Soul Calibur IV

THE GOOD:
Excellent fighting styled gameplay; user friendly but not to the point where it's too easy; improves the AI a lot; improves the hell out of character customization; guest characters (Yoda or Vader depending on if you're playing PS3 or 360 version and The Apprentice) add a lot of new things to the mix; FINALLY has online play; fixes the corrupt save file thing that really screwed it up on PS2; gorgeous visuals; soundtrack is still as good as they come and are well suiting to the sort of game this is (medieval fighting game); controls are still as tight as they come, and thankfully they're the same as the last two Soul Caliburs on the PS2.

THE BAD:
Story mode doesn't really feel like story mode, especially after a taste of what we got in Soul Calibur 3; overall gameplay hasn’t really changed all that much from the series; AI still feels cheap, but it's a much needed improvement over Soul Calibur 3's; Critical Finish seems a bit cheap, but there's way cheaper (*coughbrawlsfinalsmashcough*); lack of team battles both online and offline makes me sad =(

SUMMARY:
Introduction:
When I heard this game was being developed after playing a lot of Soul Calibur 3, I was thinking "how they gonna top this?" I did have my share of problems with SC3; cheap as hell AI and corrupt save files, plus bad voice acting and lack of team battle. I was hoping that all these would be fixed. Well, when I purchased this and played it for a while, I noticed that this is the much needed improvement the series needed. Don't get me wrong, Soul Calibur 3 was a pretty good game, but sometimes due to cheap AI + corrupt save files, it felt unplayable. This one remedies the problems...all except Team Battle (it's there and it's not...more on that later). But yeah, this is a pretty good game worth purchasing. It improves in a lot of areas over the previous 5 Soul Calibur games (Souledge, the first 3 Soul Caliburs of the main series and that mediocre spin off title for the Wii), although it does fall short in an area or two compared to previous releases, and still has the same inconsistencies that the last games had, but still it's very well worth a purchase. I don't think it matters which version you purchase as they both play the same (PS3 has slightly shorter loading times I hear) and only feature one different character (here on the PS3, its Vader. 360 has Yoda). Anyway, let's start this review:

Story:
Same deal, really; it's a tale of swords and souls, with evil trying to harness the power of a mystical sword of evil known as the Soul Edge while the good guys try to destroy it with another mystical sword known as the Soul Calibur, and the others...just doing their own thing but somehow, Soul Edge and Soul Calibur manage to get in the way via good guys and bad guys. A basic story, really. When you begin Story Mode as a character, you'll get a wall of text explaining why what character is doing what thing or going after what sword or destroying what thing or blah blah blah I really don't care. At the end each character defeats defeating Nightmare/Siegfried/Algol (latter is new guy)...I don't know, a few lines of dialogue then...FADE TO BLACK!? CREDITS!? HOW ANTI-CLIMATIC CAN YOU GET!?

I know I shouldn't be having problems as this is a fighting game, but I've always looked at the Soul Calibur series (Soul Calibur 3 in particular) as a fairly story-driven fighting game. Soul Calibur 1 and the prequel, I have to admit, aren't extremely story driven or don't have much deepness, but they're not as shallow as many other fighting games I've played, and they're barely scraping the bottom of the barrel. Soul Calibur 2 improves that a little, but Soul Calibur's "choose your own path" style was just...WOW! Especially for a fighting game, the stories of each characters are so deep and meaningful, and well worth paying attention to, while giving us a reason to power harness/destroy Soul Edge (or just get involved, stop evil and get back to living life, whatever works) with whatever character we selected. What a story... This, on the other hand, is primitive as crap. Aside from MAYBE the first (and only) wall of text, there's little to no story, just an excuse to fight people. What a downgrade! I was expecting...I dunno, an even deeper story? Nope. Just a typical fighting story which basically translates to:

Yeah, typical excuse to fight. I guess I can't complain, it is a fighting game after all, but so was Soul Calibur 3...oh wait, that had a good story. Nyeh. Only reason this gets a 4 and not a 2 is because they managed to get Yoda/Vader and The Apprentice (from Force Unleashed, some Star Wars game) introduced into the Soul Calibur universe without any problems. Still proves that the Soul Calibur team still has it, and I thought they did an impressive job here. It's still the simple "yeah, uh...we're gonna give excuses for the Star Wars guys to fight with the Soul Calibur regulars/actual newbies and kill Nightmare/Siegfried/Algol to win at Soul Calibur IV's story mode", but hey, they managed to fit Star Wars characters, who are people from the future (like 20xx) into Soul Calibur (which is in like the 1500's if I recall correctly). Good job, but that doesn't make up for the primitive story which is a major downgrade from Soul Calibur 3's.

