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Product Description
Set to finally reveal the origins of this ongoing story, Soul Calibur IV features new and familiar faces from across the galaxy, seeking rival swords for vengeance, honor and salvation. Shown in amazing 720p HD graphics, new and classic characters fight in a revamped battle system to revolutionize the fighting game genre. From character customization to online battles, the features of Soul Calibur IV help propel this venerable franchise into the next generation of gaming. Sith Lord Darth Vader appears exclusively on the Playstation 3 system. Story - Uncover each character's story line as you battle to reveal their motives Arcade - Take on the challenge in battle after battle in this classic arcade mode Tower of Lost Souls - Fight in special battles to challenge your fighting skills and customizing skills in order to reap the rewards Training - Practice your skills to earn your place as the ultimate weapon master Character creation - Create a character unlike any other, with custom looks and items influencing their skills and abilities, which will affect the outcome of your impending battles Museum View - movies, backgrounds and art that you have unlocked Standard VS - Battle one on one in this classic match up for ultimate bragging rights Special VS - Take your customized SC character or newly created character into the world arena and prove if your creation is the best in the world Online Battles - Multiple online versus modes and ranking styles will allow fans to test their fighting and management skills

Amazon.com

The Classic Fighter Returns

Return to witness the epic struggle between the spirit sword, Soul Calibur, and the cursed sword, Soul Edge, in Soul Calibur IV. Warriors from far reaches of the galaxy battle to control the powerful swords and use them for their own goals. Should these fighters succeed, they will face the ultimate judgment. The ongoing story continues with new revelations, exciting new gameplay features and stunning visuals. And perhaps most exciting of all, a character from the Star Wars universe will also make an appearance.

Key Features

Newest addition to the Soul Calibur series features thrilling next-gen graphics brimming with intensity
Continues the struggle between the spirit sword, Soul Calibur, and the cursed sword, Soul Edge
Features the infamous Darth Vader as a guest character
Expanded customization options let you give your character a personalized look and specific abilities
Take both customized characters and original favorites online for the first time

Exclusive Special Characters

Revered and feared Star Wars Sith Lord Darth Vader appears as a guest character in the PlayStation 3 version of Soul Calibur IV. In addition to that thrilling fact, you'll also discover expanded customization options that let you bestow your character with a personalized look and specific abilities. And, for the first time, you'll be able to take both customized characters and original favorites online to challenge an entire world of fans. Completely reinvented but with the same intensity you've come to know, Soul Calibur IV provides an adventure that never disappoints.

Thrilling Next-Gen Graphics
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Online Challenges!
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Customer Reviews: Read 55 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

What were they thinking? August 1, 2008
9 out of 20 found this review helpful

Soul Calibur fans won't find too much new here, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Most of the original characters are available when you start the game (instead of having to unlock them later), the moves are more or less the same, and the graphics are great. The controls are quite responsive, and as in every previous iteration, it takes longer to watch the end credits than it does to beat the game in story mode.

And... as in every previous iteration, there are unreasonably long "Now Loading" screens, though they've improved the speed in Arcade Mode.

And now... a word about Star Wars...

WHAT?

Sure, I knew that Darth Vader was going to be in the PS3 version, and Yoda in the Xbox 360 version, and blah, blah, blah. I figured they were just unlockable characters that I was free to ignore.

Not so, in Arcade Mode. Not only are you inexplicably transported to space after level 6, but the two Star Wars characters become ridiculously difficult to beat for no obvious reason. We're talking Shang Tsung or Motaro cheap from the Mortal Kombat series.

It isn't that they're unbeatable. It's just that it makes no sense at all. I don't think I've ever seen a licensed product so obviously shoehorned in to a game. It totally kills the mood of the game, and the "spend 15 minutes, then make a sandwich" gameplay.

Getting back to Story Mode, when you finish with a character, you don't really get any sort of story or closure as you did in previous versions of Soul Calibur. Instead, you get a three-second variant of "now I have it!", followed by a black screen with a sentence or two.

If you haven't played any of the previous versions, you may enjoy this. Or, if you're really big in to Star Wars, I guess you'll get a kick out of playing as Darth Vader or The Apprentice. Otherwise, I think this is a pretty huge letdown for Soul Calibur fans out there.

