugely detailed, with intricate additions to armour and facial expressions and some of the finest texture work seen on gaming consoles to date. Coupled with the splendid depth of field effects and the mandatory high dynamic range lighting, which for once is not too over powering the game is given an incredibly stylized look, and when combined with the luscious environments ranging from clean open aired jungle environments to the boiling hot volcano levels the game looks a real treat, and with no noticeable jaggies and silky smooth frame rates, incredible art style, and short loading times everything fits in naturally and just feels right. The soundtrack is also quite stirring, with string and wind instruments preaching melodic and melancholy tunes that feel so in tune with the visual style, that is makes the experience so much richer. Voice acting is a little bit too jarring though, taking a bit of a step back from the likes of Soul Calibur II, but with such a minimal focus on the voices, and more on the deep fighting engine it really isn’t that much of a bother. This is also not a game for anyone who is not willing to invest allot of time in learning all the intricacies of the fighting engine, as it is very daunting for those who are used to button mashing, a technique which will quickly see you defeated quick smart.
Low Blow
So far then you would assume that Soul Calibur IV manages to reach the same levels of insanely high polish and hardcoreness, as did the Dreamcast edition all those years ago and for most of the experience I had with the game you would assume correct. But there are a few minor issues here and there. For starters some of the dialogue goes beyond weird and ventures into farce, such as when Cervantes defeats an opponent he will walk away sprouting “I shall never look back” only for him to stop in his tracks and look over his shoulder, or when the poster boy of SCIV Siegfried shouts out “I shall say nothing more....just leave” which says to me that these people either are incredibly stupid or just fail to follow their own advice. The other little issue is with clipping of equipment on character models, mainly little things like sword sheaths or capes with go straight through the character model, effectively killing any sense of immersion it manages to create. These may be only minor grievances but they do undermine the incredible amount of polish Project Soul has managed to accomplish.
http://i39.tinypic.com/2s999gn.jpg
Coochy, coochy, coochy, coo
Stage Cleared
Utilizing everything Project Soul have learned over the years developing one of the most complete fighting games in existence, these fine developers have managed to take a well established genre and thoroughly take it to new heights with some very smart decisions. This can only mean one thing however, that as complete as SCIV is, if another game is to be made from the Soul Calibur franchise it will have a hell of a hard time trying to top what is now a shining example of how to take a near perfect game, and reinvent what our definition is of perfect is. Soul Calibur IV then is a fighting game that does just about everything right without ignoring what made it great in the first place.
Gameplay – 95
Visuals – 96
Audio – 90
Overall – 94
Deep, intricate and highly tactical, this is one seriously great fighter.
Game experienced on 360 at 1080i over component on Sony Bravia with 7.2 audio
The Stage of History
When Soul Calibur was released for the Dreamcast and the arcades it marked a new age for deep and varied weapons based fighting games. Sure there were the Tekkens, and the Virtua Fighters for intricate strategy fighting, but Soul Calibur and its predecessor Soul Edge were of a much different breed. After being heralded by many as the greatest fighter of all time, it was one of the best reasons to own a Dreamcast and to this day is still a fantastic game to get involved with. Team Project Soul released a sequel for the Gamecube, PS2 and the Xbox with exclusive characters for each console and saw a roster update. A third game was made for the PS2 and saw another roster update, but didn’t really expand on too many new ideas, after all there was no real reason to update the established and silky smooth gameplay, and for a fourth time Bandai Namco are set to unleash the tale of two swords once again, but have they run out of ideas?
http://i44.tinypic.com/ok6kl.jpg
With fencing, the key is all in the THRUST!
As is the norm for most fighting sequels, the story is not a real continuation from the previous games, but it isn’t really a re-telling either, just a different set of events with fresh characters, but once again, Soul Edge and Soul Calibur, two of the most powerful weapons in history are once again sending fighters from around the world on an endless quest to complete the evil blades and introducing a new era for the world. This time, a long forgotten king has been reawakened and is in possession of the two blades which are the only sources of power keeping him alive and tied to the physical realm, and he needs a human sacrifice to make his resurrection complete. It is the goal of every fighter to stop him and use Soul Edge for their own reasons, be it revenge, retribution, resolution, or any number of multi syllable words describing some heroic or evil deed, so pretty much a standard story on offer then.
Crossing Swords
Keeping the well established fighting element of horizontal, vertical kick and grab attacks SCIV hasn’t done anything to improve the already perfect fighting system save for minor tweaks to hit detection and balance. What has been added are a few new tactical changes to the health system. First of all is the equipment destruction, where once you attack a specific part of the body enough times the body armour will break away exposing their bodies enabling bonus damage to be awarded. A new element to the health system called Soul Crush, where if a character is spamming the block button or ‘turtelling’ then a few heavy strikes will weaken their soul gage and once it has been broken down and flashing red, and a heavy strike is performed then their block will break allowing the attacker to give an instant match ending strike with the press of a button, disregarding how much health is remaining. This has been the biggest implementation to the proceedings as it effectively stops people from blocking the whole time and forcing them to either use the counter system or to actually go on the attack. It may seem cheap to some, but stopping people from whoring the block button goes a long way in making online matches a bit fairer.
http://i44.tinypic.com/15wx6k7.jpg
Beat you around your ring, I will
Keeping with fighting game tradition and lore there are several new characters to choose from, some of them well placed, others seem questionable and out of place. On the upside, there is Hilde a female knight who is after Soul Edge, so that she can destroy it and return peace to her kingdom and to achieve this she wields a pole and a short sword. There is also Amy, a character tied to Raphael and shares a similar fighting style. These two are fine additions to the ever expanding roster and with the total count at around 30 or so fighters, there is never a shortage of people to choose from. Or you can simply create your own character from scratch, with a wide variety of options at hand to make a fighter that is tailored to your own style of fighting. Disappointingly you are unable to create your own move sets, as right from the beginning you must choose your characters fighting style off one of the existing characters, and all the moves that come along with it. That being said however, the ability to manipulate the looks and powers of the character is quite substantial, with options ranging from how tall, short, busty and buff we want them to be, to their hair style and colour, to what shape their eyes are. All of these are superficial, save for the equipment they wear as this determines how well your created character will survive in the new fighting mode.
