A Tale of Two Swords

I thought it was appropriate that I write this just now, I'm fresh off the hype of LevelUp's first SC V tournament and I have put the work in online and offline. For those of you who don't know the series is about the pursuit of the fabled "Soul Edges", each character has his/her own motive to find the mythical weapon, these motives can be good or evil, no matter what when you character has it equipped they instantly gain extra badass points. The game is a 3D fighter based on weapons; each character has their own type of weapon ranging from tonfas to swords and in some cases gimmick weapons like kebab skewers. There has been several years since Namco's last entry in the Soul series and it was about time they re-emerged in the fighting game community, especially with the recent buzz surrounding the plethora of Capcom games available at this point in time.

The game looks unbelievably good, the scenery is perfect, especially in the forest levels. I love the level design, it's the best I can remember from the series, there are some levels that can feel a little unbalanced but the returning levels from previous iterations have been polished to perfection. The same can be said about the characters; they are all vibrant, colourful and have a great level of detail. Even the way loose pieces of clothing cut through the air when performing fast moves and float during movement looks amazing. The new characters are unique in design and move sets too.

On the topic of the new characters, many of these new characters can be classed and the next generation of; Kiliks, Sophitias and Xianghuas. Although there are a few new entries to series (Dampierre, Viola and Z.W.E.I.) all of them with new and interesting styles of fighting which range from using magical orbs to an obscure werewolf-esque spirit partner. Their designs are brilliant and look pretty awesome. My favourite of the bunch is definitely Viola, her weapon is the orb that she can control and position in the screen to set up combos and juggle opponents to their demise. She has an almost red riding hood feel with her outfit and I see a lot of potential in her. That being said it was a difficult choice, as usual all the characters have a great range of play styles to match your preference and this was definitely a tough choice.

Now about the story mode...I didn't feel too compelled to play it in all fairness but basically it's about Sophitia's son and daughter and their pursuit of the soul edge. Throughout the campaign you play as both version of the characters (their standard model and then with a soul edge in their possession). The story continues for about 20matches but the majority of which are 1 round long and tend to be pretty quick. The majority of time spent in this mode was spent watching rather dull cutscenes about the relationships between these characters and the rest of the cast (who seem to have forgotten that there has been 4 other games in the series).  Other offline modes include arcade mode (minus endings, which in my opinion is rather cheap and takes away a lot from the game), quick play (a mode where you can view multiple AI enemies throughout the world) and a rather extensive training mode where you can view combos and receive hints on certain attacks.

Where this game really blossoms is in the multiplayer aspect, whether that be having a friend over or playing online with somebody in America. The netcode is brilliant, there is very little lag, I managed to play somebody in New York and it felt like they lived next door. There is a plethora of modes available online. One of the most impressive is the global collosseo, it is a massive lobby for every part of the globe, here player can gather, chat and set up more lobbies within a pretty cool layout. As usual you can expect ranked battle and player matches. Other cool online features are the rival system where you can allocate up to 3 rivals to compare progress against and look at their stats from many different parts in the game menu.

But what is most notable about the series is Create-A-Soul mode. This happens to be my favourite part of the game, the sheer amount of creativity in people’s characters is unbelievable. I have played several characters from the "Final Fantasy" series, many different superheroes and my favourite BATTLE POPE. I kid you not the higher the rank the more outrageous their character design seems to be. The level of customisation goes in to so much detail that you can adjust minute details on each piece of clothing and has an extensive colour palette. The majority of clothing is even available to all from the get go too!

All in all this has to be the most fluid and balanced "Soulcalibur" game I have played in a long time, it's fast pace, flows great and has a great mix-up game. If you are a big fan of the series or want to dabble in the 3D fighting game genre you need to buy this. I really hope it gets the support it deserves and I really hope to see some DLC that goes beyond new armour and the inclusion of different colours. I'll give it a 8/10 only because they could of done a lot more with the story based section of the game.