SoulCalibur V Xbox 360
Metascore
77 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 56 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 43 out of 56
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 56
  3. Negative: 1 out of 56
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  1. Quarter to Three
    Jan 31, 2012
    40
    The new character customization is either much better or much worse, depending on what you're looking for in character customization. If you want to put stickers on your cape or make a short Asteroth, Soulcalibur V is the game for you. But if you want Soulcalibur IV's indepth unlockable stat-based equipment RPG, well, Soulcalibur IV is the game for you. Because Soulcalibur V has none of that. What a disappointing step backwards.

User Reviews

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User Score
6.0 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 87 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 38
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 38
  3. Negative: 8 out of 38
  1. VermillionHaze
    5
    The worst entry in the series to date. It's a bare bones minimalist title that excells at multiplayer at ONLY multiplayer. No character endings, cutscenes, or even a vague idea of why most of the cast is even in the game. The campaign is the only storyline in the game and it only features a small portion of the roster and some only have a single line of dialogue. Speaking of the campaign...you would think stripping away every single extra feature or mode would make them focus on making the campaign good right? Sadly it's quite terrible, scribbled drawings with naration and a few 5-second cutcenes here and there. I'm not sure what Team Soul was thinking. This game offers nothing to single player oriented fans, the only thing left to do after the campaign is...collect clothing. Which have no properties as armor and weapon stats are gone as well. This is a RENT. You can litteraly do everything this game has to offer in one nights work.… Full Review »
  2. destructo_dude
    7
    I'm confused at most of these reviews. The combat has not improved. It's actually been dumbed down to the point that one of the button combinations (horizontal and kick; one of the style-switching combinations) has been removed. I'm not necessarily complaining about the changes in familiar move sets, because that actually makes the learning curve interesting. I'm complaining about the way in which the combat and gameplay have devolved since Soul Calibur 3.

    Soul Calibur 3 took all that was right with SC2, improved it, and supplied a treasure chest of single-player modes including the best campaign a fighting game has ever seen: "Chronicles of the Sword." Soul Calibur 4 dumbed down the combat by dumping the fake-out "jump-delays," removed the campaign, and made story mode brisker. These aren't such bad changes, but remain questionable with the amount of content an HD game should have compared to a PS2 classic. Soul Calibur 5 removed A+K (stunting Ivy's entire move-set), reduced story mode to a single narrative, kicked out the Museum, and transformed mission-mode into "extreme-difficulty arcade-mode."

    Soul Calibur 3: Arcade, Versus, Story, Campaign, Missions, Customs (personality-building, main roster colors), Museum (movies, art, music, battle theater, profiles with full dialogue, demonstrations)
    Soul Calibur 4: Arcade, Versus, Online, Story, Missions (Tower: staged-Ascend and laddered-Descend), Customs (RPG-traits, main roster costumes), Museum (movies, art, overview of series)
    Soul Calibur 5: Arcade, Versus, Online, Story (single narrative), Missions ("Legendary Souls": Europe, Asia, both), Customs (superficially, more stuff)

    There's also the lack of stun-recovery that I find baffling. Usually, you're given a slim chance to avoid a juggle, but this entry has removed it entirely. The parries (Guard Impact) have been changed to work dependently on your power-meter, the thing you're trying to save for your "super combo." It reminds me of how frustrating it was in Mortal Kombat (2011) to have the combo-breaker rely on a "super combo" meter instead of allowing you two chances in a match like previous entries. Parrying has been altered to the benefit of no one. Newcomers will find no reward in practicing and performing it because it now depletes from the action. In the case of parrying, it really should have added to the meter than subtract.These are huge steps in the wrong direction.

    I welcomed the new characters openly, as the two previous games were two cluttered with clones. However, some of the outcomes don't make sense to me. You end up with five random select options once you've unlocked all the hidden characters (two others are just alternate weapon types for the main characters). Older, male characters that ought to be replaced have held out longer than younger females (most devastating: Talim). Mitsurugi makes sense in this regard, Maxi and Raphael (whose intended replacement is nowhere to be seen) do not. The majority of the new characters are more replacements than fresh additions, the exceptions being Viola and ZWEI who each have such unique play styles as to rival that of the SC3 additions.

    I want to give this a lower score, but technically it's still a good fighting game. Any fighting game that gives you a full-range of movement to actually explore its arenas has done something right. I'm also loving the Creation mode, which allows me to move three items wherever I want them (when stickers are simply not enough). Multiplayer is fast and hopefully draws a lot of attention, however I'm still displeased to wait for a single match to finish while myself and a number of others wait patiently. Couldn't it be a couple of matches at the same time in a room of five? Otherwise, the ping hasn't interrupted any of my matches thus far. The addition of Brave Edge and Critical Edge is a welcomed one as each has a specific strength that a mastered player can triumph over the proposed "army of button mashers these games cater to."

