First of all,let's talk about the new graphics because they simply must betalked about. The first SC game in HD does not disappoint, and is surely one of the prettiest 3Dfighters to date. The character models and background detail really makea statement. It brings back memories of the graphical statement that SoulCalibur made when it launched with Sega Dreamcast in 1999. SC4'sgraphics engine makes everything incredibly sharp and intricately detailed,from the moody backgrounds to the shiny armor (which reflects the actualbackgrounds), down to the bare bone character models themselves, whichare indeed some of the most seamless character modelsever.
In fact, there's hardly a trace of any actual polygons anywhere. Darth Vader's helmetand Ivy's ass, for example, are both amazingly round... it's just scary! Skin and muscle detail has simply never been done quite sowell in a fighting game. Next-gen lighting/shadowing effects, background blurring effects, andsparks on weapon clashes add an extra touch to the visuals and really putthe icing on the cake. Each of the new stages also highlight some sort ofgraphical element, and all of which are brilliantly designed fromevery angle.

As a console-exclusive fighting game, SoulCalibur 4 features the staple Story, Arcade, and Training modes. The new TowerModeis also introduced, offering a a variety of single player challenges, pittingthe player against multiple enemies one after another, and is also the path to unlocking some of thegame's rarest goodies.In Tower Mode, you're alloweda partner at certain times and can tag them in during the battle. Instead of your currentcharacter tagging out and running off screen (a la Tekken Tag Tournament),your partner simply 'takes the place' ofyour current character in a 'magical' flash of blue light... uhh... teleportation if youwill. The tag system looksa bit strange and doesn't make much sense, but it's actually kind of fun if yougive it a chance, and is the key to beating Tower Mode.

Story Mode is a surprisinglycondensedfive chapters long and really leaves muchto be desired. The character endings, done with the game's sharp real-timegraphics, are also on the short side and honestly fail to impress in most cases(but at least they're there). In fairness, Story Mode does have a few coolfeatures such asspecialized dialogue between related characters which you won't hearin other modes. Also, if you create a costume for one of the main characters anduse it in Story Mode, that character will be wearing the same costume duringtheir ending! The computerAI also does a good job at representing the gameplay and making things as epicas possible. For example, the first time I went through Siegfried's story, I was quite impressed. Since I hadn't used Siegfried yet, I decided toback up and just practice for a bit. That's when I noticed Siegfried's father just standing there,waiting for me to attack. So I just kind of circled him andpracticed my stance transitions for about 2 minutes... it was epic.... Well, youjust had to be there.

The graphicalpolish and detail that SC4 shows off is accompanied bypossiblythebest fighting animation ever seen in a video game, hands down. Namco'sfighting games are widely known for their fluid animation and accuratedepiction of authentic & unique fighting styles, and SC4takes it a notch further. A handful of classic moves and hit effects havebeen reworked, making them appear even more fluid and/or more brutal thanever. Even classic stance and walking animations have been touched up. It actually takes a keeneye to notice some of the smaller details of the animation that were tweakedfrom the prequels.

Of course,the deep characters of Soul Calibur are why many players love the series so much.The diverse selection of fighting styles and personalities is what SoulCalibur has always been about, and now with over 30 characters, the serieshas seen its most diverse cast yet. The first new character to jointhe roster is a female knight by the name of Hilde, who fights with both a short sword and aspear. Like in the home versions of SC2, Namco has widened their roster yet again by bringing in some recognizableguest characters into their franchise. With Namco obtaining the rightsto LucasArts, Darth Vaderand Yoda have crossed over to the series! Darth Vaderis a slow, yet powerful opponent... seeing him in action is always epic,and his accurate (badass) depiction in SC4 is just brilliant. On theflipside, Yoda has some coolmoves for a small green fellow, and is annoyingly immune to throws and certain highattacks (but easily beaten if you know his weaknesses). The Apprentice from The Force: Unleashed also appears as an unlockable bonuscharacter and shows off a unique light saber based fighting style.

