I used to call myself a fan of the Soul Calibur series. However, after the release of Soul Calibur IV had to rethink my relationship severely. After the blandness of III and the disappointment of IV, I had to start questioning my ‘fandom’ for the series. With the release of Soul Calibur V I had hoped that this didn’t become a 50/50 division.

Set 17 years after the events of Soul Calibur IV, this new tale of souls and swords introduces a plethora of new characters taking the place of staple holdouts since game one. But with some new blood in the mix, can Soul Calibur V make me a fan again?

One thing that is impossible to complain about is the character selection this time around. The solid amount of returning characters have been re-imaged, although the loss of more established favourites (Zasalamel is noticeably absent, but I still have one character to unlock…so maybe?), the returning cast is iconic enough to keep the old guard enticed, while the newcomers add a new dynamic into the mix. Xiba, for example, is basically Kilik. Not to say that the fighters are 100% carbon copies, but the tweaks in movement speed, range, move lists, and so forth has the newcomers stand out from their obviously based forefathers.

What is special though is the graphical detail put into each and every character. This is no simple update of the SCIV character models, but a complete reworking of the games’ engine can be seen, right down to the detailed scars on Mitsurugi’s chest. It doesn’t just stop with the pre-made models either, the character creation has returned and is, once again, excellent. I’ve seen perfect recreations of Dante (DMC), Gutts (Berserk) and Goku (Dragon Ball), each of the exquisitely detailed enough to be part of the main cast. It’s a great character creation tool and I look forward to seeing the creations people make in the future.

He does all his kung fu with wires, we all know it

Now we get onto the bad news. Somewhere in the development process someone decided that the Soul Calibur series needed speeding up. This by itself is not necessarily a bad thing, some pace in a fighting game never hurt anyone. Unfortunately, when speeding up the fighters, they forgot to balance everyone evenly. Characters like Siegfried are now capable of keeping up with the likes of Xiba and Maxi. This makes for the first balance breaking change to the game. When you combine high damage/impact characters with speed there is little any can do to stop the onslaught.

By speeding up the game the focus has shifted away from tactical spacing and timing to aggressive fighting. Fighters guard break bars (Blocking too much and getting staggered) now carry over to the next round, meaning if you just took a pummelling from high impact fighters like Nightmare and lost the round, you likely to suffer a moment of stagger early in the next round. Combine this with the new focus on high damage combos and you have yourself a problem.

Basically, 70% of the characters are now capable of performing combos that would make Guilty Gear jealous. By combining launchers, stuns, staggers and moves that hit a downed opponent, I have seen many a fighter pull off combos that take slice a health bar in half. What’s worse is that some characters can do this with very simple, low risk moves. Patroklos, for example, is able to knock out a launcher move at a long range with very little recoil. Should he hit it’s just a case of combining a simple attack and then the use of his spin dash move twice to hit the enemy on the way day down. The way to deal with characters like this in SC2 was to go defensive and wait for a mistake, but SCV will punish you for that.

You may be thinking that a good old bit of guard impact would sort this problem out. However, guard impact has gone and instead we get ‘just guard’, which is activated by blocking just as a strike hits home. Unfortunately this doesn’t quite work as it just reduces your recoil, instead of staggering your opponent. Poor characters like Raphael are left weeping in a corner with his counter strikes and clever play, while heavy handed fighters just swing their way to victory.

It feels reminiscent of what Namco-Bandai did with Tekken 5, focusing on aggressive gameplay and juggle combos, rather than the clever use of the diverse moveset presented to each character. The strategic elements of Soul Calibur V are lost due to this major unbalance, akin to a drunken blind man on a tight rope. And the sad part is, I doubt any amount of patching will fix it.

Z.W.E.I. is a werewolf apparently. Bit too Twilight for me

So now you might be thinking “I’ll pick it up or rent it to get through the storyline and see the endings.” Well, you can save yourself the money friend, because there are no endings. Arcade mode consists of six battles, always ending with Nightmare. You get timed on your runthrough and your score is put up on a leaderboard. That’s right, Arcade mode in SCV has warped into time attack. None of the new characters (or old ones, for that matter) get introductions or endings, giving players no connection to these new faces whatsoever. That is, unless you like Patroklos and Pyyrah.

