Soul Calibur IV is
an unparalleled aesthetic accomplishment, and, over a decade after
its release, it endures as a digital apotheosis of beauty. Perhaps it
is shallow to begin a review with a discussion of graphics, but, true
to the Soul Calibur series, the fourth iteration is a truly
stunning game, and the depth of its bright and glossy visuals
abidingly occasions amazement. So many different materials are
rendered convincingly here, ranging from metals to leathers to
textiles. Future iterations of the series have not drastically
overhauled the graphical style, and with good cause, as SCIV
is among the most aesthetically satisfying games ever made.
SCIV had—and
has—perhaps the best create-a-character in all of video games,
another feature so stellar that it has only been slightly tweaked for
sequels. The editing suite provided on SCIV is nothing short
of a triumph—what can't be created here? The textural and sartorial
variety are so vast, it is difficult not to create a character with
personality. You can realize virtually any classical warrior
archetype: samurais, knights errant, ninjas, barbarians, cowboys,
nurses, Nazi werewolves—they're all here, vividly imagined and
waiting to be drawn out from the creation suite. Beyond that, you are
able to equip your creation with a wealth of classical weaponry drawn
from across historical periods and civilizations. It would take
multiple master's degrees and PhDs in the humanities to know if it's
all historically accurate—indeed, the majority of it is probably
not. But placed in a tapestry as beautiful as that of SCIV, it
all feels accurate. And if we've learned anything from
history, it's that the inaccurate take is usually the most
entertaining and awesome one.
You come to love your
creations. Indeed, their top-class rendering and texturing gives them
a strangely alluring character. The zaftig and/or callipygian female
form is particularly well-rendered in SCIV. "Women have
always been a visual mystery to men," Hollywood director Brian
De Palma once offered. "They don't have to say anything—they
just look." In SCIV, the women look, but
they do so much more. They brandish battleaxes and wield
bullwhips and kick ass and quip at par with their male counterparts.
The characters are comely no matter what gendering you prefer, and so
alongside your buxom bombshells, their breasts bound up firm in metal
bodices, you also get square-jawed, stubble-chinned Adonises, their
packages snugly girded. And the editing suite is not limited to just
the two genders or just the one species.
Soul Calibur IV's
gameplay is as lovely as the visuals. The controls are smooth enough
that you can button mash and still have success, even feeling
graceful while doing so. It all comes together, historically and
aesthetically, in Soul Calibur IV, which stands as the best
weapons-based versus fighter in the chronicles of video gaming, hands
down.
But it goes beyond
history. Soul Calibur games from II onward have included guest
warriors, usually famous licensed characters from other franchises,
the most notable being Link from Legend of Zelda. For Soul
Calibur IV, Namco managed to land the most prestigious of all
licenses: that of Star Wars. And so, the capacious Soul
Calibur universe welcomes Yoda to the Xbox 360 version of IV, and
Darth Vader to the PS3 offering thereof. For a small fee, owners of
either system could download whichever of the two Jedis they did not
get with their version of the game. The incorporation of the rival
Jedis rendered Soul Calibur IV an absolute must-buy at the
time of its release, and certainly, the collector who does not own
the game would be remiss not to seek it out.
The question remains,
then: if you are a retro gamer with both the Xbox 360 and the PS3,
and you don't want to mess around with downloads for an outdated
system, which version do you buy? The simplest response is that you
buy both. But for the sake of argument, let's say you can only have
one. So which is it?
The answer is PS3. Darth
Vader, your correspondent submits, fits the Soul Calibur
aesthetic impeccably, as he is multi-textured, with cloth cape,
abdominal dials, and spit-shined headwear. Moreover, Vader helps SCIV
fully realize its aspiration to present a trans-historical menagerie
of warriors. Darth Vader is the future,* but he is also the past with
his Samurai-inspired, glans-shaped helmet. Yoda, though he is
formidable, will always feel like a bit of a novelty character on
account of his diminutive stature and croupy, mangled elocution.
But this Star Wars
debate is immaterial. Buy Soul Calibur IV and every other
iteration of the series. Of course, for the truly discerning gamer,
such an imperative is redundant.
NOTES:
* I realize it all
happened "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" but,
nonetheless, Star Wars still looks futuristic from the perspective of
our own time.