Soulcalibur II

If you find yourself hating the SoulCalibur series from the get-go, you just simply need to be more patient. Underneath the simple exterior lies a game that is so strategically deep and rewarding that I cannot stop playing it for more than a few days at the most.

At its core, it's a 3-Dimensional fighting game. Easy as that.

Scratch the surface and you find cool moves. Dig deeper and you find ways to get around those moves (Hands down, 8-Way Run is the best innovation in fighting games since the addition of a 3rd dimension, period). Then you learn how to properly evade and defend against these moves, and launch appropriate counterattacks. This may seem very daunting at first, but trust me on this, this game is far more satisfying than the Tekken or Dead Or Alive series.

Once you familiarize yourself, you'll begin to see the small nuances of each character. Their speed, their attacks, their range...it all adds up eventually, and I found myself playing less of a fighting game and more like playing virtual chess moving at dozens of maneuvers at once. Feints, fakes, deception: these all play a part in the vast mechanics of SoulCalibur 2. It helps to have a friend (or friends, preferably) to learn with however, seeing as the computer opponents have no real gray-area - it's either easy as pie or tough as nails.

Once you discover the exquisite, artful fighting game that lies underneath, you'll be thanking yourself for the best $20 you ever spent. I guarantee it.

I haven't played a true beat em up for a while; the last one I played before this game was Smash bros. melee which is a radically different fighting game. SC2 is overall richer than the average fighter in terms of replayability and lastability. As well as the arcade, practice, versus, time attack and survival modes, there is the Weapon master mode similar to the Edge master mode in SC. This is the main story playthrough for the home version of the game and has to be completed twice to unlock the majority of the games features. Via enemies defeated and money earned through battles won for various reasons, the rest of the game's features are unlockable, and there are many. Over 200 weapons are unlockable for the characters, as well as costumes and arenas, the 'extra' versions of each of the other gameplay modes,which allow you to use weapons acquired in weapon master mode, the museum features such as art galleries, character profiles, fighting theaters and demonstrations. As a hardcore gamer, I completed weapons master mode fully in a week, and still love it a week on, which is more than can be said about most fighting games after their main gameplay feature is completed. This is not a button mashers game; each character has their own unique style of play and mastery of their moves is essential to victory in matches. The graphics and sound are excellent, as is the gameplay; very fluid, and each character has layers of combos. The GCN version is the best in my opinion due to the most responsive controls, coolest exclusive character and faster loading times. This game will take the average gamer a few months to complete fully; achieve 99 ranking (i'm currently on 74) buy everything for every character etc. and the versus mode, while dissapointingly lacking a human-cpu free fight option, will never become repetitive. This game is the ultimate fighting game and should be in every fans collection.

First there was Soul Edge (inexplicably re-titled Soul Blade for PS1) who had a number of unique concepts to fighting games, but ultimately came at a time when all 3D fighting games (and most 3D games) sucked and featured lousy control. Then came the game widely considered a flawless entry in the fighting game genre: Soul Edge's sequel under the name `Soul Calibur.'

So now we have Soul Edge part 3 or Soul Calibur II. Funky naming schemes aside, Soul Calibur looks better than Soul Calibur and feels about the same. I would probably bash Soul Calibur II for its extreme timidness to explore new areas; however, Soul Calibur found its way to one console: the DreamCast and I never got to enjoy the first Calibur game at home. So, I'm feeling a little forgiving.

The jump from Soul Edge to Soul Calibur was like going from one world to another--from crappy blocky 3D with piss poor control to an awesome and all around solid game. Calibur 1 to Calibur 2 is a babystep. Few all original characters (Raphael and Talim), a few Tekken 3-ish new characters (new characters who play like old characters: Cassandra, Cherade, Yansung), and the home version features an array of characters not in the arcade . . . most of which are throw-aways (Berzerker, Assassin, Necrid), but what the hay. Sueng Mina's back! Though PS2 got the short end of the stick as far as exclusive characters go. Xbox gets Spawn. GameCube gets Link. We get to play as Heihachi for the sixth time in a Namco fighting game.

Soul Calibur II (home) pushes the envelope for special features even though it does absolutely nothing for me. After exploring Weapon Master Mode you get an array of variations to the now typical Survival, Team Battle, and Practice modes. Typical things to unlock--more characters, artwork, character endings/profiles, etc, etc, etc. And, of course, there's Weapon Master Mode, itself, which for Soul Blade fans it's the same concept as Edge Master mode. It tells a story and explains the circumstance surrounding each battle, and even gives you annoying circumstances to attain victory (your enemy is vulnerable only for air combos, their life regenerates, beat all 7 on one life bar, you get the idea.) And as you progress, you gradually unlock more characters, stages, weapons, bonuses, etc.

And Namco gave us dungeons to explore . . . which was a shot in the arm. The dungeons sound cool and intriguing, but are really rather redundant not to mention monotonous (especially the all Berzerker/Lizardman dungeons) once you start playing them. I'd of liked to have seen more of a (can't believe I'm saying this) Tomb Raider / Tekken mode (a la Tekken 3) / Mortal Kombat: Mythologies approach to the dungeons than what we get: room by room, click the next room and fight, click and fight, click and fight.

I love Soul Calibur II as a fighting game. I really do like the fighting game aspect, but I'm disturbed by the trend in fighting games and the cheap tricks Namco is leading other fighting game makers into doing to increase replay value - making you play the game X amount of times in X different variations to acquire all the 'hidden' features of the game. It was cute and it was fun with Tekken 2, but in the madness to one up previous games it's starting to get ridiculous the amount of crap available and the things you have to do to get it. Were this any other game but Soul Calibur II, I'd jump ship and forget about the items that I've not yet acquired. But fortunately, SCII is an extremel solid game that is fun to play multiple times . . . but even for SCII Namco is pushing their luck and this fan's patience.

I used to be against codes and looked down upon them as cheater's tactics once upon a time, but I'm starting to miss them in this age of `beat my fighting games 300 times to get the cool features.' I don't have much of a life, but my time is a little more valuable than that.

Final comments: mediocre upgrade from SC1, but SC1 was an awesome game so SC2 is still good . . . just not a great 'sequel'. The fighting side of it is wonderful. The `extras' go a little overboard and come across as more annoying than imaginitive. But SC2 is probably the best fighting game available on all three consoles.

Soul Calibur 2 was a much better game than people said it was. The graphics are beautiful, the combos and techniques are great, and there's a huge variety of characters to choose from. Including the 3 exclusive characters available depending on the system you have. I, personally, was lucky because I own a GC which means I got Link form LOZ as a playable character!

The game has many modes and un-lockables to choose from and gain which will keep you busy plenty. The new Weapon Master mode has some significance, but not much. I would recommend renting this game because its a very unique fighter game with cool characters and weapons. I would only recommend this game for buying if you don't mind some corny stuff and play games that have lots to do. 7/10.

Does any other game have a better tutorial than this if you want to learn how to be good at fighting games? Going through the Weapon Master mode you learn every possible type of move stage by stage, so many other modes things to unlock as well its pretty amazing.