Remembering SoulBlade

Let me just start by saying that the SoulCalibur series is one of my top two favorite gaming series of all time, and SoulCalibur on Dreamcast is one of my top 5 favorite games of all time. The Soul series has come quite a long way since I was playing SoulEdge in the arcades in the 1990's.

                                  

In 1996 I was a stockboy at a Montgomery Ward department store in a local mall. This mall was home to an arcade called Aladdin's Castle, a place I spent many years and quarters in. On my breaks I'd walk down to the arcade to play SoulEdge for a few matches. The weapon based fighting really set it apart from other 3D fighters of the day like Tekken and Virtua Fighter. For the first time things like "range" became a factor and matches seemed much more methodical than games like Tekken or Virtua Fighter. And the graphics, for that time, were pretty amazing.

Early in 1997 the Playstation version of SoulEdge, renamed "SoulBlade", was released and so began what was to become one of the biggest series in gaming. I have so many fond memories of that game. On the weekends I would take my Playstation and go to my cousin's house, where we would all play games. The weekend after SoulBlade released, that was all we played. Each one of my cousins, many of them not even gamers, had a favorite character and we would all take turns playing. Winner stayed, just like at the arcade. One of my cousins even made his own nunchaku in honor of Li Long, SoulBlade's nunchaku wielding warrior.

I remember being blown away by the CG opening that was put into SoulBlade, as well as the song that played alongside it. SoulBlade had so much content that it was very easy to get lost in trying to unlock all of the game's many secrets. Hidden characters, multiple weapons, the amazing Edge Master mode, along with many other modes. SoulBlade's roster consisted of 10 readily available fighters, and 2 unlockable fighters (and 3 alts):

1. Cervantes

2. Seung Mina

3. Siegfried

4. Hwang

5. Sophitia

6. Li Long

7. Mitsurugi

8. Taki

9. Rock

10. Voldo

11. Han Myong

12. SoulEdge

13. Siegfried! - (Evil Siegfried or Nighmare)

14. Sophitia! - (unarmored Sophitia)

15. Sophitia!! - (swimsuit Sophitia)

One feature that was unique to SoulBlade was unarmed combat. In SoulBlade, each weapon had a durability rating that determined how much punishment it could take. During matches, underneath your health bar rested a weapon energy bar, and as you blocked enemy attacks, depending your weapon's durability, this bar would drain. If the weapon energy bar was drained completely the weapon would be knocked away and that fighter would have to finish the match using only punches and kicks. Of course the enemies attacks did far more damage once a player was unarmed.

In SoulBlade, Nightmare existed as "Siegfried!", or, "Evil Siegfried", a demonic armored version of Siegfried wielding SoulEdge with the same moveset as regular Siegfried. Cervantes was the boss character that wielded the evil SoulEdge. You could unlock a wicked, playable "SoulEdge" version of Cervantes that kind of resembled Ghost Rider. Another unlockable character was Han Myong, Seung Mina's (the spelling was later changed to Seong Mina, for some reason) father and mentor to both she and Hwang.

Other hidden easter eggs consisted of two versions of Sophitia, one that had her wearing only a top and skirt, and another that had her in her skivvies. There were also alternate endings for each character that could be activated by inputting certain buttons at precise times. Some characters had drastically different endings while others were fairly subtle. Mitsurugi had an interactive ending that had the player take control of him from a perspective behind him, attempting to sidestep rifle shots and get in close enough to attack. Then there were the small things like the title screen's background picture changing after you beat the arcade mode with all 10 characters or hearing Seung Mina say "Namco" at the opening screen.

As for the combat, it may not have been in the same league as its successor, but it was still ahead of the competition and still a great deal of fun to this day. SoulBlade had no 8-way run system, though it did have a very functional side-step system. There were also guard impacts, throw cancelling and reversals, dashes and full runs, and of course ring outs. Each character had a "Critical Edge" combo attack that when landed could devastate an opponent, but would also use a good portion of your weapon energy bar. And of course there were the unblockable attacks that are still in the series to this day.

I've always been amazed at just how many people know the SoulCalibur series, but know nothing of SoulBlade. There are so many things that started in SoulBlade and have carried over into the SoulCalibur series, as well as things that never made it past SoulBlade. One example of this is Li Long, the Nunchaku wielding character of SoulBlade. His death in his ending sequence obviously prevented him from returning. Then there's Siegfried, who in SoulBlade never appeared to be anything special in the story, at least when compared to all the games that followed. He is consumed by the sword in his ending sequence, paving the way for Nightmare. In Hwang's ending, he too is consumed by the sword, but I guess his wasn't the storyline picked for the sequel.

                                  

The game holds a special place for me, and I still enjoy playing it from time to time. If I could make my version of the perfect SoulCalibur game it would have many of the features introduced in SoulBlade. To me, SoulBlade is a great example of the massive amount of content that developers used to pack into games and seems to be missing from most modern games. Why this game isn't on the PSN store is beyond me, but anyone that is a real fan of the Soul series should check this gem out, it's still a fantastic game.