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Review: Soul Calibur |
Namco’s first Dreamcast game is a conversion of their fairly successful arcade game of the same name. Well, I say ‘conversion’ – but in fact, it is a vastly improved version. The arcade machine ran on what was essentially a slightly-enhanced Playstation, but the Dreamcast game has been given a complete overhaul, and is now so improved, that it’s impossible to see the original version without bursting into laughter.
First of all, I have to say I was a little disappointed that there’s no CGI intro. The intro to “Soul Edge” on the Playstation is still my favourite opening movie of all time, and that’s including “Sonic Adventure“, “Tekken 3” and “Ergheiz.” However, we are treated to some very nice close-ups and sequences involving the Soul Calibur cast, and given the quality of the 3D, it’s pretty impressive, with a booming soundtrack to match.
The actual game runs in a gorgeous high resolution, and the characters are just soooooo detailed. You can see the stubble on Mitsurugi’s chin and Hwang’s fingernails (no longer are hands just blocks, there are individual, highly-detailed fingers.) Hair blows in the wind, breath condenses in cold stages, clothes move, mouths are lip-synched to spoken words, rain actually hits the players, breasts bounce, eyebrows frown and the whole thing looks very, very nice indeed, in fact, some of the faces look like CGI when you zoom in. It’s incredible.
One of the things I like best, is the fact the characters seem to be really gripping their weapons. They don’t look like they’re stuck to the players, they actually look like they’re holding the swords, nunchukas, knives and staffs. The swords gleam and reflect the light. I know this is an odd thing to like, but it just seems so realistic, and coupled with the brilliant motion-capture, some of the fights look absolutely awesome. I’m sure I’ve seen a couple of the moves in some Jet Li movie as well…
The stages vary in quality. Some are a little dull, some are too dark, some too square. A lot are unimaginitive fantasy-style settings. Several are nice, and the “City of Water” stage is absolutely jaw-dropping. The buildings, the bridges, the boats on the water all look incredibly realistic. My, it’s beautiful. It’s this stage that forced me to delete my previous sentence about the BGs and write a new one. Damn you, Namco.
One neat feature is the use of lighting. In some stages, the light is above the characters, casting shadows downward, obscuring certain features. It looks very good, and in one fight, my character was almost entirely silhouetted, and in another, where the light was coming from below (a lake of lave), my character’s face was actually lit from below.
The lighting doesn’t stop there – all the sword clashes, sparks and impacts create glowing flashes, and most weapons leave a huge transparent trail of light. I’m going to have to admit to not liking that idea much. Considering the realism of the characters and their movements, having a wooden staff create a giant, fluorescent blue trail as it flies through the air is a bit stupid. But it sure shows off some lovely real-time lighting, so it’s not all bad. You get used to it.
Sonically, it’s a lot like Soul Edge. The announcer is actually more stupid than the first game – the character select screen opens with the hilariously bad sample “Welcome back to the stage of history…” Ugh. The music is very SE-like too, and although none of the tracks are as instantly memorable or catchy, they still provide a moving accompaniment to the battle.
The *clang* of steel on steel is rousing, the character voices are loud and clear, and they all have plenty to say…
There’s much more freedom in the actual fighting than ‘Edge‘. The “8-way running” system means that holding UP on your controller causes your player to walk into the screen, and DOWN out of it, all the time facing the opponent. It’s a good system, and suits a weapons fighting game much better than the “Bushido Blade” method. The controls are the same as Soul Edge – a block button, a horizontal attack, a vertical one and a kick. There’s still the offensive blocking guard-impact feature, but the weapon gauge is gone, meaning you no longer have to be careful how many hits you block. Moves are performed with the ever-present “Forward, Forward and attack” that all 3D games seem bound by some strange law to have
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I like the physics too, the way you can actually knock your opponent’s weapon aside, and hit them before they can return it to a guarding position.
Also returning for the sequel are the slow but deadly unblockable attacks, and the wonderful and often hilarious throws. (Astaroths’ axe OTG throw is the funniest thing ever….)
Like all Namco fighters, the characters have 50+ moves each, which seems pointless, as only a handful are really of any use, why have about 4 different straight-forward stabs?
It’s still fun to play, performing a sucessful guard-impact and then stabbing the other guy in the gut is one of the best moments in fighting game history. And the free-roaming controls are the best I’ve ever seen – easily better than Tobal, Ergheiz and Bushido Blade in terms of precision and accuracy.
And I even like some of the characters, an unusual feature for a 3D game. Sure, there’s a fair complement of grunting, miserable, personality-less nobodies around the place, as in most Namco games, but there are also a fair number of interesting characters, such as mad, blind dagger-gloved Voldo, or patricidal knight Siegfried. Tekken’s Yoshimitsu makes an appearance here, and certainly looks the part, dressed as a samurai, complete with a flag on his back. I also have to admit to being rather fond of Sophitia, the perky Greek warrior maiden, as well as Ivy, the white-haired dominatrix from London, England – oh, and of course Taki, the lycra-clad demon killer – who just happens to be my all time second favourite ninja babe.
Ahem.
There’s a fair few extras too, along with THE best training mode ever (well, it would be if it was in English), there’s the usual VS., Survival, and the Mission Mode. This is like Edge Master Mode in Soul Edge, fighting varying opponents, under various conditions, my favourite being “kill your opponent while avoiding the flaming rats.” Yes, you fight an opponent, while radioactive rodents scurry about, and touching one will knock you over….honestly, you have to see it to believe it.
Although this time you earn points, not weapons. These points can be used to unlock images in the art gallery. And unlocking certain images will add extra features. So far, I’ve uncovered about 4 new stages, 5 new character outfits, a bunch of biographies, some “katas” (in which your chosen character performs a lenthy series of moves and poses, showing off the motion-capture very nicely) and some passwords that, when entered at a special page in Namco’s Japanese homepage, will yield some playing hints (in Japanese..) and some neat artwork and wallpapers.
I do have some complaints. Sort of. Given the free-roaming nature of the gameplay, I would have liked to see some uneven terrain, ala Virtua Fighter 3. Come on, when did you ever see a perfectly flat desert? Exactly. And it’s not like the DC doesn’t have the power to create such locales either…
And as I said earlier, the music is a little dull and the character endings are a bit poor, and the final boss is possibly one of the crappest I’ve ever seen, hell, his death scene is something straight of out Mortal Kombat.
Take away the high-res 3D, the motion capture, the lighting, the wealth of options, modes and secrets and the gorgeous chicks, and you’d have a fairly decent swordfighting game, but nothing really outstanding. As a Dreamcast showcase – it’s great, but I feel the game itself won’t keep me hooked for months on end. I suspect once I’ve got all the secrets and hidden characters, I’ll soon lose interest…
Still, it’s brilliant fun while it lasts…
