To Start...
I'm a fan of fighting games. Granted, I'm not one to master every move a character has, but I do like the sensation of uppercutting someone into a bottomless pit. This won't affect my review, though. I'll try to make it unbiased. Also, I know nothing about the story, but if you came here *for* the story, well, then... I can't help you there.
J-J-J-Jason and the Jets, Minus the Jets, Reviews...
There Can Only Be One... Or Two, Whatever.
Let's get this part of the review out of the way. It's my least favorite part, and I know you guys aren't huge fans of it either. Here it goes: If you're a fan of fighting games, you know about Soul Calibur. It's always been "that game with the weapons", mixing up the usual formula of "two players, four fists, one winner". The story, like most fighting games, makes about as much sense as an autobiography from Tom Cruise (Tsssss... Burn). In the beginning, there were apparently two swords, each harnessing the essentially essence of "good" and "evil". There was Soul Calibur, the "good", and Soul Edge, "the bad". Now, seeing as these weapons could change the world, for better or for worse, people from around the world decided it was their mission to go and defeat the guardian of the swords. Then, they would either change the world, become a god, or do nothing at all, seeing as in a few of the endings, the character essentially forgets about the whole "epic swords" thing and walks off, unscathed. So, while one fighter grows to Godzilla size and basically destroys EARTH, another doesn't do anything. At all.
So, I'm going to give you a few moments to re-read that last paragraph, and take it all in. If it made little to no sense, whatsoever, that's alright. You didn't come here for the story. You came here to swing swords and staffs and blades of all calibers around until something dies, right? Well, good! Because that's what the game is here for! There's a few basic game modes to choose from to get you on your way to a future of weaponry. There's a Story Mode, where you can experience the true, nonsensical nature of each character. There's also the standard Arcade and Practice Modes to play in, void of story but full of hacking and/or slashing. New this year is the "Tower of Souls", where you choose a character and either ascend or descend a tower, fighting off a variety of baddies who increase in difficulty after each floor. Personally, my favorite at the moment, though I am stuck at the moment.
Is that... Oh. Oh God, it is. It's freaking Yoda. I knew this day would come.
Soul Calibur is known for including some, while they won't freely admit it, "gag characters". In Soul Calibur II, each console received their own fighter: Heihachi for the PS2, Link for the Gamecube and Spawn for the Xbox. This, at the time, was pretty funny. I mean, granted, I did rent the game - as opposed to having bought it for the PS2 - for the Gamecube just to play as Link. It was interesting, to say the least. Not breaking that tradition, Soul Calibur IV introduces Yoda! Well, Yoda and Darth Vader, and his apprentice. Jedi, in general, really. For those of you with a PS3 copy of the game, you have the pleasure of using Vader. For those of us stuck with the Xbox 360 version, we get... Yoda. Flippin' Yoda, folks. I applaud Soul Calibur for branching out into other franchises, but... JEDI? COME ON, NOW!
We're also introduced to Vader's Apprentice from the upcoming "Force Unleashed" game, which I will be playing AND reviewing, most likely. Back on topic, The Apprentice, as he's simply called, is one of my favorite characters, sad as I am to say. He has some pretty slick moves. It also doesn't hurt to look pretty badass. The only problem with having Jedi here is a logistics problem. Shouldn't they have an advantage, having LIGHTSABERS? Well, short answer, no. It IS extremely fair, and they seem to fit in somewhat nicely. I would be all for having Jedi in this game if we could create our own! But, sadly, you cannot create your own Jedi in Create-a-Soul - which I'll get to in a bit - and you can't even edit the two you have. That's... Well, in a nutshell, that's just plain dumb.
I should also add that nearly every female character has extremely massive... assets. I'm actually at a loss for words on how to describe them, but a few choice words come to mind: "Lonely Developers A-Plenty".
Smuggling will not be tolerated, Miss, you're going to have to pay for those melons.