Along with thebonus Star Wars characters, several other new faces designed by guest mangaartists also make their fighting game debuts in SC4 including:Scheherazade (designed by anime illustrator Yutaka Izubuchi known for his workon Patlabor,RahXephon), Angol Fia (designed by Mine Yoshizak), and Shura (designed by Hiroya Oku ofGantz fame). These bonus manga-inspiredcharacters unfortunately don't offer their own unique fighting styles, butinstead 'borrow' fighting styles of some of the classic Soul Calibur veterans.While it's somewhat disappointing that they don't bring any 'new' stylesto the series, they are at least entertaining 'alternatives' to use for severalfan favorite weapon styles. These bonus characters(all female) at least have their own voice-overs and unique introductionsequences,but overall they leave something to be desired.
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Along withtweaking classic gameplay elements like Guard Impacting, the wall game,and Ring Outs, Namco added several brand new elements that assist SC4 infeeling like acompletely new game and not a rehash. Critical Finishing Moves make their debutand can be used to KO your opponentif they're blocking too much (AKA turtling). Critical Finishes promote more aggressive gameplay andusing Guard Impacts, and are quite cool to use against players (or the computer AI) whoblatantly overusethat block button. From a gameplay standpoint, I think Critical Finishes suit the gameplay systemfairly well, butseveral of them could've been done better visually.
Unfortunately, each character only has one Critical Finish, and some of them areabout as boring a finishing move from a 3DMortal Kombat game. During most critical finishes, the background 'fades out' and is followed byan array of flashy lights before anything even happens... that said, I wish most ofthe Critical Finishes didn't 'take you out of the game' somuch. Some are well animated and bring the ouch factor, but others seem likeafterthoughts. On the flipside, it's pretty cool when you connect a Critical Finish on thelast round, because your character will strike a 'special'win pose... adding epic insult to injury!

Armor Breaks are another new system in SC4. After beinghit by certain attacks, different parts of armor can be destroyed(in either a high, mid, or low area). After an Armor Break occurs, the effectedcharacter will take extra damage if the respective area is hit. Thisnew gameplay mechanic isn't only cool on paper, but it makes for aunique & cool visual presentation. Helmets, masks, and variouspieces of armor will break, fly off, and even stay on the ground duringthe fight, sometimes even getting kicked around. Clothing also gets ripped toshreds, exposing the inner details of the awesome character models. Characterattire can become quite minimal, and player-created characters caneven be stripped down to their underwear... it's pretty hilarious.

Soul Calibur's gameplay engine has always been at the top ofits class, butthe big changes from SC2 to SC3 left many hardcore fans disappointed(myself included). Personally, it's hard to 'let go' of how somecharacters used to play, but after opening my mind a little... I definitelyfound many characters in SC4 that I enjoy using. Overall, SC4's gameplayis a considerable improvement over SC3's,but is still a far shot from my beloved SC2.The 8-Way Run and overall movement speed is as smooth as ever, but noticeably 'slower'than the first two installments. Characterslook larger and even 'feel' heavier to move around; which makesmore sense considering this 'style' of fighting, but takes somegetting used to. Manycharacters have been toned down, some with 'slowed down' moves and others missing alternate stances & cancels from past games. That said, there isa learning curve to masteringany character in SC4 even if you've been a hardcore playersince day one.

Returning characters, of course, were given some interesting and generous updates totheir movelists. Unlike returning characters in other fighting game sequels,the characters of Soul Calibur have become 'subject to change' inrecent times. Namco seems to be aiming for 'balance' and clearly wantsto make characters more accessibleto new players. Even though the characters don't play exactlylike they used to, there are a plethora of awesome new moves, combos, and strategies to be discovered andmastered (and by the way, thecharacter movelists in the game don't show all of the moves in the game).
Don't getme wrong, a lot of characters still have a handful of their classic movesand can be used similar to how they were used in past games, buta lot sure has changed since SC1 & SC2 (No, I won't stop talking about SC2).Overall, characters seem easier to pick up and also easier to fight againstdue to the fact that there seem to be fewer moves and cancels than in previousinstallments. In my opinion, the streamlined movelists actually seem to be a good thingin the long run, especially when it comes to the subject of character balanceand competitive play.

