Post by jjjynx on Nov 24, 2005 8:41:52 GMT -5
Soul Calibur III
I’ve been bored the past six months….bored to death of all the games produced for PS2…bored to death of PC releases…I expected things to keep at it’s level for quite sometime…BUT, within the last month => ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE!!!
I’ve got six new major games suddenly popping out of nowhere!!! (Which I’ll also refer to in the other reviews when I make them)
But, back to the main point of this thread….SOUL-CALBUR-THHRREEEEEE!!! (Ok I was trying to sound like those characters shouting out the title in their Japanese accent…it just sounds so amusing)
Anyways…Soul Calibur shouldn’t be a game one knows nothing about….especially here, otherwise I doubt you’d be reading this just for the fun of it. Simply put, it’s a 3-D fighting game which focuses itself on the usage of weapons and tells a little tale about two swords: Soul Calibur & Soul Edge (which also happens to be the name of previous titles)
Now to the details…Soul Calibur III (I’m a fan, not a fanboy) ROCKS!!!!
Now now now….don’t label me as a fanboy yet…evidence always comes after a statement…
Here goes…
Graphics: 9.5
Well now, what do you know? Soul Calibur II had considerably good graphics, even right now…for a PS2 game. Namco obviously figured no gamer likes graphics staying in one place (points an accusing finger at SnK. It’s only recently they did something about it). And well…*poof*….better backgrounds, better character drawings, heck…even a more human like Nightmare now walks around! Why Nightmare? You ask. Simple, I use to think he’s a big fat walking piece of armor with a bloody huge-ass sword. Now? He’s a tall built up man with a similar size to Siegfried (oh yes they’ve been separated, I’ll talk about this later).
The backgrounds has been changed quite drastically, though we still have a few familiar ones in stock. I especially love the final background of the Boss. It’s in outer space filled with warps, meteors and lots of pretty little stars. No you can’t interact with them, but It’s very nice to see one fly by you when you’re kicking the boss’ butt, or letting him kick yours (this happens more often).
I feel that a 9.5 is doing injustice, only because I’m rating it not only as a PS2 game, but against all consoles out there…there is, however, a reason I can minus marks…but it will be stated in the later sections of this review, since it has somesort of mix with gameplay as well.
Music: 9.0
Only a 9/10…a sad case really…okay…sad as in it’s a little bad when compared to SC1 and SC2…not THAT sad when seen as a whole, thus a pretty high 9.0. . Many BGMs were remixes from SC1…which sounded really nice, especially Lost Cathedral’s “Confrontation”, and also Sophitia’ stage’s BGM. But the rest? They’re okay, not really that cool.
As for the voiceovers, I’m happy with the Japanese ones, since they reused all the old seiyuus, if I’m not wrong. But the English ones had a few o them sounding funny, specially Talim and Taki.
A 9.0 is still pretty high, and I find it’s doing just fine the way it is with the players, as only a few BGMs will have you fighting to their timing, while the others just don’t really kick in…unlike Guilty Gear, of course.
Gameplay: 9.5
Wow…another 9.5…I should be labeled “fanboy” if I keep this up…but no, it does the game serious justice. Basically, Soul Calibur III has a few modes of single player gameplay. Tales of Souls, the usual story telling one, the best in the series actually, since it offers a more detailed storytelling, rather than just having them run around and K.O each other with weird reasons. Next comes Quick play, which offers an arcade style matches with CPU opponents…Difficulty can be changed here, but no cutscenes and such. After that comes Soul Arena, Guilty Gear Mission Style. Not really much choice of missions, but you can always have fun seeing yourself getting thrown by a gigantic statue of Zeus. And a more advance version of Conquest Mode, Chronicles of Souls mode. This option offers you the ability to train your very own characters within the story of three kingdoms. Of course you don’t get to choose you side unlike Conquest…but it IS a story after all, so if you could choose any side it’d seem pretty weird.
This last mode also brings me to a part, one of the most important features within Soul Calibur III.
