Surprise, surprise — SoulCalibur V is a fantastic game!  Gamers were initially skeptically by the short announcement period but we’re happy to say that nothing in SoulCalibur V feels rushed – well, nothing except that lack of animation in ‘story mode’ – more on that later!

A good majority in the fighting game community loved the SoulCalibur series up until IV – so in many ways there is a lot riding on the fifth installment in the series.  SoulCalibur V is about calculated attacks and motion and the 3D environment means that vertical or horizontal movement come heavily into play.  Project Soul spared no efforts in their attention to detail and art style – SCV looks and sounds amazing.

Brave Edge and Critical Edge are new power attacks and finishing moves introduced in SoulCalibur V – helping diversify the cinematic sequences and break up the action.  Ezio Auditore de Firenze from Ubisoft’s flagship franchise Assassin’s Creed is a playable character in the game and offers much in the way of ranged attacks using his crossbow and hidden gun.  We were pleasantly surprised by how delightfully diverse the character creation mode was in SoulCalibur V – we spent time making anime characters from scratch – be sure to watch those videos from @MagumaUsagi.

Calculating a score on how fighting games stack up the first week on release is always a difficult task since much of the game’s success relies on competitive playing, character balance and tournament inclusion.  2012 will be another big year for fighting games and most of the heavy competition will come in the form of Street Fighter X Tekken (from Capcom) and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (from Namco Bandai) – both of these games offer tag matches whereas SCV is single character versus character.  So far our favorite new character in SoulCalibur V is Xiba – we’ve provided a handful of gameplay videos showing off his moves so be sure to check ’em out!

The biggest complaint we have about SoulCalibur V thus far is the lack of animation in the cut scenes during the early episodes of story mode.  Last year’s Mortal Kombat did a fantastic job of conveying story through action – most comments on our videos so far agree that Project Soul left us salivating for something more visually entertaining!

Related Videos:
SoulCalibur 5 [Commentary] Xiba Gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YycQneDjTIE

SoulCalibur 5 Official Launch Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9KWaOgkNTg

Character Creation – Trish Devil May Cry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0RhlDJSXS4

Character Creation – Monkey D Luffy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Q9BM-3ckM

SoulCalibur 5 [Commentary] Story First 20 Minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwiZHr-qUYc

SoulCalibur 5 Leixia Move List Gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9-X0NO9s2c

SoulCalibur 5 Ezio Move List Gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUSVErfs0SQ

SoulCalibur 5 ZWEI Move List Gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xa1YNz19bs

SoulCalibur 5 Patroklos Move List Gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoJ0bi1OF9s