Soul Edge, the seed of evil, has awoken and is seeking to reassemble the pieces of its shattered form. A portentous sign, as the shards disembark on their own will, back to an inevitable destiny. Sound the trumpets and bring out the lutes; the stage is set once again for souls, swords and ringouts. The fourth installment of the Soulcalibur series dons its armor and enters the arena, egging on all challengers.

Soulcalibur originally made its debut on the Dreamcast and was arguably the best fighting game of its time. It had a roster of unique personalities with a remarkable authenticity for each of the weapons you utilized, a feature that set it apart from the usual fisticuff brawlers. With a generous supply of modes and bonus material, it was a must own title. Thankfully, the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree with its progenies. Soulcalibur II felt like a true sequel with little overhaul to the fighting mechanics. The third installment, however, introduced stunning attacks and a faster, more exuberant, flashier move list. Soulcalibur IV takes a look at its elder brethren and applies to itself the best of both worlds.

While you might be expecting a gruesome, messy foray, Soulcalibur IV transforms that notion and delivers on, more than anything, the tactics and art of dueling. There are devastating and unrealistic moves, but the central focus is on predicting and countering these attacks, rather than being the first to perform a twelve-hit combo. At the other end of the spectrum, the chaos and unpredictability are present in the pace of the game, creating a well-blended mix that isn't as susceptible to getting old. As such it can completely feel natural to button mash as you dispose of your opponents, though veteran players who know the value of a good defense and have quick reflexes will outplay the amateurs.

The fighting of Soulcalibur is intact and better than ever, though a few major renovations have been introduced. For one, equipment is now, to a degree, destructible. If you concentrate on an area - say the chest - then your opponent's platemail may shatter, leaving their underlying garb exposed. If it does give way then damage inflicted in that region is increased, not to mention that you get the eye candy of ripping the armor and tearing into the clothes of your favorite female character.

The other big change is the Soul Gauge, an orb by your health bar that changes color according to how you play. If you constantly block then the gauge shifts colors until you hit red. If you continue to block then your health bar starts flashing and you are in danger of a soul crush. Continuing to absorb heavy hits by defending eventually makes your character lose his footing, as his whole upper body violently flies back. Soul crushed, the attacker can now perform his own personal cut scene, initialized by pressing all four of the action buttons, which shows him brutally maiming the victim. Dubbed the Critical Finish, these instantly kill if you're on the receiving end. Critical finishes may seem like a hefty add-on but there should be repercussions to everyone flinging their deadly weapons around. It not only adds a little extra danger to the game, but procures a bit more caution with how you play it. If you are a blocker, for instance, then this is an incentive to get better at guard impacting, which separates the good players from the rest. Luckily, critical finishes do take fast timing to pull off and it's not so much a factor if you maintain an offensive.

You'll engage in battles with familiar faces as well as some unfamiliar souls that make their debut in Soulcalibur IV. Most of your favorites from the previous titles return - Mitsurugi, Taki, Yoshimitsu and the rest are all here. In turn, Namco has decided to grace us with two new, possibly mainstay, characters that aren't just doppelgangers of another character with different skin art. They have completely new weapons and fighting techniques that are only their own. The first is Hilde, a princess sporting a full suit of platemail, with a lance tucked under one arm and her other hand gripping a short sword. She's ingeniously designed as she employs both long and short range attacks. If the opponent shies away then press the triangle button to impale them. For the in-your-face fighters, a couple of timely swings will disrupt their rhythm, granting enough time to regain the optimal position. Despite this flexibility, she's very well rounded and fits right in with the regulars. The next arriviste is Algol, 'The Hero King'. Technically a boss who is unlockable, Algol is declared the baddest of the bad throughout the franchise's history. Wielding both Soul Edge and Soul Calibur, he can manifest from his body columns of blades, manipulate his arms to shoot 'bubbles' and use his throne to crush enemies.

However, are the natives of the Soulcalibur universe strong enough to stand against the Force? Making the guest appearances this time around are Darth Vader and his apprentice from the upcoming The Force Unleashed. Despite his minatory presence, Vader is a little cumbersome thanks to his lumbering stature. While his Force abilities slightly make up for this setback, it isn't enough to excel him to be an overtly strong character. His apprentice, however, is acrobatic and has exceedingly noticeable destructive moves like Force lightening and a ground attack that explodes into an area of effect lightning blast. To constrain abuse of these game-shifting powers, both characters have a Force bar that depletes as you perform Force-related attacks. If the bar is empty and you try to perform one then your character stops in his tracks, effectively stunned. The bar refills over a period of time and by successfully landing melee hits.

