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Soul Calibur

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: January 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Wow. I pride myself on my vocabulary skills but this is the only one-word definition I could come up with for this game. Soul Calibur is the best fighting game ever made...hands down. It also ranks in my top five favorite video games of all time, which is saying a lot because I've played hundreds of games. Now that I've said that, I can get down to the big question: why should you spend your hard earned cash on this game? I'll tell you why...

Graphically, Soul Calibur has some of the best visuals on any system, including PS2. The first time I saw this game in action I was amazed. I've simply never played a game that looks this good. The character animation is incredibly lifelike, both during fighting and in the pre-rendered opening and victory scenes. The backgrounds are very realistic and add to the overall atmosphere of the game.

The music is well done and the sound effects are tremendous. The sounds of blade hitting blade, blade hitting air, and blade hitting flesh are dead-on accurate. I mean I've never actually heard somebody being hacked into with a broadsword in real life, but I'm willing to bet that it would sound pretty close to the sound you hear in Soul Calibur. Other impressive sound effects are the character voices both during and between battles. From the grunts and roars of the hulking Astoroth to the Bruce Lee-esque high-pitched hooting and hollering of the nunchaku-swinging Maxi, these characters come to life.

Control is extremely tight and responsive. Which makes it a lot easier to learn new moves. Every move in the game is easily accessible through the in-fight move menu. Just push pause during a battle and the entire arsenal of moves for your character is available for the taking. The characters are also very well balanced each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

There are 19 characters in all, although nine of them must be unlocked through beating the game in arcade and mission modes. It's through all of the unlocking hidden characters, levels, costumes, options, art cards, game modes, etc., that the game shows its true depth. Each character has his/her own unique weapons and fighting styles. Each character also has hundreds (yes, hundreds) of attacks, combos, and special moves to keep you coming back for more.

As if you needed any more reason to pick this game up, I will mention that the menu system is very streamlined and straight-forward, the two-player mode is a blast, the art gallery is surprisingly well done, the story lines are more than adequately interesting, and at the recently discounted price you'd have to be crazy to pass this one up...Wow.

Top notch.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 17
Date: July 10, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Beautiful graphics and music, unbelievably diverse range of character (all well balanced in ability), mind-boggling extra options...all these were to be expected of the company that brought us the superlative Tekken games. And Soul Calibur exceeds these expectations.

I've never mastered the game, finding the 3D system hard to adjust to, and I still dislike fighting games that use the block button (eg. Mortal Kombat) instead of the Street Fighter system. Also, the game endings in Soul Calibur are on the flimsy side, with beautiful hand-drawn art for all the characters, but somewhat unsatisfying story endings for many of them (Astaroth and Lizardman, for example). But this is cosmetic. despite my lack of skill in this game, I keep coming back to it. And like in the Tekken games, the intuitative control scheme allows for much improvisation so that even if you're an amateur 3D-fighter player like me, there's still plenty you can do. All in all, even though I'll probably never master this game, it's still a lot of fun. And that's all I ask!

Believe the hype, but believe the reviews too

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: November 25, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Believe the hype, SoulCalibur is the real deal. It is...exactly what everyone has been saying it is, and more: a truly stunning game visually, extremely fun in single-player mode, not hard to catch on to, etc. However, the reviewer (below) who gave it only two-stars has a very valid point. Button-mashing is rewarded, often quite frustratingly (wanna make people really mad? Use Kilik and just press Y and up repeatedly. You'll see... ;). However, I disagree that the veteran cannot overcome this. One of the best parts of the game is that every character has an implicit weakness--the strong players are slowest, the fast players weakest, the longer-range attacks are slow-developing, etc.--and therefore it is up to the opponent to find and exploit it. I've played this game one-on-one with friends upwards of 48 hours combined and there is not yet one dominant character or player. That is indicative of a well-balanced game, I think.

So believe the hype, buy the game, and remember: every diamond has a flaw, if you closely enough. In the end, though, it's still a diamond.

The Perfect Fighting Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: August 20, 1999
Author: Amazon User

If you even remotely enjoy the fighting genre Soul Calibur is THE game to buy when Dreamcast finally launches in the West.

