Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny Review

2022-06-25

Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny Review

The “Soul” series of fighting games are known among most gamers for several things – the unique combat system, where each character fights in their own different style, and the various cameo appearances by popular culture characters. Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny, which brings the series to the PSP, makes no exception from both rules, and brings forward even more intense combat, and even more famous characters.

Gameplay

Broken Destiny can be played in several different modes, most of which you'll find familiar from the previous games. The standard quick matches are here, as is “versus” – a new addition is called “The Gauntlet”, which serves as the game's tutorial section where players can learn how to master all of the characters properly (well, as much as a tutorial mode can teach you – remember that practice against players does the most to improve your skill).

Speaking of characters, you'll find two new ones in Broken Destiny – if there are God of War fans among you, they'll be happy to recognize the main protagonist of the game, Kratos, as a playable character. The other one is new and created for the game specifically, called Dampierre. Some of the custom character creation options from the previous games have been removed, sadly – such as the option to increase/decrease your fighter's muscular mass. Still, you're given some new options to compensate, such as making fine adjustments to the cosmetic items you can equip your character with.

Graphics and System Requirements

Broken Destiny doesn't strike with anything so impressive, yet it's also not a bad-looking game. The graphics have been scaled nicely for the PSP, and you'll find most of your familiar characters instantly recognizable, despite some looking a lot more pixelated than their previous counterparts. Kratos, of course, has been modeled to the original absolutely perfectly, so GoW fans need not worry if their game's been properly represented.

For some reason, we noticed some small problems with the controls when a lot of effects are being drawn on the screen at the same time – sometimes the buttons feel laggy, or the game stops receiving input altogether. We couldn't find a solution to that, though we're sure some searching around the game's forums should yield something useful.

Other

Broken Destiny can be played online so that aspect of the game has been preserved as well, which should come as great news to the fans. We didn't notice any connection problems and the fights felt very smooth, which is a rarity for online fighter games (most of which have a tendency to suffer greatly from poor connectivity). One of the things that may not be enjoyed so much by the old fans is the decrease of custom character slots, but that's understandable considering the smaller platform it's played on.

Conclusion

Broken Destiny continues the Soul/Soul Calibur series true to its predecessors, and of course, true to its fans. If you want some mad button-mashing action, this is the game for you.