Soul Calibur II

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Soul Calibur II

Developer(s)	Namco
Publisher(s)	Namco
Picture format	720p (HDTV) (Xbox only) 480i, 480p (SDTV)
Release date(s)	July 30, 2002 (Arcade) ^JPN March 27, 2003 (Xbox, Gamecube, PlayStation 2) ^NA August 27, 2003 (Xbox, Gamecube, PlayStation 2) ^EUR September 26, 2003 (Xbox, Gamecube, PlayStation 2)
Genre(s)	Versus fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Platform(s)	Arcade, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox
Input	8-way joystick, 6 buttons
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade system(s)	Namco System 246

Soul Calibur II is the sequel to Soul Calibur and the third game in the Soul fighting game series. It was developed and published by Namco.

Soul Calibur is the name of the holy sword, created to battle the evil sword Soul Edge, which the games' story-lines revolve around.

Compared to Soul Calibur, Soul Calibur II boasts improved graphics and introduces new characters, stages, and music. With respect to game mechanics, the two games are very similar, with Soul Calibur II generally considered an updated version of Soul Calibur.

Key game engine improvements include:

More powerful "step" and "avoid" systems, which made evading vertical attacks noticeably easier.
Arena walls, rather than ring-out ability on all sides, and subsequent wall-specific moves.
A three-step Soul Charge system.
A clash system, one that is used when two attacks would hit each other resulting in a white flash and no damage to either opponent.

1 Reaction and criticism
2 Prologue
3 New characters
4 Ports
5 Modes and features
6 Awards
7 External links

[edit] Reaction and criticism

Media reviews of Soul Calibur II were overwhelmingly favorable.

In general, Soul Calibur II's appeal is formidable, but as time went on, many fans became frustrated by some of the engine's mechanics. Most of these issues concern how defensive the gameplay is. For example, a common complaint involves the overly powerful nature of the "step". By "step-guarding", a player can sidestep (to avoid vertical attacks) and immediately block (to counter horizontal attacks), rendering them practically invulnerable. Another common complaint is the "2-guard", a technique that allows players to block during times in which they logically should not be able to do, such as after having an attack deflected by a "Guard Impact". Newly on the game, the players can now select and unlock a variety of weapons for each player, which have different abilities. Each character has 10 weapons.

Another common complaint involved the gross simplification of the Soul series' most prominent feature: the Guard Impact, which deflects an opponent's attack, leaving them open to counterattack. Rather than require a rotation of the joystick or d-pad along with the guard to perform the Guard Impact, Guard Impacts were made easily accessible by simply pressing Guard and either forward or back (depending on the altitude of the incoming attack and hence the appropriate parry). This criticism became so prominent that Namco subsequently restored the Guard Impact system to its original state in Soul Calibur III, as well as expanding on its nature with the "Just Impact". Although this is a common complaint, Guard Impacts can be countered with another Guard Impact, but then it would leave attacking enemies practically pointless.

[edit] Prologue

The game is set 4 years after the end of Soul Calibur, which based on calculations from a timeline released on the Soul Archive website, puts the game's story in the year 1591.

The wave of slaughters that terrorized Europe reached a sudden end. The knight in azure armor, Nightmare, and his followers were successful in collecting enough souls and were about to start the restoring ceremony on the ruins of the once-proud Osthreinsburg Castle. But just as the ceremony was to start, three young warriors assaulted the castle. In a matter of time the clan was defeated and Nightmare stood in front of the young warriors wielding the Sacred Trinity. After an intense battle Nightmare fell, but then the evil soul inside Soul Edge sent the young warriors into a vortex of hellfire and stood to confront them. As a result of Soul Edge's evil aura, Krita-Yuga revealed its true form: that of the Holy Sword, Soul Calibur.

The intense battle ended with the victory of the holy sword, but at the collapse of the vortex of Inferno, both swords along with the azure Nightmare were sucked in a void and expelled in another place. Siegfried Schtauffen, who was until a moment before the Azure Knight, restored his mind. Recognizing his sins, he set on a journey of attonement. Still the blade held a strong bond, and every night it took control of the body and took souls of those nearby. The efforts made by the young knight were fruitless, and four years later the Azure Nightmare returned.

Around those times various warriors came into contact of the blade's remaining fragments, revealing Soul Edge's ultimate survival after its defeat. Driven either to possess or destroy it, they join a new journey, while Nightmare starts his rampage anew, seeking souls to restore Soul Edge once again...

[edit] New characters

Talim fighting Astaroth in Soul Calibur II.

