Soulcalibur III
The soul still burns... just make sure you have some friends burning along with you.
Published: November 9, 2005
I can still remember my first hands-on time with Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast, played with the stunningly awesome ASCII Arcade Stick, and all at my boss’ house just a day or two after I decided to screw everything and move down to San Francisco from the endless fun that was the University of Washington roommate experience and downtown Seattle as a whole for 20 grand a year.
Well, at least one part of the experience was fun in retrospect.
The original Dreamcast release of Soul Calibur was and still is one of the most polished, perfectly balanced and utterly satisfying experiences ever to come to consoles. It’s amazing, and though Namco tried to one-up the whole thing with Soul Calibur II, it didn’t really do too much beyond adding in some new characters and some slight rebalancing.
Soulcalibur III, on the other hand, is a rather dramatic change to things, incorporating new gameplay types with varying levels of success, three new fighters and a radical change-up of the moves lists for characters – from the buttons needed to pull them off to the range of attacks to speed of fighters – it’s huge shift, and in many ways it helps it feel as fun as the first game all over again... but only if you’re playing with friends.
While I hate to skim over the new characters, they’re only a small part of what’s been changed and added to the series. Underboob-showing Tira with her hula hoop-like blade, scythe-wielding Zasalamel and Setsuka, who hides a sword in her umbrella are all welcome additions, though and none upset the balance too badly. Of the three, Tira has the coolest personality, Zasalamel is the most newbie-friendly with his hooking attacks and Setsuka... well, she’s certainly a technical offering.
We’ll get into the new modes in a second, but it’s important to note how bad the single-player experience can be if you’re just fighting against the computer in plain vanilla matches. It’s important because this is the core of all the other modes, and save for when you’re fighting against a human opponent, it’s when the game’s most frustrating – which is nearly all the time.
As mentioned before, the game has made some pretty radical shifts. The overall speed has been cranked up just a few notches, but it’s enough to make formerly lumbering players like Nightmare or especially Astaroth more nimble and thus more deadly. For already quick players, it means the game is even more zippy, and this makes for some interesting guard volleys once you’ve adjusted (which will take a while).
It requires more refinement when you realize there are now two levels of Guard Impact, which lets you deflect moves with a perfectly pressed block. Now high/mid and mid/low attacks require separate inputs, creating more of a rock/paper/scissors dynamic when playing against human opponents.
When playing against the computer, though, the game starts on one level (brain-dead) and then about a half-dozen or so fights into a normal story or tournament match, just becomes God-like. It’s not so much that they’re good, but that they’re able to read and react instantly to your controller inputs rather than adjusting to your play style or adopting a particular style of their own based on your wins, a la Virtua Fighter 4.
They begin blocking everything and countering with impossible combo strings that suck any of the fun and momentum out of fights you’ve had. It’s not unusual to retry fights literally dozens of times per character going into later bouts, but there’s never a sense that either you’re learning their moves or they’re learning yours, just responding to the buttons you’re pressing with mechanical precision.
Well, at least one part of the experience was fun in retrospect.
The original Dreamcast release of Soul Calibur was and still is one of the most polished, perfectly balanced and utterly satisfying experiences ever to come to consoles. It’s amazing, and though Namco tried to one-up the whole thing with Soul Calibur II, it didn’t really do too much beyond adding in some new characters and some slight rebalancing.
Soulcalibur III, on the other hand, is a rather dramatic change to things, incorporating new gameplay types with varying levels of success, three new fighters and a radical change-up of the moves lists for characters – from the buttons needed to pull them off to the range of attacks to speed of fighters – it’s huge shift, and in many ways it helps it feel as fun as the first game all over again... but only if you’re playing with friends.
While I hate to skim over the new characters, they’re only a small part of what’s been changed and added to the series. Underboob-showing Tira with her hula hoop-like blade, scythe-wielding Zasalamel and Setsuka, who hides a sword in her umbrella are all welcome additions, though and none upset the balance too badly. Of the three, Tira has the coolest personality, Zasalamel is the most newbie-friendly with his hooking attacks and Setsuka... well, she’s certainly a technical offering.
We’ll get into the new modes in a second, but it’s important to note how bad the single-player experience can be if you’re just fighting against the computer in plain vanilla matches. It’s important because this is the core of all the other modes, and save for when you’re fighting against a human opponent, it’s when the game’s most frustrating – which is nearly all the time.
As mentioned before, the game has made some pretty radical shifts. The overall speed has been cranked up just a few notches, but it’s enough to make formerly lumbering players like Nightmare or especially Astaroth more nimble and thus more deadly. For already quick players, it means the game is even more zippy, and this makes for some interesting guard volleys once you’ve adjusted (which will take a while).
It requires more refinement when you realize there are now two levels of Guard Impact, which lets you deflect moves with a perfectly pressed block. Now high/mid and mid/low attacks require separate inputs, creating more of a rock/paper/scissors dynamic when playing against human opponents.
When playing against the computer, though, the game starts on one level (brain-dead) and then about a half-dozen or so fights into a normal story or tournament match, just becomes God-like. It’s not so much that they’re good, but that they’re able to read and react instantly to your controller inputs rather than adjusting to your play style or adopting a particular style of their own based on your wins, a la Virtua Fighter 4.
They begin blocking everything and countering with impossible combo strings that suck any of the fun and momentum out of fights you’ve had. It’s not unusual to retry fights literally dozens of times per character going into later bouts, but there’s never a sense that either you’re learning their moves or they’re learning yours, just responding to the buttons you’re pressing with mechanical precision.
