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Soul Caliber III was somewhat of a disappointment. It never really separated itself from Soul Caliber II. Soon afterwards, it became more conspicuous that Soul Caliber III was more like Soul Caliber 2.5 with some minor tweaks. Fortunately, Soul Caliber IV finds a niche firmly in the world of the next generation of consoles.

The bulk of the combat heavily emphasizes three elements: power moves, throws, and directional attacks. Each battle consists of you trying to shatter your opponent’s defenses. There is a block bar that determines the efficiency of your blocks. Green means everything is normal, but red signifies that you are more vulnerable for an attack. When it comes down to it, Soul Caliber IV is still a button masher at heart. There are a bevy of maneuvers, characters, and a comprehensive create a fighter mode that will keep avid fans occupied. Even altering your button commands is a plausibility. Speaking of the character editing mode, its intricacies add a fresh sense of depth to the gameplay.

The sheer amount of things that gamers can do is endless. For example, you can make a character from the ground up. Likewise, you can take anyone from the list of available characters and do major or trivial editing. It is analogous to the WWE wrestler creation in the WWE Smackdown games. The caveat to that is the inability to customize the Star Wars characters. No, you will not get an opportunity to see Yoda in Ivy’s hooker outfit. There are points that can be given to multiple slots. For instance, there are slots for your weapons and armor. Armor, weapons, abilities, and even appearance can be adjusted. One drawback to the customization mode is that you are completely oblivious to everything. Players will be given all of these customizing options, nevertheless there is no detailed video tutorial expounding anything. Moves are fairly simple to execute, and there is no memorization. Therefore, the gameplay eradicates any guesswork for those intricate combinations.

Players will have over twenty characters to choose from, and all of which have their own unique style. The most noteworthy characters are Yoda, Darth Vader, Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, and Ivy. Where to begin with Ivy? She always appears to be abreast of her predicament (pun intended). Ivy’s chest is relatively enormous, and her breasts physics are sure to be full of milky goodness. Apparently, her squeaky clean prostitute image has remained intact. Yoda is the lovable green midget who is full of sage. His height is actually an advantage because he is such a small target to attack and leaps around like Bobby Brown on crack cocaine. Furthermore, it is virtually implausible to pick up and throw Yoda. Darth Vader has his iconic red lightsaber, and he has his force grip attributes. Nobody can deny that Darth Vader is a force to be reckoned with. The most overpowering character is Darth Vader’s secret apprentice. He is an unstoppable force. His agility is immaculate, and his force traits are flabbergasting. When facing him, the goal is to kill him before he unleashes the force. You do not want to be in close proximity to him after he launches a relentless  onslaught of lightsaber and force move.

If anyone is deciding which version to purchase, then he or she should opt whichever character they like best between Darth Vader and Yoda. Some of the modes entail special versus, story, versus, arcade, and the Tower of Last Souls. Special versus features an option to utilize weapons. Arcade mode give points to spend on multiple characters. Versus is a rudimentary one versus one fight. Although there is a story mode, there is no coherent storyline to follow. The majority of the narrative (if that is what you want to call it) is told via reading the words on the screen. Regrettably, there is little variety to the Tower of Last Souls mode as well. The ideology behind this mode involves going from rock bottom to elite. Moreover, there are some esoteric messages to decode and items to retrieve. Nonetheless that is all you can achieve by competing in the Tower of Last Souls.

Thankfully, there is online. Online has ranked and unranked matches. It is unfortunate that there is such an unbearable amount of lag. For a game that relies on split second decision making, there is a second or two delay with every attack. On the bright side, the frame rate is smooth offline.

The visuals have rich details. Environments are well designed, and the character models are attractive.

For the most part, the audio is pleasant. Excluding characters making rather bizarre remarks during fights, the sound effects and music are enjoyable.

Overall, Soul Caliber IV is not as innovative as the first Soul Caliber. However, there are still plenty of reasons to ingratiate your soul in this type of caliber.