Soul Calibur VI review

Who doesn’t like to play some rounds against a friend in a good old fighting game? I always had an intriguing weakness for the Soul Calibur franchise, some beloved characters and the battle between good and bad that manifest itself in weapons is pretty alluring for me. We had to wait a staggering six years for a new Soul Calibur game, the question that’s left: Is it good enough against all the big other fighting games? Let us find out in this review!

THE GOOD

• Reversal Edge: Who would have thought that adding a 
  rock paper scissors element in a competitive fighting game would be fun? Others, think about Injustice, have a similar thing but Reversal Edge is really well designed and each character has some small nuances with this feature. When you start Reversal Edge you go into a cinematic slow motion stance, I won’t deny that luck is required but the mental stuff behind this feature is a lot bigger than you would originally think. Losing a Reversal Edge can be infuriating in an online round or against a friend but at the same time really entertaining too! 
• Two big single player modes: It is becoming a rare thing but Soul Calibur VI features two big single player modes that gives the players lots of content. You have a typical story mode with a main story and each character has a few extra chapters. A more original mode called Libra of Souls is where you’ll spend most of your time, for starters the nice touch is that you’ll play with a self made character
• Accessible and fun gameplay: The main difference between Soul Calibur and other fighters like for example Killer Instinct or Street Fighter is the weapon-based fighting -system. Especially your position on the stage field is extremely important, each character has his own reach, knowing when you OR the opponent can start a combo is a learning curve. Another reason why you have to learn to position yourself are the ring outs, nothing more heartbreaking than falling from the stage with 80% health. I’m not an idiot and I know that other fighters have this learning curve too but more so in Soul Calibur. In all those years that I have been playing this franchise I really appreciated the gameplay difference, Soul Calibur just plays and feels different than any other game in the genre, and I’m glad that after six years Bandai Namco finally released a new one! 
  • Defensive approach: Another difference for Soul Calibur is the defense play. Parry, Reversal Edge and dodging with the 8 ways of direction moving is really important, mazelike for newcomers but you’ll get the hang of it rather quickly. Also the reason why I love to watch Soul Calibur on Mixer or Twitch, the nuances are perfect for competitive battles. (Esports) 
• Playable character roster: Azwell, who can summon magical weapons, Groh, a fast fighter with a cool twin bladed staff and guest-character Geralt are three new characters in the franchise. A decent enough roster of 20 playable characters can be selected with one pre-order (or DLC) character Tira. Fan favorites like Voldo, Kilik or Ivy are all playable. My personal favorite Yoshimitsu, not considered a guest character because he has been in it since the start is playable too! With the option to create your own diverse characters I feel that this is more than enough.
  • Geralt from The Witcher: In my opinion Soul Calibur has a history with weird and unfitting guest characters. While it was fun to choke people with Darth Vader or see the green outfit from Link (On Nintendo, obviously) it just didn’t really fit the universe. This is different with Geralt, if you, for one or the other unforgivable reason, aren’t familiar with the source material from CD Project’s The Witcher you would totally think that he was just an original roster character. His middle range fighting style and typical Witcher magic simply works in Soul Calibur. I’m sure that many players will use our new friend as a main. (Something I already noticed in the online modes) 
    
• Create your characters: 20 fighting styles, non-human stuff like lizards, robots or skeletons and a huge selection of sliders to change the look. The Create a character is a huge benefit and really fun to use. That your created characters can be used online or for the single player mode Libra of Souls is nothing less than awesome. 
• Visuals: Soul Calibur is using Unreal Engine now and it is on par with the visuals from Tekken 7. With all the bells and whistles, for example the slow motion from Reversal Edge it really is a great looking package. 
• Sound & Music: Voice acting aside, the sound and music is noticeable  in a very good way. I adored hearing most of the music tracks and the little screams and sound pop ups perfectly fit in the game. 

• Museum: I think it is a good thing to have a lot of unlockable content but the Museum from Soul Calibur has quite a few grind quests that simply are pushes the repetitive nature too much. 
• OP characters: It is almost inevitable in this kind of genre but some characters are over powered and will cause some frustration. A good example is Nightmare, who does a lot of damage and has an insane reach.  
• Mundane and too few stages: Visually things look shiny and pretty but the design from some stages are kinda generic and miss some creativity. You don’t have a large selection of stages either, kinda disappointing. 

• No voice acting: Soul Calibur isn’t afraid to unleash a lot of dialogue, it is a shame that a high profile game like this doesn’t have full voiced conversations. Especially for this genre it is hard to go from pure adrenaline action moments to dead silent anime-like conversations, it was hard to resist pressing the skip-button because reading everything became a drag.

Soul Calibur VI  SCORE: 86%

Soul Calibur is back and the fight between good and bad can finally continue! The genre simply isn’t the same without this classical franchise and we at LifeisXbox are really glad to see a glorious return!