    So, 7 seems appropriate for now (SC4: 8, SC3:10) and I do hope stun-recovery is patched into this game because "Legendary Souls" mode (the game's one and only "mission") is such a hassle without it. To be completely honest, this is a good entry game for the series. I just hope that means people will be inclined to purchase Soul Calibur 3, if it ever ends up on PSN or Xbox-Live, or even Soul Calibur 4 for all its content and a much better approach to customs than "we balanced everything out so you can make people in bikinis tough."

    Side-note: For everyone saying the games went downhill after Soul Calibur or Soul Calibur 2, you missed out on two much better games.    … Full Review »
  3. McNinja
    3
    Soul Calibur 5 is perhaps the most disappointing thing I have ever played. The kicker is, I knew it was not going to be good. The Story mode is bland; the two lead characters are boring and unlikeable, the dialogue is just poorly written, with the female lead, Pyyrah, spouting on and on about how "she's alone" and how Soul Edge "won't betray her" and other insipid garbage to such a degree that you end up wanting her to just get over it and move on, and Patroklus is continually declaring how much stronger he's going to become, and how he's going to save his sister, and how they'll be a family, etc. It is like the entire first season of Naruto, except all of the dialogue is compacted into one hour and consists of nothing other than Sasuke being emo and Naruto declaring how much of a ninja he's going to be. There's also an incredibly jarring fight where you control Z.W.E.I, even though the previous... storyboard/comic/cutscene thing indicated nothing of the sort, and for that matter, you can forget any characterization beyond "he's a werewolf!".

    But enough about the story mode. Arcade mode is as you'd expect- you just fight a series of enemies, then you're done. That is really how it goes. No story for any of the other characters, just a series of fights, some exp, then you're done. Legendary Souls mode is new, but amounts to a more difficult Arcade mode. There is really no reason to play these modes other than to level up.

    Character Creation is different from SC4. Gone are the armor and weapon stats and effects, but instead we have a poor starting selection of gear that takes a long while to fill out. However, what you can make varies between boring and the most insane horse-headed sumo-wrestler imaginable, and as usual, is extremely robust. The characters also got worked over. Ezio Auditore makes an appearance, and is a great addition to the cast. However, Kilik, Taki, and Talim are gone. Kilik is not a selectable character, and in a baffling move Talim, Xianghua, and Kilk have been replaced with younger characters. Yet, for some reason, Mitsurugi is still in, despite being one of the oldest characters in the game. New additions Viola and ZWEI both have interesting new playstyles, and there are two Patroklus and Phyyra characters, both with different styles. The new Lizardman, Aeon, is my new favorite, (mainly because Zasalamel is out of the game entirely, with not even his move set remaining) and now wields two axes instead of an axe and a shield. Edgemaster and a new character Elysium (the physical embodiment of Soul Calibur) are both random-style characters. There is also the addition of the Devil Jin style from Tekken, although why it is in this game is beyond me. It is a bare-fisted style, making it a tougher style to play in a game where pretty much everything has a longer range. In addition, there are no more of those foot weapons/style in SC5. That is not a huge deal, but it does present an opportunity to ask "why?"

    In fact, most of the game begs the question "why?" Why are Talim, Xianghua, and Kilik no longer playable? Why do I have to play on the same stage four times in the really short story mode? Why is there no Tower of Souls mode? Why is the fantastic Chronicles of the Sword mode, one of the best things about SC3, gone? Hell, why in the hell was ANYTHING changed from Soul Calibur 3?

    It seems as if Namco and Project Soul threw everything they had into online, and completely disregarded any sort of single-player modes. There is no substance in any mode; the only value this game has is as a game where you fight other people. You have no reason to care about the characters, no backgrounds for any of them, no personalities, nothing. They are just virtual fighters, with no more purpose than to hit another virtual fighter. While the mechanics are not shallow, at all, the characters are, and even though it is a fighting game, the game makes no effort to make it anything more. This is made all the more worse when you realize that there is no, I repeat NO tutorial or introduction mode at all. New players will get wrecked online, and even in the other modes, simply because the game makes no effort to explain any mechanics. It is simply unfriendly to new players.

    If you loved Soul Calibur 4, you'll like Soul Calibur 5. It is made for fans, and no one else, and even then, fans will see the startling lack of depth, previous modes, and established characters. Some will not mind in favor of the new and improved mechanics, but if they are anything like me, or if they are just new to the series, they'll be put off. Namco-Bandai, and Project Soul, could not have dropped the ball any harder if they had tried.    … Full Review »
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