Soul Calibur
GameRatio Review
DC

The never-ending battle continues.

Soul Calibur should be named Soul Edge II, but improves on its roots so much to the point that deserve to be a series of its own. Soul Calibur is an excellent presentation for one of the Dreamcast initial releases.

To understand Soul Calibur, you must understand that there are two swords. The first sword is the Soul Edge. The Soul Edge is a demon sword. All those who wield it are overcome by the darkness sealed with in its steel. In the PlayStation release of Soul Blade, you were originally on a quest for the Soul Edge. After Cervantes had maintained possession of the Soul Edge, the discovery of the Soul Calibur and the acquisition thereof became a priority. Like the soul edge, the soul Calibur has the ability to set right what was once wrong.

Soul Calibur is an amazingly detailed game. Normally one of system was first released, the game seem to be low-quality. In this case, Soul Calibur supersede any expectations players might have had. Not only of the character's smooth skined, but Namco's attention to detail is overwhelmingly obvious, since the backgrounds and every fight arena contain their own sessions of traffic. This includes anything from boat sailing by to spectators to leaves to anything that would normally occurred in the backdrop house location in which the fight is being held. Another good effect is the usage of light to indicate the travel path of a weapon. As weapons are swung momentum can be gauge by the amount of light that trails a weapon as it flies. The more solid the lightrail, the more force is behind the attack. Even the character models themselves havoc at attention to detail. Ponytails bob, flags flail in the wind, and even tails hold Church of the motion that the fighter is in.

As for the audio quality, I was not too impressed. Granted the Sega Dreamcast does have much higher processor than most systems of the time, but the audio quality per trade and Soul Calibur . just seem to be at par with any other fighting game of the time. All the standard grunts and groans and yells have their place in Soul Calibur. The only deviation, would be a growls roars of the Lizardman. Even then, most of the side effects sounded as if they may up on recycled from Killer Instinct.

The most important part of any fighting game is of course the fighting engine. I would like to say that the fighting engine of Soul Calibur can compete with franchises such as Virtua Fighter, but unfortunately I cannot. There has been much detail put in to the momentum-based striking. In order to perform combos, a must strain to gather your attacks based on the momentum of your character. In some cases, this can reduce certain characters to more of a button mashing capacity. There is a good deal a strategy to learn to keep the momentum flowing, though it is sometimes difficult to get the momentum started. Soul Calibur also features a unique guard and repel system. By tapping the guard button, and then either forward or away from your opponent, you can repel an attack or parry it. This allows you a moment in which you may counterattack your opponent. If you're attack has been parried, you may also use the same guard block technique to counter to counter. This means is to players can predict each others' moves, you may have another ending cycle of counters.

Soul Calibur with definitely have the highest replay value of any fighting game I've seen. With Mission Mode, you will test your skills in a new goal oriented environment. For its objective that you complete, you will be awarded points. You may spend those points to increase your art collection. As your art collection increases, other items and modes may be unlocked. Unlocking the various modes will take quite a while. Also, as you play to certain sections of the game, you may unlock like hidden characters. There are at least five hidden characters that have been able to unlock, but I suspect that there are far more.

Overall, Soul Calibur is definitely a game to one for Sega Dreamcast. I personally would not say it is a better fighter thing games such as Virtua Fighter, but in an of itself is a good game. If you're looking for an easy to play fighting game with a short learning curve, the Soul Calibur is your game. Otherwise, if you're looking for a much more complex fighting game, and I recommend visiting the Virtua Fighter series.