Don't like the characters given to you? Why not create your own? Create-a-Soul is here, and improved from the previous installments, as I can tell. Don't quote me on that, however, as I've seen mixed reviews on the system. If you're too lazy to go through every fine detail, which I'd say I am nearly all of the time, you can have the game choose for you. Simply pick a gender, a weapon style - which are, basically, all the styles used by the main characters - an alignment, being Good, Evil or Neither, and a focus. There are a few focuses you can choose from which affect how your character's stats will turn out. Having "Attack Focus" will generate a character who is both fast, and will rely on attacking to win the battle. However, having "Maximum Attack" will generate a character with the maximum attack power from the equipment, sometimes sacrificing Defense and HP points. This applies with the other stats, as well.
Equipment and new weaponry can be unlocked from the Xbox 360's achievements, and from going through the "Tower of Souls" mode. Each piece of armor has different values associated with it, ranging from HP points, Attack points, and Defense points, to points dedicated to your special moves. In a quick summary, your character can have "special moves" which can increase Stats in battle, leech health form your enemy, and heal you when you strike an enemy. These moves can only be assigned if you reach a set number of points in a certain category, such as "Strike", "Aggression" and... So on. It's really not that hard to explain, but typing it out is proving to be a challenge. Basically, "pick armor that has points you need" would be a great way to summarize. Create-a-Soul has all the standard features, with weapons, armor, hair, hair color, faces, eye color, voices; everything, including how muscular your character will be.
Underwear also holds values. Thought I'd throw that in. You can, essentially, make a character without any clothes. They'd fight in their underwear. Now, if you are of male gender, I'm willing to bet your first thought was, "Dude, half naked chicks with swords." I know mine was. Combine this with the fact that "muscularity" on a female character decides how big their... assets are, and you instantly become a kid in a candy shop with a fifty dollar bill. Or note, wherever you're from. Naturally, I went in, threw a female's "muscularity" through the roof, stripped her down and gave her the biggest sword in the catalog. This proved to be hilarious, and provided fun for hours. That's not exaggerating, either. I had fun for close to an hour and a half experimenting with that. The fun CONTINUED when I learned that armor breaks, so at any point in a battle, a female's breastplate can break off, exposing... Well, if I may be so bold, I shall recall what I stated earlier: "Lonely Developers A-Plenty".
At the CRACK of dawn, they shall do battle, with kicks that emit flashes of light.
Alright, I'm done with all that nonsense, I swear. For now, at least. Onto the gameplay. It is... What it is. It's a fighter, and by now, you know how they work. You pick a character, each with their own moves and perplexing combinations, and go into battle with someone else. You'll find a character you work best with, learn a few basic moves, and stick to it. For me, It's a mix between Voldo - Think Eddy Gordo from Tekken - and The Apprentice, who I mentioned earlier. I read a review somewhere that, essentially, said that "you can never really button-mash in this game, or you will lose basically all of the time."
I'm going to agree, and disagree, with that statement. While playing Singleplayer, I'll admit, I've button-mashed my way through the Tower, through the Story, and through Arcade. Each time, I won. Why? Because, no matter how long you've been playing, and I believe Yahtzee did a good job of touching on this, someone who is simply button-mashing can come out victorious over someone using combo's. It's just how these games work. However, unless you are the King, or Queen, of Button-Mashing, you won't survive online. If you aren't playing online now, don't even think for a moment you're really good at the game until you go online. While I've met some people who simply button-mash, a lot of others are good at what they do, and will, without a doubt, mess you up. A lot. There is online, which I'll throw in here, but it's simply one-on-one matches. One human player versus another, I mean. I've seen a match where you could swap out characters chosen at the start.
He's like a giant, malevolent unicorn, with teeth surrounding a stomach made of pure hatred. He also has red eyes, and everyone knows they're SPOOKY!
There are, I may add quickly, a lot of different weapon styles in the game. Some basics include a Katana, Chinese Boarding Saber, Staff, Dual-Arm Blades, Fencing Saber, SCYTHE, and a variety of others. Some of the swords are actually larger than the characters carrying them, so that's always funny to watch. There's also a fighting style that involves a blade being hidden inside a parasol, which, given to a male fighter provides even more laughter.
