SoulCalibur II

"This is your tale of souls and swords..."

Soul Calibur was a game released for Dreamcast in 1999. I have heard of it but I never played it because I didn't own a Dreamcast. I was really mad since I heard that game was really great. 4 years passed by and I forgotten all about the Soul Calibur series. When I heard my cousin owned Soul Calibur II, the sequel of Soul Calibur, and asked me to play, I answered, "No, I'm going to watch instead." As I was watching, I got interested in it and soon, I was playing it and liked the game. While I was playing it, I was so amazed with this game, I bought one also. Boy, was I happy to buy it.

Story-9/10
There are two separate stories for this game:

Transcending history and the world, a tale of souls and swords eternally retold.
This is the original story. 4 years ago, the good sword, Soul Calibur, defeated the evil sword, Soul Edge. (Soul Edge is a weapon that consumes people's souls, making the sword stronger.) By defeating the Soul Edge, the Soul Calibur managed to scatter the shards of it across the world. Now the sword comes back and is ready to engulf the world in darkness. Many people has the shards of it and was ready to destroy or take it, one way or the other.

This is your tale of souls and swords...
This is the story for Weapon Master. In the past, many people have heard a sword called Soul Edge. These people has many bizarre theories of the sword like it is the Sword of Salvation or something like that. Regardless of what they think, one thing known is the sword is evil. Soul Edge was used in many battles and absorbed a lot of souls. Then, as if answering to the sword, a spirit sword called Soul Calibur, appeared and led it to an epic battle. No one knew what happened. Nowadays, people heard of Soul Edge and was willing to have it. This is your adventure...

Gameplay-9/10
This game has a really good gameplay. In fact, one of the reason it is so good is that it has many different modes to play. There are original mode and Weapon Master mode in the beginning. In the original mode, there are Arcade, Time Attack, Team Battle, Survival, Practice, VS. Battle, and VS. Team Battle modes.

In the beginning, there are 15 characters selectable to play. Soul Calibur II is a multiplatform game (meaning it's on Gamecube, X-box, and Playstation 2) and depending on which one you bought, you will get a different exclusive character. (Heiachi is for PS2, Link is for Gamecube, and Spawn is for X-box.) However, all of them have one extra exclusive character for the home console as well which is Necrid, which is created by Todd McFarlane Productions. There are some new characters and some old characters that have returned from Soul Calibur. However, some of the characters that were in Soul Calibur were removed in Soul Calibur II.

The Weapon Master Mode is where the main action of the game is. In this mode, you would travel the lands and fight and buy new weapons while meeting people, rivals and friends. (These are CPUs however.) You can unlock stuff in this mode as well. In Weapon Master, you must beat certain missions to keep on moving. These missions may affect the battle so you should read carefully. Some may affect the stage, characters, and others. Like one of them would have the other character heal HP where another one is you lose HP. Weapons may also change the character's stats. For example, one of the weapons may have a good offense but a horrible defense or the weapon may have a good defense but has short reach.

To control your characters, you must know the basics. There are vertical attacks, horizontal attacks, kicks, guards, and throws. These are necessary to know in order to even be good at it. Vertical means that the attack would go up and down. Likewise, horizontal attacks go left and right. Kicks are, well...kicks. Throws are when you throw a person. Guards is defending from an attack. Also, you may need to use Guard Impact at times. Guard Impact is when you deflect an attack, causing both characters to be stun for a while. However, the one that did the Guard Impact will be able to move first, giving an opportunity to reverse a battle. The last thing to know is Soul Charge. Soul Charge is when your character moves are enhanced. Soul Charge has three levels. The more longer you Soul Charge, the more powerful your attacks would be. However, when you Soul Charge, you will be in a disadvantage position so be aware of your surroundings before doing it. Like in most traditional fighting games, there would be a health bar. The more attacks you absorb, the more damage you will take and the more health you will lose. Attacks are the only way to damage a character in a regular battle. Therefore, you must know how to cooperate with the attacks and guards button, as well the control stick to dodge and move your character around.

Now for the modes. Arcade mode plays like the arcade versions you see in stores or something. When you play, you fight battles and must win to advance to the next stage. Somewhere towards the end, you will do a "Destined Battle."
These battles are tougher than regular ones so be prepared. Time Attack mode is when you try to clear stages and get the best time possible. There are three difficulties: Standard, Alternative, and Extreme. The Survival mode is where you fight as many characters you can while maintaining health. You will have limited recovery for every battle you win. Like Time Attack, you are trying to get the best possible score, this time, the number of characters you beat. The Team Battle mode is when you choose a team of characters and fight the opponent's team. Up to three characters can be used. The opponent may have different teams each time you play. The VS battle and VS Team Battle is where you may versus another human player with a second controller. The Practice mode is where you practice your moves.

Music/Sound - 8/10
The music are really great. In the Gamecube version, it even has the classical Legend of Zelda music. The sounds could be repetitive at times, but it doesn't make that much of a difference. Each stage has a song that fits the theme. For example, for the Coliseum, it has a music that sounds like in an olympic. Though I can't truly say that all of them sound great, some sound like as if it came from soap operas so it isn't entirely good. Regardless overall, it is great.

Graphics - 9/10
What can I say? These graphics are excellent for a 3D fighting game. In fact, it looks like the best graphics I ever seen on a fighting game. Nicely done job, Namco.

Replay Value - 7/10
Here is where the game suffers a whole lot. The fact is that even a game with good graphics, gameplay, and music/sound, would have a flaw to it. There isn't that much replay value in it left once you beat Weapon Master. The time attacks and survival may still have a little replay value with them, but sooner or later, they will get really boring. There aren't that much unlockables either so getting all the stuff would probably be easy or hard, depending on the skill of the player. If only there were more to it, I would give it a higher score.

Overall - 8/10
With a great story behind it, and somewhat challenging Weapon Master, not to mention a lot of modes to play in, this game is one of the better fighting games to play. Soul Calibur II is a definite must-get for everybody.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/17/05, Updated 11/20/06