SoulCalibur

n/a

SoulCalibur
System(s): Sega Dreamcast
Publisher: Namco
Developer: Namco
Peripherals supported: Dreamcast VGA Box, Dreamcast Jump Pack, Dreamcast Arcade Stick, Visual Memory Unit
Genre: Fighting
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code JP 1999-08-05 ¥5,8005,800 T-1401M US 1999-09-09 T-1401N EU 1999-11-26 T-1401D-50
ESRB Sega PEGI BBFC USK SELL

SoulCalibur (ソウルキャリバー SōruKyaribā) is a versus fighting game developed by Namco and is the sequel to Soul Edge/Soul Blade. Originally released for Namco System 12 arcade hardware, the game was ported to the Sega Dreamcast with improved graphics and extra features. It was a launch title in North America. The European Dreamcast version was distributed and advertised by Sega Europe.

The Dreamcast version of the game has often been cited as one of the greatest fighting games ever made, being the highest rated Dreamcast game in existence. It has since been re-released on the Xbox Live Arcade service. SoulCalibur was followed by SoulCalibur II for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox, though did not receive the same amount of praise as its predecessor..

Description

“	This is a tale of souls and swords, transcending the world an all it's history, told for all eternity. The greatest weapons based fighter returns, this time on Sega Dreamcast. Soul Calibur unleashes incredible graphics, fantastic fighters, and combos so amazing they'll make your head spin! Soul Calibur... The ultimate fighting game.	„
— US Cover

“	Namco's first Dreamcast title - Soul Calibur brings you all the excitement and visual splendour of the original arcade version and more. Take up the ultimate challenge of skill and steel. Control one of 19 unique characters each with a vast array of weapons and realistic fluid movements making this the most advanced fighting game on any console. It's time to fulfil your destiny.	„
— EU Cover

Differences

Arcade vs. Dreamcast

Compared to the arcade version, the Dreamcast version features improved graphics, including newly added 3D backgrounds. The gameplay has been tweaked, and enriched with new game modes, new costumes, and an extra character, Cervantes de Leon. New modes such as the Team Battle, Survival and the Training Mode are also included. In Missions Mode the player completes various missions to attain points, which can be used to buy various art and costumes. The new artwork section containins official artwork, fanart and high resolution pictures. Extra unlockables include "liquid metal' character costumes, a "Battle Theater" mode, the ability to modify the opening introduction theme by changing the characters appearing in it and an "Exhibition Mode" displaying characters performing their katas. In Mission Mode it is possible to add more characters to the "Exhibition Mode", such as Taki and Seung Mina).

Regional differences

The North American version of the game removed one of Voldo's suggestive codpieces featuring a bull. However, it is present in the European and Japanese versions.

Xbox Live Arcade

The Xbox Live Arcade re-release was a port based on the European Dreamcast version and was made available for download on Xbox Live Arcade on July 2, 2008. While the game included high-definition updated graphics and various Live leaderboards, online play was absent which makes it an exception amongst most games ported to Xbox Live Arcade. Other features from the Dreamcast version (Museum, etc., with the exception of Mission Battle) are also in the game. While the intro itself is removed from this port, the intro music is still in this port. All content is unlocked by the start of the game.

Production credits

Namco Production Staff

Senior Project Director: Teruaki Konishi
Project Director: Hiroaki Yotoriyama
Production Manager: Koh Onda
Motion Design Director: Masataka Ishiguro
Mission Battle Mode & Effects Supervisor: Tadashi Iguchi

Character System Design

Motion Capture Director: Jin Okubo
Motion Management: Naotake Hirata
Practice Mode Director: Tetsuya Akatsuka
Motion Design Co-Director: Kazuo Takahashi
Museum Mode & Enemy AI Director: Yoshito Higuchi
Tuning Director: Makoto Kiyokawa
Mission Battle Mode Coordinator: Yoshihiro Nakagawa

Programming

Lead Programmer: Shinobu Nimura
3D System Programmer: Shizuka Matsuda
Stage Effects & Enemy AI Programmer: Yoshihito Iwanaga
Motion & Mission Battle Mode Programmer: Takashi Koshigoe
Sound & Special Effects Programmer: Tadashi Obama
Opening Demo & Camera Motion Programmer: Masaaki Hoshino
Interface Programmer: Hiroyuki Kobota
CGI Programmer: Teppei Kusakabe
Network System Support: Ryuunosuke Okazaki

