My brother and I have spent hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours each on this series since Soul Calibur on Dreamcast. Probably only about 100 of those hours went into single player.
I'll agree with all the other reviewers that the single player experience in this game is lacking. Story mode is 2 hours of play. After that you have Quick Battle to earn 240 titles and Legendary Souls. The A ranked AI in those modes will eat your lunch if you are uninitiated. I consider it tough but very doable. It was somewhat easier than SC4's Tower of Souls. I'll remove one star for the single player. It just doesn't matter to me that much.
The meat of this game is in the fantastic online. The netcode is among the best in fighters. 4 or 5 bar connection is very close to playing on the same console. It is possible to block low attacks and punish on reaction.
THE ONLINE MODES:
RANKED: You play for online world rankings. By default the search for an opponent is set to 4 bars or better. You get 10 seconds to confirm the fight. AFK searchers become a non-issue.
PLAYER MATCHES: Player created rooms. Up to six people can join a lobby. Cool thing about this mode is that spectating is done in a window. The spectators can use the chat window to communicate while the battle rages on. Nice addition. Again, 10 seconds to confirm the fight when it's your turn or you get bumped to the end of the line.
GLOBAL COLESSEO: Huge region based rooms where you can challenge other players specifically, join a pool of random matches, take part in tournaments, or just chat.
REPLAY: I love this feature. Anytime you play online your battle is stored temporarily. You can save and upload these replays to cherish your most awesome moments forever or study what went wrong. I've spent an inordinate amount of time reviewing myself and watching my rival's matches on replay.
The only glaring omission I've noticed is no TEAM BATTLE. I was hoping for Project Soul to bring this back.
I'm pretty close to calling this game my favorite of the series due to the combat. It's feels faster even though the frame data says that it's comparable to past entries to the series. Maybe they just beefed up the 8-way run. You can see the heavy influence of the Street Fighter series at work here, especially Third Strike. A meter has been added that builds on attacks and taking damage. The meter can be spent to change the properties of normal attacks (Brave Edge) or on cinematic Critical Edge attacks. Guard Impact has been moved from an anytime active defense to one that requires meter. To compensate it now affects lows, mids, and high attacks without having to select. It still does not work on throws.
There has been a de-emphasis on the low-mid mix-ups of the past. Many lows are now punishable even when they hit. The end of many low strings are still blockable even if you got hit with the first attack in the string. The combat is closer to the rock/paper/scissors of horizontal/vertical/step premise that the series first introduced. And I'm much happier for it. Don't get me wrong the low-mid mix-ups on wake-up are still there. They just don't seem as effective as in the past. Chances are that if you got knocked down with a low you either got caught in a counter hit or it was slow enough to reasonably react to.
I haven't run into any glaring balance issues, yet. There are a few characters that have a leg up on me since they are rarely played and I have no experience versus them.
GRAPHICS: The prettiest fighter around. The character models are slightly improved over SC4, but it seems that the stages and lighting where taken up another notch. They are lush and gorgeous, bathed in light and shadow.
CHARACTER CREATION: I don't think there's a fighter that does this better. There are many pieces from SC4 that make a comeback here and many new pieces. In addition you can add stickers, modified special effects, and custom geometry to your character. You can texture your parts with a large selection of patterns that you can resize and rotate. This allows for some very disturbing and annoying creations online, but also very cool creations.
BOTTOM LINE: If you play fighting games for combat against other players or just showing off your creations then this is a must-buy. Otherwise, don't even bother with a rental. There's really nothing to see here if you want single player content.
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Hard to beleive we've hit the number Five when it comes to the Soul Calibur series...though technically it is the 6th game in the series. Funny how it clearly shows that not everything will age gracefully...Soul Calibur 5 is easily one of the most dreadfully disappointing releases in years.
I have fond, wonderful memories of firing up Soul Blade (or Soul Edge) on my Playstation back in 1996. It immediately impressed me with its stunning visuals, epic weapon-based combat and interesting characters...and on top of it all, it had individual story modes for each character where you could collect weapons for use in all game modes. How cool was that? It was a model that very few fighting games would ever adopt. When Soul Calibur was released a few years later in arcades, it would become one of the greatest home console releases ever with a quality of animation and gameplay that still has yet to be replicated...and on the ill-fated Dreamcast to boot (a system way ahead of its time). Sadly, the deterioration of quality rings true for the series' own offspring as the years go by.
I grimaced when later incarnations of the series introduced out-of-place, super-exaggerated anime style characters (Tira). I cringed when Lucas got his Star Wars in my Soul Calibur. But Soul Calibur 5 proves to be the ultimate disappointment...a crowning failure for the series as a whole.
