I got Soul Calibur 4, and a Week Earlier!!!!

Yeah, apparently some stores received it earlier, or at least the distributors released it earlier. Thanks to this, my importer managed to grab a couple of copies and I bought one. Now, from what Ive heard, its safest to play until the 29 unloged just to avoid an IP ban in the console, so Im gonna be offline when I play this. Now, on my opinion of the game.

I love it. The presentation is good though it could have used a regular store instead of needing us to go to character creation to purchase the items. The SP mode has 4 modes (redundancy:P): Story, Tower of Souls, Arcade and Training. Story is our usual story mode, pick a character, and play through his story (5 stages only, most of the time its you against 3 to 4 enemies). Tower of Souls is a 60 floor survival battle divided into 60 events, each with its own restrictions and prizes. The first stage lets you tag team 2 characters (havent tried the upper ones) There is also the option to descend, but its locked so maybe its unlocked when you finish it.

You can customize every character, adding them some slick skills to increase stats, or gain new moves (I mean every character as in the story ones too including Vader). The gameplay is great, feels much lighter than SC 3 but at the same time has all the same old movements (cant change much on a series that is so good. The new characters (so far Ive unlocked Angol Fear and Shura) feel good, though so far Ive tried only Shura and Vader.

Shura is a great figther, she has 2 Katanas, and those familiar with japanese lore may know her also. The design was made by the Gantz team (which is why she was my most expected character). She combines Takis ninja moves with Mitsurugi moves, though she has an arsenal of herself, including a really cool move that teleports her back 2 steps, then launchs her to the enemy (its a double edge move, since you can get a ring out).

Now, the character most were expecting: Vader. Adding Star Wars to any games is sure to displease many. Why? Because even though SW is an extremely big franchise, its still a love or hate thing, thats why we will see reviewers who love this, and others who hate it. Im a SW fan since I was 4. I carry SW in my veins :P and I always loved the idea to have them here from day, one, though Yoda never pleased me since I dont like the new movies as much as I like the oldies.

Vader has a wide variety of moves (I just now learned to use the force). Most of his force moves involve infusing the sword with it to execute powerful moves. He also has other moves, a really strong push and the usual pull move. You can also raise enemies with the force. But, many thought that the force was going to overpower this guys. Truth is that it doesnt, it only takes 3-4 uses to deplete the bar, and you cant use them again until you have enough power. And believe me, the battle will be over before that happens. His moves are sometimes sluggish, sometimes not. He has a mix. He also has some counter moves, that protect him from back attacks, which give him an edge. His force powers though dont reach far distances, so you will need to be close to use them. His grabs are good, and really powerfull. Its good how he retains his fighting style from Return of the Jedi (that movei was first titled: Revenge of the Jedi. Funny isnt it?:D) so its a good character.

Ohh by the way, the install is optional, the game though needs an update as soon as you insert it 1.01. The install is more or less 2.4 gigs and the save takes 2mb. Each created character though occupies more space.

Character creation is back, this time it has been improved, now you can change the body shape and the voice pitch too. You can also use japanese voices if you want, but Vader goes to japanese too which turns into something very funny.

Havent tried the online yet, Im afraid that Im going to be banned, but Im writing an email saying Im from an Argentinean gaming magazines (have some friends in that editorial) just in case.

So far, in my book its a 9/10. The music is great as usual, combat is fluid with no FPS drop, the graphics are amazing, stages can be blasted (depending how strong you fall, you will break the floor), armors can be completely destroyed and I forgot to mention. Each main character represents an style, this styles can be leveled up to give them access to new skills. This can be done in any mode too :D.