Motion Team

Skeleton Model & Motion Design: Yoshihisa Yaguchi
Motion Design: Yukie Misaki, Nobuko Nimura, Tomoe Hirata, Naoko Ishizu, Isamu Sawada, Kaori Satoh, Shouji Nakamura

3D Character Development

Lead Artist: Ryoichi Ban
3D Model & Texture Design: Akira Nakajima, Takeya Inoguchi, Yukiharu Taniguchi, Hiroaki Kado, Seido Ozawa, Hideo Yoshie, Masato Inagaki

Stage Development

Lead Artist: Kanako Iwasaki
3D Model & Texture Design: Hiroko Noguchi, Tomoko Tomita, Momoko Daigo, Yasunori Yanagawa

Opening Demo

Director: Yasushi Shibue
Design: Yukiko Yokoo, Fuminori Tsuchiya, Sachiko Inoue
2D Graphics & LCD Character Design: Taro Okamoto
Original Character Design: Kouji Mitsunaga
Title Logo & Graphic Design: Hideaki Ito
2D Character Illustrations: Kiyotaka Tamiya
Package Design: Minako Matsuda
Interface Coordination: James Lisle

Sound

Music: Junichi Nakatsuru
Additional Music Production: Akitaka Tohyama, Yoshihito Yano, Takanori Otsuka
Sound Effects: Hideki Tobeta
Voice Talent
Souichiro Hoshi - Kilik
Aya Hisakawa - Xianghua
Nobutoshi Hayashi - Maxi
Toshiyuki Morikawa - Mitsurugi
Fujiko Takimoto - Taki
Michiko Neya - Sophita
Nobuyuki Hiyama - Nightmare
Banjo Ginga - Astaroth
Yumi Touma - Ivy
Jeffry Maning - Narration
Wataru Takagi - Hwang
Nobuyuki Hiyama - Yoshimitsu
Nobuyuki Hiyama - Siegfried
Takashi Nagasako - Rock
Houko Kuwashima - Seung Mina
Takashi Nagasako - Cervantes
Daisuke Gouri - Edge Master

Motion Capture Tech. Team: Takayasu Yanagihara, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Miho Nakasaka, Toshiyuki Hagiwara
MS Team: Tetsuya Kono, Kumiko Naemura
Motion Capture Actors: Kenichiro Tamayori, Takayuki Nakayama, Ken Shibata, Li Tianyuan, Jiang Chi
Tuning Unit & Production Assistants: Ryoji Ichikari, George Taguchi, Tsuyoshi Kiuchi, Akiya Ikeda, Satoshi Masukawa, Norikatsu Yoshikawa, Takuji Kanayama, Shinji Takino, Yasuki Nakabayashi, Naoyuki Kondou, Takeharu Kondou, Takashi Arai
QA Team (NTSC Version): Takashi Chida, Yusuke Morita, Shinya Suzuki, Shinya Inamoto, Miho Tanaka, Michitaka Motomura, Yasuhiro Komuro, Eriko Shiina, Ryuji Kurokawa, Yoshitomo Nakanishi, James Guirao, Dominic Lobbia
QA Team (PAL Version): Takashi Chida, Yusuke Morita, Shinya Suzuki, Shinya Inamoto, Miho Tanaka, Michitaka Motomura, Yasuhiro Komuro, Eriko Shiina, Ryuji Kurokawa, Yoshitomo Nakanishi
Special Thanks (NTSC Version): Kouji Kudou, Yokohama Chinese Wushu Society, Toshio Natsui, Yutaka Toya, Junichi Kawamura, Satoru Yamada, Kazuyuki Nikaido, Hiroki Tanaka, Kaname Takai, Yutaka Goto, Taku Tsuge, Kai Tanaka, Tsuyumi Toyoda, Noriko Kobayashi, Koichiro Shigeno, Hiroshi Goshowaki, Asako Ueno, Jason Arney, Masanori Kato, Jeff Miller, Jesse Taylor, Yoshi Homma, And All Namco Staff
Special Thanks (PAL Version): Kouji Kudou, Yokohama Chinese Wushu Society, Toshio Natsui, Yutaka Toya, Junichi Kawamura, Satoru Yamada, Kazuyuki Nikaido, Hiroki Tanaka, Kaname Takai, Yutaka Goto, Taku Tsuge, Kai Tanaka, Tsuyumi Toyoda, Noriko Kobayashi, Koichiro Shigeno, Hiroshi Goshowaki, Asako Ueno, Jason Arney, Hiroaki Ochiai, SDL International, Kats Sato (Sega Europe, Ltd.), Roberto Parraga-Sanchez (Sega Europe, Ltd.), Dave Thompson (Sega Europe, Ltd.), Angelika Michitsch (Sega Europe, Ltd.), Kim Shon (Sega Europe, Ltd.), Cedric Marechal (Sega Europe, Ltd.), Jason Cumberbatch (Sega Europe, Ltd.), Ross McLeish (Sega Europe, Ltd.), Sarah Ward (Sega Europe, Ltd.), And All Namco Staff
Production Coordinators: Toshiya Hara, Shinichi Tsuruya
Assistant Producers (US Version) (NTSC Version): Noriko Wada, Paul Guirao
Producer (US Version) (NTSC Version): Yasuhiro Noguchi
Translation Staff (PAL Version): Yasuhiro Noguchi, Noriko Wada, Paul Guirao
Executive Producers: Shukuo Ishikawa, Shigeru Yokoyama, Katsuo Nakamura
Co-Producer: Masuya Oishi
Producer: Hajime Nakatani
Produced by: Namco
TM & ©1998 1999 Namco Ltd., All Rights Reserved

