(LAST UPDATE: 7/13/09)
Developer(s): Namco
Publisher(s): Namco
Designer(s): Hiroaki Yotoriyama
Platform(s): Playstation
2, Arcade (as SC3: Arcade Edition)
Release: October 25th 2005 (NA PS2), November 18th 2005 (EU PS2),
November 23rd 2005 (JP PS2)
Characters:
Mitsurugi,
Cassandra,
Taki,
Voldo,
Ivy,
Kilik,
Nightmare,
Siegfried,
Astaroth,
Hwang,
Abyss,
Girardot,
Chester,
Talim,
Li
Long, Yoshimitsu, Rock,
Lizard
Man, Maxi, Seong-Mina,
Sophitia,
Yun-seong,
Xianghua,
Zasalamel,
Tira,
Setsuka,
Olcadon,
Raphael,
Valeria,
Demuth,
Luna,
Abelia,
Arthur,
Amy,
Greed,
Miser,
Lynette,
Auriela,
Strife,
Night
Terror
Related Games:
Soul
Edge, Soul Calibur, Soul
Calibur 2, Soul Calibur 3: Arcade
Edition, Soul Calibur 4, Soul
Calibur: Broken Destiny
Story: The wicked Soul Edge survived its fated encounter with the wielder of Soulcalibur, Xianghua, and restored its control over the body of Siegfried Schtauffen, turning him back into the Azure Knight Nightmare. Four years later, Nightmare was about to restore Soul Edge, when suddenly a man named Raphael who wielded a thin rapier appeared, intending on taking Soul Edge. Nightmare defeated the attacker, but was distracted by Siegfried's latent will trying to restore his body. Using the distraction, Raphael pierced Soul Edge's eye, giving Siegfried the edge he needed to break free from Soul Edge's control once again.
After waking up, Siegfried found
the holy sword, free from its entrapment within the wicked sword, and out of
instinct used it to pierce Soul Edge. The result led to both swords sealed
together in a fateful embrace, an Embrace of Souls. Siegfried took both
weapons and started a quest to find a definitive way of sealing Soul Edge, but
memories of his slaughters, plus the attacks of those resentful of the Azure
Knight, drove his mind towards insanity. Unbeknownst to him, the evil soul of
the blade escaped and obtained a temporary shell, starting a new killing spree
to strengthen himself while seeking its body, Soul Edge. What
neither of the two warriors knows is that a man behind the scenes is controlling
their steps, searching to end an everlasting curse. And that many other warriors
ventured in search of the blade as well.
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Review: The Soul
Calibur series has remained among the most elite 3D fighting franchises, and following in it's predecessors footsteps,
Soul Calibur 3 is another solid fighting game experience, although a
lot has changed. There have been quite a few gameplay changes with this
installment; probably more than there ever should have been... To me,
and many other fans;
Soul Calibur 2 was
a "near perfect" game, so SC3 had some very big shoes to fill... And
changing something that isn't exactly "broken" is always risky.
Soul Calibur
3 is the first of the series to be released on home consoles first,
then hit the arcade. Considering the technology available at the time, this ended up being a
big mistake on Namco's part,
as high level players soon found certain glitches and balance issues, which
couldn't be remedied or patched on the dated PS2... These bugs were later fixed in Soul
Calibur 3: Arcade Edition, making the home version, for some, irrelevant
after the updated arcade version released. 
However, and as you'd
expect, the home version included some cool extras and new modes, notably the
new Create-a-character and Chronicles of the Sword mode... Which
made it a must have fighting game for casual and serious fans alike.
Like any
quality sequel, SC3 is packed with cool looking new stages as well as characters.
The 3 new characters each have incredibly innovative fighting styles,
which proves that Namco hasn't lost it's creative fire. Besides
the 3 new faces, you'll come
across many new fighting styles within "The Chronicle of the Sword" mode,
which allows your created character to star in a "strategy-ish" battle
game. It's actually a pretty fun mode, because you get to create your own clan
of warriors and even completely alter their appearance to your liking as you
play through it. The
story isn't that deep however; it's pretty much battle after battle,
but your characters "level up" as you win fights, and along with
becoming more powerful, even gain
the ability to learn new weapon styles, including the classic styles of the
Soul Calibur veterans.
