Soul Blade (PlayStation)

Tekken 2 was one of my first fighting games. I really enjoyed the music, the unique characters and the fight environments that took place in different locations around the globe. While Tekken took place in the present, Soul Blade took place in the past.

Despite the time difference, the same elements that drew me to Tekken remained. Nice music, unique characters and lush locations. On top of all of this, was an immersive story that connected the characters in different ways.

Tales of Souls and Swords

Soul Blade Game and Case for PS console.

This is one of the lines that is mentioned in the intro cinematic for the game. I had a mono-speaker television when I played the game last so the only part I could make out was ...a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold. As soon as that was said, the music would kick in and we're given a quick preview of the characters before getting a preview of their story; sort of.

The cast of characters consisted of Taki, Seong Mi-na, Rock, Siegfried, Voldo, Cervantes, Sophitia, Hwang, Mitsurugi and Li Long. On top of these were the bonus characters Soul Edge, Seong Han-Myeong and Siefried! (Inferno in some versions). One of the main ways, at the time, to learn about a character and their motive was through the story mode.

Despite the characters hailing from different locations, their stories always had them crossing paths. The main objective for these individuals was to find the fabled sword known as Soul Edge. Even though the objective was the same, the end result varied for each character.

I Played For The Music

Not sure what it was, but at the time gaming music was on another level for me. Killer Instinct for the SNES and Tekken 2 for the PlayStation were my biggies in the music department. When Soul Blade came along I was intrigued.

I was familiar with the Options menu as majority of the games had it. However, this game had some extras that I was very happy with. One of my favorite features was the music player which allowed you to listen to the music for each fight stage in-game.

There were three versions for each track: Arcade, Arranged and Khan Super Session. I enjoyed all versions for the stages, but found the Khan Super Session to be more enjoyable for some stages; like the Siegfried stage with the falling castle in the background. It was a bad habit to just let the music in this section play or go into practice mode and just let the characters sit there; the disc wasn't mine so it was a big no-no to just do this.

When I Actually Did Play

I stuck around practice mode majority of the time to practice and you know, listen to the music. When I wasn't in practice I was actually playing the game. The arcade mode was pretty straight forward and there was an option to increase the difficulty level in the options menu. 

I wasn't too big on the story mode at the start of gameplay, but learned there was extra content included for the characters. A lot of reading was done to figure out what was going on. It was an interesting experience as the dialogue for the story was presented in book format with actual pages and pictures. 

For most of the characters I was able to get majority of their bonus weapons. However, not all bonus weapons were earned for all characters; never quite met the objectives to earn the things.

The Project Soul Series

Soul Blade was the first and only game that was played in the Project Soul Series at the time. I did get a glimpse at Soul Calibur 2 in the arcade, but only participated in a versus match with a friend. Fast forward many years later and I'm introduced to Soul Calibur 3 via a demo disc.

After the demo came the game and the rest is history. Despite not engaging fully with any other installment since Soul Blade, I was still able to ID the characters which looked the same as they did from all those years ago. Looking at the then and now, the series has come a long way.