|
Welcome Back To The Stage of History
Prepare to be hit by a Ring Out. Soul Calibur is back, and in a big
way. Normally, we don't review arcade games here, but normally we
don't have reviewers who are off in another country 5,000+ miles
away. So consider this a preview, or just an arcade review of the
game. Honestly though, the game feels like it's been designed for
the console, and just made a stop in arcades to polish up its
gameplay balancing. I honestly can't think of too many fighting
games in the arcades that have "5-minute training mode" as an
option.
New School is Now In Session
Soul Calibur is the most recent "major" fighter to enter into the
public eye. When I think of "major" fighting games, I refer to
Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, and
Virtua Fighter. The only real qualification I have in calling a
game "major" is that it has had at least a couple high profile
releases. Sorry if I am forgetting any.
After that bit of digression… Soul Calibur has been around since
1997, when it was called Soul Edge in Japan, and Soul
Blade over here. Its main distinguishing feature was that you
had a weapon, and if you blocked a certain amount of times it broke.
After losing your weapon you couldn't block anymore, which helped to
stop turtling.
Soul Calibur came out in 1999, and looked prettier, but
played mostly the same. Of the "major" fighting games, I'd have to
say that this is probably the easiest to get into. With Kilik you
can probably go and stomp through the game without ever having too
much of a hard time. I guess this is the main reason that some
people shun this game in preference of more skillful fighting games.
However, Soul Calibur was a game that many Dreamcast owners pointed
to as a big reason why their console was superior to the Playstation
2. I too think it was one of the best games released for the
console, and was definitely the best of the initial launch crop of
games. Now Soul Calibur II has hit arcades, and is up to firmware
version D. I think from what I can gather, the game will ship to the
XBOX first. (I'm making this assumption strictly on the fact that
the XBOX catalog lists the game in its upcoming titles, and the PS2
and GC catalogs I picked up do not.) Before it gets there, it's
making a big splash in arcades.
Couple 'a New Faces
As far as I can tell there are 4 new characters; Talim, Raphael,
Yunsung, and Cassandra. Cassandra's honestly just a different
looking Sophitia. Talim is the new speed/cheese character. She uses
two bladed tonfa, and is a little bit quicker than Taki and Xianghua.
Raphael is a wussy French swordsman, and Yunsung is there (I guess
to make up for the missing Korean characters) because Hwang and
Seung Mina are no longer in the game. Also missing are Rock and
Lizard Man. Fine by me. Rock was just Astaroth, and Lizard Man was
stupid.
>From what I can see in the arcades, Talim seems to be the most
popular of the new characters, with Yunsung and Cassandra hardly
showing up at all.
Fighting on Arrival...Fighting for Survival
Well, if you were good in the first Soul Calibur, there's no reason
you aren't going to be able to dominate in the second iteration.
Missing from the game is the weapon damage. Instead of being able to
draw power by draining "life" from your blade, now you just hit a
certain combination of buttons and you'll power up. You can move
while you're doing it, so it feels kinda cheesy. On the other hand,
there are plenty of moves you can cover the range effectively, and
most of those can result in dealing some major damage while the
other player is on the ground.
But, aside from the weapon "life" bar being gone, most of what you'd
do in Soul Calibur is going to carry over to Soul Calibur II. There
seem to be more quick characters in the game now, so I've noticed
that Nightmare and Astaroth seem to be fairly outmatched in most
battles. Mitsurugi has nearly the same range, and Ivy outranges them
easily... at least to my (not very skilled) eye, speed seems to be
of the essence in SC2.
Go Forth...and Conquer
Soul Calibur 2's nice and all, but I can tell you for sure that
there's no way in hell I'd drop nearly $40 playing a fighter in the
arcade... not normally that type of guy. But, SC2's Conquest Mode
kept me coming back for more.
You select a character name and password, and then fight for a side.
Based upon how you do in the sequence of 8 fights that follow, your
army will gain or lose ground. Gain or lose a significant amount,
and you can feel the satisfaction of knowing that when someone from
the other army logs in to play, they'll be treated to several
screens of progress messages telling them that while they were away
you’d stomped all over their army.
Also, as you progress in the # of victories you have, you'll gain
different ranks. I went from Newcomer to Peasant to Squire to
Infantryman to Solider. Your experience points will determine what
rank you are, and your attributes will determine which "metal" you
are, ranging from Bronze to Platinum.
Your attributes will increase or decrease based on what you did well
in the fight. Ring Out the other player and gain Skill, but
generally at the expense of Soul, Power, and Wisdom. Throwing
players will increase Wisdom at the expense of your other stats.
Perfecting players generally tends to power all your stats up. At
the end of your 8 fights, you'll be asked if you want to fight
yourself, and you can get a feel for how challenging fighting your
character will be to another human player.
At the end of my fighting I had broken the top 10 for the machine,
and had become a significant force. I know this because the #1 guy
from the opposing army was waiting while I dropped 1500 yen in the
machine and took over more than 20% of the land he had gained. Then
I watched as he played, and was treated to 6 screens of how "Netjak.com"
had just plowed through his army.
Once this gets to a console, and presumably is networked through
broadband, this feature of the game will keep it alive well, well
after the player at home has beaten all his friends into submission.
Overall
I really, really dig this game. Though not as much as "Misha", who
by my calculations has spent nearly $330 and who knows how many
hours playing this game. I am definitely picking this game up once
it comes to the consoles, and I have a pretty good feeling that
everyone who has a copy of Soul Calibur will be doing the same. Much
happiness for everyone who loved the first one (and probably for
gamers everywhere) as I suspect that they'll all likely take notice
of the extension of game life that the Conquest mode will give to
this game.
|
