

While there is a moderate amount of content to play offline, Namco’s latest lacks a truly proper evolution of its RPG-esque modes that have come to be synonymous with the franchise. They use real setups and deliver high-damaging combos that I sadly lack the skill to avoid, but it inspires me nonetheless to be a stronger fighter. Even though I still haven’t beaten this mode, the AI is very impressive and never feels cheap. Legendary Souls, on the other hand, is for the masochistic types, as it is brutally unforgiving with its punishing difficulty. Quick Battle is where most players will want to spend their offline experience - besides the excellent training mode - as it allows easy access to varying degrees of enemy AI to train against, as well as collect new titles (think vanity plates) to show off online. While it only takes a few hours to complete the journey, enhanced through in-game cutscenes and narrated hand drawn sketches, it is well put together and honestly something I was completely hooked on until the final blow was struck.Īlong with the main story and Arcade mode - which can be separated by European and Asian born fighters now - there is also a Quick Battle and Legendary Souls mode.

What is presented instead is a deeper, more meaningful telling of the relationship between Patroklos and Pyrrha Alexandra (children of series staple Sophitia) and the conflict each must face when the legendary Soul Blade and Soul Edge are set to drive more than their family apart.

Taking a page out of the Mortal Kombat storybook, SoulCalibur V pens a more focused and concise narrative that does away with the confusing multiple storylines that plagues many fighting games. If there’s one thing the series has always done better than any other fighting game, it’s creating a reason that’s more than the typical tournament scenario - no matter how convoluted it might end up - for its fighters to come together and beat the tar out of each other. Anyone that has been following the progression of SoulCalibur V knows the latest takes place 17 years after the events of IV.