Sophitia’s children have a whole story mode dedicated to them. The 20 mission long story mode presents the tale of these two characters as they head towards Soul Calibur and Soul Edge, all of this, of course, peppered in with brief cameos from the other characters in-game. Due to the lack of explanation you always feel like you accidentally skipped a chapter. Points that characters bring up, old grievances that they get involved in, issues like this are just simply confusing. The developers seem to have forgotten that much of the cast is new, and we don’t know anything about them.

The worst moment comes when Patroklos heads out to search for Kilik and his weapon, only to find Xiba wielding it. No questions are asked, no explanation is given, no reason why he has it. In the end, after a tussle with Xiba, all we see is a new friendship forged. If you want to find out what happens to the two children of Sophitia, you do get some closure at the end, but for everyone else it’s a complete disappointment.

The only other modes for offline play are a challenge mode, which pits you against fighters of different ranks. The object is to increase your own rank, unlocking items like clothing bits for character creation and logos for your online card. Beware though! Taking on the A1 ranked opponents causes the AI to spike heavily, using the most lethal moves against you and showcasing the awful game balance in the worst way possible. Aside from this, you can try the new arcade mode, pitting yourself against some of the legendary characters from the series. While this does include one unlockable character, it basically is the same thing as fighting against re-skins in costumes from previous games.

Ezio is one of the best Cameo for the series. Although the crossbow is OP

This mode is also tough as everyone will use their most powerful moves. But when you get past the likes of Seigfried and Nightmare, you’ll notice how pathetically weak characters like Cervantes are in comparison.

Get to the end boss of this mode, and prepare to rage, as the final battle puts a nail in the games coffin. This boss is so powerful she can take a third of your lifebar out in one move! That’s not a combo people, that’s a one third of your entire lifebar in one hit.

And did I mention this boss is playable?

Ignoring training mode, which has some nice touches but doesn’t actually teach you anything, the other way to play is online. Now for all of SCV’s faults, the online mode is actually pretty good. A ton of modifiers can be tweaked to find a perfect match up, from location, connection strength, to even deciding which side of the screen you prefer to start on. You can either enter lobbies for non-ranked matches or participated in ranked games that throw you straight into the mix.

Lobbies allow you to watch others fighting while you wait, as long as you don’t join in the middle of one. However, with no host migration expect to see lobbies close more often than you would like, leaving you wondering why there is no quick match for non-ranked games. Stability online is pretty good, even with one bar of connection I noticed very little lag between moves. Overall, online modes have been developed with care, it’s a shame the same can’t be said for the rest of the game.

Sparkles? Really?

But, I haven’t even had the time to go into things like the 2D backgrounds and infinite floor space on some levels, which is reminiscent of an original Tekken title. Hell, I haven’t even expressed my disappointment in the lack of weapon master mode or my distaste for the new super moves. Nor have I had time to talk about the uninspiring soundtrack and the distinct lack of voice clips for each character. Expect to be grated by Patroklos’ decree of ‘This is justice’ every five minutes. He says it so often you would think he was Minute Man from Freedom Force.

In the end, Soul Calibur V is an utter disappointment. It feels like the development team wanted to go in a new direction and I don’t necessarily hate the direction they have gone in, but their execution is atrocious, to say the least. I give a couple of weeks maximum before infinite combos are found. Beyond that, I can’t see the online community sticking around with Street Fighter X Tekken coming up. Fat Megaman may be a kick in the teeth to the fans, but I bet he’s more fun to play then the entirety of Soul Calibur V.

This game was provided by the publisher for review purposes on Xbox 360. The game was played for roughly 15 hours. The game offers both online and offline gameplay. All completable offline modes were completed in roughly 3 hours. Online mode was played for roughly 5 hours and the rest of the time was spent experimenting with characters and move lists.

Soul Calibur V Review

By Yousif A.

A tale of souls and swords eternally re-told, but this time with new characters and super moves. Can the 6th instalment (yes, including Soul Blade it's 6) in the Soul series rejuvenate this fighting series?