The Soul series of games have been known for many things: tight responsive controls, deep game play, a highly developed story, and lots of single player modes. SoulCalibur 5 delivers on some, yet doesn’t even try on others.
To be up front, Project Soul has stated that they were rushed to get this game out. So some aspects of the game were overlooked, so more focus could be placed on others. What has happened is story and single player content were sacrificed over making the game play balanced, and more accessible to new players. With a lot of changes to most characters, and some mechanic tweaks, this is a very different Soul Calibur game from any you have ever played.
First up is the Guard Impact and Guard Deflect system. Deflect is gone, and the Impact takes meter. Wait did I just say, meter? Yes, Soul Calibur 5 has a super meter built into it. Much like the Street Fighter 4 series of games. You have three blocks to build up to get one super bar, and you can build up to a total of two super bars. Certain moves can be enhanced by the use of one block of meter by pressing A+B+K after the initial command input. The Guard Impact uses one and a half bars anytime you use it by pressing A+B+K as a stand alone input. Whether you actually use it against an attack or it misses, that super meter is gone. So unless you know it’s a guaranteed hit coming, you are gonna hurt a lot. To replace the Guard Impact is a new feature called Just Guard. You activate it by hitting Guard just as an attack hits you. The timing is seriously tight and hard to do. A successful Just Guard will flash your character blue, slide you through the attack, give you a split second advantage, and build about a solid half block of super meter. Get the timing down enough, you can even use it against the super moves in the game. The Soul guage is now gone. Replaced by your health bar glowing in proportion to your guard ability. If you guard the whole time the bar will begin to flash yellow, then red. Continue to only guard and an attack will break your guard, stunning you, and allowing the aggressor to hurt you however they see fit.
As for each character, there is just too many changes to speak of so I will use Ivy as an example. As all long time Soul Calibur fans know, Ivy has always been the most complicated character to use. She has a plethora of stances with ways in and out of each, complicated command throws, and more attack options than the United States Military. After Soul Calibur II she only got more and more complicated. All that is gone. She now has no stance changes. You simply tap or hold buttons to get the desired effect of short or long range attacks. Her command throws have been changed to one Summon Suffering, which has been seriously changed to be easier. Her Calamity Suffering is simply A+G, A+B+K. That’s it. Her super is a new throw. Also the super command is the same for each of the characters. So no matter which player you frequent, you will always be able to do the super.
Some of my most memorable moments in Soul Calibur have been those heated moments when your trading blocked attacks with your opponent, trying to slip past their defense to force an Impact or Deflect, or land your own. Those were the days. Now you can have strings that were safe on block, leave you open big time if your opponent is quick on the draw. So re-learning your character is a must.
There have been some serious changes to the roster. Out are Xiuanghua, Talim, Zasalemel, Sophitia, Cassandra, Setsuka, and Taki. Though for Xiu, Sophitia/Cassandra, Setsuka, and Taki we get new characters to replace them with their styles. Not making the cut we’ve lost Talim, Zaselamel, Seung Mina, Yun-seong, and Rock, along with their play styles for CAS. Kilik, Edgemaster, and a new mimic character called Elysium have returned. All three of which are mimic characters. Yes, unfortunately Kilik is no longer his own character. Also as a “bonus”, if you can beat Harada (the man behind Tekken) in Quick Battle, you’ll unlock Devil Jin’s soul for your CAS pleasure. Ezio from the Assassin’s Creed sequel’s is the new guest character, along with a DLC only character named Dampierre.
The A.I in the game can be murderous. I’m talking boss battles that make SNK boss fights seem easy. And if your a trophy hound, you will most definitely be pulling your hair out to get those last few. I’ve seen the AI pull off tactics and combos that if I ever saw someone actually pull off in person or online, I would never pick the game up again. They can be that ridiculous. The modes you have to deal with taking on AI are: Story, Arcade, Quick Battle, and Legendary Souls. The Story mode picks up 17 years after the end of Soul Calibur IV. Siegfried managed to shatter Soul Edge and destroy Nightmare, well not really, but everyone thought he did. The story starts with Patroklos. One of Sophitia’s children, her other being Pyrrha. You only play as total three characters throughout the whole mode. While Patroklos, and Pyrrha have variant forms, you still only play from these perspectives. Arcade mode no longer has any endings for any characters. Eight matches to the end, you do get to pick the route you take, which will change who the last boss is. Legendary Souls is by far the hardest, and cheapest mode you’ll play. You go up against very cheap AI, and the three mimic characters that are in the game, which will pull off the most impossible combos and manuvers. My final time for 8 fighters was seventy-two plus minutes.
The character customization has been deepened. There are a lot of new options to explore. You can change design patterns on individual clothing parts. If it has more than one color option, you can change the pattern on each. You get a lot of face paints that you can re-color, stickers to add to clothing, or make as tattoo’s on your character. You start off with sixty percent of everything unlocked. You unlock the rest by raising your player level. On the main screen is where you can see your player level. You have a total of ninety-nine to achieve. Every fight you do in the game adds points. Whether it’s single player content, or online.
Speaking of online, the experience has been enhanced from Soul Calibur IV. In the matches I’ve played, there has been very little lag. You actually have the option in ranked matches to search only for players with a four bar or higher connection. If too much lag is noticed, the server will shut down the match. At first I didn’t understand what was happening, until I realized that my opponents went from four plus bars to almost one. So the game has anti-lag switch protection. Whether that works all the time has yet to be seen. You also have the option to set rivals. You can set a total of three at any given time. With this you can track how they are doing compared to you, find them quick for rematches, etc. A new mode called Global Colosseo has also been added, in which you can jump into various lobbies that have players waiting. You pick your region, go through the different cities, then off your ready to fight. You can challenge or be challenged, hop into the rooms random battle generator, or have everyone hop into the room’s tournament block. Much like newer fighting games, you have the option to upload, save, and replay matches. Though no straight to YouTube options like Street Fighter 3 Third Strike on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.
As you can see most of the emphasis has been the multi-player and online aspects of this entry into the Soul series. Of course it is a fighting game, and online is where this genre have rightfully gone. Long time Soul fans may be put out by the changes made with this iteration. The loss of characters, styles, huge changes in character moves sets may be more than they can take. For a series that has long been known to really set the bar for single player content, the loss of most of the innovations made will be a tough cookie to swallow. While some characters have been overly simplified, the addition of super meters will draw in new players. Although the loss of long time conventions in the Guard Impact system will also be tough to overlook.
While in some ways vastly different, if long time players take the time, they will see there is still a plethora of depth to this game. My week with the game was initially filled with disappointment, but as I continued playing and dug deeper into the game, I began to truly enjoy what I was playing. After adjusting my play style to the changes, I was off and running..
Final Verdict: This game has a lot to offer, you had just better be ready to re-learn everything you knew. Once you have done this, you’ll find it very rewarding. If nothing else definitely a rental since there is no online pass required.
