Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny: Entering The Gauntlet

Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny comes with a very handy tutorial mode called The Gauntlet. It breaks down basic gameplay components into missions loosely tied together by a story. The first few missions start off very basic, which is good because I’m a Soulcalibur novice.

The first difficulty I found with starting to play Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny was the attack buttons. I’m used to fighting games like Street Fighter, which has different buttons for different kicks and punches. Soulcalibur has just a button for a horizontal attack, one for a vertical attack, one for a kick, and one for guard. The confusing part is that instead of saying Triangle or Square, the game names moves A, B, K and G. It took me a while to get used to that.

One thing I liked about the tutorial mode is that it not only teaches me how to do different attacks, but also how to react to enemy attacks. For example, the game will say that the enemy is doing X type of attack, and that I should use Y to counter it. The wording in the text windows need a little work in terms of clarification, but the gist of the message is still there.

Soulcalibur is a completely different fighting game than I’m used to. From what I learned in tutorial mode, a lot of victories seem to stem from being able to use the correct block combination and executing a quick attack after it to ensure a hit. I haven’t gotten the hang of escaping a throw yet, but I’m sure that gets easier with more practice and just getting used to everyone’s throw animation.