SoulCalibur V

 Xbox 360
User Score
6.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 142 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 61 out of 142
  2. Mixed: 51 out of 142
  3. Negative: 30 out of 142
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  1. Alenth
    Feb 6, 2012
    3
    By far the worst entry in the series, story mode is horrible and makes zero sense, quick match is just a grind for titles, we don't have talim, rock, zasalamel, etc but hey!! they have time to introduce a copy of jin and 3 mimics!! Patroklos and Pyrrha are by far the most annoying teens ever in a FG.

    The supers are really inconsistent and cheap with 1 frame start ups, Guard break is    By far the worst entry in the series, story mode is horrible and makes zero sense, quick match is just a grind for titles, we don't have talim, rock, zasalamel, etc but hey!! they have time to introduce a copy of jin and 3 mimics!! Patroklos and Pyrrha are by far the most annoying teens ever in a FG.

    The supers are really inconsistent and cheap with 1 frame start ups, Guard break is poorly done, a lot of characters are dumbed down with a lot of moves being removed, Maxi and Nightmare are really boring to play, the new replacements are more of the same.

    This game is only for the extreme zealous fans, the only good things are the online play, Ezio, Viola and Zwei, this is an online game only, is just a rushed game.    … Expand
  2. McNinja
    Feb 1, 2012
    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 degreeSoul 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.    … Expand
  3. Zonbi
    Feb 3, 2012
    4
    TERRIBLE!!!
    Very disappointing, as I expected. They got lazy. It makes me sad. In my opinion. Soul Calibur 5 is best in show with graphics. Soul Calibur 3 has the best story mode. And Soul Calibur 4 has the best character creation opportunities and design.
    All Soul Calibur V revolves around is GRAPHICS. Nothing more!! Effort put into the background is a 0. They downgraded almost all of    TERRIBLE!!!
    Very disappointing, as I expected. They got lazy. It makes me sad. In my opinion. Soul Calibur 5 is best in show with graphics. Soul Calibur 3 has the best story mode. And Soul Calibur 4 has the best character creation opportunities and design.

    All Soul Calibur V revolves around is GRAPHICS. Nothing more!! Effort put into the background is a 0. They downgraded almost all of the characters. Be smart and keep SC4 if you have it, don't buy five. It's story line revolves around one character. The graphics are cool, but they got lazy. Makes me sad. If this is as good as it gets, then they really should stop right here.    … Expand
  4. nemean
    Feb 7, 2012
    1
    Story: ~1hr to beat. Note: this involves a few fighters. The rest -omitted, you get to fight on a few stages. The few people that do show up have 1 line of dialogue. Almost the entire cast of SC5 is not in the 'story mode'. Wow! Big effort Namco. ~3 cut scenes in story mode. The rest is pencil drawings. Yeah, I prefer pencil drawings on my 60" 1080P HDTV. Thanks Namco for 1996 &Story: ~1hr to beat. Note: this involves a few fighters. The rest -omitted, you get to fight on a few stages. The few people that do show up have 1 line of dialogue. Almost the entire cast of SC5 is not in the 'story mode'. Wow! Big effort Namco. ~3 cut scenes in story mode. The rest is pencil drawings. Yeah, I prefer pencil drawings on my 60" 1080P HDTV. Thanks Namco for 1996 & chargingfull price for a 'new' game. It's as if Namco scanned the storyboard pencil drawings that should have become CG video or even in-game-engine sequences & decided "Nah, we're 2 cheap. Let's use pencil drawings instead." I almost forgot, you're going to hear a LOT of "I love you brother/sister/mother" in story mode. You get to hear those words & READ them 2. Why? cuz you can unlock the text. cuz that is SO much more fun than unlocking katas (e.g.SC2), different gameplay modes (e.g. SC3) & ending movies (e.g. SC4).

    Arcade: Remember picking a fav fighter, pick their 1P/2P/3P costume, select their diverse weapon set? Play through arcade/story & unlock their 'ending movie'? That was fun & rewarding. Namco removed that part of the game. Yes, no story mode for the remaining people in the game. All fighter endings are gone. No option to view the cutscenes, all 3 of them. That's right, they removed all the endings. Want to know what happened to Astaroth? Raphael? Amy? Taki? or Cervantes? Good luck, cuz all that is missing from this game. What did they replace it with? You get a sad arcade mode (fight 6 times) Yippie! cuz that is *so* much better than full CGI endings (sarcasm). Oh, I forgot they added a 2nd arcade mode. What is different about it? You get to fight 6 times (sound familar?) and... The difficulty is higher. rip-off. Even SF2/MK1 had ending movies We've got HDTVs, 3D games, lossless high-def master audio surround sound & what does Namco give us? pencil drawings & text descriptions of "Loves his sister, can't wait to live with her". WTF?