Soul Calibur scored 40/40 in Famitsu, Japan's leading video game magazine. Famitsu rarely hands out perfect scores, so you can bet this game caught my attention. I've been lucky enough to sample the delights of the Japanese version first hand a few days back and I can say it's simply stunning! I've been playing Soul Edge, Soul Calibur's predecessor, on PlayStation since it came out in Europe and have enjoyed it immensely. Soul Edge (Soul Blade in Europe) is one of the best fighting games on PSX, but after having played the sequel I can say Soul Edge and Soul Calibur aren't even in the same league!

Everything about Soul Calibur is top notch: The introscene (Namco's trademark), the ingame graphics, the music, the sound effects, the characters. But there's one element that really stands out, the element that's the hardest to grasp unless you've played the game itself: the gameplay. The sheer control you have over your character and his or her moves is simply incredible and the characters are incredibly diverse yet remarkably well balanced.

I really can't wait to get my hands on an American Dreamcast and a copy of this game so I can play this amazing game whenever I please. Soul Calibur is a MUST-BUY title. If you still aren't convinced you should get away from your Monitor & keyboard right now and run to a place where the game's up and running. If that doesn't convince, nothing will. I certainly know that convinced me.

Soul Calibur..The best game ever?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: November 27, 1999
Author: Amazon User

So is it..or isnt it...well if you just looked at the five stars that i gave the game you would probably think it is...but Soul Calibur sadly is not the best game ever...However it IS the best fighting game to grace ANY console at this moment in time..the gameplay is superbly balenced...button bashing will win a few fights but experienced players will be able to counter and attack back forcing the button basher to try and get the moves that are needed to win consistently.The graphics are for the first time on a home console actualy arcade standard and the music,whilst being very much in the back of the players mind,suit the game very well.But it is the excellent replay value that makes this game so special.The one player mission mode is superb with lots of varying battle modes and loads of things to uncover.This game is an absolute MUST buy and a credit to NAMCO for bringing it to the DREAMCAST,not only arcade perfect,but building on the solid platform and giving extra's to the home user.

Fantastic even if you're fighting games are not your thing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: January 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is a really amazing game, and I'm not even that big of a fan of fighting games.

The graphics, moves, settings, and so on are just incredible. I've played some 3-D games where bad camera angles gets to be an annoyance, but this game seems really smart about that - you don't even notice it most of the time, feels very cinematic.

A good variety of characters, each of which is very unique in style, moves, and controls.

I think the best thing about it is the wide variety of modes. There is a regular arcade mode where you strive to beat computer controlled enemies, or duel with your friends. There's a practice mode where you can learn all the cool moves for your character (including lists of all the moves and demos of how to do them and what they do). There's a mission mode where you have to achieve various goals in the fights (such as, number of hits rather than life totals decides the fight) or some things are different (the one where the rats crawling around will bite the characters in the feet and bring them down is hilarious). Achieving the goals, or defeating the solo arcade version of the game, can make available new characters, costumes, and settings. And some other modes that I haven't explored yet!

The tight outfits and realism of the graphics make for a fair bit of beefcake/cheesecake, so if you find that sort of thing offensive, be careful. It's still pretty tasteful in that regard. If you're offended by violence, well, this is a fighting game! Although there's no gore, you do get to do things like whack your opponent a couple of times after you've defeated them so that you can watch them writhe in agony.

Thanks to the practice mode, even an old clumsy person like me can learn enough of the wild moves to make it really fun. Of course, I still get destroyed against people who know what they're doing (there's a lot of depth to the blocking/countering strategies), but it's still a blast. I'm always seeing new moves and other things that surprise.

