Soul Calibur 5
If I had just one word to sum up Soul Calibur 5, it would have to be unacceptable. A few could say that I over hyped myself, however this game is the major reason I finally broke down and bought a PS3. I resisted the urge with 4, but I have enjoyed every single Soul Calibur/edge game before that (barring the one for the Wii it doesn’t count -_- ). What went wrong with this game? Well allow me to start with the story itself.
While I don’t think fighting games should be of Shakespearian levels of writing, I do expect a lot when the developers say ‘it has a lot more story’. Some characters get cut, some have kids, and some are dead… I logged into the load screen eager to see who, and what made the cut.
Maxi (IN): I could have sworn Maxi died in SC 3? I skipped 4 so maybe I missed something…
Kilik (IN): I know he died in SC 4… but he is an unlockable character.
Taki (OUT): Apparently she was viewed too old to be taking part in the action.
Mitsurugi (IN): So Taki is too old, but this guy is still fine?
Xianghua (OUT): But her daughter is (IN). Still unsure why she got the offspring cut as she was a rather young character.
Sophitia (OUT): But she has two kids (IN)
There are only 5 unlockable characters… why could they have not tossed in Taki?
Okay with that little rant out of the way let’s get down to the game. After picking my character it’s time to play the arcade version of the game as I enjoy the end slides better than the continual story mode in past games. The AI was standard fare on normal mode up until the final boss. After saying more curse words in two hours then I had in my entire life, I swallowed my pride and lower the difficulty to easy. Another half hour passes, and finally Edge Master lies at my feet. As I bask in the glow of my accomplishments something odd happens. I am kicked back to the main menu. There were no end slides. With a gasp I quickly log onto the internet to confirm my fears. The game where the developer has stated ‘it has a lot more story’ does not have ANY individual endings. So other than mindlessly bashing the computer AI there is no reason, nor reward to playing arcade mode.
Tossing in a few more curse words I decide it’s time to try the story mode. Story mode starts you off playing as Patroklos Alexandra, Sophitia’s spoiled brat of a son, and his attempt to save his sister Pyrrha from turning into an evil monster. I wish I could say the story is well told, and ends well… but I can’t. I got four cut scenes in, and decided to cut my losses. The writing is atrocious, and I did not enjoy Patroklos’s fighting style. Just a heads up though I have talk to others that say the last two encounters in story mode are break you’re controller as its thrown against the wall hard…
The skinny
The Good: If you enjoy mindless fighting with characters that you have enjoyed from previous Soul games then this may be for you. It has a multiplayer option, but I did not delve into it. The build your own character option has great customizability of the build of your fighter.
The Bad: Cut characters, and introduction of new characters that don’t have any story at all since they don’t revolve around the ‘story mode’ and there are no individual endings. The difficulty spike toward the end is way off key even in arcade mode. While you can do great things with the build of your personalized fighter there are about one tenth the clothing options of Soul Calibur 3. There are only 5 unlockable characters. Did I mention there are no individual endings?
Rating 1 shattered soul out of 5.
