Reversal Edge is most useful in helping you get out of trouble. What do you go for? And what will your opponent go for? One attack opens up your opponent to a damaging combo. In fact it can often feel a bit like a random roll. I won't over-egg the Reversal Edge mini-game by saying it's the greatest example of mind games in a fighting game ever. One button beats another button beats another button, or you can try to avoid your opponent's attack altogether. Then, Soulcalibur 6 turns into a rock, paper scissors mini-game. Here, a press of a single button (R1 on PlayStation 4) lets your character absorb multiple attacks then retaliate with a quick strike that triggers a slow-motion fighting stance-off. The new Reversal Edge symbolises this design philosophy. Start to hit a couple of buttons at the same time and you'll trigger even more elaborate attacks.Įxtending the accessible feel, new mechanics feel designed to give people a fighting chance against more expert players. Tap these buttons over and over again and you'll see your character do some impressive stuff. Each attack has a clear counter, each strike a risk and a reward. I love the simplicity of its fighting system - one button for a horizontal attack, another for a vertical attack, and one other for a kick, leaving the fourth and final button for guard. Soulcalibur has always been an accessible, button-mash friendly fighting game, and Soulcalibur 6 doubles down on this. Just don't study the faces too closely, or fuss too much about this cloak or that haircut clipping through the floor - things can and do get ugly. Sword swipes and stabs and kicks and thrusts all blend beautifully into one another, and some of the character movement is a work of art. In truth, Soulcalibur 6 is no looker, but the focus with the 21 launch characters is fluidity of movement and animation, rather than detail. Most of the stages are bland, but there a few that catch the eye, a sunset here, a few rays bleeding through brickwork there. The move to Unreal Engine helps Soulcalibur bristle with excitement, although it can at times look a little rough around the edges. It's blisteringly fast on-screen, a flick of your thumb for the input command and a flash of a button press all it takes for Soulcalibur 6 to spark into life. Sophitia, for example, has a wonderful forward dash stab move that's fantastic for punishing missed attacks. So much of Soulcalibur is about spacing and punishing whiffed attacks, so it's fantastic to feel the game respond - at the double - to your commands. The characters feel snappy as they dart inside and out of the series' trademark eight-way run. Soulcalibur 6, then, which arrives six years after the last mainline game in the series, rediscovers that spark, and it achieves this by taking stock of what made Soulcalibur great and focusing on those fundamentals.įirst up, Soulcalibur 6 is super responsive. 2012's Soulcalibur 5 washed over me, and the less said about Soulcalibur: Lost Swords, the free-to-play, single-player-only spin-off released in 2014, the better. Yet in recent years Soulcalibur had lost its spark - a funny thing to say about a series that's all about sparks flying all over the place. Soulcalibur is at its most satisfying when you get in your opponent's head and expose the chink in their armour. I've always loved Soulcalibur's parry - a clash of weapons, a spark, a cling! Predict your opponent's move, time the parry to perfection and counter. My fondest memories of Soulcalibur, the long-running 3D fighting game from Bandai Namco, are playing on Sega's Dreamcast and Nintendo's GameCube, parrying until I felt like I could parry blindfolded. Snappy and responsive weapon-based fighting let down by a boring new story mode and loading issues.
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