Review: SoulCalibur V

SoulCalibur as a series overall always has had a special place in my heart and was one of the first fighting games I played back on my Dreamcast. Over the past few years the series has both grown and evolved, adding new bits and pieces to the formula. The story has changed a fair bit since SoulCalibur IV as it is no longer a linear set of stages and you aren’t able to choose which character to partake in the story. The story is based around the main protagonist Patroklos (the son of Sophitia), while Sophitia’s daughter Pyrrha is the deuteragonist. Throughout the short 20 episode story you will take part in different roles of about 3-4 characters, mainly sticking on the primary story path revolving around Patroklos saving his sister Pyrrha from Soul Edge. It’s very simplistic, though presented quite well. There are many moments where you are gifted the beauty of the CGI cut scenes, which I have to say are by far the best looking of the series. You will notice though, that during the story, it doesn’t rely fully on CGI, and is told in the form of a book/scroll. The voice overs are still present, but are shown in a photographic slide-show form. It’s a shame that they couldn’t present the whole story mode in CGI as I feel the effect of the characters emotions and situation would of been a much better experience to see visually instead of through the more conventional and static drawings and text.

It’s nice to see that Namco focused a lot more on the single player story mode than in previous series entries, and it definitely shows. The story took me roughly 2 hours to complete, and even though this may sound short, it is by far the most indepth single player story in the series, and there’s much more here than you’ll find in many other fighting games. The overall experience of the story mode was very impressive, it could have been a lot longer and could of branched out to more characters, however it does a really good job of introducing the game’s characters and fighting styles by switching player control between a small chunk of the roster. It’s just a shame that some of the new characters don’t even get a mention in the story line, which previously in SoulCalibur IV you could choose any character and follow a linear story path for that character. It wasn’t much, but it was interesting learning about how each character fit into the SoulCalibur universe.

You’ll also get to fight in 20 different vibrant locations, differing in detail and scope, though all featuring an amazing score setting the atmosphere for each battle. If that’s not incentive enough to jump into the story mode, then you will also be happy to know that you unlock loads of bonus content including new fighters, locations and items for you own character.SoulCalibur V’s action is as extravagant and over-the-top as fans would expect, but its fighting system has been reworked to offer quicker and smoother combat, removing the sluggish gaps found between moves in previous installments. I felt before that the gameplay was arguably a bit too heavy, especially online, where I would not feel an instant reaction to the characters moves.

The gameplay in SoulCalibur feels like it has had a huge upgrade compared to SoulCalibur IV. The most noticeable aspect is the speed of the action, by this I mean that the fights never have a dull moment and are much more fast paced than they were previously. This could be due to the new characters and balancing, or the fact that they have re-booted the mechanics. It’s brilliant and feels fresh, but still familiar to the classic SoulCallibur formula.

Enemies have weapons which vary their playstyle, along with the different move sets and timing which you’ll need for the critical blow. Side stepping and dodging enemy attacks still play a huge role in this title and feel much more functional than they did in the previous games. The defensive  side has also seen some upgrades, including a new quick side step move, while the basic guard button operates as it used to, with players needing to block incoming attacks at the correct height, and requiring precise timing to parry or counter moves.

For those familiar with the series, the Guard Impact feature will be familiar. This time though, it has been altered, as it now requires you to hold away from the opponent and the horizontal slash, vertical slash, and kick together (as opposed to forward and guard). This already has opened up a new defensive element into the fights, as the feature now allows the player to repel any attack regardless of height, of course ignoring the unblockable attacks.

Another defensive feature added to the game is the new Just Guard  technique, replacing the old style Guard Impact feature. This time around  if you use the Just Guard at the precise moment of an opponent’s attack, you’ll land a perfect guard. This means that the defensive move lessons the amount of delay that the character must wait before retaliating. Giving the great counter-attack option for a lot of players, this is something I took advantage of and will continue to do so.

They have also created a new character leveling system, working across the various game modes including Training and Arcade, allowing you to rank up your fighter while also unlocking customisation options and items. These can then be used in the character creation mode, giving you the chance to create your own SoulCalibur fighter. This feature has been present in previous entries, though this time it returns with many more options for you to adjust, not to mention the copious amount content, keeping the hardcore fans interested for some time. There’s a huge amount of varied content to unlock including a Devil Jin (Tekken) Fighting Style. You can also fiddle with the default characters as well as start from fresh. There’s quite a lot of options to mess around with and it goes to show how much customization they wanted to give to the player. SoulCalibur V wouldn’t be complete either if it didn’t feature a guest character from outside the franchise. Ezio from the Assassin’s Creed series makes his appearance to vary the playing field. He is actually a very interesting fighter to choose and has very good mid-air to long range attacks. Thankfully he doesn’t look out of place, so if you aren’t aware of the character’s background, he shouldn’t stand out too much.