Fighting Perfection

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: January 22, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Even though it's over a year old, Soul Calibur is not only the best-looking Dreamcast game there is, it's the best 3D fighting game on the planet. Period. Nothing comes close. A lot of people say Tekken Tag for the PS2 is a better game, but Tag is merely a rehash of Tekken 3 with updated graphics, and Dead or Alive 2 just doesn't have the same shine. Soul Calibur introduced so many new ideas to the genre of 3D fighting that it's hard to think how anyone will surpass it: the 8-Way run system and Guard Impact are just two of them. The graphics are flawless 60 fps glory, the sound crystal, the backgrounds enthralling. Mission Mode and the huge unlockable Art Gallery send replay value through the roof, but the true treasure here is the combat system. Helped by pinpoint control, beginners and veterans alike will find no end to the depth of the fighting engine that the 8-Way Run system opens up, allowing your fighter mobility across the entire surface of the arena. People are still talking about the huge leap Soul Calibur represents for fighting games. Namco has produced a work of art that also happens to be the most flawless game I've ever played -- a year later it's still the most played game on my Dreamcast and I'm still discovering new moves and techniques. Soul Calibur has sold many Dreamcast systems (my own and all my friends' as well), and at the price the system and the game are now, it's an ABSOLUTE STEAL. Everyone who's even remotely interested in gaming owes it to themselves to experience this piece of history -- games like this don't happen often, folks.

It has perfect ratings for a reason.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: August 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

For once, all the game magazines got it right when they gave SC a perfect score. It's funny how an early Dreamcast game looks better than most of the games we get in this day and age.

A lot of people say that SC is 'just a button masher" and well, that's true for some part. I just recently played this game for the first time and got through it just blindly trying out different combinations I know from other fighting games, and made it through the Arcade mode with no problem. You can get by just doing the same 4 moves in some cases. But anyone can go through the Arcade game, it's the Mission challenges that'll catch you if you've just been mashing buttons all this time. Through this mode, you'll be using a variety of skills and learning some things along the way (if you didn't bother with the training mode like me), making you a better fighter. By completing the missions, you'll get a number of points to unlock some cool extras like artwork, new costumes, characters, weapons and weapon/fighting demonstrations from each character. Not all of the missions are easy though, some of them take many tries to complete. There'll be some where you have to take on 7 opponents, without healing between each round. And some where you're constantly being pushed away from them thanks to the wind.

The graphics, as I've already stated, still hold up to the likes of just about any ps2 or GC game. Heck, some of the things here look about early Xbox quality. Everything runs smoothly with little jaggedness in the framerate. Sometimes it'll happen when a match is over, but that's about it. Collision detection is perfect- when it looks like you hit your opponent, you hit them. It doesn't magically miss and not do any damage or anything. So there's no need to worry about that with SC. And the backgrounds and locations are just beautiful. Sometimes it's worth starting a match just to watch everything that's going on in a given setting. And the character designs are great. While some of them look a little basic, that's something we've needed in the fighting game universe for a while. Not everyone has some awesome, ravishing design that makes you go "oh that must be one of the heroes" or anything. They do stand out on their own though, if not for the designs, for their weapons.

The music and sound is pretty good. A few of the voices (ie- the announcer's) are fuzzy and aren't as good as they could've been as far as quality goes, but most of the characters have great voices and the acting is top notch. Of course, since they're all in Japanese, there's a bit of over-acting. And some of the subtitles aren't that accurate. One of the fighters says something simple like "I'm ending this!" but the subtitle for that sentence is about 9 words long for some reason. The soundtrack was nice. Each level has its own theme, and it fits the setting. Fancy castles have a classy little ditty playing, old Oriental docks get the traditional music, and a Spanish cove gets the same treatment. I'm tempted to get the soundtrack for SC. And the weapon sound effects sound nice and painful (Astaroth's charged up axe smashes).

Soul Calibur's probably the best weapon fighting game that's come out to date. I don't get why Amazon lists this as "maybe too violent". There isn't any blood when you're hit with any of the weapons, just tiny little shocks through the person's body. Pretty much, just take Dead or Alive 2 and give it weapons, that's how "violent" it is. For fighting fans, or just if you're looking for a title to showcase what the DC can do, Soul Calibur should be at the top of your list.

