Soul blade

Soul Edge (Japanese ソウルエッジ), Soul Blade in Europe and the United States of America due to legal problems with the game magazine The Edge , marks the beginning of the Soul series of fighting games by Namco . The game was released in 1995 in the form of an arcade machine . Because of the great success of the game, a few sequels were produced, which appeared under the name Soul Calibur .

Combat system

The combat system is similar to the mechanics from Tekken 2 , but with a separate block button, the demarcation between vertical and horizontal punches and a kick button. The combo system is quite easy to master as most of it consists of chained punches and kicks. Otherwise, as in Tekken, there are so-called "unblockables" and the so-called "critical edge" attacks, which, if correctly executed and hit, cause considerable damage to the opponent. In addition to the health display, each player has another bar at the top of the screen. If you are hit while blocking or if you carry out a critical edge attack, the bar will decrease. If the bar reaches the value zero, you lose your weapon (s) and from then on you have to fight with your fists, similar to Tekken.

Characters

Soul Blade contains 15 characters, five of which are hidden and can be unlocked via the arcade mode. Most of the characters from Soul Blade were adopted in the sequel Soul Calibur . Each of the fighters has a history, which can be found either in the manual or in the stories of the "Edge Master Mode". With the exception of the guest fighter Han Myong, as well as the playable variants of Siegfried and Sophitia, all characters also have an epilogue, which can be seen in the arcade mode after the victory. This epilogue sometimes differs from the epilogue in the story (Edge Master Mode). By pressing certain buttons on the PlayStation version you can see an alternate epilogue (see below).

Cervantes (de Leon) : A Spanish son of a seafarer who became a pirate captain after his death. On behalf of the Italian arms dealer Vercci, he attacked an English ship in order to get the weapon "Soul Edge" into his possession. After the attack, he disappeared. On his return he is possessed by the sword and defends it with all his might. His story in the "weapon master mode" (Edge Master Mode) consists primarily of a campaign of destruction against other fighters. He is the first of the two final bosses and has mastered techniques that are not accessible to the player. He fights with the two cursed blades of the "Soul Edge".
Hwang (Seungkyung) : A Korean warrior who came from a simple family who died after being attacked. He was accepted by the teacher Han Myong, where he quickly became his best student, whom he soon saw as the son he never had himself. With the outbreak of the Japanese invasion, he feels called to look for the weapon that could save his country. He fights with a Chinese sword.
Li Long : A Chinese assassin who was sent to Japan by the emperor to kill a pirate leader whose ships threaten China. Li Long also attacked some Japanese feudal lords and was critically wounded. During his trip, he hears that his lover Chie has been murdered and goes on a vengeance in the hope of finding the murderer, whom he believes is a samurai. He assumes that it should have been Mitsurugi. His weapon is very similar to a nunchaku.
(Heishiro) Mitsurugi : He was born the son of a Japanese farmer and watched the civil war devastate his country. He decided to become a swordsman. After hearing that the new weapon "Tanegashima" (a kind of musket) should be more powerful than any swordsman, he began to look for a weapon that should be even more powerful. He is armed with a katana.

Rock : Born in England under the name Nathaniel William Adams, he and his parents were on board the ship that was attacked and sunk by Cervantes because his father had recently acquired the "Soul Edge". He was washed up on the North American coast and had to learn to survive in the wild. He got the name from the locals, who were impressed by his huge appearance (he is the tallest and most muscular fighter). One day he found the orphan Bangoo and took her in. His memories of his childhood have been completely lost, which is why he clings to any lead that can help him. He hopes to be able to reconstruct his past by searching for the mysterious object “Soul Edge”. His weapon is a large battle ax.

Seung Mina : She is the daughter of the Korean martial arts teacher Han Myong. After she was rejected because of her gender in the army, she sets off on her own and against her father's will to find the legendary sword "Soul Edge" to save her homeland. She fights with a battle spear.

Siegfried (Schtauffen) : He is the son of a German knight who got into bad company in the absence of his father and, despite his young age, quickly rose to become the leader of a group of mercenaries and robbers. In a raid on a group of knights returning from a crusade, he killed their captain, but found that it was his own father. In desperation, he fled into madness, placing the blame on an unknown third party. He searches for the legendary weapon to find his father's murderer and to get revenge on him. He is armed with a two-handed sword.

