Games for Lunch: Soulcalibur IV
In a nutshell: Welcome back to the stage of beating people repeatedly with swords.
9/10/2008 11:46 PM | 1 Comments | Page 1 of 4
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco
Release Date: July 29, 2008
Systems: PS3 (reviewed), Xbox 360
ESRB Rating: T
Official Web site
0:00 I was a huge an of
Soul Blade, a minor fan of
Soulcalibur, kind of got back into
Soulcalibur II, and totally skipped
Soulcalibur III. Now you know, and knowing's half the battle.
0:01 This minute spent downloading a 16MB "update" for the game.
0:02 This minute spent creating save data, watching company logos fly in, and loading the menu.
0:03 Lightning flashes above the roof of a "Two Towers"-style spire. Some samurai guy (Mitsurugi?) stands holding a small red sword with a blinking eye inside it. He flashes back to the battle where he obtained the sword, and he seems to regret his actions. He holds up the sword and falls through the crystal floor into the tower below. Cut to Siegfried, who takes out his own sword. Cut to scantily-clad Ivy battling a girl in a suit of armor. Cut to Darth Vader, who turns around to see another samurai guy (is this one Mitsurugi? I don't remember). They fight and the light saber just bounces off the samurai sword harmlessly. How does that work?
0:05 Lava rocks fall around Siegfried as he approaches the tower, so he pulls a Sub-Zero and launches an ice attack with his sword. Meanwhile, the hulking, hideous, twisted Nightmare stands atop the tower engulfed in flames. A crystal sword sits with crystal bits hovering around it. One of the crystal bits turns into the
SC4 logo. "Soulcalibur... FOUR" the announcer intones in a deep bellow. Man, that was random and incoherent. And long.
0:07 Let's start with the training mode -- I need to remember what I'm doing here. A bunch of the characters are locked and must be "purchased" in the character creator to use. Sigh. I remember liking Nightmare back in
SC2, let's go with him. He has two outfits. I pick the one with the visible, purple energy core in the torso. Hoo yeah!
0:08 The randomly-selected stage is "Ice Coffin of the Sleeping Ancient." I miss the ability to taunt the opponent during the loading screen, like I could in
SC2. "Can you see the darkness of the abyss?" Nightmare bellows. "All right then, come on," says Maxi. "Training START!"
0:10 The moves come flooding back to me: the drop kick, the sidestep sword-swipe that launches them in the air. Good stuff. An on-screen move list reminds me of what I forgot (and what's new). I love the effortless, eight-directional movement and responsiveness of the attack buttons. Great for a semi-button masher like me.
0:13 Enough playing with the Maxi-shaped punching bag -- on to Story Mode. The choices are Normal or Hard difficulty because Easy is for PANSIES!
0:15 An introduction scrolls up the screen. "The secret art had freed Soul Edge from the embrace of Souls in the Lost Cathedral." Soul Edge fell into a "dimensional warp" but then it came back. Er, OK. The shards of the shattered sword came together from around the world to a German city that has become cursed where the sword laid its roots. The Soul Edge "lays in wait for the day it would fight Soulcalibur again." Um, what?
