Welcome back to the good ol' world of Soul Calibur, a game that takes place in a more mythological version of earth; "A tale of souls and swords, eternally retold" - and even better, the ever-annoying voice of the commentator!

Knowing it is Soul Calibur, it's sure to be good. But let's just run through it.

Graphics

There has been a noticeable increase in the artistic level in Soul Calibur III. Almost all of the arenas are astoundingly beautiful, and one in specific looks as though it was pulled straight out of some kind of ethereal plane to invigorate the sense of epic battle.

In the "Chronicles of the Sword" mode, while the graphics are not beautiful on the map, they are detailed enough to the point that it appears to be a real-time strategy game and are sometimes nice to just look around the map.

The characters look relatively the same, with subtle improvements to their costumes and their textures - but that's acceptable, considering they're already pushing the limits of the PS2.

Gameplay

Fluid, easy-to-understand, and addicting. It's fairly simplistic battle system makes it so even the newest of players can understand the controls just by picking it up, and have the ability to defeat seasoned players, although it may be cheap sometimes. Yes, I'm looking at you, Raphael and Maxi.

The new "Chronicles of the Sword" mode is challenging, and also easy to understand. It was not put cheaply together, although at times it can seem rather lethargic just to get through one Chronicle - and, unfortunately, you have to clear a Chronicle before you can save.

"Tales of the Sword" gives us a nice plot line to follow the main characters; however, the only drawback is that the stories of characters have are the similar paths that they follow, leaving very little in the middle of the story new after playing it a few times through. To rectify this, the beggining and ending are nicely different and fun to uncover - and also, there are usually two endings, depending on what buttons you press in cinematics.

"Character Creation" is a neat addition, allowing players to create their own character, along with what class they are and what kind of weapons they use. While the facial structure and body structure are unfortunately unvariable, there are plenty of accessories and outfits you may give your characters. The perverted among us will have fun with the curiously skimpy outfits you can give to your female or male characters, as well.

"Vs. Mode" is also a lot of fun with friends and family, and there are a few different things you can do to make it so it doesn't get old. Beware the cheapness of others that are usually saved for the computers, however.

There are MANY parts and weapons to buy; and, as a neat addition, weapons for custom characters are different than some of the main characters', and you can unlock many different weapons to use for classes, as well as use Soul of (Insert Main Character here) so your custom character can fight like your favorite main character.

On the note of unlockables; there's a LOT of these. Have fun. =O

Overall 9.0

Soul Calibur III
by Namco
Rated "T"

Good to hear. Maybe I should buy it for Christmas indeed. o.o I've already been persuaded by Sanii-kun.

I cannot wait to find out what improvement's they've made on Talim.

Many new weapons, making for different combos, that's for sure.

Shugo, that's hardly a just review. In all honesty, the game barely deserves an 8.0. I'll explain why later, when I write a review. But for now I have to eat and write a paper.

An 8.0, one point less. Not a really big difference.

Even after playing it a lot, I stand by my decision.

I have personally experienced a bit of a problem with this game. Not sure if it was an error overlooked in the original shipments, but the Chronicals of the Sword data becomes corrupt every time I attempt to save. Therefore, I didn't get much in the way of playing that.

The graphics are, as Shugo stated, beautiful. I was quite impressed with the way everything looked. Even the "minor" characters were well designed.

The create-a-fighter was entertaining. Though I just found myself creating ninja's. Quick and overpowering.

The Soul Project team may want to consider getting a few better English voice actors. In particular, Maxi sounded like he was far too....Metro? No, probably just full out "drop the soap in prison".

I loved some of the Soul Arena extras. Though the coin bashing became a bit repeatative, and the difficulty level raised dramatically when you went from Easy to Normal mode. Say hello to a learning curve higher than Mount Everest.

All in all, I did enjoy the game and would recommend adding it to your Christmas list. Especially if you were a fan of the previous games.

I have not experienced corrupt data, and I've already gone through it twice. So it must be something either wrong with your memory card in terms of saving that specific data, or the disc is somehow causing that.

Doesn't matter either way, really. Just rented the game and it's already gone back. Working on Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones now.

It's amazing, I've only heard him yell at it a couple of times. XD

The created character bit for Soul Calibur III is neat. I like the dancer girl I made best. I get to beat people up with tamborines. How awesome!!