Game Features

10 main characters who use different fighting styles from around the world.

Kilik – Uses Kali-Yuga Rod which he wields with incredible skill and precision. The rod is very long and has the advantage of being able to use both ends of the weapon.

Xiang – A young Chinese schoolgirl who took up fighting with Chinese swords at the young age of six. She is incredibly fast and agile, often outperforming opponents with her sheer speed.

Maxi – Use the ancient Chinese weapons, the Nunchaku. These weapons are very deadly in skilled hands, and look so flamboyant and dynamic that they have become one of the most popular weapons in all martial arts styles

Mitsurugi – A traditional Japanese samurai, Mitsurugi is skilled in the art of sword fighting and wields his katana like no other man. His attacks and style are amongst the most popular in the world.

Taki – Skilled in the deadly art of Ninjitsu, Taki is an assassin who lives to kill at other’s command. Her attacks feature quick, precise kicks and short, sharp stabs and a slash from her razor sharp knifes.

Voldo – This blind fighter uses his incredible sense of hearing to detect his opponent’s movements and fights with hand shaped clusters of knives called ‘Shame and Blame’. He developed his own unorthodox style of fighting that is unique and effective.

Sophita – This female Greek maiden is very deadly with her short sword and shield. Like Taki, her attacks are swift and short, but she has a shield to protect herself from heavier and slower weapons.

Astaroth – This mammoth fighter uses a giant axe to smash and chop his opponents into oblivion. His bulk makes him slow, but he packs more power and destructive force than anyone else in the game.

Azure Knightmare – This massive German fighter uses the legendary Soul Edge sword that was lost so many years ago. Its size and power can only we wielded by few fighters and Azure uses it to cut his opponents to pieces with the greatest of ease.

Ivy – This female fighter uses a sword that extends into a chain like weapon, which gives it strength and impact of a sword and the manoeuvrability of a chain.

Team battle mode where players can select up to eight characters and fight against computer or human opponents in an ‘elimination-style’ bout.

A full training mode where players can practice against a computer opponent on any stage. Players can practice combos and experiment on any of the game’s available backgrounds.

A time attack mode where you have to race against the clock to beat your opponents in the quickest possible time.

A survival mode where you try and beat as many opponents with one life.

A museum mode where you can look at rendered art of any of the characters in the game. This art is uncovered after winning various matches in the quest mode.

There is also a Battle Theatre mode where you can pick any two characters and watch them fight on any of the game’s backgrounds. There are a number of views in this mode, including a free camera mode that allows you to zoom right in on the fighting action.

Quest mode: In this mode players travel around the world and meet new, interesting people and then kill them. In this mode you have to complete various missions and perform various tasks that will gain you points and earn you new weapons. There are a large number of extra weapons to gain in the Quest mode (over 15) and this extends the longevity of the game considerably.

Graphics

Soul Calibur utilises the Dreamcast’s high resolution mode of 640 by 480 pixels and runs at a super smooth 60 frames per second.

Each fighter displays motion captured movements for incredibly realistic animation of their movements and attacks. All weapons-based attacks and kicks are perfectly choreographed and display the best animation ever seen in a fighting game before. Fighters move beautifully and seamlessly from one attack to another and also move about the fighting area with precision and skill.

All of the fighter’s movements in the game have been motion captured from real fighters, and the result is the most spectacular fighting game ever made.

All of the fighters in the game are constructed from an incredibly large number of polygons. This gives them a level of detail that is unmatched in any fighting game today. Hair and clothes blow and flap in the wind, eyes open and close suddenly when weapons clash, and the fighters have costumes that include even the most minute details. Scabbards for swords, fully moveable body armour, and even jewellery and earings that cling to the fighter’s bodies. All of the characters talk with lips syncing perfectly to their speech and show mannerisms that you’d expect from real-life fighters. These include taunts and victory poses as well as acrobatic displays of physical superiority at the end of matches.