I really wish I had rented this, instead of pre-ordering it months ago.

4 out of 5 stars

Put some clothes on! August 14, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

I'm not much of a video game reviewer, and I'm certainly not a "serious gamer" but I do enjoy blowing off an hour or two every once in a while playing games. Up until we rented this on gamefly I had never played a Soul Caliber game before. I enjoy fighting games provided there are some speedy characters involved. My Hubby and I enjoyed this game enough to pay the extra loot to "keep the game" so we are now the proud owners of Soul Caliber IV.

What I liked:
1) I didn't have to hit 40 sequential buttons to get the character to do something cool, in fact my inner button masher was quite happy with the moves that I was able to do right off just by smashing in patterns.

2) The graphics are good, the surrounding areas are cool to look at and you can smash up your surroundings, which is always fun. The playable characters come in a wide variety and all look fairly good (some of the women are ridiculously proportioned but whatever). They have a variety of weapons that are quite fun and all look great.

3) The characters level, meaning the more you play with one, the more options you get with them.

4) The online option is interesting, but for some reason the pairing doesn't seem up to snuff, I mean why would the computer match up a level 1 with a level 41? It seems that it should be a bit more balanced as to who it sets up against who.

5) The tower is a blast, and it's HARD! basically you have to fight different groups of baddies on each level of the tower to ascend to the next one... we're on level 20 or so now and it's no walk in the park! The good thing is that each level has a way for you to unlock another article of clothing to use in your character creation.

6) Character creation, this can be quite fun, and I'm really bad at it. My hubby can spend over an hour tweeking his dude... I just slap some clothes on them and go.

7) The other options are your standard Arcade mode and the story mode, both of which allow you to unlock different playable characters.

What I don't care for:
1) When you are either beating the tar out of someone or they are laying the smack down on you, armor can break... effectively leaving your character almost completely in the nude. Now I'm not sure who gets their jollies from video game semi-naked people, but I'm not one of them.

2) It would be great if the female characters weren't trapsing about with their boobs hanging out wearing thongs... and the closeups of the boobs and booties gets to be rather tiresome... men wonder why more women don't play video games... this is one of the reasons.

3) The commercial showed Darth Vader fighting Yoda... um... you only get Vader on the PS3 version, apparently Yoda is on the Xbox version. It would have been nice to have had both.

4) The loading times from fight to fight get a bit tiresome, especially in the tower when you just got your derrier handed to you and you have to re-fight the same guy for the 15th time and there you are; waiting for 2 minutes or more to reload the battle.

5) In the character creation I should be able to pick some better undergarments for my people just in case all of their clothes get busted off so that they aren't standing there in a bra and thong.

Still, I love the game, it's an absolute blast and well worth a purchase (especially used)

2 out of 5 stars

Ok... What happened to the game I loved? July 31, 2008
6 out of 13 found this review helpful

Let me first off say, I love video games. I have since I've been 5 years old when I played my first video game for the Nintendo. I have played Soul Calibur with friends, family... Everyone. I went to the PX yesterday (Marince Corps store) and was going to pick up a game for the PS3 since it seems one of the best things to do on base (Without traveling 45 minutes) is to play video games. The clerk reminded me that Soul Calibur just came out so I nearly had a heart attack and ran to the stand and grabbed a copy. The cover art was awesome. Sweet.

So I get up to the counter and am about to ring up the game, the clerk hits the enter key on the cash register and all the power goes out for the entire store. That should of been my sign not to buy this game, and most likely was. I did get it anyway though.

I brought it home and went to a church event with one of my fellow Marines and after coming home later on that night I couldn't wait to play it. I opened up the case, took out the Bluray Disc and put it in the PS3. It booted up and then started saying "You can't play without a game save, click ok to make a game save." ... Ok, "Thats fine with me", *Click*

Starts loading up, get's to the screen ... "SOUL CALIBUR 4!!!"

Awesome.

