Fighting games are a mixed bag these days. Some are happy to just keep trotting out the same old fighting styles and characters, rehashing its predecessor’s content with little more than a lick of paint and updated graphics to distinguish it from the previous instalment. But then there are others that completely overhaul their series, taking all the things that made it great and building on them to make something truly special. Soul Calibur V is one of those games.
The fighting is as lavish and extravagant as ever, but the fighting system has been massively overhauled. Pulling off Critical Edge moves is the easiest it’s ever been – no longer a complicated string of button presses that require razor-sharp timing to execute, the devastating attacks can now be executed by pressing the same short sequence of buttons for every character whenever your Soul Gauge is half full.
It’s a move likely to irritate fans of the old games, but for newcomers or casual fighting fans who don’t have the time or patience to learn complicated combo moves, the change is more than welcome. It’s easy to follow up a series of combos with a powerful finishing attack, or to counter an enemy attack with an assault that lands them flat on their ass and makes the game more accessible than any of the series previous entries. It also makes the game more about timing than convoluted button mashing.
The blocking system has also undergone a radical change. One change is the addition of a quick step move activated by pressing up or down twice