There's really not a lot more I can say about this game, seeing as it is of simple genre, so I'll get on with the Technical Aspects. The graphics are pretty, especially on the character models. The environments are really good looking, even though there aren't a lot of them. Everything sounds great, from swords clashing against each other to your character screaming in agony as he takes his seventeenth slash to the face. Gameplay can be simplistic, and I say "can" for all the people who would throw a fit about being "the true fighters", what with your combo's and fancy-pants moves. I, as I've said, like to give every game a chance. I'm a fan of First-Person Shooters, Action / Adventure titles, Platformers, RPG's, Racing games... Video Games in general, basically, and I thoroughly enjoyed Soul Calibur IV. I've loved the entire series, really, as weapons tend to make everything much, much better.
Actual, in-game shot. Also, yes, he IS wielding a Scythe. A freakin' SCYTHE. You don't get much more awesome than that.
The Verdict: Buy it!
The Gameplay is fun and fast-paced, the stylized feel of the game is very nice, replay value is, of course, extremely high, and it has swords. I believe anything plus swords is fantastic.
THAT you can quote me on.
In Closing...
WELL HELLO THERE! Aah... This is the second draft of this review. The first one was "baleeted" about a paragraph after the picture of Yoda. It's alright, though, I'm liking this one better. The original seemed to be repetitive, and this one, as I see it, flows better.
I'm liking the way these reviews are turning out. What do you guys think? I'd love to know what the readers think of my reviews, along with comments on the game in general. Do you agree / disagree / like pie? It's all good to me.
Also, in re-reading... I almost sound "lonely" myself. But, in total honesty, creating characters was one of the best parts of this game. You can also edit most of the main characters, which is fun, but not half as fun as making one of your own. I've seen some videos online of people making Dante from Devil May Cry, Captain America and the Punisher, somehow. It's amazing what some people can do.
I'd like to end with a real gem. I found this via Google Images. It's a woman who decided to Cosplay as Ivy from Soul Calibur. Below are both the real Ivy and the impostor. Which ones which? Really, I can't tell anymore. She's pretty spot-on.
What? You don't need my witty comment here, that picture speaks for itself. 9/10 for Effort, though.
-Jason, OUT!
To Start...
I'm a fan of fighting games. Granted, I'm not one to master every move a character has, but I do like the sensation of uppercutting someone into a bottomless pit. This won't affect my review, though. I'll try to make it unbiased. Also, I know nothing about the story, but if you came here *for* the story, well, then... I can't help you there.
J-J-J-Jason and the Jets, Minus the Jets, Reviews...
There Can Only Be One... Or Two, Whatever.
Let's get this part of the review out of the way. It's my least favorite part, and I know you guys aren't huge fans of it either. Here it goes: If you're a fan of fighting games, you know about Soul Calibur. It's always been "that game with the weapons", mixing up the usual formula of "two players, four fists, one winner". The story, like most fighting games, makes about as much sense as an autobiography from Tom Cruise (Tsssss... Burn). In the beginning, there were apparently two swords, each harnessing the essentially essence of "good" and "evil". There was Soul Calibur, the "good", and Soul Edge, "the bad". Now, seeing as these weapons could change the world, for better or for worse, people from around the world decided it was their mission to go and defeat the guardian of the swords. Then, they would either change the world, become a god, or do nothing at all, seeing as in a few of the endings, the character essentially forgets about the whole "epic swords" thing and walks off, unscathed. So, while one fighter grows to Godzilla size and basically destroys EARTH, another doesn't do anything. At all.
So, I'm going to give you a few moments to re-read that last paragraph, and take it all in. If it made little to no sense, whatsoever, that's alright. You didn't come here for the story. You came here to swing swords and staffs and blades of all calibers around until something dies, right? Well, good! Because that's what the game is here for! There's a few basic game modes to choose from to get you on your way to a future of weaponry. There's a Story Mode, where you can experience the true, nonsensical nature of each character. There's also the standard Arcade and Practice Modes to play in, void of story but full of hacking and/or slashing. New this year is the "Tower of Souls", where you choose a character and either ascend or descend a tower, fighting off a variety of baddies who increase in difficulty after each floor. Personally, my favorite at the moment, though I am stuck at the moment.