Get to the menu, "Woah, the menu is really simplistic... Strange." I headed off to the single player mode automatically and hit Story mode and proceeded to play with Raphael. it then proceeds with a very simplistic story of why Raphael is fighting... "Strange" I said. I use to remember when Soul Calibur was REALLY in depth. "Maybe this is just a one time thing, a Quick story." So the fights come up, it's one vs three. Though I'm all buffed out with made fighting power ups. I keep fighting... One, two, three, four matches down... One cut scene of us going over the water and hearing a wierd sound. Ok. "That doesn't make any sense at all." Finally Stage 5 comes up, and ... "what's this... Is this the Boss battle already? ... It can't be, this has to be a mini boss... something, the game cant BE THIS SHORT." I fight the boss, and all of a sudden it shows a about 2 minute ending clip (Which was kind of cool, I have to admit.)

Then the screen goes black, and not to ruin the surprise for you but the game ends by leaving you 1 sentance to sum up exactly what happened after Raphael acquires the sword.

1 SENTENCE.

Credits roll, and I have beat the game using Raphael. In under 15 minutes.

To top that off, the character creation sucks. There isn't enough customization in it to satisfy hardcore gamers or in my opinion fans of the series. The best way to describe this game is its like the first version of the game that came out on the dreamcast. With Better graphics, and less fun.

You better have a friend to play you at this game, even then though its a huge let down.

5 out of 5 stars

Same Soul Calibur, better graphics, smoother gameplay. What's not to like? August 2, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

I'm well aware that hardcore Soul Calibur fans will read my title and say, "Huh? Nothing really compares to the original Soul Calibur!" But in all honesty, I feel the gameplay is smooth and balanced, easy for both advanced players and novices alike to enjoy.

What will hit your eyes first are the excellent graphics and breathtaking detail. Character models are upgraded to add more facial expressions, a very welcome addition, considering how Soul Calibur III had almost none. There is a much higher level of detail in the characters' outfits, which are all quite good. You can actually see scars on Mitsurugi's skin. Of course, depending on your preferences, you may or may not appreciate the general increase in bust size and scanty clothing amongst the female characters.

Each character has his/her own story, and you can play as them in the Story Mode, which starts off with a few paragraphs of that character's story before pitting you against five levels of fighting foes. There's a difficulty setting for this mode, so you can choose either "Normal" or "Hard." In both cases, each progressive level is increasingly hard, and at the end, there is a short ending scene. Here, the graphics are absolutely stunning. The only thing that could have been improved was the lip movement. It looks like the makers didn't feel like fitting the English words to the mouths, which were originally designed for Japanese words. The voice acting is so-so and can be switched to Japanese if you find English too painful to listen to. Yet compared to Soul Calibur III, the ending scenes have improved by far, although their is no "interaction" or opportunity for an alternate ending. However, the mode has become shorter since the last game, maybe a little too short.

The next single-player mode is Tower of Lost Souls. You "ascend" the tower, fighting batches of levels at a time. You'll fight any number of levels in a batch (it varies), and while you're in that same "batch," you have to make sure you don't lose too much health, since it won't be replenished between levels. You get to choose a team of characters to use (the number of characters varies), or just one character, depending on the level. As you ascend the tower, the levels will get harder. You will also have the opportunity to unlock items for the Character Creation Mode. Tower of Lost Souls feels like a substitute for the traditional Survival Mode, which is no longer in the game. For some, that can be a sad thing, but I personally don't feel like it's much of a loss. Your own preferences decide whether or not it's bad, so I'll let you decide if it's a plus or minus.

Now, one of the most interesting modes in the game is the Character Creation Mode. You can use the fighting style of any main Soul Calibur character, and once again, the level of detail is extremely impressive. You can change the character's physique (muscularity and size). You can't make any characters that are very fat. They're all pretty fit, no matter what size or muscularity level you choose. There are several voice options, and you can change the pitch to whichever way you see fit. The color options are very extensive as well (a full palette with nine degrees of brightness). With this mode, you can also create new outfits for the main characters (but that is all you can do.. no physique, skin, or eye color changes). There are fifty slots total for all creations, including those custom outfits for the main characters.

