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One of the Worst Spin-offs in Video Game History

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: December 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

A spin-off to a successful franchise is almost never a good thing. The games are usually weaker than the main series and there's usually not as much effort put into them. There are a few exceptions but not many. Soul Calibur Legends is not an exception. In fact it may very well be one of the worst video game spin-offs to hit the scene in recent memory.

There's not much of a story here. You get to watch a cutscene take place and get an introduction as to what's going on, but from there the story becomes a confusing mess. It almost makes no sense. That aside, you'd think the gameplay would be something to admire but that may very well be the worst part about this game. There's really not much to it and sometimes it's just downright unfair.

You'll go into a level by selecting a character a two companions. You see some of your favorite Soul Calibur characters like Astorath, Sophitia and Taki. You'll even be able to play as Lloyd Irving of Tales of Symphonia fame. The controls aren't bad here. By swinging the Wii Remote you'll be able to do horizontal and vertical slashes. You'll use the Nunchuck to move your character around. You can also block attacks, perform charged attacks and strife around. The motion sensor controls of swinging the remote for sword swipes feels a little tacked on at times, though. It isn't that, which is annoying about the controls. What's annoying is that there is no challenge to the game whatsoever. If you simply swing the wii remote horizontally or vertically like a madman you'll have no problem fairing in combat.

You're also approached by the same enemies over and over again. This wouldn't really be a problem if there were a variety of them. It's basically the same three things over and over again. Worse than that, however, is the level design and camera. The levels are horrible in their design. There are traps that come from no where and sometimes the camera just doesn't work well enough. You may round a corner and the camera won't work out well enough for you to be able to see yourself before you take damage. Level designs are also boring and uninspired.

The game is reduced to being nothing more than a hack and slash. And it'll mostly consist of you swinging the wii remote in a craze. There's nothing challenging here at all. The level designs and gameplay as a whole are repetitive.

There's also a two player co-op mode, but that can't save the gameplay at all. There's even a versus, but you can use the same madman waving technique that you used in the actual adventure to do battle. In short, it's boring. If you really want to fight against a friend, it'd probably just be better to invest in one of the main series games.

Sadly, the graphics aren't stellar either. Much of the game is pretty ugly. Character models aren't so bad but everything is just downright ugly. Even by the Wii's standards it could be better. The voice acting isn't too bad, but the dialog and written script are absolutely horrible.

Even if you're a big Soul Calibur fan, Legends is not a worthwhile game at all. If you've never played Soul Calibur before, don't let this game be your first foray into the series. Pick up one of the games from the main series and pass this one by.

Lacking in Several Areas

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 12 / 16
Date: December 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Soul Caliber is a great fighting games series with a very loyal fan base. With Soul Caliber Legends, they tried to convert the series into an RPG. RGP fans will probably find it lacking, but Soul Caliber fans will appreciate the new look at their world.

First, the gameplay. In single player / campaign mode you go through a series of minor battles up until you hit a boss, like many typical RPGs. You swing the Wii remote around like a sword in order to make your attacks. The direction of the swing does matter - for example left-to-right acts differently than right-to-left. You can get a good workout playing this for a while!

That being said, the gameplay gets rather repetitive very quickly. There isn't a lot of thought or finesse involved. Also, the game itself is exceedingly short. You can finish the entire game in one day. With a fighting game you have a lot of incentive to keep playing, either alone or with friends, but here once the game is over, you really don't feel impelled to go back to it.

Normally in games like these the basic game is simple because the multiplayer is then complex and rich. However, Soul Caliber Legends doesn't offer much in this area. There are a few co-op, a few head-to-head and that's about it.

The graphics are a real mixed bag. In some cases, they are really very lovely and detailed. Whoever designed the wood parquet floor should get a gold star. On the other hand, some of the items are hideous looking, as if they were transplanted from a Nintendo-64.

I could complain about the tiny bikini outfit that they put the female into, but that's an issue with Soul Caliber as a whole, not just with this game.

The sound is equally mixed. Sometimes it seems almost good quality - and then at other times the dialogue makes you want to cringe. If this was a fighting game it might not matter much - but in an RPG, the whole point is the role playing environment, and it raelly stands out.

We've played a lot of so-so games through, and this was one we just lost interest in after a while. It's not engaging. And we are Soul Caliber fans, so we were the target audience for this game. I'd suggest this as a game to rent first, and then buy if you find you enjoy it.

Rating: 2/5

It's a long way from the Dreamcast to the Wii....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 18 / 32
Date: November 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Nintendo Wii was the first game console that I didn't buy to play Soulcalibur. Back in the day, I bought a Sega Dreamcast Console just to play the original Soul Calibur. Then Soul Calibur 2 came out on the PlayStation 2 Console Black, so I bought one of those. Next came Soul Calibur 3, which tried to add some RPG elements and wound up being a step back. Oh well. Then earlier this year I bought myself a Wii on the strength of its immersive sports games. And now, to my delight, we have Soulcalibur Legends on the Wii. This should be the ideal platform for a sword-fighting game, right?

The original Soul Calibur games were all about best-2-of-3 timed head-to-head swordfights in a variety of closed arenas. This game pits you against single and multiple opponents in what looks like open RPG-like settings, but they still seem to be relatively episodic. You move with the nunchuk and fight with the controller, which works OK; I'm still getting the hang of the way that moving the joystick and moving the nunchuck itself interact. Spinning 180 degrees is essential, but tricky.

Above all, this game is going to be a good workout. No more sprawling in front of the screen, button-mashing your PS2 controller. You play this game standing, moving, feinting, jabbing, slashing. This is going to be fun - energetic fun.

