Soulcalibur III
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| Soulcalibur III | |
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 The NTSC box art for the game, depicting characters Mitsurugi and Ivy in the background, Zasalamel in the front, and Nightmare in the logo. |
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| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) | Namco |
| Designer(s) | Hiroaki Yotoriyama |
| Series | Soul series |
| Native resolution | 480p (EDTV) 480i (SDTV) |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2, Arcade |
| Release date | NA October 25, 2005 EUR November 18, 2005 JPN November 23, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Fighting |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players simultaneously, for up to 8 players total in a League mode |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T (Teen) PEGI: 16+ OFLC: M OFLC/NZ: M CERO: 12+ |
| Input methods | 8-way Joystick, 6 Buttons |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system | Namco System 256 |
Soulcalibur III (ソウルキャリバーIII Sourukyaribā Surī?) is the sequel to Soulcalibur II and is the fourth overall installment in the Soul series of fighting games. It was released exclusively for the PlayStation 2, unlike its predecessor Soulcalibur II, which was also released for both GameCube and Xbox, with a single unique character featuring in each version.
Soul Calibur is the name of the holy sword, created to battle the evil sword Soul Edge, around which the game's story-lines revolve.
The game includes new modes such as Tales of Souls, an interactive story-driven mode comparable to Soul Edge's Edge Master Mode; Character Creation, in which players can create custom characters from thirteen total occupations, with multiple weapons and fighting styles; and Chronicles of the Sword, a real-time-play mode that allows players to take their created souls through adventures of their own. The game also has the largest character roster — 24 characters playable in Tales of Souls mode and an additional 18 playable in all other modes — and largest battle stage selection in Soul series history.
Although recent generations of fighting games in the Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Dead or Alive series have supported online play, Soulcalibur III does not. The game's producer, Hiroaki Yotoriyama has said that, "At the current time, the online infrastructure is extremely different between countries, and there's people that can not enjoy network gaming. We've decided to concentrate on improving the game's offline content and its characters so that people all over the world will be able to have fun."[1]
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[edit] Overview
As with its predecessor Soulcalibur II, Soulcalibur III was initially well-received by both the gaming community and critics. However, several serious glitches in the game have since emerged.
[edit] Variable Cancel Technique
There is a technique, commonly known as "VC", that allows players to cancel their character's animation during a move, visually stopping the animation though still allowing the completion of the move they had begun. An exhibition video of this technique has been captured by South West Gamer Arena.
The variable cancel (VC) technique can be exploited immediately following a throw-break or guard impact (GI), as well as during certain situations with throws and moves. VC is also sometimes referred to as G22. This name comes from the numerical convention for referring to the directions a player can move in. A player can move forward, backward, left, right, and the along the main diagonals. These directions are referred to as being mapped onto the numerical keypad of a computer keyboard, and are always used from a first person perspective (e.g. 6 always refers to forward, whether the player is on the left or right side of the screen). The attack buttons are A (horizontal attack), B (vertical attack), K (kick attacks), and G(guard).
[edit] File corruption problems
Another issue that arose during the game's release was a file corruption problem. Players were finding their save files (usually the Chronicles of the Sword file) corrupted for seemingly no reason. This led to severe frustration since most of the game's content was unlocked in the Chronicles of the Sword mode. The corruption usually occurs when a player erases or moves any game data not related to Soulcalibur III that was saved before the file's creation date from their memory card when they have data from Soulcalibur III on the same card.[2]
[edit] Prologue
This game happens a short amount of time after Soulcalibur II, meaning the year is still 1591. The amount of time is not specified, but taking into account the various character's profiles, a minimum of four months has already passed (one month Xianghua needed to carry Kilik back to his master's hermit, three months that took Kilik to surpass his master's training.)