Story:
...or lack thereof. Soul Calibur features a Story Mode, a method of gameplay that builds up a character or two, defining their reason for fighting and taking the player through a journey that spans Europe and Asia. You follow irritating and reprehensible Patrokolos, son of Sophitia who is the new "chosen one" to wield Soul Calibur. He seeks to find his sister, Pyrrha, who evidently was kidnapped 17 years earlier...?
The story makes little sense, and to make matters worse...it is told through frame-by-frame concept art drawings with atrocious dialog. Sure, there's some nicely animated cut scenes, but the majority of the story is represented by sepia colored rough drawings. Ultimately...very lazy. Especially when other releases such as Mortal Kombat redefined story telling in the fighter genre with it's amazing 2011 reboot.
Ultimately you mix up play between Patrokolos and Pyrrha. Both characters remain largely unlikeable throughout the majority of the game as you are forced to play them.
Gameplay:
Little has changed. Only a few of the classic characters return, and those that do not are, again, represented by younger "apprentice" types who are for the most part unlikeable. However, their reasons for being in the game are completely unexplained, as are the reasons for the returning characters since there is NO STORY for them! Arcade mode consists of 6 battles that reveal no story or cutscenes...they're simply "beat your best time" battle treadmills.
Notable changes include the revamping of Critical Edge no longer a Death Move or "Fatality" for characters, they exist now as super moves which can considerably deplete an opponent's lifebar (sometimes by up to 40%).
AI seems completely dumbed down...for years Soul Calibur has been accused of being a mindless button masher by its critics, and I feel that it now lives up to that previously unfair assessment. AI characters will repeat the same moves over and over, "cheaply" abusing moves that can exploit non-stop juggles. The only modicum of intelligence I've seen from the AI thus far is the fact that it makes a conscious effort to steer clear of a ring out loss, and on the flip side, tries desperately to "ring out" the player at all times. I've even seen the AI miraculously change the direction of its fall as it went over the side, landing back ontot he arena floor. Hmmm...
Modes:
Be warned this is NOT meant to be a Single Player game at all. Where previous iterations of Soul Calibur always included extensive gameplay modes to keep players enticed, Namco appears to have adopted the Electronic Arts mantra of "Multiplayer Gaming is the Only Way of Gaming" and completely eliminated all regular Single Player modes in favor of emphasizing online play. Aside from Story Mode, Single Player modes only include Arcade, a harder version of Arcade, and Vs. mode where you can fight against various created characters designed by players around the world. Admittedly, that's the most intriguing aspect. Otherwise, the game isn't much of a gameplay experience unless you prefer online fighting.
I don't much care for competetive online play, but from what I've seen of SCV's online, it's pretty much the same as in previous iterations. Expect considerable latency for even the slightest dip in your signal. Otherwise, that's it.
Bells and Whistles:
Nothing to write home about. The soundtrack to the Soul Calibur series has not been impressive since the first Soul Calibur. Character voices are typical anime style exaggerations...either sickeningly irritating or over-the-top macho. The only VA I liked was Siegfried and Nightmare.
Extras:
As always, Character Creation is intriguing, and in the case of SCV, probably the ONLY feature worth keeping the game for. The character creation mode is pretty in-depth but you are still subject to severe limitations (especially when designing new looks for existing characters). You also have virtually nothing to work with, forcing you to play through the lacking single player modes, or online modes to "level up" your player profile which may unlock more items.
OVerall:
A tremendous disappointment. Soul Calibur was once my favorite fighting game series, but it has fallen to the wayside since Soul Calibur 2, and even with new features being released with each new game, Soul Calibur continues to dig it's own grave. Sadly, Soul Calibur V represents the coffin of that dug grave.
Pros:
Robust Character Creation mode
Gorgeous Visuals
Cons:
Abysmal, lazy story mode with annoying, unlikeable characters
Lack of any sort of story beyond Story Mode no endings or background for ANY character...who the hell are these guys?
Simplistic, almost dumb AI that repeatedly abuses the same moves
Lack of gameplay modes
Forgettable and bland soundtrack
Atrocious voice acting
Clearly not meant for a single player experience
Lifespan/Replay Value: Lowest possible
Single Player: 3 8 hours
Multiplayer: 1 2 weeks.
Most Valuable Mode: Character Creation
In the end, Soul Calibur V is an example of a series that has run its course. It either needs to be put to rest forever, or rebooted in such a way that it warrants a release of another game bearing that title. I've personally never been so turned off by a Soul Calibur game, but this is one of the most disappointing releases in years.
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I'll be discussing various parts of the game in this review.
ARCADE MODE
After enjoying all previous titles in the series, I was excited to get my hands on this one. I fired up Arcade mode from the Offline Play menu, selected a character, played through 6 battles, and...no character ending? What?!
