Versus - Soulcalibur III and Soulcalibur IV Part 1

  Originally I was going to conclude my Soulcalibur reviews by talking about Soulcalibur III alone.  Of all the games in the series it's by far my favorite, and that's a huge accomplishment after how much time I put into Soulcalibur II.  However as I began to work out what I would say about the game I found myself frequently comparing it to it's successor Soulcalibur IV.  The two games are very similar in gameplay, but the differences between the two are really the case study for what future Soulcalibur games need to focus on.  So lets get started with the best of the series, Soulcalibur III!

  This installment of the Soul series debuted in North America in October of 2005, and did so strangely before it's Japanese release.  The arcade version wouldn't appear until the following year, and the game would only appear for the PS2, unlike Soulcalibur II which saw a version on all major home consoles.  Also unlike II, III would not have any special guest characters from other franchises.  No Link of Zelda fame, nor Todd McFarlane's Spawn or Necrid.  Not even Namco's own Heihachi Mishima would make an appearance.  At the time I thought this was disappointing, now I think it's definitely a plus.

  This game would reintroduce the character of Siegfried as a default playable with a unique move set, which hasn't been the case since Soul Blade where he clamed Soul Edge for himself and thus became Nightmare for Soulcalibur and Soulcalibur II.  III also had Nightmare as a default playable, but a new Nightmare that series fans were unfamiliar with.  
  Also new to the series was Tira, Setsuka, and Zasalamel.  Each of these characters were solid additions that improved upon the depth of the battle system as well as the roster of characters.
  The storyline to this game was actually really good, especially for a Namco fighting game.  Players were finally treated to a serious throw-down between Soul Edge and Soul Calibur in a battle between Siegfried and Nightmare.  The story could be experienced by playing the Tales of Souls mode that took the chosen character on a journey across Europe and Asia in pursuit of their own ambitions.  It played out in a level by level manor with the occasional option to choose a path or stop and face special bonus opponents who may be unlocked if you defeat them.
  The biggest and most welcome addition to this game is the character creation mode Create A Soul.  For the first time players could actually build their own custom character out of parts purchased with gold won from other modes or earned via achievements.  The level of customization was fairly extensive with hundreds of parts available at the start and hundreds more unlocked through play.
  Finally there was an additional mode called Chronicles of the Sword which told an alternate story about Soul Edge based in a fictional land thrust into war.  A special custom character of your own making was the main character and the game involves moving characters around a map and attacking strongholds and other characters in either a rock-paper-scissors battle or you could choose to face the opponent in a standard Soulcalibur battle.
  However you play this game it's a huge undertaking that will keep you involved for weeks.  Between leveling up your custom characters to learn new disciplines or job classes or earning enough gold for new weapons and equipment, Soulcalibur III had a lot to offer for play value and enjoyable experiences.
  There really were only two flaws with this game.  The first was that getting new disciplines for your character could take entirely too long, and there was no way of knowing if the job class you picked would level up to have the Soul discipline of the character you desired.  As a Siegfried fan, I'd have to struggle along and play 600+ battles with other characters just to unlock the Knight job class, then likely 50+ more to level up to Soul of Siegfried style.  This is easy enough for people who have friends to play with in versus mode, but for single player it's way too time consuming.
  The other problem was that the save file could corrupt on you if you deleted or moved other files on the memory card your SC III file was on.  Usually this resulted in losing your Chronicle of the Sword data while leaving the rest of the save data alone, but for a few players it ruined the entire save, and even their memory cards.  A major flaw to be sure, but unintended and with proper precautions avoidable all together.
  That said, Soulcalibur III proved itself to be a great game and any fan of fighting games can have a great time with this installment.  Fighting games don't normally have a great deal of depth, which makes it stand out all the more.  I still recommend this game, even with it being five years old.  Unfortunately, it's only playable on the PS2 or early PS3 models if you have the game disk.
  That's it for part 1 of this versus match up.  Next time we'll take a look at Soulcalibur IV and see how the PS3/XBox 360 chapter in the Soul series managed to turn to the dark side.