CREATE YOUR OWN CHARACTERS.
If you can’t tell what the above sentence means, you either failed your English or you’re having a translator right beside you reading whatever I’ve just written down in the past ½ an hour to you.
Well…Namco like having lots of different costumes seemingly within recent months, look Tekken, where you can alter all sorts of stuff for your favorite character. Now, in Soul Calibur III, they were kind enough to response to gamers wishes, and granted gamers the ability to create their own characters!!! Sadly, it’s not from scratch, as the costumes you have sometimes feels quite limited….another flaw was that you couldn’t change the character’s height, size and also size of some other parts of the bodies. But Namco was kind enough to provide us with a KOS-MOS costume…which is why I have a black KOS-MOS holding Soul Edge in her hands. All female had big upper torsos…so I could only had a woman dressed up like May. I had another like I-NO, but she just doesn’t looks it with that cute face of hers…plus, she’s wearing miniskirt, not short tight pants.
To unlock all available costumes takes quite a while…(took me two weeks of constant playing to unlock everything…and I meant constant, I am mad) And completing and seeing everyone’s ending, earn everyone’s weapons takes longer than expected. Gameplay wise….it’s time consuming, but it always feels good when you know you’ve cleared everything. Also, everyone has the chance to fight Olcadon (charade type/ random weapons) and Night Terror, the true boss of the game…(His abilities suits his name just fine, he kicks ass) the other boss you meet if you either: died in a certain battle or took the wrong path within the story (it’s filled with hints, you should be fine if you read). His name is Abyss, some sort Zasalamel style…the scythe like new character…(Zasalamel turns into him anyways). He’s cake compared to Night Terror, so you’d be fighting him quite often.
I think I’ve spoke too much of gameplay…let’s move on…
Characters: 9.0
Hah! No more 9.5! I’m no fanboy! *goes insane*
Really, a 9.5 is more suitable for this game…I’d give a straight ten if not for the way Namco removed the third costumes of everyone. New characters includes Rock(Mace), Setsuka(Short sword), Tira(Holla Hoop thingy), Zasalamel(Scythe), Olcadon(Random), Abyss(Scythe)…and also a truckload of other bonus characters, including Amy, Raphael’s sister (rapier obviously).
Don’t be fooled when I said rapier. It’s a different style of Raphael’s. Namco gave us a huge selection of other weapons to choose from…from Kunai to Huge Sword to Wave Swords and even Tambourines for dancers (they act a little like Voldo, but funnier). The Created characters not only gets to weild their own specific weapons, but also the weapons of Standard characters when trained within Chronicles of Souls. Which is why my KOS-MOS gained the ability to use both Nightmare’s and Astaroth’s weapon.
Balance: 8.0 (FINALLY! THE LAST ONE)
No. this game has absolutely NO balance at all…NONE, not ONE BIT…but I’m giving it an eight. Yes an eight! Only because there’s still a roster of first tier characters out there capable of facing each other. Nightmare just went insane after separation….Namco seems to like making main characters overly strong or something. You pit a newbie using Nightmare vs. an expert Yung Seong…heck…the chance of Mr. Newbie winning is 50:50…what’s more to say about expert players, and all you had to do is teach that newbie 6 moves, 3 of which is unblockable, while the other 3 are guard breaking moves. That’s how balanced this game is. And Taki has a near unblockable guard break move which chains to 1/3 – ½ of your hp when done, and instantly KO’s when at the edge. Not really balanced huh? Well there’s still more, get an expert to use Seigfried, who has at least 4 different stances(I didn’t count, didn’t bothered to), and watch him juggle, swirl and dance like a heavily armored butterfly to his opponent’s death….so…what can I say about balance? I have more to complain…but no…it’s a great game, and I won’t.
Ending comment:
Namco, well done. A game a fighting game fan should pick up at the stores, and a game made for pure enjoyment. Specially if you have friends to duke it out with. Oh…yea, one more thing.