Sophitia (Alexandra) : As the daughter of a Greek baker, she is one of the last to worship the ancient Olympian gods. One day, Hephaestus appears to her and orders her to destroy the evil weapon "Soul Edge". For this task he personally gave her sword and shield to complete the assignment. Her sword and shield are modeled on ancient Greece.

Taki : She is a female ninja (Kunoichi) who hunts demons that occasionally haunt the people on the main Japanese island of Honshu. After one of her fights against an angry demon becomes much more difficult than usual, she notices that her self-forged sword, Rekkimaru, is losing strength. So that she is still able to guard the shrine in which she keeps the demons prisoner, she tries to stop the decay of her sword by giving it new powers by finding "Soul Edge". Her weapon is a dagger-like short sword.

Voldo : He is the former servant of the Italian arms dealer Vercci. After he had a treasure chamber built on a secret, small Mediterranean island, which was protected by walls, trenches and all sorts of traps, he had all those involved murdered by Voldo and sent the pirate Cervantes the order for his huge collection of treasures and weapons for the ultimate weapon " Soul Edge ”. For the duration of his absence, he locked Voldo in the dungeon-like treasury so that the latter might protect his treasures from intruders. Vercci then disappeared without a trace. Although Vercci treated him like a slave and left him alone in the dark, which made him blind and insane, Voldo mercilessly carried out his mission to destroy all foreign intruders with his martial arts. After many years he hears the voice of his master in his head, which orders him to leave his dungeon and bring him the "Soul Edge". He tries to obey the last will of his master. Voldo stands out for his extravagant, almost nightmarish demeanor and his strange posture (in a fight he can bend into inhuman postures in a fraction of a second). All costume variants have in common that the (blind) eyes and mouth are covered, his hair is missing and his skin is completely bleached. He's also the only character (apart from "Soul Edge") who never speaks; all that is heard is a groan or heavy breathing. He is fighting with two Qataris.

Soul Edge : After Cervantes was defeated in the game, the evil forces manifest in the weapon, in combination with the defeated Cervantes, to a new opponent, who only consists of a skull, Cervantes' breastplate and boots, as well as a kind of energy field in a human silhouette consists. The weapon has no real goal other than self-preservation through the reception of souls. The manifestation fights with the two blades of the "Soul Edge" and dissolves after the player's victory, with only the two swords remaining, whereupon the epilogue is loaded. The fighting style of the "Soul Edge" is very similar to Cervantes' style, although the winning poses are also very similar, which is due to the fact that both figures are located in the same body. In contrast to Cervantes, Soul Edge does not act as penetratingly offensive as the latter, but attacks far more unpredictable and with far more sudden and unblockable attacks, in which Soul Edge sometimes jumps over the upper edge of the picture or rushes towards the enemy at tremendous speed. Some of these attacks are inaccessible to the player. It has to be unlocked first.

Seung Han Myong : He is Seung Mina's father and Hwang's teacher. His fighting style is almost identical to that of Hwang. It is only available after it has been unlocked and is considered a guest fighter (without its own story).

Evil Siegfried : It is about the transformed Siegfried after he came under the influence of the evil sword. He fights with the largest of the two blades of the "Soul Edge", albeit in his old style. This character also has to be unlocked and is considered a guest fighter.

Finally there are two unlockable "variants" of Sophitia, one without armor and one only in a kind of swimsuit (can be selected as Sophitia! And Sophitia !! hidden), which are otherwise identical to the normal Sophitia. They also have guest fighter status.

Console implementation

The revised version 2 of the machine served as the model for the implementation of the Playstation by Sony .

The console version of Soul Blade includes some new game modes in addition to the arcade version, the most innovative of which is the Edge Master . You play a story with your character and earn new weapons for the individual characters in battle. A team fight and time attack mode are also available, as well as a special training point.

Web links

Soul Edge in the Killer List of Video Games (English)
Soul Edge Ver.II in the Killer List of Videogames (English)
Soul Blade (console version) at MobyGames (English)
The Soul Blade / Edge / Calibur series at MobyGames (English)