The "Tales
of Souls" story mode is better than ever, now giving the player an option
to change his/her path, which will allow them to face off against different
fighters each time. "Quick-time" events also make for cool interaction
with the story, although, many of them are the same for every character...
Booooring! Sure, there's a lot of text as well within story mode, but at least
each character has a real ending this time around (based on the in-game graphics), not to mention cool alternate endings! I'm sure some people
would have appreciated endings based on the amazing game intro graphics,
but still, Namco gives us an entertaining presentation from beginning to
end of each character's story.
SC3's graphics are impressive overall, pushing the PS2 to it's limits. On that note, to get the absolute best out of the PS2's graphics, an HDTV actually isn't the first choice. In my opinion, Soul Calibur 3 will look it's absolute best on a quality flat-screen SD television, using component cables! Most HDTV's will stretch the picture, and even in "wide screen mode," selectable from SC3's options menu, the game will look much more pixilated and blurry on an HD screen. Although it will look better on an HDTV if you're using a PS3 with "upscaling" and "PS2 Smoothing" turned on. In any case, give your PS2's graphics a fair chance and hook it up the right way before judging how the game looks. Overall, the clothing effects have been improved, as well as the lighting effects and hit effects, not to mention various stage effects... All off which sporting some nice eye candy for a last-gen system.
The stages
of SC3 are some of the best of the series, all of which graphically impressive
in some way and brilliantly designed. And props to Namco for bringing back
some of the classic backdrops from SC and
SC2, complete with updated visuals and even remixed BGMs of the original themes...
Damn, if I was behind creating the stages for SC3 that's
exactly what I would have
done. 
On the flipside,
there are indeed some things about SC3 that I wouldn't have changed
so much, and of course I'm talking about the characters move-sets... And the gameplay in general. The character "movement" in SC3, along with the characters
themselves, feel almost completely different from SC2, which isn't a very
good thing considering the prequel was so solid and so damn fun.
Of course,
all the returning characters have updated movelists, but this time
around, different "commands" for classic maneuvers. This means us veterans
have to basically re-learn the characters. 
Grrrr indeed... Unfortunately, this immediately gives would-be players of all
levels an excuse why they don't want to play SC3 (or why they suck)... 
No, not a good thing. Also, certain maneuvers and cancels from SC2 (some of which
very useful and fun) are completely gone! 
*sigh* Of course, all your old favorites have returned with some cool looking
new
moves, new stances, and overall; more well rounded and "streamlined"
movelists. Although, and unfortunately (again), certain characters lost some of
their stances from SC2; for example: Ivy... As a hardcore Ivy player, I can
say she was "100 times more fun" to use in SC2 than in SC3... This fact
repeats itself with a few other characters as well (but not all).
The move commands are more "spread out" this time around, making many characters somewhat
"easier" to use for beginners (button mashers). Yep, SC3 is a bit more
button-masher friendly than SC2. Certain characters like Taki and Nightmare
have been given some RIDICULOUSLY powerful moves, causing "explosions"
and such... When those two are fighting in particular, it almost looks like Battle
Arena Toshinden-Calibur 3!!! 
Some of the create-a-character fighting styles are also a bit off-the-wall,
silly, and unrealistic, as Namco Bandai seems like they aren't really
taking the game in a serious direction this time around. For example, these
create-a-character fighting styles feature "projectiles" (bombs, lightning, etc.), disappearing, teleporting,
and even extendable / growing bo staffs? WTF!!!
