Transcending history, and the world, a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold.
Officially one of the greatest opening lines in any game ever. Truer facts are indeed hard to come by. But when the booming announcer speaks those immortal lines, you are already immersed into what this game is about to give you. Indeed, it is a tale of souls and swords and every essence of this game breathes new life into the 3D fighting game genre. Tekken might have revolutionised it, but this one? Namco, you spoiled us rotten with this one.
And any game that makes me want to own a glaive is excellent in my books anyway.
Don’t ask.
Right from the off, Soul Blade gets you excited with its immensely exciting, and beautifully crafted intro sequence. The Playstation, to be brutally honest, was a bit shit when it came to showing off proper CG openings. Part of this comes from the developers themselves not knowing entirely what the fuck they were doing. Some game feature such monstrous visages and models for their cutscenes, you begin to even wonder if they’d ever seen a human face before. I mean there’s ugly…
…and there’s PS1 bags of flour CG ugly.
Granted, you have to give Namco a bit of credit for the growth they showed between Tekken 1 and 2, but let’s be clear here, Soul Blade does the CG beautifully.
Like… legitimately beautifully.
It’s interesting to note that even 20-odd years later, this opening still gives me the shivers and also STILL manages to make me sing along EVERY SINGLE TIME. It’s a game that I MUST watch the opening cutscene for, just like I have to with Wild Arms and it’s beautiful Sergio Leone-style music.
THE FEELS. THE MANY, MANY FEELS.
Soul Blade is definitely one of the flashiest, most visceral 3D fighters out there. It’s a game that strikes many, many blows for fighting games and despite being a bit clunky-looking now, it is definitely still a cracking fighting game for just so many reasons.
If you’re looking for a story in a fighting game then Soul Blade actually manages to straddle that line very well. Very few fighters have a decent story past the whole “I WANT TO BE THE BEST FIGHTER” or “I WANT TO AVENGE A THING” motif, but the motives on display here are different enough for every single character that you actually get a real sense of differentiation between them.
What it boils down to is the search for the legendary sword Soul Edge (this being the Japanese name for the game because of the whole ‘Edge Games’ trademarking bullshit that ran on for far longer than it ought to have done). Everyone hears about the sword and somehow wants it. I mean… yeah, I get it. Go and get your legendary sword and be the most absolute badass you can be!
Just a shame it’s cursed then, isn’t it?
Yeah, this sword, currently in the possession of ‘Definitely Dead Dude Pirate’ Cervantes De Leon, is cursed. And let’s just say that wielding it is pretty much going to lead you down the path of many, many sorrows. I mean, hey, just ask Siegfried! He turned into a character called Nightmare, a character that awakened as an entirely separate being from him! He knows all about it. And he’ll probably tell you that being a demon isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. But then again, this is someone who killed his own father by accident and then chose to blame someone else for his death after being driven insane…
He’s a pleasant chap. Go ask him about swords. What a good idea.
Outside of Siegfried, whose wavering sanity makes him tremendously smug, we have Sophitia, who fights under the blessings of the god Hephaestus, Taki, a demon hunter, Misturugi, a samurai on a quest to find the greatest challenge to his swordsmanship, Hwang, who mistakenly believes the sword is the Sword of Salvation, Rock, a giant man who wears animal skins and fights with an enormous axe, Seung Mina, who wants to prove herself a good warrior regardless of her gender, Li Long, a man who wants revenge against Mitsurugi for apparently killing his lover…
And Voldo.
The fewer times we mention Voldo, the better.
There’s toooooo much to explain and not enough space for it.
There is also Cervantes, who is a playable character, but he’s your standard cheap boss who fights with two swords, can kill you in two or three hits and makes me want to punch things that don’t require punching.
Sorry bruv.
At least it wasn’t with a sword.
Over time, sadly, the graphics of Soul Blade have aged somewhat badly. While everything looks fluid and moves as such, the actual character models do look a tad jaded now. The hands look like striped pads wrapped around a stick, and some of the hair textures look pretty rough. Even some of the backgrounds look a little bit ropey, particularly Taki’s background where pixellated ghosts roam around looking like bad puppetry.
“I HAVE COME TO SEE THE FIGHTING,” they might be howling. Who knows? They’re fucking ghosts. I suppose it’s better than seeing them try to create transparent 3D ghosts that look like balls.
Metaphorically and literally that is.
Despite the obviously dated graphics – and I just remembered the silly blowing grass on Rock’s stage – Soul Blade is mechanically a bit of a masterpiece. I don’t want to say this out loud but it might well be my favourite fighting game to actually play on the PS1. More than Tekken 2. And that game was a masterpiece as well.
Soul Blade has a vertical and horizontal attack scheme where vertical attacks are slightly stronger, but harder to connect. The horizontal attacks have a greater range but aren’t as hard-hitting. If you think about it, throwing a vertical attack uses more of the character’s and weapon’s weight, whereas horizontal ones are more about the weapon’s weight behind it, and whatever force your wrists give out.
