Kotaku
Namco Bandai had the first press playable build of Soulcalibur IV on hand at their CES event tonight, giving us a hands-on look at the next game in the now thirteen year old franchise. While the build looked extremely early, featuring only three playable fighters and barebones in content, it provided us with a good look at how Soulcalibur IV looks and plays in person. While increases in the Soul series have generally met with graphical upgrades, the fourth in the series may have seen the biggest jump in graphical fidelity, bringing with it self-casting shadows, subtle bloom lighting, beautiful environments and gorgeous models, all running at a reliable 60 frames per second.
Graphics aside, how does it play? Like a Soul Calibur should. The developer has decided, wisely, not to fix a game that's not broken.
As with many fighting game sequels, Soulcalibur IV is not only prettier, it's faster than its predecessor. Moves are lightning quick in the build we played, but the game's speed, not obscenely fast, may still be in the tweaking stages. The game's director asked us, after a lengthy gameplay session, how we felt about Soulcalibur IV's speed implying that it was up for discussion.
The demo we played featured only three playable characters, Mitsurugi, Taki and Cassandra. The trio were in their trademark outfits, with no option to play with a secondary (or tertiary) costume, so we didn't get eyes on with any unreleased looks for the returning fighters. In person though, everyone we did get a look at though was quite easy on the eyes. Sure, Taki's boobs flopped about ridiculously with the slightest breeze it seemed, but that's not necessarily a complaint.
Graphically, Soulcalibur IV does a few new things. The team has added a respectable amount of bloom lighting, rendering nice bright sunlight to Cassandra's oversaturated stage and bringing a nice glint to Mitsurugi's blade. Characters cast realistic shadows on stage floors, with foliage on the two levels we got a look at dropping believable, organic shade on the combatants.
Outside of the Greek stage, which may be Cassandra's or Sophitia's, the only other arena was more tropical in nature, a lush oasis with hippos and flamingos bathing in the background. Some elements of the background looked to be 2D textures, but this was only noticeable when one wasn't playing the game and many graphical nitpickers may not notice.
Some of the movesets have changed from Soul Calibur III, most noticeably Cassandra's. She played faster and with a more aggressive set of attacks than before, with a couple of new kicks we certainly didn't recognize. Honestly, though, I'm more of an Ivy and Yoshimitsu player, so don't consider me the authority on movesets for the available souls.
Unfortunately, there were many game improvements we would have liked to play but couldn't. Online play wasn't available, nor was the new gauge that allows for "finishing moves" that can end a fight without a ring out, expired time limit or win by health gauge. We also didn't get to preview the custom character creation tool. We were especially intrigued in it by the Soulcalibur IV team's decision to allow costume choices to affect how your character fights (read: heavy armor choices can make for a slower character).
Speaking of ring outs, they did feel a bit more challenging to pull off. In one match against Siliconera's Spencer Yip, a pair of what seemed like assured ring outs turned into a loss for me and a win my still in-bounds rival.
The build we played was nowhere near finished, as it was missing voiceovers, plenty of characters and the odd animation, but it seems that everyone came away pleased. We're definitely looking forward to playing a more complete Soulcalibur IV, as it appears from a few hours of gameplay that the Project Soul team has built a purchase-worthy set of new features on top of a solid foundation.
Comments
Best. Photo. Ever.
Michael... I pwned your father!
hmm I hope these "finishing moves" aren't broken
*cough*guiltygear*cough*
Ooooh, so that's what they were hinting at before. Finishing moves...it makes so much sense now.
Star Wars? Exponentially increasing breast sizes? "A new gauge that allows for "finishing moves" that can end a fight without a ring out"?
Jumped.
The.
Shark.
And what does the Wii get ? that Soul Calibur Legends piece of crap ! I think the only good thing about that game is that it features a great Tales character, Lloyd !
Dear god imagine the bouncing of Ivy's boobs 0_o
And that pic is awsome. Is that a fan or a dev guy talking to you. And if he is talking to you, is he doing it the Darth Vader way?
@goldwings: Namco brought in a handful of Stormtroopers and very tall Darth to keep us company. Unfortunately, the Darth Vader sounded more muffled than imposing.
Good god, I cannot wait to get my hands on this game. I'm hoping once the dust settles from this latest Soul Calibur 4 showing that Namco will release more info on Tekken 6...a solid release date would be a nice start.
@McWhertor:
YOu should have robbed of his suit and showed how Darth Vader REALLY sounds.
Imagine that? McWhertor stealing a Darth Vader suit and then giving it away on a Kotaku contest? Of course, he'd never do that.
...Give it away, I mean.
One of my must buy titles for 2008. Too bad I won't be in the States when it comes out this summer.
@Shindokie (psn and xbl): You didn't smell the suit... :(
hope they bring back Maxi and buff him up again, he was horrible in Soul Calibur III with such a plain moveset
@Shteve: lol wii got the back hand
ironically, Vader is playing the Yoda version
Please chip in and ask if Vader can be DLC for the 360 version...
Only problem is when developers choose to not fix something that is not broken, they forget about improving and innovating and we are left with the same games with nothing more than improved visuals, repetitively.
Thanks for the impression!
@Gantz: To bad Yoda wasn't actually playable there, that would've been even more ironic.
Dont fix a game thats not broken? But Soul Calibur 3 IS broken. SC3 single handedly killed the entire Soul Calibur tournament community in a matter of 3 months. Soul Calibur 2 survived 3 years without any problems; it was a better game and simply more fun. If Soul Calibur 4 plays exactly like Soul Calibur 3, then the tournament community is in for more trouble.
@McWhertor:
Poor Mike *hugs* Ill go buy you one so then you can show him.
