SoulCalibur IV has been released, purchased, and played. The result? More frustration, swearing, and instant console shut-offs than I've had in awhile. Yet I turn the system back on and start the game up again.
The fourth game in the Soul Calibur series has become a love/hate relationship. In addition to an AI that is either dumb as dirt or omnipotent and god-like, there is also a game with excellent controls, beautiful visuals, and a great cast of characters (sans Star Wars).
The quickest scapegoat for me being the AI. As I have no local friends who are interested in fighting games, and I rarely play online, playing against the CPU is usually my experience when it comes to fighters. Unfortunately, the AI seems to ramp up the difficulty way too quickly so that one round I could play a near perfect match only to be completely stomped the next round. One little mistake can be quickly punished - harshly.
While I am not the best fighter out there (probably a step up from a button masher), it does not make a good case that better players out there result to cheap tactics against the AI to complete some of the objectives, such as the tower of souls. A challenge can be fun, cheap tricks is not.
However, I did get a chance to play against a friend locally for awhile and that is when SoulCalibur IV became the game I wanted. Playing against another person instead of the CPU, I was able to more consistently pull off moves and guard. Though my Talim seems to hop around much more than I remember and unfortunately ring myself out jumping off the platforms.
Of the new features I really like the armor breaking aspect. By executing hits in certain locations, a player can take away some defense of the opposing player; this will also alter the character's appearance in the match. The guest characters is also a nice option that Namco Bandai had played with in Soul Calibur II, and it returns with many more guests for IV; and this time the same guests are available on both platforms ($5 more for Darth Vadar and Yoda). Most of the guest characters seemed to fit in well within the universe, but for me the Star Wars characters just didn't offer any fun. Yoda feels cheap to play against, and is even worse to play as; while the apprentice feels generic. Fans of the Star Wars universe may be satisfied though.
Overall SoulCalibur IV is a great step for the series. Soul Calibur II may have been technically the first to be in HD (and very nice looking), it is SoulCalibur IV that really takes advantage of the systems providing excellent character models and environments. While I could do without the Star Wars cameos, at least they are mostly optional and can be ignored. Create a Soul is fairly deep and offers a lot of options for creating a character that best suits a player's style.
A better AI would definitely make a less frustrating experience. Then again, a better me would also help.
