Soulcalibur IV

Soulcalibur IV (ソウルキャリバーIV Sourukyaribā Fō) is the fifth installment in Namco's Soul series of fighting games. It was released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on July 29, 2008, in North America; July 31, 2008, in Japan, Europe, and Australia; and on August 1, 2008, in the United Kingdom.

## Gameplay

### Modes

Soulcalibur IV features the familiar Story, Arcade, Training and Museum modes. A new mode called Tower of Lost Souls has the player fighting special battles in order to gain rewards.

### Character Creation

haracter Creation from Soulcalibur III returns in Soulcalibur IV. Instead of including some original weapon styles for use with certain classes of fighters, Soulcalibur IV now only allows players to simply choose which character from the series they would like to have their created character mimic (excluding Algol, bonus characters, and the Star Wars guest characters). This differs from Soulcalibur III in that many different styles were also included, such as Grieve Edge, Kunai/Shuriken, Wave Sword, or Tambourine. The styles were removed in the transition, and the character creation has been simplified.

A wide array of new pieces of equipment are available for use in Soulcalibur IV's Character Creation mode, and new options include a wider range of character voices (now with pitch adjustment) and the ability to change a character's general physique and muscularity.

### Active Matching Battle

Multi-fighter battles in Soulcalibur IV use a different structure from its predecessors, nicknamed Active Matching Battle (AMB). The AMB system allows players to switch to other members of a 'party' of fighters with the push of a button. Also, instead of starting a new round for each opponent defeated, new opponents will simply run into the battle immediately after a K.O. - with the exception of certain combatants, these certain combatants usually being the 'end-of-the-level-boss' of each round or level. Matches utilizing the AMB system only appear in the Story and Tower of Lost Souls modes.

### Soul Guage & Critical Finish

Soulcalibur IV features an all-new Critical Finish system. Next to a player's HP Gauge is a colored gem that represents the "Soul Gauge". The gem changes color when the player guards and is attacked. The color gradually changes from green to blue and or to red and then flashing red when the Soul Gauge is empty. The player's own Soul Gauge will regenerate if he or she makes an attack and hits the opponent (guarding or otherwise). If the character manages to empty out the opponent's Soul Gauge, he or she will get a short chance to perform a powerful Critical Finish move, which will defeat the opponent instantly, by pressing all four face buttons at the same time.  However, the Critical Finish feature was met with some negative responses.

### Online Battles

For the first time in the series, Soulcalibur IV has the option to fight against other players online. Players can play ranked matches or unranked matches which is called players matches. Modes available online include "Standard VS" where players fight without using skills and "Special VS" where players fight with skills enabled. Created characters are playable in the online multiplayer mode.

## Characters

Darth Vader, The Apprentice, and Yoda are the playable guest characters. At release Darth Vader appeared on the PlayStation 3, and Yoda on the Xbox 360. The Apprentice, the main protagonist of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, also makes an appearance as a playable guest character on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. In October 2008, Vader and Yoda were released as downloadable content for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, respectively.

Revenant, Frederick Schtauffen, and several other minor Soul characters make an appearance in battle.

The characters that must be somehow unlocked appear as bold.

### Returning characters

Characters are listed in alphabetical order. Characters in bold can be unlocked by purchasing them in Character Creation for 4,000 Gold each.

* Amy

* Astaroth
* Cassandra
* Cervantes
* Ivy
* Kilik
* Lizardman (Aeon Calcos)
* Maxi
* Mitsurugi
* Nightmare
* Raphael
* Rock
* Seong Mi-na
* Setsuka
* Siegfried
* Sophitia
* Taki
* Talim
* Tira
* Voldo
* Xianghua
* Yoshimitsu
* Yun-seong
* Zasalamel

### New characters

* Algol (can be unlocked by defeating him in the Story Modes of anyone except Amy, Hilde, Ivy, Lizardman, Maxi, Nightmare, Raphael, Siegfried, Taki, Tira, Voldo, and Yun-seong)
* Hilde

### Guest characters

* The Apprentice (Starkiller, Galen Marek): (can be unlocked by clearing Arcade Mode as either Vader or Yoda)

* Darth Vader: (playable from the start on the PlayStation 3 version; can be downloaded onto the Xbox 360 version for 400 Microsoft Points or unlocked in Online Mode)

* Yoda: (playable from the start on the Xbox 360 version; can be downloaded onto the PlayStation 3 version for the equivalent of $5.00 or unlocked in Online Mode)

### Bonus characters

All bonus characters share a move list with a regular character and must be defeated in Story Mode in order to be unlocked, exact Story Modes are stated below.

* Angol Fear (uses Seong Mi-na's move list; appears in the Story Modes of Algol, The Apprentice, Darth Vader, Kilik, Scheherazade, and Zasalamel; designed by guest artist Mine Yoshizaki)

* Ashlotte (uses Astaroth's move list; appears in the Story Modes of Angol Fear, Astaroth, Lizardman, Maxi, Rock, Sophitia, Talim; designed by guest artist Oh! great Itomi Ogure)
* Kamikirimusi (uses Nightmare's move list; appears in the Story Modes of Amy, Cassandra, Mitsurugi, Shura, Tira, Xianghua, Yun-seong; designed by guest artist Hirokazu Hisayuki)
* Scheherazade (uses Amy's move list; appears in the Story Modes of Ashlotte, Hilde, Nightmare, Siegfried, Voldo, Yoda, Yoshimitsu; designed by guest artist Yutaka Izubuchi)
* Shura (uses Cervantes' move list; appears in the Story Modes of Cervantes, Ivy, Kamikirimusi, Raphael, Seong Mi-na, Setsuka, Taki; designed by guest artist Hiroya Oku)