"Transcending history and the world, this is a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold". This is how Namco's latest masterpiece, Soul Calibur 2 starts off. While the arcade version garnered a small cult following, the successful release of Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast shot the stock of this weapons-based fighter through the roof. Now, almost 3 years later the followup to what is regarded as one of the greatest 3D fighting games ever has been released. Soul Calibur 2 is here, and it looks to follow in the footsteps of its predecessors.

Soul Calibur 2 takes place four years after the events of the original Soul Calibur. The Soul Calibur sword that Xianghua wielded against Inferno was left behind in order to contain the Soul Edge. Little did anyone expect that the evil would spread once more.

Fifteen characters cross paths and destinies in Soul Calibur 2, which includes returning characters Taki, Mitsuguri, Voldo, Astaroth, Kilik, Ivy, Nightmare, Cervantes, Yoshimitsu, Xianghua and Maxi. Entering the fray are four new characters: Raphael, a French swordsman armed with a Rapier, Talim, a young Pacific Islander, Hong Yunsung, a shipmate of Hwang from previous Soul games, and Cassandra, the younger sister of Sophitia. Unlike many of Namco's other fighting games, you won't find any characters with similar fighting styles here. While Soul Calibur had many "clones", such as Rock, Hwang and Lizardman, Namco went a different route and decided to make each fighter as unique as possible.

New characters aren't the only things that have been introduced in Soul Calibur 2, as a ton of new gameplay features surface for hardcore and casual gamers to try out. The first new feature is Guard Breaking, which occurs when a certain move breaks through an opponent's guard, creating an opening for the attacker. While the defender cannot block against a followup attack, they can Guard Impact it. Another new feature is called auto dodging, which happens when you tap the joystick in a certain direction after a specified move. When you tap the joystick, your character will automatically dodge in one direction to anticipate any counterattack should your opponent block your attack. One character who uses auto dodging is Hong Yunsung, who can auto-dodge after his B attack. By tapping forwards or backwards on the joystick, you can automatically sidestep to one side, but you are still vulnerable to a counterattack if you happen to sidestep in the wrong direction. Finally, Soul Calibur 2 also borrows from Tekken 4 by implementing Just Frame moves into its arsenal. For the uninitiated, Just Frame moves are attacks that require extremely precise timing to pull off. You literally have one frame (1/60th of a second) to execute the move in order for it to come out. While it might seem crazy, Just Frame moves greatly reward the player who can pull them off consistently in battle, not to mention they look absolutely awesome. Ivy's Just Frame move involves her lashing her whip sword out onto her opponent five times, causing some major damage.

The Guard Impact system of Soul Calibur has stayed intact for the most part, and it's still easy to pull off a repel or a parry in the heat of battle, but now you can only repel high and mid level hits and parry mid and low level hits. While it seems odd that Namco would tweak with what is essentially a perfect system, it still works like a charm although many players will have to get used to the fact that they can no longer parry high hits and throws or repel low attacks. Like Tekken 4, Soul Calibur 2 also features walls in just about every arena, so you can smack your opponents into them for some high damage combos. However you can also escape any extra damage by tech rolling. There are also different kinds of wall stuns in the game, depending on how you get sent into the wall and what position you are in when you're hit. Finally, the 8 Way Run system from Soul Calibur has been tweaked as well. It's now a bit faster and a lot more intuitive. No longer will you have to double tap down in order to 8WR into the screen. The 8WR system also has a new "avoid" feature, where you will be able to sidestep a longer distance if you initiate 8WR just before you are attacked, much like in Virtua Fighter 4.

As for the characters themselves, all of the returning characters have been souped-up for Soul Calibur 2. Taki can now Possession Rush in just about any direction, Astaroth has a couple of new hit throws as well as a bunch of new throws, Mitsuguri has some great looking attacks that include attacking with his sword and his scabbard at the same time and Ivy has gone through a dramatic change, now possessing five new stances with a huge array of moves to go along with them that greatly improve her mid-range game. Other characters have been refined and improved in many ways. As for the new characters, they seem to stack up very well against the old cast. Raphael is a mean poking machine with a great mid-range game, while Talim is ultra-quick with a lot of strings and special moves that allow her to move very quickly around the arena. While Cassandra and Hong do seem similar to their counterparts Sophitia and Hwang in looks, both of them possess enough differences (especially Hong) to be considered bonafide additions to the roster, and not merely rehashes. Just like any other fighting game, it's too early to tell if the incredible character balance that was in Soul Calibur will make the transition to Soul Calibur 2, but from the looks of things right now, it seems that it has... for now. Only time will tell if this stands true though.

Soul Calibur 2 goes above the call of duty by giving players the opportunity to play a slew of game modes that are usually reserved for console versions. In the game you can choose between Arcade, Survival, Time Attack and even Training. While the first three modes are fairly self-explanatory for anyone who's played more than one fighter in their life, the Training mode is especially unique because… well, it's never been included in an arcade game before. For one credit you can enter a training mode where you will be able to practice on a dummy from three to five minutes, depending on how the machine is set up. It's a nice feature for those who are just getting into the Soul series and want to have some uninterrupted play time to try out the system. However, how useful it really is due to it not being as extensive as any console training mode is debatable.

Visually Soul Calibur 2 shines, not only in technical aspects but in the direction of the artwork as well. Opting to go in the opposite direction of Soul Calibur's bright and lush colors, Soul Calibur 2 goes for a darker, more brooding look, which is evident when looking at many of the stages, such as the Japanese palace and the Harbour. Even the characters themselves seem much more evil in appearance. Nightmare in particular looks especially sinister in both of his costumes, as does Mitsuguri in his second player costume. While the game does look good, in some aspects it doesn't compare to the arcade version of Virtua Fighter 4, which is running on the Naomi board. You won't be witnessing a crazy amount of light sources in Soul Calibur 2, but technicalities aside, the game looks mighty nice, with incredibly fluid animation. Just don't be expecting the leap that the Dreamcast version of Soul Calibur had over its arcade brother.

Just like in all of the Soul games, Soul Calibur 2 has some terrific soundtracks for each arena. The announcer is also a little less repetitive in his duties, introducing each fight according to the arena the fight is set in. The characters themselves have a mix of English and Japanese dubbing, which might annoy some nitpickers. While Mitsuguri has a traditional Japanese dub, Taki has an English dub, and so on. The english dubs aren't horribly done, and are definitely leagues ahead of some other games (re: Resident Evil). However, there are some real annoying voices, such as Xianghua and Maxi. On the whole the dubbing is still good, if not a little inconsistent.

Namco have redeemed themselves with Soul Calibur 2. After the (debatable) mess that was Tekken 4, Namco have pulled a complete 180 with this title. Sporting the great gameplay that has been a hallmark of the Soul series, combined with the expected visual and aural goodness that Namco is known for, Soul Calibur 2 is definitely going to light up arcades and consoles everywhere. Here's hoping that Namco can repeat the success that they've had here with the next installment of Tekken.

· · · Reno