That's right. There are no character endings in the game. Period. The only "ending" is in Story mode.
There's a few more offline play modes but they're just standard variations like Quick Battles, Training Mode, and Vs Mode.
STORY MODE
Story mode can be beaten in 3-4 hours. You start off playing as Sophitia's son, Patroklos, and then you will use 2 more characters as the story progresses through 20 battles.
Cutscenes consists of still black and white drawings. The acting is overly dramatic and the story itself is full of terrible writing, forced character archetypes, and illogical decisions and actions made by characters.
It also gives the impression that a lot of the story is happening off screen.
New characters are introduced but none of their background is ever explained.
NEW CHARACTERS
These new characters are near carbon copies of characters from the previous games such as Taki, Kilik, etc. They have only slight variations to their movesets.
ONLINE PLAY
I'm not going to go into much detail with Online mode. The netcode is much better than it was in SC4 so you can actually play online against others and it won't be a laggy mess.
CREATE A SOUL
Create A Soul returns once again but doesn't have as much content and variety. It's fun creating your own characters and unlocking items for them as you play, but you can only unlock them by gaining levels. So you end up just picking one character and repeatedly hack and slash your way through battles to get XP points to level them up.
All the CaS parts will be unlocked at level 52. It doesn't take nearly as long as you think. At level 53 you unlock joke weapons and after that it's stickers and thumbnails.
There's no optional Tower of Lost Souls or achieving X amount of rewards to unlock all the parts.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
It's clear that this game was rushed. It's pretty bare bones and has much more focus on online play this time around. I'd highly recommend waiting for it to be at least $15 or just renting it.
Honest reviews on Soul Calibur V
Soul Calibur V: NOT WORTH IT
Let me start off by saying this: If all you care about is online vs. play then this game is absolutely amazing and gets a 5 STAR OMG BUY THIS NOW RATING.
If you like the rest of the 99% of people who actually want some product for their money then read the rest of the review.
Soul Calibur V is probably the weakest title in the series. I mean this game has nothing to make you want to pop it back in and play it again once you beat story mode.
STORY MODE: Okay this is where the game was suppose to shine. It fails, that simple. Why? Well first off its barely even a "Story Mode". Second the story mode takes close to 3 hours to complete. Third, the story revolves around the new main characters Patroklos and Pyrrha, the son and daughter of Sophita. You get to actually play as Patroklos, Pyrrha, and Z.W.E.I through the story mode. That's it. You can't play as anyone other than these three characters and to make matters worse the character you have to play is per-determined for each episode. The plot is very linear and not at all well fleshed out. Honestly its the type of short story that you would expect an 8th grader to write up as an English class homework assignment. Most of the rest of the cast make brief cameo appearances but don't actually contribute much to the story. Several make no appearance at all. But my ***BIGGEST CRITICISM*** of the story mode is its ***ALMOST COMPLETE LACK OF CGI ANIMATION*** With a few exceptions most of the story is told in really poor story board art that seams to have been scanned in at the last second so that they could get the game released for deadline. I mean come on, this is suppose to be the show piece of your new game, and this is what you put out. This would have been excusable back during the 8bit NEW or Super NES era but not when you've got the XBOX 360 or PS3 platforms. If all you get to play is 3 characters in this mode everything in between better be fully animated, with voice overs. I better feel like this is a movie in addition to a video game. The only thing that salvages the story mode is the fact that the ending was done right. It is fully animated and has some beautiful music. Had this not been done, I would have called this game totally worthless.
Lets move on to the next section: Arcade Mode.
This was a complete failure. Sorry, it sucks. Here's why.
-Reason number one: THERE ARE NOT ANIMATED CUT SCENES, STORY, OR EVEN ENDINGS FOR ANY OF THE OTHER CHARACTERS. That's right nothing. This is as simple as a fighting game gets. You pick a character, fight through six battles, face an over juiced boss, and that's it. No ending, nothing. If I was in an Arcade I would start kicking the machine and ask for the owner to open the coin box to get my money back. I'm sorry but even Street Fighter II had endings for its characters. There is no good reason why even brief animated endings where not included. This really diminished the replay value of the game. The ending is what you play for, its your reward for putting up with all the in game vs battle frustration. Take that away and all you have is a repackaged Training Mode and that's what this is.
Reason number two: You have 3 clone fighters. That's right not one, but 3. Edgemaster makes his return, which I'm sure the fans will be happy about. His whole gimmick is that is fighting style is randomly selected for every round so you never know what you're going to get. That's cool, but his gimmick is then cheapened by Elysium and Kilik. Elysium randomly selects her style from all female characters on the roster from round to round and Kilik has access to all the male characters. So we have 3 characters who all use the same Gimmick. Sorry but these slots could have been used to put in several more fighting styles. Its laziness plain and simple.
