Soul Calibur: Legends
Score: 65% ESRB: Teen Publisher: BANDAI NAMCO Games America, Inc. Developer: BANDAI NAMCO Games America, Inc. Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Action/ Adventure
Graphics & Sound: Soul Calibur: Legends is a rather strange edition to the Soul Calibur series. Instead of an arcade fighter, the Wii gets its own unique action adventure game. That sounds pretty interesting in theory, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired. With this being an action/adventure type of game, you're often watching the back of your character. A small handful of the gang from Soul Calibur are here, but unfortunately, they have looked better, (and I know I may be speaking blasphemy) even on the Gamecube. This game has a case of the jaggies for sure. It even appears to worsen when you're in Co-op mode. Though there a lot of new enemies and monsters to fight, they repeat very often during each level. Skeleton wave after skeleton wave, dragon, then skeleton wave - the surprises are few and far between. At least the cut-scenes were a nice surprise with semi-animated line drawn artwork. If you're expecting a gorgeous CG opening, however, you'll be disappointed. Levels are small and feel closed in. What is a grand hall in one stage is a rocky crevice in another. What is a room in one stage is an arena in another. You get the idea. Level design overall seems pretty plain with few embellishments. This means it's pretty easy to find "secret" switches and the hundreds of identical vases you need to break, but well, it's pretty uninspiring. The music has the general feel of the Soul Calibur series, but lacks spirit. Background music doesn't get in the way, but it's not really great either. Characters have their signature grunts and yells, but nothing particularly new. Your forecast calls for a random loop of "Die!" "Ha!" "Now!" with a chance of short victory one-liners at the end of the day.
Gameplay: Soul Calibur: Legends is an overhead action game with some light RPG elements. Between story elements you'll get missions, with certain requirements. The usual requirement is. . . to not die. You can level your weapon by collecting what are called "Blade Hearts." Unfortunately, the game doesn't seem to like to flash stats or numbers too often, so it's a bit hard to tell how powerful each weapon is relative to the others. It's mainly a matter of putting different characters out there and trying to determine the difference from memory. The story is all about the swords again, with Siegfried taking up the Soul Edge. It seems to be placed between the first game, Soul Edge and the second, Soul Calibur. Regardless, it's pretty simple. The sword is powerful, and everyone wants it, even though the power is dangerous for the wielder and the world alike. Either way, my eyes pretty much refused to read after the point where they named the monsters in the world "evils." Yeah, Evils: Because the word monster really lacked that non-descriptive punch. You can tell this was meant to be less of an RPG experience and more of an action experience because you can't use anything but your weapon to interact with the background. There's no one to talk with except for the dialogue that is triggered between stages. That dialogue is forgettable, and often I forgot who was talking to who since everyone sounded the same. Well, who cares, that's just not the game they were trying to build here, right? But when you deviate from a pure fighting game to something like this, you expect it to make up for the loss of complex fighting elements with something else. There are a few multiplayer options here, at least. In Co-op, you can proceed through quests with a friend, only working together. Unfortunately they aren't connected to the main story, so going through them is a bit pointless. In Competition, two players compete to advance through a quest and try to achieve a better score, time, or other goal better than the other player. Versus is what it sounds like, but of course, don't expect the robust fighting game that this game is based on.
Difficulty: Soul Calibur: Legends is pretty cut-and-dry. Though you can pull off special attacks and combinations, they seem to be there to break up the monotony more than anything. You can easily beat most enemies with simple attacks and strategies. In true action game form, it's just a matter of being able to keep doing the same thing repeatedly. If you can do that pretty well, you can beat just about any obstacle in the game. Health bonuses are also scattered throughout, just where you need them. With the ability to swap characters out when you get low on health, it's all the easier to make it through a level. Considering the normal condition for winning is just that all allies aren't defeated, this is a pretty forgiving feature.
Game Mechanics: Soul Calibur: Legends makes use of the Wii controls, but you may be wishing for the option to opt-out. You use pretty much every direction: thrust for a forward attack, swing up for an uppercut attack, etc. It works better than a lot of games of its type, and you can string together attacks to build combos. You can get it to work by practicing the timing the game wants from you, but it just feels a bit hollow. A minor gripe here is that when you swing while you are blocking, you'll still hear the swing sound on the remote as if you were attacking. While this is a nice cue to let you know what you're doing with the Wii-mote, it smacks of cheapness. Another gripe is that you can't move while blocking, and it feels a bit slow, so you have to plan ahead a bit. It seems they were trying to fit so many different things into the Wii motion controls that they forgot to put in some camera controls. Then again, that may be why they included the auto-lock. I guess it's not such a big deal when you can't see your enemy if you are automatically pointed toward them anyway. It is, however, rather aggravating to have a 2 minute fight with a torch you can't put out because you can't get your character to point the right way. Soul Calibur: Legends will most likely not please fans of the series. It tries fit into a different genre, but does everything pretty weakly. The monotony and the grind set in pretty quickly, especially when the story isn't much to look forward to. Even if it didn't have the Soul Calibur series to live up to, this game is still a pretty bland offering.
-Fights with Fire, GameVortex Communications AKA Christin Deville
Pain Draglade