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Chairman Lmao's Soul Caliber III (PS2)
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| [January 19, 2007 06:06:30 PM]
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SC3's combat system is easy to learn but hard to master; button mashing can sometimes produce a victory, but usually is suicidal against an experienced player. Characters can be hit in three zones: the high, middle, and low sections of their bodies. Blocking normally, a character fends off all high and middle attacks, but the feet are completely unguarded. Blocking low will dodge high attacks and fend off low attacks, but is vulnerable to middle attacks. Hopping can evade low attacks, but is largely a showy and ineffective maneuver. To attack, one must press one or more of the three action buttons; doing this in the correct order or in conjunction with a directional button will reveal an almost limitless arsenal of attacks. Combining different attacks and directions will almost always execute a unique attack, and experimentation is a great way to learn new techniques. The sheer quantity of attacks available to each character is sure to keep players engaged, encouraging them to always search for the best moves and to know when that move will be the most effective.
I have been playing Soul Calibur games for a very long time, and the navigating its virtual battlefield has become almost second nature to me. Even if I have never played a particular character before, I have a reasonably good idea of what it can or cannot do, and how to do it. Thus, when I sat down recently with my friends Eric and Lauren to play SC3, we choose not to play in a loser-out system, as I am significantly (read:unfathomably) more skilled than them. I started off with one of my favorite characters: Ivy. (It should be noted that at this point in my writing of the article, I lost The Game.) Ivy wields a short sword that has the ability to extend into a chain whip, and is typically clothe in dominatrix-style apparel. A good strategy to employ with Ivy is to keep foes at a distance with her whip for as long as possible, and then move in with her powerful grabs, trips, and horizontal strikes. This method was effective, as I have always found it to be. I moved on to the ninja Taki, who specializes in quick and fierce attacks, administered liberally by her twin daggers and lighting-fast feet. This method was also effective. Finally, I usedXianghua, the graceful and nimble pre-adolescent who specializes in dancing about her opponent and striking whenever her opponent presents an opening. This method was, yet again, effective.
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| [January 19, 2007 06:06:18 PM]
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Soul Calibur III is the latest iteration in the remarkable Soul series of fighting games developed and published by Namco. In tradition with the previous Soul games, SC3 offers a plethora of exquisitely detailed characters, an unparallelled variety of moves, and a fully 3D environment, which allows for strafing and aerial moves.
A cursory examination of SC3 would not reveal its considerable back story, an aspect that pervades almost every aspect of the game play, especially affecting the 24 characters and their individual motives and personalities. Admittedly, one does not need to know anything of the game's history to beat it, but the characters' frequently shouted exclamations seem almost ridiculous when taken out of context. A player may be driven to learn more about the story if he or she doesn't skip the opening cinematic; it is as compelling, intriguing, and beautifully conceived as any movie trailer I have ever seen. It introduces the characters with a series of dramatic shots of them fighting each other in a variety of exotic locales, many of which are actually playable arenas, and frequently alludes to the enchantments and sorcery that lend the game its powerful sense of fantasy. Outside this cinematic, however, only the single player "Tales of Souls" and "Chronicles of the Sword" modes reveal information about the characters and their pursuits; unfortunately, the tidbits they offer are often too concise beimmersive , and sometimes serve as an annoyance to more combat-oriented players. Conversely, a wealth of thorough biographies are available online, provoking the question: Why did the developers elect to obscure SC3's rich story when it could have added so much to game play? In my view, a simple gallery of characters and their back stories would have been an immensely rewarding feature and a reasonably strong selling point.
Namco made an intuitive yet revolutionary decision when it created Soul Calibur- all the characters were to be humanoid and bear melee weapons, unlike many other fighting games on the market, which sometime permit for the unlikely scenario in which an anthropomorphic animal squares off against a martial artist. Though rife with fantasy elements, SoulCalibur is presented in a strikingly realistic fashion. The characters are rendered as convincingly as the hardware allows, the weapons are for the most part conventional, and the matches are notably cinematic despite the lack of cut scenes. This realism aids immensely when it comes to identifying with your avatar; immersion is attained much quicker when a player recognizes that the battle he wages on screen is largely possible in real life, save for his character's resistance to seemingly fatal attacks.
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Chairman Lmao's Soul Caliber III (PS2)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Friday 12 January, 2007
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