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Good, but something is missing

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Soul Calibur IV is the best looking PS3 game right now. I got to say it is a tad different in term of the game-play. Lot of the moves is the same with existing characters, but the buttons combinations are a little different/charged. There is a new feature that if you guard too much your character weapon will get weaker or break, which was similar to the original soul blade game. Your weapons are the same, only the characters will level up. Game mode is altered a little with online play. The usual story line, verse, arcade modes are back. The storyline matches are a little different. You face 2-3 enemies per round with one life bar, sound hard, but it is actually easy in normal mode. There are only 5 rounds. The ending clips aren't that great either.

The extra and characters creation is also tweaked a little. You can't really randomly create really odd characters like before, more like modifying existing one. I am not sure if all the ending movies can be viewed like before in a theater mode, I didn't find it. The character bio is really lame this time. You get like an artwork with the written description, gone is the 3d model that you can rotate and zoom in Soul Caliber III. Those weird odd mini game and quests are gone from SC3. There is a tower game, but that is just like a regular arcade version. No more buying weapons for your character development. Why are half the scenes from SC3, with better detail? A lot more female characters are a great plus, Ivy and some of the ladies are quite Taki-ness.

The team spent a lot of time on the animation, design and rendering of the characters, and kind of chopped skipped on the extra features that were found in SC3. Basically I liked SC3 a bit better. SC4 is basically a visual upgrade of SC3 similar to VF5 for the PS3.

An awesome game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I must say that in all honesty that this game may be why I bought a PS3. I remember hearing about 6 months ago hearing about how the new soulcalibur would have Darth Vader(the ps3 version anyway) I was convinced I had to get a PS3 from that moment on. It was a difficult hunt since supplies were limited (not as limited as the Wii thankfully) but I got my hands on a PS3. Then I played the waiting game. I got several cool PS3 games but all the while I was waiting for the big day to come. Well, now it has arrived.

Getting to the actual game, I think it was quite worth the wait. The core gameplay really hasn't changed too much but I enjoy the tweaks like armor damage where you can shred your opponents gear until they are standing in nothing but their skivvies. A major new element is the inclusion of skills, abilities that make your character stronger. But the real heart of the game lies in the customization. Being able to tweak the abilities and appearance of the main characters is quite fun. You can develop different builds. For instance you can make a Power Mitsurugi or an Impact Mitsurugi etc. etc. Probably the only thing I didn't like was that there was no rpg type mode in this game like 3 had. That might have been my favorite part of that game.

All in all I think this is a great game and it kicks butt.

P.S. Darth Vader kicks butt, too.

Bring on the Souls

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Soul Calibur continues it's reign over the fighting with weapons game genre. With the latest installment, some things that you enjoyed about previous titles remain while new features have been added.
In addition, Soul Calibur III's misplaced create-a-character strategy game is gone. For some reason a lot of people thought that SC III wasn't quite the same, or up to par. But it did introduce some new characters, and they -- among some other new/special characters-- return for the 4th Soul Calibur.

When first heard that Star Wars was going to make an appearance, it was met with considerable skepticism. But, in the PS3 version Darth Vader and his apprentice are welcome characters. They are integrated by an added "Force Bar" which allows them to use the force until it runs out or is replenished.

__Gameplay__
The characters feel solid in this one. You can perform some amazing moves with each of the characters, in addition to the new feature of performing a "critical" on your opponent. Criticals are performed by first knocking off a piece of armor, and then attacking the vulnerable spot. When the opponent's Soul Gauge is depleted you can perform the Critical, no matter what their health status is.
Instead of just gaining "levels" to show what kind of fighter you are, the levels actually correspond to abilities of that character. All characters in the game and even those that you create have the ability to become better / stronger. Take Taki for instance. After using her for a bit she gains a couple of levels and in the Create-A-Character customization, you can give her a different weapon and change her skills to give her bonuses or abilities during battle. Some are passive, but some can be activated using power from the Soul Gauge. One of Taki's abilities is to become invisible for a period of time (Repeatedly press default [R2]). Some other abilities that could be added were the ability to drain the opponents Gauge with impacts, or to steal some of their HP. The "Appeal" ability works on gaining an advantage over opponents of the opposite sex, but hurts the character when fighting against the same sex.

Another feature is the Tower of Souls. The idea is that as you work you way up the Tower, the enemies become harder. After you work you way to the top, you've given the option of descending below the Tower, into its depths, for more challenges.

Of course, Gold is the currency of the game, and it's how you unlock weapons, some of the initial characters, clothing/items for customization, and the extra features such as special animations, illustrations, etc.

_Online_
Another new feature, this one is going to take some getting used to. As it stands now, the feature does need some work. Nice idea, but poor execution. Hopefully a patch will update the problems with the online. (For example: when losing in a match you can quit to avoid being beaten without a penalty for quitting, and the would-be winner gains nothing)

_Overall_
All in all this is a great title, and a lot of fun to play. The Story and Arcade modes may be short, but have interesting stories and are easily played over and over to gain experience and gold. I'm also intrigued as to what DLC (downloadable content) will be released.

