Previews// Soul Calibur V

Surprise! Soul Calibur’s back! And we weren’t the ones surprised by it either - Namco Bandai must have thought the series was truly done after the Project Souls development team disbanded and called it a day.

The Star Wars-heavy fourth instalment was meant to be the last one, but the fans wanted more...

Hearing the calls, Namco Bandai thankfully managed to get the band back together and put their all into one more title. A bit like what Justin-Lee Collins would have done, only not shit, basically. The result is a Soul Calibur that seeks to bring together all of the elements that made the past games great, all while introducing new features that encourages a further use of strategy.

There’s a whole new story for this fifth outing, set 17 years after the events of Soul Calibur IV, that focuses on Patroklos and Pyrrha - the son and daughter of Athenian heroine Sophitia Alexandra. Not much about the specifics of the plot were made clear, but it will involve the legendary Soul Edge and Soul Calibur blades in some fashion.

It’s also clear that in those 17 years, everyone has aged and has brand new agendas for gaining possession of the two mythical weapons. Although it must be said, Ivy looks almost exactly the same. I’m not sure if time has been exceptionally kind to her or if she’s undergone treatment of some sort, because her ridiculously voluptuous figure has somehow avoided natural deflation.

Siegfried, Nightmare, Mitsurugi and Taki also make a faithful return to the game, and all seem to control in a similar fashion to how they did in Soul Calibur IV. No doubt there will be more characters from the series past to control, but it’s in the new characters where things get interesting. Alongside Patroklos and Pyrrha - who both wield swords and shields like their dear old mam - we will also get to control a disciple of Taki in Natsu and Xianghua’s daughter, Leixia.

The wildcard is a chap that wields a three-handled sword called Z.W.E.I. who looks like some kind of crazy vampire rocker. Along with his weapon he has something of a spiritual assist which can help him take out his opponent. Not sure if that’s going to affect balancing in any way, but it seems the new Critical Gauge will do well to counter any potential funny business.

Yep, the big feature addition to Soul Calibur V is the Critical Gauge, which fills up just as you’d expect the Super Gauge to in a round of Street Fighter IV. Taking hits or dealing damage will rack up the circular meter next to your health bar, with powerful moves being executed once you’ve reached a particular level of Criticalness.

Get to 60% capacity and you’ll perform a Brave Edge move, but the more powerful Critical Edge requires 120% of your gauge - a number on top of the meter means you can stack fully charged gauges on top of each other for plenty of damage.

I wasn’t able to get any hands on time with the game - it’s not out until 2012 and the build I was shown was very early - but it’s looking like a promising return to form for the sword-slashing series.