The latest podcast from 1UP Yours on 1UP.com has just revealed some information on the final build of Soulcalibur IV…

…only Hilde and Algol are actually ‘new’ characters. Aside from The Apprentice, the other guest characters are clones/skins of regular characters.
…Yoda is overpowered…
…Xianghua and Sophitia have supposedly been nerfed (they were extremely powerful in SCIII)…
…Ivy has been “totally changed”…
…Mitsurugi is “fine”…
…Algol the new End Boss levitates on a throne with a mini-vortex and throws fireballs, and is “insanely overpowered”…
…Voldo has a ton of new moves, including a bunch of “new disturbing” attacks, as well as “Crab Crawl” moves…
…Darth Vader is a heavy character who has projectiles along with close-in attacks, and is “badass”…
…Hilde is “excellent”…
…Speed is slower than Soul Calibur III…
…Guard impact has changed…
…Critical Finishers don’t seem overpowered. In fact, they factor little in the game since an opponent needs to block most of the time for the attack to be set off.
… one 1UP guy (Shane) is disappointed with the game’s graphics, particularly the backgrounds, which seem to him to be just hi-res stages of stuff that could have been on PS2 or Xbox. The character models though are really, really good. For the most part though, they’re still getting into the game, so maybe comments will change when they really delve deeper into what the game has to offer.

What do I think? It’s a bummer that the guest characters are just glorified alternate skins (Scheherazade-Raphael, Shura-Cervantes), but perhaps they won’t be total clones, and will have some new stuff (at least their own unique intros, win poses, etc). I’m not convinced about many of the comments, particularly about character balance and the comments about the End Boss- the 1Up guys talking seem very impressed and intimidated by Tekken 6’s Azazel, and Algol’s ‘overpoweredness’ may just be them just not knowing what to do to take him down.

I’m kinda surprised though about the comment about the graphics- I think that the game should be a looker in any case on an HDTV screen, and aside from the game moving at 60FPS in HD, the stuff like armor breaks and pieces of clothing littering stages should be impressive visually. I guess we’ll see when we get the actual game and see it running before our very eyes.

It’s also disappointing that they didn’t seem to mess around much with the CAS, but we expect more soon since they have the game and vids should probably come up with more regularity starting next week. Hopefully a SCIV review on 1UP will be forthcoming soon.

You can download the actual podcast here.

The Soulcalibur IV blog on IGN has just been updated with an entry about the game’s cutscenes and story mode.

In the past, realistic textures and lighting were only do-able through pre-rendered cutscenes. With the current generation of systems, we can now depict in-game textures in full detail. It also means that footage is free of any degradation. Our thought of wanting to provide the degradation-free footage to the HDTV audiences, led us decide to create the real-time cutscenes.

Well, aside from being hi-res, realtime cutscenes will allow character costumes and customizations to be carried over from gameplay into these storytelling parts, which should be awesome (and hilarious depending on the costume). I’m totally for realtime cinematics, and game graphics have progressed to the point where pre-rendered CG has been equalled already by realtime stuff. Interesting! Hopefully SCIV’s story mode will be even more interesting and dramatic as previous games.

You can check out the blog entry here.

Cute but informative!

The Japanese LOVE manga (that means comics to any heathens out there)… so much so that they use them for everything from entertainment to teaching stuff like politics and plumbing. So it’s no surprise that there’s a cute little Soulcalibur IV comic online that’s been made to teach newbies the way things are in the upcoming new fighter.

The comic stars newcomer Hildegarde Von Krone, or Hilde for short, and Cassandra. The two unlikely friends take readers through the many facets of Soulcalibur IV’s gameplay, including basics like the 8-Way Run, Ring-Outs, Guard Impacts and counters. Even more interesting, the later pages take on SCIV’s CAS or Create-a-Soul Character Customization/Creation feature, showing that players have a LOT more options and freedom to outfit and recreate the game’s fighters, be they part of the main, established cast or totally original creations made from scratch. Elements like Physique, muscles, voice, hair and face will be customizable along with costumes.