    Chronicles of the Sword/Tower of Souls: GONE. Replaced with... ??? Nothing. It is just gone. You have arcade (fight 6 times), training (worthless), & VS mode (which doesn't work properly). Oh wait, you can fight online.... except you could already do that in SC4.

    Reduced: Taki, Sophitia, Kilik, etc are gone. But you get 3 ppl that are mimics (copy other styles),add 2 more that have ~identical styles [Sophitia's son & daughter], that seems 2 be an extra 2 fighters, it's more clones, that makes 5 mimic fighters.

    Museum Mode/Gallery mode/photo mode/Kata mode: GONE. Replaced with: Nothing.
    1-player: All standard modes like time attack, team battle, tower of souls, survival, ARCADE, gallery, etc. ARE ALL GONE. Nothing to do in 1-player. This stands out since previous SC games had a strong single player (i.e. SC2). Using your fav. fighter & level them up by playing a variety of matches? How cool it was to have reached level 10 with everyone? This led to further rewards in-game... GONE.
    2-Player: Good luck trying to get this working. It took over 10min+ to get a VS match. Oh, & both players were sitting IN THE SAME ROOM. Remember how you could handicap your fighter compared to your opponent? i.e. in SC4 you could have 1/2 health & your little brother could have X2 health. Help even out matches where someone is less skilled, it was useful & a staple in SC? GONE.
    Training: Games typically give you info on new features & explain how 2 use them? it's good 2 have this info? Namco doesn't provide it. Yet they tout it as 1 of the main features. Contrast that with SC4 which provided it. Namco couldn't be bothered to copy some text into the game to help out players. Oh wait! They do have text... yes they provide lots of text about love....(More later). Training mode is reduced compared to SC3/4. Gone.
    Unlockables: Oh how we used to collect artwork, concept art, music, weapons, movies, opening CGI sequences (complete with inserting your CaC into those sequences), BGM, kata (demonstration) mode & all sorts of other fun stuff? Well That is all gone too. But you CAN unlock things like these wonderful TEXT descriptions. E.g. I just unlocked "Loves his sister." Wow, that is great Namco. A... piece of text? What can I do with it? I can have it appear when I play online. Wow.... that is supposed to be better than having Taki or Sophitia in the game? RIP OFF!!!
    Options: No 3D support (Arkham City/Assassin's creed). Remember changing time limits/round? You could select 'infinite' time/round, have a fight 2 the finish? GONE. Namco decided to force a max limit [60 sec]. Thanks for giving me LESS options than before.    … Expand
  5. Bowimbiri
    Feb 10, 2012
    4
    Well, the very same day I purchased this game was the day I finished the storyline and unlocked every character. The story focuses so much on the siblings that no other character is worked out mostly - We don't get to know what happened to Taki, or if Viola mystery resolves, etc... it fell flat, boring and poorly worked out. Online gaming has been enhanced from IV, but still lacks thatWell, the very same day I purchased this game was the day I finished the storyline and unlocked every character. The story focuses so much on the siblings that no other character is worked out mostly - We don't get to know what happened to Taki, or if Viola mystery resolves, etc... it fell flat, boring and poorly worked out. Online gaming has been enhanced from IV, but still lacks that thing that will motivate you to play it. Single Playing sucks as bad as the arcade game AMY, it is not challenging and does not have anything new or entertaining... Character creation is kind of nice and creative, but still I will prefer that from IV due to the ability business introduced in it. This game seemed to be rushed in more than worked out, there is not much new about it and having 3 mimic characters is a very lazy thing to do. I'm completely disappointed of this and after three days was so bored of it that gave it in trade-in for something more worthy of my time before price dropped. Nothing like Soul Calibur II so far… Expand
  6. Jimbro84
    Sep 6, 2012
    0
    soulcalibur V is the most utterly retarded game ever. i can't believe I paid 30$ for a used version of this mess. the combos are almost impossible to do and memorize (because Y=B and X=A and you have to figure this out). also, the storyline sucks and instead of having videos between fights all you have is reading material.

    finally, there is limited possibilities for character creation    soulcalibur V is the most utterly retarded game ever. i can't believe I paid 30$ for a used version of this mess. the combos are almost impossible to do and memorize (because Y=B and X=A and you have to figure this out). also, the storyline sucks and instead of having videos between fights all you have is reading material.

