Soul Calibur IV (Bandai Namco)

With the fail of the allowing of the playing of my other fighting game, Capcom Vs SNK 2EO, I thought it about time that I a new one. One that actually works with my Xbox 360 as promised. One with big tools and voluptuous women. It was time I got Soul Calibur IV.

Now, I was never a huge fan of the Soul Calibur. In fact, the only arcade fighters that I really enjoy come from Capcom (mostly). However, as more and more came out about this game, the more and more I saw it, taunting me on the shelf, the more I had to wrap my skinny, pink little fingers around it. And so I made it mine. And here it is...

The Stories

In this game, there are well over twenty characters to choose from, and each has their own story that eventually link over this one singular quest. To get a hold of one or both of two very powerful swords, Soul Edge and Soul Calibur. If they do so, some believe that it can make their dreams of freedom or world domination come true. Others have the idea that if they destroy these swords, their souls will be saved, or the world even. What ever the motivation, it's going to be a hell of a fight in getting there.

In one of the last incarnations of the game, the rank of characters was joined by other console-exclusive characters, like Link from Legend of Zelda and Spawn of Todd McFarlane fame. This time around, to coincide with the release of the new Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (which I hear is not really all that exciting), you get two of three Star Wars characters. If you have the Xbox 360, you get Yoda. If you have the PS3, you get fun-tastic Darth, and both consoles get the Secret or Seeker or Whatever-the-Hell-He-Is Apprentice (I can never tell what the LucasArts guys are saying).

The Game

In this game, like many 3D fighters, each character has a set move list as long as both my arms and legs if they were sewn from end to end. Learning everything takes a LOT of time and patience. Neither of which I actually have, so it makes this game a little difficult. But no matter. I'm actually learning a lot by remember the sequences of buttons I've just mashed the hell out of. Fun! What would make this process a lot easier is easier access to the moves list.

When training, if you press pause, you have to go all the way down to the middle of the list every time you want to see it. This takes a huge chunk of time out of your learning time. It would be much better if when you select the move list, it stays up every time you pause until you back out, or even have it on screen. This wouldn't work if you have a small TV, so the option would be grand.

If you're playing by yourself, you have several modes you can play. First is the Story Mode where you play a single character against many, usually two or three at a time. When you complete it, each character gets there own ending animations that confuse as much as it dazzles. Ending it also unlocks all the weapons for that character.

Next is The Tower of Lost Souls where, if you ascend, you fight on two or three floors a round, with up to three characters you choose. If you descend, you choose two characters and try to get down as far as you can. Meeting certain challenges means you get certain rewards. I'll explain a little further later on. The tower is fun, but it does tend to test your skill. I've only reached the twentieth floor ascending (which unlocks the descent) and five levels descending before seeing the flaws in my game. "What flaws?" you ask. "I suck," I reply.

You can also play the eight level arcade version with the characters of your choice. When you win, you get cashola. Coin. Monetary Remuneration! Sweet.

Character Creation

What's all this money for? And what the hell are these 'rewards' you speak of? If you've read the title of this section, you'll see it's for, ahem, character creation. The rewards are clothing, accessories and armor (or armour for our British-English speaking friends) that you can use to change the look of the current characters, or create your own with. You're allotted fifty save spots in order to do this, one for each character.

Creating my own fighters is the selling point of this game for me. I read that it is that most magic of words, 'deep', and was ever-so excited. The money you earn helps you buy these armor pieces (and some other things, like characters and illustrations). Each armor piece, and indeed the weapon you buy and equip, have certain properties that allow you to upgrade your character. From upping your health points to making you stronger, the way you balance your clothing helps you to balance your abilities.

Those abilities can be chosen for each character as well as the face, the build, voice and hair. This is very complex and fun, but I don't really think it goes far enough. How about height? Sure you don't want characters so short they can't be grabbed and thrown, but height adds a lot to the character creation. How about age. The faces that they give, although slightly varied are also very limiting. If you love character creation, then you'll be seeing a lot of the same faces rolling around.

The last point about editing the SCIV characters, or your own, you can now play them online or in the single player modes, with all the added perks you've chosen. Hooray for fun!

Multiplayer

Now, I have yet to play online, but I will. In the meantime, I hear it's frickin' sweet with very little lag, if at all, present. That should make for some great game play and A LOT of trash talk with your friends. Or enemies. Or basement dwellers. More to come when I get my bollocks handed to me on a silver platter.

Update:

I've played on Xbox Live and the game play IS great! However, it's the PLAYERS I could do without. The structure is this: you sit in a queue and wait for your time to come to play (much like a real game center here in Japan when they get fresh and popular games). You can watch other people's fights or just wait. The more fights you win, the higher your Online rank will be.

I tried joining several open queues, only to be kicked out - probably because I don't have a high enough level. Whatever the reason, it still sucks, and so did they. Not a happy Mikey. I'm gonna stick with friends only with this title's multiplayer. Now, how to convince my wife to play...

In The End...

This is definitely worth a go if you need a new fighter. If you bore easily of huge, complex and confusing move lists, I hear you, but the characters! Ah, and the booby physics! All very worth while!


Go to the Soul Calibur IV homepage.