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Soulcalibur III

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Soul Calibur III
Soul Calibur III Logo
Developer(s)Namco
Publisher(s)Namco
Designer(s)Hiroaki Yotoriyama
Platform(s)PlayStation 2
ReleaseUnited States October 25, 2005 (NA)
European Union November 18, 2005 (EU)
Japan November 23, 2005 (JP)
Genre(s)Versus Fighting
Mode(s)Up to 2 players simultaneously

Soul Calibur III is the fourth installment in the Soul series of fighting games. It was released on October 25, 2005, (November 18, 2005 in Europe) exclusively for the PlayStation 2, unlike its predecessor, which was released for both GameCube and Xbox as well.

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 eleven 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. Also included are 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 Calibur history.

Although recent generations of fighting games in the Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Dead or Alive series have supported online play, Soul Calibur 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]

Overview

Like with Soul Calibur II, Soul Calibur III was at first well-received by the players and praised by many reviewers as well. But as time goes on, many glitches and problems started being discovered. Some of them:

Variable Cancel Technique

There is a glitch, commonly known as "G22". It allows players to cancel their charater's animation during a move, visually stopping the animation though still allowing the completion of the move they had begun. A exhibition video of this glitch has been captured by SWGA (South West Gamer Area).

The variable cancel (VC) glitch can be exploited immediately following a throw-break or guard impact (GI). After a throw-break or a GI, either character has the ability to use the VC glitch to eliminate any sort of recovery from the break maneuver. VC, when used, can negate the effects of GI. For example: your opponent could be attacking you and, after you perform a GI, if your opponent can execute a VC on reaction (which is extremely hard to do) they will not only get advantage from you GI-ing them, but they can often get free damage. Other characters - like Yoshimitsu, Mitsurugi, and Setsuka - have situations where they can VC their moves (not just throws) to eliminate the risk in many high-damage but punishable moves.

File corruption problems

Another issue that arose during the game's release was the 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 Soul Calibur III from his or her memory card when they have data from Soul Calibur 3 on the same card. The corruptions mostly seem to corrupt only the Chronicles of the Sword data, though sometimes all of the game data in Soul Calibur III can be corrupted. Save data from other games on the memory card will still load properly, though there have been a small unknown number of complaints at sites such as GameFAQs where players have had their whole memory card corrupted.

A FAQ about the fire corruption and steps to prevent is listed here [[2]]

Prologue

The wicked Soul Edge survived its fated encounter with the wielder of Soul Calibur, Xianghua, and restored its control over the body of Siegfried Schtauffen, turning him back into the Azure Knight Nightmare. 4 years later Nightmare was about to restore Soul Edge, when suddenly a man wielding 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, the man pierced Soul Edge's eye, giving Siegfried the edge he needed to break free from Soul Edge control once again.

After waking up, Siegfried found the holy sword, free from its entrapment within the wicked sword, and out of instict 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 killng spree to strengthen himself while seeking its body, Soul Edge.

What neither of the two warriors know 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.

New Characters

New characters presented in Soul Calibur III:

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 Soul Calibur II).

Nearly all characters who have been featured in a Soul series title in the past return, except for Inferno, Seong Han-myeong, Edge Master (the Edge Master's dark form is rumored to be a "Shadow Master", that can be reached in "ToS" mode) and the console-exclusive guest characters: Necrid, Heihachi, Link, and Spawn. Soul Calibur II's mimic character Charade does return, but only as an unplayable enemy 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.

Features

  • The Character Creation Mode allows the player to choose a class (ninja, monk, dancer, knight, thief, barbarian, saint, samurai, gladiator, pirate, assassin, 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 Soul Arena is a mode that allows both the eight-match Quick Play (the standard Arcade Mode of the gme), 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. Separate custom characters are required for
  • 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 cutscene movies. The cutscenes can have different outcomes depending on whether the player successfully inputs this sequence. During movies that precede a battle later in the game, not inputing the code could result in the player starting the subsequent battle with a shorter life gauge or some other disadvantageous effect.
  • The Chronicle of the Sword is a mode where the player's created characters advance through twenty Chronicles, increasing in power and in level, unravelling a story of political intrigue and war, and involving themselves in gameplay that is a hybrid of real-time strategy and traditional Soul Calibur style matches.
  • Players can also compete in Vs mode - which allows two players to go head-to-head - and in an in-game World Competition tournament against the CPU.
  • The Museum mode features, like in previous instalments, various artworks and videos, Profile Viewer (to see character's profiles), Exhibition Theater (to see katas), Battle Theater (to arrange CPU vs CPU battles) and the new Event Viewer, which allows players to review cutscenes as well as see the alternative endings.
  • Most Extra Weapons make a return from Soul Calibur II. In this installment, however, the number of Extra Weapons are reduced to 8 different weapons (including the two Default for 1P and 2P, the Ultimate Weapon, Joke Weapon and Ancient). The system is once again changed, this time based solely on Abilities (normally 2 per weapon, 4 per Ultimate and 3 occassionally).
  • There's no 3rd Costumes presented in this installment, but to compensate it there's a Color Edit mode, where the player can edit the colors out of 3 sections of a character's costume and make their own personal version of it. The parts that can be changed range from clothing to hair color.

