Game Review: Soul Blade

Game: Soul Blade
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Namco
Release Date: May 1997

Having reviewed Soul Calibur II only the other day, you might wonder why I saved the first game in the series for a seperate review. Unfortunately I was under the impression that that game was called 'Soul Edge', and it was in Japan, however Namco decided to rename the European and American versions. So upon reading the manual before testing Soul Blade out for review, I noticed it featured a control system similar to Soul Calibur II, and some of the same characters and figured out what I'd missed.

There are a few main differences between this and Soul Calibur II; there's a weapon meter which depletes as you block attacks, eventually resulting in the loss of your weapon if you block too many times. The 8-way run is not featured in this version, instead you can only move into the background or foreground with a double tap of the down/up buttons respectively. Other than these two changes, there's not a lot of difference between the general control and feel of the game.

Many of the characters from Soul Blade made their way into later installments, with 14 playable characters in the game overall. Although this isn't a large choice, there's a good amount of  variation in movesets and a lot of different weapons to collect. Just like its sequels it features an Arcade Mode, Survival Mode, Team Battle mode and Edge Master Mode, where the player travels around a map, fulfilling victory conditions in different battles to unlock extra weapons.

Although a little more simple than Soul Calibur II's Weapon Master mode as there's only one fight per location, I think it makes a nice change from Arcade Mode and is a reasonable alternative unlike Weapon Master Mode which is far too long to be an alternative, rather it's its own experience. One small criticism of Edge Master Mode is that some of the victory conditions can get a little difficult to pull off, in later stages, and sometimes you're expected to win a lot of fights in a row, but experienced players will enjoy this sort of challenge.

Graphically the game is similar to, but perhaps a little better than the original Tekken. The movements and attacks are also smoother and there's an arguably better control system. As impressive as Soul Calibur II is for the Xbox, for the time Soul Blade looks great on PS1. There's an extensive soundtrack to the game also, which gives it character and sets it apart from other fighting games of the era.

Controlwise the game is pretty smooth, on a par with Tekken if not a little better. Unlike Tekken all of the attacks in the game can be useful at different times in combat and do fair amounts of damage, so that fighting doesn't become a kick-fest. The block system works well and I like the sword meter, even if it was taken out of later installments of the series. Overall this is a solid fighting game even today, and it must have been very impressive back when it was released.

Rating: 82/100
Grade: B