The wicked Soul Edge survived its fated encounter with the wielder of Soulcalibur, Xianghua, and restored its control over the body of Siegfried Schtauffen, turning him back into the Azure Knight Nightmare. Four years later Nightmare was about to restore Soul Edge, when suddenly a man named Raphael who wielded a thin rapier appeared, intending on taking Soul Edge. Nightmare defeated the attacker, but was distracted by Siegfried's latent will trying to restore his body. Using the distraction, Raphael pierced Soul Edge's eye, giving Siegfried the edge he needed to break free from Soul Edge's control once again.
After waking up, Siegfried found the holy sword, free from its entrapment within the wicked sword, and out of instinct used it to pierce Soul Edge. The result led to both swords sealed together in a fateful embrace, an Embrace of Souls. Siegfried took both weapons and started a quest to find a definitive way of sealing Soul Edge, but memories of his slaughters, plus the attacks of those resentful of the Azure Knight, drove his mind towards insanity. Unbeknownst to him, the evil soul of the blade escaped and obtained a temporary shell, starting a new killing spree to strengthen himself while seeking its body, Soul Edge.
What neither of the two warriors knows is that a man behind the scenes is controlling their steps, searching to end an everlasting curse. And that many other warriors ventured in search of the blade as well.
[edit] Characters
Nearly all characters who have been featured in a Soul series title in the past return, except for Inferno, Necrid, Seong Han-myeong, Edge Master (the Edge Master's dark form is rumored to be a "Shadow Master", that can be reached in Tales of Souls mode), and the console-exclusive guest characters Heihachi, Link, and Spawn. Soulcalibur II's mimic character Charade does return, but only as an non-playable enemy character appearing on certain paths for some characters' Tales of Souls. Other unlockable characters include personnel in the Chronicles of the Sword quest, opponents from the Tales of Souls mode, and the weapon, armor, and item shop owners.
[edit] New Characters
New characters presented in Soulcalibur III are:
- Zasalamel – Uses a scythe.
- Setsuka – Uses a iaitō/iai sword hidden inside a parasol, which is used as a scabbard.
- Tira – Uses a ring-shaped edged weapon called Ring Blade, which is similar to a large chakram.
- Olcadan – Imitates other characters' weapons, one per character, lining up with the chosen weapon of his. The character he imitates is chosen at random, making him similar in style to Edge Master and Charade from the previous games.
- Abyss – Uses a mutated scythe.
- Night Terror – Uses a giant zweihänder. Night Terror is the true final boss of the game, appearing only if certain requirements in the Tales of Souls mode are met. He's not unlockable in normal game play.
[edit] Custom disciplines/Bonus characters
Custom Disciplines are available to custom characters. They tend to be plainer than disciplines of main characters, mostly not involving taunts and side throws. Several weapon designs of disciplines are based upon characters that use similar weapons (usually unused weapons from Soulcalibur II).
- Chinese Blade / Luna.
- Chinese Sword / Hwang Seong-gyeong.
- Dagger (paired with a small bomb) / Chester.
- Grieve Edge (bladed shoes) / Valeria.
- Iron Sword (Zweihänder) / Strife Astlar.
- Katana / Arthur.
- Katana and Shuriken / Miser.
- Dual Kunai / Greed.
- Lance / Girardot Argezas.
- Dual Nunchaku / Li Long.
- Rapier / Amy.
- Steel Fan / Demuth Beel Zebus.
- Extendable Staff / Hualin.
- Segmented Sickle / Aurelia Dichalha Dolce.
- Sword and Shield / Abelia Schillfelt.
- Dual Tambourines / Lynette.
- Dual Wave Sword (Curved blades) / Revenant.
- Imative Power/Doppleganger
- Imative Power/Willo the wisp
- Imative Power/Charade
[edit] Features
- The Character Creation Mode allows the player to choose a class (ninja, monk, dancer, knight, thief, barbarian, saint, samurai, gladiator, pirate, assassin, sage, or swordmaster), clothing and armor, and physical features. Except for the Swordmaster class, each class can use up to five disciplines, three of which are unique, and two of which are "Soul of ..." disciplines: an exact replica of a main story character's moves (although the Thief and Assassin classes both have Soul of Tira). Swordmasters can use all disciplines except for the "Soul of ..." disciplines. The Created Fighter's personality can be altered, which influences their quotes and the actions during battle. However, this personality is chosen by the equipment the character wears, and not directly by the player.
