soul calibur 6 review game informer

SoulCalibur VI: the return in fanfare

Transcending history and the world, a tale of souls and swords, told forever ... We know it by heart, this refrain, and yet when we hear it again, for the first time in six years, we cannot s '' prevent repeating it in unison. Because SoulCalibur is back dear friends, and forgive the phrase, but God damn it feels good.

Of all the three-dimensional fighting games that ruffled in the late 90s and early 2000s, SoulCalibur is arguably the only series to be truly popular. Both graphic slap and ideal game in competition as in the evening with friends, the series has always had this little extra thing. But that didn't stop him from slowly falling apart, skipping the third episode, or even receiving strong criticism from the fan community. It was even feared that Bandai Namco would definitively bury the series. But that was without counting on the passion of certain members of the team, starting with Motohiro Okubo who knew how to mobilize his troops to launch the works for a sixth episode. And if the latter bears the consequences of a development that we guess to be rather complicated, SoulCalibur VI succeeds in restoring its letters of nobility to this legend of the fighting game.

A PAVER IN THE PIT

Let's start right away with the angry subject. As we said in the introduction, SoulCalibur has always been celebrated for its graphics. Whether it is the first episode on Dreamcast, or its direct sequel to PlayStation 2, GameCube or Xbox, we are talking every time about games that have marked the retinas of players, subscribing without forcing in the list of the most beautiful games of consoles concerned. The smoothness of the textures covering the characters, their animations, the richness of the decorations… everything was the work of a goldsmith. It was probably less true in the last few episodes but all the same: we never had any complaints about the visual aspect of these titles. One thing that will change with this SoulCalibur VI, which technically speaking falters between fair and really bad. Because if overall, the characters are rather pretty, we can not say the same of the different arenas of the game. Some are quite successful and offer the aforementioned richness, while others are so simplistic that they would say straight out of a level editor ... on which there would still be everything to do. We think here of rings like Buried Desert Ruins or Plains of gusts, roughly an arid desert and a green meadow. It lacks madness, details, dressing. And truth be told, even the prettiest arenas lack personality. First because they are not always very inspired, then because the studio opted for the Unreal Engine 4, of which we know the graphic signature now. The latter had proven itself on Tekken 7, but on SoulCalibur VI? Truly not. Bandai Namco’s game looks like one of those many game projects transposed to Unreal Engine 4, like we see raining every day, and that’s too bad.

Especially since beyond the visual leg of the game, it also has the many slightly coarse textures, or the choice to apply an extremely pronounced blur in the background during fights, to better highlight the characters. A direction that is poorly explained and which obviously harms SoulCalibur VI, which gives the impression of being five or six years older than it really is. And it's not the slightly dated animations of certain characters (cuckoo Taki) that will make you change your mind on this.

A SHARP GAMEPLAY

Fortunately, these few visual setbacks will soon be forgotten once you put your hands full of fingers on your favorite gaming device. Because SoulCalibur VI manages to significantly review the formula established by its predecessors, by bringing some welcome fixes but also its share of new features. More nervous than SoulCalibur V, we find with this episode the pleasure of the liveliness of the jousts of the second opus so much appreciated. Movements like sequences seem faster, which is surprising during the first hours of play. Even the slowest characters in the game, like Nightmare, Siegfried or Astaroth seem to have gained speed. This goes through small adjustments, here and there: some moves go faster, some animations have been accelerated ... and sometimes, some moves well known to players have been purely and simply deleted, in favor of new attacks, often faster. This necessarily accelerates the pace of the games, and prints a fairly high rate on each confrontation.

Beyond the sensations, there is the concrete, the novelties. We already talked about it long, wide and cross in our previous articles, so you probably know it: there are two major novelties in SoulCalibur VI, the Reversal Edge and the Coups fatal. The Reversal Edge (B + G) allows you to counter the opponent by launching a small slow motion, in which players must choose an attack. It works on the stone-paper-scissors model, but winning the trade can be important since the blow or blows inflicted at the end of the result can do a lot of damage. Some players may therefore prefer to play the safety card when backing up. What is interesting with the Reversal Edge is the whole mind-game that it imposes, but also the non-negligible "spectacle" dimension that it brings to the games. Note that the blows of certain characters can trigger a Reversal Edge, like Mitsurugi's B, B, B. This is as much an advantage as a disadvantage, depending on the situation, so be careful not to overuse these attacks.

The second major novelty, the Fatal Blows. These are not new hits per se, but rather a new characteristic given to certain attacks, which is triggered under certain conditions. To use Mitsurugi's example, his Mask attack (B, 6) inflicts a Fatal Hit if it hits the opponent while the latter takes a step back. The Mask then inflicts some additional damage but above all it stuns the enemy, opening the door to a devastating combo. As you can see, SoulCalibur VI puts a lot on the attack, which allows it to give a frantic pace to its fights. We can actually regret that some sections of the game have been simplified, starting with the defense. SoulCalibur VI forgets the Guard Impacts to the rear to keep only the Guard Impacts to the front. This goes in the direction of faster games, at a less choppy pace, but also in greater ease of access to the game, especially since the timings are much less tight than in the past. But make no mistake: SoulCalibur VI is no less demanding on execution precision, the science of placement and timing. By betting heavily on the attack, Bandai Namco gave birth to a fairly stressful game, in which mistakes cannot be forgiven. It’s, you can imagine, a lot of fun.