Promotional Material

• DC UK PrintAdvert.jpg

  UK print advert

• SoulCalibur DC FR PrintAdvert.jpg

  FR print advert

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average

Publication Score Source 100 AllGame 100 AllGame Arcade (UK) 100 №14, p68/69 Consoles + (FR) 98 №92, p96/97/98/99/100 №95, p110/111/112 Computer & Video Games (UK) 100 №216, p76-79 100 DC-UK (UK) 100 №3 Dreamcast Monthly (UK) 90 №1, p12/13/14/15/16/17 Dreamcast Monthly (UK) 90 №3, p54/55/56/57 Dreamcast Magazine (JP) 100 №1999-25, p17 Dreamcast Magazine (readers) (JP) 95 Dreamcast Magazine (UK) 94 №2, p54/55/56 Edge (UK) 90 №76, p84/85/86 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) 100 100 Famitsu (JP) 100 №556, p40 100 GameFan (US) 98 10/14/1999 GamePro (US) 100 01/01/2000 100 August 9, 1999 100 100 Gaming Maxx 100 August 13, 2001 100 September 20, 1999 neXt Level (DE) 95 Player One (FR) 94 №103, p98/99/100/101 Revista Oficial Dreamcast (ES) 100 №1, p44-47 100 1 December 2004

Based on 29 reviews

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 576 Konzol (HU) 98 Arcade (UK) PAL 100 BGamer (PT) 100 Consoles + (FR) NTSC-J 98 Consoles + (FR) PAL 98 Computer & Video Games (UK) 100 Dreamcast Arena (IT) PAL 95 Dreamcast Monthly (UK) NTSC-J 90 Dreamcast Monthly (UK) PAL 90 DC-UK (UK) PAL 100 Dreamcast: Le Magazine Officiel (FR) PAL 100 Dreamcast: Das Offizielle Magazin (DE) PAL 100 Dreamcast Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 100 Dreamcast Magazine (UK) PAL 94 Dorimaga (JP) NTSC-J 95 Dreamzone (FR) NTSC-J 98 Dreamzone (FR) PAL 98 Edge (UK) NTSC-J 90 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 100 Entsiklopediya igr dlya Dreamcast (RU) 88 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 100 Fun Generation (DE) PAL 100 GameFan (US) NTSC-U 88 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 100 GamesMaster (UK) NTSC-J 96 GamesMaster (UK) 96 GameZine (UK) 100 Game Informer (US) NTSC-U 92 Gamers' Republic (US) NTSC-U 100 MAN!AC (DE) NTSC-J 90 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 90 Man!ak (PL) 100 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 94 Neo Plus (PL) 100 Next Generation (US) NTSC-U 100 neXt Level (DE) PAL 95 Next Level (AR) 98 Official Dreamcast Magazine (UK) PAL 100 PC Expert (FR) PAL 100 Player One (FR) 94 Play (PL) 95 PSX Extreme (PL) 97 Revista Oficial Dreamcast (ES) PAL 100 Sega Magazin (DE) NTSC-J 90 Strana Igr (RU) 95 Strana Igr (RU) 90 Video Games (DE) PAL 90

