Let me preface this review by saying that I’m not the hardcore fighter type. By that I mean I don’t play fighters very much, and am not even remotely close to being great at them. So with that said, I’m not the type of person that can describe all of the intricacies of Soul Calibur IV’s fighting engine and the idiosyncrasies which separate it from other 3D fighters like Tekken and Virtua Fighter. But I have played my fair share of games and have no prejudice towards any genre. I realize that every genre has its share of quality games, and recognize what makes games good in those respective genres.

Soul Calibur IV is at least “good.” This is mainly due to the incredible depth the game contains. In fact, the amount of modes and features it contains is enough to overwhelm a beginner to the series. Like its previous iterations, Soul Calibur IV separates itself from its competitors by featuring combatants with unique weapons and abilities. This adds more strategy to the game, since you can choose which abilities you think will give you an edge in the fight, as well as participate in the fight itself. This is a lot more complicated than it sounds. I personally have found that most of the abilities don’t have much of an effect on the fight, and instead are just small added perks that can sometimes help you out. The real depth and strategy is found in the actual fighting engine. Each character and his/her weapon has a multitude of moves, enough so that it’s near impossible for the layman to memorize even half of them. Through this, Soul Calibur IV puts a heavy emphasis on spending a lot of time with a character to truly learn and play well with them.

But of course this has to be the game’s biggest problem. A casual player like me will have a tough time fully learning the move-set of even one character. Deciding when to use each individual move is an even bigger problem. I had a lot of trouble with a lot of the more difficult challenges the game throws at you, especially in the Tower of Souls mode. But this isn’t too much of a problem, since it’s the only challenge the game provides. Both the Story and Arcade modes are quite easy, and I was able to beat Story mode on Hard difficulty by simple button mashing or using one move over and over again. I suppose Namco did this on purpose, because the reward for beating either Story or Arcade mode is well in line with the amount of effort put in. Beating either mode results in short clip (usually under a minute) that is either incomprehensible or indecipherable unless you’re a diehard follower of the series’ storyline. Why both modes offer different endings is also baffling, yet somehow a good thing (why else would you play one over the other?)

As mentioned, the lack of challenge in the Arcade and Story modes is more than made up for by the very frustrating Tower of Souls mode. In this mode you must ascend or descend a seemingly unending number of floors with one or more characters in tag-team like fashion. Although the difficulty being high is a good thing compared to the other modes, it’s also annoying since a lot of it seems cheap. For example, opponents in this mode are frequently made more difficult by having more than 100% health or being immune to throws. This is especially frustrating to me, because I cannot stand artificial difficulty in video games.

Aside from that, the Tower of Souls is by far the best fighting mode in the game and offers a good platform for players to really hone their skills. I say best fighting mode, because I found the best actual mode to be Create-A-Character. In this mode, you can create your very own character with the plethora of clothing and accessories items available. You can even create custom outfits of the already existing characters. More items to accessorize your character can be obtained in the Tower of Souls mode, a clever way of forcing someone to play the most challenging mode in the game. Unfortunately, the Star Wars characters are not customizable, and since brand new characters need to be based on already existing ones, any custom character you make cannot use a lightsaber. This might actually be the most disappointing aspect of the game for me.

Speaking of the Star Wars tie-in, the characters from said universe (and their given storylines) do look a little awkward and out of place in the game. However, Namco has admittedly done a good job of making the characters work in the actual gameplay, and they fit in quite well in the regard (still, the lightsaber should be able to cut through everyone and everything). The effort put forth by Namco here is especially positive, since the tie-in seemed only to be about money ever since it was announced.

I guess another big addition to the series in IV is online play. Fighting games have always had a large focus on multiplayer, and online play lets you play versus mode any time you want. But online play is a double edged sword (best pun ever?) because the net code required may interfere with the intricate mechanics of the game’s fighting engine. Regardless, I did not notice such disturbances in the matches I played, and any lag present was manageable. There are reports of severe lag during online play from several sources, however.

Soul Calibur IV does what it needs to, but not much else. This isn’t a bad thing. It’s not revolutionary or innovative, but it offers a solid fighting experience. Its biggest flaw is that it is too deep. The storyline is also a bit unwelcoming to those new to it, but let’s face it, so is every other fighting game storyline. Soul Calibur IV will give returning players a “next-gen” quality title that surpasses its predecessors in a variety of ways, particularly in the field of replayability. Those new to the series will have a tough time at first, but if they put enough time into it, they will be rewarded with a great experience and finally understand why this series matters. If not, there’s always the large breasts.