Namco added some Easter eggs as well: by using the Type X items in their default colors, the character completed looks exactly like KOS-MOS from the Xenosaga series. Other clothing options from other Namco games are: King/Armor King's jaguar mask, Jin Kazama's fire dragon pants, Neneko's (from Yumeria) hat, Gilgamesh's (from Tower of Druaga) helmet, Nightmare's helmet from his second costume in Soulcalibur, Kunimitsu's fox mask from Tekken, and parts to recreate Taira no Kagekiyo from Genpei Tōma Den and the Valkyrie character from Valkyrie No Densetsu.
- The Soul Arena is a mode that allows both the eight-match Quick Play (the standard Arcade Mode of the game), which is light on story and allows a speedy confrontation with Abyss, as well as the pre-defined Missions which include variations on the standard matches, such as the Scorer mission, where the player attempts to inflict damage to gain points.
- The Tales of Souls mode is a mode comparable to Soul Edge's Edge Master Mode. The mode is presented as a book, narrating the selected character's story in detail during various chapters. The player can input button combos when an icon appears in the top right-hand corner during cut scene movies. The cut scenes can have different outcomes depending on whether the player successfully inputs this sequence. During movies that precede a battle after the cut scene ends, not inputting the code could result in the player starting the subsequent battle with a shorter life gauge or some other disadvantageous effect.
- In the Chronicles of the Sword mode, the player's created characters advance through twenty Chronicles, increasing in power and in level, unraveling a story of political intrigue and war, and involving themselves in game play that is a hybrid of real-time strategy and traditional Soulcalibur style matches.
- There's a World Competition mode created to simulate tournament rounds (of either eliminations or Round Robin) against the CPU.
- Most Extra Weapons make a return from Soulcalibur II. In this installment, however, the number of extra weapons is reduced to 8 different weapons (including the two defaults for 1P and 2P, the Ultimate Weapon, Joke Weapon and The Ancient). The system is once again changed, this time based solely on abilities (normally 2 per weapon, 4 per Ultimate and 3 occasionally). Icons are displayed telling every effect in detail for each weapon.
- There are no third character costumes presented in this installment, but to compensate there's a Color Edit mode, where the player can edit the colors out of 3 (or in some cases 4) sections of a character's costume and make their own personal version of it. The parts that can be changed range from clothing to skin to hair color.
[edit] Chronicles of the Sword
Chronicles of the Sword is a one-player mode. The objective is to make a character using the custom character creation system and play it through a story. You begin with you starting out as a rookie general for the Grandall Empire. There are 20 Chronicles, or levels, each one getting harder than the last. The basis is your troops are minimized and you move them like board game pieces. You must fight the enemies and take their strongholds scattered through the level. When two enemies on the map are fighting, you could have them slash each other on their own or select "Battle" and duke it out Soulcalibur style. Winning the chronicles results in a certain amount of gold depending on how well you did. As your characters fight, they gain levels, and become stronger. Sometimes the standard characters may be found in strongholds or standing and they are always level 60 (Olcadan and Abyss, however, do not appear). As the story progresses you also gain some pre-made characters that you can control.
The plot places the player's character in the role of a young cadet of the Grandall Empire, who is chosen to lead the war against its neighboring countries, Halteese and Dalkia. As the player proceeds in his/her campaign, taking territories and forcing enemy troops back, he/she starts to realize the true meaning of war and the reason he/she fights, eventually discovering the true enemies of his/her country.
Throughout the chronicles, the player gains many rewards. Most character's ultimate weapons (the weapons with four effects) are obtained throughout the story. The player can also unlock more armor, faces, disciplines, etc. for custom characters. Also, if you start Chronicles of the Sword after you have unlocked certain weapon disciplines, your character may use those during battle(for example, if you create a knight, and you have already unlocked Soul of Siegfried, you may use his weapons during the Soulcalibur style matches).
