Soulcalibur II

From Soulpedia English

Soulcalibur II

Platforms	Arcade, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox
Release Date	Arcade July 30, 2002 Dreamcast JPN March 27, 2003 NA August 27, 2003 EUR September 26, 2003

Soulcalibur II (ソウルキャリバーII, Sourukyaribā Tsū?) is a fighting game developed and published by Namco and the third installment in the Soul series.

Soul Calibur is the name of the holy sword, created to battle the evil sword Soul Edge, which the games' story-lines revolve around.

Compared to Soulcalibur, Soulcalibur II boasts improved graphics and introduces new characters, stages, and music. This game takes place around 1591.

[edit] Gameplay

More powerful "step" and "avoid" systems, which made evading vertical attacks noticeably easier.
Arena walls, rather than ring-out ability on all sides, and wall-specific moves.
A three-step Soul Charge system.
A clash system, one that is used when two attacks would hit each other resulting in a white flash and no damage to either opponent.
Guard break attacks, which put a blocking player into a post guard-impact state
Just Frame moves, which awarded additional hits to players who could time their command inputs well

[edit] Story

The game is set 4 years after the end of Soulcalibur, which based on calculations from a timeline released on the Soul Archive website, puts the game's story in the year 1591 AD.

The wave of slaughters that terrorized Europe reached a sudden end. The knight in azure armor, Nightmare, and his followers were successful in collecting enough souls and were about to start the restoring ceremony on the ruins of the once-proud Osthreinsburg Castle. But just as the ceremony was to start, three young warriors assaulted the castle. In a matter of time the clan was defeated and Nightmare stood in front of the young warriors wielding the Sacred Trinity. After an intense battle Nightmare fell, but then the evil soul inside Soul Edge sent the young warriors into a vortex of hellfire and stood to confront them. As a result of Soul Edge's evil aura, Krita-Yuga revealed its true form: that of the Holy Sword, Soul Calibur.

The intense battle ended with the victory of the holy sword, but at the collapse of the vortex of Inferno, both swords along with the azure Nightmare were sucked in a void and expelled in another place. Siegfried Schtauffen, who was until a moment before the Azure Knight, restored his mind. Recognizing his sins, he set on a journey of atonement. Still the blade held a strong bond, and every night it took control of the body and took souls of those nearby. The efforts made by the young knight were fruitless, and four years later the Azure Nightmare returned.

Around those times various warriors came into contact of the blade's remaining fragments, revealing Soul Edge's ultimate survival after its defeat. Driven either to possess or destroy it, they join a new journey, while Nightmare starts his rampage anew, seeking souls to restore Soul Edge once again...

[edit] Movies

[edit] Opening Movie

[edit] Playable Characters

[edit] Starting roster

(+ = New Characters)

[edit] Unlockable

[edit] Bonus

Assassin
Berserker
Lizardman
Necrid+ (Home ver. only)
Heihachi (PS2 ver. only)
Link (NGC ver. only)
Spawn (XBOX ver. only)

[edit] Features

[edit] Stages

[edit] Trivia

[edit] Reception

Soulcalibur II was rated the 18th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Powers Top 200 Games list. Media reviews of Soulcalibur II were overwhelmingly favorable, as the game earned over 91% for all versions on Gamerankings.com, and commercially the game sold well. It has also earned a 9.2/10 from IGN.

The game also did well in the competitive gaming scene, both in the US and abroad, where it was featured in many tournaments for the years after it came out. The game was particularly noted for its balance, as many different characters placed in top levels in tournaments.

After repeated high level play, however, criticisms arose, most notably in some potentially game-breaking bugs which were found, including the 2G bug (which allowed players to block immediately after being Guard Impacted) and G-Step (which allowed players to sidestep vertical attacks and immediately cancel their sidestep, allowing for instant punishment). Many moves in Soulcalibur II are also safe on block (meaning that if they are guarded, their user will recover to a neutral state before the opponent can retaliate), and characters such as Astaroth benefit more from the Guard Impact system than others.

Game Rankings currently scores it 90.6% for the PlayStation 2, 92.9% for the Gamecube, and 90.8% for the Xbox.

E3 2003 Game Critics Awards: Best Fighting Game
X-Play - 10th best GameCube game of all time
Screwattack.com - 8th best gamecube game

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