I know what you’re thinking; an entire generation misspelling the word ‘calibre’, all because of a stupid(ly awesome) game series. It drives me mad as well, but we must soldier on regardless. The tale of souls and swords continues, to my great delight, with Soul Calibur V.

I’m a pretty big fan of souls and swords myself, swords anyway (however being quick to temper and having poor impulse control I’m not allowed to own one). But even I thought Soul Calibur IV was the pinnacle of the series, the game was about as good as it could get. But thanks to a literal popular demand on Facebook we now have a Soul Calibur V. It’s pretty damn good, but is it Soul Calibur IV good?

Honestly, anything could be happening here, this could be an alternative dance number

Well the game represents something of a new era for the series, in a surprising move some characters in the game have been retired, such as Sophitia and Taki, and the campaign mode focuses on a multipart story featuring Sophitia’s children Patroklos and Pyrrha. The Soul Calibur series has always had a pretty big love on for its own convoluted plot, far more so than any other fighting game. But this is a whole new step for the series and the fighting game genre in general.

That’s not to say the story of Patroklos and Pyrrha is particularly good. The word hammy could be used if I was being polite. It’s full of over dramatic angst, head slappingly bad plot twists and weird inexplicable character motivations. You’re basic anime story line really. No surprise that the story mode was outsourced to CyberConnect2, creators of the super honey glazed hammy Asura’s Wrath. Rumour has it the story was going to be four times longer than what you play in the game, which for most will be more than enough. Despite the pork product related elements of the campaign mode, it’s at least exciting to see something a little different.

While the game goes to great lengths to explain all the soul powered magic swords, for some reason they never bother to mention the dinosaur man running around

Of course there’s still regular versus and time attack modes to let you mix it up with the other classics. Including the notable audition of guest character Ezio from Assassin’s Creed, whose numerous weapon attacks make him fun to play with, the only very new characters are wolf summoning sword fighter Z.W.E.I. and fortune teller Viola. Alongside them are numerous returning stars such as Samurai guy Mitsurugi, Germanic opera runaway Siegried, and S&M freak show Voldo. While there may be some gripes about the absence of popular characters like Taki, Kilik and Sophitia, these characters really all return in the form of their children, and Sophitia has two replacements. Besides, the Soul series has a long history of subbing out characters for others with identical move sets and weapons, some of us still hold a torch for Li Long, unseen since the original Soul Edge (you’ll never replace him Maxi!). Some very old characters, such as Edge Master, reappear as well.

Killik's replacement does a good job as the monkey style bo wielder

Of course if you want to be that much of a whinging pain in the arse about your fave character getting the chop, it’s extremely easy to recreate that character down to the almost exact detail using the character creation tool. Along with, you know, a Chuck Norris, a fancy pirate and someone who looks like Solid Snake. Also they’re  very likely to show up as paid DLC at some point in the future as well.

Controls are pretty much identical to the system in Soul Calibur IV with some slight changes to the Critical Edge charged attack system. The game is still all about blocking and dodging and mixing up your vertical and horizontal attacks to keep the pressure on your opponent. Ring outs seem harder to achieve than they were in the last game with many launching attacks requiring an extra juggle hit to push an opponent out.

Yosihmitsu continues to be totally rad in all things

The challenge mode, titled Legendary Souls, actually has you fighting Killik as your first opponent, and you may be able to unlock him but I’ll never find out, as he is completely impossible to defeat! The challenge mode is like some type of Soul Calibur based torture as you’re forced to battle insanely over powered characters. Just the first battle is like a cheap boss fight, Killik doesn’t give you a moment to even stand up; as soon as he has you staggered your juggle attacked into oblivion. I enjoyed the fun and challenge of the Tower of Souls mode in Soul Calibur IV, which was a good balance of challenge and enjoyment with nice rewards. This challenge mode is like getting a catheter made of razor wire inserted.

Online multiplayer returns allowing players to be humiliated on an international stage. It’s pretty much a Legendary Souls mode with other people so you have someone to direct your impotent rage at. I suggest buying the game as a gift for your unsuspecting friends so you can rack up some points against them until they discover there’s a button for block.

Sometimes it actually seems like the costumes were designed with cosplayers in mind

Does Soul Calibur V have enough going for it to top IV though? Not really. The game is gorgeous, sounds great, is massive dollops of sweet fun. But in a dot point analysis it does very little to strive ahead as a new game. There’s no redefining of the series, or creative changes made to the gameplay, but that’s expected in a sequel that was literally demanded by the fans. And they will be happy, Soul Calibur V is more Soul Calibur. I bought it, played and enjoyed it, but lack of innovation makes me less enthusiastic for the next Soul Calibur. Which is a shame. I shouldn’t end on a downer though, the game doesn’t get anything wrong. Soul Calibur V is a brilliant fighting game, at least as good as Soul Calibur IV and well worth your love if you’re a fan of the series.