
At this years London Anime Con I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of Soul Calibur V. It came as a complete shock to me as the game system was sitting there, unattended, with nobody on the console. I quickly rushed up and had a good set of fights on the game. While I only got to have a go on a standard versus mode I was rather impressed with Soul Calibur’s latest sequel.
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The first thing that struck me was that the game has not changed a massive load since it was born on the PS1 as Soul Blade. Everything felt familiar when I was playing. Combos came out just as they had years ago and the gameplay mechanics themselves felt familiar. A lot of the moves with characters like Cervantes are the same as they were originally. Punishing Soul Calibur V because of this would be harsh, as greats like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat have proven a key roster, grounded move list and solid fighting system are at the core of the genre. Instead the game is playing catch up in by introducing new super combos called Critical Edge. This uses the whole of your super bar although you can use a weaker move, Brave Edge, twice with one filled super bar. These can be countered easily enough by good players, but used correctly they can greatly extend a combo and deal some serious damage.
Other than that the characters have changed with over 20 characters available in the version we played. Many of these feel like variations of existing characters. By Namco-Bandai’s own omission many of these characters are sons, daughters and people trained by various Soul Calibur characters, but they have enough nuances that make them different enough that they feel like a new character. Even though they may have similar weapons. Namco-Bandai have said that the current list on show will be increased before the game’s release too, so you’ve got plenty to choose from!
Soul Calibur V has one problem it can’t shake: button bashers. The weapons based fighter gives beginners loads of power. Hitting random buttons can pull off amazing combos. If you are not aware (you should be by now) Soul Calibur is a weapons based fighting system. So if little Timmy picks kendo-stick wielding character Kilik he can finish me of with a flurry of long ranged moves. Due to how the game is designed this is inevitable, but this design comes with the plus that it is easy for newcomers to use, even if they aren’t randomly hitting buttons. The game is accessible, but some may feel that the game lacks depth in comparison to others. Personally I think Soul Calibur is probably the best fighting game to bring out if nobody agrees on one in particular because anyone can win.
The series has had cameos from Star Wars’ Yoda to Zelda’s Link. So it comes as no surprise that Soul Calibur V will have Ezio from Assassin’s Creed II. While playing with him I had little idea what I was doing, but he clearly had tons of moves. Bombs, arrows, hidden blades, the white hooded murdered has a ton of tricks up his sleeve. Saying that he didn’t feel overpowered compared to other characters and his arsenal of weapons meant he still fit into the game perfectly.
The Soul Calibur series has always had some of the best single player modes for its genre. While we didn’t get a chance to try these out we are hoping for a decent Story and Weapon Master mode. Whatever we get it is sure to be more than just Arcade, Versus and Training, like so many other games do.
It may not be the most graceful of games, but Soul Calibur V is shaping up to be something pretty fun. I really enjoyed the time I had on the game and while it certainly isn’t my favourite game, it’s still extremely fun to play with friends. Roll on February the 3rd.