Soul Calibur

All three games have been ported to consoles. Soul Edge was released for the Playstation (called Soul Blade), Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast, and Soul Calibur II to the Gamecube, Playstation 2 and Xbox. The ported versions are known for their extra features, including new weapons, new costumes, art galleries, martial arts demonstrations, and involved single-player modes.

Another heading

Soul Edge/Blade had a strong following, but when Soul Calibur was released in the arcades, it was not as popular at the arcades as Namco would have liked or expected. Luckily for the series, Calibur was picked up by the Sega Dreamcast, and became a smash hit almost overnight.

Distinguishing features

• Weapons: While putting weapons in fighters is not a new concept (Samurai Shodown[?] is an example of a 2D fighter with weapons), the Soul Calibur series was the first to do weapons in 3D with such style and success. Apart from the aesthetic benefits, giving the characters weapons allows for a greater diversity between them, meaning there is someone for every play style.

• Eight-way run, or 8WR: Previous 3D fighters had only limited movement along the third axis, with sidesteps and rolls providing useful but unsustained lateral movement. In Soul Calibur, simply holding down a joystick direction causes the character to run in that direction. This gives the player a sense of freedom and deepens the strategy of the game.

• Forgiving buffering: Buffering is executing the input for one move before your character has finished recovering from his previous move. It is important for executing quick strings of moves. Tekken and Virtua Fighter have relatively strict buffering requirements, meaning expert timing is required to pull off many combinations, while Soul Caliburs relatively lenient buffering lets players focus more on the game and less on the controls.

The paragraph about the system that was here before

having the basics in the moves covered by horizontal, vertical and kicks but also putting actual 'guard impacts' or parries and repelling into a system to further surpass the simple 'block or not get hit' system most fighting games still use. Also the addition of '8 way run' or 8wr as the gaming communities that follow the system refer to it as - allows one's character to not only run at or step back from your opponent - but also allow left and right, towards the screen and away motion, that further deepens the strategy and depth of a already intense game. Soul Calibur 2 took these ground breaking aspects and continued it further by involving clash more - a system present in Sc1 but only at a 'you did the EXACT same move' level - and break as well. Clash in Sc2 covers any Horizontal being excecuted at the same time - high or low - would hit each other or 'clash' resulting in a white flash and no damage to either opponent. Break - a system that says any vertical 'breaks' a horizontal - there by taking priority - was added as well. All moves - basically being a horizontal or vertical - was assigned a 'value' or level in a mathmatic based system - truly adding more depth by not allowing for horizontals - or moves that would catch a opponent wither they are standing there or 8wr'ing - from becoming 'god' or too strong in the system.

With all solid games comes a community of followers and fans. While the official website http://www.soulcalibur.com has gone through several incarnations the game also has had many fan sites - or sites not designed or funded by Namco - pop up. By far the largest of all the sites is http://www.guardimpact.com - a site ran by several fans and holding a active forum.

Story

Soul Calibur is purportedly set in the 16th century, and centers around a powerful pair of soul-draining swords called Soul Edge. A warrior destroys one of the blades, accidentally allowing the evil energy of Soul Edge to take control and scattering its shards around the world. The remaining sword possesses a German bandit, corrupting him and causing him to slaughter innocents for a period of three years. At the same time, another powerful sword called "Soul Calibur" appears and destroys Soul Edge (which reforms). Soul Edge's power was not eliminated, however, and its influence continued to wreak havoc.

Multiple fighters pursue the sword for various individual reasons. Some good - some evil - and some just by the draw of the Soul Edge's power.

Characters

• Astaroth - Sc1 and Sc2 - A desert cult created Astaroth (a golem) to find Soul Edge on behalf of their god, a form of Ares; he was created by a priest named Kunpaetku who secretly desired the sword for himself. After finding the sword originally, Astaroth did as the then-wielder (Nightmare) suggested and slaughtered many people with it in order to increase the sword's power. One of his victims destroyed Astaroth before the sword could be fully recharged. However, the influence of Ares and his servant, Ker[?], enabled Astaroth to continue to fight for the sword.

