| |
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| Title |
Soul Calibur II |
9 |
| Publisher |
Namco |
| Developer |
Namco |
| Genre |
Beat 'em up |
| Players |
1-2 |
| Version |
JAP NTSC |
Don't argue. Buy!
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The beat ?em up market is growing larger and larger every day. There are now titles upon titles of different fighters; some of them good, some of them not so good. But no matter how many new fighters emerge; the king that always seems to be standing at the top of the mountain is Namco. They created what some believe to be one of the greatest gaming series ever in Tekken, but their true gem has always been in the hand of their ?other? beat ?em up, Soul Edge, and it?s sequel, Soul Calibur. We finally see the third instalment in this epic series and for the first time appears on all three of the major platforms.
It?s hard for me to express how much I anticipated this game. Soul Edge, or Soul Blade as it was known in the West, was in my opinion one of the greatest fighters of its time. While it received a moderately warm welcome, it was always overshadowed by it?s brethren Tekken series and I think it is a shame that it did not receive more exposure. Then came along the Dreamcast and the sequel to this superb game; Soul Calibur. While only played by the few who actually bought a Dreamcast and those who spent their days in the arcades, this was the true beauty of Sega?s doomed console. It would prove to be the definitive fighter on any console for years to come and was perhaps the primary reason to own a DC. It?s superior graphics still outmatch most fighters that are released even to this day and was packed full of features that most of it?s contemporaries couldn?t even comprehend.
Yet the game was overlooked by many once again down to poor sales of the Sega console. Namco had two classics on their hands yet neither could get the attention that Tekken or Virtua Fighter could. But in Namco?s case, third time?s a charm, and they will not be outdone this time. Not only releasing the third in the series on all three major consoles, Namco has done the unimaginable and personalised each version with a character taken from the specific platform?s own back catalogue. That?s right, on top of the main cast of characters there is also a special character that is different on each of the three platforms. On the PS2 we have Heihachi from the Tekken series, on the Xbox we get Spawn (an odd choice, but more on that later) and on the Gamecube, none other than Link makes an appearance! This truly is a great feature as now the choice really is difficult on which version could claim the title of being the best.
But let?s not get ahead of ourselves. We still have the game as it?s delivered to tackle first. And what a game it is. While the core gameplay elements make their way back almost unchanged from Soul Calibur, it?s a testament to the statement ?if it ain?t broke, don?t fix it?, as the core gameplay of Soul Calibur was so crisp and perfect, changing it anyway would be borderline scandalous. But that isn?t to say you are simply getting Soul Calibur with a shiny new box, but it can be seen why it is known as Soul Calibur 2 rather than another name change such as was seen between Soul Blade and Soul Calibur for this sequel has not changed on the same scale that the Dreamcast incarnation improved over the Playstation?s.
I won?t waste my time explaining how Soul Calibur 2 plays on the basic level as there?s really not much to it? 2 fighters with weapons in an arena. First person to win two rounds wins the match. But that?s beat ?em ups for you. It?s a tried and true formula that works. But Soul Calibur 2 is much more than just another fighter. While the majority of the martial arts on display are true to life, and in fact in most cases, motion captured, the emphasis clearly isn?t on reality. Set in the late seventeenth (?) century, the game combines the realms of fantasy with that of this own. Centred around the quest each of these fighters take in order to gain a particular sword known as the Soul Edge, a sword that consumes souls and warps the person who carries it, it?s more than anything else, a story about the battles between good and evil, with many characters taking on a type cast image.
So basically if you?ve played Soul Calibur you will be right at home on this game from the get go. There are no huge surprises and no massive changes other than improved side step. While in other games this would generally come off as a bad thing, I think in this case it?s simply a case of refining what is successful and discarding that which isn?t, and in the case of Soul Calibur, there wasn?t much that wasn?t successful.
But what will surprise you is the sheer number of features for you to play around with. Upon first loading the game up you are faced with the usual features you?d expect to find in a Namco beat ?em up; arcade, versus, team battle, survival, practice etc, but also a mode that hasn?t been seen since the days of Soul Blade: Weapon Master mode. While most people are probably thinking, ?this is surely the same as Mission Mode in Saoul Calibur? you?d be right. But the reason why I liken it to the Edge Master mode in Soul Blade is because it is now possible to buy a large number of weapons for each character. In fact there are over 200 weapons for you to collect in this mode. How it works is you choose a character to play with (the actual character no longer matters, and you can change at any time) and are taken to a map screen where you must complete missions. These range from simply beating an opponent to beating multiple opponents to having to best your foe in a certain way (ie only being able to cause damage from juggling your opponent). While generally these show less imagination than in previous games, there is an extraordinary amount of them and so this matter can be overlooked. Upon completing each mission you are awarded experience and gold. While it appears that levelling up does little to improve your character, the gold you collect can be used to buy weapons for any character or even many secrets located in the game, such as third costumes for particular characters. The Weapon Master mode is also used to unlock the majority of the other features not found initially.
You see, while the usual batch of features would have been enough for most companies, Namco saw fit to add a whole wealth of new options that are unlockable as you progress through the game. These are mostly found in the form of ?Extra? modes where they are similar to their original counterparts, but it?s possible to use the weapons you have unlocked in Weapon Master mode in them. Not only that though, but some extra modes also have sub modes that can be unlocked such as Deathmatch under the Extra Survival tab. But wait, there?s more. Also unlockable in Weapon Master mode are various art galleries and such but also one of my favourite options from Soul Calibur, and that is the Exhibition mode. In this mode you can choose a character and watch as they perform a motion captured kata, or martial art set. I could honestly watch some of these for hours and I?m grateful to Namco for including these, something I think they should also move across to Tekken.
