SoulCalibur Legends

"The Legend Has Fallen"

The Pantheon of gaming has a special pedestal for the Soul Calibur series. The original Soul Calibur for the Sega Dreamcast was arguably the greatest fighting game ever made, bringing the classic Soul series back from fighting game obscurity and onto the frontlines of gaming greatness. Years later, Namco brings out the sequel Soul Calibur II, the cross-platform clash that let players select from the many characters and battle friends. After Soul Calibur III for the PS2, Namco Bandai decided to take advantage of Nintendo's Wii system to make a brand new game. The concept was an adventure hack-and-slash game with the Wii Remote being used to control a weapon. It sounds like a no-brainer concept; emulate the swinging motion of the Wii Remote as a sword. No sweat, right?

Soul Calibur Legends picks up with lone swordsman Siegfried, the future incarnation of Nightmare, discovering Soul Edge, the cursed sword that could destroy the world. Despite many people warning him and announcing the sword's ancient and destructive past, Siegfried acts like a tough guy and keeps the sword, demanding more power so he can get stronger. Along the way, Siegfried finds the talented whip-mistress Ivy and an outspoken soldier named Iska and takes part in performing deeds for the Empire. Fans of the Soul Calibur series will find the story interesting for a while, but the played-out story of collecting shattered pieces of Soul Edge has been done before, and when you're mostly getting the story through still images of characters, you'll quickly be bored at the ridiculous dialogue and slow pace. Unlockable characters are available throughout the game and will appear as part of the story where expected. Soul Calibur fans will find a sense of nostalgia in each character's appearances, and will be able to follow the story to a certain degree.

That's not the same for the controls, which border on ambitious and boring. In light of games like Bleach: Shattered Blade, Soul Calibur Legends demands not only waving the Wii Remote, but also encourages different types of strikes. There's the horizontal strike, vertical strike, and thrust, each which demands similar actions with the Wii Remote. Surprisingly, the game actually makes some cool ideas. For example, a vertical strike in game will differ depending on where the attack starts; attacking up is different than attacking down. This makes the game actually pretty fun to play against a slew of enemies. However, the rest of the controls are ridiculously obscure. There's no direct camera control; the game forces a lock-on when enemies appear, but the A button lets you switch targets. This is ridiculous in that enemies off screen will mostly attack you more than your locked-on enemies. Exploring corridors is annoying and you'll most likely get stuck behind a wall or obstacle. Jumping is clumsy on the B-trigger and will mostly be used simply for a strong jumping attack. You can block with the Z-button and charge up abilities with the C button, but these are mostly useless. Even the evasive maneuvers performable by shaking the Nunchuk are devoid of any necessity. Simply waving the Wii Remote wildly usually gets the job done, and you'll be waving it a lot.

The story mode is comprised of different “quests” that a player selects. You begin by selecting one or two characters and their weapons, then set out on a journey, usually to go from Point A to Point B. You'll encounter some enemies while walking down the road who randomly appear, preventing you from progressing any further without killing them all. You'll find skeletons, mummies, and the occasional Berserker or Mage and such, but the enemy design is downright…well…there's no soul. The characters don't have any specific differences and can usually be killed with random hacking and slashing and maybe the occasional guard. The game's interesting battle system is practically wasted on the flat and uninteresting design of Soul Calibur Legends. You can find health and power-ups in barrels and you will a lot, along with some of the worst “puzzles” around. Dodge a swinging blade, poison smoke, fire and all that. Some puzzles require hitting switches, and we all know how interesting hitting switches is. Yeah…it really isn't. The levels themselves also manage to suffer from the camera, which will get stuck around corners a whole lot. Exploring is a major part of Soul Calibur Legends, but as it clearly shows, it's not the best part.

Characters can level up their skills by finding certain items and new weapons can be discovered in certain missions. There's a degree of replay value in the storyline and the multiplayer allows for versus and co-op play. Hacking and slashing enemies with a friend can be good for a while; just don't expect the game's charm to be any better with another person playing, because it really isn't. Soul Calibur Legends is plain and boring despite its pedigree, and though the combat is generally ambitious, it's not a welcome use of the Wii Remote's capabilities.

The game itself is downright awful compared to past Soul Calibur games even when it comes to the presentation. To the game's credit, the orchestral scores heard during battles and such do have the emphasis and dynamicity of Soul Calibur games, but the graphics are near that of an average PS2 game. Yes, the characters' still images in the text-scenes do look pretty good. Yes, the opening cinematic is nice. In game, however, you'll find the same rooms, enemies, and items scattered about. The characters' animations are cool at first, but this gets old quick. It's annoying to know that one of gaming's most acclaimed fighting game powerhouses has made such a big misstep, but that's just the tip of the game's problems.

Pros
+ Combo system is actually pretty unique
+ Co-op play is okay
+ Good orchestral score

Cons
- Painfully repetitive
- Graphics are sub-par
- Has far too little enemies and characters
- Level design is flat and boring
- Simply waving the remote randomly usually works

The hack-and-slash has been a tricky genre to master these days, but some games have managed to integrate some degree of charm and interest to make it stand out. Soul Calibur Legends is not one of them. Soul Calibur Legends is instead a tedious mess of a game that only manages to capitalize on its source material, and not even very much. If you thought that the depth and accessibility of the Soul Calibur series was amazing, Soul Calibur Legends will make your spirits drop like a ten-ton brick. Practically everything that you loved about the series is near abandoned for frustrating and simplistic hacking and slashing. You'll no doubt find the same enemies and level designs tedious, repetitive and not much fun. There's no soul in Soul Calibur Legends and if it weren't for the moderately interesting Wii controls, this would easily be one of the most empty and plain games on the market today. Throw in the poor puzzles, bad graphics, and hit-and-miss controls and you find a simple cash-in game and nothing more. Fans of Soul Calibur should stay away from this game, and anyone who thinks that the game's sword-slinging battle system is creative will be let down by the static and repetitive nature of nearly everything else in the game. Don't bother with Soul Calibur Legends. Just don't.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/14/07

Game Release: SoulCalibur Legends (US, 11/20/07)