Some more info from the comic- you’ll be able to buy new equipment and costumes/customs from playing the game, and these many parts and outfits don’t just change your appearance- they will affect your character’s upgradeable stats like Attack Power, Defense Power, Vitality and Special Skill. Equipment will affect your skill points, which grow as you battle, kinda like experience points in an RPG. You’ll eventually learn abilities like automatic escape from throws (which hopefully won’t be broken) and other stuff. Cool!

This all sounds pretty awesome, and the comic will apparently continue to be updated with more pages that will take on other stuff like the Critical Finishers and Modes of Play in SCIV. Guess we’d all better subscribe to this comic.

Check out the manga yourself (in Japanese though) here.

As we count the days to the release of Soulcalibur IV, let me review the stuff we know, stuff we don’t know, stuff we think we know and stuff we wish we could have said ‘no’ to. Hey, I’m bored so sue me.

Who’s In, Who’s Not In. So far, almost everyone who was in Soulcalibur III is back and looking sharper than ever before. You’ve got veterans from the original Soul Edge/Blade like Mitsurugi, Sophitia, Taki, Voldo, Siegfried, Seung Mina, Cervantes, Nightmare and Rock; Soul Calibur II alum Ivy, Xianghua, Kilik, Yoshimitsu, Yun Seoung, Astoroth, Talim and Raphael; Soul Calibur’s three newcomers, Zasalamel, Setsuka (now blonde and buffer) and Tira (more crazy-looking and redder) are back as well. Old faces who didn’t make the cut so far are Li Long (who may or may not be dead), Hwang (who’s been succeeded by Yun Seoung anyway), oldies like Edge Master and Olcadan, past bosses like Inferno and Charade, and anyone from SCIII’s Chronicles of the Sword, extra CAS-based characters and the Equipment Shop staff.

Totally new for Soulcalibur IV is Hilde- a fully armored/dressed noblewoman and knight who wields a spear and shortsword combo. Also making their debut but not considered canon to the series and story are several ‘Bonus’ characters- fighters designed and contributed by some of Japan’s famous manga writers/artists. These include the elf-like Scheherazade, the robotic Ashlotte, the witch Angol Fear and the dangerous-looking Shura with her leather chaps and multiple katana.

Bringing up the rear are the ‘Guest’ characters- special challengers culled from a Galaxy Far, Far Way. Yep, here in comes Star Wars’ own Darth Vader for the PS3 and Yoda for the Xbox360. As a way of giving players at least a way of having two lightsabers cross outside of a mirror match, the Secret Apprentice AKA Starkiller from the upcoming game The Force Unleashed is a guest in both console versions.

That’s a big cast. But of course, not everyone’s happy with the lineup.

Hilde, I think, is awesome. While I was initially at odds with her odd fighting style, I eventually grew to like the idea of having long and short-range repertoires complementing each other. The fact that she is also, in appearance at least, a polar opposite of most of the other ladies in the game is a refreshing aspect of her as well. But frankly, that only makes it all the more enticing to get her out of her armor and into something less bulky- okay, LESS, period- on my second playthrough with her. Heheh…

The Star Wars characters, for example, probably cut the gaming community into two camps- those who went “WHOA!” then “YEAH!” went into one camp, while those who yelled “WTF!!!” fell into the opposite side. Me? I’m squarely in the middle. I think the idea’s wild, but I’ll wait till I see how they actually present WHY Jedi are in the Calibur-verse before I give a final judgement. In any case, Darth and Yoda shouldn’t be game-breaking, and if you don’t want to use them- DON’T. My biggest gripe with them is that I feel the Soulcalibur world and characters are somewhat diminished by their presence, and Namco’s apparent decision that they need to bring in some clout just for added flash.

As for the Bonus Characters- they seem to fit in with the general vibe of the world setting, though Scheherazade seems more at home in a Japanese RPG. Shura looks like she’s Taki’s evil, non-ninja sister, while Ashlotte is offbeat and uniquely creepy and cute. My only worry for them though is that they may each be just skins of already-existing fighters; Ashlotte may be a Seung Mina skin and Shura just Cervantes with a sex change. I really hope they have their own unique style, attacks and animations, aside from just having a cool backstory or what not.

