I was not at all impressed with Soul Edge in the arcade, and wasnÂ’t terribly wowed by Soul Calibur arcade either. For some reason that defies conventional video gaming wisdom, both console versions were far, far superior to their coin-op brethren. Soul Calibur for the DC is a masterpiece, plain and simple. It is an improvement over both the original game and its big brother coin-op.
The first and most surprising improvement was in the graphics area. Yes, Soul Calibur for the DC looks better than the arcade version. As far as I know, this is a first. The resolution has been upped a bit, and everything is clear and clean and silky smooth. The fights move at a frantic pace, all at a wonderful 60 fps. Each fighter looks amazing, from the way they move to how each has there own unique fighting style. One character, Cervantes, is wearing fishnet draped between his legs in one of his costumes (all characters have 2 totally different costumes, some have 3). And you can see between every hole in the cloth! ItÂ’s amazing! Each character was motion captured and moves with amazing realism. If you are any kind of martial arts fan, you can really recognize the amount of trouble Namco went to give Soul Calibur a very authentic feel, with a bit of flash thrown in to make things interesting.
The second improvement is what I believe makes Soul Calibur such a great game. The designers added many new modes of play, far more than most arcade ports (except, of course, other Namco games). Team Battle, Survival, Extra Survival, Time Attack, Mission Mode, Vs Mode, Practice, Arcade Mode, and Museum are just a few of the new modes. Some of these are better than others, but all are fun and worth checking out. The Mission Mode is especially worthy of note. In it, you travel all around the world, to the different locations in the game, and at each arena you have a specific goal. Some of these are simple: “Defeat all enemies,” and you fight 3 different fighters in a row, or whatever. The variety of difficulty and mission objectives makes this the big time consumer for Soul Calibur. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent in the coliseum or at the proving grounds, trying some of those damn near impossible missions. Mission mode alone is worth the price of admission. Not all of the different modes and fighters are available at the start of the game, however. You have to earn them. I really liked this feature, as it encouraged me to play all the different characters and find all the hidden aspects of the game.
The fighting engine itself is also an accomplishment. Soul Calibur balances a lot of things very well. Each character is well developed and has his or her own flair, yet no one is much more powerful than any other. This may not seem so at first, as “button mashers” seem to reign supreme. However, once you get acclimated to how Soul Calibur works, it becomes very easy to counter and thoroughly stomp any button masher. Part of this is due to SC’s unique defense system. You can block, just like in most games, but by pressing forward or back on the controller at the same time as pressing block, your character will “parry” the blow, knocking the attacker off balance and letting you counter attack. It takes some getting used to, but eventuality a patient player can totally humiliate a button masher.
Which brings us to the Player Vs Player aspect of SC, and the one thing that most people consider when they buy a fighting game. The Vs. Mode is adequate, not much can really be said. All the options you would want are there, I never found myself saying “I wish that I could turn that option off” or “I wish I could customize that a little bit more.” Everything is easy to change and customize.
Ok, the game isn’t 100% perfect, though it is damn close. For one thing, the computer opponents are pretty damn easy, unless you crank the difficulty level WAY up. Going through the whole arcade mode in under 10 min on “hard” is not very difficult at all. Fortunately there is a “very hard” and “ultra hard” difficulties as well, but even these aren’t’ too much of a challenge. Also, if anyone played the PSX version of Soul Blade, they’d be familiar with Edge Master mode. Now THAT was cool. Although mission mode is neat, the prospect of having different weapons that had vastly different properties and each battle having to be fought with a very specific strategy in mind was very, very cool. And finally, the way you earn secrets in SC had potential, but it kind fizzles out. You earn points in Mission mode, which can be spent in the “art gallery” for concept art, character sketches, fan art, etc that had been included with the game. Some art pieces when bought will produce a screen telling you what secret you had just unlocked. A neat idea, except that about 90% of the art in the gallery is pretty lame. Some of the Fan Art is cool, but, to be honest, I didn’t look at most of it, I just bought the next one, hoping to get a new secret. A little more thought and time could have turned this option into something REALLY cool.
So thatÂ’s it? My only complaints are lack of Edge master mode and lame art? WellÂ… yeah! ThatÂ’s about it. I bought SC same day I got my DC, I even waited on getting Sonic so I could afford this game first. And for the past month and a half or so, IÂ’ve been looking for things wrong w/ SC. Except for the above, thatÂ’s it. The game is, as I said, a masterpiece. Go buy it!