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Soulcalibur IV features the Story, Arcade, Training and Museum modes. A new mode called Tower of Lost Souls requires the player to win battles in order to gain rewards. Character Creation from Soulcalibur III returns in Soulcalibur IV. Instead of including original weapon styles for use with certain classes of fighters, Soulcalibur IV now only allows players to choose which character from the series they would like to have their created character mimic. This differs from Soulcalibur III which had many unique styles such as "Grieve Edge". Algol, the bonus characters and the Star Wars guest characters cannot have their styles used by player created characters. A wide array of new pieces of equipment are available for use in Soulcalibur IV's Character Creation mode, and new options include a wider range of character voices and the ability to change their pitch. The player may also change a character's general physique and muscularity. In addition, equipped items now also affect a character's statistics. Armor, weapons, and accessories may increase health, attack or defense; they may also grant skill points that allow the character to equip special traits that affect the character's playstyle. These traits range from automatically triggered guard impacts, the ability to cause damage against a blocking opponent, or even a stat increase based on parameters such as an opponent's alignment or gender. Standard characters are also able to be modified in this way to a modest degree, allowing custom costumes and skill sets to be used in Special VS. mode. Custom characters can still be used in Standard VS. mode, but without any of the special abilities gained through equipment or weapon choice. One profile is allowed for offline versus mode, meaning that only one profile's created characters can be loaded at a time. Multi-fighter battles in Soulcalibur IV use a different structure from its predecessors, nicknamed Active Matching Battle (AMB). Similar to the tag system of games such as The King of Fighters 2003, the AMB system allows players to switch to other members of a 'party' of fighters mid battle. Instead of starting a new round for each opponent defeated, new opponents simply run into the battle immediately after a K.O. - with the exception of certain combatants. Matches utilizing the AMB system only appear in the Story and Tower of Lost Souls modes. Soulcalibur IV features an all-new Critical Finish system. Next to a player's Health Meter is a colored gem that represents the "Soul Gauge". The gem changes color when the player blocks an attack or has his or her own attack blocked by a Guard Impact. The color gradually changes from blue to green and eventually to red and then flashing red. The player's own Soul Gauge regenerates if he or she makes an attack and hits the opponent (guarding or otherwise). If the character manages to empty out the opponent's Soul Gauge, the enemy get Soul Crushed, destroying a piece of armor (characters now show permanent signs of visual damage such as broken and torn clothing) and producing a short stun during which the character can perform a powerful Critical Finish move, which is able to defeat the opponent instantly, by pressing all four face buttons at the same time. Each character has his or her own personal Critical Finish move. Namco says that it developed the Soul Gauge to decrease the benefits from constant guarding, thus giving the game a faster tempo and making the matches more offensive.Read full review
This game was the ultimate reason we stepped up to the ps3 since we were pretty pleased with the ps2 we already had. If you're really picky though, I'd say wait till you can find it under 20 bucks or used, since it doesn't really offer a whole lot more than the last version. Like most of the titles we have on PS3, we found this one a little short of the hype, but I still love the game. There isn't a whole lot more to it than WYSIWYG. There is online play to take on some non-ai challengers if your roommate/friend/spouse has had enough already, but otherwise there isn't a whole lot more to it than previous releases. There are some new character moves/weapons and Vadar/Yoda is much fun, but I actually miss Heihachi Mishima who was the Tekken guest star on PS2. Plus the single player questing is actually a little disappointing compared to previous releases. Ultimately, how well you enjoy this game will probably depend directly on how familiar the Soul Calibur line is to you already. If its your first foray, you'll probably find nothing to complain about and be completely satisfied, but if your looking for bigger and better than what you've seen already in the line, you may wish you had tried a different sequel instead. Its still a to-notch fighter in its own right though; good enough that I bought this again because my hubby stepped on our first copy, but as with so many of the recent games my heart is still with the PS2 releases. I would say its worth the price at anything under 20 bucks.Read full review