Story mode isn’t the only mode available either, there’s the Legendary Souls, Arcade, Quick Battle, VS Battle, CPU vs CPU (Battle Theater), Training, PlayStation Network/Xbox Live modes and The Creation mode. The Legendary Souls mode is probably one of my favourite new modes, essentially boiling down to a boss rush, with the difficulty ramping up fast.  Arcade is the same as previous arcade modes, just fight you way through different foes until you lose. Quick battle is just for a quick match with a CPU. CPU Vs CPU is a strange mode to put in but if you feel like watching the CPU  fight, feel free. Training and online battles are pretty self explanatory as I’ll explain later on.

The design in SoulCalibur is by far the best in the series, the animation is very fluent and looks beautiful, not to mention how amazingly detailed the backdrops are during the fights. The classic Ring Outs are still present but now they can also add an extra layer of depth on certain stages, as knocking out an opponent from the ring will result in both characters falling down into a new arena to continue the fight ala Dead Of Alive/Tekken.
SoulCalibur has always had great graphics, even since the first title on the Dreamcast. There were many times where I have gone back to the story mode just to replay the parts featuring the cut scenes as I just can’t stop looking at how detailed each character is. Even during the fights, the characters look simply amazing.

The multiplayer mode is probably the best feature in the game. Throughout the whole time playing online while managing to fit a few hours of solid play, I can easily say that this is far better than SoulCalibur IV’s online offerings. You also have to put inconsideration the fact that I’m playing in the UK and the only available servers are currently the USA servers. I played many games and throughout playing online I experienced no lag and had an all-round great experience. Searching for a match is fairly quick, even though there’s hardly anyone online at this point. As soon as you find someone, it shows you their title and the rank information/location before you proceed.  Player matches are also present, similar to Super Street Fighter Arcade Edition. You can have 8 players in a lobby at one time with the winner staying on. You can also now watch other players battle it out whilst waiting, this also means you can save replays and upload them. There’s no editing functionality however so every upload you save consists of the entire match and not just your best bits. It’s not to much of an issue however, though I would hope future fighting games to allow expanded replay functionality.

Now besides your standard, ranked and player matches there is also a new mode called the Global Colosseo. This mode offers many functions, including a form of chat room, tournaments, normal matches and you can start lobbies and hold you own mini tournaments. It looks like it will be a great and popular mode, especially the tournament mode. You can also choose which country/ server you wish to fight in, so if you feel the need to take the challenge across the boarder the option is there.

Now lastly, the Soundtrack. I personally feel that over the past two SoulCalibur titles the soundtracks haven’t been outstanding, personally my favourite soundtrack of the whole series came from the second title. I wasn’t shocked however, as with the amount of work they have put in to making this one of the best SoulCalibur games, the soundtrack doesn’t fall short either, as the soundtrack is truly amazing. It feels like the team went back to their roots to re-master and reboot the music side in the franchise, adding many touches from the previous songs in the series. The musical score is just a masterpiece. Each stage has an amazing score and so do the characters. My personal favourite in the series, and it’s hard not to love all the songs but it has to be Sword of Resolution (Patroklos’ Theme) that does it for me. There are just so many amazing original pieces in this game it is just really outstanding. I would even recommend purchasing the soundtrack even if you’re not into the series.

Overall 9.5/10 – Editors Choice

SoulCalibur V is the best SoulCalibur title since SoulCalibur 2. The team has worked exceptionally hard by putting the series back on form. It has had a lot of work put into the balancing of the characters and the overall feel of the gameplay. The package feels more complete than ever before and fans of the series will be happy to know that it seems SoulCalibur is back on track. There are many added features that sold it for me. The new take on the story mode was a great touch, even though it’s short and not fully animated it still was interesting and very fun to play through, and I’m sure I will play certain episodes again in the near future. The overall disappointment is how the story doesn’t give room to introduce all the new characters, or even a separate story for the new characters. Hopefully with some upcoming updates/DLC we may be able to venture with the newer characters.  The design and soundtrack alone are the best in the series since SoulCalibur 2. The updated creation zone as well as new characters have added much more depth to the gameplay, especially on the defensive side. The multiplayer is near enough perfect, though there could be a few tweaks here and there but nothing too major that caused me to stop playing. It’s addictive, fun and the Global Colosseo mode will be very popular for hardcore fighters. I feel that with all the major changes, upgrades and new systems in-place that the game could deserve a 10/10. There are some minor flaws, mainly in the story section of the game but the overall experience of the title is one I will never forget and will continue playing for a very long time.

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