Is that... Oh. Oh God, it is. It's freaking Yoda. I knew this day would come.
Soul Calibur is known for including some, while they won't freely admit it, "gag characters". In Soul Calibur II, each console received their own fighter: Heihachi for the PS2, Link for the Gamecube and Spawn for the Xbox. This, at the time, was pretty funny. I mean, granted, I did rent the game - as opposed to having bought it for the PS2 - for the Gamecube just to play as Link. It was interesting, to say the least. Not breaking that tradition, Soul Calibur IV introduces Yoda! Well, Yoda and Darth Vader, and his apprentice. Jedi, in general, really. For those of you with a PS3 copy of the game, you have the pleasure of using Vader. For those of us stuck with the Xbox 360 version, we get... Yoda. Flippin' Yoda, folks. I applaud Soul Calibur for branching out into other franchises, but... JEDI? COME ON, NOW!
We're also introduced to Vader's Apprentice from the upcoming "Force Unleashed" game, which I will be playing AND reviewing, most likely. Back on topic, The Apprentice, as he's simply called, is one of my favorite characters, sad as I am to say. He has some pretty slick moves. It also doesn't hurt to look pretty badass. The only problem with having Jedi here is a logistics problem. Shouldn't they have an advantage, having LIGHTSABERS? Well, short answer, no. It IS extremely fair, and they seem to fit in somewhat nicely. I would be all for having Jedi in this game if we could create our own! But, sadly, you cannot create your own Jedi in Create-a-Soul - which I'll get to in a bit - and you can't even edit the two you have. That's... Well, in a nutshell, that's just plain dumb.
I should also add that nearly every female character has extremely massive... assets. I'm actually at a loss for words on how to describe them, but a few choice words come to mind: "Lonely Developers A-Plenty".
Smuggling will not be tolerated, Miss, you're going to have to pay for those melons.
Don't like the characters given to you? Why not create your own? Create-a-Soul is here, and improved from the previous installments, as I can tell. Don't quote me on that, however, as I've seen mixed reviews on the system. If you're too lazy to go through every fine detail, which I'd say I am nearly all of the time, you can have the game choose for you. Simply pick a gender, a weapon style - which are, basically, all the styles used by the main characters - an alignment, being Good, Evil or Neither, and a focus. There are a few focuses you can choose from which affect how your character's stats will turn out. Having "Attack Focus" will generate a character who is both fast, and will rely on attacking to win the battle. However, having "Maximum Attack" will generate a character with the maximum attack power from the equipment, sometimes sacrificing Defense and HP points. This applies with the other stats, as well.
Equipment and new weaponry can be unlocked from the Xbox 360's achievements, and from going through the "Tower of Souls" mode. Each piece of armor has different values associated with it, ranging from HP points, Attack points, and Defense points, to points dedicated to your special moves. In a quick summary, your character can have "special moves" which can increase Stats in battle, leech health form your enemy, and heal you when you strike an enemy. These moves can only be assigned if you reach a set number of points in a certain category, such as "Strike", "Aggression" and... So on. It's really not that hard to explain, but typing it out is proving to be a challenge. Basically, "pick armor that has points you need" would be a great way to summarize. Create-a-Soul has all the standard features, with weapons, armor, hair, hair color, faces, eye color, voices; everything, including how muscular your character will be.
Underwear also holds values. Thought I'd throw that in. You can, essentially, make a character without any clothes. They'd fight in their underwear. Now, if you are of male gender, I'm willing to bet your first thought was, "Dude, half naked chicks with swords." I know mine was. Combine this with the fact that "muscularity" on a female character decides how big their... assets are, and you instantly become a kid in a candy shop with a fifty dollar bill. Or note, wherever you're from. Naturally, I went in, threw a female's "muscularity" through the roof, stripped her down and gave her the biggest sword in the catalog. This proved to be hilarious, and provided fun for hours. That's not exaggerating, either. I had fun for close to an hour and a half experimenting with that. The fun CONTINUED when I learned that armor breaks, so at any point in a battle, a female's breastplate can break off, exposing... Well, if I may be so bold, I shall recall what I stated earlier: "Lonely Developers A-Plenty".
