It’s been six years since it’s predecessor and any fighting game fanatic is used to the long wait for the next instalments of Street fighter, Tekken, Dead or Alive or even Virtual Fighter. Soul Calibur developed and published by Bandai Namco (same company as Tekken)and produced by their in house team “Project Soul”, provides us with a different experience. A fighting game not only with weapons, side stepping, 3D adventure with possibly the best customisation to date but Knock outs, I love a good knock out off a cliff.
If you are new to the SC series, let me give you a summary, originally a group of people, mercenaries, ninjas, heroes, anti-heroes come in search for the blade Soul Edge which has unfathomable power but gets taken by the evilest of pirates Cervantes then Seigfried a knight who goes mucho loco and becomes a inhuman being Nightmare. Scrap that. Soulcalibur VI is a reboot to the series, taking place during the 16th century revisiting the events of the first Soulcalibur game to “uncover hidden truths”.
SC has brought back favourites like Mitsurugi, Sophitia, Seong Mina, Voldo, removed some but added a whole new concept of the game almost making it feel like a RPG. Apparently, the mysterious, Yoshimitsu, from Tekken is cannon to the game which gives Tekken fans more insight into his Manji clan dealings and time travel(?). The Witcher is also included, being his broody self and has his own separate chapter in the game, speaking to the voice actor Doug Coople, “It was great fun playing and learning about Geralt” he is actually deemed a better fighter in SC6 than the Witcher using both blades in conjunction.
Looking to Tekken as a game to compare to, I really was surprised by the differences of levels of customisation. The Libra of Soul mode I would class as the story mode, you make your own character, you have a choice of genres and genders including Human, elf, manifested, demon, rogue, super manifest ha ha I kid you not. Depending on the type affects which hair, clothes you can select and be prepared to spend a large chunk of time working on making your favourite characters rise to battle. Another new edition is selecting original characters but changing outfits which was neat. You have a option to randomise outfits using filters or not and upload them online.
Also DLC in the season pass was addition of Tira (SC series) and Nier: Automata’s 2B, you also unlocked the character’s A & B costumes as well as playability.
Libra of Soul mode uses new mechanics add new layers of strategy and mind games to a once linear mode in previous games. You are given a lot of story driven battles as well as options to take extra missions to bolster your money pouch and level up. When playing I felt like 10minutes could pass in just reading story, equipping and taking items before a fight could happen. Depending on the path you take you can have a good aura (blue) or bad (red) this doesn’t make any real difference apart from achieving different weapons. I tried my best to mess with Maxi’s crew at thestart and none of it put him off my company…he’s just a great guy bouncing off my bad ass energy. Whereas in Soul Chronicle you can button bash hours upon hours of fantastic single-player game play. From what I have encountered online, you cannot play customised own characters online, only customised original characters.
Dead or Alive 6 director and producer Yohei Shimbori pointed out he could not understand why his series is being criticized so much for the fan service content while Soulcalibur VI “can do it and doesn’t get a beating over it” I believe he refers to the armour falling off the characters making some of them VERY scantily clad. It’s hard to say why DOA is taken less seriously over SC but it’s all in jest. All you need to do is look to youtube to see some of the hilarious customisation but check out some of my customisation from my other favourite games and anime Tekken, Disgaea and One Piece. For more in game clips, customisations please follow my twitter @aisha_anime
Review Summary
All in all, a different fighting game experience that involves strategy on characters (and weapons) you must play in order to complete Libra of Soul. With option to have some mindless battles as a normal arcade mode provides. Nothing can be unlocked unless you pay for it, be it you use your Soul Points in the museum or season pass in the Playstation store. Me and GameSpot's Tamoor Hussain both agree that the game is "both intuitive and deep". I recommend you buy the Season Pass which can be purchased online on the Playstation store or at Game at the counter to get the most enjoyment !