So, how
did this happen? How did I go from talking nearly nonstop about Shin
Megami Tensei games to an HD remake of a PS2-era fighting game? Well,
I remember playing Soul Calibur II a lot as a child, and the HD
remake went on sale for $5 on PSN. It really is that simple. Placing
my “Season of ATLUS” on hold temporarily, I decided to take some
time to reconnect with the game, looking at it from a modern
perspective. In light of recent trends in fighting game releases,
Soul Calibur 2 is actually a nice breath of fresh air, aging
surprisingly well. This week, I will tell you why that is.
First
released in 2002 for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, and original Xbox,
Soul Calibur II is the direct sequel to what many had considered to
be one of the best games on the Dreamcast. The basic premise of the
game is that there are two very powerful swords. The first is an evil
sword named Soul Edge, which takes over its wielder and devours the
souls of those it kills. The second is a holy sword named Soul
Calibur, which is constantly at odds with its evil twin. Fighters
from all over Europe and Asia covet these blades for various reasons.
Some seek to possess them, others to destroy them, and so on. This
sets the stage for all of these warriors to travel across the world
and fight each other over these weapons.
Each of
the various consoles had a guest character join the cast as well.
Tekken's Heihachi Mishima made his cameo on the PS2, since Tekken was
a major Sony-exclusive at the time. Nintendo gave permission to allow
Link to make an appearance in the GameCube version, because he is the
most logical Nintendo character to bring to a 3D weapon-based
fighter. As for the Xbox, they got Spawn because Namco and Todd
McFarlane really needed to get out of that contract they had with
each other. (That is not a joke.) The HD rerelease of the game,
released in 2013 for both the PS3 and the 360, brought both Heihachi
and Spawn to the game. Link was not present, since there is no way
Nintendo would allow it. A bit of shame, since he was obviously the
best of the three, but understandable.
As for
the game itself, it is still as fun to play as ever. One of the
things that I enjoy about the Soul Calibur series is that the
mechanics themselves are relatively easy to understand, compared to
other fighting games. Most of the commands are generally simple to
pull off. In general, spending ten minutes or so with a given
character will teach a player the basic gist of that character. Some
fighters are obvious more or less difficult to use than others, but
on a fundamental level it has more to do with the properties of their
attacks and how their combos work, and less to do with the execution
of any one move.
It is
also nice to play this game when taken into context with its sequels.
Many franchise fans, myself included, would say that it was the
series's pinnacle. Soul Calibur III was not a bad game, but it did
feel a bit like a step back. Because each character had more health,
fights took longer. Furthermore, the discrepancy between the power of
each individual fighter felt significantly greater. Soul Calibur IV
added in the Soul Gauge mechanics, which punished more defensive
playstyles. Players who continue to block attacks would get broken,
which allows the aggressor to perform an instant kill. The power
differences between characters in Soul Calibur III were also felt in
IV as well. The ultimate culmination of this downward spiral was Soul
Calibur V. SC V turned the franchise into a low-rent Street Fighter
IV clone with swords. Everything about that game was awful and better
left forgotten. This is one of the few franchises where “Taking a
few steps back” is actually a really good thing, and Soul Calibur 2
HD best demonstrates why this is the case.
The
other great aspect of Soul Calibur II, that in hindsight makes it
such a great game, is its vast stores of single-player content.
Weapon Master mode, with the possible exception of the campaigns in
either the Mortal Kombat reboot or Injustice: Gods Among Us, is what
I would call one of the best single-player campaigns in the history
of fighting games. It puts the player directly into a story where
they are a warrior seeking Soul Edge. During the journey, the player
undertakes a series of missions, each taking the form of a battle. As
they progress, they unlock new characters, weapons, and modes to play
with.
However,
these are not just typical battles more often than not. Usually,
special conditions will be imposed on the battle. It is these
constrictions which inject variety into the campaign. For example,
one mission will make it so that the enemy will only take damage
while he is in the air, but he will fall at a slower rate when
launched upwards. Another mission will make the enemy invisible, with
the exception of his weapon. Not only do these requirements add to
the variety, they help teach players about the many mechanics of the
game in a non-competitive, relatively safe space. Since the
difficulty of these missions greatly increases the more players
progress, it is safe to say that someone who gets through it all,
while maybe not be the best player out there, is equipped to hold
their own against other players.
Even
outside of Weapon Master, there is still much that one person can do
to get more out of the game. Arcade Mode is standard to fighting
games, but there also options like Time Attack, where the goal is to
fight through every character as quickly as possible. Other modes
include Survival Mode, where players see how long they can last in a
series of matches, with only limited healing between each match. Team
Battle allowed players to form up to 3 character teams to fight in a
series of one-on-one matches, where team members would fight in
sequence. VS Team Battle allowed two players to pit teams of 8
against each other. “Extra” versions of these modes even allowed
players and enemies to use the weapons unlocked in Weapon Master mode
in battle. All in all, even someone who cannot regularly play with
friends can get much out of the game.
While
Soul Calibur 2 HD is still really good, it is far from flawless. For
example, although the game now offers online play, and the net-coding
is solid, it feels extremely limited. It is only possible to engauge
in standard versus mode online, meaning players can only go against
friends one-on-one, without using any weapons they unlocked. For a
game that has such a diverse set of weapons for each cast member, and
so many different modes of play like Team Battle, this comes off as
overly simplistic and downright disappointing. I was hoping that my
friends and I would be able to create our teams of characters and go
against one another with our own custom assortments of weaponry. It
would make sense to have Ranked matches be this limited, but when
playing Unranked, these options would have been greatly appreciated.
Further,
while the balance is much better here than in the sequels, there are
some noticeable balancing issues. The people who originally purchased
Soul Calibur 2 for the Xbox must have been really disappointed by
Spawn. Now that I have had the chance to play him in the HD remake, I
am astounded by how bad the character is. Unlike Heihachi and Link,
who both fit in well, Spawn feels so much like an afterthought that I
am honestly left dumbfounded. There had to be some other character
they could have used. Along these same lines, the character of
Necrid, who was also designed by Todd McFarlane, is also pretty
terrible. Whoever in Project Soul worked on these characters seems to
have a grudge against McFarlane, because his characters are some of,
if not the worst in the game.
Overall,
Soul Calibur 2 HD is a great game for both newcomers and veterans to
the fighting game genre. Compared to many other fighters, it is very
easy to learn. On top of that, there is a wealth of content available
for single-players. I am sure there are those who would disagree with
me on this point, but Soul Calibur 2 is my favorite fighting game.
The HD remake does well to bring the game to more modern consoles. It
is definitely worth your time and money.
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