#Soul calibur vi review series

Fights here are painfully anticlimactic given the extensive lead-in and load times. This mode is very much SoulCalibur VIвЂ™s version of the Weapon Master and Chronicles of the Sword modes from the previous games in the SoulCalibur series, and it loses out by tipping the balance too far toward the text than the gameplay.

The most expansive mode, however, is Libra of Souls, where players get to craft their own fighters from the gameвЂ™s robust-if slightly haphazard-Creation Mode, and take them on an RPG-style romp throughout Eurasia in an attempt to cure themselves of a curse caused by Soul Edge. (Anything not explained in Soul Chronicle is elaborated upon in the Library, where extra tomes of backstory unlock as you play in every mode.)

#Soul calibur vi review series

The stories themselves arenвЂ™t exactly to the level of, say, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but they go a very long way toward humanizing the characters, endearing them to players in ways the series hasnвЂ™t bothered to in years, and making the relationships between these characters a little bit easier to parse out. And the most engaging of those modes is Soul Chronicle, where the major events leading up to the knight Siegfried taking control of the cursed blade are recounted on a massive timeline.ДЄll of SoulCalibur VIвЂ™s warriors see their individual stories briefly told in relation to how they wound up searching for Soul Edge, and through a combination of text and rather beautiful watercolor-meets-pencil-sketch artwork, with major plot points punctuated by full-on fights. The much vaunted вЂњtale of souls and swords, eternally retoldвЂќ has been taken back to the drawing board, with not one, but two full-fledged single-player story modes dedicated to cohesively telling the story of the gameвЂ™s 21 warriors, and their role in attempting to reclaim or destroy the fabled evil sword Soul Edge. To wit, the most hearty and involving parts in SoulCalibur VI are all in aid of weaving the often splintered and frayed SoulCalibur narrative together as elegantly as possible. SoulCalibur VI, then, isnвЂ™t so much a return to form than a much-needed refocus on the things that made the series special to begin with, dialing back the more ridiculous ideas from over the years, while cultivating the ones that worked. With the SoulCalibur series, the breaking point came right around the time we all had to pretend that having Darth Vader fighting an undead pirate wasnвЂ™t weird as hell. When it comes to its bread-and-butter franchises, Bandai Namco generally operates on a principle of вЂњIf it ainвЂ™t broke, donвЂ™t fix it.вЂќ ThereвЂ™s nothing inherently wrong with that approach, but the Japanese video game development company and publisher does have a rather conspicuous habit of bringing just one too many non-sequitur elements to the table in an attempt to mix things up for players.