Review: SoulCalibur IV

There are two kinds of sequels: the content-driven sequels, where the game is mostly the same but you’ve got new levels to go through, and the re-iteration sequels, where the game itself changes but the content is mostly the same. The latter kind of sequel makes for a tough reviewing challenge, because the game is completely different depending on your point of view: whether or not you’ve played the previous games in the series changes your perspective.

For first time duelers, SoulCalibur IV is the premier 3D weapons-based fighting game. The concept is simple: defeat your opponent in a one-on-one battle. The controls consist of horizontal and vertical attacks, kicks, and guards, as well as movement. Combinations of these controls execute a large library of different attacks, some of which place your character in a unique stance from which different attacks can be made. The trick to mastering SoulCalibur IV is to know which attack to use and when. Each character has a very different fighting style based on his or her preferred weapon, ranging from a traditional katana to a huge axe to what can only be described as a deadly hula-hoop.

SoulCalibur IV also distinguishes itself from old 2D fighters in that it gives its combatants access to a full 3D arena. In addition to moving towards and away from your opponent, you can move towards and away from the camera. On the other hand, jumping plays a far smaller role and is primarily reduced to short hops to jump over low attacks. Most arenas have ledges around the edge of the fighting area, and tossing your opponent out of the ring is another strategy for victory. Others have walls, and some have a mix, such as a circular room half walled and half open balcony. This means that selecting a battle arena actually has some impact on the game.

Combat in SoulCalibur IV is largely melee. Though most characters have some sort of ranged attack, these play a very minor role in the game. The real core of SoulCalibur combat is not in scoring hits, as much as avoiding being hit. Guarding is easy: just hold the guard button. Guarding against an attack results in no damage being dealt. However, you cannot guard against every attack at the same time. A standard guard pose will only block high and medium attacks, not low attacks. Ducking will let you evade high attacks and block low attacks, but medium attacks will hit their mark. Also, guarding doesn’t stop your opponent from throwing you or landing an unblockable attack.

The unique feature that veritably defines success in SoulCalibur IV is the guard impact. Instead of holding the guard button, press guard and either towards or away from your opponent and time it just to intercept the attack and you’ll riposte or parry the attack. A quick parry interrupts your opponent’s attack and you can go on the offensive. Plus, he’ll be stunned from the guard impact so he can’t guard. He can, of course, counter with another guard impact of his own. If you need a bigger reprieve, you can riposte and throw your opponent to the ground.

But all this is standard fare for fans of the SoulCalibur series. The bigger question is: what’s changed, and what’s stayed the same? Core mechanics, characters, and arena mode are what’s stayed the same. Everything else is what’s changed.

Combat changes include two new major features: equipment destruction and critical finishers. Now, every time you block an attack, your equipment takes damage and can eventually break. Thus, the days of defending against button mashers by simply holding block are gone. There’s also this ‘soul gauge’ which changes colour as you’re beat upon. When it flashes red, you’re vulnerable to a critical finisher by your opponent, which will instantly kill you. Defensive play, by and large, is eliminated by these two changes to the game.

On the other hand, guard impact has gotten a slight boost with the just impact. If you time your perfectly timed guard impact even more perfectly, you stun your opponent and make your next attack a critical hit. Very strong. But timing guard impacts was tough enough for most players; timing a just impact is more random luck than anything else.

As with every SoulCalibur incarnation, a few new characters grace the stage. There’s one main new character in the game: Hilde, who wields both a short sword and a polarm for a mix of long and short ranged attacks. Also, in addition to which ever star wars characters you get based on the version you buy, there’s a whole slew of bonus characters, including a new “last boss” type character Algol, who wields fragments of both SoulCalibur and Soul Edge in either hand. Otherwise, most original characters are back, though many bonus characters, including any of the ‘random weapon’ characters (Charade, Olcadan, etc) are gone.

One feature of SoulCalibur III that was quite interesting was the custom character creation system. You could create a character which would have access to a few fighting styles, mixed together from a few unique styles for the create-a-character mode and a few fighting styles from the main characters. Then you could customize its appearance with gear unlocked from playing the game. There are two major changes in SoulCalibur IV’s system. First, there are no custom-only fighting styles, you simply create a custom-appearance clone of an existing character. Secondly, the equipment used to dress up your character actually has stats, so you have to balance a good-looking character with one that can actually fight effectively. These two were both let downs for me, since I enjoyed the unique fighting styles from the SC3 create-a-character and also enjoyed the freedom to make my character look any way I wanted without having to worry about stats.

Also gone from SC3 is the Chronicle of the Sword adventure mode, which was an odd yet enjoyable feature in the Playstation 2 exclusive incarnation of the series. Personally, I really enjoyed a mode which had some sense of progression, especially because it encouraged you to fight with multiple different units across the map. On the other hand, SoulCalibur IV does introduce a switch system, which lets you swap characters mid-fight, just like most tag-in systems in other fighting games.

Finally, to wrap up, a word on the graphics. On the Playstation 3, it’s gorgeous, but pixelated. The game only runs at 720p and without anti-aliasing. That said, it’s smooth and never shows any hint of framerate or lag issues, which is ultimately more important than appearance in a fighting game where millisecond timing is everything. Sound is spectacular, and I particularly enjoyed being able to set the character voices to their original Japanese while maintaining the English announcer and subtitles. Also, the Playstation 3 version offers an optional install, which significantly reduces load times. It’s a welcome feature and it’s great to have it as an option rather than a requirement.

On the Xbox 360, (which Capt. Maverick spent hours playing), the visuals were almost as nice as was seen on the PS3. But for the Xbox 360, the focus of SCIV was on the light side of the force featuring Yoda. Mav seemed to love playing with this little aggressive creature the most as he would dance around the ring of combat like a little green blur and had an interesting take down move, not to mention his finishing move.

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The load times were a little shorter on the Xbox 360 but we can likely attribute that to the slightly less enhanced graphics quality. Though the excitement of the classic fighter was no less fun on the 360 as it was on the PS3. Whether you fight on the dark or light side of the Force, the game has some a long way from its predecessor.

SoulCalibur IV is definitely the fighter to have on the Playstation 3, and the Xbox 360; at least until Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm comes out later this year!

Score: 9.2 (out of 10)

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