Soul Calibur features some of the most impressive of the Dreamcast’s graphical effects for any game on the console. These include:

Lighting: All of the stages feature some form of subtle or extreme lighting. From the golden glow that radiates from the molten lava pits in one stage to the reflections from the water in the stage in Venice, the lighting in the game is nothing short of amazing.

Transparency: All of the weapon movements are followed by a transparent trail that signifies the motion blur and speed of the weapon as it moves. Transparent effects are also used for the clashing and impact of weapons with each other. When two swords collide, for example, a bright flash of light will be emitted as well as a large transparent flash, all of which looks highly impressive.

Detailed textures: All of the characters feature the most detailed textures to ever be seen in a fighting game. Larger fighters like Astaroth sport huge muscles that have bulging veins, while other characters like Taki have traditional clothing that has patterns and embroidery on it that’s so finely detailed that you’ll swear its real. The game’s arenas are also impeccably detailed, with floors and adjacent buildings covered with almost photographic textures that leave them looking amazing.

All stages are fully 3 dimensional, with walls, fences, cliff edges, and statues and ornaments in the backgrounds. From the watery canals or Venice, to the insides of a Mountain castle with tapestries and decorated ceiling and the open courtyard in a Roman colosseum with water fountains and marble floor, the stages are impeccably detailed and visually dazzling. One particularly impressive background features a Chinese garden with traditional buildings in the background, a large water pool with fish swimming around in it and reflections showing on the top of the water itself.

Finer details are used on each of the stages to give them a feeling of total realism. These effects include; real-time lighting effects for torches that sit on the walls of castles and jets of fire that sprout from the pools on lava in some stages, birds that fly around the fighters when disturbed, autumn leaves that blow around and underneath the feet of fighters, and even rats who scurry around below the fighters on some of the stages.

Sound

Each fighter has his/her own unique background music, as well as ‘numerous speech effects that are used when performing their various attacks and moves.

The sounds of the clashing weapons are perfectly timed and incredibly authentic, giving a real sense of satisfaction whenever swords or other weapons collide.

All slashing and kick attacks are accompanied by a variety of sound effects for their contact with your opponent, with these effects generating a real sense of impact and damage that’s highly satisfying.

Gameplay

The game engine runs at 60 frames per second with all input from gaming devices updated each frame (60 times per second). This means that the game is incredibly responsive, allowing for a high level of player skill when imputing commands. Timing and execution of moves is imperative to becoming successful at the game, yet its design is so simple (with only four buttons) that beginners can jump in and play and perform plenty of moves.

Players can no move in a fully 3D environment. It’s possibly to side step and opponents attack or series of attacks and then throw them from behind or launch a series of attacks yourself. It’s also possible to run in any direction – full 360 degree movement is possible, although your opponent has this ability too, so don’t count on getting away too easily.

All of the fighters weapons have different range and damage abilities, so to successfully learn all of the game’s possible combinations and attacking methods will take even the most hard-core fighting fan a serious amount of time.

All throws in the game can now be escaped by performing the same movement within a very short period of time from when your opponent executes the move. This allows skilled players to avoid cheaper throwing tactics.

Players have the ability to perform a guard-cancel type move where they will perform a block moves (either high, medium or low) and if your opponent strikes you at this moment they will be stunned by the recoil of their foiled attack. It’s then possible to quickly launch an attack on them, as they are vulnerable for a short period of time.

A parry-style movement is also available that, like the guard cancel move, makes your opponent vulnerable for a short period of time. This move uses their attack momentum against them and puts them off balance for a short period of time.

Most players have over 100 different attacks including large chain-style combo attacks, and Soul Calibur has a great juggle system that allows you to keep your opponent airborne while you are continually punishing them with repeated attacks.

Soul Calibur is truly a next generation fighting game for the Dreamcast that takes its arcade parent and improves upon it with the Dreamcast’s awesome 3D power, while also providing a huge amount of options and features to significantly increase the game’s life as a home videogame.

In true Namco style, the fighting engine is one of the best available today, and is accessible to both beginner and expert players. The fact that the game feaures some of the best graphics and animation to ever be seen in certainly doesn’t hurt it either.