"Stellar Fighter with Few Flaws"

Before Soul Calibur 3 (Henceforth known as SC3), I didn't care much for fighters, I assumed they were just a shallow genre targeted for the mainstreamer... ignorance sure wasn't bliss. SC3 pulls off the genre exceedingly well; it truly is a 3D fighter.

==GRAPHICS==
Stunning! At first glance, the graphics look pretty; you can't really see a flaw in them. As you watch the game, you notice more and more the level of detail put into the graphics, the movement of the characters, the backgrounds that tingle with life and the overall presence of good effin' work. SC3 is one of those games that really push its medium, PS2. For reference, the game looks as good, if not better then God of War. I have yet to experience any lag or loss of frames in this game; it's always running at a solid 60 unless you are on the map in the Chronicles of the Sword mode.

==GAMEPLAY==
This area has undergone a lot of scrutiny by other reviewers and to them I say... noobs. The mechanics are nearly flawless; moving around your opponent actually works in this game! Go figure! There is a great deal of onus on the actual player to pay attention and read their opponents, knowing the character you're using also helps but a good player can do well with any fighter. You start with your basic movements, this is a 3D fighter so you can quickly move around your opponent so long as they're not swinging their weapons horizontally >_<;;

Button configuration is (By Default) Square = Horizontal Attack, Triangle = Vertical Attack, Circle/R1 = Kick and X/L1 = Block. R2/L2 also use Soul Charges... but I'm not getting into that, this is a review not a FAQ ^_^ There are several combos and attacks for each character using said buttons, knowledge of the characters moves will help a great deal later on. What I truly enjoy about these mechanics is all of the little things like Guard Breaks and Impacts, Attack grabs and Slide inputs. It's difficult to get into the details of each mechanic and I know there are wonderful FAQs available for the curious.

Create a character... I love when games include this feature. In SC3, it's done particularly well as the amount of parts available for Males/Females is simply astounding. You can also change the colour of each part selected to further increase the level of detail/customization. Granted, if you play this game the first time and jump into the creator, the parts will be very limited and well... not so enjoyable. Once you have gone through the game a few times though, you'll accumulate some scratch and can buy more parts for this feature.

The single player mode, Tale of Souls. First time through, you probably will not pass it. The difficulty spike at around match 5 or 6 is substantial but not impossible. I recommend playing against a friend for a while before attempting ToS or just drop the difficulty to Easy! Also, keep in mind, the computer fights much differently than a human would which is where I noticed a major flaw. Computers are more susceptible to grabs and kicks than a human is. If you wanted to prove this, try playing the computer and use Xianghua, run up and spam 6K... you'll see what I mean. The computer will have moments of frustration, believe me I've seen them... a lot. You will see moments where the computer decides that you will NOT win and will proceed to block and guard impact your every attack... except grabs and kicks >_< Just something you need to take with a grain of salt.

Chronicles of the Sword, this is like a mix between RTS and TBS, you move your characters all at the same time and enemies are moving as well but you can pause and give orders negating the Real-Time quality of the game. So here's how this game runs, you make your hero at the start using the character generator and he leads your army. The first few maps are training and getting used to the controls. You start with your main base and possibly some towers. The towers on the map are more or less intersections for the paths you can move on, they can be strategic at times but they're pretty useless unless you're goal is to delay the enemy. If any of your characters die then their name appears with a timer bar on the bottom of the screen, when this bar fills up, said character is revived with full health. Catch is that the enemies do not revive... but they always outnumber you. In this mode, your characters will actually level up, EXP is awarded from fights =P Certain maps will also present non-essential enemies for a challenge and usually the arena will have some crazy quality as well just to add some spice, think lv60 Seung-Mina whose health regenerates... yeah, not happening. You get money for this mode, more as you progress which is helpful for unlocking new weapons, you're also rewarded with event characters you can use in versus and many many customer character parts.

In short though, the freedom the mechanics provide in this game will nearly ensure that a good player will not be caught in a combo with no escape (DoA4, I'm looking at you). The amount of characters available will keep ones interest for many sessions. I even enjoyed the Chronicles of the Sword sub game, it seemed like a call back to the days of Ogre Battle.

==MUSIC/SOUND==
Pretty neat, it's a fighter so a lot of effort should go into the way the hits sounds and they do sound nice. I didn't have a stellar sound system to listen to the game with but on a normal TV the hits and weapons clashing sound just like that, people being hit by weapons and weapons hitting other weapons, class! Each character also gets a joke weapon with intentionally different SFXs such as the broken sword which produces an entertaining BOING!!!! sound or the Shepard's crook that emits a sheep baaing (sp?) on contact. It's the little things. My only complaint in the sound category are the English voices... GAWD, when will we get it right? I turn the on now and again simply for entertainment but switch back to Jap swiftly after hearing Kilik say "Could you... speak... more normally?" so wrong, or Talim saying "Believe" that ones funnier when you hear it or Amy saying... "Amy", um never mind.

==EXTRAS==
This game has a whole whack of unlockables, new weapons, characters, stages, artwork, move expositions, mini-games, create a character parts and class upgrades. What I really like about this is that you don't need to amass a fortune to unlock the good stuff. If you just play a ton of fights, you wind up unlocking most of the good stuff for free anyways.

==COMMENTS==
Fighters need to rely heavily on replay ability as the story modes never take more than 10-15 mins to plow through. SC3 shines when it comes to replay ability because of the different modes it offers for single and multiple players. The extras like art, expos, stages, characters, customer parts and mini-games will keep players going for months! I would recommend renting this first as taste is subjective and you may very well not like this game. But if you enjoy 3D fighters and you consider yourself skilled, then I back this game up with my honour. It is, in my humble opinion, the best 3D fighter available to date. This is comparing the game to Tekken series, DoA4, Bloody Roar and Virtua Fighter.

Verdict = Solid!

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