• Cassandra - Sc2 - Cassandra's older sister, Sophitia, had received an oracle from Hephaestus, the god of the forge, who told her she must destroy Soul Edge. Only Cassandra believed Sophitia's story of fighting the powerful evil of Soul Edge, even after a mysterious Asian woman that Sophitia had brought back with her withdrew a small shard of metal from Soul Edge that had been implanted into Sophitia's body. Some years later, Sophitia's husband found a piece of metal that their children fought over greedily (this meant that Soul Edge's power was still alive). Since Cassandra did not have a family to look after, she decided to go after the sword instead of Sophitia.

• Cervantes de Leon - Soul Edge, Sc1 and Sc2 - A Spanish pirate whose soul was consumed by the pair of evil swords. When the first sword was destroyed, Cervantes was reduced to ashes. The remaining shards of the sword re-animated his body, however, and Cervantes was reborn with no memory of his past except a desire to wield two swords and regain his former power. The shards in his body and that he found melted together and Cervantes began searching for the other shards to completely recover his strength.

• Charade - Sc2 - Charade purchased several pieces of Soul Edge from a travelling salesman, unaware of what they were. He learned what the identity of the shards from a swordsman, and he began searching for more information. Charade was then murdered by a group of bandits, but the shards of metal animated a life form that began searching for the remaining shards.

• Edge Master- Sc1 - Kilik's trainer after the distruction of his home temple - Edge Master would come down from the mountains to train with and against the members of Kilik's temple.

• Han Myong

• Hwang Sung Kyung - Soul Edge and Sc1 - Hwang's parents died when he was young, and he grew into a skilled warrior under the tutelage of Master Seung Han Myong. Hwang helped prepare his country, Korea, against a perceived imminent invasion from Japan. He began searching for Soul Edge (the Sword of Salvation) in order to defend his country. His master's daughter, Seung Mina, followed him, though he didn't know until after reaching Europe and hearing that Korea had fallen to the Japanese invaders. He returned home with Seung Mina. While Hwang continued to fight against the Japanese under Admiral Shin, he learned that Seung Mina had again left home. Worried about her, Hwang made a tactical mistake that cost him the lives of many crew members, and he was demoted. Admiral Shin told him to find Seung Mina, and when Hwang did so, she told him of the true nature of Soul Edge.

• Inferno - Sc1 and Sc2 - The dark spirit of the Soul Edge given a body - is the final opponent for both Soul Calibur 1 and 2.

• Ivy - Sc1 and Sc2 - Ivy's father, Count Valentine, died pursuing Soul Edge. An orphan at birth, the Valentines had kindly taken her under their care, and she began to search for the sword in order to continue her father's quest. Once she realized what Soul Edge was, Ivy deduced that her father had been under the control of the sword and she resolved to destroy it. She used occult knowledge to gain a whip-like mechancial sword. She joined with Nightmare, not knowing that he actually wielded Soul Edge and was controlled by it. She soon learned the truth about him, and that her birth father had been destroyed in his own pursuit of Soul Edge, and that her own sword was possessed by the same evil power. Though she could not bring herself to destroy her own blade, Ivy set out to annihilate every shard of Soul Edge she could find, and murder every person contaminated by the blade's evil power.

• Kilik - Sc1 and Sc2 - An orphan, Kilik was raised by monks in China at a monastery called Ling-Sheng Su. He was a natural at using a long rod as a weapon, and became the successor to the secret arts of the rod. This meant that he would be given the holy rod Kali-Yuga in a ceremony. The night before, however, the monastery was destroyed by Evil Seed, the half of the pair of swords that was annihilated in the 16th century. He was rescued by an old man and managed to escape with Kali-Yuga and another sacred treasure, a vest called Dvapara-Yuga. His soul had been corrupted by the Evil Seed, but Dvapara-Yuga protected him and scourged the evil from him. He realized that he had received the vest from Xianglian, its rightful owner and another orphan at the monastery, and that he had killed her under the influence of Evil Seed. Though he and Kali-Yuga were corrupted, the vest kept Kilik under his own control and he vowed to destroy the evil in him, his weapon and the world.

• Li Long - Soul Edge only -

• Lizardman - Sc1 - Originally a man, he was changed by the creator of Astaroth to do his bidding.

