There are a ton of just frames compared to Soul Calibur III – part of the fun in Soul Calibur IV will be to discover them all. By perfectly timing button pushes, move properties change (usually for the better), and you can confirm that a just frame (JF) move was performed by the audio cues (high pitched whirrs) and the visual effect – your character will flash a bright white color. Just frame moves are back with a vengeance in Soul Calibur IV. Perhaps as a way to compensate for the tighter time frames for guard impacts, 8-way run has been tuned to avoid more vertical attacks - in other words vertical attacks such as Sophitia’s BB or Nightmare’s 3B simply don’t track as well as they did before. Also, parrying will now make an opponent fall to the ground face down, as does just impacting. The time window for guard impacts has been squeezed down a notch (it feels like there are 5 frames or so less than what was previously available).
It is possible to start a combo / chain with one character and then finish it off with another. For Story Mode and Tower of Lost Souls, you can hit a ‘change’ button to switch characters. Yes, it’s like DOA or Tekken Tag Tournament in a way.
Note that this doesn’t always work for instance, the opponent can’t be in the air, and you can’t be in the middle of a string (a series of hits). Two chances present themselves for a critical finish: right after armor break when your opponent’s life bar is flashing red, or right after GI when opponent’s bar is flashing red. Pretty hilarious results ensue for custom characters, who get stripped down to their underwear when their armor breaks. Once broken, your armor stays broken for the rest of the match, and you take more damage. Three shapes below your soul gauge correspond to 3 parts for your body armor: high, medium, and low. There’s a lot more going on in the screen than before. If you’re in the red, your lifebar will also flash red – a chance for your opponent to land a critical finish if they guard impact your attack, or break your armor. Blue means you’ve been attacking a lot, green is the color you start off in, yellow means you’ve been blocking a lot, and red means you’ve been blocking too much.
That glowing orb next to your life bar? That’s the soul gauge. As someone who only played a little bit of Soul Edge and Soul Calibur, a lot of Soul Calibur II and was then disappointed by Soul Calibur III, this newest installment looks to be a game I will play for quite a few months to come. I was fortunate enough to try out the game at San Diego Comic-Con International, upon which I was able to test out many of the claims made by message boards everywhere.Ī further evaluation based on some more time with the game makes me feel quite good about Soul Calibur IV. It’s no secret that the game has been playable among select communities for some time now, as some game shops purportedly broke the official North American street date of July 29. In sum the game turns out to be a vast improvement over part III, and a worthy successor to the Soul franchise. After having a few weeks of play time with Soulcalibur IV, we’ve finally compiled our thoughts and feelings about the latest tale of souls and swords… Our very own Masakun has put together a very comprehensive review of Soulcalibur IV, click below and check it out!Īlmost three years after Soul Calibur III took North America by storm, Namco Bandai’s fifth installment of the soul series officially hit store shelves this week.