Soul Calibur IV

Written by Kris Genthe  on August 06, 2008

Reviews: Soul Calibur IV makes up for Namco's lackluster SCIII and includes Darth Vader as a fighter. See if it's enough in this review by Kris Rosado.

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For a certain type of fighting game fan, the next-gen games haven't been as inviting as they may have hoped. Dead or Alive 4 and Virtua Fighter 5 are both great games in their own right, but let's face it, those are hardcore fighting games that demand the discipline of mastery. Sure, you could button-mash but I assure you both games will punish you severely for it. For Soul Calibur IV, it's the leniency of hardcore skill needed that makes this a great game for anyone to enjoy and the deep features don't hurt either.

Of course, SCIV's leniency of hardcore skill doesn't mean it's gimped either, the game still retains the same hardcore level that fans have come to love but it doesn't completely depend on it. For instance, you can go through both the Arcade and Story modes completely devoid of any combos, impacts, you don't even have to swing your weapon if you don't want to. Yeah, it's not the ideal way to play but the fact the option to do so is there expands this game's audience, especially when they can feel accomplished.

For the hardcore fans who have spent the time studying the fighting structure, they will be pleased to find out that their series favorite's have retained their signature styles with some added tweaks for balance and of course, plenty of exploits, most notably the Уcritical finishesФ. Despite fan concerns that the one-hit killing critical finishers were going to ruin the game, the fact is that they hardly ever appear. In numerous matches I was given the opportunity to pull off the move once.

Alongside the series mainstay characters are a handful of new characters three being from manga artists and three being from a certain galaxy farЕ far away. Because I have playing the PS3 version of the game, I have yet to try out Yoda, but I can attest that reports of Darth Vadar being a very slow character are semi-correct. True Darth Vadar is slower than his other Soul Calibur fighters; he still can be played quite efficiently though I wouldn't recommend using him as a main character. The Apprentice on the other hand, is an over-clocked ball of bastardry. Fighting against him is very controller-throwing frustration, but fighting as him is cheap bliss. He uses a lot of blocks and quick moves but if you plan it right, you can get him to commit his own ring outs or you can just be an equally cheap bastard and just use throws.

Though, if you don't like the look of any of the characters, SCIV offers one of the deepest character creation modes ever presented in a fighting game. Making characters is actually really addicting especially when there are so many options to choose from both in the game and coming in the future via DLC. Of course, a lot of the more awesome options have to be unlocked either by completing the Tower of Lost Souls or by obtaining 30 honors (basically in-game achievements). I'd recommend doing the 30 honors as that is far easier than completing the insane tower.

SCIV's longevity alone doesn't rest on character creating though; a much desired addition was made to this iteration that truly marks Soul Calibur's steps into next-gen, online play. Players can partake in ranked or unranked matches and choose the option to play standard vanilla characters or take in their customized super-fighter to test their dominance. However, matches fill up quick and a rematch option would've been nice.