[edit] Soulcalibur III: Arcade Edition
| “ | Soul Calibur III: Arcade Edition is a re-tuned, re-vamped, and, most importantly, fixed version of Soul Calibur III. Naturally, all glitches found in the console version have been fixed. In addition to that, we've re-tuned the overall balance of many moves and re-vamped Amy, Hwang and Li Long as official characters. All three have been revised into more distinctive move sets and help to expand the already expansive Soul Calibur III line-up. | ” |
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—WCMaxi (Namco Producer) |
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From the home version, the entire cast returns as playable characters except Abyss, who is now a non-playable boss character alongside Night Terror. From the 17 bonus characters only 3 make it into the arcade: Hwang Seong-gyeong, Li Long and Amy Sorel, who have been reworked and expanded into more deep playing styles. The total roster of the arcade ascends to 27 selectable characters.
The game has three different modes: a standard Training Mode, where one can train the characters' moves in a set time of 300 seconds; a Standard Mode or Classic Arcade Mode comprised of 9 battles in a row, without cut scenes or endings; and a Legends Mode, described below.
[edit] Legend Mode
This new mode has many similarities with Soulcalibur II Arcade-Only Conquest Mode. In this mode, the player chooses a character to use, then a legend character (which is not the chosen character) to challenge. The player then fights eight consecutive battles to gain experience and levels, facing the challenged legend character at the 5th battle, and the player's equivalent legend character at the 8th battle. If the player chooses the legend character that is the same as the character they have chosen to play, they will fight the highest ranked legend character on the machine during the 5th battle. As the player's character gains levels, stat points may be allocated to improve the character's innate abilities. Players gain more experience the better they perform in battle.
There are four different attributes for any given character: STR (Strength) increases the character's attack power, DEX (Dexterity) adds special effects like Auto-Guard or Guard Damage, VIT (Vitality) increases the life and survivability of the character, and LUK (Luck) increases the chances that a character might win giving it Auto-Parry, Poison or other skills.
The player's character is only temporary unless they are able to defeat the equivalent legend character and surpass their level. For example, a player chooses Siegfried and wins at the 8th battle against the Legend Character Siegfried (Level 60). Upon the defeat of the Legend Character, the player's Siegfried was able to get to Level 62. The player is prompted to enter a name for their character and the player's character replaces the old Legend Character Siegfried.
If the player defeats the Legend Character (8th Battle) but is not able to surpass their level, the options of powering up or powering down the Legend Character become available. Owners of the Legend Character would end up choosing to power up their Legend Character. Others would power down the character to make it easier to replace that Legend Character. Defeating the challenged Legend Character (5th battle) would also give options for powering up or powering down that character. Losing to the Legend Character (8th Battle) only gives the option of powering up the character. Players may also choose to do nothing and leave the character as is.
On the average, players will be able to get their character to level 60. The default Legend Characters start at level 50. Based on observation, the attribute limit is 200, and the level limit is 999.
[edit] Collectible card game
Soulcalibur III is part of the Universal Fighting System Collectible Card Game, created by Sabertooth Games and now published by Fantasy Flight Games. It was one of the official founding franchises of the card game, alongside Street Fighter, when the game was released April 2006. UFS has seen 5 expansions based on Soulcalibur III's characters and history.
[edit] Awards
- E3 2005 Game Critics Awards: Best Fighting Game[3]
- E3 2005 GameSpot Awards: Best Fighting Game[4]
- IGN: Best Overall Fighting Game of 2005
[edit] References
- ^ Hirohiko Niizumi (2005-03-31). Soul Calibur III's producer talks details. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2006-09-16.
- ^ Soul Calibur III Message Board - Soul Calibur III Forum - Soul Calibur III Discussion
- ^ 2005 Winners. gamecriticsawards.com.
- ^ E3 2005 Winners. GameSpot.
8th best game of 05. Gametrailers.com
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
Wikia has a wiki on this subject: Soulcalibur Wiki
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