SHALL WE PLAY A GAME? SOUL CALIBUR V

One of my favorite types of video games are fighting games. I love the characters and the friendly competition. Admittedly I am not very good at them but I still love them anyway. I love the strong heroes and villains. I actually try to follow the storylines of the characters too, if you can believe such a thing as playing a fighting game for the story. There's just something about them I find so intriguing and equal parts fun and frustrating. No other kind of game has irked more or given me such satisfaction.

Namco used the character Ivy quite heavily in their ad campaign for Soul Calibur V. One would think this is a promo for a Dead Or Alive game.

The latest fighting game to have graced my video game system is none other than SOUL CALIBUR V. Again I am a little behind. This game was release on XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 in 2012. I purchased my copy just this year. Already I have logged about 50 hours of game play and completed just about everything I can offline. Here are my thoughts:

Another promo ad. One gets the idea that they're trying to sell the game based solely on its sex appeal. Strange that in reality Soul Calibur V is far less exploitative of its female characters than Soul Caliburs 2 thru 4. But if you look at the ads for the original Soul Blades you'll see they've tried to sell these games on the skin of their characters since the very beginning.

Plot: 17 years have passed since the fateful events of Soul Calibur IV. The evil sword Soul Edge has been slowly building back its power and searching for a new host. Its evil has spread throughout the land infecting people. Those tainted by the power of Soul Edge are called Malfested.

Nightmare ~ Staple badguy of the series and a mega asshole in this game to fight against

Patroklos Alexander, son of the deceased Sophitia Alexander, wields the spirit sword Soul Calibur. He is in the service of Lord Graf Duma, ridding the land of Malfested. He is also in search of his long lost twin sister, Pyrrha. Patroklos travels the world killing malfested, meeting powerful warriors, and learning of his sister's whereabout and how to unlock the true power of Soul Calibur.

Hilde ~ returning from Soul Calibur 4 and rather stiff to play as, at least in my hands

Meanwhile, Pyrrha has been recruited by a servant of Soul Edge named Tira. Tira turns Pyrrha into a malfested and grooms her to be the host for Soul Edge. Patroklos discovers Graf Duma to be Nightmare, the incarnate form of Soul Edge. Through the help of Ivy and others he unlocks the power of Soul Calibur and is forced to duel with his sister.

Three boss characters from the game. From left to right, Alpha Patroklos, Elysium, and Omega Pyrrha. Elysium is the zealous spirit of Soul Calibur in the form of Pyrrha and Patroklos's mother, Sophitia.

Gameplay: This isn't the finest presentation of Soul Calibur I have played. That title is shared between Soul Calibur I & II. I actually found many characters a little frustrating to play with. Story Mode, the main feature of the game is very short and shockingly restrictive. You are forced to play primarily as new comer Patroklos for the majority of the mode with the occasional switch up to his sister Pyrrha (both of which are derivatives of their mother Sophitia and both play similarly).

Siegfried ~ One of my favorites to play as in the whole series

The mode is over with in just under 3 hours and you can only do the one story. No other characters have story modes to play. This is kind of a big let down considering past entries in the series. What it ultimately feels like is that we're being force fed Patroklos and Pyrrha. I actually really disliked both characters. One is an asshole and the other is a scaredy-cat (two features I'm not personally fond of in my lead heroes).

In game graphics for Patroklos and Pyrrha

I'm getting away from the gameplay though. The game seems user friendly in some spots and then incredibly stiff in others. Old favorites like Mitsurugi and Siegfried play great. But newcomers Z.W.E.I. and Patroklos feel kinda clunky. In short about half the roster is fun and playable and the other half is unfavorable.  

Z.W.E.I. ~ One of the newcomers and one wicked design

Character Design: The character designs are fantastic. Newcomers Z.W.E.I. and Viola look cool and fit well with the others. Likewise old favorites look good and updated too. I like Ivy's new look and Siegfried's design is quaint but good.

Viola ~ Another new face and new fighting style for the series

What I don't like are the replacement newcomers (derivatives of old favorites missing from the roster). Leixia, Xiba, and Natsu are basically replacements for Xianghua, Kilik, and Taki with far weaker personalities and designs. It seems cheap to dress up old characters in new clothes, give them jarring personality shifts, and pass them off as new. It's kind of insulting and disappointing to have a lame version of what was once a good character.

Ezio from the game series Assassin's Creed is the guest character for this chapter, shown here facing off against perhaps my favorite character in Soul Calibur, the samurai Mitsurugi

In a fighting game you should be adding to the roster, not subtracting from it. Overall the characters look pretty good.

Presentation: The game looks gorgeous. Graphically it is something to behold. The only part which does not look so gorgeous is a majority of story mode. Most of it is told through rather drab looking stills and voice overs. Now this is an old trait of the series, they've all done this save Soul Calibur IV. With the graphics as good as they are it begs the question, "Why didn't they do it all like that?"

Ivy ~ Probably the most conservatively she's ever been dressed in the series

The menus are easy to navigate and beautiful in design. The characters look great and the stages have never looked better. They've introduced multilevel stages and interactive backgrounds. If it looks like a stage is landlocked chances are you can knock down a wall and find a pit to toss your enemy down. The ring outs are still intact but there are a few completely landlocked levels where you are forced to beat down your opponent. The overall look of the game, with the exception of the story mode stills, couldn't look better.

Sadly there is something big missing from the game here. Aside from Patroklos and Pyrrha no other characters have stories of their own. There are no character ending and no character profiles whatsoever. This is an essential part of the Soul Calibur series and all fighting games for that matter. Of all the things to exclude they choose this? But yet they included lesser clones of Taki and Kilik because, according to the story, they'd be too old? Make up your mind Namco! Again, I really dislike this game's story and the fact that it's missing so many characters from the previous games.

Astaroth ~ The hulking axe man from every Soul Calibur game since the Dreamcast

Replay Value: There are plenty of modes to keep you playing this game for a while. It certainly kept me going far longer than I expected. I'll make an allowance that I hadn't played a Soul Calibur game seriously for a long long time. It felt good to get back into the world of Souls and Swords. The mode that really captivated me was Character Creation.

Character Creation is nothing new. It existed in SCIII and SCIV but I never gave it much attention. I always loved the character roster as it was. I didn't feel the need to make any more characters. Here however I found many of my beloved characters missing and a bunch of characters I didn't like in their places. I dove into Character Creation like never before. Much of my time was spent in this mode.

There is also a leveling up system for your player profile. Whatever mode you play grants you experience points. There are 99 levels in total and every time you level up you either gain a Title for use in your Online Profile or new items for Character Creation. As I was addicted to Character Creation you can see how this propelled me further into the game.

There are a ton of possibilities in Character Creation!

Another mode I played quite a bit was QUICK BATTLE. In this mode you fight against 240 opponents of varying difficulty, ranging from so easy you could beat them blindfolded to scary hard! Most of the opponents here are profiles of real life players and their original character creations. It's a trophy to beat them all plus with each one you beat you acquire a title. And you earn more player points to unlock stuff.

Pyrrha Omega ~ Pyrrha possessed by the evil sword Soul Edge, one of the bosses in the game

All in all there are a great many things I like about the game but also a great many things I dislike. I come back to these games for mainly two things. 1: the characters. And 2: to beat the crap out of something! Soul Calibur V isn't the finest game in the series, that title is shared between Soul Calibur I and II. But SCV is still a fun game.

Overall Ranking: 5 out 10

As always, for the final word on everything fighting game related visit The Fighters Generation

FIGHT ON!