Graphically speaking, Legends is nothing short of unacceptable. If the game could look even remotely like Soul Calibur 2 on Gamecube, we'd be, at the very least, satiated. Instead, what we saw were blocky recreations of our Soul Calibur favorites trapped in boring, poorly textured environments that make the Dreamcast original look like a modern technical achievement. There is absolutely nothing to praise about the visuals in Legends: the art is generic, and the characters are stiff and lifeless. The screenshots that have been released are poor representations on how this game really looks.
The gameplay doesn't fare any better. Legends is a mindless hack and slash with poor controls. Enemies stand around, dumbfounded, as you hack away at them by shaking the Wiimote. The combat is imprecise, and simply not fun. We did appreciate the dodge: shaking the Nunchuck will allow players to make a quick dash. There was no challenge or depth to the battles. Ultimately, each encounter was reduced to wild waggle sessions. Wii owners deserve a lot better than this -- Namco, we'd point to Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess as an example on how to properly implement sword attacks in an adventure game (and please learn how to create a proper lock-on!)
If we had to give an award for most underwhelming disappointment of the show, Soul Calibur Legends is an easy candidate. Unless this game undergoes a serious redesign, don't expect the first Soul Calibur game on Wii to be anything more than a complete disaster.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-18-2007 @ 10:35AM
Mrbishop77 said...
Wow, what can you say to something like that. Not what I was expecting to hear that is for sure. Well, I can scratch that one off the list.
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7-18-2007 @ 10:38AM
student said...
The screens in our gallery must be heavily photoshopped then as they look beautiful.
From what I saw of the game, it did look kind of boring/repetitive, but it's a shame to hear its so awful.
At least this leaves me more money for the rest of my most wanted. I'll keep an open mind though when reviews come out.
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7-18-2007 @ 10:46AM
J said...
Hey Andrew, tell us how you really feel!! LOL.. no, that's great, it really is refreshing to hear a preview that isn't trying to put lipstick on a pig, or polish a turd, or whatever other of metaphor applies. Thanks for the heads up!
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7-18-2007 @ 11:27AM
Carlos said...
i knew it would suck
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7-18-2007 @ 12:33PM
01 said...
I wasn't expecting a lot, perhaps something to augment SC:2 for my GC, but I think I'd rather sit through Transformers again than play this...
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7-18-2007 @ 12:37PM
roflcopter616 said...
I lol'd at the part where you said Twilight Princess was were you look to see a proper sword wielding adventure game where you DON'T just randomly swing the controller around. Almost had me there!
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7-18-2007 @ 12:43PM
Wes Dye said...
I wish they would tell us what they really thought about the game.
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7-18-2007 @ 3:05PM
Nushio said...
I was actually looking forward to this game and at least in the low res videos i've watched, it looked pretty :P
Its a shame if what you say is true...
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7-18-2007 @ 3:16PM
Aaron said...
I've always bought Nintendo consoles and handhelds for one reason and one reason only... first-party titles. Any good third party games that make their way onto a Nintendo system are merely a bonus.
In other words, I really don't care if this game sucks. Nintendo always has a killer lineup with or without third parties.
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7-18-2007 @ 4:31PM
Mr Khan said...
Now it can be confirmed that this game is just throwing wii-only owners a bone
If you have either of the others, buy SCIV, to discourage this sort of dumping. Umbrella Chronicles is a better example of how to do a tertiary game for Wii
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7-18-2007 @ 5:58PM
JIB said...
WOW look at those GRAFX!!! RE4 DOESNT even COMPARE!!! BEST game of the YEAR 10/10!!!
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7-18-2007 @ 6:25PM
PandaPaul said...
How incredibly disappointing.
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7-19-2007 @ 1:14AM
Mase said...
I'm glad this is a preview that doesn't try to hype you at all. They think the game is terrible, they shoul let us know not to be excited for it. Kudos.
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7-20-2007 @ 12:27PM
Crushed said...
Thanks for lying about your previews ("waggle") and scaring away customers from a game that, from all other previews and hands-on, is actually quite fun and looks great.
I'm sure that when Namco sees that their hard work (half of Project Soul's best people are working on it) going to waste and decide to stop making good Wii games like this, fans will appreciate it.
PS:
http://www.freepicshost.net/public/469e5c982af10107910644.jpg
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