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Lack of Online Support is Ridiculous

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Soul Calibur III is a good game. It may not be leaps and bounds better (or really all that different) from Soul Calibur II, but it's still great. Fighting games don't get much better than this, so...
WHY didn't they put it online? There's really no excuse for that at this point. Tekken 5 was fairly bashed for not including online support, but by now it should be considered standard; especially from Namco, arguably the best company in this genre.

The game Mortal Kombat Deception was online ready, and even though it is nowhere NEAR as good, I've found I've played it more (and enjoyed it more) simply because I can play people on the internet.

All of that aside, Soul Calibur III doesn't really bring all that much to the table this time around. There's a few new characters, plus a very restricted "make your own character" mode (which is quite cool nonetheless). The graphics are, as always, incredible. The gamplay is still solid, even if they did do some unnecessary tweaks to the parrying system.
Another major gripe would be the fact that it would seem the game was not tested enough. Certain characters have noticable advantages over others in general mechanics this time around - especially with the "make your own" characters. There's also a glitch that allows one of the new characters to throw you repeatedly that you cannot defend against.
All of this, and the fact that the vital aspect of online support is missing completely, do not make this game worth purchasing. If you already have Soul Calibur 2, you're not getting much more with this one. The game was obviously rushed, and Namco needs to know that the inclusion of online support is NECESSARY for fighting games at this point. Their decision to exclude it is baffling.

It's a fighting video game people!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Okay, people are complaining about it being hard...if you haven't noticed the really good fighting games aren't a piece of cake. It's suppost to be challanging! Don't like then stop buying fighting games. I loved it, I am a major tekken and soul calbiur fan and I found no fauls in it.It kept me interested and all my favorite characters are back. This game is for major fighting game fans only, people who are hard core about tekken and all that other good stuff. If you didn't like tekken or the last two soul caliburs then don't buy it. You will find yourself cursing at the game system, trust me.

Awsome game, but a blast with a bud.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Since Soul Calibur 2, i have been anxiously waiting for Soul Calibur 3 to come out, now that it has, i must say, im very happy. Graphics is absolutley amazing, water looks lifelike, and fighting movements are extremely smooth. Music blends in real well with the game enviroment, and there is a whole bunch of unlockables. The RPG element in this game is a little disapointing, its nothing revolutionary in it, jus the basic raise level, and each time u do, ur health, Vitality, strength and agility auotomaticlay raise, u have no control of what u can raise. The Tales of Chronicals are kind of weird, u tell ur men where to move on a map, and they move there, slowly or fast, depending on what class u set them, infantry, knight, calvary, etc. Then u junp in and fight head to head with the person ur attacking, u have forts to portect and fortify. What i really love about this game is the character customization in this game. Make ur own charatcer from scratch, pick a face, any skin tone color, choose the wardrobe, and choose the type of weapon he/she will use. The best time to ever play this game is with buddys, u'lll have a ton-of-fun, and wont wanna stop.

An Immense Improvement

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The promising thing about this series is that each installment is significantly better than the last. Not only that, but the Soul Calibur franchise has made a big influence on other contemporary fighting-genre games. For one, Namco's choice of deciding to produce SCIII on PlayStation 2 alone (instead of having to design it similiarly for Xbox and Gamecube) allowed them to fully make use of the PS2's capabilities. The first obvious change is the graphics; Soul Calibur II's graphics almost look childish in comparison to the more detailed and realistic style of SCIII. As in most fighting games, the main Story mode allows you to choose a character and fight various battles until you come to the final boss. However, the difference with this game is that (before each fight) you are given a synopsis of your character's journey thus far and why you have to fight your next opponent. This is a big change from a lot of fighting games, where you usually just take on one opponent after another, with no real explanation as to why you'd even be fighting them in the first place. Not only is the storyline aspect heightened, but you are also given different paths to take after battles; your choices will affect who you'll have to fight next. There are 25+ characters to choose from and each one has their own unique story.
The Chronicles of the Sword mode will be engaging for RPG fans. You can create your own characters and strategize battles in an ongoing war. In Soul Arena, there are also the Mission (with different objectives to complete, such as trying to defeat a certain amount of enemies within a time limit) and Quick Play (just choose a character and start fighting enemies) modes. There is also the Create a Character mode, where you can create your own characters by changing their appearance (facial features, hair, eyes, skin, clothing, etc.) and job class (which determines what weapon they use). Money that you earn from battles can be spent to unlock items; armor (clothing, including hats, glasses, shirts, skirts, pants, etc.), weapons, art (which can be viewed in the Art Gallery; finished and rough sketches of different characters and scenery), and more. The VS. mode is even more engaging than playing the game by yourself, since you can challenge friends. If they insert their memory card into the 2nd slot, they can also play against you as any of their custom characters.
There are so many features in this game, I can't even begin to discuss them all! The funest aspect of the game, overall, is the Create-A-Character feature. Once you earn money from battles, you'll want to buy all of the armor from the shop so you can make your own fighter look exactly how you want them to. Normally, custom characters look far less developed than the ordinary characters, but SCIII has the best Create-A-Character mode I've seen yet.