Chronicles of the Sword Mode

Chronicles of the Sword is a one-player mode in the game Soul Calibur III. 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 Soul Calibur 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. As the story progresses you also gain some pre-made characters who you can control.

Plot Synopsis

The plot places the player's character against a protagonist named Grandall and sets out to conquer two empires (Dalkia and Halteese).Proceeding this, General Girardot (the general who trained the player) rebels. He recruits civilians and all those who are loyal to Grandall to his side, forcing the player to lose all of the pre-made characters that have accumulated in the player's team. After defeating Girardot, he asks the character, "What are you fighting for?" in a cutscene.

In the following chronicle the player becomes a rebel and fights against the troops once fought before, now with only four loyal pre-made characters (and your customs) by his/her side. It eventually turns out that Strife is implanting fragments of Soul Edge into his (and previous) soldiers and controlling them with his own Soul Edge, based on text that is seen in one Chronicle. Eventually Strife is killed, and the Grandall Empire becomes the player's own.

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.

Prologue

This is yet another tale of souls and swords...

Once, there existed on a great continent three countries--

The Grandall Empire, the Kingdom of Dalkia, and the Halteese Republic.

The Kingdom of Dalkia and the Halteese Republic waged a great war against one another for countless years. The Grandall Empire stayed out of the conflict, amassing their army quietly. Then, the impasse was suddenly broken as the Dalkian Kingdom declared war on Grandall Empire. Amidst the conflict and conspiracy, a new republic, Maletta, emerged...

At the time, the great tactician Chester, who instigated the conflict which later came to be known as the Mantis War, had not yet appeared in the annals of history. And the individual who was to be a key figure in the war was a mere cadet in the Grandall army...

(Taken from in-game introduction)

Epilogue

The Emperor died. Both the evil blade and the holy blade disappeared into darkness. The Empire collapsed, and the people were left with nothing but memories of the terrible war. The people, however, eventually forgot the hardships. They rebuilt the razed villages, and sowed new seeds upon the destroyed fields. Then by the fire side, they told the tales...the tales of the ones who spilled their blood upon those lands. (The scene shifts to a picture of the player's character.)

(Taken from ending of Chronicles of the Sword)

Packaging art

The silhoutte in the logo is circa Soul Calibur II Nightmare (with Siegfried as a host) with Soul Edge (growth?) as a weapon. The character on the cover itself is Zasalamel.

Soul Calibur III: Arcade Edition

Soul Calibur III: Arcade Editon
Soul Calibur III Logo
Developer(s)Namco
Publisher(s)Namco
Designer(s)Hiroaki Yotoriyama
Platform(s)
ReleaseJapan April 03, 2006 (JP)
Genre(s)Versus Fighting
Mode(s)Up to 2 players simultaneously
Arcade systemNamco System 256

"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 unique move sets and help to expand the already expansive Soul Calibur III line-up." - WCMaxi (Namco Producer)

The game has 3 modes: Standard Mode is regular arcade mode and a Training Mode to practice moves. There is a new mode similar to Conquest Mode from Soul Calibur II called Legends 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.

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.

These are the following attributes for a character:
STR (Strength) - Increases the character's attack power.
DEX (Dexterity) - Adds special effects (Auto-Guard, Guard Damage, etc.)
VIT (Vitality) - Increases the life and survivability of the character (Life Drain, etc.)
LUK (Luck) - Increases the chances that a character might win (Auto-Parry, Poison, etc.)

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, there is no level limit for characters.

All the character roster of Soul Calibur III returns for the arcade version except Abyss, who isn't selectable anymore; the Bonus Characters Hwang Seong-gyeong, Li Long and Amy Sorel were reworked to form part of the standard roster, making a total of 27 selectable characters.

Trivia

  • This game happens a short amount of time before Soul Calibur II, meaning the year is still 1591. The amount of time is not specified, but taking into account the various character's profiles, a minimun of 4 months has already passed (3 months Xianghua needed to carry Kilik back to his master's hermit, 1 month that took Kilik to surpass his master's training).
  • Oddly enough, modes always present in the Soul Series up until now, like Team Battle and Time Attack, and the Character Records on options are missing.
  • The AI of this game has been deemed too hard by newcomers to the series. In game forums like GameFAQS, posters have claimed the AI is able to read the input and react accordingly.
  • GameSpot awarded Soul Calibur III its "Best in Show for Fighting Games" award at E3 2005.[3]
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