Soul Calibur IV gets US release date

By Robert Purchese Published 16 April, 2008

Europe still down for summer.

Namco Bandai has revealed that Soul Calibur IV will be out across the US on 29th July.

Unfortunately European publisher Ubisoft has nothing more than "summer" to offer us at the moment.

Soul Calibur IV (or is it Soulcalibur? No one seems sure) is in development for PS3 and 360. It will feature a fancy Critical Finisher system where you can instantly kill an opponent if you manage to empty their Soul Gauge two times in a row; this fills up when attacking but decreases when defending.

It also has some fresh faces such as the high profile additions of Darth Vader for the PS3 version and Yoda for the Xbox 360 offering. You can see these two in action in a fancy new video.

Pop over to our Soul Calibur IV gamepage to see how it's all shaping up.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Kryon #1 4 years ago

    So, the US PS3 version will work on a pal (UK) PS3 right?

  • Razz #2 4 years ago

    I don't know which version to buy! ;_;

  • Kryon #3 4 years ago

    Darth Vader seals it.

  • Kryon #4 4 years ago

    Yoda a cock he is.

  • ZuluHero #5 4 years ago

    360! not just because yoda is cool (which he is), but because i dont own a PS3 (yet :p)

  • Gnort #6 4 years ago

    If you own both consoles, then importing the US PS3 version seems like the better option.

    I only own a 360, so I'll wait for that. I'm not at all keen on Yoda, though.

  • evilbert #7 4 years ago

    This is actually the only game so far that has made me want a PS3. I'll be getting the 360 version but Vader is so much cooler than Yoda, it's not funny.
    I can picture the Namco boardroom when they invited the Sony and MS reps over to discuss the new additions:
    Namco guy: "guys, we're considering having some cool Star Wars characters in the game. Vader and Yoda. What do you think?"
    Sony guy: "Dibs on Vader!"
    MS guy: "Wha?"

  • Razz #8 4 years ago

    Well that seals it. PS3 it is. :)

  • WinterSnowblind #9 4 years ago

    I actually perfer Yoda, I think his fighting style is going to be a lot more fun.
    And besides that, it's practically already confirmed that the opposite character will be coming to the other console via DLC shortly afterward.

  • Kryon #10 4 years ago

    "I actually perfer Yoda"

    Yodalol :D

    "it's practically already confirmed that the opposite character will be coming to the other console via DLC shortly afterward"

    I've heard this but only from internet hopefuls tbh, (I hope it's true myself as the characters seem a bit pointless unless they can face each other) but when you say "practically confirmed", what do you mean? Link?

  • Beano #11 4 years ago

    In july the dollar will probably be aprox. 20% cheaper than now, so extremely cheap to import from the US for PS3... that's depression for ya' :(
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/08 @ 10:45

  • muscleblade #12 4 years ago

    The European release date is probably 01.08. Im willing to bet on this. So you wont get the game sooner if you buy the US version anyway.
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/08 @ 10:55

  • BM #13 4 years ago

    I agree that Yoda could *possibly* be more fun to use....but Vader is just........Vader.

    Superbadass

  • WinterSnowblind #14 4 years ago

    @Kryon

    "Namco was nice enough to concede that the second characters may be available for download on the respective consoles at a later date."

    From Gameinformer. EGM have said similar things, as well as the possibility of even more Star Wars characters being added with DLC.

  • muscleblade #15 4 years ago

    Dont Worry! Sure Vader will become available with some dlc including new 250G on the 360 for 800 MS points.

  • JonFE #16 4 years ago

    As other have said, having only one of these characters available at your disposal is rather pointless, as these two compliment each other. Hopefully DLC will fix this at some point...

  • Darren #17 4 years ago

    I actually want to play as Darth Vader rather than Yoda so I'm swinging toward the PS3 version. However, I know from past experience that it'll likely be the inferior version in terms of graphics if not controls (bar the superb D-pad) so commonsense tells me to go for the 360 version and hope that Vader appears as DLC. I guess it depends on when the game is released here in Europe; if we have to wait then I'll likely import the region-free PS3 version anyway.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #18 4 years ago

    It's Japanese, so it's less likely to be terrible on PS3.

    Isn't the PS3 Tekken game pretty good already? That'll be the same engine.

  • WinterSnowblind #19 4 years ago

    @Darren

    I hate to sound so pro 360, but I've seen a few comments regarding "the region free PS3 version" and feel it's worth pointing out that practically every 360 game are also region free, particularly multiplatform games.
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/08 @ 14:10

  • kissthestick #20 4 years ago

    i have a 360 but not a PS3

    what version do i buy!?!?!?