One of the biggest flaws of Soul Calibur 4 is that it isn't packed with extras like some of the prequelswere. For one, Weapon Demonstrations and Character Profiles are missing all together! Most of SC4's extras revolve around the Create-a-Character Mode, which is pretty much the best fighting game customization mode to date. Not only can you create your own character fromscratchusing a countless array of coloring options and various clothing & armorlayers; you can even edit the default Soul Calibur character's costumesfrom the ground up... which I usually prefer doing over creating a character.
For each new color scheme or outfit that is made for a default character, an iconis created which accurately depicts the customized outfit, alongwiththe weapon you chose for that outfit... pretty cool if you ask me! I've been waiting for a fighting game to do something like that for quitesome time now. Thankfully, Namco is smart and didn't include any sort ofsilly 'create-a-movelist'feature in the game, which I believe woulddefeat the purpose of getting good at thegame. Rightfully so, your created character can use any of the main characterstyles featured in the game (minus the Star Wars characters), and I'm gladthat they left out those utterly ridiculous Create-a-Character fighting stylesfrom SC3.
SC4 also takes the series online for the first time ever! The onlinemodes are pretty basic and straight forward; you can either lay a ranked matchagainst a random opponent or a non-ranked match against anyof your online friends. There is also the option to fight with weapon/createdcharacter effects on or off (serious players will prefer off of course).One of the coolest things about SC4's online mode is the fact that you can takeyour customized or edited character into battle.It's always entertaining to see what other players have come up with. Gameplay runs pretty smoothonline for the most part, although that impolite lagstill pops up occasionally, which in a game like Soul Caliburcan be pretty annoying to deal with. Thankfully, before you engagein a match with another player you can view the quality of their connection. My advice is to never play against anyone with a 3bar connection or less... if you ask me, SC4 is only 'playable'online with a 4 or5 bar connection. Thus, the majority of matches I've played online have had littleto no lag (I got FIOS!). Even with a little lag, I have no trouble with GIs or combos, so I'm happy withit.

Overall, theonline experience is decent, but of course I have a few gripes. First and foremost, there doesn't seem to be astrict enough penalty (or any at all) for bailing out of a match early,as I have encountered quite a few 'sore losers' who purposely disconnectedwhile I was, well, destroying them... funny, because I noticed they're usually the ones that suck at the game the most. Also, the ranking system overallseems a bit flawed. It's relatively easy to get high up in rankjust by beating novice players to level up, granted you have somesort of skill... and beating high ranks sometimes just doesn't pay outlike it should.

As good as it is, SC4 has it's fair share ofquirks. Firstly, theintro wasn't nearly as impressive as SC2's or SC3's. Somemight even say it sucked all together. I for one was disappointed that they used a meresix characters in the intro. It really should have been longer and moredrawn out, especially considering that they used real-time graphics for the intro. Come onNamco, too busy working on other 'high profile' games to make a fleshedout intro for your own series?
Next, clothing and armor sometimes 'clips' through characters' body parts,hair, and even faces from time to time, especially on created characters. It is a tough thing to eliminate froma 3D fighting game completely, especially since in Soul Calibur there area plethora of 'dynamic' animations; and on top of that comes the amazing character detail that Namco's artists imagined. That said, it's a forgivable flaw. The good news isthat it's really only noticeable on the close ups of certain characters,and mostly created ones at that. I also miss the pre-match taunts during the VSscreen... yeah, those one-liners and grunts were always silly and unnecessary, but now that they'regone I actually kinda miss them. I alsomiss the ability to wall jump from Soul Calibur 2... why haven't those beenput back in the game?!? They weren't cheap or anything, and they were funto do. Ohh, and what's up with 'replays only for the last round?' And NOreplays online?
On the flipside,there are even more 'little' details that I like about SC4. Firstly, Ilove the new slow-mo/gray scale effect during the KO! I also thoroughlyenjoy the new 'splash' sound (and visual effect)... when a character gets knockedout of the ring into water, they hit the water hard. There are a ton of other awesome new sound effects, all of which are intenseand satisfying. Some characters' intro taunts and win quotes still sound funny& awkward at times, but others are actually quite badass.The voice acting in both Japanese and English are decent and are possibly the best of the series. The soundtrack of the game, probably overlooked bymany, is also deeply inspiring and simply put, epic... gotta love those Star Wars tracks! Namco also released the original Soul Calibursoundtrack fordownload, and any of the tracks can be set for SC4 stages of your choice!Badass!

No, I'm notdone promoting this game... did I tell you that I actually work for Namco? Jk. Other positive details I want to point out? Hmm... I really like the selection screenthis time around, and I was enthralled to see that they used actual 2Dcharacter art for the character slots... which looks amazingly sharp in HD. I also love howreflective armor looks different on each stage,because it truly reflects the colors and light from the stage itself... andif you look even closer (in edit mode), you can actually see some of the backgrounddetails reflected on certain armor (check out the 'Close Helm' and you'llsee what I mean)! The shine effect used for hair catches the eye, and hairanimation during movements is also done well for the most part. The newcharacter 'tracking' animations are also noteworthy. Not only will stagnant characters turntheir heads while watching their circling opponent, but they will now twisttheir entire upper torsos as well, which alters their stance animation...Maxi's is a must see. Detailslike the ones I just mentioned really make SC4 stand above the crowd,and lead the way for the next generation of 3D fighting games.