The majority of the characters from Soul Calibur make their return with a few new additions also, namely Talim, a gypsy princess wielding dual tonfa, Raphael, your stereotypical French fencer and Necrid, the fantasy addition to the new character list. But of course, as mentioned earlier, each version of the game also comes with either Heihachi, Spawn or Link. Choosing your favourite will depend largely on your tastes, but for me, although being a huge Zelda fan, found Link to be a little bit out of place on the cast list. Still, he was a solid character, something I can?t really say for Spawn who, although looks great graphically, has little depth to his fighting style. So for me, although he wields no weapon, Heihachi is the better choice of characters, but as I said, it depends largely on your own tastes (and indeed which console you own) on which character would be best for you.
The arenas also deserve an extra mention as now many arenas are no longer left fully open to ring outs as seen before on previous games. Ring outs are still possible, but on many levels there are walls on certain sides and the arenas themselves rarely stick to the classic square ring that was previously seen. This adds another element to the gameplay as if you are looking to get a ring out you need to utilise the side step function effectively in order to back your opponent up against the edge. Not only that but if you find that you yourself have been backed against a wall you can utilise a wall jump by simply pressing back and guard. A nice feature indeed.
Graphically the game follows suit with the gameplay and not really improving on the Dreamcast version in many ways. Yes everything obviously looks nicer, since it runs on more advanced hardware, but not as many leaps have been made like they were previously. That isn?t to say the game looks shabby. Not at all, it certainly stands tall against all the other graphical bad boys, such as Tekken 4 and Dead or Alive 3, so I guess it?s a testament to how good Soul Calibur was graphically.
Each character, as before, has two distinctly different costumes that are unique and styled to their characteristics and background. I would have liked to have seen some more imagination placed in a few of the characters though such as newcomer Necrid who looks like a reject from a bad Mortal Kombat game. Saying that though it?s nice to see that, although a lot of attention has been paid to each character?s attire and overall design, they are not over the top characters (mostly) and contain a subtlety not seen in many fighters, yet still manage to steer away from being bland, something that is very difficult to do in today?s gaming world. My hat goes off to the designers at Namco for managing this.
As with all 3D fighters, special attention is always paid to the arenas in which the fights take place. What we have here is outstanding on some levels, yet rather plain on another. Some levels have had a great amount of detail placed on them, and the asymmetrical feel of many is a great addition and change from the previous square arenas. However, many of the arenas are fairly generic and have less imagination than some of the previous games. While the feeling is obviously not to overwhelm the player with expansive environments so they concentrate on the action, when you have such strong competition from games like Tekken, Virtua Fighter and Dead or Alive, you do need to make that extra effort. Also, many of the fighters share the same arenas, not even changing the time of day as was seen in Soul Calibur. This feels a tad lazy as it applies to some of the primary characters that are selectable from the very start. Still, the arenas that are done well are done VERY well. Sakura petals fall from the sky beside an expansive Japanese castle above a fog filled forest, cogs whir on the battlements of a windmill in the hills and fire burns at the wreckage of a destroyed Chinese city. It really is quite humbling at times considering the majority of this detail is all modelled extensively. There are no wrap-around backgrounds here.
Animation wise it doesn?t get much better than this. All characters were motion captured by real martial artists and the attention to every little detail here is extraordinary. The only time that it loses a bit of fluidity is when characters fall from the stage. When hit into the air and out of the arena there is a split second where they jerk as if hitting an invisible glass floor before falling into oblivion. A similar situation occurs when lying close to the edge ? the character will lay flat out if half their body is on the stage while the other is horizontal off the side. I really feel it would be better if they incorporated some physics here to make the fighter fall from the edge. Sega have had it in Virtua Fighter since it?s first game, so I don?t see why Namco continue to neglect this area. It just adds to the overall believability.
The music and sound is a crisp and clean as before. Connected hits create the same satisfying slash as before and the music accompanying the action is spot on as before, continuing the melodic, somewhat classical score as seen in the previous two games. It fits perfectly to the games undertones and it?s hard to see where Namco could improve in this area. The music isn?t catchy or particularly memorable, but it isn?t meant to be, rather acting as a backdrop to the fighting which is obviously the focus of the game.
As far as longevity goes, you don?t get much more from a fighting game than this. You will spend hours in the Weapon Master mode trying to collect all the weapons and secrets and every fighter, bar maybe some of the bigger ones such as Astaroth and Spawn (Xbox only), have a great deal of depth and it?s not hard to find your favourite fighter from the start, although once you?ve tried them all you may change your mind a few times. The major criticism most had with the previous games was that you could easily beat the game by simply tapping the vertical attack, and it?s true again here, but doing so really destroys the point of the game. Taking the time to learn the ins and outs of the fighters feels intensely satisfying, and while the veteran may lose some matches to a new player who likes to tap tap tap, the majority of the battles will be his (or hers).
Is this the greatest fighter of all time? That?s a title that will forever be disputed, but in my opinion this Is the greatest fighter to appear on cross platforms. It may not be a big improvement on Soul Calibur, but how do you improve on something so good? You can only refine and add to and that?s what they have done here. Which version is better? Well, if you?re talking graphics the Xbox clearly takes the title, but there is such a fine line between all three the graphics really shouldn?t be a factor. If you have the choice of getting one of these then it really only comes down to who of the three characters takes you fancy the most.
This is one game that everyone must own. It?s as simple as that. Namco are not taking any chances this time and have created the game for every one of the big three systems and even tailored it to that market so frankly you have no excuse to not buy it. The few flaws that I pointed out above I really had to look out for and in fairness shouldn?t have even been brought up since they are such minor points on the grander scale of this classic title.
Seth Powell |
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