A tale of Souls and Swords, eternally retold….

Welcome back to the stage of history!

The next entry in the Soul series is here. After a rather mediocre third installment and surprise guest stars from everyone’s favorite galaxy far, far away, has Soulcalibur IV found its way back to the ever-elusive Good Sequel Bay, or is this another crash landing on Bad Game Rock?

(This review is based on the Xbox 360 version. PS3 users’ mileage may vary.)

Story

So, Fighting games are, almost as a rule, not to be played for the story. The point is more along the lines of "Fighting." Soulcalibur IV, of course, is no exception. What little plot there is, though, is actually quite good. The different characters’ endings contradict themselves at points, which is a pain, and it’s up to you to decide what’s canon, more or less. The Chronicle of the Soul mode fills in most of the blanks, and it’s at least better than Dead or Alive or Street Fighter at telling you what happens. And yes, the reason Darth Vader and Yoda are in the game makes sense. Kind of.

Story: 7/10

Graphics

Now I’m usually not one for raving about pretty pictures, but you have to understand that the graphics in Soulcalibur IV are freaking magnificent. Not just the character models, but the scenery is mind-bogglingly amazing. Armor glistens, lava flows, TIE Fighters swarm Rebel Fleets, it’s great. The generic effects are all equally pretty, and the fire effects look like they came straight over from Alone in the Dark. The only complaint I have is the variant weapons for each character are all kind of samey, mostly recolors of one another, save Siegfried’s and Nightmare’s.

Graphics: 9/10

Sound

The music is quite good. The character creation theme is kind of forgettable, but that’s good, ’cause if it wasn’t it would stick in your head with how often you’ll be hearing it. The fight music makes basically every fight feel kind of epic, and they even used al lot of different Star Wars tracks, from Duel of the Fates to the Star Wars theme song.

Sound effects are alright, I suppose. It sounds like how you’d expect a sword fight to sound, but the noise broken armor makes sounds more like you dropped some iron plate and a ball of tin foil on the ground. Lightsabers use the official Lightsaber sound.

Sound: 9/10

Gameplay

The Gameplay is great. Everyone’s more or less balanced, the final boss is nowhere near as hard as Soulcalibur III’s, but is still hard enough to present a challenge. All of the weapons are varied and fun, and the various modes ensure you won’t be bored for a long while. The only concern I have is that Yoda and the Apprentice are mind-burningly cheap. If you can get over that, it’s all great fun.

Gameplay: 9/10

Final Thoughts

Soulcalibur IV is a fantastic sequel that plays great, looks great, sounds great, and has amazing replayability. Get it. Now.

Final Score: 9/10

Soulcalibur IV is available on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.