A Fighting Game of the Highest Calibur

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: March 11, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I first played Soul Calibur in a local arcade several years ago, not really knowing anything about it. After recieving a Dreamcast for Christmas I made sure that I bought this game. I was floored. Definately the finest video game I have ever played (with the exception of Neo-Geo's arcade version of Samurai Showdown II), Soul Calibur packs in all that a fighting fan could ever wish for. First off, the characters. All conform to the basic archetypes of fighting games. Their edge: each is totally different from the others, their moves, stances, voices and dialogue completely unique. Second, the graphics. This game takes every advantage of the Dreamcast's 128-bit ability. The scrolling is flawless, the 3D effects phenominal. The music and animations, as well as the Japanese voice-overs, are superb and the art gallery, mission mode, and other special features are totally amazing. The gameplay is important as well. Each character has such a varied range of moves and motions that you can play the game for quite a while and never get bored. My current favorite characters as Mitsurugi, Kilik, and, a secret character, Yoshimitsu. However, I do have a few bones to pick with this game. While the nine secret characters available are superb and fun to play, there is not yet an all-inclusive code to access all of them, meaning that you must play through the game close to 20 times to achieve all of them. Also, the secret characters are, though bodily different, subtle rehashes of the original characters, with a few exceptions. Another downfall: I have not yet discovered how to save all of the secret characters onto a VMU. My unit stops after the first 4. This means that after you have gotten all the characters, you'll have to start all over again once you turn the Dreamcast off. The HORROR! Also, the cheapness rating of this game is rather hight. Characters such as Kilik have a distinct advantage over many other "slower" characters and have the ability to continuously thrash their opponents while they're down, virtually upopposed. Players new to the game have a high liklihood of being taken to the cleaners by a more experienced opponent. Despite these downfalls, the game's virtues more than make up for its flaws. If you're looking for a good fighting game with an added dash of panach, check Soul Calibur out. Enjoy!

Almost Perfect...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: December 29, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Soul Calibur is, simply put, the best 3D fighting game ever made. Everything, from the graphics and sound to the gameplay are phenomenal, though not quite perfect. I've broken my review down into small sections, each one focusing on a different aspect of the game.

The graphics in this game are phenomenal, but not without some competition. The character models are the best you'll see in a videogame (at least until Dead or Alive 2 is released), but the stages are outshined by those in Sega's Virtua Fighter 3: TB. There are a couple of nice arenas, like the Venice stage or the Underground Cavern, but for the most part each area is just a floating platform with a very lightly-animated background.

The sound in this game surpasses almost every game ever released... almost. The music is bar-none the best I've heard in a videogame. It sounds very orchestral and has an incredibly epic feel to it. The sound effects, on the other hand, are a mixed bag. Screams, grunts, and growls all sound great, as do the weapon clashes, but the sounds of characters and weapons hitting the ground are way off. Overall, the aural experience is solid, but there are other games that do it better.

Gameplay. There isn't enough room on this entire page to cover every nuance of the gameplay, and while not quite as deep as Virtua Fighter, it's much easier for the beginner to jump in and start playing. Contrary to what some people have said, button mashing against a more skilled opponent won't get you very far. You see, almost every move in the game can be blocked, and those moves that can't, called (surprise!) Unblockable Attacks, take so long to perform that it's possible to get out of the way before the attack. There are literally hundreds of different moves for each character, and unlike many fighting games, you don't have to enter a huge string of seemingly random commands to perform a combo. Rather, most combos are actually strings, or several different moves performed one right after another. This style does two things: first, it makes combos easier to perform and much more customizable; and second, it makes the moves more satisfying because you feel like you're actually controlling what's happening on-screen. There is a lot more to the fighting system than what I've laid out here, but I don't have enough room to cover it all.

Story. Here's is an area that's often neglected in fighting games. Anyone who's played any of the Tekken games will know what I mean: the Iron Fist Tournament? Come on. In Soul Calibur, each character is chasing the Soul Edge. But each character is after this legendary sword for his or her own reason. Voldo is after the blade because it was his dead master's life-long quest; Sophitia received an oracle from the god Hephaestus to destroy the Soul Edge; etc. Every character has his or her own story and each one is much more intricate than what I've outlined here. The endings are series of hand-drawn pictures instead of pre-rendered cinemas, but my personal opinion is that sketches fit the game far better than CG would.

That's about all I can say here. I've barely scratched the surface of this wonderful game, but hopefully I've given you a better idea of whether or not you want to invest in this fantastic experience.

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