The third instalment in the Soulcalibur series was developed by Project Soul and published by Namco in 2005. Soulcalibur III was first released for the PlayStation 2, and was later followed by an improved arcade version (it was actually the last Soulcalibur game to receive an arcade release).

The Soulcalibur games are all about fighting with weapons. Swords, nunchucks, spears, hammers and even scythes.

Soulcalibur III does have some interesting new additions – in particular the new game modes: “Chronicles of the Sword” allows you to fight enemy units on a world map, and assault enemy strongholds; “World Competition” sees you entering various tournaments to prove you’re the greatest fighter in the world; “Soul Arena” is an arena-type tournament, and “Tales of Souls” depicts each individual playable character fighting through their own branching storyline. It seems like the developers went out of their way to expand and improve the game modes in Soulcalibur III, and that is good.

There’s even a shop, where you can spend gold earned playing the single-player game, to unlock alternate outfits, weapons, armour and other special items. The character creation system has been suped-up too and you can customise fighters to your heart’s content.

While the basic gameplay is more or less the same as previously (barring some minor tweaks), Soulcalibur III does manage to deliver a few surprises. Fighting the giant stone Collossus, for me, was one of them. Shades of Ray Harryhausen, but good shades nonetheless. The “Chronicles of the Sword” game mode was a major surprise and I enjoyed playing it. It adds a strategic/tactical element to the game, and every time you storm an enemy stronghold you have a “final battle” with one of your custom characters. Which is great. It’s mixing strategy and fighting elements in an unusal way, and I like that.

The game has the largest character roster in the series – 24 playable characters in “Tales of Souls” mode, and an additional 18 playable in all other modes. It also has largest battle stage selection.

Overall, I think that Soulcalibur III is an excellent fighting game, and another significant step-up for the series.

More: Soulcalibur III on Wikipedia