![soul calibur 5 characters shields soul calibur 5 characters shields](https://www.fightersgeneration.com/characters/cass-sc2fix.jpg)
As you probably have guess by now, I've been very disappointed by this 5th episode of the Soul Calibur series (6th if you count Soul Edge). It's the case here, it always took too long for me to find an opponent to play against, which ruined my online experience. In a 1 vs 1 game, finding an opponent should not take more than 10 seconds, more than that and it becomes really annoying. However, I didn't have much fun online because it takes too damn long to find an opponent most of the times. Nothing really original there, just normal stuff. So let's talk about the online modes! You can play in ranked matches, player matches (no ranking), or join the Global Colosseum to chat with people, defy them or enter a tournament. I said earlier that Namco focused on the online mode for this game, and didn't bother adding any worthwhile solo content. I'm not sure the improvements since SC4 are big, though. Technically speaking, the game looks very good and the animations are smooth. No special fighting styles that don't belong to a regular character like in Soul Calibur 3.
![soul calibur 5 characters shields soul calibur 5 characters shields](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/soulcalibur/images/6/6f/ME0001449620_2.jpg)
Oh, and I almost forgot the guest star, Ezio Auditore from Assassins Creed! You can also create your own characters in the Creation mode, with many different outfits, but you'll be limited to the existing fighting styles (+Devil Jin's style from Tekken). Viola, a magician girl fighting with a floating ball, and ZWEI a guy with a kind of wolf fighting with him, appearing out of thin air. There are also 2 "new faces" (with new fighting styles). Some old guys are still here (Mitsurugi, Maxi, Ivy or Cervantes) but many are gone, including my favorite character (Sophitia). No more Kilik (kinda), here comes the ridiculous Xiba, etc. That's because they got rid of most of the old regular characters and replaced them with new guys, with similar move sets. However, you may not recognize the characters. So, you won't be lost with the gameplay if you played a SC game before. I'm not a big fan of that system (I especially dislike the Critical Edge thing) but it's all right. It goes up when you attack or take damage, and it allows you to perform special actions, such as Critical Edges (a kind of "fury"), Brave Edges (improved versions of other attacks) or Guard Impacts. They removed a few things and added a new special gauge. The old SC gameplay is still here, and it still works very well. That being said, Soul Calibur 5 is still a Soul Calibur, and not a bad one. Namco once again focused on the online mode for this new episode, causing the rage of millions of Soul Calibur players all over the world. You have a story mode that lasts less than 2 hours, and a Quick Battle mode which just makes you fight 240 characters controlled by an Artificial Intelligence at different levels. Let's make things clear immediately : there's no single player content. All Soul Calibur fans were waiting for this 5th episode, hoping that the mistake would be corrected. In Soul Calibur 4, they added an online mode and kinda forgot about single player modes (except for a tower mode that wasn't very interesting). In the past (up to Soul Calibur 3), you always had a lot of single player content, with special "quest" modes and things like that. It was a game series that would make me buy consoles (Dreamcast for SC1, Playstation 2 for SC3).
![soul calibur 5 characters shields soul calibur 5 characters shields](https://www.gamespot.com/a/uploads/scale_medium/mig/1/5/1/4/2301514-0014.jpg)
In Soul Calibur I've been a Soul Calibur fan for years, ever since the first game on Dreamcast (I never got a chance to play Soul Edge/Soul Blade on Playstation). I've been a Soul Calibur fan for years, ever since the first game on Dreamcast (I never got a chance to play Soul Edge/Soul Blade on Playstation).