SoulCalibur
Developer - Project Soul (a team within Namco)
Publisher - Namco
Directors - Jin Okubo, Yoshitaka Tezuka
Producers - Yasuhiro Noguchi, Hiroaka Yotoriyama
Game Designers - Tetsuya Akatsuka, Tsuyoshi Kiuchi
Programmer - Shinobu Nimura
Artist - Ryoichi Ban
Composers - Junichi Nakatsuru, Yoshihito Yano, Akitaka Tohyama, Takanori Otsuka
Writer - Yoshihiro Nakagawa
Genre - Fighting
Dreamcast Release Dates - Console Launch, September 9, 1999 (North America); August 5, 1999 (Japan); December 1, 1999 (Europe)
Additional Releases - Namco System 12 Arcade (July 30, 1998); Xbox 360 Xbox Live Arcade (2008); iOS (2012); Android (2013)
Sequels - Soulcalibur II, Soulcalibur III, Soulcalibur Legends, Soulcalibur IV, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny, Soulcalibur Mobile, Soulcalibur V, Soulcalibur II HD Online, Soulcalibur: Lost Swords, Soulcalibur: Unbreakable Soul, Soulcalibur VI
Current Average Price - $35
I clearly remember the day when I first played Soulcalibur for the SEGA Dreamcast. It was a few weeks after the launch of the console (the US Dreamcast launched on September 9, 1999). I wouldn’t own a Dreamcast for another couple of months (my first SEGA Dreamcast was a Christmas present in 1999), and so I spent countless hours between the system’s launch day and the holiday greedily drooling over whatever Dreamcast accessories and games happened to be sitting on the shelves at the local Software Etc.
In a front corner of the store sat a Dreamcast demo kiosk, positioned strategically to allow perfect viewing for anyone in the store (and for shoppers passing by in the mall proper). I saw and played plenty of Dreamcast launch games on that demo kiosk’s bulbous CRT monitor while I languished through those Dreamcast-less months. The ubiquitous Sonic Adventure, the frantic Powerstone (usually played against another shopper), the wet and wild Hydro Thunder. All of these games were stunning, visually. They arrested the eye with their vibrancy and their unbelievably smooth frame-rates. But no game was as strikingly smooth, fast, and fluid as Namco’s Soulcalibur. I’d never seen a game so pretty. More importantly, it played beautifully.
The action was fast, the combat frantic and varied. The eight-way directional 3D arenas gave us another way to attack, dodge, and outmaneuver our opponents. Soulcalibur wasn’t a totally new revelation (3D fighting games had been around for years), but the weapon-based fighter improved on the things which made many other fighting games so great. The character designs varied between the weird, the conventional, the grotesque, and the beautiful, and each character had a story and personality. The stages were atmospheric. The moves list was extensive and perfecting our moves required real skill and practice. At the time when I first saw it, Soulcalibur was easily the best fighting game I’d ever seen. And I still love it.
Development and Gameplay
Following the success of 1995’s arcade fighting game Soul Edge, Namco evaluated what had made Soul Edge a success before launching into development of its sequel. An internal Namco prototype had been developed independent of the Soulcalibur franchise. This prototype allowed a 3D character to run openly in a field. When Soulcalibur series producers saw this prototype, an idea struck to implement its movement mechanic in a fighting game. The team was instantly surprised at how well it meshed with the fighting system and decided to build the sequel to Soul Edge around this new eight-way movement system.
Given the revolutionary new movement mechanic, Soulcalibur’s producer, Hiroaki Yotoriyama, felt a fresh start to the series would be helpful. To retain the link to Soul Edge and to stress the weapon-based combat, he decided to call the new game Soulcalibur (a portmanteau of soul from Soul Edge, and calibur from King Arthur’s legendary sword Excalibur). Soulcalibur also became the name of a legendary holy sword within the game series.
Project Soul, the team behind the Soulcalibur series, worked closely with Namco’s Tekken development team. The two teams shared ideas and research continuously and in close rapport. Yotoriyama cites this close partnership as a key factor in the success of Soulcalibur, saying that he believes it allowed his team to create “the greatest weapon-based fighting action game in the world.”
Extreme care was taken to create a fair and balanced game. Although each character uses a different weapon, and one could argue that a sword is more effective than a staff, no single character has an obvious advantage. This is largely due to the movement mechanics in the game, and the accurate character animations, which are mapped to specific and individual attacks for each character. For these reasons, all movement are “telegraphed” in the character’s arms and legs for a few frames before an attack will land. This gives skilled players the opportunity to dodge, block, or counter every move made by every character in the game.
Soulcalibur released to arcades in summer of 1998. It ran on Namco’s System 12 hardware and was an instant hit among arcade-goers for its fast pace, skill-based combat, and excellent graphics.
Development on a port for the SEGA Dreamcast was quickly launched. Under a tight deadline (the upcoming launch of the Dreamcast), Soulcalibur’s 40-person team worked obsessively for seven months to craft the best possible game that they could. The DC port improved on the arcade original in a number of ways - for example, the flat 2D backgrounds of the arcade original were remodeled entirely out of 3D polygons for the home release. Additional content was added to ensure replayability, including a new character (Cervantes de Leon), new costumes, and new game modes (team battle, survival, training mode, and mission battle). Mission Battle is a robust mode in itself - playing it provides the player with points which can be spent on artwork, extra features, costumes, and even stages.
When the Dreamcast port of Soulcalibur finally released alongside the new console, it stunned the gaming press and gamers alike by being a richer and better looking game compared with its arcade counterpart. This, at the time, was unheard of.
Legacy
Soulcalibur is widely regarded as one of the best Dreamcast games ever made, one of the best fighting games ever made, and one of the best videogames of all time. At the time of its release it was hugely successful, selling in excess of one million copies by December 1999. It is the second-highest selling game on the Dreamcast, after Sonic Adventure.
It was the second game in history to receive a perfect 40/40 score from Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu.
It won the 1999 E3 Game Critics Award for “Best Fighting Game.” That same year it won the AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards for “Console Game of the Year” and “Console Fighting Game of the Year.” It was also nominated for “Game of the Year.”
Soulcalibur holds the second highest ranking all time on Metacritic, with a 98 (just behind the all-time highest ranked The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s 99). It is clearly an important videogame and one that every gamer should play.
Its sequels are plentiful and they’re all very good games. For me, the original is still the best. It’s the purest expression of the weapon-based fighting genre, and it’s still pretty damn good looking.
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