Good, but could have been much better

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: November 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I find this to be a love-hate game. Despite all the great things about it, it still seems to have some bad quirks and tendencies that could easily taken out.

Gameplay is erratic. It seems even though you push the same button combination, something different happens, which can be extremely frustrating at times. I don't appreciate giving the command for a round house only to have my charcater jump in the air and leave himself wide open for an attack. While these occurances due diminish over time, they do not disappear.

Most the strategy present in II is gone, as now the player can either 1) wait for a time to strike or 2) constantly use the horizontal or vertical attacks to win. This has degraded gameplay almost into a button masher, something that the Soul Calibur series has always shyed away from. On the other hand, it's hard to complain because each character can to so many different things. Just like Soul Calibur II, when you fully learn a character, they can become damn good, and some of the moves are awsome despite being ficticious.

There are five new characters for the game: Zasalamel, Tira, Setsuka, ROck and Olcadon. Of these three, Zasalamel is the only one of interest with a good personality and fighting style. He is a major driving force in the plot, and his scythe makes for an interesting style. Tira, despite an interesting weapon, has few moves of interest and has a horrible personality. They try to make her pure evil, but instead create an annoying psychopath. Setsuka I have yet to find a point to. A boring style, a boring personality, and she says about two things every fight, and uses about that same many moves. Rock, who you find out has tties to Asteroth, is nothing more than Asteroth with a mace instead of an ax. Olcadon is a character that you will have a random weapon with each match. The designers could have done much better for a new characters, especially Setsuka. To be honest, the game would have been better if they had just left her out.

My biggest gameplay gripe is against the computer in the Tale of Souls mode. I hate to use this term, but there really is no other one: the game cheats. The computer blocks, and blocks, and blocks. And when it doesn't block, it ducks or runs, all perfectly times. No matter which way you hit them, they block it. They have a high block, you stike low, it's blocked.

Sadly, this doesn't work both ways, as the computer can get past your block from any angle. And as soon as your hit, expect five more lightning quick blows to be dealt before your character can recover. Don't expect to be very aggressive and win, especially against the faster characters.

Speaking of fast, no matter who you are, or who you are fighting, they always have a longer weapons reach and are faster. It's absoultely ridiculous, especially since you can see the weapons trails being far from making contact with your character. There have been mroe than a few times my reach with Sigfried didn't reach Talim (who has by far the shortest reach of any character), yet standing from the same distance she can hit me. It is truly a stupid thing the designers did with it.

Also, some of the characters have had their moves changed around (ie. Ivy, Yoshimitsu), so you need to re-learn how to use them. I cannot understand why this was done.

The graphics are amazing, simple as that. The backgrounds for Soul Calibur II were impressive, but they look like last generation consol models compared to III. You can't help but gape at what the designers accomplished with them. Truly works of art. Character models have improved, and while each character has only two costumes (some improved, some much worse ie. Kilik), you can edit the colors of each to make two additional ones. This adds more than you would think.

And speaking of design, something gamers have been waiting a long time for: a character creation. There are quite a few options available for appearance, and a color editor for each piece of the outfit makes it quite in depth. The voices and fighting styles for the created characters are limitied, but that doesn't detract much at all from it. Each character design has a unit type (ie. barbarian, saint) that creates a base unit to build from. All it really does is determine what weapon your character uses, and hence the fighting style. You can make your barbarian look like a clergyman, and vice versa if you want. Any character type can use any design piece. This section could be better, but for a first, it does the job more than adequetly. Now if they can only add a weapons design mode...

Lasting appeal is better because of the single players modes. Tales of Souls allows the user to walk through a storyline of the chosen fighter, choosing the path at points. Chronicles of the Sword adds a bit of a stragety element to the game. While not in depth, it is a nice change of pace. Add in the various other specialized fighting modes and you've got a game with a lot more lasting power than it predecessor.

Voice acting has improved, and while basically the same voices as before, they are done in a more realistic manner. It takes a little getting used to, but is an improvement.

All in all, the game is good, but can still be incredibly frustrating at times. Replay value is much better, as are the graphics. Despite the frustration the game can cause, the fun outweighs it, and I would strongly recommend the game.

