With twenty years of history behind it and not having a numbered sequel since 2012, the team at Project Soul had a significant amount of pressure on their shoulders for Soulcalibur VI. Few fighting game franchises seem to carry as much nostalgia as this one. Trying to maintain or reign back in long time fans is never a bad decision, but you also want to be able to appeal to newcomers, especially with six years and a console generation having passed since your last outing.
With Soulcalibur VI (SCVI), Project Soul and Bandai Namco have done an excellent job of making a strong appeal to both veterans and newcomers alike. Accessible and flashy enough for newcomers, yet nostalgia-primed and nuanced enough for longtime fans, SCVI strikes a potent balance. Headlining some of the changes to this iteration are three all new fighters, a deep character creation tool, two new in-battle mechanics, oh, and the game was developed on the Unreal Engine for the first time.
While I’ve never come close to mastering SC, I have always favored Kilik and his bo-staff fighting style. Having played every game in the franchise at least a little bit, SCVI feels comfortably familiar right away. From the regal soundtrack and narrator to the art design and animations, it’s comfortable, familiar territory. The interesting blend of different weapons and fighting styles and eight-way directional movement with sweeping horizontal and vertical attacks is a treat to watch and play. I appreciate the dedicated block button as opposed to having players press back or ‘away’ to initiate a block, too. One other detail I read about (but wasn’t versed enough in the series to know otherwise) is that you’re no longer penalized on your meter when you sustain impact while guarding.
Controls are responsive and welcoming to newcomers, inviting both button mashers and tacticians alike. There are enough layers to the battle system that you could spend hours investigating the intricacies by practicing and reading up in the game’s dojo and library. The training mode is respectable, but leaves a lot on the table in terms of how far it could have gone. Basics are covered in detail, but more advanced techniques are left without a great deal of instruction.
There are two new battle mechanics, the Reversal Edge and the Soul Charge. Reversal Edge is a sort of game-within-the-game in that it pits players into an almost quick-time event sequence whereby you’re dueling against another player or CPU for the upper-hand in a game of chance. It’s not entirely chance or luck, but whenever you’re basically playing a face button rendition of rock-paper-scissors, it is what it is. Coming out on the winning side of this is obviously more fun than the nuisance of losing it, and overall I’m unsure of its value to the experience. Soul Charge is a meter-based mechanic whereby once you’ve gotten enough meter, you can perform a character-specific Soul Charge attack that can turn the tide of a battle if landed successfully. Animations for Soul Charge moves are exuberant and cool.
In addition to the two battle mechanics, there are also two interweaving story modes. Libra of Souls begins by taking the player to the new character creation tool, which is impressively deep and I’ll speak more about it shortly. Libra of Souls tells a story we’ve heard many times before about a group of fighters all looking to find the mysterious Soul Edge. Your created character is the protagonist on the journey and a great many battles await, with lots of miscellaneous and interesting battle conditions. The story unfolds largely through text and static imagery, and that can be a bit tedious, but it’s a lengthy mode that is worth checking out. Soul Chronicle tells basically the same story as Libra, though with a focus on three of the staple characters in the franchise, including two of my favorites Kilik and Maxi (Xianghua is the third lead character). Full voiceovers, available in English and Japanese (for some reason I always prefer to go with Japanese VOs and English subs in SC, it just feels more “authentic”), as well as some brief cutscenes are here making this a little more engaging than the Libra mode in terms of in-between battle entertainment.
Speaking of creating your character, instead of going to Libra of Souls you can also just go to the character creation tool from the main menu, which was the first thing I did upon firing up the game. Unfortunately, having created a character (by the way, there are 100 save slots for custom characters), and then having started Libra of Souls, I could not import my freshly created character into this mode. I had to start from scratch, which was fine, but maybe a slight oversight. Anyhow, creating a character is intuitive and as quick or as detailed as you want it to be. It begins by picking a character type, and there are about a dozen of these, from human to lizardman to mummy and other bi-ped types. You then select a gender and a fighting style based off of one of the main characters. Then, the palette is wide open to a variety of clothing and accessories and weapon type and colors and so forth that you want to use. I was impressed not only by the numerous options available, but also the ease at which to use them.
Three new characters enter the battle with VI, including Geralt from The Witcher who combines both sword play and some magic — he fits quite well into the Soulcalibur universe, especially given the 16th century setting. Groh, who wields a double sabre, is becoming a favorite of mine (he’s pictured in the first image above). He can teleport and mixes both bo staff moves with double sword attacks. The third character, Azwel, is a wizard-like in that he can summon a variety of bladed weapons thanks to his magical capabilities. As you might guess by his appearance and dark magic, he’s more villain than not. There are also a few characters planned for upcoming DLC.
On the whole, Soulcalibur VI does an excellent job of advancing the series while also stay true to its roots. Character creation, two new battle mechanics, new playable characters, two story modes, online play — there’s a lot of meat here for fight-hungry fans to dive into and it’s crafted and presented with the skill we’ve come to know from Project Soul.
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