You can test yourself with your favorite character in a number of the different mode types, which include Story, Arcade, Versus, Special Versus, Tower of Lost Souls, Training and the much-anticipated online multiplayer. The Story mode that is introduced is laid thin, with each fighter given their own ending, which mainly portray the person in question's own agenda pertaining to the legend of the swords. The best you could possibly get out of it is the tidbits in the relationships between the fighters; Ivy and Cervantes, Nightmare and Siegfried, Mitsurugi and Taki - back story is explored, although 'lacking' is an appropriate word to describe the execution. You read their beginning, play, watch their ending, rinse and repeat; it's over before you know it. If you don't care much for an in-depth story then you will still be having fun trying out all the different characters as you go through, beating the game. On an unrelated note, the aspect of tag team battles incorporated into the mode is a welcome addition.

Tower of Lost Souls is a revamp of Soulcalibur II's Mission mode, where the object is to beat enemies with specific strengths with certain stage conditions. You can either ascend and try to topple the sixty-floor missions or descend, where it then becomes a survival to see how many enemies you can last against. To keep you interested, not only does Tower of Lost Souls grant you gold, but also unlockable items for Create-a-Character as well. You just have to beat the requirements of each stage, but this is no easy feat and will keep you occupied for a good while.

The online multiplayer works, though there are a few gripes. For one, the matchmaking could have had more time poured into it to make finding games, and the transition to them, smoother. There is no refresh button and each time it says "game session full" (which is quite often) after you try joining a match, it'll automatically boot you back out to the matchmaking options. The game doesn't save your preferences so you have to keep reentering your specifications if you want to filter the games before you search. On the subject of lag, I hear differing opinions regarding the issue. My connection runs fine with a few sparse hiccups now and then, but nothing too imposing. As far as game types go there is only a one-vs-one option at the moment for either standard or special versus, where certain items and equipment give extra bonuses depending on their attributes. It would have been nice to see some two-vs-two tag team battles, since there was swapping in the story mode. Four people can join a session but only two can play at a time while the others watch.

The true gem however and possibly as fun as playing the game itself is the Create-a-Character mode. This is where you get to spend all of your hard earned gold from story and Tower of Lost Souls to buy equipment for your aspiring creation. There's a surprisingly respectable amount of depth to the character creator, with the equipment options and color palettes you can fiddle with. As I tinkered around and thought about who to make, I thought back to Snake and Raiden who were made with the editor. Inspiration setting in, my first character, based on Astaroth and looking quite replicable, was Akuma from Street Fighter. Soon all of the classic heroes were made such as Wolverine (yes, he actually turned out well), Vash the Stampede and Iron Chef Bobby Flay. Coupled with the option to take your hard work and play them in any of the available modes in the game, Create-a-Character keeps interest and replayability high. Despite there being no fighting editor, meaning that you have to choose one of the game's existing characters for your fighting style, the ability to show off your outlandish creation online is fantastic.

Subsequently, the characters now look better than ever - rich detail, fluid animations and bouncing breasts all make their appearance. The addition of the effects from guard impacting as well as armor and clothes that can be damaged is another nice touch to the visuals. The stages are also pleasant to the eye and varied, with some moody, scenic backdrops standing out better than others. There are even a few Star Wars themed settings, just so Vader and his apprentice don't feel left out. The sound of combat has received a touch up and been well emphasized; the clashes and clanks of swords and slashing of axes impacting give a good impression of a heated conflict. There isn't much to fault or anything that is noticeably underachieved, although there's nothing particularly groundbreaking when it comes to the presentation.

Soulcalibur IV, does suffer from a few disappointments though, such as not having the eight-vs-eight team battles, fan art, and numerous other museum content that was in the original. Also, the stages are still condensed, making ringouts a huge factor to watch out for. The online multiplayer, being a huge aspect that many people were waiting for, should have been given more attention, with more game modes and better search features, but there's always the hope of this changing via a download. There is also a noticeable bit of loading time between the matches in story mode, which can get annoying. On top of all of this, you can no longer make the characters say something snappy by pressing a button in the loading screen before a versus match. Nitpicking, I know, but it was a much-loved feature, dang it.

Soulcalibur IV's vivacious attitude and personality is influential in the genre. The fighting is fluid and well-paced, the characters are all interesting and the game wields an eccentric style that sets it apart from all other 3D fighters. The package here, although not quite as stuffed as the original, is still loaded with content. Once past the hassle of finding a room, online play is fun and addicting, not to mention that recreating your favorite game characters will keep you hooked and smiling for a long time. The Soulcalibur series continues to impress and is worthy of anyone's attention - a safe bet if you're a fighting fan.

Reviewed by Matthew Dart for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).