The best fighter I've ever played...Namco is at it again!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Ever played a fighter game? If you answered "no", then why not get started with the best?. I'm a fighter Veteran, especially in love with Namco titles, And the SC series is handsdown, the best fighter out to date.

I love the bonus material, I've had it since Christmas, been playing every single day, and I am still unlocking weapons, bonus characters, and new Create a character parts. Definitely, and I do mean definitely, the bonuses add tons to the replay value.

Tired of social conformity? Make your own character and just go crazy with it! Only flaw with this mode, only four voices for each gender (or so I've seen so far). Also, you can unlock tons of disciplines (The type of weapon they use) for your customs. Combine this with the fact that almost every discipline has about 10 weapons each, wonderful to say the least.

The characters and all of the visuals are breath-taking, with the release of the next-gen systems, its nice to have a game that shows us that our old dinosaur PS2 still can blow us away. Your custom characters are not quite as detailed, but they can still look quite amazing.

There are close to 30 characters for the Tales of souls (Story mode) and even after beating it with all of them, I still find myself replaying to find out what else could possibly happen. Thats another one of the amzing features to this SC title, an open Story mode. Every few battles or so, you will be given the option to go two different ways, the story will ake just as long and you will still find yourself at the same end, but the story of the journey is different.

The Chronicles of the Sword mode, the strategy game, is a very nice addition. You can only use your custom characters, or characters the game has created specifically for this mode. I suggest playing this after completing a few Story modes, that way you can buy your newly created army some weapons and such things.

All in all, a wonderful game, tons of replay value to it, and only 20 bucks at Walmart.

In Summary:

Graphics: 5/5 Wonderfully done, I had no idea my PS2 could still do that. Even the less detailed Custom characters are amazingly done.

Sound: 5/5 Nice voices, the classical eerie music of the franchis, and very nice weapon sounds.

Gameplay: 5/5 Absolutely amazing, Namco at some of its finest.

Replay Value: 5/5 Finally, a fighter that makes me care enough to actually replay the story modes.

Overall 5/5 SCIII Is the best fighting experience on any console, next gen included (I'm looking at you Dead or alive 4). They didn't just re-hash everything, but they also gave enough bonuses, new modes, and customization that this feels like a new game should, a joy to play.

Jonathan

Soul Calibur 3

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Soul Calibur 3 is the latest game in the Soul Calibur series and it is beautiful. The graphics are very nice, especially the people and the background. Nicely detailed. I also like the music which is great as well. There are new characters and you have different options, either by following the characters own storys or just battle for the fun of it. You can also view the cutscenes you may want to see. And see the characters profiles, art, etc. There are many new things I may not want to spoil.

There are some downsides though. I was hoping for some online gameplay...but I guess that would be hard enough because I would bet there would be alot of lag. Besides no online, this can be a very frusterating game. Once you get further into the game...somewhat it gets harder. You can do combos and you have different characters which means different attacks and weapons. But other than this...I can't see anything wrong with this game!

Even if you have not played a Soul Calibur game before, it's worth it. If you are looking for the bloody, very violent gaming, Mortal Combat is probably the best look. But this game may have some language, nothing serious. And some violence. But no blood.

Friend loved this gift.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

My friend was watching this on ebay for alot more than they were selling it on this site. I ordered enough for free shipping and I thought it was a great deal.

The Best Yet From the Franchise

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I just recently grabbed this game again after letting a friend borrow it several months ago (with no sign of returning it). Been playing it ever since. I've always liked the Soul Calibur series, but this one is by far my favorite.

The classic Soul Calibur staple characters are all here (Voldo, Ivy, Nightmare, Astaroth, among others), along with several new characters, and the brand new create-a-character mode, which was actually very well made.

The Chronicles of the Sword mode will earn you all your cash to buy new create-a-character items, weapons for existing characters, as well as art and videos. It plays almost like a real-time strategy game, with battles on the field becoming real 1 on 1 fights. Might sound kinda bizarre, but it was actually executed very nicely, and is an addicting aspect of gameplay.

All in all, if you like fighting games, you already know you need to pick this up. If you're on the outside looking in, this is a great place to start.

A fighting game for several nights

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: November 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is for sure an incredible fighting game. if you like to hang out on the night with your friends and just play some fighting games, then this game is for you. I think what makes this game so incredible is that it never gets old. You can play for months and you will still have something to unlock or best in this game, be it a new costume, weapon, mission, video or anything. The mode Chronicles of the Sword is absolutely amaizing, you can improve your character up to level 99, work with tactical maneuvers to beat the opposing army, and even customize the pregenerated characters they give you.
The graphics are beautiful, the modes of play are varied and fun, and the amount of characters (25) is just enough to give you from where to choose.
In short: it's a great game, worth buying if you like good fighting games.

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