Being pretty new to fighting games this seems like an idea to give an unbiased opinion of the newest Soul Calibur game. I have played fighting games before, mainly Soul Calibur series (II, III and IV) and the Tekken series (2, 3, tag, 4 and 5), but these have been on a casual basis, and I played them more for the stories (weirdo that I am) than for the pure love of kicking the ever loving crap out of my friends and online starngers.
I'm not very far into Soul Calibur V, but from what I can see the modes have been limited - there's no more gallery or shop, which does not effect the game play, but I always enjoyed obtaining new pictures and sounds through purchases. As I'm not very far into the game I can only suspect that with the lack of a gallery there is also a lack of a video gallery for any cut scenes that may be present in the game.
The story mode has changed as well, you no longer pick a character and fight through 10 stages to get a little cut scene, now it seems you get given Patroklos, and get subbed in for his sister Pyrrah from time to time. From what I can tell Patroklos is the most unlikable character known to human kind, but knowing how games often function, as the good sword chose him he will man up and become awesome at the end. I do have to say, for a fighting game that forces you into being one character they chose a complete newbie character with the smallest range ever. I tend prefer characters like Nightmare or Siegfried, as gigantic swords tended to compensate for my pure lack of skill (plus they both look badass!).
On the topic of being a complete newbie to the game, the practice mode seems overly complicated. Compared to other games it seems to have so much stuff on the UI, but so little substance in terms of holding my hand and telling me how not to die every fight. Dragonball Z games tend to go the overkill route of telling you how to pick up a pad first, but at least by the end of the training I could actually fight. This training mode feels more like a practice mode, whereby if you know how to play the game you can perfect your skills here, but if your new you just flail about madly against a static opponent.
The create a character system is one that suckers me in every time, and is often a deal breaker when I'm undecided. So far I like the look of it, you get to choose every item you're new warrior wears, which character's fighting style he or she rips off and there's even a feature to let you adjust the voice so when you win you sound different from every other character. How you unlock more clothes and weapons isn't mentioned in the game, but from my useful friend - the internet - I now know it's from leveling up, which is done by winning fights - which makes sense in a fighting game.
It goes without saying that the game is pretty, and it certainly does still pander to the younger lads - looking at you Ivy! But it seems more sophisticated compared to the other Soul Calibur games in my memory, for example I've not seen Taki with her jiggling assets, and Ivy seems to be more covered up - but she still reminds me as a Victorian prostitute with an S&M fetish.
Looking back on my last rant, and although I've not used him, Ezio doesn't seem too out of place here, considering the general time period and the fact that I imagine he could fight a bit like Cervantes with the secret gun, and would also be useful in really close quarters with his secret blades. In my opinion though I don't believe this series needs any guest fighters, as it's already popular enough to be on it's fifth installment on the main Soul Calibur series (ignoring the Soul Blade games too), but he doesn't spoil the game as much as the appearances of Darth Vader or Yoda. I have also read that there is a create a character Jin Kazama available, which I do think is a tad unnecessary because it would be stupid if Nightmare appeared in the next Tekken game, but again - just my opinion, and I don't have to make him if I don't want him in my game.
My overall first impressions are quite good really, it clearly has a difficulty curve, so I imagine veteran players can still get killed the same as I seem to, and in my death's I've not thrown a pad through the wall or decided the game is unplayable, but I do think it could have been made more accessible to people who tend to hardly, or only casually, touch beat 'em ups.
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