At the CRACK of dawn, they shall do battle, with kicks that emit flashes of light.
Alright, I'm done with all that nonsense, I swear. For now, at least. Onto the gameplay. It is... What it is. It's a fighter, and by now, you know how they work. You pick a character, each with their own moves and perplexing combinations, and go into battle with someone else. You'll find a character you work best with, learn a few basic moves, and stick to it. For me, It's a mix between Voldo - Think Eddy Gordo from Tekken - and The Apprentice, who I mentioned earlier. I read a review somewhere that, essentially, said that "you can never really button-mash in this game, or you will lose basically all of the time."
I'm going to agree, and disagree, with that statement. While playing Singleplayer, I'll admit, I've button-mashed my way through the Tower, through the Story, and through Arcade. Each time, I won. Why? Because, no matter how long you've been playing, and I believe Yahtzee did a good job of touching on this, someone who is simply button-mashing can come out victorious over someone using combo's. It's just how these games work. However, unless you are the King, or Queen, of Button-Mashing, you won't survive online. If you aren't playing online now, don't even think for a moment you're really good at the game until you go online. While I've met some people who simply button-mash, a lot of others are good at what they do, and will, without a doubt, mess you up. A lot. There is online, which I'll throw in here, but it's simply one-on-one matches. One human player versus another, I mean. I've seen a match where you could swap out characters chosen at the start.
He's like a giant, malevolent unicorn, with teeth surrounding a stomach made of pure hatred. He also has red eyes, and everyone knows they're SPOOKY!
There are, I may add quickly, a lot of different weapon styles in the game. Some basics include a Katana, Chinese Boarding Saber, Staff, Dual-Arm Blades, Fencing Saber, SCYTHE, and a variety of others. Some of the swords are actually larger than the characters carrying them, so that's always funny to watch. There's also a fighting style that involves a blade being hidden inside a parasol, which, given to a male fighter provides even more laughter.
There's really not a lot more I can say about this game, seeing as it is of simple genre, so I'll get on with the Technical Aspects. The graphics are pretty, especially on the character models. The environments are really good looking, even though there aren't a lot of them. Everything sounds great, from swords clashing against each other to your character screaming in agony as he takes his seventeenth slash to the face. Gameplay can be simplistic, and I say "can" for all the people who would throw a fit about being "the true fighters", what with your combo's and fancy-pants moves. I, as I've said, like to give every game a chance. I'm a fan of First-Person Shooters, Action / Adventure titles, Platformers, RPG's, Racing games... Video Games in general, basically, and I thoroughly enjoyed Soul Calibur IV. I've loved the entire series, really, as weapons tend to make everything much, much better.
Actual, in-game shot. Also, yes, he IS wielding a Scythe. A freakin' SCYTHE. You don't get much more awesome than that.
The Verdict: Buy it!
The Gameplay is fun and fast-paced, the stylized feel of the game is very nice, replay value is, of course, extremely high, and it has swords. I believe anything plus swords is fantastic.
THAT you can quote me on.
In Closing...
WELL HELLO THERE! Aah... This is the second draft of this review. The first one was "baleeted" about a paragraph after the picture of Yoda. It's alright, though, I'm liking this one better. The original seemed to be repetitive, and this one, as I see it, flows better.
I'm liking the way these reviews are turning out. What do you guys think? I'd love to know what the readers think of my reviews, along with comments on the game in general. Do you agree / disagree / like pie? It's all good to me.
Also, in re-reading... I almost sound "lonely" myself. But, in total honesty, creating characters was one of the best parts of this game. You can also edit most of the main characters, which is fun, but not half as fun as making one of your own. I've seen some videos online of people making Dante from Devil May Cry, Captain America and the Punisher, somehow. It's amazing what some people can do.
I'd like to end with a real gem. I found this via Google Images. It's a woman who decided to Cosplay as Ivy from Soul Calibur. Below are both the real Ivy and the impostor. Which ones which? Really, I can't tell anymore. She's pretty spot-on.
What? You don't need my witty comment here, that picture speaks for itself. 9/10 for Effort, though.
-Jason, OUT!