Soul caliber has been a popular fighting game since the days it debuted in arcades and for the dream cast. Over the years it has grown and evolved, perfecting its fighting styles, animations, and characters. Being a major fan of the Soul caliber 4 franchise, I had to get it. The Good: The graphics have made a nice jump forward with higher rez characters and beautiful environmental lighting. The custom character creator is much improved over the original in SC3. Giving much more options to customize. Your even able to change breast size of female characters and missile in male. Which is good because a speed caricature with a dagger just doesn’t look right with a lot of bulk in one area if you catch my drift. Original characters can also have custom clothing rather than just coloring them like in the last game. Items, clothing, and weapons are right in character creation and are bought in that mode, rather than buying item in the item shop and then making the character. Weapons are right there on hand so you don’t need to have everything unlocked right away to make something cool like before. The speed of the game has been dropped a little from what it was in SC3 but is still faster pace than SC2, so it’s just right in my opinion. The Random: Darth Vador and his apprentice are in it… its kind of cool and all but you can’t make your own Jedi in the character creator and they just don’t fit. There’s a cut scene where Mitsurugi’s sword clashed with Vador’s light saber and all I can think is “how doesn’t a light saber cut through a steal katana but can cut through the 3 foot thick hall of a space ship?” I don’t know, maybe that’s just me… The Bad: The game seems a little lacking in content. The quest mode “tails of the sword” has been removed and replaced with “tower of lost souls” which is nothing more than a survival mode covered in wrapping paper. The quest mode they had before actually had a story to it, and where as it needed a lot of working in SC3, I think they should have expanded and improved on that rather than totally dropping in SC4. I don’t care what others may say, I liked having a story for all my custom characters. On another note, in the custom character creator your characters stats and strengths are determined by their cloths. This is a good and bad idea all at the same time. It seems the only way to get a character to have a lot of power is to load them up all in armor and a crap load of cloths. So if you want a bikini swordsman don’t expect them to have more than 50% health’s and be able to kill anything in less than 40 hits. All in all, it’s a decent game and possibly one of the best fighters out there. If you like the soul caliber franchise or just like fighting games in general I would defiantly recommend this game.Read full review
The Soul Calibur games are my favorite fighting games to own because the characters and fighting styles are so diverse and original, and players can either "button mash" or learn complex combos depending on their gaming skill and still have a fun, successful gaming experience. For this reason, I like to have Soul Calibur IV available when entertaining friends and small parties. When you win the game with different characters, you can unlock a lot of new characters and also win the ability to buy new armor and weapons with points earned. Advancing your favorite characters makes it easier to complete difficult "Tower" levels (an optional mission mode similar to SCII's 'quest mode') and also gives your grandmothers and girlfriends a leg up when fighting you in versus mode. My only complaints against SCIV are: I liked the older games' quest mode better, the narrator's dialogue introducing matches is sometimes silly, and the character endings could be more stimulating. I think the stories of the characters should be more compelling. Also, Darth Vader is probably the worst character in the game.Read full review
At first, this game seems a bit short. You can play through every character rather quick, but that's not the point. If you're into the story, then I suppose you might like it (but even the story mode is short and not very in depth). I was more interested in the custom characters. If you like creating your own characters, this game can be quite versatile....as long as you're creative and have a smidge of patience. You can't design whatever you want....well, at least not right off the batt. You do actually have to play through the HARDEST part of the game to get more tools to design your characters: "the Tower of Souls." This will certainly challenge ANY fighting game aficionado. If you thought the game was short, believe me, you'll wish it was shorter once you start tackling the tower of souls. 60 floors to beat (not including decent into the basement floors, which I believe is more like infinity since it's a 'survival mode' approach). But to get the most out of playing the tower of souls, you must defeat each floor in a specific way that is only hinted at (but you can find out how online...but that doesn't make it any easier). Oh, one last perk: who doesn't like playing as Darth Vader? Or, if you have the $4.99 to buy him, YODA!!!!Read full review
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