After a few years, and about a few fighting games later SoulCalibur V is a new installment to the series. Taking some formulas from recent fighting games and implementing into Namco’s Soul Calibur V, does this newest addition stand the test of time or has time become Soul Calibur’s worst enemy?
First and for most if you are a fan of the series or not you’ll notice that the story line isn’t up to snuff compared to the likes of its predecessors from Soul Edge to SoulCalibur IV. The story (the little that you’re accompanied with in campaign mode) is devastatingly abysmal. The main characters that you take control of, Patrokolys and Pyrra, are brother and sister who are separated at birth. Patrokolys finds out that Pyrra is a melfested, a person corrupted by the evil sword called Soul Edge. The story becomes a quest to save her from becoming melfested by resurrecting the good sword called Soul Calibur. That’s it; there are cameos from other characters of the game, but they are so few and far between that the player doesn’t really get invested in any of the characters. Characters like Viola, Nightmare, and Ivy try to make the story interesting but they add nothing to essential plot making the story uninteresting. There are also more art-driven story boards than cut scenes. So unlike the previous installments in the series, the story isn’t something to be proud of. What makes it worse is that SoulCalibur V takes out many series staple characters for replacement of these new ones that are uninteresting. The likes of Taki, Talim and Sung-Mina are gone from the roster. The main characters that are given life to for in the story mode also lack personality outside of just being brother and sister, so getting attached to any of these fighters is hard. This make the entire roster is just now window curtains over stained glass, pointless decorations, over a rather great core piece of gaming. These are just a few of the underlying flaws for the game; everything else is an improvement from the previous installment.
Story: 2.5/5
The other modes offered in SoulCalibur V are Arcade, Quick Match, Legendary Souls, Online and Creation. As stated before in the story section, Arcade is just basic fighting a ladder of opponents with no endings continuing the trend of cardboard characters with no viable reason to be personable, again continuing the trend of boredom. This hurts the series because each character once had a life of their own that the player cared about as stated before. Quick match is in Layman’s terms is an offline version of the online mode, but instead of fighting real people, you compete against computer controlled characters most of them randomly generated from the Creation mode. This gives most of the game its replay value, to see all the cool created characters that the developers came up with. Some looking like characters from other video games (I swear one looked like Link!).
Legendary Souls is a replacement for The Tower in the last game, and I thank the developers for this. Legendary Souls is a very difficult version of Arcade mode where the computer plays like an experienced Soul Calibur veteran. This is better than The Tower from the last game, because you feel more of an accomplishment for passing your foe instead of frustrated that the special restriction to your fighting. Online is self explanatory, you go online to fight other players and I can tell you it’s more fluid and organized then its predecessors. You go into rooms setup either by the developers themselves, or by players and you either click-on a player to battle or move your icon to the middle for a random battle. Lastly the Creation mode, lets you create your own fighter, with the styles either from already made characters or from ONE extra style you unlock. Though when it’s all said and done, what really matters most in a fighting game is game play. This is where the game truly shines.
SoulCalibur takes 3D weapon fighting to another level by revamping Critical Edges with the use of super meters inspired by Namco’s rival fighting games. Also like SoulCalibur’s inspiration, you can use that meter to make one of your attacks more powerful. The environment that each fight takes place in has now lessen the likelyhood of ring outs, unlike SoulCalbur V’s previous installments. The fighting mechanics in SoulCalibur, the core of what makes a fighting game, is as fluid as ever and more user friendly than before. Also taking a page for the RPG genre, you can level up your profile, or “character” in order to unlock extra parts for creation mode. This makes what was once a tired formula, of 3D weapon fighting, into something fresher again and again.
Graphics and Gameplay: 3/5
Though that is saying the word, “fresh” lightly since other then single batter, there is no varied fighting modes provided for the players like in Namco’s rival fighting games. Though some Critical Edges are better than others, pulling them off has never been so satisfying.
Though SoulCalibur V’s story and characters have been left to something less desired, the core of what makes a fighting game makes it a fun and worthwhile purchase for both fans and casual players alike. If you’re a fan of the series though, just don’t expect to find a character to care about further then figuring out which one suits your button mashing skills. I give this game an overall 3.5 out of 5. If you didn’t catch the entire review, here’s just the quick rundown of the good and bad:
Good:
- Fluid combat
- Better fighting arenas
- Newer characters
- Revamped fighting system
- Great modes for both on and off line
- Robust creation mode
Bad:
- Lack of Story
- Lack of variation between characters
- No team battles
- Little series staple fighters