"A definite step in the right direction..."

“A tale of swords and souls, eternally retold.” In 1999 the best game on the Dreamcast became available, Soul Calibur. The game boasted a robust and deep fighting system, that was easy to pick up do to the simplicity of commands, but it took hours to master the techniques and mind games to use against good competition. Despite the impressive final sales of the game, Soul Calibur did nothing to help salvage the lost cause that was the Dreamcast. Four years later, the long anticipated sequel to arguably the best fighting game ever was made, Soul Calibur II. It was released for the PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox. Once again, the game was easy to pick up and play and the game went on to sell millions of copies for the PS2 and Gamecube. But, for anyone who played Soul Calibur like it was a religion, Soul Calibur II seemed like too much of the same. Very few of the characters were changed enough. Soul Calibur II felt like a graphically enhanced Soul Calibur. Now, two years later, Namco has released the third iteration in the series exclusively for the PS2, Soul Calibur 3.

First, it's time to discuss the roster of characters. The game boasts a roster of around twenty-five characters, with more that become available through the game's ‘Create-A-Soul' mode. (more on that later) All of these characters have been tweaked so that now they won't play identical to their previous forms in Soul Calibur I and II. It's also nice that none of the characters feel like cheap clones anymore. Though some characters might fight with similar weapons or share a move or two, like Nightmare and Siegfried, they both fight incredibly differently. It's really nice that way giving you twenty-five different movesets to learn so you can find one that fits your style. Some people don't like the changes to their favorite characters because now they have to relearn them. I can't say I sympathize though. If I wanted to play with the same Nightmare I played with in Soul Calibur I and II I wouldn't have bought this game and saved myself a good 50$. The move changes keep the game feeling surprisingly fresh and different then past iterations in the series.

As I mentioned, there is now a ‘Create-A-Soul' mode which is basically the games create a character. At first, the mode lacks depth with only four weapons to give your characters and barely over 100 parts to customize your character with. Don't let that steer you away though. As you proceed through the games multitude of 1-player modes you unlock more parts and collect gold to buy more stuff. The create a character becomes surprisingly deep as you unlock all this stuff. With over 600 parts and around fifteen weapons available at the end to make your own specific characters, it's hard to see two characters look and play the same. The create-a-character is a nice addition, but it can take a lot of hours (upwards of fifteen) to unlock most of if not all the parts to customize. On a plus, it gives you a lot to do, but if you just don't have the time for more than about thirty minutes to play, it will take you months to get everything.

Fortunately, to combat the large amount of items and weapons you can buy, the game has a ton of 1-player modes. The games two biggest new modes added to the 1-player are Chronicles of the Sword (CotS), a real-time strategy and fighting game, and Tales of Souls, a glorified version of the games arcade mode that lets you make decisions that can affect the ending of the story. Let's start with the bad first, CotS. CotS is a great idea in theory, but from hardware limitations and overall cheap odds, the mode falls flat on its face. The game lets you create four heroes who form your small army that takes down the opposition, one enemy at a time. It's too bad that the game has such long load times. Every time you encounter an enemy (and in later Chronicles, it happens far too often), there is a load time of upwards of twenty five seconds. It might not sound like much but when you fight about ten to fifteen battles a level, that is over three minutes of time wasted just staring at a ‘Now Loading' screen. Then after you defeat an enemy you have to destroy the fort he was protecting. When this is happening all you do is watch the army mindlessly hack at a building for a good three minutes until the base crumbles and the land becomes yours. You spend too much time waiting and not enough time accomplishing much of anything in this mode. But if waiting for each battle to start wasn't enough, the game decides to throw impossibly difficult odds at you occasionally. The odds can range from something as simple as you can't guard, to something as ludicrous as the enemy regains health as you steadily lose health and there are earthquakes happening that only affect your character and prevent you from moving occasionally. (The sad part is that isn't an exaggeration. I nearly busted a controller on that battle I failed so many times.) It's too bad though. The game had potential, but due to the PS2's limitations and some incredibly flawed challenges, the mode is nothing worthwhile.

But, Tales of Souls (ToS) is actually pretty well made. The game takes you through every characters specific story to acquire or destroy the evil sword Soul Edge. After certain battles you are left with a choice on where to go next. This affects the next battle location or cinema scene or even the ending you might see. Unfortunately the cinemas might repeat from time to time as you play with different characters and go to the same spots. But rest assured, every character has their own ending cinema that is different from everyone else's. Also cool things about the cinema scenes are the ‘action sequences'. In some cinemas you have to press some buttons and this might change what happens next. Some will give you totally different endings, but others make you dodge an enemy attack so you start the battle with more health. Despite how well made and put together ToS is there is a somewhat disturbing problem. ToS has a preset difficulty. Basically that means you can't make ToS any harder or easier to accommodate your skill level. Most people will just find ToS too hard at first. The computer's AI is a hit or miss. Some matches you will perfect them taking no damage, and then the next match has you getting railed because the computer blocked all your moves, predicted all your mid-low attack change ups, and broke free from all your throws. I hate to call the AI ‘cheap', but that's the best way to describe it. Computer players are supposed to emulate a human performance, but the computer in this game tends to never make a mistake. Humans will become faked out by your canceled, delayed, or stance changing attacks, but the computer knows what you are doing before even the first signs of your next move are shown. Sometimes, a match boils down to finding loopholes in the AI and abusing combos, even though they would never work against a human. The inconstancy and down right cheap behavior of the AI is rather frustrating.

But the V.S. mode is what makes or breaks a good fighting. Rest assured the V.S. is nothing short of fantastic in this iteration as well. The V.S. mode is a more technical fighting experience this time then it was in comparison to the other two. Unlike Soul Calibur II you can't get lucky and button mash your way to a victory against a skilled opponent. The game rewards those who know the deeper mechanics in the game like guard impacts, delays, ukemis, wake up games, and mid-low game mix-ups.

Overall, Soul Calibur III is a step in the right direction for the series. The new characters fit surprisingly well into the series and they add a lot of needed diversity to the series. V.S. mode is everything a fighting fan could want, so you and your buddies will have plenty of fun matches against each other. Also, there is a much more robust 1-player this time around, so you should be kept busy unlocking for quite some time. It's too bad that the AI can be really cheap, and that Chronicles of the Sword is a complete waste though. Though Soul Calibur III is not without its flaws, it's still easily one of the most enjoyable fighting games this generation. If you need just one game to get you till Christmas this is my suggestion. It will take you around 24-30 hours to do and buy everything the game has to offer. Soul Calibur III helps breathe new life into the series, and though it is disappointing that it is exclusive this time around, the final product is well worth your $50 if you need a fast-paced, fun, exciting fighting game.
FINAL SCORE: 9.5/10

(Gamefaqs doesn't let me use fractions so that's why it says 9 there)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/03/05