Soul Calibur 3 [PS2]

Decide upon a hulking brute, lithe girl, or sulking karate dude and then assign jobs to the new character. Those include Barbarian, Ninja, Dancer, Monk, Saint, or Samurai. So basically it's an average job fair, sans the Space Ninja department. Each occupation has a specific set of schools within it too. According to Namco, there are up to seven teachings per category. Think of the schools as fighting styles. Progressing through the game's equivalent of a quest mode unlocks new schools within each job set.

Once a character, a job and a few basic specialties have been established (which implies a move set has been determined), the newborn champion can be augmented with hairstyles, makeup and clothing. Expect to toy around with the head, hair, mask, chin, lower torso, mid torso, upper torso, arms, shoulders, neck, waist, lower legs, upper legs, shins, socks and feet of any given combatant. Each category contains between 20 and 30 parts. Of course, each part's color can be changed and clothing can even be layered in some cases.

Dig this... Each piece of clothing has a bit of personality attached to it -- one point plus on the shorts, one point minus on the exposed bra. That eventually forms a personality. Personality determines the state of a character and how he or she walks and speaks. All black leather with steel spikes on nipples with a lovely skull helmet will create an evil warrior, though we're not trying to judge or anything.

We're actually hoping that in future revisions we'll be able to set background music and have pieces of clothing breakaway in fights. Imagine earning the trophies of another player, wearing them on the arm or around the neck as badges of honor, and then having them ripped away mid-fight. After a loss, background music could even be defiled by some horrible wail to really drive home the fact that YOU LOST HARD AND REALLY, REALLY NEED TO HEAR HOW MUCH. We like that kind of rub.

Our demonstration primarily focused on all the character creation, but we did still get to see a bit of Chronicles of the Sword. This new mode comes alongside a few basic arcade modes and the Tale of Souls. Looking for story and interactive cutscenes? Look for Tale of Souls. Chronicles of the Sword may include some narrative, but it isn't designed to explain Sophitia's past, it's all about letting new players explore and conquer a new world.

Chronicles of the Sword features an overhead real-time map, upon which players can order about small groups of heroes to accomplish specific objectives. These miniature armies are designed to strategically acquire points of interest, but there's a team versus team fight whenever a band encounters another. The winners live. The loser kind of doesn't. Different units have different strengths and weakness and the whole thing is designed to offer a deeper strategy to all the sword and club beatings.

We're no dolts and we know you want to see some Soulcalibur III gameplay, some Chronicles of the Sword, and some Character Creation, so please view the attached videos for all the goods. We'll update with the latest information as soon as we get a more complete build of Soulcalibur III in our offices. Currently, the game is scheduled to release exclusively for PlayStation 2 this October.

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