Soul Calibur VI: First Impressions

The best way to describe my initial impressions of Soul Calibur VI (and yes, I know it’s ‘SoulCalibur’ but I prefer it with the space) is to say that it’s good but it should be better. It’s kind of frustrating because the foundation is here to build what should have been the definitive Soul Calibur game. At least, that’s how I feel right now, with just over 15 hours played. As I sink more time into the game, my opinion may change, so keep that in mind.

I haven’t really got stuck into a fighting game for several years. In fact, the last time I did was probably Soul Calibur IV a decade or so ago. The original SC on the Dreamcast was one of my favourite games on the platform, as was SC II on the GameCube. But I didn’t play SC III or V, and I’ve kind of drifted away from the fighting genre ever since SC IV.

So I was kind of excited to return to the series with VI. I think I probably preferred the SC series because it’s a more ‘casual’ fighter in the sense that it’s far easier to pick up and play. The button combos aren’t needlessly convoluted or tricky to perform and many characters share similar inputs, so even if you’ve never played a particular character before, you’ll already have a foundation of basic moves upon which to build. SC was never really about mastering complicated combos. It was more about movement, timing and precision. Knowing the right move to perform and when for the greatest impact.

I also liked the focus on solo/story content. Whereas many recent fighters seem to be more focused on online/tournament play, SC VI offers a substantial single player experience. It’s best to begin with ‘Libra of Souls’ – a story based mode in which you create a custom character – because it offers a good range of tutorials that explain various aspects of the combat system.

 

Libra is an RPG-lite in the sense that you ‘level up’ as you traverse the world and complete missions, but it’s pretty basic. You can buy or win new weapons, some of which can be upgraded with unique boosts, but it’s a very limited system. The story of Libra will carry you across the world and your custom character will encounter the ‘main’ cast of SC VI at various points.

It’s a story that runs parallel to that of the ‘core’ SC VI story and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen so far. It starts slow, with a lot of very easy, single round fights. But once you start hitting level 25-30, that’s when it gets a little more interesting. I’m currently level 33 and I’ve just had a couple of very challenging ‘boss’ style fights and it appears I’ve still got a long way to go.

I also like that you can totally change your character or weapon at any time, so you’re not locked to a particular look or style. In addition to the Libra is the core story mode – Soul Chronicle – in which every character has their own unique segment that combines into a complete tale. But I haven’t got stuck into this mode yet, so I can’t really comment on it here.

And then we have Arcade mode, which is a little strange in the sense that’s it’s just eight random fights – there’s no ‘boss’ fight at the end. You’re also only ranked on time taken. I’ve played it a couple of times and it’s fine, I guess, but it feels a little tacked on. You also have the standard Versus mode against the CPU, and a training mode to learn the various moves.

 

The training mode is decent, but not great. Although I’ve gotten used to seeing the button inputs displayed as they would on a fight stick and not on my 360 pad – where A is X and B is Y – it would have been nice if you had the option to display the inputs according to your chosen controller. It would also be nice to be able to display them on the screen as you practice, rather than having to enter and exit the various menus every time you want to learn a new combo.

The custom character creator is a lot of fun, and I’ve probably spent a couple of hours just messing around with it. I do understand people not wanting custom characters in ranked – because some people design characters that use equipment to intentionally ‘hide’ their character animations, making it very difficult to read or respond – but those incidents are pretty rare from what I’ve seen, and I quite like seeing all the crazy shit people have created.

Which leads us onto online play which I’ve enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would. It has its problems, no doubt. I’ve had several network errors kicking me out of a match, and lag can sometimes kick in making everything seem like it’s running in slow motion. In a way, I kind of prefer getting matched against higher ranked players because I know that – even if I lose – I’m going to get a pretty good fight.

 

I like to win, don’t get me wrong, but I also like a good scrap that goes right to the wire. I like fights where I can mix up my play. Where it’s a little more tactical. Cat and mouse. Where, even if I lose, I feel like I had a good time and maybe learnt something new. Of course, not every online fight is like this. There’s a lot of players who just spam one or two heavy combos and try to pin you against a wall or get an easy ring out.

It’s not my place to tell people how to play or enjoy the game, but I can’t say I find these fights much fun because the best way to defeat them is to simply find a combo they don’t know how to counter and spam it right back at them. Sure, I like winning, but winning like that just isn’t much fun, at least for me. I prefer matches where I get to see a range of moves and tactics, even if I lose. The ‘spam’ attack matches are kind of anti-fun, but it’s just something you have to learn to deal with.

Visually, SC VI looks dated. It doesn’t look bad, but it doesn’t look as good as it should, either. The character models don’t look much better than I remember in IV, and the stages look even worse. The production value, at least as far as the visuals go, is poor considering the price. Which leads us back to my initial impressions that everything Soul Calibur VI does it does well – but it could and should have done it better. That said, I’m certainly enjoying my time with the game and once I’ve completed Libra and the core story mode, I’ll be sure to post a final review.