Reason number three: Dampierre. This character is either pre-order or DLC only. In other words you have to pay extra for him. So not only does the roster contain 3 characters that are essentially the same but now you have an empty slot to boot.
Next up we have: LEGENDARY SOULS.
-To sum this up. This is what happens when you set the game to extremely extremely pro hard difficulty. Most casual players simply will not use it or deal with the frustration very long. I understand why its there but the same thing could have been achieved by simply adding an extra difficulty mode the already lacking arcade mode.
QUICK BATTLE:
This is a sad shadow of its former self. At first it seems cool, you get to fight randomly generated characters and earn titles. Then you realize something. 1.) THE TITLES DON'T MEAN ANYTHING and 2.) YOU'RE JUST FIGHTING CLONES OF THE CHARACTERS IN ARCADE MODE. Once that revelation hits you, this mode becomes worthless. In previous editions, namely Soul Calibur III you had cool fighting modes, like wall slammer, where you had to wall smash your opponents or ring out mode. Not only did these make the game fun to play but you could practice these maneuvers in a themed fighting environment.
And now onto the CREATE A SOUL or CaS for short:
-This is really neat feature but they managed to goof this up as well. First off the same problem from the original Create-a-Soul option in Soul Calibur III is still present and in some ways worse. You can only COPY an existing character's move set. With the exception of the "Devil Jinn" Tekken fighting style, you cannot have a unique fighting style. Some people claim its because letting you select your own moves would be too complicated. For those in this train of thought let me point to Wrestlemania 2000 for the N64. You could customer build your character's appearance, entry music, and MOVE SET. Sorry, if a game of console that is 2 generations removed can do it then there is no excuse why it cannot be done here. To make matters worse, we've even seen a better create a character in Soul Calibur III and IV. In Soul Calibur III you could pick alternate fighting styles that were similar but not direct clones of the main cast. In Soul Calibur IV you could even customize your own weapon effects and fighting style with in game skill sets. While the character creator is pretty, and it allows for a wide variety of aesthetic customization, that's it. Its just eye candy.
But wait here's the real rip off: They are going to slowly release more and more parts of the create a character as items that can be purchased as downloadable content. So you have to pay more money, to improve an already lacking game.
Still Soul Calibur V does have some bright spots.
-The fighting styles have been nicely cleaned up. It feels natural. A good example of this is Ivy. For the longest time this character was very challenging to learn as you had to become intimately familiar with all her stances and transitions from sword to coiled to whip form and back again. In this version they've cleaned up her fighting style nicely, making it very fluid without destroying what made Ivy fun to play.
-Second it is beautifully animated and scored.
-Lastly if you just want a fun beat'em up game to share with friends at your home or online then you will not be disappointed.
That much being said for only those advantages this should have been a $20 Xbox live arcade release at best.
For $60 to $80 dollars I expect far more than that. I expect solid individual story lines. I expect tons of beautiful animations. I expect plenty of single player options to keep me entertained for hours, you know, like when my friends are off at work. I guess I expect a good video game. And I don't think that's too much to ask for.
It pains me to do this as I am a long time fan of the Soul Calibur series, but Soul Calibur V has no soul, and just barely squeaks by with a 2 star rating. My advice. Pick up Soul Calibur IV, its got more to do, but the online experience will be lacking. And if you still have a PS2 find a good used copy of Soul Calibur III and see what a good video game looks and feels like. As for Soul Calibur V, wait for it to hit rock bottom prices (like between $9.99 and $19.99) and then pick it up for your collection or better yet, just rent it and return it as needed.
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"Hey it's another soul calibur what could go wrong!?!" Plenty...and it did go wrong. I'm only commenting on the single player portion of the game because I don't play online (as if the online component could be any better in this particular game...).
The single person component is very short, incredibly boring, and a lot of the characters feel pretty much the same. In the story mode (if you can call it that) you're stuck with petroklos who is a male version of sophitia (pretty much) with some different moves; you can play as a couple other characters (zwei, pyrra, and deviations of pyrra and petroklos) in that mode within the story but petroklos is who you're stuck with. If you can't stand the character you'll be scratching your eyes out in 5-10 minutes. The arcade mode is short and the ai cheap as heck, and the creation mode is somewhat more lame than what it used to be.
I was lucky, I just rented this game and actually rented it for free but...I would definitely want my gas money back on this dog. Awful awful awful awful. I might just go to namco headquarters and ask for my gas money back. Awful awful awful awful...did I mention it is awful. Oh and most of the "new" characters are either clones or completely lame; zwei is okay...if this were a final fantasy game; magic werewolf(?), must've been playing operation darkness.
