Review of Soulcalibur VI

“Transcending history and the world, a tale of souls and swords eternally retold.”

Since the Soulcalibur franchise launched back in late 1995 with Soul Blade, this title phrase has been the fiber weaving each game, and their respective stories, together for 23 years. Soulcalibur and Soulcalibur II are widely considered to be the best and most popular of the franchise, with the subsequent releases of Soulcalibur III through Soulcalibur V being critically disappointing and unpopular with fans of the franchise, gameplay and character design changes being poor departures from the series roots. While originally standing tall with fighting game giants like Tekken and Street Fighter, the Soulcalibur franchise seemed doomed to fade into the annals of history. Bandai Namco, however, with Tekken 7 garnering major success and popularity, decided to give the franchise one more attempt. This time, Bandai Namco would stick to the formula of the classic entries and its characters, while providing new gameplay evolutions natural to franchise roots, to appeal to series veterans and newcomers alike.

Soulcalibur VI (Xbox One, PS4, PC) is the latest entry in the Soulcalibur franchise. Whether you are returning or new to the franchise, Soulcalibur VI is triumphant in its return to classic series beats and gameplay feel, while still succeeding with new gameplay implementations that make the game, and franchise, feel fresh and unique rather than unwelcome changes. Soul Edge through Soulcalibur V have a vast and interwoven story chronologically through each game. Soulcalibur VI retells the events from the end of Soulcalibur through the events of Soulcalibur III, which allows the game to take on a modern look and feel with today’s graphics and visuals, but also bring back all the characters (and designs) series veterans know and love. Sophitia, Siegfried, Nightmare, Taki, Kilik, Seong Mi-na, Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher franchise, and more, bringing a total cast of 20 fighters, with two additional as DLC; Tira and the yet unreleased 2B from Nier: Automata. While the cast will continue to grow with future DLC releases, the cast as of now is plentiful, with each character exhibiting a unique style and design of their own. Even characters like Siegfried and Nightmare, whom within the game’s timeline are the same person, fight with a similar style but play completely different, where strategies with Siegfried will not work with Nightmare and vice-versa. Geralt of Rivia is the special guest character included in the game, and those familiar with The Witcher series will be glad to know most of his signature moves and his style of fighting carry over to Soulcalibur VI. Geralt does not feel too out-of-place for the type of universe Soulcalibur is, unlike the Star Wars guest characters in Soulcalibur IV, and as such Geralt makes a great addition to the cast here. The classic characters, combined with the modern visuals of today, do well to please veterans and newcomers alike.

Soulcalibur VI plays a lot like the classic entries as well, while still having new gameplay elements that serve to keep things fresh while making the moment-to-moment exchanges in fights much more intense. Movement, as has always been in the series, is an 8-way system in a three-dimensional plane. This means all characters have freedom of movement in any direction, and unlike most recent entries in the series, movement speed has been increased back to the original games style. This brings intensity back into the franchise and reading and countering your opponent is more important than ever, making mistakes costly and counter-attacks quick and deadly. Soulcalibur VI is not button-masher friendly, and demands players take some time to learn their favorite characters’ strengths, weaknesses, and moves in order to win.

New and returning mechanics include Critical Edge attacks, Reversal Edge, Lethal Hit attacks, and Soul Charge. Soul Charge returns from the older entries, and this time around, is useful, giving a temporary power-up and moves unique to each individual character for a short time. Critical Edge attacks act much like “Super Attacks” from other fighting games, allowing players to unleash the most powerful attack in their character’s repertoire. Reversal Edge is a counter move unique to each character and triggers a showdown between both players, each pressing a different input at an attempt to win the faceoff in exchange for huge damage. Lethal Hit attacks are normal moves executed in certain circumstances that open up the opponent for a hard hitting combo. Soul Charge and Critical Edge utilize a meter system, whereas Reversal Edge and Lethal Hit can be executed at almost any time. These mechanics make the game fun to play, but also more rewarding and satisfying than past entries, and each mechanic is balanced so as not to feel overpowered. Each fight, whether it be against AI opponents or online against other players, feels different from one another, and each moment feels more unpredictable than the last, keeping the gameplay fresh and fun even after hours of play. Just like previous games, players can also customize their inputs and control schemes, either with controller or arcade stick, for a personalized experience.

Visually and sonically, Soulcalibur VI delivers in every regard. Each stage in the game is rendered beautifully, with a look and feeling of being lived in. The lighting system deserves greater praise, casting realistic light and shadow across each stage relative to the environment, with each stage dynamically transitioning between day and night to keep visuals varied while representing the passage of time through a fight. The background music features grand and varied orchestral scores, helping draw players in and make them feel like they are in the stage and the fight. The textures of characters are also excellent for a fighting game, from metal and leather armor to large and small weapons, every inch of every character looks real and believable. Likewise, during a fight, the sound of weapons clashing or finding their mark on opponents carry an appropriate, impactful sound to them, with fluid and believable animations that make fights a joy to watch. Whether you prefer English or Japanese voice casting, both options can be selected and, while dialogue lines range from great to poorly written, both casts do a great job at lending unique soul and identity to each character. While the PC version is the best visually, all versions run at a locked and rock solid 60 frames per second. Only during loading sequences will anyone experience any frame dips, PC included, but performance across all systems remains consistent.

The number of modes featured in Soulcalibur VI leave you wanting, as there aren’t many modes compared to past entries in the series, but the usual standard fare is here. “Libra of Soul” and “Soul Chronicle” are the game’s two story modes; the former involving the creation of your own character, and their adventures and fights through an intriguing story. “Soul Chronicle” has you engage in the personal stories and adventures of each character on the roster through the classic Soulcalibur timeline. “Libra of Soul” is the more engaging story mode of the two, with better writing and cinematics, where a lot of “Soul Chronicle” leaves some to be desired. Traditional local battle modes are here; Arcade, Versus (AI and 2-Player), and Training, while a Survival mode is strangely absent. Character Creation is back, and allows players to edit the existing roster, create entirely new characters from scratch, or browse and download creations from other players. The creator is surprisingly robust, more so than previous entries, and gives players freedom (in some cases too much freedom, as was proven by someone’s naked lizard with an incredibly enormous phallus) to give any character any type of look and texture. Some creator materials, clothing, and more need to be purchased with in-game currency which is earned through simply playing; there are absolutely no microtransactions present. Online modes include Ranked and Player matches, Private Matches and Lobbies, and a Leaderboard, allowing players to seek being the best in the world, or simply have fun with friends. Online connectivity is so far the best and most consistent of the series, however there are still many hiccups with matchmaking simply not finding other players, or when it does, matching you with someone who has a poor connection, regardless if you specify only good connections to be matched with. These inconsistencies in matchmaking should hopefully be ironed out in time with future updates.

Although it falls short in a few areas, Soulcalibur VI succeeds in bringing the series back to the forefront of present-day fighting games. Avoiding the missteps and failures of Soulcalibur IV and Soulcalibur V, Soulcalibur VI presents a varied and classic cast of characters to the series, returns core gameplay back to series roots while evolving and injecting new mechanics that complement, rather than hinder, that core rhythm and flow. This makes Soulcalibur VI easy to pick-up and learn, but hard to master, and appealing to series veterans and newcomers alike. Fights are cinematic and unpredictable from moment to moment, making for an exciting watch or play experience. Soulcalibur VI is one of the finest additions to the franchise, one that gives the series the resurgence fans’ souls have long been burning for.