(AfroGamers.com) There was great anticipation in my house once we found out Soul Calibur VI would be releasing on Xbox. I would be the first to admit I love this game on a very personal level, but I was not impressed with Soul Calibur V. Soul Calibur V streamed lined move set for certain players like Ivy and Cervantes to bring in what they believed was smoother game play. When in fact they made characters that were know for having a difficult easier to grasp. The game felt and played in a more dumbed down fashion.
Granted you still would have to learn to play but Soul Calibur IV was not a game you could simply button mash a character as long as you chose the right characters…this was the case in Soul Calibur V. I admit I played Soul Calibur V because of the sentimental value the dame holds for me, but I was hoping Soul Calibur IV would return to the same level of difficulty, or better, as Soul Calibur IV.
Soul Calibur IV was the game a fraternity brother, future husband, was playing when we met. I was drawn to the story line, graphics, and fighting styles of the game. I ended playing quite often with Ivy, and Hilde as they ended up being my favorite female fighting styles. However, it was Ivy that I would end up learning best as her style was aggressive and the multiple forms of her sword/whip option had me sold. I also appreciated that I could control the forms as I saw fit. My would-be husband mastered playing with Cervantes…and he was relentless in his game play.
We literally got to know each other and bonded over the game. He created several characters for me, and I admit…I felt special. The game is so dear to me I even own the soundtrack. Every year on or around out anniversary we break out Soul Calibur IV and play for hours. He wins most of our matches. It was with this level of intensity that I purchased Soul Calibur V only to be a bit disappointed. We played but the magic wasn’t the same. Though we were excited about Soul Calibur VI after seeing many of the trailers. I wondered what direction the game would go in, and would they scale down the difficulty of certain characters even further.
Certain characters such as Ivy were not on the same level of difficulty as in Soul Calibur IV, but it was so much better than Soul Calibur V. The play of SCVI took me back in many ways to SCIV, and this was a huge plus in play for me, and my husband. He had been playing since Soul Blade up to SCVI, but that was not my situation, so I was always missing parts of the story line. SCVI is helpful as it fills in missing gaps while re-telling details of SC II-VI in a soft reboot.
While one is playing, they can get what feels like a complete story of the game series…minus SCV which is in the future. I would recommend SCVI to returning Soul Calibur fans, and gamers that are new to the game. My husband and I are back to playing SCVI, and thoroughly enjoying the character development that was so sorely missed in SCV. Maybe this anniversary we’ll be playing SCVI instead of having to go back to SCIV…or maybe we’ll play both.
Staff Writer; Christian Starr
May connect with this sister over at Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/christian.pierre.9809 and also Twitter; http://twitter.com/MrzZeta.