There are also several extra features that give more depth to the gameplay. Different pieces of clothing on a created character or edited main character will change "attack," "defense," or "health" stats of that character. Skills can be attached to different weapons, depending on the amount of skill points a character has received (and that is done by playing more with that character's style). The Soul Gauge is also new. If you block your opponent too much and attack too little, the gauge will decrease until your health bar flashes red, giving your opponent a chance to perform a Critical Finish, which is a special, fancy attack that instantly ends the match. It doesn't happen too frequently while playing against friends or in single-player modes (besides training), so luckily, no one can abuse it.

Another fun feature: your armor breaks! If you get hit enough (Hi, Mid, or Low), then pieces of your outfit will break off, making you more vulnerable to damage. It's fun to watch it happen. The only danger is that your created characters' pieces will be destroyed entirely. So, for example, if you have a character wearing pants, instead of simply ripping, the entire pair of pants will come off, leaving that character in just underwear (I guess that's not a danger for some).

If the game falls anywhere, it's online play. There's some lag, so quick moves like guard impacts are more of a liability than an asset. And the downloadable content is just a way to squeeze more money out of your pockets. Get it if you like, but Namco Bandai could have easily spared you the trouble by leaving it on the game disk for free.

Oh yeah.. and there are bonus characters. Darth Vader and the Apprentice are entertaining additions to the game. There's even a battle stage styled after Star Wars. I found the imbalance between the two characters shocking. The Apprentice is fast, has killer combos, and is quite.. cheap. Vader is slow, but powerful and more balanced. You can't give either of their weapons to created characters or change their outfits, so they remain as unique bonuses. The other bonus characters aren't worth mentioning. They're a useless addition.

And lastly, the music is amazing. It's dramatic, well-suited to each battle stage, and gets you in the mood to fight.

Just for the sake of it, here are my stats:
Appearance: 10/10
Sound: 8/10 (This includes voice acting)
Gameplay: 10/10 (Everybody's balanced)
Fun: 10/10 (Versus mode with friends and character creation are so good)
Replay Value: 9/10

If you're a hardcore Soul Calibur fan, you absolutely must buy this. If you skeptical about it because it may not satisfy you as much as the first Soul Calibur, rent it. Either way, this game deserves a look. I can't find many bad things to say about it. Any criticism is pretty small, and there are no ridiculously bad flaws.

I have to say, in my own personal opinion, that this is the best fighting game I have ever played.

2 out of 5 stars

Quite the letdown August 7, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

Overall I'm quite disspointed with this game.

Let's break it down though.

Graphics 5/5: As far my opinion goes, this is the most graphically superior fighting game there is at the moment, the scenes are beautifully rendered and the characters are rich in detail.

Controls 5/5: The controls never change and no exceptions here, the game is easy and can be jumped right into.

Character Creation 1/5: What a HUGE step back here...SC:III had so many innovative things here a "profession" made it feel unique and special. Now it's just "What character do you want to rip off?!" Which is extremely lame and lazy in my opinion. The different combos of clothings/faces are alright not as extravagant was SC:III was.

New Features 2/5: The "Tower" is quite bland and more like just a scenario mode nothing overly special about it.
The online mode I will admit I haven't tried yet but...I imagine it's no different then having someone sitting aside of you playing. I most certainly miss the strategy mode as it gave a real personal feeling to the game.

Main Guts of the Game 2/5: Let me start by saying the Star Wars characters compared to the rest of the group...are ridiculously overpowered. In Arcade mode you go from classic SC scenese to a...space ship? To fight "The Apprentice?" What the @#$@? The Apprentice is ridiculously over powered and if you're playing on medium expect hard diffuculty Hard expect Soul Edge...etc...The first time I went through I spent around 1 min. on each opponent and 9 min. on The Apprentice.

The story mode is VERY dissaspointing as it starts with about a 4-5 paragraph introduction then just like...arcade mode until the last fight. About a 1 minute clip a sentence or two pops up on the screen...that's it. Not a whole lotta point to "Story Mode" if you don't actually make the character have a FREAKIN' STORY!

Overall: I wish I would have rented this game instead of paying salty for it...It's just...not as good as any of it's previous bretheren. I'd be even willing to say a step BACK.

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