Soul To Go
One of the highest rated fighting game franchises of all time finally makes its way to the PSP. Come on inside to find out if that's a good thing.
Published: November 4, 2009
The Soulcalibur (formerly Soul Calibur) 3D beat-'em-up 1-on-1 fighting game series has always stood for a fun, accessible to newcomers, but nonetheless incredibly deep fighting game engine. About three years ago, Namco Bandai's other major fighting game franchise, Tekken, stunningly proved with Tekken: Dark Resurrection that portable beat-'em-ups are capable of delivering an experience that can easily compete with the crème de la crème of home console and arcade fighters. With Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny on the PSP it's this franchise's turn to substantiate the claim that this wasn't just a lucky strike for the famed Japanese publisher/developer.
In most regards, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny stunningly re-proves that fighting games on the PSP can indeed be carried over without any significant cutbacks from their bigger brothers on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny almost feels like a Soulcalibur IV port - in a good way. The controls are as spot on as you would come to expect, seemingly the exact same controls from SC4 with only the PSP's hardware making sure that you will stumble across a few control issues along the way. Now, I've been reviewing this copy on a PSP1000 (the old, fat launch PSP) and its clunky face buttons made me suffer through a cramp or two thanks to the game's extreme demand for fast and precise button pressing combinations. I'm pretty sure that players owning either the PSP Slim (2000 and 3000) and/or the PSP Go won't have to sustain the aforementioned physical damage, however I cannot guarantee that it won't happen. But in the end even the old PSP worked well once I got used to the controls and the overall feel of the game. And yet occasionally unintentional button mashing will occur.
As I've mentioned earlier in this review, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny's core fighting engine definitely is easy for beginners to pick up. No, they won't be able to compete with a fairly skilled player that knows his or her way around blocking, combo interrupting and how to properly take advantage of the opponent's soul gauge, but in the end button mashing definitely can be a successful tactic between two inexperienced players. This at least makes the experience somewhat accessible to newcomers. On the other end of the spectrum, I can assure all those hardcore fighting game enthusiasts that Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny is also phenomenally deep. This becomes especially apparent once you start playing through the game's story mode, “The Gauntlet.” Calling it a story mode is somewhat misleading because it really is nothing more than a gigantic tutorial wrapped into a weird, confusing and to most probably uninteresting story. And this also brings us to the game's biggest fault: its lack of something interesting and rewarding to do for the single player enthusiast.
Multiplayer fans on the other hand will appreciate that every character in the game is unlocked from the get-go (including Sony's very own god of war; Kratos), but it also leaves those lacking a friend or two that have their own set of a PSP system and the game standing in the rain. There's no online mode. Ad-hoc is the only way to experience the excellent multiplayer – a damn shame if you ask me. While fighting infinite rounds against the AI in “Trials” definitely can be entertaining for a while, not having a specific goal to work for can also be extremely frustrating. “The Gauntlet” might be a decent opportunity for those that have never touched a Soulcalibur game before, but anyone with a fair amount of experience will get extremely bored, extremely fast. Why not toss in a simple arcade mode that let's you fight through, say twenty opponents with a boss at the end? Players who want to play multiplayer exclusively could be given the option to unlock every character with a cheat. That's something that Namco Bandai definitely needs to look into for the probable sequel.
And then there's the character creation/customization feature. It's as deep and as crazy as ever, letting you create either a new character from absolute scratch or allowing you to mess with the existing bunch. The main difference between SC4's creator and Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny's you ask? Instead of the 50 save slots that were to be found on the consoles you can only create and store up to 16 characters at once. Enough if you ask me. Some might think differently.
And then there's what some might argue as Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny's greatest achievement: its graphics technology. While over the years we've seen a ton of fantastic looking PSP games, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny definitely deserves to be considered as one of the best looking games on the handheld, or handhelds in general. All of the character models are incredibly detailed, the stages have barely lost any of their visual fidelity from SC4 and everything is locked in at buttery smooth 60fps. If your nose isn't exactly glued to the PSP's screen the game almost looks as good as any next-gen fighter. Almost.
So should you run to the nearest store and get Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny? That's something that very much depends on what kind of experience you are looking for. Visual excellence and a deep character creator might do it for some but ultimately the solo experience is lacking any noteworthy single-player content. When you get down to it, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny feels like a great way to work on your Soulcalibur IV fighting skills while you're away from home. While ad-hoc is impressive, not everyone will be able to experience its greatness, and after all portable gaming's focus should be on the single player experience. All of this makes it tough for me to recommend the game to every PSP owner. Don't get me wrong, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny definitely is great and somewhat unique on the system, and yet Tekken: Dark Resurrection once proved how portable fighting on the PSP can be done significantly better, a fact that leaves me no choice but to be somewhat disappointed with Namco Bandai's second effort in bringing a great fighting franchise to PSP owners.
