The original Soul Calibur made a pretty big impact at arcades when it
launched, even though it wasn't perfect. The Dreamcast
version was sort of the "re-birth" of the game, and was hands down the best
looking console game on the market when it launched in September 1999. Soul
Calibur on Dreamcast certainly turned many heads back in the direction of fighting games.
At the time, no other console fighting game offered such an unprecedented amount
of in-game content, and delivered a truly enthralling gameplay experience to
back it all up. Top it all off with groundbreaking graphics, and you have a game
that earns a 10 out of 10... Soul Calibur is a Namco classic that stands
the test of time. The first Soul Calibur also paved the way for some
excellent sequels to come. ~TFG
Webmaster
.
STORY: The mystical sword of the legends, the "Soul
Edge", ended up in the hands of the dread pirate Cervantes of Spain. For
the next 25 years he stayed dormant on the remnants of a Spanish port town,
taking the souls of those who reached him during their search of the sword. His
reign of terror was soon to start, but a divine
warrior (Sophitia) and an underground ninja (Taki) stopped him, breaking one of
the twin Soul Edge blades in the process. As it was about to tear itself apart,
a young knight (Siegfried) approached the port town. The moment he took the
hilt of the cursed blade, Soul Edge released a bright column of light into the
sky. This was known as the "Evil Seed", bound to bring calamity and
death across its path.
Three years after those events, Soul Edge uses
Siegfried as its host, and now Siegfried is Nightmare, a knight wearing azure
armor. Europe plunges into a vortex of slaughters as he and his followers claim
souls to strengthen the blade in its weakened state. Unknown to them, a group of
young warriors met on their journey to stop Soul Edge, and with them three
sacred weapons join once again.
Welcome back to the stage
of history.
REVIEW:
Formerly known as Soul Edge at
arcades and (Soul Blade on PS1), Soul Calibur completely
re-invented Namco's classic 3D weapon based series. Soul Calibur introduced
one of the most fluid and technically advanced gameplay system ever seen,
running at a silky smooth 60
frames per second. The new gameplay innovations over the prequel (besides running
at 60 fps) include the 8-Way Run, allowing fighters to easily move in all
directions as they fight, and Guard Impacting, one of the most innovative
defensive/counter systems of any fighting game to date.
One of the best looking
video games of 1999... if not the best.
Most classic characters from the prequel make their return, each featuring tons of new moves and stances, but still
stay
true to their original weapon-based fighting
styles. The brand new characters, like Kilik & Ivy, bring incredibly innovative
weapon styles to the series and balance the roster nicely. Through the use
of motion capture, the characters of Soul Calibur animate with some of the
most fluid martial arts movements seen in a video game to date, and look
equally as good thanks to the superb texture quality and lighting effects. Characters also have
considerably vivid personalities, as each fighter presents an impressive amount
of in-game dialogue... SC characters are definitely the most talkative fighting game characters
around, by far! The mouths of the
characters even move accordingly to what they are
saying in real-time gameplay, which was very visually impressive and innovative
at the time.
While solid on the gameplay front, the arcade
version of Soul Calibur lacked graphical polish, containing semi-blocky character models & gritty textures. However, the
console (Dreamcast) version was a massive improvement over its arcade counterpart. The Dreamcast version
really cleaned things up,
showing off ultra-crispy graphics and even freshly rendered character models...
which practically made Soul Calibur look like an entirely new game. There's no doubt it was also the best
looking
Dreamcast title at the launch of the system. Character models are ultra-detailed from
head to toe and even have a variety of facial expressions/animations. Sparkling hit effects, weapon trails,
and highly detailed stages complete the awesome graphical polish of this
unquestionably epic 3D fighting game.
As perfect as perfect
gets!!
Along with tremendously enhanced graphics, the Dreamcast version also features a
variety of extra
modes, such as: Exhibition Mode (where you
can watch awesomely fluid "katas" by all of the characters), a vast Art
Gallery with tons of unlockable concept art, and a Theater Mode where you can listen to all of the character
voice-overs and music in the game. The Dreamcast version also allows
you to create
your own custom intro for the game!
Dreamcast)
Dreamcast)
