User Reviews (31 - 41 of 99)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

The PS2 Exclusive Has its Moments

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: November 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

For those who don't know, this is actually the third in a Namco franchise that started way back on the Dreamcast. A lot of the same characters return and there are three completely new characters in this game. This game is great at a lot of things, but it also lets down in a lot of areas.

There are a lot of improvements to the actual fighting engine, the most notable is the amazing graphical improvement. This is by far one of the best looking Playstation 2 games, and will probably remain one with the system slowly but surely dying out. The fighting engine has also become more sophisticated with less carbon copy move setup for each character, making it more difficult to learn each character, but also less repetitive. The new characters are also very creative and have a great move set for each one, so thats great. Most of the same move system is the same when it comes to counters and reverse blocks. Another little thing I noticed thats cool is that ring outs aren't automatic victories (it will take a huge chunk out of your life though) and when the player breaks a portion of the ground, it stays broken the whole match, unlike Tekken 5, where it would crush a part of the ground, and as soon as they were about to break another part, the first part would disappear and the new would appear. This doesn't occur in Soul Calibur III.

Namco tried to make a lot of really creative new features to this game, but by doing this, they never really focused on improving on one aspect of the game, so a lot of these new great modes don't seem as good as they could be. Written down they seem so amazing, but when actually executed, it;s just okay. The Chronicles of the Sword mode for instance. It incorporates two new features. One of which is create a character. This on paper, like I mentioned, sounds amazing, but its basically just a few basic faces, some articles of clothing you'll end up locking later, and it just makes it possible to basically create any of the current human characters. There is really no way to define the characters moves, its only five or so classes, and each one is pretty fast, and pretty strong, with low defense. The Chronicles mode itself has a really good story line, but doesn't bring the RTS/Fighting genre any justice. This sounds like a great idea, an RTS and Fighting hybrid, but there is very little stradegy. Its basically... wait in your fort... if they come after you, you fight, if they don't, you go after them to take their fort. There are also a lot of load times in this mode, and it can get frustrating, especially if you lose a task, because some of these Chronicles are lengthy. Arcade mode has been changed to Tales of Souls, which is a campaign with a single character and goes through their story line. There is also World Competition for tournament style fighting, and Soul Arena, to hone on skills with or without "special conditions." - Basically a chaotic version of Weapon Mastery mode from Soul Calibur II

Some improvements they could have made is replay, online play (or multitap for tag team), and it really should have been multiplatform. Seeing another Nintendo character would have been awesome, or even a new comic book character for the Xbox version.

If you like the second game though, and you have a PS2, I recommend this game if you have any interest in fighting games. To be honest though, if your not sure, I'd recommend getting Soul Calibur II, its 15-20 at most retailers, so that would be what I would do if your not sure. But if you are like me and will be happy with anything new in a Soul Calibur game, run out immediately. It has its great moments and you won't be necessarily disappointed, but you'll definately want more. Soul Calibur II kind of spoils you, especially if you had a GameCube, and could choose Link.

As much fun as the Dreamcast version

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: November 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

When the first arcade version of Soul Edge came out ten years ago, I remember beating the game with Sophitia (I think it was the first and only arcade game I ever actually won). I had Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast and I loved it--my favorite character was Seung-Mina and I especially loved the way you could unlock items/characters the more you played the game. When I heard they were releasing Soul Calibur III for PS2, I knew I had to buy it.

....I love the unlockables, and I especially love the way you can create & design your own characters. That is a really nice touch. The only two things that need improvement: 1.) In the game, the controls say "K" (for Kick) and "G" (for Guard) and this can get kind of annoying when you are trying to press the buttons quickly; I wish the command screen would have the X button or circle button instead. 2.) I wish you could play your customized character in the Tales of the Soul mode, but I know that would be asking for waaay too much.

I also like the way you can "earn gold" and buy items in the shop. I don't remember being able to do that in the Dreamcast version of Soul Calibur, and this is a really nice touch (and keeps you coming back for more). After playing all of the characters in Tales of the Soul mode I thought there would be no other real means of earning decent money, but then I discovered Chronicles of the Sword mode...this mode is a lot of fun (it may not seem like it at first, but it really is! Try it!) and earns you a lot of money, and unlocks a lot of items.

Other than that, great game. Reminded me of the Dreamcast version and I know a lot of people would say this is a bad thing, but that's why I like it. Why try to fix something when it's not broken?

Huge disappointment

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: January 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Soul Calibur, and its sequel were two of the best fighting games to come out this generation, but they took a leap backwards releasing the 3rd.

Making a game that was pick up and play, then turning it into something that you have to memorize every move, and every counter move was a mistake.

I tried many times to give this a chance but after a week of just being angry when i play it, I figured I'd get rid of it.

Beautiful graphically, but everything else is a thumbs down for me.

Pretty Good

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am a casual fan of the Soul Calibur games. I picked this one up, excited by the extras, and there are a ton of those. The create-a-character mode is a lot of fun, with a plethora of options to outfit your hero. I also liked how they designed a few weapons specifically for your newly-made character, and how those charcters could also use a few other weapon types.

The Gameplay has changed from SCII. Some maneuver inputs have changed, and every character feels faster. The computer does fluctuate from being a moron to being a deflecting Jedi Master. For the most part, the AI is missing the "I". For example, if you want an easy victory in most modes, use Astaroth and his 88B or 22B moves: does a great deal of damage and rarely gets blocked. This one move unlocked many things for me. Often when you try to fight the AI using "real" moves, they are casually knocked aside with little time for you to recover. Perhaps something to stop the abuse of moves next time, yes?

