Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny -- Minimalized, Though Enhanced

If you were ever considering purchasing Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny, you only need to ask yourself two questions: have you ever had a passing interest in the franchise? Or, if you've played it, have you ever thought about how good it would be to have what's essentially a portable version of Soul Calibur IV? If you answered yes to either of those questions, you're in luck! For Broken Destiny is an essential purchase. And really, when you know that, who needs a review?

Ah, but I have to adhere to tradition, and you'll have to suffer through text describing the game in precise detail.

Or maybe you don't have to suffer. There's something peculiar about the questions asked above, in that they only raise further questions. Why is Broken Destiny a good buy for someone who hasn't even dipped in the water of the franchise before? Who would want to play a portable version of IV with no online? The latter could easily be answered by the fact that the online is a laggy mess and is pretty much dead now because of it, but though Namco advertised the game as a beginner friendly game, it offers a lot for veterans as well.

You may not have thought that Soul Cailbur IV, originally released for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 last summer, could faithfully be replicated on PSP. With this, Namco felt determined to prove to us that they could, and the results are pretty spectacular. Broken Destiny includes all of the regular characters from the franchise - that means no Star Wars characters or broken bonus characters, and that's good - along with two newcomers: Dampierre, a hilarious con artist whose style will make you laugh enough that you won't realize he's kicking the crap out of you. The second is the franchise's requisite guest character, this time in the form of Kratos from the God of War franchise. I hate to use the word "cheap" to refer to anything in a fighting game, since a lot of people who play them like to blatantly misuse the word, but Kratos here is the definition of it. Though it's not like Namco cares to balance the Soul Calibur franchise anymore.


But they sure are concerned with it looking nice. Namco was somehow able to replicate the console version's visuals incredibly well. You could say that it's basically IV in standard definition, but merely saying that doesn't emphasize how good it looks playing on a PSP. In fact, it looks quite a bit better than Soul Calibur Legends on Wii, which probably says quite a bit about how sorry of a sack that game was. And here people (me included) thought Tekken: Dark Resurrection would be the pinnacle of how good a PSP fighter could look.

Since Broken Destiny doesn't have any online play - though it would in some form if Sony bothered to release Ad-Hoc Party for Playstation 3 outside of Japan - it has to rely on robust single-player modes to keep its longevity. And to this end, it...well, kind of succeeds. Within the game are four specific modes of play: Trial, Gauntlet, Quick Match, and, if you have the benefit of knowing someone else with the game, Versus Match. Of course, there's also a Training Mode.


The Gauntlet is, well, mostly what you'd expect. It's a mode that does an excellent job in teaching the player what basic moves they'll need to know to win a match. For anyone who's never played a Soul Calibur game before, it serves as a great introduction to all of the mechanics. But that's not all it is, as it also provides some of the best and most clever dialogue exchanges the franchise has ever had, and that's entirely because it doesn't take itself seriously. Characters you wouldn't expect humor from will suddenly be hilarious. It's not canon, of course, but that doesn't stop it from being entertaining. It's a nice break from the serious-though-insipid normal storyline, which really isn't present at all in this game.

Trial Mode is, more or less, a slightly enhanced version of the arcade mode present in every Soul Calibur mode, though it's less fulfilling. And that's a shame, because it would've been perfect for a portable game. There's something nice about a short, fulfilling arcade mode that can be digested in about ten minutes, so it's a shame this doesn't have it. Trial gives you specific rules you have to follow, dealing with either offense or defense; your score will be higher depending on your performance. Endless Trial almost qualifies, but it's more of a "Survival Mode" than anything, and fighting mostly custom characters isn't as enjoyable as fighting the main characters.


Speaking of custom characters, yes, this game still gives you the ability to create your own character with one of the move set of one of the main characters. Anyone who's played Soul Calibur IV competitively can tell you that this is both a blessing and an absolute nightmare. Having someone of your choice paired with someone you created is nice in theory, but it's precisely what breaks this game. A trick people like to use is creating a small custom character with the move set of a large character. Someone big like Astaroth will have a number of moves that can are punishable between animation frames, but a smaller custom character using said moves can get away with it unscathed. Astaroth is a big character, meaning he's a big target, but a smaller character could easily use moves he couldn't get away with, making things a bit unfair.

(This means that, yes, you can go ahead and cleverly call it Soul Calibur: Broken Gameplay.)

But thankfully this game isn't really intended for much competitive play, though if you're looking for competition, plenty of it can be found within the Quick Match mode. Quick Match has a setup very similar to that of an online lobby, with each opponent having a specific tag and title. It also displays that opponent's win and loss record in order for you to gauge how good your opponent is. The fights you'll have aren't completely similar to fighting a human opponent, given how there isn't much reliance on outsmarting your opponent or mix-up games (or cumbersome lag that plagued the online portion of the console game in spades), but damn does it come close. Some of the opponents, hilariously, love to spam the same move over and over again in a sometimes-failed attempt to exploit a common weakness human players may exhibit. Exactly what tends to happen online! No rage-quitters here, though.


Most of the music and stages are the same that were present in the console version, but a few have a little variation. The Athens stage has another version that takes place during sunset instead of daylight, though its original is still present as a stage. Meanwhile, two stages were unfortunately removed entirely in the transition. Still, what's here is good, and their remixed music is some fantastic stuff.

Keep in mind that this review was only for those of you who are concerned with detail, as the conclusion is still in my lede: Broken Destiny is a great game for beginners, and veterans of the franchise will like that it perfectly replicates the console experience on a portable system. Gamers with plenty of experience with the franchise will also find Quick Match addictive and portable friendly, thanks to its rapid pace. It may not be the most balanced fighting game around, but it's definitely fun.