I AM NOT A FANBOY. ;D
I’ve been bored the past six months….bored to death of all the games produced for PS2…bored to death of PC releases…I expected things to keep at it’s level for quite sometime…BUT, within the last month => ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE!!!
I’ve got six new major games suddenly popping out of nowhere!!! (Which I’ll also refer to in the other reviews when I make them)
But, back to the main point of this thread….SOUL-CALBUR-THHRREEEEEE!!! (Ok I was trying to sound like those characters shouting out the title in their Japanese accent…it just sounds so amusing)
Anyways…Soul Calibur shouldn’t be a game one knows nothing about….especially here, otherwise I doubt you’d be reading this just for the fun of it. Simply put, it’s a 3-D fighting game which focuses itself on the usage of weapons and tells a little tale about two swords: Soul Calibur & Soul Edge (which also happens to be the name of previous titles)
Now to the details…Soul Calibur III (I’m a fan, not a fanboy) ROCKS!!!!
Now now now….don’t label me as a fanboy yet…evidence always comes after a statement…
Here goes…
Graphics: 9.5
Well now, what do you know? Soul Calibur II had considerably good graphics, even right now…for a PS2 game. Namco obviously figured no gamer likes graphics staying in one place (points an accusing finger at SnK. It’s only recently they did something about it). And well…*poof*….better backgrounds, better character drawings, heck…even a more human like Nightmare now walks around! Why Nightmare? You ask. Simple, I use to think he’s a big fat walking piece of armor with a bloody huge-ass sword. Now? He’s a tall built up man with a similar size to Siegfried (oh yes they’ve been separated, I’ll talk about this later).
The backgrounds has been changed quite drastically, though we still have a few familiar ones in stock. I especially love the final background of the Boss. It’s in outer space filled with warps, meteors and lots of pretty little stars. No you can’t interact with them, but It’s very nice to see one fly by you when you’re kicking the boss’ butt, or letting him kick yours (this happens more often).
I feel that a 9.5 is doing injustice, only because I’m rating it not only as a PS2 game, but against all consoles out there…there is, however, a reason I can minus marks…but it will be stated in the later sections of this review, since it has somesort of mix with gameplay as well.
Music: 9.0
Only a 9/10…a sad case really…okay…sad as in it’s a little bad when compared to SC1 and SC2…not THAT sad when seen as a whole, thus a pretty high 9.0. . Many BGMs were remixes from SC1…which sounded really nice, especially Lost Cathedral’s “Confrontation”, and also Sophitia’ stage’s BGM. But the rest? They’re okay, not really that cool.
As for the voiceovers, I’m happy with the Japanese ones, since they reused all the old seiyuus, if I’m not wrong. But the English ones had a few o them sounding funny, specially Talim and Taki.
A 9.0 is still pretty high, and I find it’s doing just fine the way it is with the players, as only a few BGMs will have you fighting to their timing, while the others just don’t really kick in…unlike Guilty Gear, of course.
Gameplay: 9.5
Wow…another 9.5…I should be labeled “fanboy” if I keep this up…but no, it does the game serious justice. Basically, Soul Calibur III has a few modes of single player gameplay. Tales of Souls, the usual story telling one, the best in the series actually, since it offers a more detailed storytelling, rather than just having them run around and K.O each other with weird reasons. Next comes Quick play, which offers an arcade style matches with CPU opponents…Difficulty can be changed here, but no cutscenes and such. After that comes Soul Arena, Guilty Gear Mission Style. Not really much choice of missions, but you can always have fun seeing yourself getting thrown by a gigantic statue of Zeus. And a more advance version of Conquest Mode, Chronicles of Souls mode. This option offers you the ability to train your very own characters within the story of three kingdoms. Of course you don’t get to choose you side unlike Conquest…but it IS a story after all, so if you could choose any side it’d seem pretty weird.
This last mode also brings me to a part, one of the most important features within Soul Calibur III.
