Soul Calibur Broken Destiny
The fighter comes to PSP, but it wasn’t an easy transition
Tags: Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny Categories: PSP Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Sep 29th, 2009
Apparently Namco Bandai had the idea to bring Soul Calibur to the PSP as a title for novices. Not a great plan really, as essentially most of the PSP’s core audience are likely as hardcore as the console audience. So Broken Destiny really ends up being hobbled by making the main course of the game little more than a complex tutorial. I tried to be tolerant of the lengthy tutorial, but when I realized that to see the story of Broken Destiny I had to spend time learning more complex blocks and parries rather than mashing button, I lost my temper. I wrote this review as a scathing rant the first time around, lamenting that this was just little more than training wheels for Soul Calibur IV.
After sitting down with the game a few more times, and I softened my stance. The Quick and Trial Modes are actually regular fighting. The problem is that they are just arcade modes. Although as convoluted as the storyline was getting maybe it is better that you just miss out on whatever story they have cooked up. Quick Mode is a simulation of the ad hoc Wi-Fi multiplayer, there are a lot of varied difficultly levels here, but it isn’t a continuous experience. Nice to pick up and play really quickly, but lacking any real long-term engagement. This is nice, but its no substitute for actual online play. The Trial Modes are great and really stand in for the arcade game experience.
That lack of online multiplayer is the second stumbling block of this title. See, ad-hoc multiplayer works well for people that are around a lot of other handheld players. I get that experience once a year at PAX, that’s it. I know maybe three other people with PSP’s and none of them have picked up this game. Not to mention that sitting down to get a time to play isn’t exactly easy. Why can’t I just hop on the ‘net and play with someone who both has the game and is ready to play? Online already worked wonderfully in Soul Calibur 4, so I do not get this lack of online play.
Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny would have been a good title. Two major missteps mar an otherwise descent title. The fact is, fighting games are essentially party games. They aren’t anywhere near as fun when you’re stuck playing them solo, and they’re even less fun when that single player experience forces you to spend all your time learning mechanics. To be certain if you and friend are both willing to pick up a copy this is a good investment. Solo players should pass.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+Looks great +New character Kratos is fun |
7.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
-No online multiplayer -Story mode is essentially learn how to block and parry mode -Single player modes lack depth |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| There really isn't much of a reason to pick this up unless you have a friend to play with, they'll need their own copy. | |
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Tags: Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Sep 29th, 2009 and is filed under PSP Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