  • Gnort #21 4 years ago

    @Mentalist(air)

    Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection (the PS3 Tekken game you were referring to) is just an upscaled version of the arcade game, so it's running the Tekken 5 engine (which ran happily on the PS2, albeit in a much lower resolution). The engine for SC4 is all new and has been written for next-gen systems (can we start calling them "current-gen" yet?). I don't know if it's the same engine as the one that runs Tekken 6, it would make sense if it was.

    And I agree with you, I doubt Namco will release an inferior PS3 version of a multiplatform title in the same way Western developers have done in the past.

  • Gnort #22 4 years ago

    @kissthestick

    Probably the 360 version, then.

    If you're asking about the import or local version, you'd have to find out if the US version is region free first. Despite what was said above, many NTSC games won't run on PAL consoles. One of Namco's most recent releases, Ace Combat 6, is region locked according to Play-Asia.com.
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/08 @ 14:30

  • Darren #23 4 years ago

    @WinterSnowlind - Erm... no... "practically every" multiformat Xbox 360 game is not region-free at all, it depends on the publisher. For example, Major League Baseball 2K7 and 2K8 are region-free on the PS3 but not on the Xbox 360. There are numerous other examples of this too. Sadly most Xbox 360 games are region-locked so there's absolutely no guarantee that Soulcalibur IV on the 360 will be region-free but the PS3 version most certainly will be. I'm assuming that Namco will be publishing the game in the US, as they usually do, so I doubt it will be region-free on the 360 as Beautiful Katamari and Ace Combat 6 weren't. ;)

  • Triggerhappytel #24 4 years ago

    "Soul Calibur IV (or is it Soulcalibur? No one seems sure)"

    I've always thought it was Soul Calibur, however I've just checked the spine of my PS2 version of SC2, and it is, indeed Soulcalibur. Bah, I still prefer Soul Calibur. Does that mean Soul Blade [Edge] was Soulblade?!

  • TRUTH #25 4 years ago

    I always found SC a button masher...many times I just mashed buttons and beaten advance players. I think they should place more importance on defense and slow the attack combo down. Single player has also been extremely easy to beat.

  • Gnort #26 4 years ago

    Soul Calibur is certainly more masher friendly than Virtua Fighter or even Tekken, and the problem tends to get a little worse with each iteration of the series because the game gets a little faster and all the characters get slightly longer combos (an additional hit often gets added to many attack strings). However, I haven't found it to be too bad - I used to have a couple of non-fighting game players around to play SC2 and I would often rack up 10 or 11 win streaks before people would force me to hand the controller over. You just have to adjust your style when playing against mashers - playing the same way you play against an experienced opponent or the AI doesn't work.

    As for single player being easy, were you playing on normal difficulty? There are harder settings available, and SC2 or 3 certainly wasn't easy on hard or very hard. I actually prefer single player modes to err on the easy side because that's often how you unlock things and I don't like having important content inaccessible to all but the most dedicated players.

  • Buran #27 4 years ago

    Mmmm... I don't like Yoda or Vader. I'm not really a fan of the SW saga, but I feel that things like the "midichlorians" ans Yoda jumping as a joker did hurt a lot the phylosophical feeling of the films, even for the tastes of the true fans.

    I love the Soul Edge/Soul Calibur franchise, but imo Vader & Yoda are utterly superfluous here, ans also Scherezade and the manga guirl don't fit very well in SC saga, Hildegarde is much better character.

    About the engine, this is not the one from T5DRO or Tekken 6; both SC IV and T6 have his own new engines and are developed by different teams. About the controls, the digital cross in the Sixaxis is imo better suited to fighting games than the Xbox 360 digital cross, but the L2 and R2 buttons in Sixaxis are nuch worse than the ones in Dual Shock 2 (yes, I said "2" ).

    I'll buy the PS3 version (maybe imported, is matter of the posible delay), which probably will sell more units, at least in Europe (I'm from Spain) and would only buy a 360 + SC IV if the online in PS3 works clearly worse.

  • Slipstream #28 4 years ago

    lol July 29th!!!

    That's my Birthday ^^ The Americans get to play a game that I really want on my birthday! xD...wait a sec...

  • Zuiyo #29 4 years ago

    It's "Soulcalibur". Please someone get it right for once. And this goes to press and people on press departments. It's just one word.