There’s also a kick button but WHO’S GOING TO USE THE KICK BUTTON IN A FIGHTING GAME FEATURING SWORDS, AXES AND NUNCHUCKS? WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND? WHO, I ASK YOU, WHO?
And perhaps most importan-
No. No. Let’s go back to that point. If you have a fucking giant sword that can cut your opponent up into pieces, why in the name of all that is good and mighty would you ever, EVER, consider kicking the opponent? I mean kick them in the groin, by all means, do a bit of an incapacitate on them, but SLASH THEIR FACE WITH SWORD WORKS SO MUCH BETTER.
There’s also a gu-
AND ANOTHER THING: IF YOU KICK AN OPPONENT, WHAT’S THE LIKELIHOOD THAT YOU COULD LOSE YOUR LEG WHEN THEY SWING THEIR SWORD AT IT? I mean, yeah, they could that to your arms too but YOU HAVE A SWORD IN YOUR HANDS AND MOST LIKELY ARMOUR AROUND YOUR ARMS, BUT COME ON. THAT SHIT IS JUST STUPID. FOR REAL THOUGH. FUCKING HELL!
…
There’s a guard button too. Which is important. Apparently.
Using the guard button in combination with attack buttons can also throw your opponents. Three particular throw commands stay with me after all this time. Taki’s neck stab still looks and sounds horrific even now.
FROM ANY ANGLE.
Sophitia’s neck crack to somersault slam is also pretty memorable. She shoves her knees around your ears, cracks your neck and then inexplicably somersaults backwards to slam you into the ground behind you.
I mean, it’s physically impossible but it’s bloody epic to look at. Plus she also has the epic ‘knee to groin’ throw move that is accompanied by an apologetic cry of “I’m sorry!”.
And then there’s Mitsurugi’s sword slashing throw where he slashes you upwards, spins over your head and slashes down your back, causing your character to slump forward in agony.
To be honest, how anyone truly survives any of this is still beyond me. Essentially, none of the main cast has actually… died in-game… As such. I mean people think Li Long is but the canon lore sorta umms and ahhs about it all the time so let’s just say he isn’t but he might be but he isn’t so, shut up you ain’t my muvva!
And weirdly enough, that visceral, brutal action is part of the fun here. Everything, much like Bloody Roar did, has a real weight and heft behind it. Characters crumple to the ground with a thud, attacks feel like they truly connect, and the sound effects accompanying your slashes and blows sound meaty. They’re the kind of sound effects that you don’t want to be on the receiving end of. If you heard them in real life, you might as well go to the hospital now. Don’t even look at what happened, just go. Just go and don’t look at wh-HOOOOOOOOOOLY SHIT, ARE THOSE MY KIDNEYS!??!
After your return from A&E, you can sit back and relax with the usual fighting game modes. There’s Arcade, complete with variable endings (a little more on that later), time attack, team battle and survival as well.
There’s also a really nifty Edge Master mode that works as a story-telling RPG for each character that is used as a way of collecting new weapons for each character. It is a huge amount of fun, as these weapons have varying traits that can help or hinder your progress. Some drain your health while making attacks faster or stronger, while some slow down your character’s attacks but offer enormous attack. Some are unbreakable, etc, etc. There are loads to found and collected, which is great as it ups the replay value tremendously while offering a hugely interesting challenge, and a bit of lore to proceedings.
There’s also sidestepping, ring outs, a weapon bar that depletes as you guard attacks, and the beginning of Critical Edges, a staple of the series now. These aren’t as fancy as their modern-day counterparts, but they’re super strong attacks that take some of your weapon durability away in exchange for a rapid-fire combo of hits designed to finish off your opponent. When they’re pulled off properly, it’s immensely satisfying.
But they’re hard as nails to pull off so you’ll have to find your satisfaction somewhere else. So it’s a good thing that the game plays as well as it does then…
Should you complete the main campaign, you’re treated to an ending done with the in-game graphics. Without knowing, you’ll not know that there are actually two endings to be had for each character, but you need to know the button combination and time them properly to be able to perform them. There’s a moment where the black borders at the top and bottom squeeze in a little, and this is your window to start doing… something. What? Who knows. But in each case, it often offers a very different ending (particularly for someone like Siegfried, or Hwang.
And then there’s Voldo’s ending.
You need to see it for yourself. I promise you won’t be disappointed. Queasy, maybe, but disappointed? Nope.
Soul Blade definitely felt like a special game back when it came out. To a certain extent, it often feels like more fun to play than some of the later games (let’s not go into Soul Calibur V). This one feels like the series began at a winning stage and wasn’t quite sure what to do with it next. In the end, the refinements they made to the series were all they needed. It didn’t need to do too much different at all. It just needed to be as bloody brilliant as this game.
What a sharp entry this game was.
Cutting edge, you might even say.
Bladey good fun, I tell you.
I think I’ve made my point.
Look, you fucking love my puns and you know it. Start offering me praise for them, someone.
Blimey, boyo 