• Maxi - Sc1 and Sc2 - Maxi is an ancient Japanese pirate from Ryukyu (now Okinawa). He met Kilik in India, and his crew was then slaughtered by a group of monsters, led by Astaroth, attracted by Kilik's power. With Xianghua, Maxi and Kilik travelled to Europe. Maxi fought Nightmare and eventually destroyed Astaroth. This angered Ares, Astaroth's master, who opened the ground beneath him; Maxi fell into an underground river. He awoke on a riverbank, gravely injured. Unable to regain his former strength and confident that Astaroth had been destroyed, Maxi stayed in a nearby village until rumors of a large murdered with a huge axe reached him. Desperate for the use of his limbs so he could finally kill Astaroth, Maxi asked a local medicine man to heal him. The medicine man told him he would have to give up something of equal value to what he gained, and Maxi agreed, losing his memories of Xianghua and Kilik. The medicine man healed him with a shard of metal, and Maxi set out to find Astaroth again.

• Mitsurugi - Soul Edge, Sc1 and Sc2 - Mitsurugi was a Japanese mercenary, well known throughout Japan. When rifles were brought to Japan, Mitsurugi deplored the new weapon, as it allowed virtually anyone to become a powerful fighting force without a large amount of training. He was shot in the shoulder by one, and began travelling to find a powerful enough sword that he could defeat Tanegashima, the rifle that had shot him. Mitsurugi learned about Nightmare and Soul Edge, and set out for Europe to find the sword. Before he found him, though, Mitsurugi learned that Nightmare had been destroyed. He then stumbled across a shard of Soul Edge, given to him by a man he saved from being murdered by vagabonds.

• Nightmare - Sc1 and Sc2 - Leader of a group of highwaymen called Black Wind from the Black Forest, Nightmare slaughtered many people while being controlled by the evil sword's power, and only stopped when his father was murdered. Nightmare began searching for the sword, because he believed it would lead him to be able to take revenge for his father's death. He found the sword next to a dead pirate in Spain, and had to destroy the pirate's spirit before taking it. The sword told him he could resurrect his father if the sword was powerful enough (i.e. it had taken enough souls from others). Before he could accomplish this, though Nightmare fought Soul Calibur, the good sword, and was sent into a void along with Soul Edge. After escaping, Soul Edge was greatly weakened, and Nightmare released the horror of his past sins. He resolved to not allow Soul Edge to fall into the wrong hands again. He searched for a place to imprison himself and the sword, thereby not allowing its evil to hurt anybody again. Unfortunately, he was not always able to resist the sword's power, and continued killing people, giving the sword more and more power. Finally, Soul Edge took over his body again, and has nearly vanquished the original soul.

• Raphael - Sc2 - Raphael is a French swordsman who was betrayed by his family after the power of Evil Seed corrupted one of his family's noblemen. He was offered to his family's enemies, and Raphael barely managed to escape and hide himself in a small village, befriending a young girl named Amy. Touched by the slums he was forced to live in, Raphael soon left to fight for truth and justice. Raphael befriended and then murdered a nobleman to ensure that Amy would be safe, and then discovered a letter explaining Evil Seed and Soul Edge. He began searching for the sword to keep it out of the hands of noblemen who would use it murder many innocent people, including Amy.

• Rock Soul Edge and Sc1. In both Soul Edge, and Soul Calibur, he was after Bangoo - his child that was stole away by evil forces. Forced to enter the compitition he strives to save Bangoo.

• Seung Mina - Soul Edge and Sc1

• Siegfried- Soul Edge and Sc1

• Sophitia - Soul Edge and Sc1

• Taki - Soul Edge, Sc1 and Sc2 - A Fu-Ma ninja, Taki specializes in destroying demons with her sword, Rekki-Maru. She knew her own sword and Soul Edge were connected in some way. She killed Cervantes, and then acquired a shard of Soul Edge, which she tried to weld into another evil sword, Mekki-Maru. Mekki-Maru became powerful and evil, and Taki left her clan because the leader, Master Toki, was becoming obsessed with it. She thought she could destroy Mekki-Maru and Soul Edge by using them both against each other, but by the time she found Nightmare, he had been destroyed. Without Soul Edge, Taki didn't know how she could destroy her own sword, which she had begun to master. When her clan's ninjas found her, she used Mekki-Maru to destroy them and found that one carried a shard of Soul Edge. Taki realized that Master Toki was trying to collect the pieces of Soul Edge, and decided to stop him and rid the Earth of the evil weapon.

