I've decided to update this thread to fit as more of a Soul Series than just Soul Calibur II... mainly to include my recent purchase of Soul Calibur IV.
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I got Soul Calibur IV not too long ago. It's okay. As a next-generation SC, it looks pretty. There are some very nice graphic effects (especially in the menus and things, with reflections in the blade of Soul Calibur), plus it's all in high definition, etc. I'd probably say on a SDTV it'll look only marginally better than SC3... but it still looks good anyway.
Gameplay-wise... the game's not too bad. I think the game hit it's genius prior to SC4, but this game's okay.
New features include:*
the Soul Gauge - built as a deterrent to blocking. The more you block, your Soul Gauge goes down. When your Soul Gauge is finally empty, your opponent can carry out a special attack which can instantly finish the battle. The concept of it isn't too bad - very similar to the original Soul Blade where you'd eventually lose your weapon after continuous blocking.
*
equippable skills - these take the place of the weapon abilities in previous games. Skills include damaging through guard, increased damage to your opponent's Soul Gauge, and a chance to automatically Guard Impact an opponent's attack.
* the ability to
switch characters mid-battle. Applies to certain game modes only.
* a
more intertwined Character Creation mode with the main game. The different types of armor you give your character change their attack and defense statistics. Equip your character with heavy steel/plate armor and take less damage as a powerhouse, or sacrifice defense for more abilities or more damaging attacks by equipping lighter clothing.
* furthermore, as your armor gets smashed, you take more damage in battle.
* as a tie-in with the new
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed game due out sometime soon,
Yoda and Darth Vader are available as bonus characters. Yoda is the bonus character for the X-Box 360 version of SC4 (to fit it's neon-green theme green), while Darth Vader is playable on the PS3 (to go with the piano black theme of the console). Furthermore, 'The Apprentice', the main character from The Force Unleashed, also makes his debut here in SC4.
Unfortunately, the game isn't perfect...
*
the online mode sucks. Badly. It is nothing to do with the skill level of the rest of the world - I'm probably better than a lot of people I've come across on the network. The main problem is the LAG and how it affects the game - the worse your lag, the later the button presses come through, so you block later, attack later, etc. Anyone with a connection of 3 bars (determined as yellow in the connection spectrum) or less is not going to enjoy the game online. My first match was 4 bars out of 5 (green), and the game was fun. Every other match I've had has been 3/5, and the game is near unplayable. Most times where I'd be able to Guard Impact I have to simply block 'cos the reaction times of the game are way too slow.
* Furthermore, another dig at the online mode.... it takes forever to get into a match. The game's system for creating matches sucks. Generally when you select Quick Match, it tries to pair you up with someone else. The problem is that when it finally matches you to an opponent, 3/5 times "the session is already full". That's right, it tries to add you to a match which somebody else has already connected to. It doesn't then try to reconnect you automatically to another match; it kicks you back a step, so you have to pick Quick Match again. It takes forever to finally join a match, which you don't even enjoy because the lag is so high. In fact, I'd argue that it takes longer to find a match than it does to play it.
*
there is no soft reset button. Most fighting games have Start+Select to take you back to the Main Menu. Not this game. You have to go through all the menus to get back to the start menu. When you've joined a session online, sometimes you have the ability to watch what's going on - so you can watch the players fight while you wait for your turn. Unfortunately, if you're not quick enough, you can't actually leave the session until the fight is underway. This happened to me once. I really didn't want to have to wait to fight, so I wanted to join a different match. The only problem was the host continued, so the host and his challenger had to choose their characters. All this time, I could NOT QUIT. I HAD to sit there and WAIT for the opponent to choose their character (which they didn't do quickly, might I add), select the stage, and then for the match to finish loading... ALL BEFORE I COULD LEAVE THE SESSION.
* Of course, the worst one is that if you get 95% of a way through a match and they disconnect out of it... the match straight out doesn't count. There's no... you were winning so we'll give you the credit. If your opponent straight out disconnects towards the end (sore losers), the match never took place. No counting towards your scores or anything. This happened to me. Twice. When I was winning.
*
The Tower of Lost Souls is a far cry from what the previous games have had. Since Soul Blade, the game was well famed for having specific challenges to progress through the special story mode - attack your opponents while they're in mid-air, defeat them with only throws, etc. The previous games were really interesting and had these engaging modes - Edge Master Mode, Weapon Master, Mission Mode, Chronicles of the Sword and the Soul Arena challenges. Soul Calibur 4 instead just puts you at the bottom of a ladder through which you just battle your way to the top. For the most part, these specific challenges don't even come into play. Sure, you get treasures for them (which unlock further items you can buy.... although they can be unlocked via other means too). But it's really no fun. It's just one big fight fest. It almost takes the 'Edge' out of the game (haha, I made a funny).
* the
Story mode is also really short (for each of the characters, different from the aforementioned Tower of Lost Souls) . Five battles for each person. Sure, these battles might involve you going up against three people... but once you beat the five rounds, that's it. You get a minor cutscene and then some silly text. And then the credits roll. Lame.
*
changing your weapon isn't simple anymore. While in previous games you picked your character and then picked your weapon... in SC4, it's all in the Character Creation mode. This means, in order to change your weapon, you have to exit out of most of the game, create your character, edit their weapon, and then save it... before going back into your game mode of choice. Furthermore, you only get a certain amount of slots for data purposes (50), so you don't get to make one weapon slot for each character. These slots are also shared with your created characters, so you may only have 15 created characters and have the other 35 dedicated to character edits and different weapons. A silly way of doing it, to be honest.
I understand the reasoning behind it - the weapons add skill points too so also affect your character's skills... but really, there are just times where all you want to do is change your weapon - like say for instance I wanted to put Sorien in his place, I'd pick a joke weapon. XD
Some of the ToLS battles are okay. One opponent you go up against is armed with Nullify Ring Out S (100% reduction to ring out), Auto Impact S (100% chance to Guard Impact an attack), Impact Edge (if an attack is Guard Impacted, the entire damage is reflected back at you), and Impact Heal (if an attack is Guard Impacted, the entire damage the attack would've done is instead added as healing). It's a really cheap combination (one which you don't get access too, might I add... as the highest rank you can equip is Rank A skills). But most of them are just shoddy.
Also, you unlock items of clothing by performing certain 'honors' or achievements in the game. These range from perform 100 Guard Impacts (not in a row XD) to land 10,000 attacks, to finish the game with each character, etc. Some of the achievements are okay, but some of them are just rotten. You don't have to accomplish every achievement to unlock everything (I looked it up on GameFAQs
), so that's good... 'cos some of the achievements are downright nasty. In particular, the ones that force you to drag through numerous online matches - fight online on every stage, battle 20 different fighting styles online, win 10 matches online.... it all drives you insane when combined with the lag issues and the other faults with the online mode.
In light of all this, however, the game's not too bad. It's a far cry from perfection, but it's still a little bit of fun. The online mode is the bane of my existence, but when you invite a few mates around and pass the controllers about, the game's not too bad. I've made a number of characters so it's not too bad. It's really one of those games though that, once you've unlocked all the items... the game has really little replay value (short of wiping the floor with Sorien's midget face XD). I give the game 7.9/10, with the score rising to 8.1/10 when your mates pop 'round.
Mind you, the game really has it's 'busty beauty physics' down-pat.... XD