Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Namco Bandai
Platform: PlayStation 3 (reviewed) and Xbox 360
Released: Jan. 31 (NA) | Feb. 2 (JP) | Feb. 3 (EU)
Rated: T for Teen

“Perhaps SoulCalibur V will manage to find itself in that magical valley between casual and competitive fighting games”.

After a break of more than three years, the Soulcalibur franchise has returned with a fifth instalment. As anyone who’s played the earlier titles would expect, Namco has delivered a well-polished 3D fighter with imaginative character design and impressive visuals. Beneath the shiny exterior, however, is a franchise that still seems to be a bit unsure of its own identity.

Content:

The singleplayer modes in Soulcalibur V have been pared down pretty significantly from earlier entries in the series. Compared to the Weapon Master mode of Soulcalibur II, or the punishing Tower of Lost Souls in Soulcalibur IV, the “1607 A.D.” Story mode in V seems spartan and fairly easy. There is a couple other singleplayer modes, but the gameplay in all of these modes are minor variations on the standard Arcade Mode formula.

Given the fact that most other fighting game franchises offer very little beyond an Arcade Mode in the way of singleplayer content, it’s hard to criticize SoulCalibur for not giving us more. It’s definitely a downgrade from previous titles in the series, however. The saving grace here may be the character creation system, which continues to be one of the strong points of the series, and a definite attraction to casual and singleplayer-oriented players.

The story's protagonist brandishes the eponymous Soul Calibur.

As for the actual storyline of the singleplayer campaign, it continues to make very little sense to anyone who isn’t heavily invested in the franchise’s lore. Nightmare seems to die every six minutes or so, the main character has somewhat unsettling visions of his mother in a provocative outfit, and the protagonist’s sister ends up with a grotesque claw hand that no one seems to notice.

Gameplay:

Taking a cue from other popular fighting games, Soulcalibur V introduces a super meter system, complete with its own version of EX moves. While providing a good excuse for some fantastic looking finishing moves, Namco seems to have missed the point of super arts in competitive play. In a game like Street Fighter or BlazBlue, the super arts are generally performed by comboing into them, at least in high-level competitive play. The idea here is that a player must learn to avoid certain normal attacks, because those attacks can be comboed into a super art, causing the player to take massive damage. Watch a good Chun-Li player in Street Fighter III trying to connect with their crouching medium kick and you’ll understand how this impacts the strategy of the game.

Unfortunately, the super arts in Soulcalibur V simply don’t have this effect on the way the game is played. Many of them are unblockable, some hit an opponent who’s already knocked down, and almost all of them have such high priority that they can stuff any opponent’s attack. See an opponent beginning a fairly slow normal attack? Throw out your super and watch the free damage pile up.

Franchise staple Maxi takes on newcomer Xiba.

Competitiveness issues aside, Soulcalibur has a robust online infrastructure that makes for great casual play. Between ranked matches, player lobbies, and the new Global Colloseo for social play, players will have no shortage of online activities to keep them busy. The game is incredibly accessible to new players, too. Many online lobbies are geared towards inexperienced players, and the swinginess of the combat means that even a complete amateur can have some fun and land some blows in an online match.

Appearance:

Why yes, you CAN fight a dude on a pirate ship!

The environments in this game are a cut above pretty much anything else in the genre right now. You’ve got arenas with giant battles going on all around you, arenas with destructible walls that you can toss opponents through, and arenas on the deck of a pirate ship! There’s also environments that change significantly halfway through the match, like the final boss area of story mode. The result of all this is a game that’s almost as much fun to watch as it is to play.

The characters are no slouch in the looks department either. Many of the franchise’s long-standing characters have returned with new outfits, and they’ve brought some new friends along with them. Guest character Ezio Auditore, of Assassin’s Creed fame, is looking dapper as hell. If you can ignore the hilariously over-sexualized outfits for the female characters, this is a mighty fine looking game, with an aesthetic that is very much its own.

Ivy even managed to find some clothes...sort of.

The one downfall of the graphics may be the story mode’s use of cutscenes. While some of the cutscenes are excellent looking prerendered cinematics, many of them are a strange, unengaging series of still images. Much of the plot is presented on a series of faux paper drawings, of which there is altogether too many.

Overall Ruling:

I like this game. I really do. I’m just not sure who else is going to.

Competitive fighting game players are going to steer clear of a game with this many potential balance issues, especially given how many really tight competitive fighters we’ve seen in the last couple years. Casual players will find things to love here for sure, but those are generally the players who would’ve appreciated the more robust singleplayer content of earlier Soulcalibur titles.

Perhaps Soulcalibur V will manage to find itself in that magical valley between casual and competitive fighting games. Enough depth to be taken somewhat seriously, but enough accessibility to not scare away newbies. I hope this is the case, because there’s plenty of fun to be had with this game.