New Soul characters introduced in Soul Calibur II:

Link - Master Sword and Hylian Shield (GCN only)
Heihachi - Gauntlets (PS2 only)
Spawn - Small axe (Xbox only)
Cassandra - Sword and Shield
Charade - Imitative Power
Necrid (Only on Home Versions) - Transforming Energy called Engima
Raphael - Rapier
Talim - Dual Elbow blades (Bladed Tonfas)
Yunsung - Chinese sword (correctly spelled Hong Yun-seong in Soul Calibur III)

Raphael and Talim's playing styles are entirely unique, while Cassandra and Yun-seong's are derived from established characters Sophitia and Hwang, respectively. Charade, like his predecessors Edge Master and Inferno, switches his style to match existing characters' movelists with each individual round of fighting. Each of the home versions also included Necrid, who was not included in the arcade version of Soul Calibur II. Necrid, like Spawn, was personally designed by comic book artist Todd McFarlane.

Rounding out the characters were returning fighters Seung Mi Na and Sophitia from both Soul Edge and Soul Calibur. Also, the North American, Australian and European versions of the game contained three limited-play characters loosely based on characters from Soul Calibur:

Assassin (generic thug, with a move list derived from Hwang) - Dao
Berserker (generic thug, with a move list derived from Rock) - Double-Edged Axe
Lizardman (generic lizardman from the army created by the cult order, Fygul Cestemus, in Soul Calibur) - Sword and Shield

From the Soul Calibur character roster, the ones that did not return for Soul Calibur II as characters themselves were Hwang Seong-gyeong, Nathaniel "Rock" Adams, Lizardman (as the lizardman in the game is not the same one as in Soul Calibur), and Edge Master. Inferno is in the game, only this time, he is not a playable character.

[edit] Ports

Soul Calibur II was ported to Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, and PlayStation 2. It is also notable that each of the three home console versions had unique characters exclusive to that version:

Heihachi Mishima (from the Tekken game series; appears in the PlayStation 2 version) - Gauntlets
Link (from The Legend of Zelda series; appears in the GameCube version) - Master Sword and shield
Spawn (from Todd McFarlane's comic book series; appears in the Xbox version) - Axe formed using his cape.

The Xbox version featured faster loading times compared to the PlayStation 2 version. The Xbox version also supports the 720p HDTV resolution, one of the very few original Xbox games to do so. However, it is widely believed that the GameCube version of Soul Calibur II was more popular than its PlayStation 2 and Xbox counterparts simply because Link was featured as a playable character. However the GameCube version had the fastest load times.

[edit] Modes and features

Modes and other features added to the Home Versions:

Soul Calibur II presented the normal modes from most fighting games: Arcade, Team Battle Mode (similar to arcade, but with teams of up to 8 characters and without cutscenes or endings), Time Attack (fight against the clock to gain records), Survival Battle and Training Mode. There are also "Extra" versions of these modes, intended to allow the use of the Extra Weapons. Worth mentioning is that Arcade's 7th battle is called a "Destined Battle", a battle predefined that never changes. Each character has one according to their story, and are shared by groups of two (Mitsurugi $\rightarrow$ Taki, Taki $\rightarrow$ Mitsurugi) with the exception of the console-exclusive characters.
A returning feature from Soul Edge is the inclusion of Extra Weapons. Instead of Soul Edge's system of different stats, this one is based on power %, defense % and special abilities (drains energy, pass through defense, etc). Each character has 12 different weapons, from the standard (basic) weapons for 1P and 2P to the powerful "Ultimate Weapon". Also each one was granted a Soul Edge version of their arms and a "Joke Weapon", weapons with bad stats and effect, and with unique, and funny, hit sounds. Each weapon is given a backstory in the "Weapon Gallery".
The Arcade version has a unique mode called "Conquest Mode". Conquest Mode allows the player to pick an army, fight enemies and gain experience points, allowing it to increase the level of the selected player.
"Weapon Master Mode" takes the core system from "Conquest Mode" and expands upon it. This mode, made in a similar fashion to Soul Edge's "Edge Master Mode" and Soul Calibur's "Mission Mode", presents a history set in an alternate world, while the player moves in a map divided in "regions" (named after stars) and fight enemies to gain experience points (and raise the "rank" of the character) and money (which could be later used to bought weapons, art, costumes and videos). The mode counts with 10 normal chapters, 4 sub-chapters and 2 extra-chapters as well as Extra-Missions (alternate version of normal missions). The plot of the mode puts the player into the role of a swordsman searching Soul Edge, which suddenly is faced against a powerful mad knight named Veral, who searches Soul Edge for his own desires.
As in Soul Calibur, there is a "Museum", containing character artwork, various videos (like Arcade Intro or WMM intro and Ending) and Weapon Exhibition (or "katas"). There is also the "Profile Viewer" (to see character's stories) and "Battle Theater" (to see CPU vs CPU battles).
Like before, some characters are granted with 3rd costumes, purchased in Weapon Master Mode. Out of the 25 selectable characters, only 12 were granted a 3rd costume: Astaroth, Cassandra, Ivy, Mitsurugi, Nightmare, Raphael, Seong Mi-na, Sophitia, Taki, Talim, and Voldo. It should also be noted that Link has four costumes (exactly like the ones that he has in Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64), and Assassin, Berserker and Lizardman each have 6 different costumes (3 color edits of their 2 standard costumes).
The game also featured the option to hear the characters speak in Japanese or English.