@Jaxel: Actually, the game is said to follow Soul Calibur II more closely, something I wanted to mention, but couldn't accurately verify with a hands-on like this.
@Jaxel: This may come as a shock to you, but more people play fighting games than just arcade dwelling, frame-count minding obsessives.
Everyone I know who plays games considers part three to be the best in the series...and are in general agreement that catering to the tourney set has largely ruined other fighters for everybody else.
@amost: Have you even played Guilty Gear? The instant kill system isn't broken, the techniques are easily blockable. And if the person misses, they have no special bar, fun times all around.
When is Soul Calibur getting released anyway? I hape we actually get a balanced game this time around.
@Jaxel: SC3 is slightly less broken in the arcades, try it! It's fun!
@amost: how were the IK moves broken?
1. they're called Instant Kill moves for a reason
2. if you mess up in any way, you're screwed and have no tension gauge for the rest of the round therefore limiting anyone (other than the already adequately powered few such as Dizzy)
3. extremely easy to screw up. majority of them have extremely limited range and all are block-able resulting in no damage what-so-ever.
and besides, who the hell would ever rely on such a gamble. i've only ever used IK's when joking around with friends.
and on a side note, maybe they'll balance kilik more. even a moderate player can have a great deal of trouble taking him on.
@McWhertor: I never thought SCII was a really tight game, it was fun but any button masher could beat a pro (I'm talking from the button masher perspective), I bought it just for Link though, not a big fan of fighting games, guess I'm gonna get this one only because of Yoda.
@McWhertor: Hmm... well I guess us tournament players will be the final judge of that. Just because they put the SC2 step system in doesnt mean it plays like SC2. All reports we have seen is that its still just SC3, but with the SC2 step system. The biggest issue with SC3 was the whole flow of the game, and how every characters moveset got cut in half when compared to their SC2 movesets. SC2 had larger movesets, which led to better mind games and balance. When they took the large movesets out, SC3 felt sluggish and extremely limited.
with history of PSTriple vs 360 multiplatform games, 360 usually have better texture, bloom effects, shadow and frame rate...
wonder if PSTriple version will have some kind of motion waggle feature with Dualshock 3?
i so wanted to play as Darth Vader in PSTriple version but graphics whore in me wants to get 360 version...
hopefully when the review comes in when the game is releases, i'll wait and see which has better visuals...
@McWhertor:
Oh quick question i had for you Michael. Do you take the bus in l.a? Because i think i saw you this one time that you were on the bus heading to santa monica for a convention for Kotaku I think. I'm not stalking you though okay.
@GregoriusH:
Man they put Link in SC2, if that wasn't jumping the shark then I don't know what is.
@ssjmichael: So I assume you think crossovers suck, that or you don't like Nintendo, Snake in Brawl FTW!
@McWhertor:
I thought the guy in the picture looked familiar.
[ces.cnet.com]
@TheCleaningGuy: I would... but SC3:AE is impossible to find. Releasing SC3 on consoles first led to a pretty bad game; many bugs may have been fixed in SC3:AE, but characters still retain their limited moveset. Why would an arcade owner buy an SC3:AE machine? For $3000 they get a machine that can play a game that players are already playing at home, with LESS features than the home version, and LESS characters. Sure, tournament players would rather have the newer version, but as Nightshift_Nurse already pointed out, us tournament players aren't where the money comes from.
@Nightshift_Nurse: Really? I know a ton of non-competetive players and even they dont play Soul Calibur 3 anymore... they were playing Soul Calibur 2 for years after the game came out. Now, no one plays Soul Calibur 3; when this far into it's life cycle, people were still loving SC2.
- Jaxel, manager of Team Crooked Jester
One of the best SC2 Talim players in the world (and proven)
@TheCleaningGuy: wow, thats some odd timing. and ironically, you of all people lol.
@MCWHERTOR:
I just have to ask (with great shame)... how was the breast physics?
@Jaxel: Sorry, afraid I can't address concerns on a tournament player level, as I've never been a serious SC player. Many hours with the Dreamcast version, some with SCII on Xbox, and only a few with SCIII.
@Shindokie (psn and xbl): I don't take the bus, but I may have been on one during E3 last year, as it was the means to get around.
@okenny :): Over the top.
@Jaxel: Really. Everyone I know still plays Soul Calibur 3 when a weapons-based fighter is in order.
And I'm not being argumentative here...I really don't know a single person that prefers Soul Calibur 2 to Soul Calibur 3. I'm among them considering 3 to be the best in the series to date. Personally, I didn't think Soul Calibur 2 felt like much more than a gussied up Soul Calibur 1.
What about individual jubblie physics? How is that?
@Nightshift_Nurse: I prefer 2 to 3, actually.
And what happened to my other comment?!
@McWhertor:
Argh! Me and my friend were arguing to see if it was you. To me your a celebrity higher then Britney Spears. I said it there.
Nope, there it is. Oh my, combo post action Soul Calibur button-mashing style!
@Shindokie (psn and xbl): Damn! Combo breaker :(
There was a report a couple years ago about a blind kid who could beat others at Soul Calibur because he memorized moves and combos. However, I wonder how he'd fare against top Smash, GGXX or SF players.
Anyways, I look forward to mashing buttons and winning at SCIV. My favorite characters were Kilik, Seung Mina and Cervantes.
One question though, did Namco show anything regarding the console version of Tekken 6? Can't wait to play Bob.
I'm confident in Namco being able to see the error in game balance from Soul Calibur III... So, hopefully they'll have the game TESTED TO DEATH... be it arcades or location testing in Japan/elsewhere...
GO NAMCO!
Hurry up and then bring Tekken 6 out too. :)
Yeah McWhertor, show that pussy who's boss. And yes, I just called the dark lord of the Sith a pussy.