Feels Unfinished

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This latest iteration of Soul Calibur presents a visually appealing and generally fun gaming experience. There isn't a huge change from previous iterations (never played Soul Calibur 3 myself) so fans familiar with the series will be pleasantly surprised.

The biggest new feature of note is the custom character creation. The custom character creation section allows players to modify existing (aside from a handful) characters and also create an all newish character. The custom custom character has the standard fare present - pick gender, pick fighting style, adjust costumes, adjust coloration, adjust abilities, pick voice, etc.

Unfortunately a few audio and rare visual glitches (sort of) do emerge. The first audio glitch folks will notice is that the character banter sometimes butts right up against the announcer's dialog and occasionally even occurs over the announcer's dialog. The sort of visual glitch emerges when two players are fighting next to a wall. The wall simply disappears and leaves a less than immersive view on the action. However, the visual seems more of a decision to keep the camera from going all wonky when players fight next to walls.

Pros:

The controls feel responsive during fights.
Good looking.
Custom characters/custom configurable characters.
Slightly addictive.
Multi-player (not sure if it does split screen)
Vader rocks.
Every character has a different story.

Cons:

Audio glitches
Doesn't spoil users with "things to do" - story mode is about 6 bouts.
Could have been delayed 1-2 months and been worth the wait - game feels unfinished in areas.
Vader feels so out of place, but is still fun.
No next gen story telling (no cut scenes/variation of cut scenes.)
Some stories seem more of an after though while some are quite funny.
Story mode could have been a lot more.
Custom matches not present.

Great Cross-Platform Fighter

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I'm not familiar with any of the preceding Soul Calibur titles but I am impressed by this release. The controls are very intuitive without getting too complicated (ie. Tekken). The graphics are incredible and the animation is very impressive. Overall this is a great fighter and I would easily reccomen this to anyone looking for a next-gen fighter.

Enjoyable game but could have more depth

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 01, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I rented it the day it came out and although I've never enjoyed fighting games that much this one is enjoyable. The storyline on normal is pretty short and not too hard and I'm pretty bad at fighting games. Its only 5 stages and the endings are cool depending on who you play with. There are a lot more characters in this one and Vader and the Apprentice are fun to play with. My favorite part is the character creation. There is a good portion of armor from head to toe. You can choose the hair color muscle tone and physic, the hair style and choose from over 10 different faces. You choose your weapon based on a character from the game and you can upgrade the weapons. I'd give the game a 8/10, I just think the storyline could be longer.

More of the same with better graphics

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 01, 2008
Author: Amazon User

If you have ever played any of the SoulCalibur games you will notice not much has changed aside for the better graphics. I haven't played through the game using all the characters, but the ones I did, gameplay didn't change. You can buy charcters as well as weapons with the money you earn through storymode as well as arcade mode. If you could do that in the 3rd one, I never really noticed because I didn't care for the last one that much. You can also tweak your characters attributes which is also nice. I enjoyed using Vader though some people would diagree and say he is no good as a fighter. It's true Vader is not a fast character in the game and sometimes I had to throw the computer players in order to beat them with him. On the otherhand he is very good with his lightsaber and it is fun using him while fighting with other characters that use swords(the Samurai Mitsurugi comes to mind.) Is this game worth buying? In my opinion, no. I played through Vader's storyline as well as the arcade mode and made enough money to unlock other characters. But if you are a hard core SoulCalibur fan or fan of fighting games then by all means spend away. My review is based on when I rented it.

The Best Soul Calibur Yet

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Pros:
- Over 30 playable characters
- Deep character customization feature
- Decent online multiplayer mode
- Very solid and fluid combat system that is accessible to everyone
- Star Wars characters(ie. Darth Vader exclusively on PS3, The Apprentice and Yoda exclusively on the 360)
- Extremely fun game to play with friends
- Robust character creation mode
- Tower of Lost Souls mode
- There is an incentive to complete story mode with every character
- Ability to customize controls

Cons:
- Online multiplayer mode can have lag at times
- Darth Vader is the only balanced Star Wars character
- Can not make a Jedi in character creation
- You can unlock all the characters in one day, though the Apprentice is extremely hard to unlock
- Story and Arcade mode are on the short side
- Some characters have revealing clothing, however most of them have alternate costumes that are not as revealing
- Default control scheme makes some combos almost impossible to do

Overall this game is extremely fun and should be picked up by anyone who is a fan of the fighting genre or is looking for the right game to introduce them to it.

Fun fast fighting action

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Great fighting game. Lots of characters that take a long time to master and yet are fun to use right away. The graphics are nice but kind of hard to notice considering how fast the fighting is.

Great Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Love this game! Been playing for the last few days and I'm loving it more and more. The fighting system is easy enough for anyone to play and deep enough for the hard core gamer. The graphics are simply beautiful! The characters flow seamlessly without a hint of stutter. The fighting styles are unique to each character and well balanced. The single player mode is deep enough to keep you entertained for sometime. I haven't played on-line yet, but expect it to increase the game's lasting appeal. Get this game if you at all like fighting games, you won't regret it!

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