The extra features went a long way for me. I am thrilled that each character can use various styles of their weapon. This alone made the worth of the game. The extra misson modes are quite fun, if not a bit frustrating at times. The RPG mode is cool, and I have replayed that a few times. As mentioned above, the create-a-character was a really nice addition, and the variability provided in fighting styles and dressings is impressive.

All in all, Soul Calibur III was a lot of fun. Nothing serious; a great party game with fighters wielding melee weapons. I like the feel of this version over SCII; move timing appears to be made a bit easier (or maybe I am just getting better!) My only real complaint is the challenge of the AI: in SCII the computer did not fall for repeated moves as often and you really had to fight out your victories. The extras in SCIII add a lot to the game. I would say if you are a fan of the series or like beautifully rendered fighting games, give Soul Calibur III a go.

A fun and engaging fighting game.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a fighting game fan. The only appeal the Soul Calibur series ever had for me was the appearance of Link in the GC version of SC2. So, when Soul Calibur 3 came out, I wasn't terribly excited.

That was, until I saw a friend play it.

I know that a lot of people take issue with the single player modes of this game, but I find them to be quite enjoyable. The main campaign (Tales of Souls) is relatively short, which makes it easy to go through it several times to explore some of the different branching paths each characater can take (which will in turn unlock various things).

The pseudo-RPG/tactical campaign, Chronicles of the Sword, lacks a lot of depth, but you can't tell me that you don't feel awesome creating your own character, levelling it up, and unlocking new and more interesting weapon disciplines for it (up to and including the weapons the main characters use). This is also how you unlock the character creation parts, which adds a little more motivation for playing this campaign.

There's also a "mission" mode which is full of minigames like "turntable" (where you're on a spinning disk and the idea is to ring out your opponent) or "soul smash" (where you deal damage to an opponent by smashing them into the walls). This provides some quick amusement and quick gold which can be spent on more weapons or items.

As far as the fighting mechanics themselves go, I find that SC3 manages to balance special moves with combo attacks very well. I find it difficult to memorize long strings of buttons to pull of that sweet move, so I appreciate the fact that there are a good many two-button combinations which deal decent damage in every character's move set.

Overall, I find all of this combined with SC's solid weapon-based fighting mechanics creates a really enjoyable game for even those who don't like this genre.

Simply put: Breath-taking!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm going to make this review short. SC3 is a great improvement of SC2. The only problem of this game is that it is only limited to the PS2, which will anger a lot of rabid Xbox and GameCube fans.

Pros:

- The gameplay is great
- The characters have unique stories of their own and have awesome weapons
- You can buy items in the new 3 shops of this game (Weapons, Armor, and Items)
- The graphics are visually stunning
- Character Creation mode! You can now create your own characters
- Museum mode is also well featured
- The new Chronicles of the Sword is worth playing with

Cons:

- The gameplay is quite hard in all fighting modes; unfortunately, there is no difficulty setting to adjust the level of the gameplay
- Chronicles of the Sword can be a little tedious
- It takes hours to days unlocking special items
- It can also take a great amount of time to finish a Chronicle after the first five
- It can be hard to pull off defensive moves

With those said, while this game may have its drawbacks, they don't put this game down by a long shot. Soul Calibur III has definitely high replay value. And don't listen to anyone who say it takes no skill whatsoever to handle a character in this game or its prequels; they are ignorant morons.

Soul Calibur: The Best Fighting Game Ever.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Having played the previous Soul Calibur II, I can notice differences between the two games.
In this new Soul Calibur, the graphics are stunning. You have more things to do then just Quick Battles, and Chronicles of the Sword.
There's a Character Creation mode, which is so freaking awesome. It may not seem that great in the begining, but if you gain more gold, you can buy tons more stuff, and you can also unlock more things for character creation.

One of the drawbacks, is that the attacks of the characters Talim, and Seung Mina are unfair. They can just go on attacking you through the entire match, and you only get so much as one hit. T_T

Besides that, I think this game is the awesomest fighting game I have ever played. It is very worth your money.
And you DO NOT have to have any of the previous Soul Calibur games to be good at it.

Son likes Soul Calibur II just a smidge more

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Our son has all the Soul Calibur games and is borderline obsessed with #2. He's had a great time with III and was thrilled to receive it. But keeps reverting back to II. All in all he really enjoys this game though.

Very good

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Soul Calibur 3 is an awesome game. The graphics are good, the gameplay is solid, the characters look nice, balance issues from Soul Calibur 2 were addressed, and the new single player modes were enjoyable.

The Create a Soul (CaS) mode was a little too limited, which was the main drawback in my opinion. The weapon styles it provided were interesting and fun to play, but it would have been much better to be able to adjust the height, weight, and build of the character. Want to make a big guy like Rock or Astaroth? Too bad. What about a short girl like Talim? Once again, too bad.

A lot of people complain that Soul Calibur 3 has no online support. That's true, but consider this: Soul Calibur has a much more complex fighting engine than other games of the genre. If it were put online, then one of two things would happen: the engine would be dumbed down, making the game less enjoyable; or the game would lag beyond belief, making it unplayable. Personally, I'm very happy that Namco decided to develop the one player and VS modes over online support. Too many games these days are so focused on the online aspects that they forget about those of us who prefer to play a game with people we can see, hear, touch, and on bad days, even smell.

An excellent game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Sony and Namco struck gold together. Instead of compromising on certain aspects to make the game accessable for all 3 systems, the Soul Calibur series took a different approach then they previously did and utilized the potential of one system, resulting in a masterpiece of a game. The Create-a-soul (character creation) aspect of the game really makes this a much more interesting fighting game. Skilled users could bring their favorite heroes into the fray or create entirely new ones. Sure, I miss Spawn, Link, and Heihachi, but I would much rather create a better character that can master a large amount of weapons and bare resemblance to a massive amount of other video game characters, but that's just me.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions