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Soulcalibur IV (ソウルキャリバーIV, Sourukyaribā Fō?) is the sixth installment in Namco’s Soul series of fighting games, due for release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in summer 2008. For the first time in the series history, the game will have competitive online play. This will be the second game in the series to not have an arcade release before the console release.

Characters

Three characters were shown in the initial teaser trailer, Ivy, Mitsurugi, and Nightmare. Director Katsutoshi Sasaki has also mentioned that Create-a-Character will be playable in multiplayer mode. Electronic Gaming Monthly confirmed the return of Siegfried, Taki and Tira in its July issue. Sophitia, her sister Cassandra and the series staple Voldo were featured next in Famitsu magazine. A recently released trailer featured the first clips of gameplay footage, along with brief glimpses of a new character named Hildegard von Krone, Hilde for short, a female in knight’s armor (with a wolf’s head motif) wielding a red lance and a short sword. At that time the appearances of Raphael and Astaroth were also confirmed. On January 25th, it was confirmed that Maxi , Seong Mi-na and Yun-seong would also return. Furthermore, on February 28th, Kilik, Xianghua and Lizardman were confirmed to appear.[10]. On March 12th, the first of several new characters designed by famous creators was revealed: Scheherazade (designed by Yutaka Izubuchi). March 26th brought us another batch of confirmed characters, specifically Amy, Cervantes and Zasalamel. A new female character, Angol Fear (designed by guest artist Mine Yoshizaki) was also featured.

Also, Darth Vader and Yoda, characters from the Star Wars universe, are confirmed to be playable guest characters but exclusive to different platforms. Vader will be on the PS3 and Yoda will be on the Xbox 360, however it was stated in issue 179 of GameInformer magazine that “Namco was nice enough to concede that the second characters may be available for download on the respective consoles at a later date.”
Scheherazade, one of the new game characters
Scheherazade, one of the new game characters

Returning characters

So far, there are 25 confirmed characters for the series.

* Amy
* Astaroth
* Cassandra
* Cervantes
* Ivy
* Kilik
* Lizardman
* Maxi
* Mitsurugi
* Nightmare
* Raphael
* Seong Mi-na
* Siegfried
* Sophitia
* Taki
* Tira
* Voldo
* Xianghua
* Yun-seong
* Zasalamel

New characters

* Angol Fear (bonus character)
* Darth Vader (guest character on the PlayStation 3 version)[13]
* Hilde
* Scheherazade (bonus character)
* Yoda (guest character on the Xbox 360 version)[13]

Gameplay

Critical Finisher

Soulcalibur IV will feature an all-new Critical Finisher system. This time there will be another gauge under the characters’ Health Meter, known as the Soul Gauge. This meter will fill up when attacking and decrease when guarding. When the meter is empty, the opponent can do a strike that breaks off a part from the character’s armor, altering their appearance and making them weaker for the remainder of the match. There are also three green boxes below the gauges, reflecting the state of the characters armor: high, mid, or low.

If the character manages to empty out the opponent’s Soul Gauge again, they will get a short chance to perform a powerful Critical Finisher, which will kill the opponent instantly. Each character has their own personal Critical Finisher. Namco says that they developed the Soul Gauge to decrease the benefits from constant guarding, thus giving the game a faster tempo. [14] It subsequently would make the matches more offensive, as well.

Limited Premium Edition

According to a recent Gamespot article, Namco/Bandai confirmed there will be a limited Premium Edition of SCIV available which will include an art/comic book, a tournament kit that will “give fans the opportunity to document the battle amongst friends.” , will include extra in-game customizations and sell in a metal packaging on the same release date as the regular game.

Source:

• Wikipedia.org