Ultimately, the only real criticism that we can make of the gameplay of this SoulCalibur VI is perhaps the placement of its camera, which is sometimes too close to the two swashbucklers. This confuses the action, and sometimes we have failed to understand what is happening on the screen. In a game like this, it's still a little annoying.

WAR AND SWORD

Now let's talk about the different game modes of this SoulCalibur VI. It is certain, regulars of the series will pout by discovering that some basic modes have disappeared. No time-attack, survival mode or tag-team, that's annoying. On the other hand, we were stunned by the richness of the Balance of the Soul mode, in which we embody our own avatar. The creation tool has not evolved an iota since SoulCalibur V but it is still as complete, so you can create the fighter of your dreams and then go to attack a world full of missions of all kinds . Be careful however, the Libra of the Soul is extremely talkative, and we often spend more time reading the exchanges between the different protagonists than fighting. But the whole is as interesting as the famous SoulCalibur II Master of Arms. We find everything that made its charm, with fights with always different parameters, or the possibility of exploring the world to find hidden missions and get new more powerful weapons. The system of balance and choice is rather coarse but we are content with it, as there are other things to watch out for, like its mercenary troops which can be sent on a mission in its place in exchange for some money. As much to tell you, if you plan to unlock everything, the Balance of the Soul will occupy you for a long time, especially since it has a good replayability: you just have to create a new character and go back to the adventure, making different choices or choosing a different fighting style.

The Chronicle of the Soul is probably a little less interesting. It's about embodying one of the different characters of the SoulCalibur VI roster and discovering, through his eyes, the scenario of the game which is in fact a kind of remake of the first three games. It's not always exciting and there again, the dialogues are endless; this is an opportunity to listen to Kilik and Sophitia talk about the purpose of life, or the importance of willpower. In short, you will understand, if in mind all this is very shônen manga, in fact you will perceive it especially as a hell of a waste of time. However, each character is entitled to his chronicle, which gives a sacred lifespan to the mode, even if not all are entitled to as many chapters.

But the Chronicle of the Soul and the Libra of the Soul, as the main modes of SoulCalibur VI, are quite comprehensive and will occupy you for a long time. It will also be an opportunity for many of you to learn to play and discover the specifics of each character. Note that the Balance of Soul embeds, from the start, an extremely comprehensive tutorial that will allow you to understand the basics of the game, as well as some more advanced techniques. SoulCalibur VI has the good idea to take the player by the hand, through this but also thanks to a training mode hyper complete and very configurable. Perfect for perfecting your technique.

IVY METAL
Finally a word on the different characters of the game. At the time of this writing, we have 22 characters, including Tira who is part of the season pass of the game. So it's quite correct but it's also less than SoulCalibur V, to name a few. Among the big absentees are Yun Seong, Setsuka or Hildegard, whose fighting styles so particular will be lacking, for sure. But we welcome a few newcomers like Groh and especially Geralt de Riv, the hero of The Witcher. The latter fits perfectly into the landscape of Soul Calibur and he is, to date, the guest who contrasts least with the rest of the cast. His unprecedented violent attacks, as well as the use of a few witchcraft spells of which he has the secret, give him a real identity, which will delight fans of the CD game Projekt RED.

Overall, this roster is certainly a bit limited, but it has been justly renewed, both by the arrival of new characters and by the redesign of the move lists of the most famous fighters. If you are a regular in the series, you will find that all the characters have evolved enormously, losing attacks and gaining others. If the basics are there, you will have to spend a while in Training mode to familiarize yourself with these new move lists which in the case of certain swordsmen change absolutely everything. Thus, Raphael loses a good part of his pretenses and dodges to present a more "fit in" gameplay, which surprises a little bit during the first games. The set always offers the same variety and everyone should find their account. Our only regret, finally, is the redesign of the costumes of certain characters who seem a little missed (Raphael, Voldo ...) and especially the disappearance of the secondary costumes, replaced by an alternative color.

The notes
+ Positive points
Lively and nervous gameplay
Well thought out and well calibrated innovations (Reserval Edge, Coups Fatals)
Soul Balance mode
Perfect training mode for beginners and experts alike
Roster still as diverse
Geralt de Riv perfectly in his element
Quite a few things to unlock

Negative points
Visually dated
Some camera issues
The endless blabla sequences in Libra of the Soul and Chronicle of the Soul
The avatar creation tool that hasn't changed since SoulCalibur V
Too many arenas that lack personality
No secondary costumes

SoulCalibur is back, let's say it. Certainly all is not perfect and we may regret the dated technical aspect of the game, but this sixth episode has managed to intelligently renew the gameplay of the series. More dynamic than the previous episode, it stages hyper nervous fights and filled with suspense, and quickly becomes addictive. And the game has plenty to support our thirst for combat, with the Soul Balance and Chronicles of the Soul modes very complete ... at least, if you have the patience to chain endless dialogues that would have been more their advantage in real cinematic scenes. Anyway, if you're a fan of the series, this SoulCalibur VI is just waiting for you.