• Talim - Sc2 - Talim was born into a family of shamans on a remote island in the Philippines while it was ruled by Spain. As western influence increased in the area, she saw belief in her Wind Deity decline. While reading the winds one day, she felt the evil of Evil Seed spreading across the world. She was unconscious for several days. Sometime later, she purchased a shard of Soul Edge from a western merchant who sold it as a vitality charm. She realized it was the same evil she had felt long before, and left the village to find out the source and search for the remaining fragments of Soul Edge.

• Voldo - Soul Edge, Sc1 and Sc2 - An Italian merchant named Vercci searched for Soul Edge for many years. Unable to find the weapon, Vercci created a tomb called the "Money Pit" to hide his treasure in, and made a loyal servant the Money Pit's guardian. The servant, Voldo, lost his sight and his sanity in the tomb, and soon even forgot his name. After Vercci died, Voldo chased away a female intruder trying to rob his tomb. Vercci's voice spoke to him, and told him to find the other pieces of metal that shined with the same aura as her sword. He finally found a sword that emitted the same aura and returned to his master's vault, which had flooded, but his master was silent. One day, he fought a male intruder and took several shards of Soul Edge from his body. Realizing that they extremely powerful and radiating the same aura as before, Voldo deduced that they were shards of the Soul Edge his master wanted. He set out to find the remaining shards.

• Xianghua - Sc1 and Sc2 - Xianghua was a member of a group that searched, unsuccessfully, for Soul Edge on behalf of the Ming Empire. [in soul calibur 2] For her failure, Xianghua was stripped of her nobility. In fact, however, she and Kilik had found the sword and destroyed it, realizing its evil power, though she lost her own sword in the battle, a family heirloom that fell into a deep void. The Emperor eventually heard a rumor that Soul Edge could be found in a castle near Xianghua's home, and sent his soldiers to take it. Since the owner refused to give it up, the castle was razed. The Emperor told Xianghua to find the sword in the rubble. She discovered only a shard of Soul Edge, and swore to find the rest to finish what she had begun long ago.

• Yoshimitsu - Sc1 and Sc2 - Yoshimitsu is the sole survivor of a clan of ninjas destroyed by a vengeful lord. He attempted to enact revenge but lost, battling the lord's army; Yoshimitsu also lost one arm in the battle. He began searching for Soul Edge in Europe, so that he could destroy the army and finally have his revenge. He followed a series of bloody murders, certain that Soul Edge was the weapon used, and eventually came to Ostrheinsburg Castle, which was empty. Leaving Yoshimitsu realized that his katana had a powerful and evil energy in it. His sword was stolen not long after Yoshimitsu swore to purify it. Searching for his sword again, Yoshimitsu began working on behalf of the poor, stealing money from the rich to give to them. He soon learned of great treasures held in the tomb (the "Money Pit") of the "Merchant of Death", Vercci. In the tomb, Yoshimitsu found vast treasures, including a shard of metal and his own sword, both emitting the same aura of evil. He took both and swore to remove any trace of the evil from the Earth, and began travelling far and wide searching for the remains of Soul Edge.

• Yunsung - Sc2 - Yunsung is a Korean swordsman who learned his skills from Master Seung Han Myong, a coastguardsman defending Korea from Japanese invasion. He learned of a great master swordsman named Hwang, and vowed to surpass him in skills. Hwang had left to search for Sword of Salvation, but returned having failed and refused to battle Yunsung. He sulked for a time, and spoke with Seung Mina, his master's daughter. She gave him a family heirloom, a sword that could sense the deepest thoughts of whoever held the blade. Meditating on his own image, Yunsung decided to prove himself by succeeding where Hwang had failed, and he began searching for the legendary Sword of Salvation. He learned that a man from Ryukyu (Maxi) whom he had previously fought to a draw was searching for the same thing in Europe, Yunsung followed him there, where he learned of the Sword of Salvation's true identity, a weapon of great evil called Soul Edge.