Versus - Soulcalibur III and Soulcalibur IV Part 2

  Almost a full three years after the Soul series's third installment, Soulcalibur IV debuted in North America in 2008, once again predating foreign releases.  It was released to the PS3 and XBox 360, which made it the first game to feature online play, as well as HD graphics.

  The story is that after the clash between Siegfried and Nightmare in the Lost Cathedral, each with their soul sword, they released the old Hero King Algol who was sealed inside Soul Calibur.  Algol is thought to be one of the first wielders of Soul Edge, but one of the only individuals who had a stronger will than the cursed sword and thusly used it for good.  Algol's son however wasn't as strong and claimed Soul Edge for himself, turning on his father in the process.  Algol wrestled away the evil blade, but in doing so killed his son.  Knowing Soul Edge's nature and with regret in his heart, the Hero King sacrificed himself, his son's body, and a piece of the broken Soul Edge and turned into the crystalline Soul Calibur.

  Meanwhile Siegfried and Nightmare each own a fully powered soul sword now and are poised to do savage battle once again at the location of Algol's newly resurrected tower called... um... The Tower of Remembrance... and that's the entire premise of this story.  This is also one of the first failings of this game.  The story is weak.  Soulcalibur III offers the entire premise of it's story via an adventure mode for each character.  Even it's intro FMV gives you a good sense of the world as it stands in the eternal battle of souls and swords.
  That brings me to the second failing.  Soulcalibur IV has no FMV sequences at all.  All sequences are done with in game graphics, and while they look good, they aren't that good.  Soulcalibur II and Soulcalibur III had awesome FMV sequences that really set the mood and pace.  Even Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny had a FMV opening, and that was a PSP game.

  I think I've beat around the bush long enough.  Let's talk about something that really annoyed me about this game.  More or less, Soulcalibur IV was just a big advertisement for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed which was coming out later that year for pretty much any kind of device that would play a game.  For the PS3 version Darth Vader his Apprentice (Starkiller) were playable out of the box while the XBox 360 replaced Vader with Yoda, though your version's missing character could be purchased as downloadable content.

  Now I don't necessarily mind guest characters.  Link was awesome in Soulcalibur II, and Kratos is a neat addition for Broken Destiny.  That's because they look like they fit.  Now look at that picture above.  Yoda does not belong here.  Worse yet, there are a few battle areas on the Death Star.  Imagine characters from the late 16th century doing battle in space station with laser gates and space docks (even if all of these things are from a long time ago and far, far away).
  One important thing about any game is that it's immersive.  Let's imagine Super Mario Bros. for example.  What if there was a special cross over with Lord of the Rings that had Mario stomping on Ringwraiths, kicking palantirs, and dodging flaming arrows as you struggle with the burden of carrying the One Ring to Mordor.  There after you're back in the Mushroom Kingdom and solely concerned with Bowser and his antics again.  Absurd, I know.  Soulcalibur IV is equally absurd.
  The gameplay options are equally weak, featuring a simplified Story Mode which isn't much past Arcade Mode aside from little cutscenes between battles.  There is also Tower of Lost Souls which you can either ascend for special battle situations to overcome, or descend for a more classic survival mode.
  Character creation returns, but brings along new elements that served to ruin the experience.  Armor and weapons now have stats similarly to an RPG that affect attack, defense, and life bar.  Generally, you won't be able to make a character look the way you want and have decent stats at the same time.  On top of that, in battles your equipment can be broken, which more often than not leaves you with warriors running around in their underwear.
  Thankfully Soulcalibur IV is just as easy to pick up and play as it's predecessors, which for me is always a big plus.  That's not to say that the gameplay is identical though.  There is one new gameplay aspect that completely ruins the battles, especially between skilled opponents: Soul Crush and Critical Finishes.  As you defend attacks you lose soul energy until it eventually depletes putting you into Soul Crush.  If your opponent hits his horizontal, vertical, kick, and guard buttons at the same time when you are in Soul Crush, he get's to execute a Critical Finish which will instantly kill you.  It does not matter how much health you have, you lose the round instantly and move on to the next.  It's cheap and unfair and feels like a Mortal Kombat idea more than a Soulcalibur idea.

  That said, there are good things about this game that are very much worth mentioning.  Graphically it's stunning.  Levels are gorgeous to look at and characters are very smooth and natural looking.  Metal looks like metal and cloth looks like cloth, water looks very fluid, and backgrounds look naturally out of focus.
  Some battle situations allow for you to chose two characters and switch between them on the fly in a tag battle sense which is very fun, but sadly unused in any versus situation.  The feature is absent for Broken Destiny which is sad as with a little refining it could make for a unique battle mechanic for both offline and online play.
  Lastly the music is still wonderful.  Soulcalibur games have always been known for having a robust orchestrated soundtrack, and  IV is no different.  And fans of the series from the Dreamcast days can download the original Soulcalibur soundtrack for Soulcalibur IV.  The only time the music fails to keep you in the theme of the game is on the Star Wars levels, and we don't need to get into that again.
  Between weak story, bad tie-ins, empty gameplay, crappy character creation, and striptease combat, Soulcalibur IV left a lot to be desired, especially after the experience that Soulcalibur III provided.  The bar was set high and IV feel way short.  It's not even at II's level though I would put it on par with the original and above Soul Blade.   It speaks volumes when many of these complaints were fixed for Broken Destiny.
  Recently it's been more or less confirmed that Namco-Bandai's Project Soul team is working on what will likely be Soulcalibur V.  It's my hope that they're learning from the mistakes they've made, and remembering what made the series great to begin with.  It's about the gameplay and the experience.  It's about being able to immerse yourself into a world where the Spirit Sword and the Cursed Sword are locked in a struggle that calls forth fighters from all over the world.  Hopefully the next Soulcalibur will remind us why the tale of souls and swords will be eternally retold.