First, this is definitely the greatest Soul Calibur experience to date. If you are at all a fan or a fan that fell of the horse after Soul Calibur III, you should be quick to jump on this one. Yes, the Star Wars might be a turn-off, but they fit quite well in terms of gameplay and balance (NOTE: I am playing the PlayStation 3 version so my impressions are limited to Darth Vader). The combat feels a bit slower than previous iterations, but for me personally, it’s exactly what I needed to happen. SCIV still maintains the classical Soul Calibur feel, the one that’s indescribable and unattainable for most fighting games on the market. Again, I cannot stress enough, if you are a fan in the slightest sense, please buy it now.

On a side note and this is nitpicking on my part, the introduction video for this game is way, way, way, below SCII and SCIII in terms of excitement quality. I honestly expected more to come of this game, but it’s still something I can live without (maybe). It displays the new villain, Algol, two quick fighting sequences and Siegfried stabbing the ground and making crystals appear out of the ground. Again, it’s not that big of a deal, but it’s still LAME. If the intro videos mean anything to you, prepare to be disappointed, but if they don’t, just brush these comments aside.

For my first playthrough, I chose Cassandra (whose graphical upgrade I approve of) and started on Arcade Mode. Load times were surprisingly short without an install and installing the data later on virtually eliminated any presence of them. Each battle was quick to start and it helps alleviate the worry behind SCIII’s awful load times. The battles felt the same, as mentioned before, and the game didn’t suffer for it. The graphics look amazing on the 36” SDTV I was playing on, and the game will force two black widescreen bars even for those with full screen displays. The particle effects accent attacks and guard impacts nicely, and even hit contact sounds are finely tuned; for example, in a Darth Vader vs. The Apprentice battle I had, the two light sabers making contact sounded a lot different from a katana hitting a light saber.

Speaking of sound, the music has changed but it seems barely noticeable from what I’ve played so far. Victory and loss chimes are virtually the same, but the battlefield music hits on themes that weren’t previously present. In a spurt of guilty pleasure, I must say I love the fact that they added John Williams’ Duel of Fates to the Star Wars stages… Moving on.

Multiplayer has generally enjoyable, but the only I’ve played against so far, my mom, basically relegates her fighting style to button mashing. I won most of the battles, but my mom found some weird kick loop with Ivy that was hard to get out of. It’s a far cry from how she did on the original Soul Calibur when I introduced it to her a few weeks ago, but I guess it’s all the more telling of how far the gameplay has truly gone. I’m hoping to get online with a friend of mine who lives thirty yards away and comparing it to a coworker who lives a few miles away. I heard multiplayer is lagging, but I won’t know until I try it.

So far, my impressions tell me this is a five star game, but I’ll hold off on my official review until after a few more impressions and more quality time with the title.

~Carlito Cabada, Jr.