"The epic battle of souls and swords..."

This is Namco's fourth incarnation of the Soul Calibur series, a series that stands alongside gaming giants such as Tekken and Street Fighter in the hall of fighting game greats. This fourth incarnation sees the return of all the classic fighters of old coupled with the introduction of some new and exciting ones. So unsheathe your blades (or light sabres) and prepare yourselves for the eternal battle of souls and swords.  

Graphics and Presentation

Long before the game Soul Calibur acquired the Calibur in it's title, it was known as Soul Blade (Soul Edge in Japan) back in the humble beginnings of Playstation 1. Even back then it was quite a looker graphically and this holds true to this day with Soul Calibur 4. Character models have been improved with enhanced detail and breakable armour. The new content doesn't end with just adding to character models, Namco have also upped the game in terms of backgrounds too. Stages now look lusher than ever and even include a destructible element to them i.e. breakable walls, which lead to extended battlegrounds.

Soul Calibur 4 maintains the flashiness of its older brothers, hit detection and lighting effects are top class, with battles (especially between seasoned players) looking like sparkly light shows. Players are able to stumble opponents or parry attacks, "if blocks are timed right" leading to either a flash of blue or green light brightening the screen depending on the action taken.

The game aims to supersede its predecessors and for the most achieves its goals. However during my time with Soul Calibur 4, I felt that the single player experience had been toned down slightly, losing some of its appeal, with story mode only spanning 5 bouts and the Tower of Lost Souls mode lacking the depth of Soul Calibur 3's action/RPG add on, or the original Soul Calibur's map based campaign.




Sound

Soul Calibur 4 has maintained and indeed improved upon the glorious soundtrack from previous versions. The people over at Namco have definitely achieved an epic overtone for the musical score of this game.   

Gameplay

Soul Calibur 4 is your standard "one on one" fighting game and it's not one of those titles that has been resurrected and reconstructed from the ground up. The gameplay mechanic is relatively unchanged from previous titles, obviously using the adage "If it isn't broke, don't fix it".

Although largely unchanged play, the game has had a few minor additions this time round. The first being a reworking of character moves, with some of the characters from previous games having moves toned down or in some cases taken away completely to balance out uneven play. The second is the critical break, each character now posses a type of unblockable finishing move. When an opponent's guard meter flashes red, signifying the moment it's about to break, if you enter the correct input you'll unleash an unstoppable attack that will shatter your opponent's guard and kill your opponent in the flashiest of ways- leaving you the victor of the round/fight.

Although this may at first seem slightly unfair to the player receiving the critical break attack, the conditions for pulling this uber move off are hard to set up correctly and on top of all that, your opponent has to block for you to break their guard. Basic things like the 8 way run are still in place, meaning your character can move in eight directions changing attack with each (left, right, up, down and all in-between).

The game offers a variation of modes ranging from Arcade Mode, which consists of you battling through a set number of rounds to gain cash to buy items, characters and artwork. Story Mode, in which you play a set number of rounds facing opponents that relate to your chosen character's story, unlocking cash and character endings upon completion. Tower of Lost Souls, in which you can level up your chosen character (or created character) and equip he/her with various outfits and items as you progress through increasingly difficult stages of play. And then there's Network Battle, where you take the battle online to fight against gamers around the world.

Returning from the last in the Calibur series "Soul Calibur 3", is the character creation mode, in which the player is able to create a character from the ground up using the initially basic set of items available, (with countless unlockables to uncover) adding a weapon and fight style from any of the main games characters. Colour, stance, voice, muscle mass and a whole host of other options are customizable.

Closing Comments

As the eternal battle of souls and swords continues, the fun and enjoyment from earlier versions remain. Soul Calibur is still very much an enjoyable fighter and even has some new tricks for those veterans among you to master. If you are a Soul Calibur fan already you will no doubt be picking this one up but even those who are new to the series will buy Soul Calibur 4 and have a most enjoyable experience.

4/5

Simon Currie