Soul Calibur 3 = Best Fighting Game!!

Back during the Playstation 2 era, many were wondering whether another Soul Calibur was to appear. Namco finally announced in late 2004 that they were making another Soul Calibur. Many feared that it would not live up to the stellar Soul Calibur 2 and were very weary on buying it, but luckily it has surpassed the second installment of the series by adding new modes, characters and even a grand create a character mode that puts even some wrestling games to shame.

   As usual, the weakest aspect of Soul Calibur's 3 is the story. According to Gamefaqs, the game follows the main story of the other games, in which the evil sword Soul Edge is being controlled and used for evil and must be stopped. By playing as good characters the goal of the story is to destroy the sword and by playing as bad characters your object is to gain its power. There is some variation in the stories of the characters but they are not different enough to be satisfying. You will often be treated to the same cut scenes over and over again in different stories in the Tales of Souls mode and it gets slightly annoying when trying to clear it with all the characters. One positive aspect of the Tales of Souls mode is the endings for each character. Unlike the last installment, the endings are not just still frame pictures, but played out with the in game graphics. If the rest of Tales of Souls played out like the endings and there were longer cut scenes it may have been a better experience. There is another mode in the game called Chronicles of the Sword, which is a totally different story, but just like Tales of Souls the story is extremely lacking and at times you will wonder why they even added one at all.

    The gameplay in Soul Calibur 3 is where the game really shines. There are over thirty playable characters and with the addition of bonus characters and the custom characters, you have a wide range of fighters to play. All the characters have different weapons giving each a different style of fighting which equates to different moves. There is a wide range of speed and power with the characters giving the stronger enemies slower, more powerful attacks and the weaker characters quick and fast attacks. The gameplay is still pretty balanced and many of the “cheap” moves from the last installment have been altered or tweaked to make them less imposing and in some cases hindering a character over all. The characters mostly retain most of there moves from the previous games but some of them have a few different moves and a lot of the moves have been mapped to different buttons. While the characters may feel different to some people it will not take long to relearn the moves that have been changed. 

   According to Vgchartz.com, Soul Calibur 3 has sold over 1.06 million copies worldwide. With over a million copies in circulation, Soul Calibur 3 has reached a level fighting games only dream of. It truly is one of the best fighting games of all time. 

Links:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/927089-soulcalibur-iii

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/19276/soulcalibur-iii/