For those familiar with the original Soul Calibur, the sequel isn't a great departure from the original game, which, considering the quality of the original, isn't entirely a bad thing. There's a whole score of new characters, though some of them retain move sets very similar to characters from the original. Most of the original cast returns as well, but most of them have to be unlocked through the Weapon Master mode. Weapon Master Mode is the main single player component of the game, where you travel across various lands, participating in fights with special stipulations to earn experience points and gold. You can buy new weapons for all the characters in the game for use in the Extra Arcade and Versus mode. Each new weapon has distinct advantages and disadvantages that you must balance out, such as Kilik's iron staff, which is much more powerful than his default staff, but uses a small portion of his energy every time he swings it.
In gameplay terms, the flow of combat is a little smoother, with the timing of parries and dodges improved a lot. Each character has a stack of new moves and combos for you to discover and implement into your attack routine. The Gamecube pad works surprisingly well with Soul Calibur II - we fully recommend using the analog stick though, as you'd be nuts to use the Gamecube D-Pad for anything. The A button serves as a horizontal attack, Y is the vertical attack, X is kick, and B, R and L serve as your block button, and can parry attacks when combined with an analog stick movement and correct timing. Most of you are probably dying to know about how Link fits into the whole equation, and how he plays, and what not. Unfortunately, Link doesn't really fit in at all, with certain parts of his moves set giving him both a distinct advantage (projectile weapons) and disadvantage (fewer charge combos), not to mention the fact he just looks entirely out of place. That said, Link still looks phenomenal, and sales of the GC version over the others should give Nintendo an indication of how popular a more mature version of Link really is.
He looks good, but he's a bit out of place
The graphical leap that the original Soul Calibur took between home and the arcades resulted in a phenomenal looking game, even by today's standards. Significant graphical power increases lead to Soul Calibur II looking much better in the arcade, so while there is a small graphical enhancement (for the GC and Xbox versions), it's nothing like that which was seen between the System 12 and Dreamcast versions. The characters all look excellent, though we believe the faces are a little lacking in smaller details in comparison to recent fighters such as Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and Virtua Fighter 4, but this shouldn't be of any concern. Clothing movement and physics has been improved substantially - clothing moves naturally with your character, as well as being effected by environmental factors such as wind. Most environments aren't as active as those in the Dreamcast version of the original game, but they are much more detailed. Environments also have walls now, to prevent easy ring outs, as well as helping to add a little damage, should you smash your opponent into one. We're also glad to announce that Soul Calibur II runs at a solid 60 frames per second and supports widescreen mode.
Soul Calibur II features an excellent soundtrack - one I'd personally consider purchasing the OST for, if I could find it. The orchestral soundtrack delivers a somber mood related to the stage that you're fighting on, with enough rhythm and pace to get your blood pumping enough to put on a good fight. Namco has been kind to western audiences and delivered both the Japanese and English voice tracks, so you can avoid the cheesiness of poor English voice actors and go for the Japanese sub - its not like many of us would be able to tell if it's a poor Japanese dub or not. Sound effects are crisp and clear, and sound exactly like the sort of thing you'd hear if you were bashing your mates over the head with a bo staff or sword (which PALGN doesn't condone, by the way).
Soul Calibur II is a great game, and takes the series in a positive direction. However, the main thing that works against Soul Calibur II being one of, if not the greatest fighting game, is the fact that the original was so brilliant, not to mention long before it's time. PALGN really recommends that you give Soul Calibur II a run when it's released on September 19th for the Playstation 2 and Xbox, and September 26th for the Gamecube.
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