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To me, Soulcalibur III is the mark of a remarkable swordplay fighting franchise that's come full circle. It looks great, plays silky smooth and offers an insane number of options to satisfy solitary types like myself. The new-and-improved "quest" mode inarguably is one of the sparkling aspects fans will be talking about for months to come.
If you have the last installment, there's really no need to go back to it—the entire "true" cast of Soulcalibur is all here (I know some of you miss Spawn, though). Want more characters? Spend time with the new Create-A-Soul mode and come up with a custom swordsman of your own. There's really no need to spend words on gushing about the game's graphic splendor, screenshots alone do this game justice. My only nitpick is that the AI tends to be heavy on the cheap side, enough to frustrate newcomers and have them running for the hills.
Honestly, this game offers more than I expected, although online play is still absent from the formula. I am sure it's just a matter of time before Microsoft woos Namco into showing a little Xbox or 360 love.
Naturally, I've only touched the surface. That's why I teamed up with Aaron and Ross who go into more detail regarding several aspects of the game. Enjoy.
··· Chris Scantleberry
Why is it that Soulcalibur III has a better story than most RPGs?
Stories I should say. Chronicles of the Sword is a war drama between three powerful kingdoms with the character you make at center stage, while in Tales of the Souls each warrior has their own personal tale to tell. Yoshimitsu is trailing a possible traitor after a raid goes wrong, Nightmare is in search of a new host for his evil presence, and Voldo is following the scent of evil for the sake of his departed master. All of this is mixed with branching pathways, bonus encounters, and of course lots and lots of flashy 3D fighting. They all end pretty much the same (unless you met the requirements for the true boss) with a fully animated ending as your reward, plus any unlockables you've earned.
Ah, unlockables. That's the carrot before the horse of the whole SC3 experience, though this game comes with enough carrots to make even Bugs Bunny swear off on them for life. New characters, new weapons, new stages, new challenges, new art, new Create-A-Soul parts...If you spend any time with SC3, the letter N is going to burned into your retinas, mocking you for whatever new option you've yet to explore. They provide a worthwhile incentive for spending long hours with all the various modes, long enough that it'll tax the patience of diehard completists. It took me two years of off and on playing to unlock every last artwork in the original Soulcalibur, so I'm in no rush.
As for changes to the basic gameplay, there aren't any. There didn't need to be. It's still whacking each other with various weaponry and the best eight-way run in the business, just as it was in Soulcalibur II. Of course, all the returning characters got their own particular tweaks, some major, some minor, some for the better, some for the worse. All in the name of finding a game balance that dedicated players are bound to destroy a month after release anyway. Characters like Kilik have barely been altered since the first Soulcalibur, but now Ivy is almost a different character, bringing pros back to square one. Or they can use the sickle movelist, which seems to have inherited the soul of her style.
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