SoulCalibur V for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

I've been a fan of Soul Calibur since the good old days of the Sega Dreamcast (I went back and played Soul Blade, too, just for shiggles, but the first Soul Calibur is where it all started for me). I played a ton of SC2, and SC3 was an obsession for years. SC4 was the first title I didn't keep playing until the next one came out, but it still got hundreds of hours of gametime... but this one?

There was a certain set of tactics needed to be great in the previous games. Yes there were cheap ways to win with almost every character, but a familiarity with these would help you come out the victor regardless (I should know, I was the reigning Northern Utah champion of SC3 and SC4, only to be dethroned upon my "retirement" from the tournies)... but this game is different.

Thanks in no small part to the removal of gaurd impacts (or the alteration of them to something completely different, rather) and the introduction of a Street Fighter like soul gauge and accompanying easy to perform super attacks, all strategy and tactics get blown right out of the water, as the game becomes a button mash contest to see who can get their gauge up fast eough to win the match. Now, I'm not saying the Street Fighter mentality is bad, per say, however I find its utilization in a game such as Soul Calibur to be insulting to the core fanbase.

We don't want to play Street Fighter, we want to play Soul Calibur... its basically an example of the old expression "don't fix it if its not broken." Of course this expression exists to warn people that fixing something that doesn't need fixing will often result in breaking it (just look at Microsoft Windows).

Bottom line, this is not a game for SC fans. Its pretty, and has a great customization mode, continuing the trend started in SC3... but its not really a SC game, and that is truly unfortunate. Namco needs to listen to its fans and make another one like SC3... but no, instead we're given this sad excuse.

We deserve better... SHAP