As far as button mashers go, after a decent
amount of practice, a skilled player should still be able to take
down a beginner or mediocre player with little to no problems in SC3. The computer AI has
also
improved very much from SC2 and puts up a good fight. It even walks away
from edges to avoid a ring out... Nice. If there's
one really good thing about SC3, it's the VS mode. You can choose from
2 different costumes per character, plus 2 color edits. Player 1 can also
select the same costume as player 2, with different colors, if both players
pick the same character... something we didn't see in Soul Calibur 1 or 2,
or in other 3D fighting games for that matter. After you select your costume,
its time to select your weapon, and thankfully in SC3's VS mode the special weapon
effects have been turned off! Does that matter? Yeah, to people who play
the hell out of Soul Calibur... It's nice being able to change up the look of
your weapon, like your character. 
"Random Creation" has also been introduced in the VS mode, which allows
players to have the computer randomly create a character for you, using the
items that you've unlocked. Pretty cool, but more than not, the "randomly
created" character ends
up looking far more hilarious than cool... 
Especially if you get a "ninja fighting with tambourines."
The Create-a-Character mode is an
appreciated addition to the home version of SC3... You can create
up to 10 characters on one memory card, not bad. The amount of detail you can
put into your created characters is the most comprehensive of any
fighting game to date, however, on the same token there is a fair amount of glitching on certain clothing
combinations. The fact that you can create you own character
is cool and all, but another brilliant feature is the color-edit mode,
where you can customize the clothing color and hair color of ALL your favorite
Soul Calibur characters... Badass! And with an entire palette of
colors to choose from, there are really unlimited possibilities. Trust
me, it's nice to be able to change the way the game looks when you play
it as much as we fighting game enthusiasts do. Namco really went all out...
Every Soul Calibur character you would want is in this game, not to mention
a crap-load of BONUS characters representing their own fighting style as
well. SC3 is packed with extras, most of which most gamers might not even
notice. There's tons to unlock, and it's a fun process... unless you have
a Gameshark, that is. 
As great a
package as Soul Calibur 3 on PS2 is, at the end of the day, the gameplay
just doesn't feel as solid or as fun as SC2. There are also some nasty
glitches found within the gameplay, including "throw cancels" and a
certain technique
which makes guard impacts nearly pointless to use. Then again, if players don't use
these glitches, the game itself isn't really broken. In any case, the "Arcade
Edition" of SC3 was released after the console release, a first ever
for a Namco fighting game, and remedied these glitches.
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8 / 10 |
Closing Comment:
Soul Calibur 3 is fun if you're planning on learning a new character or two...
Even if you already learned that character in Soul Calibur 2. 
There are indeed many cool looking new moves and strategies, but for those of
you (us) who would have liked our favorite characters to play more like their
SC2 incarnations; Soul Calibur 3 might make you want to cry.
Especially if you're an Ivy, Taki, Nightmare, or Mitsurugi player; to name a
few. Why
change how Ryu does a Hadoken (like make it a backwards motion)? Well,
then why change the way Ivy fights all together? Most of her
cool stances (spiral serenade for example), which became a second nature
for me in Soul Calibur 2, are completely gone, out the window... 
Depressing Namco. Depressing.
I can understand
why Namco was trying to balance things
out and keep things fresh, but a lot of characters ended up feeling dumbed
down... No, not all characters, but a lot. I can understand changing up priorities, damage
levels, etc; but why make my favorite character feel not as dynamic as before? Why take cancels / move transitions out that weren't even overpowered
or cheap in the first place? 
Jet3000
and I were (and still are) serious SC2 players. We've been to a handful
of tournaments; and we've discussed all the drastic differences between
SC2 and SC3. With all the good things SC3 offers, he and I still
prefer
Soul Calibur 2 to Soul Calibur 3
any day of the week.
At the end of the day, while SC3 might not be as fun or as deep as SC2, when compared to other 3D fighting games, it's still a quality
fighting game by all means; and it has it's moments. It's still a good game,
but wasn't nearly as good a "game" as the prequel... And thankfully, the sequel
to Soul Calibur 3 was a great improvement. 
~F.Yagami,
Webmaster
of TFG
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