Game #1187: SoulCalibur III

 A blade so sharp it breaks memory cards.

 SoulCalibur III is an interesting one, as it firmly established elements that would become mainstay in the series, as well as being capable of utterly destroying your memory card save data. It was the last game I hadn't played in the series, from the ones I have access to, since the original SC is a Dreamcast exclusive, and it might be one of the ones I liked the least.

 I don't really feel like writing about how it plays, since I've already written about pretty much every other game in the series, and the basic gameplay hasn't changed one iota. On the other hand, this game introduced the Character Creator feature to the series, which garnered so much acclaim that it's become a tradition to include it in these games. I... I didn't even try it. From what I could gather, the nasty save data corruption bug happens with the Create a Character and the Story Mode save files, so I stood away from both. Sure, I could've swiped clean a memory card and made it my first save, the only way to avoid the bug, but nah, this game wasn't worth that trouble. I'm sure the Story mode is as good as the one in SC II, but if it can corrupt my data I'd rather not even bother. No thank you.

 The Arcade Mode has changed in... curious ways. Now there are unskippable cutscenes that have QTEs, miss them and you lose health. I hate it. Every character also has multiple routes, as you can pick different options in between some fights, which will change which characters you fight next. This is how you unlock characters. I hate it. Here's the deal, most of the secret characters require you to proceed through the super secret Labyrinth Route.... and make it all the way without losing once. You can't change the Arcade Mode's difficulty setting and it can get downright brutal. And remember, dying once could mean you won't meet the character. And you can't skip the repetitive cutscenes before certain fights(Astaroth, Zasalamel, Cervantes). All this amounts to is a ton of tedium. Needless to say, I didn't unlock every character, and I didn't really care. It was just too tedious. Unlocking characters just wasn't fun after a certain point. You can also unlock them by having over 1800 VS battles. Yeah, no thank you.

 SoulCalibur III is probably the game I like the least in the series. From how tedious unlocking characters is, to how unforgiveable having this data corrupting bug is... Even though the game plays pretty much like the rest of the games, I can't say I care about this entry. Honestly, 2 is still what I'd call the golden standard for the series, and I think I'd even play VI over this one.  

 6.0