In most regards, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny stunningly re-proves that fighting games on the PSP can indeed be carried over without any significant cutbacks from their bigger brothers on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny almost feels like a Soulcalibur IV port - in a good way. The controls are as spot on as you would come to expect, seemingly the exact same controls from SC4 with only the PSP's hardware making sure that you will stumble across a few control issues along the way. Now, I've been reviewing this copy on a PSP1000 (the old, fat launch PSP) and its clunky face buttons made me suffer through a cramp or two thanks to the game's extreme demand for fast and precise button pressing combinations. I'm pretty sure that players owning either the PSP Slim (2000 and 3000) and/or the PSP Go won't have to sustain the aforementioned physical damage, however I cannot guarantee that it won't happen. But in the end even the old PSP worked well once I got used to the controls and the overall feel of the game. And yet occasionally unintentional button mashing will occur.
As I've mentioned earlier in this review, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny's core fighting engine definitely is easy for beginners to pick up. No, they won't be able to compete with a fairly skilled player that knows his or her way around blocking, combo interrupting and how to properly take advantage of the opponent's soul gauge, but in the end button mashing definitely can be a successful tactic between two inexperienced players. This at least makes the experience somewhat accessible to newcomers. On the other end of the spectrum, I can assure all those hardcore fighting game enthusiasts that Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny is also phenomenally deep. This becomes especially apparent once you start playing through the game's story mode, “The Gauntlet.” Calling it a story mode is somewhat misleading because it really is nothing more than a gigantic tutorial wrapped into a weird, confusing and to most probably uninteresting story. And this also brings us to the game's biggest fault: its lack of something interesting and rewarding to do for the single player enthusiast.
Multiplayer fans on the other hand will appreciate that every character in the game is unlocked from the get-go (including Sony's very own god of war; Kratos), but it also leaves those lacking a friend or two that have their own set of a PSP system and the game standing in the rain. There's no online mode. Ad-hoc is the only way to experience the excellent multiplayer – a damn shame if you ask me. While fighting infinite rounds against the AI in “Trials” definitely can be entertaining for a while, not having a specific goal to work for can also be extremely frustrating. “The Gauntlet” might be a decent opportunity for those that have never touched a Soulcalibur game before, but anyone with a fair amount of experience will get extremely bored, extremely fast. Why not toss in a simple arcade mode that let's you fight through, say twenty opponents with a boss at the end? Players who want to play multiplayer exclusively could be given the option to unlock every character with a cheat. That's something that Namco Bandai definitely needs to look into for the probable sequel.
And then there's the character creation/customization feature. It's as deep and as crazy as ever, letting you create either a new character from absolute scratch or allowing you to mess with the existing bunch. The main difference between SC4's creator and Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny's you ask? Instead of the 50 save slots that were to be found on the consoles you can only create and store up to 16 characters at once. Enough if you ask me. Some might think differently.
And then there's what some might argue as Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny's greatest achievement: its graphics technology. While over the years we've seen a ton of fantastic looking PSP games, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny definitely deserves to be considered as one of the best looking games on the handheld, or handhelds in general. All of the character models are incredibly detailed, the stages have barely lost any of their visual fidelity from SC4 and everything is locked in at buttery smooth 60fps. If your nose isn't exactly glued to the PSP's screen the game almost looks as good as any next-gen fighter. Almost.
So should you run to the nearest store and get Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny? That's something that very much depends on what kind of experience you are looking for. Visual excellence and a deep character creator might do it for some but ultimately the solo experience is lacking any noteworthy single-player content. When you get down to it, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny feels like a great way to work on your Soulcalibur IV fighting skills while you're away from home. While ad-hoc is impressive, not everyone will be able to experience its greatness, and after all portable gaming's focus should be on the single player experience. All of this makes it tough for me to recommend the game to every PSP owner. Don't get me wrong, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny definitely is great and somewhat unique on the system, and yet Tekken: Dark Resurrection once proved how portable fighting on the PSP can be done significantly better, a fact that leaves me no choice but to be somewhat disappointed with Namco Bandai's second effort in bringing a great fighting franchise to PSP owners.
