Soul Calibre.
Since the release of human 1.5, our earliest ancestors, discovered the devastating yet useful effect of blunt trauma to the cranium fighting has been one of the more dependable aspects of human behaviour. Many thousands of years later we have created many tributes to this most versatile emotive reaction. One of these such tributes is Soul Calibre three.
I will find great difficulty in reviewing this game, not least because the premise is fairly simple.
But it is always good to challenge yourself, yes?
Soul Calibre three had me intrigued from the moment I set eyes upon it. I had hitherto found my selection of play station two games to be satisfyingly void of fighting games. However my desire to test my combat expertise in an unrealistic Japanese simulation game was intolerable. So when I saw the artistic style presented on the front screen I was rather nonplussed. It appeared to be some alien concept of arcade style graphics. Upon even something so simple as selecting the context your random fits of violence will be performed in a loud voice proudly declares your choice. This is interchangeable with a loud sword clash sound that will attempt in vain to make the mundane task of choosing settings more exiting. During the introduction to the fight a deep voice will ramble cryptic riddles as the camera performs a tour of the location you will find yourself paying no attention to as you fight.
The combat also interested me. My first attempts at it largely involved harsh mistreatment of my controller. This instinctive panic induced reaction is famed among fighting games in particular. It is supposedly known as button mashing.
Although this will suffice for a time, in fact against almost all npcs this will be an acceptable substitute to genuine skill, players more knowledgeable in their characters moves will thrash you so badly you will cry all the way back to your mother. Therefore understanding how to perform certain combinations is, in some small way, necessary. It is perhaps unfortunate that button mashing still renders you nigh un-killable if you are playing as the character named kilik. In the end me and my friends agreed that kilik and all kilik esq characters are off limits. He is simply too deadly.
Regarding multi player it has to be said that given time Soul Calibre can be fairly competitive. For instance I, being a psychotic character wielding one short blade and one large blade allowing for fast movement and inventive combinations. And my friend Jay, being an armoured warrior not so much wielding as directing a blunt sword the size of a small lamp post about in whirlwind like twirls made for a fantastic and hilarious experience. Albeit slightly one sided now I come to recall. More often than not I would be required to jump and duck under and over his weapon like a serrated skipping rope. Given the opportunity to sink blows into his armoured shell my tiny pinprick blows made little difference to him. Still, it made me feel far more justified and self righteous so I guess I should not begrudge him.
There Is a slew of interesting yet extremely pointless game modes. They are only made pointless by the lack of impact they have on the gameplay. You can also create your own character although it is less about inventing a powerful manifestation of your dream warrior and more to do with constructing a new model and coupling it with a main characters fighting style in an act as futile as violence itself.
In conclusion I would recommend Soul Calibre if you want a game fitting the following category:
A cheap, silly fighting game. Once you buy it you wont really need to purchase another fighting game because broadly speaking they are all very similar. You want to have pretend fights with your friends because it is fairly fun.
If that is what you, like me, want out of a fighting game then I would recommend purchase.
Feedback is, as always, welcome. (Although it is a deceptive choice of phase since I have only made approximately three reviews for this section of the escapist anyway)
And don't forget to make criticism constructive. Because that is the best kind of criticism. Also keep in mind that, as with my previous reviews, I make reviews very short for a number of good reasons despite been repeatedly told that it is not a good idea. I appreciate this is a lot to ?keep in mind? for such a short review but I am simply trying to explain myself out of the mild flaming I received in previous reviews. Thank you for your patience.
Since the release of human 1.5, our earliest ancestors, discovered the devastating yet useful effect of blunt trauma to the cranium fighting has been one of the more dependable aspects of human behaviour. Many thousands of years later we have created many tributes to this most versatile emotive reaction. One of these such tributes is Soul Calibre three.
I will find great difficulty in reviewing this game, not least because the premise is fairly simple.
But it is always good to challenge yourself, yes?
Soul Calibre three had me intrigued from the moment I set eyes upon it. I had hitherto found my selection of play station two games to be satisfyingly void of fighting games. However my desire to test my combat expertise in an unrealistic Japanese simulation game was intolerable. So when I saw the artistic style presented on the front screen I was rather nonplussed. It appeared to be some alien concept of arcade style graphics. Upon even something so simple as selecting the context your random fits of violence will be performed in a loud voice proudly declares your choice. This is interchangeable with a loud sword clash sound that will attempt in vain to make the mundane task of choosing settings more exiting. During the introduction to the fight a deep voice will ramble cryptic riddles as the camera performs a tour of the location you will find yourself paying no attention to as you fight.
The combat also interested me. My first attempts at it largely involved harsh mistreatment of my controller. This instinctive panic induced reaction is famed among fighting games in particular. It is supposedly known as button mashing.
Although this will suffice for a time, in fact against almost all npcs this will be an acceptable substitute to genuine skill, players more knowledgeable in their characters moves will thrash you so badly you will cry all the way back to your mother. Therefore understanding how to perform certain combinations is, in some small way, necessary. It is perhaps unfortunate that button mashing still renders you nigh un-killable if you are playing as the character named kilik. In the end me and my friends agreed that kilik and all kilik esq characters are off limits. He is simply too deadly.
Regarding multi player it has to be said that given time Soul Calibre can be fairly competitive. For instance I, being a psychotic character wielding one short blade and one large blade allowing for fast movement and inventive combinations. And my friend Jay, being an armoured warrior not so much wielding as directing a blunt sword the size of a small lamp post about in whirlwind like twirls made for a fantastic and hilarious experience. Albeit slightly one sided now I come to recall. More often than not I would be required to jump and duck under and over his weapon like a serrated skipping rope. Given the opportunity to sink blows into his armoured shell my tiny pinprick blows made little difference to him. Still, it made me feel far more justified and self righteous so I guess I should not begrudge him.
There Is a slew of interesting yet extremely pointless game modes. They are only made pointless by the lack of impact they have on the gameplay. You can also create your own character although it is less about inventing a powerful manifestation of your dream warrior and more to do with constructing a new model and coupling it with a main characters fighting style in an act as futile as violence itself.
In conclusion I would recommend Soul Calibre if you want a game fitting the following category:
A cheap, silly fighting game. Once you buy it you wont really need to purchase another fighting game because broadly speaking they are all very similar. You want to have pretend fights with your friends because it is fairly fun.
If that is what you, like me, want out of a fighting game then I would recommend purchase.
Feedback is, as always, welcome. (Although it is a deceptive choice of phase since I have only made approximately three reviews for this section of the escapist anyway)
And don't forget to make criticism constructive. Because that is the best kind of criticism. Also keep in mind that, as with my previous reviews, I make reviews very short for a number of good reasons despite been repeatedly told that it is not a good idea. I appreciate this is a lot to ?keep in mind? for such a short review but I am simply trying to explain myself out of the mild flaming I received in previous reviews. Thank you for your patience.
