MODERN GAMING
Soul Calibur IV
Developer - Namco
Publisher - Namco
Genre - Beat-em-up
Year - 2008
System - Xbox 360/Playstation 3 (Played on 360)

There are few good fighting games that involve actual weapons.  Most of them are either bare knuckle fights, martial art tournaments or a mixture of both with a bit of weapons involved.  One shining series that has prided itself on its extensive range of weapon-based arts, is Soul Calibur, its first game being one of few games that was far better on the console than its arcade original.  Of course when any warrior lives long enough there begins doubts of whether they can keep up their pace, their skill, their energy, the same way when a novelist writes long enough.  In the series' fourth instalment, those doubts perhaps grow stronger.

Story - The same old story has been retold again and again, and this time it's become the length of a pop-up book.  There were two swords, Soul Calibur and Soul Edge, good and evil respectively.  A battle was commenced between the two, and then suddenly a powerful being called Algol appears to test the warriors of the land who is worthy to wield whichever of the two powers that their hearts reflect.
Or something like that, the thing is, there's barely any story with the only real addition being a full ending cutscene for each character with some throwaway sentence at the end of it.  Now it's fine they have something but that's the ONLY cutscene they get to themselves.  No pre-battle cutscenes in the penultimate fight, no cutscene every 3 battles involving a quick-time event (thankfully because it was getting VERY overdone and SCIII was horrendous with that).


You only have a scrolling set of paragraphs for everyone at the start, some wanky little fly-cam scene across the sea for everyone, and then their unique ending cutscene.  That's it.

Graphics - I won't lie in the graphics, they look damn good, but of course you all knew that already if you even know what the game looks like.  You have your fine shining armour and blazing fire backgrounds, you have your flowing winds in people's hair, and of course, you have boobs.  Big, fleshy, balloons.  I'm convinced this was 1/3 the selling point of this game, in that you have some impressive tits barely covered with the scantest shreds of clothing they could allow (next to an itsy bitsy teeny weeny polka dot bikini but they didn't exist in the 16th century).

There is also the other matter of more impressive looking characters.  The Star Wars characters.  Yoda and Darth Vader do look fantastic, I cannot argue with that.  Of course they look good, as do their lightsabers, we all love lightsabers even if they're suddenly in the 16th century for no reason other than "defeat evil anywhere, my destiny is/unite the legions of evil for conquest of the galaxy" (please edit according to which version you have of the game).  Flowing robes, gleaming swords, gorgeous stages, let's just say they're good looking and move on.


Gameplay - Now we come to the most painful part.  A lot of people have been waiting for this game, especially after the flawed skills of Soul Calibur III with a glitchy as hell strategy game for single players to have a reason to play more on their own, a character creator that bordered on "meh" and QTEs every five minutes between battles.
Well, firstly there is no more QTEs.  Secondly, there is no more reason to play this game on your own as there is no other single player mode other than story, arcade and The Tower of Lost Souls, which is a souped-up Survival mode with rewards.  Really the only reason to keep playing after finishing everyone's story, is either the online gaming (which is unfortunately quite stupid in trying to link you to full matches and really you should just start your own match and wait for someone to pass by for a fight), or the character creator.

The character creator is much better than in the last game.  A set of voices which allow you to even change their pitch, a range of faces and being able to use most of the character styles in forming a character of pretty much any kind if you're creative enough.  It's not only more simpler than the last one but with an intriguing customisation of weapon abilities rather like the ones from SCII, only more variable.  All in all, if you're a creative person who's able to make another videogame character from it, feel free.


Nothing much has changed in battles other than two new features.  Firstly, the ability to whack enough at an enemy that they lose parts of their equipment and turn them more and more vulnerable (which adds a great new level of strategy and advantages in battle), and the Critical Finish, or as I like to call it, the Final Soul Smash.  It comes around when you charge up your Soul Gauge enough from defending yourself and then able to utilise an ultra powerful attack with a small button combination.
It's not so much knowing when to use it, but rather when you CAN use it, is the problem here, and half the time you're gonna end up with a sad picture of your character trying to use a not fully charged yet Finish before they facepalm and realise oh no it's not time yet, and that's when the Astaroth mallet comes crashing down.  A meter would have been better of an indicator for the Soul Gauge rather than this picky crystal that shines mischievously at you in a mocking fashion.

