SoulCalibur | August 5, 1999
The battle surrounding the cursed sword Soul Edge comes to a temporary halt with the intervention of Sophitia, the messenger of the god Hephaestus, and Taki, a female ninja whose livelihood is hunting monsters. The first person to face the pirate Cervantes, the owner of the cursed sword, was Sophitia. She succeeds in breaking one of Cervantes' two cursed swords, but she is seriously wounded by the sword's fragment and loses consciousness.
Just as the final blow is about to be struck, Taki arrives at the harbor village in pursuit of the cursed sword. Like a gust of wind, Taki charges at Cervantes, and the now weakened pirate, having lost one cursed sword, is barely defeated by her. His body is displayed in the Spanish harbor village. Taki takes the sword fragment, sends the injured girl back to her homeland, and begins her journey home. Though it seemed everything would end here, what if that young swordsman had not visited the harbor village...
Soulcalibur is a 3D fighting game developed by Namco (now Bandai Namco Entertainment) in 1998. It is the sequel to the 1996 fighting game Soul Edge. Several sequels, including Soulcalibur II and Soulcalibur III, were released.
Soulcalibur is a weapon-based fighting game, initially developed as an arcade game but later ported to various home consoles, becoming a huge success. The game is controlled by combining directional inputs with four buttons, featuring guard and charge techniques. Additionally, players can freely move in eight directions, including depth on the stage, using the "8 WAY RUN" system. This allows players to attack from the sides or evade attacks.
The character motions were mostly hand-crafted, though some movements were created using motion capture, achieving lifelike action. However, Hiroaki Setoyama, who participated in the planning and development, expressed his dissatisfaction with the term "motion capture," explaining that even the captured movements were reworked by hand. For example, Ivy's Snake Sword motions were based on motion-captured data, but the developers also referenced the movements from the Chinese whip dance (九節鞭) to create the character’s unique style.
The game featured 17 characters in the arcade version, with 10 initial characters and 7 time-released characters, while the home console version added 2 more, totaling 19 characters to choose from.
The first arcade version of Soulcalibur began operating in 1998.
On August 5, 1999, the Dreamcast version was released. Despite the short porting period, it received high praise, even scoring a perfect 40 in Famitsu's cross-reviews. It sold over a million copies worldwide.
The Xbox 360 version was released on July 2, 2008, about 9 years after the Dreamcast version. The game is rated CERO: B (for ages 12 and up) and is sold via download through Xbox Live Arcade rather than packaged sales. It includes 8 game modes such as arcade, team battle, survival, and versus battle, and has a museum feature for game-related content. Based on the Dreamcast version, the game starts with all game elements unlocked and includes updates such as support for 1080p.
After 14 years of arcade operation, the iOS version of Soulcalibur was released on the Apple App Store on January 19, 2012. It supports iOS 4.3 to 7 and is compatible with iPhone (4th generation and later), iPod touch (4th generation and later), and iPad (2nd generation and later). Controls are made through a virtual pad on the screen, and the 8 WAY RUN system is also supported. It includes 6 game modes and a museum function. Updates after launch added bug fixes and Bluetooth multiplayer modes.
Additionally, on November 21, 2013, the Android version was released on Google Play. It supports Android 2.3.3 or later and includes 5 game modes (excluding battle mode) and a museum function.