Page Updated: August 13th, 2020 Developer(s): Namco (Project Soul) Publisher(s): Namco Bandai, Ubisoft Designer(s): Hiroaki Yotoriyama Producer Mitsuo KashiwagiProducer Masashi TommyProducer Noriyuki HiyamaDesigner Artwork by: Hideo YoshieArt Director Takuji Kawano Masashi Kubo Yasuyuki Kobori Platform(s): PlayStation 3,Xbox 360 Release Date(s): July 29th,2008 July31st, 2008/ / Characters: Mitsurugi,Taki,Ivy,Hilde,Kilik,Siegfried,Nightmare, Maxi,Cervantes,Yunsung,SeongMina,Xianghua, Tira,Setsuka,Lizardman,Sophitia,Cassandra,Raphael,Astaroth,Rock,Talim,Voldo,Yoshimitsu,Zasalamel,Amy,DarthVader, Yoda, Starkiller,AngolFia, Scheherazade,Ashlotte,Shura, Kamikirimusi, Algol Featured Video: Related Games: Soul Calibur:Broken Destiny, SoulEdge, Soul Calibur, SoulCalibur 2, Soul Calibur 2: HD Online,Soul Calibur 3, SoulCalibur 3: Arcade Edition, Soul Calibur 5, Soul Calibur 6, Soul Calibur: Lost Swords, Soul Calibur Legends, Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi, Tekken Tag Tournament GameplayEngine 9.5 / 10 Story/ Theme 7.0 / 10 OverallGraphics 9.5 / 10 Animation 10 / 10 Music/ Sound Effects 9.5 / 10 Innovation 9.0 / 10 Art Direction 9.5 / 10 Customization 9.5 / 10 Options / Extras 7.5 / 10 Intro / Presentation 6.0 / 10 Replayability / Fun 9.0 / 10 'Ouch' Factor 10 / 10 Characters 9.0 / 10 BOTTOM LINE 9.0/10 Review based on PS3version Final Words: Not only should Soul Calibur IV please most fans of the series,it might even turn the heads of many 'mainstream' gamers back in the direction of fightinggames... possibly even away from those repetitive first person shooters? (yeahright) The Soulseries has become one of the more well known and respected fightinggames out there, and it's easy to see why. There's a lot to love aboutthis game and the deep characters, but I understand Soul Calibur isn'tfor everybody. Maybe that's why Namco changed up the characters so much, givingboth expert players and casual/novice players alike the chance to somewhatstart over and re-learn the classic characters. Characters do seem easierto use, thus are more accessible to new players this time around, whichisn't really a bad thing... Namco always wants to widen their audience,of course. The good newsis, due to the solid and dynamic gameplay, veteran players of the seriesare still able to dominate novices and those dreaded buttonmashers with ease, with a little practice of course. On that note, I absolutelyLOVEthe fact that you can actually win a match using a Guard Impact (to breaktheir armor).The new Armor Break & Critical Finish systems give an advantage to aggressiveplayers and players who can perform GIson a regular basis. With a Guard Impact at the right moment, skilled playerscantake advantage. Don't let anyone tell you different... (*cough*IGN *cough*)... Soul Calibur IV is NOT button masher friendly, not by a long shot.Seriously, if you lose to button mashers, you suck. ...it'snotthe game. Soul CaliburIV offers a lot to hardcore players, but also has enough going for it togive casual players a reason to play and keep coming back...I'msure a handful of Star Wars nerds picked up SC4 just to play as DarthVader and/or Yoda. I'm not the 'biggest' Star Wars fan, but I must say,Vader in particular is portrayed as quite the badass. For not fitting in, he fits insurprisingly well and hasa cool fighting style. On the flipside, I never really liked Yoda, but he does have an entertaining fighting style which stays true tohis iconic movie fight scenes. As in any quality fighting game, the experienceof SC4 is immeasurably moreappreciated and impressive when watching two skilled playersgo at it. I actually think SC4 is quite underrated for that reason, as manygamers probably haven't seen a proper high level SC4 bout. When button mashers try to play, yeah, the game still looks prettygood since Namco made a lot of moves easier to pull off; but for me, it's painful to watch.Keep all that in mind before judging the game!~TFG Webmaster