Gameplay:
Where the story fails, the deep fighting gameplay physics of the Soul Calibur series I've come to love since the first game, which keeps adding on and on as the series progresses makes up for it...BIGTIME!

First and foremost, this game keeps the simple fighting elements that made the series so cool (and in a way, unique...come on, Mortal Kombat ripped off the weapon stances off this series after they and the people thought their weapon commands weren't good enough); simple one on one fighting with everyone carving each other up with swords, staffs, numb-chucks, lightsabers, whips, axes and just about every weapon imaginable (within reason, I mean you can't expect a 10-gauge shotgun in the middle ages) while also being able to kick each other. Each weapon...sorry, sort of weapon can be owned by certain people, whose fighting styles compliment the weapon they use. Take Kilik for example; he uses a staff, so you'd be thinking...monk? Maybe. Either way, his fighting style is basically him whacking his enemy/opponent to death with a staff while jumping around, kicking people. Some of his attacks include hitting the three positions from descending order (top to middle to bottom) to jumping high in the air and hitting the opponent with an end of the staff...anyway, these attacks can be pretty devastating (or annoying, depends on strategy) to whoever receives the hit.

Oh anyway, there are some basic attacks. You have a horizontal slash which attacks horizontally, so if an opponent starts sidestepping you can surprise them with a horizontal attack. There's a vertical attack, which is usually a little slower but a little stronger than the horizontal attack and it usually goes for a bit more of a forward range, though it can be avoided by sidestepping. Then there's a kick, which is best used as a quick attack disrupter or a quick attack to rack up damage. This is either a vertical or horizontal attack depending on how you have the analog stick or D-pad. Think of it as a shorter ranged quicker weapon attack. Simple enough.

Aside from simple vertical and horizontal slashes and kicks, you can also go for more powerful/quicker attacks. Refer to a command list in the start menu to learn button inputs for an attack. There are different attacks which allow you to damage an opponent moreso than a regular attack or to quickly get an attack in before the opponent manages to damage you.

Then there are combo attacks which involves...oh, I dunno, MASHING BUTTONS!? Well, not necessarily that (you might have to at times) but whatever. Anyway, these combo attacks can also be quite devastating. If done right to the end, they'll really do some damage. Just be careful when an opponent manages to do the same to you, because they'll really mess you up. Also, while you in the middle of a combo, the opponent MIGHT be able to unleash a lightning fast attack your way, disrupting it. They can also disrupt some attacks which require time to unleash (refer to special attacks). And if you manage to finish the combos and special attacks, you might be open to some quick attacks/combos of their's (don't worry; it goes vice versa so it's not entirely cheap).

So basically, it's your everyday sort of fighting, only with weapons instead of fists (kicks are still there). It's a working concept, it's been working for many years (since the early 90’s with Mortal Kombat to be precise), and you know the old saying 'if it ain't broke don't fix it", right? It remains true for this series, although it does get makeovers every release.

Speaking of makeovers, the fighting engine gets a bit of a makeover; critical finish! If your opponent does way more guarding than attacking, his/her health will flash red, and if you attack or guard impact his/her moves (as in sort of a reversal of his/her attacks), he/she will be dizzy for a bit and by pressing L2, you can basically kill them, much like a fatality from Mortal Kombat; only there’s no blood. This is basically a counteraction to that annoying AI from Soul Calibur 3 who guard and use cheap attacks and nothing else. Awesome!

Of course, just like in every fighting game, there's an Arcade mode. The Arcade mode is nothing more than 2 or 3 sets of 8 matches between you and an opponent. Nothing special, nothing that's been done before. Story mode, I've complained about it in the story section; it's not really a story, just "destroy Soul Edge, blah blah blah" or just an excuse to fight. I think it's nothing more than a glorified Arcade Mode, just put in a wall of text before the first fight and after the last fight. Both of them are basically fighting against some enemy, though in Story Mode,

This game ditches the RTS-like mode from Soul Calibur 3, Chronicles of the Sword, in favor of a more fighting based mode called 'Tower of Lost Souls'. Okay then... I mean, Chronicles of the Sword, I liked it, but it got boring after some time. Tower of Lost Souls is a better alternative! It does get dull but not in the same way Chronicles of the Sword does... Anyway, Tower of Lost Souls is a tower where you fight enemies. You can either ascend or descend. If you ascend, you need to fight 60 battles under specific conditions, such as “clear the stage with no damage taken” or “perform 3 attack throws”. Descending is more or less a survival mode, as you don’t get back any health between battles unlike ascending where you do.