Moving on, we have the new characters to consider.  Now there is nothing wrong with Yoda or Darth Vader being in it.  We broke the crossover boundary when we had the Hero of Hyrule/Hellspawn of Michigan walking into the fray (please edit according to which version you had of the game).  Since I played the 360 version, I can say that Yoda is a fast character and a bastard to hit, being he's only as high as your knee and pretty much the fighting equivalent of a midget who knows aikido and armed with a dagger.  But this puts him at a disadvantage in that he is VERY LIKELY to jump off the edge of the ring since ALL his attacks involve leaping to hit you.  So, you wanna beat Yoda?  Get to the edge and watch him fall.
The Apprentice is another matter, a character in both versions of the game and coming from the soon-to-be-released Force Unleashed game.  When you get past his incredibly stupid lightsaber stance which looks as intelligent and ballsy as holding a gun to your cock in battle, he's an impressive fighter, a good range of attacks, fast and actually a not bad voice.  The Star Wars characters also have the Force which is measured in their own special meter for place of extra special skills.


Now here is my main gripe on this new set of characters.  It's fine having Yoda and Vader......but why the Apprentice?  Why a character so new whose own game is not even out yet?  It gives me the strangest feeling that I'm being advertised to as pretty much every other guest character in a videogame (that I know of) that already has their story established.  The Apprentice doesn't even have his game out yet, in fact it'll come out a few months after SCIV
I do not like being advertised to, no matter how cool he may be, this just smacks of sponsorship and it pisses me off incredibly so, especially with some guy who looks like a very cocky college student who got too deep into the whole Star Wars thing and probably even LIKES Episode III.  So thank you LucasArts, thank you for not picking Luke Skywalker, or Qui-gon Jinn or Obi-Wan Kenobi, or even Jar Jar Binks, but instead pushing out this guy without even a name, so we all know about your new game.

Music/Sound - Now onto the final part.  The music of the game is better than SCIII with the usual orchestral music flowing through the battle with a fantastic aura, you can't really fault the series for its music which has always sounded grand and old.  There is even a few pieces from the Star Wars saga of course, and good ones too, two of the most recognisable songs in the saga ever (The Main Theme and Duel of Fates) fitting very appropriately in their own stages even if they do feel very out of place.
Sound is good of course, characters are just as corny with their lines as always with the Star Wars characters having the best official voices too.

Let's just be frank.  EVERYTHING that is the best about this game is with the Star Wars characters.  The best presence however awkward it feels.  The best sound being with official voice actors who had a length of more higher voice acting (maybe not the Apprentice but it's still a good voice for him from LucasArts).  The best graphics are on the Star Wars characters with Yoda's wrinkles, Vader's cloak and Apprentice's....lightsaber.
This whole goddamn game is nothing but a podium for some new Star Wars game which while may well be good, I am just not going to like anymore because of this sudden O HAI BUY THIS NEW GAME COMING OUT advertising from them.  As I said, it's not Yoda or Vader that irks me, it's HIM.  Mr Apprentice with the "most likely to cut himself in half" lightsaber stance, there's no story and even Wikipedia agrees on this, the rest of the cast feel overshadowed by these newcomers, even the extra characters made by great anime characters are left in the dark even moreso than they would be.


We all remember the last time Star Wars tried a fighting game which was a travesty, and the one time they make GOOD fighting characters, they do it in ANOTHER game that isn't theirs.  Seriously, is this Soul Calibur IV, or Star Calibur Wars?  Fuck you, I'm not even going to buy Force Unleashed now.  Thank you Apprentice for ruining one of my fave franchises ever.  I hope you get raped by gungans.

Fun and Innovation - 3
Replayability - 2
Gameplay - 3
Presentation - 4