SoulCalibur IV - Review

SoulCalibur IV

System: Xbox 360 / PS3
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco Bandai / Ubisoft
Year: 2008

With the second game in the series being the game that got me into fighting games, I sure like SoulCalibur. So when I got my 360 I jumped at the chance to get the latest console appearance for the series.

From the outset, everything looks rather familiar, with the menu options that are typical on any fighting game. Let's see what SCIV has to offer.

Going It Alone

The first things you'll spy out are the single player modes. There are four things to tackle by yourself here. The standard arcade mode does what it says on the tin. It offers a quick blast of arcade fighting here you can battle though the eight consecutive stages with any of the numerous characters. Arcade is a great way to get things going and get to grips with learning (or relearning) the game.

After a couple of blasts in arcade however, you might fancy giving the story mode a go. However, this is the main feature where the game really disappoints. In its essence, the story mode in SoulCalibur IV is a glorified arcade mode, where you get to read small scrolling text before you're launched into a series of five consecutive stages. In each stage you fight against AI-generated custom characters, along with the standard characters from the game. On the harder difficulty using a character you're not so good with, it can be a challenge, especially when you come up against one of the hidden characters in the third stage,; however, like arcade, there's only so much of repeating similar battles that you can take, so unfortunately this gets boring quickly.

The only positives from story mode are the hidden characters that you can unlock, as well as money and the second set of weapons for each character. There are also some fancy cutscenes for each character, and do flesh out each of their individual stories.

Myself, coming from the days of SoulCalibur II and it's almighty Weapon Master mode (for those who didn't play it, think of an RPG style world map, where each location has various battles), find this part of the game lacking in comparison. You could play countless hours on that thing, but here with the fourth game, story mode shouldn't take too long for a typical gamer to complete.

The single player challenge in this iteration lies in The Tower of Lost Souls. This sets you up in a tower where you can start at the bottom and ascend floors in groups of two or three, or begin at the top and fight your way down to the bottom. This mode starts off pretty easy, but then gets progressively harder as you climb or descend further. The fights are pretty varied with different character styles coming into play, and each stage usually has an extra condition that can benefit the enemy. Each set of floors also ends with a boss, usually in the form of one of the game's main characters. This mode is an enjoyable challenge that will test your skill with the game and your favourite characters.

The final part of the single player experience is your standard training mode, where you can practice with any character with as much as you like to practise different moves, etc... It's pretty solid and a good feature if you seem to be struggling grasping a particular combo.

This Game's Got Character

Visually, SoulCalbur IV is a very nice game. The character models and weapons are structure well, looking quite realistic. Most of the stages in the game are quite vibrant, although there are a couple which suffer from bland, single-colour designs.

The audio stands up too, with the game's orchestral score setting the medieval fantasy atmosphere up perfectly. The characters are voiced well, and still sound the same from previous titles; and the voices or the new characters fit perfectly.

Heading on to the actual character roster, this game features Yoda, Darth Vader and the Apprentice as guest characters from the Star Wars saga. A good idea on paper, but in the game not so much. Yoda and Darth Vader are "exclusive" to the 360 and PS3, while the Apprentice is unlocakable on both games. However, each of the "exclusive" characters is available to the other console via downloadable content. The three Star Wars characters are quite unbalanced with the normal roster. Yoda is very small, and so is virtually immune to grabs. The Apprentice is phenomenally powerful compared to the other characters. I have no experience with Darth Vader however. Each Star Wars character has an extra feature, a force gauge. Some of each characters attacks utilise the force, which depletes said gauge. When depleted, the character is stunned for a moment, allowing the opponent to get a decent attack in. This I assume was meant to offset their unbalanced nature, but sadly has not worked that well. I actually find the standard characters better to use than the Star Wars guests.

There are also a fair few new characters that have been added to the game, which all seem to be fairly balanced. each new character does bring a little extra to the game, and I do enjoy using the hidden characters which are unlocked in story mode.

Battle Joined

In the end, fighting games have always been about the multiplayer experience no matter what game you play; this, Street Fighter, Tekken, Smash Bros.; they all have a focus on that all important multiplayer. SoulCalibur IV does multiplayer very well, even though it hasn't got all the features of the benchmark second game in the series. For local you just have your basic one-on-one bouts, playing with the character skills either on or off. It's in the multiplayer mode where you can see the full scale of the maps that SoulCalibur IV has to offer, and it offers quite a variety, including two Star Wars themed stages that come in with the Star Wars partnership for this game.

Playing online is a very solid experience. There are two ways to play, ranked or unranked. Unranked matches are great for the non-serious kind of person who just wants to have fun with the online side of the game. However it loses one of the ranked's benefits of skill levels. On ranked, you begin with a skill level of 1 that increases as you win fights. You can jump quickly into a battle, browse for suitable matches, or create your own set up. When matched, you can judge whether to fight the person or not by his/her level. Obviously if you're on level 1 you're not going to want to fight a guy on level 50-something. The ranked battles are a more serious affair and both sides of the online are a great way of extending the game's life once you've finished all of the single player stuff.

Get Creative

In one way, it may be best to leave the multiplayer to last, as it can rely on one of the key (and most enjoyable) aspects of the game. Character customisation. SoulCalibur IV's customisation option is one of the best that I have ever seen for a fighting game. It offers full customisation of the main characters (which sadly excludes the Star Wars, hidden characters, and the game's boss Algol; however you have control over these characters skills and weapons) of which you can customise costumes, weapons and skills. You can also start from scratch and create your very own characters, using any one of the main characters' fighting styles as a base. Fancy a female Seigfried or a male Taki-style ninja? It's all possible.

It's all very easy to use; after choosing your fighting style, you will be given options for the AI to create a character for you that you can use as a base. You can specify their armour, skill dispersal (i.e. whether you want the character to be defensively or offensively oriented)  and allegiance (good, evil or none). After the AI has generated the base, you can customise the character fully by choosing the different parts of the costume, change the head model, hair, voice, and alter the character's weapons and skills. You obtain further clothing items and weapons by clearing specific parts of the single player mode. Unfortunately, each item must also be bought, but gold is easy to come by on any of the main three single player modes.  Each different clothing item that you choose will give a set number of points to a skill value, plus will contribute towards your character's statistics, like HP, attack etc.... When choosing skills, you may not exceed this number of points for each skill type. Weapons also contribute to skill points, as well as giving you additions to your character's statistics. Extra weapons are earned by completing the game's story mode for each character, as I mentioned previously; and these are usually more powerful than those that are available at the start of the game. I would question it if they weren't, actually.

Big Bank Bonuses


After all that you also have some interesting but typical bonus content. There's a large image gallery where you can purchase the character art and such similar items. There's a video gallery where you can watch cutscenes from the single player mode, as well as the game's opening and trailer. There's also the Chain of Souls, where you can view the relationships between each of the characters. In this section you can also view your achievements / trophies depending on what version you're playing. The bonus content is very typical of a fighting game, but it does give something that the completionists and the hardcore SoulCalibur fans will definitely appreciate.

A Tale of Souls and Swords, Eternally Retold


Let's make it clear, SoulCalibur IV is not the pinnacle of the series (in my mind that goes to SoulCalibur II), but it does continue the series on very well. While the story mode is a disappointment, the Tower of Lost Souls is a great challenge, and multiplayer is fun and highly addictive. The character customisation is probably the best feature, which will definitely keep the game fresh and amusing. Overall, a decent fighting game for this console generation.

+ Great character customisation
+ Great single player challenge in Tower of Lost Souls
+ Multiplayer is a blast
- Story mode is glorified arcade
- Some characters are hideously unbalanced

7/10