Developed by “Project Soul” and released into arcades by Namco in April 1996, Soul Edge is a weapons-based, one-on-one fighting game that serves as the predecessor to the Soulcalibur series.

Soul Edge features nine playable fighters. A mix of male and female characters who use either swords, sticks, or nunchucks.

Soul Edge uses Motion Capture (MoCap) for the animation of the fighters – one of the first video games to do that with “passive optical system markers” (whatever that means). The MoCap is so good that all ten fighters move with speed, grace and precision.

That said: they’re not the easiest fighters to control, and timing your attacks correctly can still be tricky. Fighting properly requires an understanding of the game’s active combat and blocking systems, which are a bit convoluted.

The graphics do look a bit primitive by today’s standards, but Soul Edge still plays exceptionally well. Project Soul really just needed to get their characters expanded and better-developed, and then upgrade to the next engine, to improve it.

One thing I did notice: that the environment lighting conditions change during matches, which is a really nice touch (I like this feature a lot). Bouts last maybe two or three minutes – sometimes a bit longer – and the light will change from day, to evening, and to night over that short period of time. And the effect is dramatic.

Soul Edge was a commercial success for Namco and the development team immediately thought about improving the formula… They had Soulcalibur on their mind!

A PlayStation version of Soul Edge – renamed to Soul Blade in the West – was relatively popular, in spite of it not being quite as good as the arcade version.

Soul Edge = 10 playable characters:
Hwang Sungkyung, Seung Mina, Taki, Li long, Voldo, Sophitia Alexandra, Siegfried Schtauffen, Rock and Heishiro Mitsurugi. Non-playable final boss: Edge Master/Soul Edge.

More: Soul Edge on Wikipedia