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Review: SoulCalibur V

Now, let me be honest here. Trent’s our resident SoulCalibur fanatic, but the poor man’s bogged down with Capcom previews and the responsibility to review mega-release Final Fantasy XIII-2. So, the pleasure of tackling Project Souls’ new quasi-reboot, SoulCalibur V, fell to me.

Full disclosure: I didn’t play SoulCalibur I-III, so I can’t reminisce about Dreamcast days with hardcore fans. I did, however, play SoulCalibur IV cause I wanted to kick some butt with Yoda and Darth Vader. Oh, and I’ve also gone nuts on Wikipedia getting familiar with the story of Soul Edge. Even so, I’m fine if you’d consider me a SoulCalibur rookie.

On that note: SoulCalibur V was made for me. The thing is, SoulCalibur V was also made for you veterans too. Great how that works out, eh?

Set seventeen years after SoulCalibur IV, Siegfried’s defeat of Nightmare hasn’t stopped the stories of Soul Calibur and Soul Edge from continuing. SoulCalibur V is a reboot in the sense that most of the main characters are new (though, quite a few are descendants of previous characters), and in replaying SoulCalibur IV to confirm, the speed of combat seems to have been sped up considerably. Additionally, the combat system is revamped as well; the Critical Finishes system has been replaced by a Critical/Brave Edge bar. Super-powerful moves – the Critical Edge moves – take the full reserve of an on-screen meter that fills as you play; Brave Edge moves take about half of the meter.

The best bit about those Edge moves? They’re easy enough to pull off, more often than not. Even better, the Edge moves, normal moves and combos frequently the same between each player. Before devotees call foul, it still takes quite a bit of practice to become an expert at linking moves together. Actually, I never could, so there…you’ll still have a challenge.

The single-player story mode was quite enjoyable to slog through, and made immediate sense despite my unfamiliarity with the series. You control Sophitia’s offspring, Patroklos and Pyrrha, for the most part. Both all-rounder characters are fairly easy to control, thankfully. At times though, the fights can be cheap; if Nightmare gets you on the ground, he has a knack to destroy you before you can do much else. I was frustrated with that type of gameplay in the story mode for the longest time…until I figured out how to do the same to those I was fighting against. Then it was fine, of course.

Upon further reflection, the story mode does falter a tad. It’s hard not to compare SoulCalibur V‘s story mode to the recent Mortal Kombat outing; in Mortal Kombat, the story mode was quite long and you played with a diverse set of the game’s characters. This just isn’t the case in SoulCalibur; the story mode is twenty fights long, and you play with three or four (I won’t spoil why I’m putting it like that) characters. In short, the mode could have used a little fleshing out.

Regardless of how you feel about the story mode, multiplayer are the character creation tools nested in SoulCalibur V make the title truly great. The multiplayer mode is all about variety, with standard player and ranked lobbies, as well as social lobbies for chat and game replays.

I had the most fun in the game creating my own character; I’m talking RPG-style character creation here, not some Mickey Mouse toolset. If you can think to edit something on your character, you can bet it can be achieved using the creation UI. It’s amazing beyond words.

If that’s not your thing, playing with guest star Ezio Auditore (da Firenze!) probably will be. Ezio’s inclusion to the title makes FAR more sense than, say, Yoda and Darth Vader (still, they were cool). His combat style matches the Assassin’s Creed series, and his crossbow and dagger fit well in the weapon-based combat structure without over- or under-powering our favourite Assassin.

All up, SoulCalibur V is a solid title that has something for new gamers and returning fans. It’s polished and, really, worth your hard-earned cash if you’re a devotee to the series or fighting games in general.


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About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.