CREATE YOUR OWN CHARACTERS.
If you can’t tell what the above sentence means, you either failed your English or you’re having a translator right beside you reading whatever I’ve just written down in the past ½ an hour to you.
Well…Namco like having lots of different costumes seemingly within recent months, look Tekken, where you can alter all sorts of stuff for your favorite character. Now, in Soul Calibur III, they were kind enough to response to gamers wishes, and granted gamers the ability to create their own characters!!! Sadly, it’s not from scratch, as the costumes you have sometimes feels quite limited….another flaw was that you couldn’t change the character’s height, size and also size of some other parts of the bodies. But Namco was kind enough to provide us with a KOS-MOS costume…which is why I have a black KOS-MOS holding Soul Edge in her hands. All female had big upper torsos…so I could only had a woman dressed up like May. I had another like I-NO, but she just doesn’t looks it with that cute face of hers…plus, she’s wearing miniskirt, not short tight pants.
To unlock all available costumes takes quite a while…(took me two weeks of constant playing to unlock everything…and I meant constant, I am mad) And completing and seeing everyone’s ending, earn everyone’s weapons takes longer than expected. Gameplay wise….it’s time consuming, but it always feels good when you know you’ve cleared everything. Also, everyone has the chance to fight Olcadon (charade type/ random weapons) and Night Terror, the true boss of the game…(His abilities suits his name just fine, he kicks ass) the other boss you meet if you either: died in a certain battle or took the wrong path within the story (it’s filled with hints, you should be fine if you read). His name is Abyss, some sort Zasalamel style…the scythe like new character…(Zasalamel turns into him anyways). He’s cake compared to Night Terror, so you’d be fighting him quite often.
I think I’ve spoke too much of gameplay…let’s move on…
Characters: 9.0
Hah! No more 9.5! I’m no fanboy! *goes insane*
Really, a 9.5 is more suitable for this game…I’d give a straight ten if not for the way Namco removed the third costumes of everyone. New characters includes Rock(Mace), Setsuka(Short sword), Tira(Holla Hoop thingy), Zasalamel(Scythe), Olcadon(Random), Abyss(Scythe)…and also a truckload of other bonus characters, including Amy, Raphael’s sister (rapier obviously).
Don’t be fooled when I said rapier. It’s a different style of Raphael’s. Namco gave us a huge selection of other weapons to choose from…from Kunai to Huge Sword to Wave Swords and even Tambourines for dancers (they act a little like Voldo, but funnier). The Created characters not only gets to weild their own specific weapons, but also the weapons of Standard characters when trained within Chronicles of Souls. Which is why my KOS-MOS gained the ability to use both Nightmare’s and Astaroth’s weapon.
Balance: 8.0 (FINALLY! THE LAST ONE)
No. this game has absolutely NO balance at all…NONE, not ONE BIT…but I’m giving it an eight. Yes an eight! Only because there’s still a roster of first tier characters out there capable of facing each other. Nightmare just went insane after separation….Namco seems to like making main characters overly strong or something. You pit a newbie using Nightmare vs. an expert Yung Seong…heck…the chance of Mr. Newbie winning is 50:50…what’s more to say about expert players, and all you had to do is teach that newbie 6 moves, 3 of which is unblockable, while the other 3 are guard breaking moves. That’s how balanced this game is. And Taki has a near unblockable guard break move which chains to 1/3 – ½ of your hp when done, and instantly KO’s when at the edge. Not really balanced huh? Well there’s still more, get an expert to use Seigfried, who has at least 4 different stances(I didn’t count, didn’t bothered to), and watch him juggle, swirl and dance like a heavily armored butterfly to his opponent’s death….so…what can I say about balance? I have more to complain…but no…it’s a great game, and I won’t.
Ending comment:
Namco, well done. A game a fighting game fan should pick up at the stores, and a game made for pure enjoyment. Specially if you have friends to duke it out with. Oh…yea, one more thing.
I AM NOT A FANBOY. ;D