Soul Calibur Review

This review originally appeared in E76, October 1999.

There are few who would dispute Namco’s vastly important role in the success of PlayStation. The then-early adopters heard and felt the roar of Ridge Racer’s ‘arcade perfect’ visuals and gameplay, sending them sprinting towards their nearest importer. Some months later, Tekken hammered home the point that there was really no other choice than PlayStation.

It comes as little surprise, then, that Sega’s stock value rose over 17 per cent on the day Namco’s latest fighting game, Soul Calibur, was confirmed for Dreamcast by Namco. Based on the 1998 coin-op of the same name, itself sequel to the coin-op and PlayStation title Soul Edge (dubbed Soul Blade in the west), the Dreamcast version of Soul Calibur has been entirely reworked from the arcade original. For some developers, that might translate into slightly improved visuals and a couple of extra play modes. Where Namco is concerned, with its skills now sharply honed from half a decade of PlayStation development, it means something entirely more significant.

Although both Soul Edge and Calibur were created for Sony’s System-series arcade hardware, Namco’s consumer development team has eschewed those boards’ relative limitations and worked to Dreamcast’s specifications. The result is simply beautiful, with motion capture, lighting, character interaction, and attention to detail unlike anything seen before. Passers-by the Edge office have been repeatedly brought to a slack-jawed standstill, gazing in wonder at Calibur’s poetry in motion. The visuals summon memories of wondering when Killer Instinct’s prerendered graphics would be possible in realtime, yet Soul Calibur is leagues beyond even those relatively recent ponderings.

When head-tracking first appeared in fighting games, it was hard not to be impressed, but where on the scale of amazement does that place Calibur’s perfectly lip-synched post-match taunts – complete with eyebrow contortions and winks? Play deep enough into the game and a mode is revealed allowing you to toy with each character’s samples, marvelling at the effort expended on those fine facial animations.

Delving within the game to those kind of extents will not be the first thing that happens when the disk boots up. Skimming up and down the option menu and considering the various modes reinforces the extent that this game has expanded beyond its arcade roots – but that’s precisely the choice most likely to be made. Initially, it’s a disappointing one, following the Tekken formula to the letter, seemingly embellishing it only with those razor-sharp visuals, and an equally honed selection of weaponry. Complete the game with your chosen protagonist and you’ll reveal an additional one, or, occasionally, an extra stage for the twoplayer mode.

It’s likely that reasonably experienced gamers will haphazardly battle through the arcade mode in a few short hours, racing to reveal the various bonuses. Far less possible is that they’ll begin to master the subtle nuances of each character, not least because of the 80-plus moves each has to offer. As in Tekken 2 and 3, these are listed within the game’s pause menu, and range from single swipes to extensive combos. While several key combinations are shared across the various fighters, the resultant action can be vastly different. Ivy, one of the female characters, has a sword capable of stretching into barbarous segments much like a police Stinger – opening up a new range of attacks, while others wield axes, swords, knives, pole arms and fighting sticks.

Arguably, contemporary standards of artificial intelligence are not so prominent, though. More often than is acceptable, your opponent will simply stand waiting for your attack. Bump up the difficulty setting or play almost through to the final boss, and the problem fades away as opponents begin to parry and counter more realistically. However, Virtua Fighter 3tb remains the supreme champion in the beat ’em up AI arena.

While graphical moments of wonder are everywhere, the truly rewarding segment of Soul Calibur’s gameplay is the Mission Battle mode. At first this seems little more than a glorified training session, pitting you against an ‘Edge Master’ in a variety of combat situations, such as only being able to defeat him with throws or charged attacks. However, as more and more missions are unveiled across a three-screen-wide map, the huge assortment of gameplay on offer both dawns on and daunts you. In some missions you must simply vanquish three opponents using one life; in others your character is poisoned; or the wind is blowing against you; or you are balanced on a narrow ledge. The variations on the basic fighting game theme are incredibly diverse.

That, however, is only part of what Soul Calibur’s Mission Battle mode has to offer. Success in the missions is rewarded with credits which can then be spent to unlock items in the game’s art gallery. In turn, some of these activate added modes, missions, stages in the twoplayer game, and character costumes. They also open further sections in the gallery, which in turn offer more options, adding more missions, etc, to the main game. Edge so far has a total of 322 gallery pages available – the result of intensive playing. Parallels with the breadth of Gran Turismo’s options are applicable, although Street Fighter Zero 3 might be more of a match for Soul Calibur in this respect. Unavoidably, Capcom’s classic lacks the next-generation feel and accessibility of Namco’s upstart.

Other modes such as Survival and Time Attack are included, and make for welcome diversions, while the twoplayer game is up there with the best. There is more to come, reportedly, with further stages unlockable after certain dates by visiting Namco’s homepage via a Dreamcast. Right now, however, there is little need for those extras – that you’ve spent several uninterrupted days staring at the television, being drawn back to the joypad for session after further session, goes unnoticed.

Few games scream at you to play them, stealing away hours and days without you even caring. Soul Calibur is one such title. Gather a few friends together and you’re transported back to the early days of the PlayStation and endless Tekken bouts, transfixed by a vision of the future. Just as it did when 32bit arrived, Namco has once more defined a new videogame era. [9]