Good game to rent

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have always been a fan of the Soul Games. When I was a kid I loved Soul Blade and have owned every game after that. So when I noticed Soulcalibur Legends at my local store, I snatched it up right away. As I played this game, I realized something. The Soul games are the best fighting games I have ever played, it just doesn't translate well to the adventure genre.

The control scheme for the Wii is pretty easy to use and the graphics are solid, the main gripe I have is the gameplay itself. This game is incredibly easy and the levels are extremely repetitive. The story moves along at a decent pace, it just really isn't that interesting. All that being said, play this game. I just wouldn't shell out 50 bucks for it. I haven't had any of my buddies over since I got the game so the multiplayer action might redeem SC: L, but it took me only a few hours of play to beat the Quest mode.

Legends is a good addition to the Soul mythos, I just can't recommend this game to anyone but a completionist.

Misguided Expectations?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Soul Calibur Legends follows the story of Siegfried, and expounds upon the story between the games Soul Blade and Soul Calibur. Along the way you meet several more characters from the Soul Calibur Universe.

Ultimately, how you view this game depends purely on your preferences. Soul Calibur Legends shares characters and a storyline from the Soul Calibur series - that's it.

Let me try it this way: if you like Streets of Rage or Final Fight (which I do), you'll probably like this game. If you liked Sword of the Berserk, you'll be extremely familiar with, and enjoy, this style of game. If you're a hardcore Soul Calibur fan yearning for a more in-depth back story than what the Soul Calibur series provides in character endings, you may or may not like this game. If you're looking purely for an in depth combat game for the Wii like... hmm, oh, the Soul Calibur series, you will not like this game. And as we see from previous reviews, this is generally the case.

As far as action games go, the story arc is fairly in-depth; though, compared to RPGs, the storyline is almost non existent. The game assumes you know these characters, so there's very, very little character development for playable characters. Sometimes irritatingly, we learn much too much about the NPCs.

Repetition is the hallmark of beat 'em ups. There's no getting around that, otherwise Final Fight would've been a five minute game. If you're not a fan of or cannot tolerate mindless repetition, steer clear. Where this game shines is the combat system, which is tailored beautifully for the Wii.

Instead of the repetitive button mashing, almost all fighting controls are done with the nunchuk and wii-mote. Quickly flicking the nunchuk will have you strafe and dash, and moving the wiimote will result in an attack.

Let me be clear: there isn't much else past this. The gamely relies solely on these mechanics for enjoyment. There's no alternate configuration, i.e. using the gamecube controller. Quite frankly, if that were the case, this game would be exceedingly dull.

Finally, you need a bit of patience as Siegfried is a bit of a slow character, so the true enjoyment of playing isn't with him but with faster characters unlocked later, such as Lloyd, Sophitia, and Taki.

The good: The combat is surprisingly satisfying, since there's a tactile element (duh) that other games of this genre lack. The storyline is interesting, in that it fills in some of the gaps in the Soul Calibur universe. If you remember the mission mode from the SC series, the missions are set up in the exact same fashion, and finishing a mission averages about 10 minutes - a good amount of time for 'get in, get out' casual playing.

The bad: Because there are a lot of enemies, you'll find yourself with the dreaded 'wii elbow'. I can't imagine playing this game for several hours straight, since fatigue does affect the gameplay. The missions are too repetitive (you'll find yourself in the same locations fairly frequently), and there are too many of them - this kind of genre almost requires the game span to be short, which this game is not.

The gist: the actual gameplay is where this game shines, but Namco dulled it by making too much of it. Thankfully, missions are short so you can play when you please, but don't expect to finish this game anytime soon. Four stars for gameplay, three stars overall for the game.

Different but still good

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game got a lot of bad reviews but it really doesn't deserve it. I think its very interactive and makes very good use of the wii-mote. I'm a big fan the soul series and I found this title to be really fun and was quite active while playing it (I wasn't standing there bored that is). The reason I think most of the fans didn't like this one is because the fans don't want change, it wasn't "THEIR" Soul Calibur. The camera could have been better and its really not a $50 game but once the price drops to around $25 I recommend it, it was a lot better than the reviews say.

On a scale of 1 to 10 I give this game a 7.8 (C+)

Soul Calibur as it should be

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: December 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Since Soul Calibur III, I had felt the game should be played as more of an RPG or quest mode. And boy, does Soul Calibur Legends deliver!

Instead of tedious, monotonous battles with the same characters, you fight your way through monsters and dragons and, when facing a person, it's a special treat. There's still a story behind it, but it's not so annoying to follow as in SC3.

My only real complaint are the graphics--or rather, the "drawings". As gorgeous as SC3 is, SCL is a let-down in that it's split between drawings and CGI. It's distracting, especially when they try to animate the drawings.

Fun game, though. They did good in releasing it for the Wii instead of the PS3.

DONT BUT THIS GAME

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: January 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Its nothing like any other Soulcalibur game theres no real versus mode and the game Is quite boring.. its only an RPG game not a fighting game like Mortal Kombat or the original Soul Calibur games....

Not Like Previous Games

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: April 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

It's not at all like the fighting games Soul Caliber was. It's like a story based RPG but when you actually FIND the two-player its in the same settings! Split screen, disorienting, not fun.
The controls are ok with the WiiMote but the game itself feels rushed, unpolished, gritty. I wish I would have rented it before I bought it.

Painful to Play

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: July 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Throwing in a control scheme just for the sake of making use of the Wii's motion sensing controller doesn't add anything to the gameplay. It just feels like a mediocre 3-D platformer that got made more complicated to play than it really should have been. The same goes for all the rest of the Wii and DS games where the controls were thrown in to make use of a gimmick.

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