Soul Calibur IV, Impressions...

Soul Calibur IV is the latest in the fighting offerings by Namco, and takes the series onto the PS3 and 360. Much has been made of the games, female characters specifically *cough* 'enhancements' *cough* (sorry one of those jokes had to be put in somewhere), possibly the most disputed being the addition of Star Wars characters in the game, as some kind of major marketing ploy perhaps. Yoda is appearing in the 360 version with Darth Vadar in the PS3 one, with Starkiller, the apprentice out of Lucasarts 'Star Wars: Force Unleashed' being in both. (see the Darth Vadar stage in the video below, if you can ignore the shouting people).

Being a fan of the series, I looked forward to this game, so lets take a look at what we know is on offer in this next game. From screen shots released yesterday, we can see that the majority of the modes from previous games are in the game, such as character creation, arcade mode, single player mode, VS mode, museum and a comic. Going on past SC games, it's likely that the single player may evolve into a strange text driven, choice adventure, or maybe even proper cutscenes this time!

The roster has been updated slightly, with the SW characters I mentioned before and a  few new faces, with previous characters being given the HD makeover and various other little bits and pieces. According to a variety of sources however, it appears that even in the completed builds Namco are showing journalists etc, character's appear unbalanced (no in power not the other way), quite badly. Lets hope Namco get it sorted out.

Another part of the SC franchise which has always shone is graphics, and from screen shots we've seen, this year is no exception. Audio has been improved, with a grander soundtrack and even better cheesy voices. Graphical effects look sharp and vivid, with animation, although still a tad rough in some videos I have seen, looking more realistic to previous games. Stages look distinct with varying uses of light and textures and the character models themselves looking very detailed. But, what is the price the users have the pay for all these graphics....

...Quite a bit according to Kotaku (amongst many) as rumours of a install as large as 6.5GB have been quoted, with a 2GB save file for PS3. 360 owners don't get away with it either, as rumours are also going around that you need a HDD to play it, and if your with a 20gb one, its going to vanish pretty quickly.

So, am I looking forward to SCIV...Hmm, tricky one that. On one side, I enjoyed past games and find the weapons mechanics refreshing, but don't really think adding tonnes of extra characters (Kratos of God of War fame is also rumoured for the PS3) doesn't really wash with me, I thought adding Link etc to SCII was daft. I'll probably get it, being a bit of a SW fan and liking SC, but its about time this series focused solely on the fighting and less on top heavy characters.....