Rather than do SoulCaibur V and then do the rest in separate reviews, I decided to do them all as a whole. Now I personally have only played 3 games in the series but have overlooked the others I failed to play so this is just my opinion on the whole thing. So let's get to it:
Soul Edge/Blade:
Soul Edge was the first game in the series and has a story that takes place in 1584 where a series of warriors are after a powerful sword known as the Soul Edge. Throughout the story, the sword is given many names based on its looks and how it works. The gameplay is similar to that of other fighting games with the use of sidestep movement and a weapon gauge which after a certain period of time can leave the player without the weapon and would have to fight unarmed. The majority of the other gameplay features are similar to that of Tekken. The graphics were in some way, just very basic PlayStation graphics but does manage to detail both the characters and stages to make the game more worthwhile. Overall, this was the starting step of the Soul series so it gets a 7/10.
Soulcalibur:
Soulcalibur was the second game in the series and started a series of its own in later games. The Soul Edge gets in the hands of a dreaded Spanish pirate who decides to spend the next 25 years dominant in the remains of some Spanish town and uses the Soul Edge to defeat those who want the sword for themselves. Two female warriors with a Greek and Japanese background, manage to defeat the pirate but cause the Soul Edge to split itself and would then have the power to bring death and darkness to anyone who possess them. Siegfried (the man who witnesses this happening), then takes the sword for himself and becomes Nightmare, the powerfulest warrior in the story. The gameplay has a more free to move approach allowing the player to use more moves in a variety of ways. Buffering is a new feature added in this game which decreases the amount of time waiting for a character to recover from his/her last move and allowing a quick fire of successful moves thereafter. Graphics were the same to that of the last game but does improve in future ports of the game (Dreamcast to Xbox Live to iOS). Overall, a greatly improved game which delivers well. 8/10
Soulcalibur II:
Being the third instalment in the series, Soulcalibur II was the first to be released into a new generation of consoles and also the first to be put onto multiple platforms on its first release day. Taking place 4 years after the previous game, Nightmare, now more powerful than ever, has captured enough souls from his battle in Europe to restore the ruins of the once-proud Ostreinsburg Castle. However 3 young warriors decide to attack the castle and defeat Nightmare (which they succeed in doing). The Soul Edge then used its almighty power to destroy the warriors and reveal its true form, known as Krita-Yuga. As both swords face total destruction, Nightmare then turns back into Siegfried and is given a chance to go on a journey of atonement, not realising of the swords power inside him still growing strong. Gameplay features new graphics, music,characters and stages. It now has a step and avoid feature in fighting and wall-specific moves, a three-step Soul Charge system, a clash system that is used when two attacks would hit each other resulting in a white flash, Guard Break attacks which put a blocking player into a post guard-impact state. just frame moves awarding additional hits to players who could time their command inputs well, and a revised Guard Impact system that removed height-based Impact moves and instead used a more unified system (high and mid attacks are countered using Repels, mid and low attacks are countered using Parries). It has the usual modes you'd expect to see in a fighting game and has a different third party character on each version of the game (Link from Legend of Zelda on Gamecube, Heihachi Mishima from Tekken on PlayStation 2, Spawn from some comic book series by Todd McFarlane on Xbox as well as a totally new character called Necrid made by Todd, who appeared on all versions of the game). Like I said earlier, the graphics in the game have been improved to match the consoles basic graphics. Overall a vast amount of features that make this game, one of the best in the series so far. 9/10
Soulcalibur III:
Taking place shortly after the events of the last game, Kilik (a character from the last game), has passed his training from his master while the Soul Edge is quickly recovering from its fatal encounter with its current bearer Xianghua and has now returned to Siegfried who returns back to Nightmare upon capturing the sword. 4 years later, Nightmare was about to restore Soul Edge, when suddenly a man named Raphael intending on taking Soul Edge. Nightmare defeated the attacker, but was distracted by Siegfried's latent will trying to restore his body. Using the distraction, Raphael pierced Soul Edge's eye, giving Siegfried the edge he needed to break free from Soul Edge's control once again. After waking up, Siegfried found the holy sword, free from its entrapment within the wicked sword, and out of instinct used it to pierce Soul Edge. The result led to both swords sealed together in a fateful embrace, an "Embrace of Souls". Siegfried took both weapons and started a quest to find a definitive way of sealing Soul Edge, but memories of his slaughters, plus the attacks of those resentful of the Azure Knight, drove his mind towards insanity. Unbeknownst to him, the evil soul of the blade escaped and obtained a temporary shell, starting a new killing spree to strengthen himself while seeking its body, Soul Edge. What neither of the two warriors knows is that a man behind the scenes is controlling their steps, searching to end an everlasting curse. And that many other warriors ventured in search of the blade as well. Gameplay this time around features a mode called Tales of Souls which acts as a story mode for the player to go through to understand the events of the story at hand. Creation is a new feature that allows the player to create their own fighter based on moves of the characters in the game, or made from scratch. other modes include The Soul Arena (which uses quick play in many ways) and others as well. At the stage of its release, other games were using online gameplay while Soulcalibur 3 wasn't. The graphics are the same to that of SC2 so nothing to say on that. The game is great but does lack on various things that prevent it from what could've been a great game. 8/10
Soulcalibur IV:
This game is the worst out of the games so far. The story is based on the fighters that you play as (in other words, each fighter has their own story) and the gameplay only has some minor adjustments like critical finishes. It also features 3 characters from Star Wars and like with SC2, you can only get 2 of the characters (Vader on PS3, Yoda on Xbox 360 and Starkiller from Force Unleashed on both) which up until now is history as you can now have all 3 Star Wars characters via a DLC pack. The game is great in graphics but lacks on gameplay modes, characters (in particular, Yoda and Starkiller) and the creation, making it the worst game so far. 6/10
Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny:
This game was the first portable game in the series but has all of its features come from SC4. Its basically a basic fighting game with everything you can expect on it. It features Kratos (From God of War) as a 3rd party character in the game. Its a copycat of SC4 and therefore makes it great for on the move, but bad for fans of the series. 7/10
Soulcalibur V:
This game is the first game in a long while that returns to the story in full swing. The story takes place 17 years after SC4 where a man called Patroklos is trying to find his sister, but must confront his destiny given by his so called mother. The gameplay has had a major improvement as the Soul Gauge and Critical Finishes are no more. Armour will still break but won't reveal how long till its broken. A new gauge has been introduced which allows the characters to charge it up so they can execute a powerful move which can be either a Brave Edge or Critical Edge. the side step has also been improved to allow more movement around the enemies and the Guard feature has been altered to improve the defencive moves of characters. An online mode is included as well and a number of other features are here too. Ezio Auditore da Firenze (From Assassin's Creed) is the only third party character in the series with a few Tekken characters appearing in some form as well. The graphics are great and show just how beautiful the stages and characters are and overall, this game gets a 9/10.
So that's the Soul series now reviewed.
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