SoulCalibur VI (PlayStation 4) Review

It is pretty clear that much of the effort in terms of content for SoulCalibur VI was ploughed into its story modes. Outside of the standard Arcade, Versus, Training, and Online options, there are two in-depth areas focused entirely on plot. One of these, Soul Chronicle, is a simple mode that allows most of the characters in the game to be picked to play out their personal journey through the SoulCalibur narrative, with simple visual novel scenes in between roughly six battles. Many of these are pretty bland slogs that don't offer much excitement, but it is amusing how each combatant's quests tie into the overarching plot, crossing over with different stories at various periods of the battle for Soul Edge.

The other solo quest, Libra of Soul, sees a created character fighting through a more role-playing-like series of events across an overworld map of sorts, with a long-winded narrative that isn't quite so interesting enough that it needed to be so drawn out in this familiar tale seen before across the series. Nonetheless, both story modes, complete with unique battle scenarios, offer a solid distraction for the solo player that isn't fussed about multiplayer, although Arcade may end up being the place of preference for quick bursts of versus AI combat.

SoulCalibur VI has tried to go back to its roots in this long-awaited sequel. Reminiscent of the first two games, the plot is more of a retelling, but the characters are now mostly originals from the good old days, and not the unpopular ones introduced in SCV. There could have been a few more additions to the cast, but most of the favourites return, alongside some newcomers in the form of Azwel and Groh, plus guest fighter Geralt from The Witcher. These are all pretty great characters in their own right, although it's strange (although probably some sort of agreement by including him in the game) that Geralt seems to appear at the end of all Arcade runs as the final opponent.

Combat largely remains unchanged compared to past titles, with kicks and vertical and horizontal attacks being the main source to dish out damage, whilst a new move called Reversal Edge comes as somewhat of a mixed bag. Able to be pulled off infinitely at no cost, this special move slows down time and, if it connects on an enemy, will put both players into a sort of rock-paper-scissors situation, whereby certain moves will beat another, putting one of them at a disadvantage. This is your typical risk-reward type of move, but it can mess with the rhythm of matches so much that it just becomes a nuisance. Otherwise, it's traditional SoulCalibur fare, and whilst that should suit fans that haven't played for many years, or since the days of the PS2, others that have still been playing the most recent entry may find the gameplay wanting for something more to spruce it up.

The character creator returns and is fairly in-depth for what it is. It is again a nice distraction from the core features of the game, and some very cool takes on popular characters from other games can be created if the time and effort is put in. Unfortunately, these custom characters can crop up online with no option to avoid them, and, once the novelty wears off pretty quickly, this can be a constant annoyance when coming across some of the more disgusting looking things.