As you may or may not know; I usually put up my reviews a little while after the game actually releases. This is mainly due to the fact that I don’t get review builds, I don’t have a devkit, and I usually rent games rather than buying them(with some exceptions of course). I’ve all ready logged around 10 hours into SoulCalibur 5. I’ve only had the game for around 72 hours.
I am a huge SoulCalibur fan, but I haven’t found a descent version of game since #2. I hated the character creation system in previous versions and found many of the additional modes to be pointless and terrible. I was pretty happy with the fighting system in Soulcalibur 2. I played hundreds of hours of that game and even competed in a few tournaments for 2 and 3. But as this was a transitional period in my life, nothing ever came out of it. I didn’t start seriously playing fighting games again until 2010 with Marvel versus Capcom 3 and later Mortal Kombat in 2011. But as these are 2D games, they are a little different.
I explain all this only to explain my feelings toward SoulCalibur 5 and why for one of the first times; I haven’t bothered paying too much attention to the reviews of other people. I usually at least read a review or two before I write my own. But I knew that there would be no help found in any of them. I could tell just by the scores. People are looking at fighting games the way they would a FPS or perhaps a brand new RPG. What’s the story? Who cares? How many modes are there? What difference does it make, are the modes any good; that’s what I need to know. How many characters are there? Really? No one scored Ultimate Marvel versus Capcom 3 higher for having more characters than any other modern fighting game. Fighting games are more like sports games, they more or less live or die based on their fan community not how many boxes you can check off on the back of the box.
I write this review for the folks that haven’t played a lot of fighting games since 2009 or ever. SoulCalibur 5 has a pretty steep learning curve. Even if you’ve played Soulcalibur or SoulCalibur 2. The Arcade mode consists of six standard fights and they seem to be rated as a ladder would be. Concluding with the fifth and sixth fights which can be seriously challenging to anyone not 100% familiar with the character they are playing. While typically in fighting games these ladders usually consist of 7-12 fights. Which doesn’t really mean that the fights will be easier near the end, but many times the player is a little more familiar with the character by then. Also, there are no cutscenes in this mode at all. Just normal 6 fights in increasing difficulty.
There is a Story mode which tells a rather ridiculous story dealing with time travel, different dimensions, etc… Not that this is really an unusual thing for SoulCalibur or really any fighting game. The Story mode is not of a very high quality and while there are some wonderful cutscenes the majority of it consists of terrible motion comics. I certainly would have preferred a cutscene ending for each character in arcade mode rather than the entirety of the Story mode. But it is just a distraction from the core of the game. The Story mode is 21 episodes long which basically translates into 21 mildly difficult fights. It was worth the trouble but only just.
The Quick Batlte mode included is a very similar to the Ghost modes in previous Tekken games. This consists of A.I. opponents that are of different styles and difficulties based on the play of both top players and developers. This was one of my favorite modes from Tekken 5 and 6 so playing this was a wonderful and very compelling. The player earns titles, achievements, player points, and costume pieces for these fights; so they are well worth doing.
The Creation mode is where players can create either their own characters based on the cast of SoulCalibur 5 or make alternate costumes for the existing cast. The creation pieces are unlocked primarily based on Player level which is done by playing the game in any way, shape, or form. This is also similar to the way they did it in Tekken 6, which is wonderful. Except that in Tekken there was a currency and a player rank. Which I might have liked more, but it certainly works well enough the way they did it in SC5.
The Online modes are great, you can play a player match; which is not ranked on the leaderboards. A ranked match, which is ranked on the leaderboards. Finally, a Global Coliseum mode; that is done by region. Here you can participate in regional random matches, tournaments, etc… It’s wonderful addition. The player can enter a room and watch matches as they play out and play “quarter up style” which is similar to that which is in Mortal Kombat. The system is great, and unlike many fighting games the online is silky smooth and so far in the local matches I’ve played, I haven’t experienced any lag at all.
The training mode that does exist, seems pretty good. There are multiple modes within it and plenty of little tutorials in there available. I wasn’t very helped by what there was on offer. But I usually prefer practicing in actual matches like Quick Battle, Arcade, or Online rather than using training modes. Only the KOF13 training mode has helped me in any way since I played Mortal Kombat Conquest back on the PS2. I’m not sure how ANY fighting game could create a better training mode than what’s on offer these days. But other than online tutorials and Youtube; there really is no substitute for just doing the work yourself. Which usually separates the diehards from everyone else.
SoulCalibur 5 is definitely a game for diehards or hardcore players. As stated before there is a steep learning curve and while it is similar to SoulCalibur 2,3, and 4. The addition of some of the new moves that are similar to super moves in other fighting games and the fact that guard impact now costs meter also play a part in the SC5’s separation from the others. Characters in the past have also had unblockable moves, but it seems like there are many more in this game than the others. Finally, the whole of all these additions and changes; seriously increase the difficulty of the game. I was pretty happy with the game on the whole. But I’m still learning the game myself. This game seems more of a Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 than a Mortal Kombat (2011). If the player doesn’t feel like devoting a serious amount of time to the game; they are probably not going to be very happy for very long. I think that is probably what Namco was after with this game. They packed it full of hardcore player goodness and then made sure the arcade version was just difficult enough to turn off the average Joe. 9/10…
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