	96
Based on 47 reviews

SoulCalibur

Dreamcast, US
Cover
Disc Inlay

Dreamcast, EU
Cover
Disc

Dreamcast, JP
Cover
Disc

External links

• Sega of Japan catalogue pages (Japanese): Dreamcast
• Sega Europe To Distribute Soul Calibur
• SoulCalibur on Wikipedia

File:CVG UK 217.pdf, page 41

File:CVG UK 216.pdf, page 77

File:CVG UK 216.pdf, page 76

File:DCM_JP_19990813_1999-25.pdf, page 17

File:Dorimaga_20021011_JP.pdf, page 32

File:ROD ES 01.pdf, page 44

576 Konzol, "Május 2000" (HU; 2000-xx-xx), page 32

Arcade, "Xmas 1999" (UK; 1999-12-06), page 68

BGamer, "Dezembro 1999" (PT; 1999-1x-xx), page 94

Consoles +, "Septembre 1999" (FR; 1999-0x-xx), page 96

Consoles +, "Décembre 1999" (FR; 1999-1x-xx), page 110

Dreamcast Arena, "Gennaio 2000" (IT; 2000-01-10), page 68

Dreamcast Monthly, "September 1999" (UK; 1999-xx-xx), page 12

Dreamcast Monthly, "November 1999" (UK; 1999-11-18), page 54

DC-UK, "November 1999" (UK; 1999-10-26), page 10

Dreamcast: Le Magazine Officiel, "Décembre 1999/Janvier 2000" (FR; 1999-12-xx), page 72

Dreamcast: Das Offizielle Magazin, "November 1999" (DE; 1999-11-11), page 16

Dreamcast Magazine, "1999-25 (1999-08-13,20)" (JP; 1999-07-30), page 17

Dreamcast Magazine, "No. 2" (UK; 1999-10-21), page 54

Dorimaga, "2002-18 (2002-10-11)" (JP; 2002-09-27), page 32

Dreamzone, "Octobre 1999" (FR; 1999-09-xx), page 65

Dreamzone, "Decembre 1999" (FR; 1999-11-16), page 75

Edge, "October 1999" (UK; 1999-09-06), page 84

Electronic Gaming Monthly, "October 1999" (US; 1999-09-07), page 216

Entsiklopediya igr dlya Dreamcast, "Izdaniye chetvertoye, dopolnennoye" (RU; 2002-xx-xx), page 218

Famitsu, "1999-08-13" (JP; 1999-07-30), page 40

Fun Generation, "11/99" (DE; 1999-10-13), page 52

GameFan, "Volume 7, Issue 10: October 1999" (US; 1999-xx-xx), page 20

GamePro, "October 1999" (US; 1999-xx-xx), page 130

GamesMaster, "October 1999" (UK; 1999-09-09), page 84

GamesMaster, "Christmas 1999" (UK; 1999-11-29), page 65

GameZine (UK) (+0:00)

Game Informer, "October 1999" (US; 1999-xx-xx), page 64

Gamers' Republic, "October 1999" (US; 1999-09-18), page 74

MAN!AC, "10/99" (DE; 1999-09-01), page 56

MAN!AC, "01/2000" (DE; 1999-12-01), page 88

Man!ak, "Listopad 1999" (PL; 1999-xx-xx), page 20

Mega Fun, "10/99" (DE; 1999-09-01), page 70

Neo Plus, "Styczeń 2000" (PL; 2000-xx-xx), page 69

Next Generation, "November 1999" (US; 1999-10-19), page 116

neXt Level, "November 1999" (DE; 1999-10-08), page 44

Next Level, "Octubre 1999" (AR; 1999-xx-xx), page 38

Official Dreamcast Magazine, "December 1999" (UK; 1999-11-11), page 64

PC Expert, "Hors-série December 1999: Gamespot.fr Magazine" (FR; 1999-1x-xx), page 55

Player One, "Décembre 1999" (FR; 1999-xx-xx), page 98

Play, "Lipiec 2001" (PL; 2001-xx-xx), page 17

PSX Extreme, "03/2001" (PL; 2001-0x-xx), page 38

Revista Oficial Dreamcast, "Enero 2000" (ES; 1999-12-20), page 42

Sega Magazin, "October 1999" (DE; 1999-09-06), page 14

Strana Igr, "Sentyabr 1999 1/2" (RU; 1999-xx-xx), page 66

Strana Igr, "Sentyabr 2000 2/2" (RU; 2000-xx-xx), page 21

Video Games, "12/99" (DE; 1999-11-17), page 72