Meh, what the heck… if you don’t like any of the gang, you can just throw them all into the gutter and make your own Souls with the excellent-looking CAS. Or not. Anyway, we certainly have a ton of stories in this eternally-retold tale… it should make for some long hours of slashing action and enjoyment come late July. Later then!

The news is all over the web, thanks to Kotaku and other PS3 sites- the much-awaited PS3 firmware update 2.40, which was released a couple of days ago, resulted in CHAOS. PS3’s of all make and build started getting problems which ranged from microphones cutting off to the consoles outrightly freezing at the wave screen. OUCH. Man, I am so glad I am not a stickler for updates. Sony reps have so far said that they’re working on fixing the problem, as well as addressing the problems of the users who have been adversely affected. But man… that sucks. No word yet on when the 2.40 update, with it’s in-game XMB interface and Trophies, will be re-released.

Lesson learned? Look before you leap.

EDIT: Namco-Bandai has responded that the rumors are grossly overblown, and that any HD Installs for SCIV are in line with that of similar games. No details yet, but we’ll post them when we get ‘em.

Kotaku just posted a rumor that Soulcalibur IV for the PS3 may require a hefty bit of space on your console’s hard drive- about 8.5 Gigs worth! Supposedly 6.5 of that will be stuff to run the game, while 2 Gigs will be allocated for Save Data (perhaps to contain all your CAS characters and customizations). MAN! That’s a lot. But this is, of course, still not confirmed. I’m not worried though- still got over a hundred gigs free on my upgraded PS3 drive, so it’s all good. Bring it on!

On the Xbox360 side, the official Xbox site has also indicated that SCIV will require Hard Drive space. It seems that this fighter is going to be costly, but hey- it should be worth it.

This is a bit of an uneasy trend, having these mandatory installs for consoles that don’t really come standard with large capacity drives. But, well, whatever gives the best gaming experience. More on this as it develops.

Chun Li’s sporting some new threads in SFIV…

Some interesting recent developments in the arcade version of Streetfighter IV. Well, apparently, at least in Japan, the game will feature the use of a card system which will allow players to earn and save ‘points’ from fights. These ‘Battle Points’ can be used to promote the player’s ranking for bragging rights and all that jazz. Also, a kind of currency called ‘Zeny’ can also be earned, which can then be used in a cellphone-based store where players can buy their fighter alternate colors for their costumes, or even actual alternate costumes- like Chun Li’s China Dress above.

Apparently this is a bit of a backpedal from producer Yoshinori Ono’s initial statement that SFIV won’t have any Character Customization like other fighting games like Tekken 6, Virtua Fighter 5 or the upcoming Soulcalibur IV. I guess Capcom may have realized that their game- with a relatively small roster and offbeat newcomers with no customizations or extras was… how should I put it… BARE like an empty cupboard? Extra costumes and customs are cool, and they’re something players will come back to play for and build on their base charactes- it works with VF5 and Tekken 6, and it should certainly add to the replay value of SFIV.

This is a step in the right direction for SFIV, I think, which has so far been looking pretty blah for me. If they add in tons of outfits and new stuff, which should make it to the console versions, this may be something to look forward to. More on this as we get it.

Looking Back at Where We Were in the Tale of Souls and Swords

Last night I dusted off my copy of Soul Calibur III and got to playing again, as a way of warming up for Soulcalibur IV later this July. I played the game on my PS3 and HDTV, and so I got to thinking… why not do a retro-view? Of course, it’s not fair to judge the game against the new Next-Gen sequel, but this isn’t a bashing of the installment, but more of a way to look back at where we were, and hopefully a bit of insight into where we’re going with the next Calibur.