My only complaint is that Weapon Master from Soul Calibur 2 kills it millions of times before it falls. Weapon Master has more emphasis on conditions and actual fun. Tower of Lost Souls; it’s better than Chronicles, but it gets dull after a while and really, really just feels like a glorified endurance mode. YAWN

This game sports AI which aren't cheap blockers who use cheap moves OVER AND OVER again unlike Soul Calibur 3's (which made it near unplayable at times). This installment's AI is still a little on the cheap side, but at least it's of the tolerable sort and doesn’t make the player want to rip out his hair in anger. Admittingly, if I still had hair, I’d tear a few strands at the most, but since I’ve boycotted hair, I can’t really say. It’s nothing to smash your control over either. Actually, the AI sports a challenging difficulty that, while you could somewhat breeze through them, it still leaves you with a challenge, so don’t think it’s so mind-numbingly easy you could breeze the entire game, but it’s not so mind-bogglingly hard you would smash your controller or be provoked into suicide.

Character creation carries on from Soul Calibur 3’s, except this one is actually good. Admittingly, I liked the last one, but this one beats the crap out of it by actually mattering what your character has! In the last one, it didn’t really matter what they wore, but here, it matters. You could make a cool looking warrior, but then you realize “HOLY SHIT I’M DYING!!!” because the stats are crippled, which means you really need to bust your balls to find some equipment that’s cool AND helpful to your character. This is another reason to play through Tower of Lost Souls, since you can unlock parts there too.

And guess what? There’s online play! Finally! After being teased by Soul Calibur 3’s lack of online despite creatable characters, Namco decided “you know, maybe we SHOULD have online play” and now you can show off your own warrior and playing skills with the world! I mean, SOME timings are a bit delayed here, and there’s no team battle (only one on one), but that doesn’t mean much when everything else is solid!

Basically, the game plays quite like the originals on the Dreamcast, but a bit more tedious. Soul Calibur and Soul Edge are much funner to play than this one, but that’s not to say that this one is fun as hell to play too.

Graphics:
The game looks very good. The design for each of the battlefields look very photorealistic and immersive, while the characters are lifelike in design and...seriously, if you were to model, say, yourself on the character creation, it’d actually be like a clone or something because they look pretty damn real. Not exactly the best looking graphics on the PS3 or 360, but pretty close. There isn’t much else to say since the graphics don’t really mean much, except the following: This game looks best on an HD-TV.

Sound:
Everything sounds as it should; with characters grunting while attacking or getting attacked; swords clashing with other swords and armor; taunts, they’re all here! One thing I noticed is that the announcer from Soul Calibur 2 is back or at least the personality of such. Soul Calibur 3’s announcer had NO personality whatsoever, but this one does with a few witty remarks here and there to introduce the stage (and thank god there’s no commentary). The voice acting seems to have improved too; it’s tolerable!

The soundtrack is, in one word: epic. But that’s a staple to the series, just like the announcer. Symphonies are, once again, hired to create this soundtrack and...you know, all that jizz involved in making an epic soundtrack. It’s not much of an improvement, but then again, at least it’s badass to listen to.

Control:
As per usual with the series, the controls are tight as hell and, for the most part, simple to learn. You have 3 different attack buttons and a guard button, among some shortcut buttons and, of course, the fatality--erm, “critical finish” button. Simple stuff to learn really, and the combos can executed without any delays, provided you learn them.

And this brings me to my major complaint with the controls. The amounts of combos to learn are on the “too much” side therefore you won’t be able to learn them all. That’s bad enough, but they decide to rub salt into the wound by having some of the combos have way too many goddamn buttons to press; 4 BUTTONS FOR A 1 HIT COMBO!? PISS OFF! You literally have to download some combos from the internet in order to learn them all. That’s bullshit! If you have to do that, then it’s not worth learning them. You may as well mash buttons; you get around about the same effect anyway. Though I’ll go as far as saying this is tame compared to Soul Calibur 2 and 3...the less I talk about them, the better.

Replay Value:
While it’s fun for a few weeks, it becomes monotonous and kind of boring if you play it for hours on end. It’s best not to play this too often so you can keep enjoying it! There are some extras to unlock and more character customization combos you can try out, but the fighting gets old after a while. Then again, every fighting game has that problem...so yeah.

Overall:
Soul Calibur 4 is not the epic fourth chapter I expected, but it’s much better than Soul Calibur Legends for the Wii, and it is still a good game to play. If you feel the need to play some fighting games, give this one a shot.