Yes, a new single player mode has been added to the established arcade and story mode (both of which are now tied with online rankings) and this mode is known as the Tower of Souls, with 60 odd floors to climb and descend, and can be done either with an existing character, or with one of your own creation. In this mode, each floor has a challenge that must be met, be it block 5 times in a row, throw the opponent 3 times or never lose any health, but the game never straight out telling you what you have to do, rather it gives you a cryptic clue such as ‘lure the enemy into the abyss’ flat out means that you must throw the enemy out of the ring. Meeting these challenges are required to unlock new equipment for the character creation element, of which is necessary to meet the increasing challenge as the floors go higher and higher. It is this new mode that is the meat and potatoes of Soul Calibur IV and is the most addictive part of the game. Forever changing the equipment to get a few extra points for spending on supplemental abilities such as health bursts or auto counters becomes an exercise in endless manipulation and late night fine tuning. And once the ascension part is complete you can descend the tower, fighting an endless stream of opponents, unlocking equipment once every 5 levels.
http://i43.tinypic.com/2d1nuq8.jpg
I'm going to start swinging my arms like this. If you get in the way it's your own fault!
The Dark Side
Along with the new tier of fighters Namco Bandai have decided to reach into other franchises for expansion of the roster and on this occasion they have chosen to dip into the Star Wars franchise to pinch some iconic characters as exclusive fighters for the two rival consoles, with Yoda for the Xbox 360 and Lord Vader for the PS3. Both consoles do receive the Apprentice from the Force Unleashed. On the surface these characters seem ridiculous to be included in the proceedings and the back story justifying their presence is even more confusing, but for the most part they are fine additions for the game. Vader fits in well with his powerful and intimidating style and the apprentice is more of a sleek ranged fighter with some particularly cheap projectile attacks. And then there is Yoda, who will no doubt be the favourite for most, not only because he is so quick and nimble, but because he is a balance breaking short fighter where a good portion of attacks simply fly over his head and grabbing him is near to impossible. These three also have a force gage giving them some extra moves, but because it drains when in use and if it runs out then they are especially vulnerable to attacks. These may seem like odd choices for a fantasy based fighting game, but as individually designed characters Project Soul have done these fighters great justice bringing them to HD gaming.
http://i40.tinypic.com/29yk3dv.jpg
Pole dancing: the early years
Fully utilizing the power of the 360 and PS3, Soul Calibur IV has to be one of, if not the prettiest fighters ever to be released. Characters are hugely detailed, with intricate additions to armour and facial expressions and some of the finest texture work seen on gaming consoles to date. Coupled with the splendid depth of field effects and the mandatory high dynamic range lighting, which for once is not too over powering the game is given an incredibly stylized look, and when combined with the luscious environments ranging from clean open aired jungle environments to the boiling hot volcano levels the game looks a real treat, and with no noticeable jaggies and silky smooth frame rates, incredible art style, and short loading times everything fits in naturally and just feels right. The soundtrack is also quite stirring, with string and wind instruments preaching melodic and melancholy tunes that feel so in tune with the visual style, that is makes the experience so much richer. Voice acting is a little bit too jarring though, taking a bit of a step back from the likes of Soul Calibur II, but with such a minimal focus on the voices, and more on the deep fighting engine it really isn’t that much of a bother. This is also not a game for anyone who is not willing to invest allot of time in learning all the intricacies of the fighting engine, as it is very daunting for those who are used to button mashing, a technique which will quickly see you defeated quick smart.
Low Blow
So far then you would assume that Soul Calibur IV manages to reach the same levels of insanely high polish and hardcoreness, as did the Dreamcast edition all those years ago and for most of the experience I had with the game you would assume correct. But there are a few minor issues here and there. For starters some of the dialogue goes beyond weird and ventures into farce, such as when Cervantes defeats an opponent he will walk away sprouting “I shall never look back” only for him to stop in his tracks and look over his shoulder, or when the poster boy of SCIV Siegfried shouts out “I shall say nothing more....just leave” which says to me that these people either are incredibly stupid or just fail to follow their own advice. The other little issue is with clipping of equipment on character models, mainly little things like sword sheaths or capes with go straight through the character model, effectively killing any sense of immersion it manages to create. These may be only minor grievances but they do undermine the incredible amount of polish Project Soul has managed to accomplish.
http://i39.tinypic.com/2s999gn.jpg
Coochy, coochy, coochy, coo
Stage Cleared
Utilizing everything Project Soul have learned over the years developing one of the most complete fighting games in existence, these fine developers have managed to take a well established genre and thoroughly take it to new heights with some very smart decisions. This can only mean one thing however, that as complete as SCIV is, if another game is to be made from the Soul Calibur franchise it will have a hell of a hard time trying to top what is now a shining example of how to take a near perfect game, and reinvent what our definition is of perfect is. Soul Calibur IV then is a fighting game that does just about everything right without ignoring what made it great in the first place.
Gameplay – 95
Visuals – 96
Audio – 90
Overall – 94
Deep, intricate and highly tactical, this is one seriously great fighter.
Game experienced on 360 at 1080i over component on Sony Bravia with 7.2 audio