Soul Calibur III, for starters, still looks pretty slick, even after several years and on a HDTV and PS3. It still is one of the best-looking PS2 games, although on an HDTV you can easily see the PS2 level of graphics. The presentation though is top notch, and the game certainly still lends itself to hours and hours of play. As a Lone Gamer, I totally appreciate the game’s huge emphasis on the single-player experience.
The Story of Soul Calibur III takes up on a relative high note- the evil sword Soul Edge was sealed by the knight Siegfried, who had regained his own mind and sanity. However, Soul Edge’s evil was not easily contained, and a new, but temporary host for it’s power, Nightmare, had been reborn. Siegfried and Nightmare were seeking each other out, ready to face off once again. Meanwhile, new players entered the field, including a dark-skinned, scythe-wielding mystery man named Zasalamel, who moved to manipulate the events around the two swords of power for his own purposes. The maniacal Tira, a servant of Soul Edge, is also introduced, along with her deadly bladed hoop. Finally, the beautiful, kimono-clad Setsuka makes her debut, with a lethal blade hidden within a decorative parasol.

Tales of Souls, the expanded Story Mode which contains a choose-your-own-adventure type of interface with branching paths and the occasional interactive cutscene, is one of the cooler additions that debuted in SCIII. It encourages repeat plays, and there are stuff you need to really work at, such as making your way to the game’s hidden True End Boss. I myself haven’t found the bastard, but maybe in the weeks heading into SCIV I’ll give it a shot again.

Chronicles of the Sword is easily the game’s most controversial mode, and a lot of flack was thrown at SCIII for it. COTS was an unwieldy melding of an RTS, complete with large, zoomed-out maps/battlefields to navigate around in, and the usual Soul Calibur one-on-one matches. The mode put you in the boots of a young cadet fighting in a vicious war between empires, with your protagonist eventually working his/her way from taking on training missions to fighting for the fate of a country. If that sounds epic, it’s actually not. For one thing, your ‘army’ consists usually of three to four fighters (that you either create or recruit) and you’ll spend most of your time staring at the map as your tiny fighters’ icons run slowly from garrisoned fortress or town to the next, bashing down doors to get at the enemy holed up inside.
In fact, an enemy outpost doesn’t even need to have anyone inside- you’ll still have to bash down a door or gate to get through. This is, to say the least, pretty boring and tedious. Generally though, this is a much-expanded (or perhaps bloated is more like it) Mission Mode, with the basic goal of defeating all enemies being the norm the whole time, in about 20 or so levels. Well, at least the story is kinda interesting…

Speaking of CAS, the Create-a-Soul or Character Creation Feature is certainly a mode that most players liked from SCIII. While the Character Edit was pretty bare-bones (you could tweak the colors of three parts of each of the established fighters… whoopie), the Character Creation was solid. After choosing the gender of your warrior, you select from various occupations, which range from the speedy and agile Assassin or Thief to the flamboyant Dancer or Pirate, to the formidable Samurai or Barbarian (other classes are unlocked after a while, as are the movesets of the main cast). Once you decide, you then go about fashioning your character’s look, outfitting them with clothing or armor, hairstyles, faces and voice-type, and colors.

The whole thing was, as mentioned, solid and pretty robust, but it had lots of limitations. The variety of clothing and parts of outfits wasn’t as exhaustive as I would have liked, and you couldn’t change the physique of your character- every man and woman had the same body, whether they were young or old. I also found the selection of faces and hairstyles pretty limited (All my CAS girls in SCIII used one face, the best-looking one). Still, it was great and I had hours and hours of fun creating various samurai and ninja babes. You could only store about seven or so characters on a memory card though, with some slots bought from the in-game store.

The Soul Arena took the place of the previous games’ Mission Modes, giving the player access to a variety of mini-games that range from simple battles on moving platforms, sudden-death duels, a fight with a giant statue and more. It was fun, and you unlocked more games, and higher difficulty levels, as you played.

The Museum was the game’s repository of stuff and swag, from artwork and movies to a Battle Theater where you could pit characters against one another under your chosen conditions, including your CAS warriors.

Along with the regular bunch of usual options and VS modes, Soul Calibur III was, in my opinion, one of the best and most complete game packages on the PS2. It was that which made it my favorite of the series (well, until SCIV comes along), despite the eventual issues of character balance that haunted the installment afterwards. SCIII was a grade-A, top-notch example of how console ports of fighters should be, and it set the bar for the series yet again.