    finally, there is limited possibilities for character creation (half of equipments and haircuts are jokes) I HATE THIS GAME. stay away from it and unless you haven't had puberty buy Mortal Kombat 9 instead.    … Expand
  7. EddyHan
    Mar 13, 2012
    4
    I admit, I'm a Soul Series fan and had high expectation for this game, but who can blame me! Soul Calibur was one of my most treasured games back on the DC and SC2 on GC was just perfect. So is SC5 is soo different? Well, YES and it isn't good at all! First, the balance is all wrong. Why is it that powerful attacks are easily punished by speedy attacks? You 'll find instantly that speedyI admit, I'm a Soul Series fan and had high expectation for this game, but who can blame me! Soul Calibur was one of my most treasured games back on the DC and SC2 on GC was just perfect. So is SC5 is soo different? Well, YES and it isn't good at all! First, the balance is all wrong. Why is it that powerful attacks are easily punished by speedy attacks? You 'll find instantly that speedy character like, Leixia, Natsu, Pyrrah Omega and Nightmare are highly advantageous! Secondly, the story mode is utter crap! Even though fighting games are mainly multiplayer, it is traditional to have an arcade mode which explains why every character is fighting. Thirdly, there aren't enough modes like time trial and survival. There are some good things about SC5. Things like Character Creation and the multiplayer UI are very well done. The online gameplay is seemingly lagless and error free. The graphics are good, but it still has the plastic finish from SC4 on it which doesn't impress me much. All-in-all I would of given this game a 6, BUT....there is something missing from this game, it's SOUL. Because of the changes in mechanics which includes the removal of Guard Impact and Parry, this game is NOT a Soul Calibur game! The feeling is more like a Street Fighter game than Soul Calibur and that's what is wrong. If you haven't bought this game yet wait for it to go down in price. If you 're a Soul Series fan, I'd avoid this one.… Expand
  8. Yerczeys
    Jul 5, 2014
    3
    This series has gone downhill hard and fast. I'm not a multi-player guy, but I really loved the first three games. At this point, the characters they're adding have grown lame and over the top. Remember Talim? She's gone, along with her fun tonfa style. Now they have some douchebag with a dumb sword and a werewolf ghost. Worst part though is the story mode, and I used to love storyThis series has gone downhill hard and fast. I'm not a multi-player guy, but I really loved the first three games. At this point, the characters they're adding have grown lame and over the top. Remember Talim? She's gone, along with her fun tonfa style. Now they have some douchebag with a dumb sword and a werewolf ghost. Worst part though is the story mode, and I used to love story mode. My issue is that rather than make a story for each character (so you can play your favorite!) it just follows the Sophitia replacement on his blisteringly dull adventure. That's it, one story, that's all you get.… Expand
  9. green223388
    Apr 8, 2013
    0
    Worst in every way than it's prequel's. Lamer characters, graphics and almost no offline mode. Basically a gutted version of SC4. Avoid at all costs. Oh yeah NO character endings, really boring levels, worst gameplay, and somehow they actually managed to make everything worst.
  10. RafaelDB464
    Oct 7, 2016
    4
    i Hate this game.
    i hate the Design, i hate the Story, i hate the new Characters (except ZWEI), i hate the content, i hate the Balance...
    the Gameplay and Visuals are rly good, Online works well and Character Creation is Superb, don't get me wrong.... but this is so far the worst game of the Franchise!
  11. AtrixWolfe
    Oct 24, 2018
    2
    - Almost killed the franchise
    - Can't play core characters like Sophitia AT ALL
    - Movement speed is slow, 8 Way run is more like 8 way crawl
    - Need meter to use guard impact
    - Wack balance
    - No PC Version

    There's very little reason to love SCV, outside the fact it does carry the name. It should've been called something different if they were going to remove Sophitia.

Awards & Rankings

77
#77 Best Xbox 360 Game of 2012
49
#49 Most Discussed Xbox 360 Game of 2012

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 56 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 43 out of 56
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 56
  3. Negative: 1 out of 56
  1. GameCritics
    Mar 29, 2012
    60
    Unfortunately for those returning after an absence (like me) or who are brand new to the series, Soul Calibur V does little to bring a player up to speed with the new characters and mechanics beyond throwing them into the fight and letting them wade through as best they can. Factor in the scarcity of offline single-player content, and this means that multiplayer is the only thing granting Soul Calibur V any longevity; players looking for long-term offline play will be better served with Soul Calibur IV.
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  2. GamesBeat
    Mar 12, 2012
    80
    Critics praised this series for its unique campaigns like Weapon Master that feature a variety of challenges and weapons with different properties, but SC5's offerings feel limited and rushed.
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  3. Armchair Empire
    Mar 7, 2012
    80
    While there's nothing revolutionary in the gameplay of SoulCalibur V from its predecessors, fans of the franchise will enjoy once again the blade battling that looks just as good as it plays.
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