Soulcalibur IV, which seems to take off a lot from SCIII, has a firm foundation of quality. Certainly from all that we’ve read, seen and heard about the game, it’s at least SCIII with next-gen polish, and that alone is reason to jump for joy. But of course, we can expect that Project Soul will be taking their latest game deeper, better and beyond the borders they broke in the previous game. The graphics are easily ten times better. The gameplay is gonna be faster, smoother and more flashy and exciting. The Character Creation and Customization is tons deeper and more detailed, with gobs more options. There’s gonna be loads of secrets, stuff to unlock and find.

For now, I’m going to be playing through SCIII to re-train myself with my favorite fighters, in preparation for the action in SCIV. Hopefully it’ll also make time move a little faster since I just can’t wait for July to be over. Soulcalibur IV is gonna ROCK.

Our prayers have been answered! Just the past day, Blizzard Entertainment finally revealed that the big announcement they’ve been teasing all week was, in fact, the formal introduction of Diablo III! The long, long, LOOOONG-awaited sequel to Blizzard’s best-selling, monstrously popular dungeon crawler and epic fantasy adventure has finally been confirmed! 1Up kinda sorta gave it away yesterday with their educated guess, but well, now all the speculation can end.

A true gaming classic, Diablo II has had undeniable influence on fantasy games and the genre of action RPGs in general since it ruled PCs and Macs years ago, and though many other titles have tried, none have quite reached the addictive, life-encompassing obsession that game could inspire in gamers. Man, I didn’t just play Diablo II… I lived it.

Surprisingly enough, the game looks, at first glance, to be very similar visually to its predecessor, with the far-away, top-down, isometric view of the precedings, with your character traversing various realms filled with snarling, hostile rabble. Mainly about the human world’s battle to survive against the demonic Prime Evils (one of which is the titular Diablo), the new game will be set 20 years after the events in the last game (which ended in the defeat of Diablo’s brother, Baal) and sees ominous portents pointing to the return of the big horned one. Some characters from the past games will return, most notably Deckard Cain, the aged wandering chronicler who followed the hero’s exploits before. Of the character classes, the Barbarian will return for sure, along with a new class called a Witch Doctor. Players will be able to create male or female versions of their adventurers, and there will be a greater amount of customization than before.

Aside from that, there’s still precious little information, but surely more will be forthcoming soon. It’s safe to say we won’t be seeing Diablo III on store shelves anytime soon (Starcraft II will be out before then), but at the very least… we know it’s real. Man, good times. For now, maybe it’s time to dust off the old Diablo II box and get crawling again…

Soulcalibur’s CAS Feature looks AWESOME.

Japan has it cool! Their version of Gamespot has a truckload of screens from the upcoming fighting game sequel Soulcalibur IV to make up for all the months we’ve been starved of content. The screenshots are of course from the Japanese version, and so feature a lot of kanji… but the pics speak for themselves. Mainly focused on the CAS (Create-a-Soul) or Character Creation, the screenshots give a pretty good idea of how awesome this improved feature will be.
The sample CAS characters shown in the screens easily have the same level of quality as the game’s established characters. From the screens as well, I can see you can create pretty cool renditions of characters from other games- I saw that you can make a reasonably accurate Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden, and I think I see the makings of how you can have Old Snake himself from MGS4 do some more missions in SCIV.

Be as buff or wussy a warrior as you wanna be.

The screens also show off how you can change the muscle build of your fighter, from being a bit on the thin side (but still buff) to heavy and bulky like Rock or Astoroth, or buff glamazons like Ivy. From what I’ve seen as well, you build CAS from the established character skill sets, and it’s still up in the air if we’ll see the old classes and occupations from SCIII make a return (I wager they will though). The range so far of customs, armor, clothing and options make me really believe Soulcalibur IV is something really special. It looks truly next-gen and surely is something to look forward to. Just less than a month away! More on this as we get it, and I’m sure we will.

Check out Gamespot Japan’s gallery of Soulcalibur IV images here.