I just started playing this game on the day I posted this, and I thought I’d give writing a mini-FAQ (instead of a review or walkthrough) about it a shot. It’s a bit muddled-up right now, so I might reorganize it later on. I’ll try to keep updating this as much as I can as I continue playing!
Last updated November 2, 2009
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Content
- What is Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny?
- What modes/features does the game have?
- What are Honors and how do I earn them?
- Who are the playable characters?
- Who is Dampierre?
- Where are the Star Wars characters?
- So what’s the “story” in this game?
- There are words underneath my opponent’s name during battle. What are they for?
- You keep mentioning phrases like “Guard Impact” and “Guaranteed Hit”. What are those?
- Can you teach me how to use *insert character’s name here*?
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Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny is a fighting game developed by Bandai-Namco for the PSP. It’s a sort of sequel to Soulcalibur IV, since the events depicted in the game are said to have occurred after Siegfried defeats Nightmare and seals off the Soul Calibur and Soul Edge.
That doesn’t mean you have to have played Soulcalibur IV to enjoy this game though. I never even tried it, and here we are with this FAQ. There are also lots of in-game features that help new players as they play the game, like the tutorials in The Gauntlet and the information in the Game Manual.
Here’s a list of the different features/modes you can find in the game’s menu:
Game Manual
Pressing the Square button while viewing the game’s menu will take you to the Game Manual. This contains overviews of the game’s features, terms, and other things. It pretty much covers every aspect of the game. Here’s a list of chapters the Game Manual has (minus the Preface):
- Travel the journey in THE GAUNTLET!
- Test your skills in TRIALS!
- Soulcalibur Basics
- Jump into battle with QUICK MATCH!
- Enter the battlefield in VERSUS!
- Let your creativity flow in CREATION!
- Master your quest for victory in TRAINING!
- Review your skills in RECORDS!
- Move every which way with 8-Way Run
- Stop your enemies with Horizontal Attacks
- Down your enemies with Vertical Attacks
- Guard attacks when you’re at a Disadvantage
- About Soul Gauge
- Finish off your enemies with Critical Finish
- Throws and Throw Escapes
- [Chapter 16 is missing, for some reason]
- About Stun Recover
- Turn the tables with Guard Impact
- Get back into action with Ukemi
- Avoid Pursuers with Aerial Control
- Wall Staggers and Wall Combos
- Take out your opponent with Ring Out
- Attacks to gain the Advantage
- How to handle being in the Disadvantage
- Master quick attacks
- Dominate the match with Combos
- Don’t overlook Guaranteed Hits
- [This chapter's missing too]
- Bare all with Active Purge
- Master Interruptions!
Quick Match
Allows players to engage in quick versus battles against CPU-controlled “ghost” characters. You must win a total of three rounds before you’re declared the victor of the match.
You gain titles from defeating opponents in this mode, and you can display a title of your choice when you play against another player in Versus mode. There are 200 Titles in total, including “Beauty”, “Sacred Fire of the Red Lotus”, “Breaker”, and “Master of Charm”.
The Gauntlet
A story-driven mode wherein you engage in battles that require you to do specific things, such as Guarding and Attacking at specific moments during the match. It’s divided into chapters with varying numbers of missions for each chapter.
The Gauntlet also serves as a sort of Tutorial, as it teaches you how and when to do things like Guard Impact, Stun Recovery, and so on.
Trials
In Trials, you earn points for your overall score by doing things like successfully damaging your opponent, delivering counterattacks after blocking, and so on. You fight against “ghost” characters, but you get to battle regular There are three types of “trials” you can undergo:
- Trial of Attack: Your score is primarily based on how much damage you deal to your opponent. Composed of five battles against regular Soulcalibur characters, with the final stage always being battle against Siegfried.
- Trial of Defense: Your score is primarily based on your defense and counterattack skills, like Guard Impact and Interrupt. Composed of eight battles against regular Soulcalibur characters. While the characters you’ll battle in the first five stages vary (except for Stage 3, where you will always battle Dampierre) , you will fight Kratos, Nightmare or Siegfried, and Algol in the last three stages.
- Endless Trial: A combination of the above Trials, and you’ll keep getting thrown into battles until you lose. Unlike Attack and Defense Trials, you battle “ghost” characters here, and only get to fight regular Soulcalibur characters every five battles.
Versus
This mode allows you to battle other players via Ad Hoc.
Creation
Allows you to create up to sixteen custom characters, but customization options are limited compared to Soulcalibur IV. You will be able to choose your custom character’s fighting style from the fighting styles of the regular characters (you can use any except Algol’s and Kratos’ fighting styles, which don’t even appear in the options). Pressing Square while hovering over a character while selecting a style will show you a description of that character’s fighting style.
You can also alter the colors of regular characters’ costumes in this mode. Sadly that’s all you can do with the regular characters, unlike in Soulcalibur IV where you can change their hairstyle and everything.
Winning battles in Quick Battle, Trials, and The Gauntlet will unlock more equipment and items for your created characters.
Training
You can practice for battle in this mode. You can set a variety of options for the character you choose to be your training dummy, like adjusting his/her behavior and difficulty, setting his/her Soul Gauge to red, or removing his/her breakable armor.
Records
Displays records of the “Honors” you’ve earned through battles, Battle Records (your scores in Trials modes, your Quick Match records, and your progress in The Gauntlet).
Options
Adjust your game settings like Controls, Subtitles, Voiceover language, and so on here. The game includes Japanese and English voice overs, as well as English subtitles.
“Honors” are achievements you acquire through doing certain things, like playing The Gauntlet for the first time, creating your first custom character, executing specific moves in battle, and so on. Pressing X while an unachieved Honor is selected will show you what you need to do to unlock it. There are 50 Honors in total.
Unlocking Honors also unlocks Dampierre’s journal entries, in case you’re interested in more of his shenanigans.
Here’s a list of playable characters and their weapons in Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny:
- Yoshimitsu ( Katana x2)
- Setsuka (Iai Sword Hidden in an Umbrella)
- Voldo (Jamadhar x2)
- Cassandra (Short Sword and Small Shield)
- Lizardman (Single-Handed Ax and Small Shield)
- Taki (Ninja Sword x2)
- Mitsurugi (Katana)
- Algol (Assimilated Soul Calibur and Soul Edge)
- Sophitia (Short Sword and Small Shield)
- Tira (Ring Blade)
- Siegfried (Zweihänder)
- Hilde (Sword and Lance)
- Dampierre (Hidden Dagger)
- Kratos (Double Chained Blades)
- Nightmare (Zweihänder)
- Xianghua (Chinese Sword)
- Maxi (Nunchuk)
- Raphael (English Sword Rapier)
- Astaroth (Giant Ax)
- Yun-Seong (Chinese Sword)
- Kilik (Rod)
- Ivy (Snake Sword)
- Amy (English Sword Rapier)
- Rock (Giant Mace)
- Talim (Elbow Blade x2)
- Seong Mi-na (Zanbatou)
- Cervantes (Longsword and Pistol Sword)
- Zasalamel (Death Scythe)
Dampierre is a new character specifically created for Broken Destiny. He has this huge-ass mustache that he seems to love to pinch, and he fights using hidden daggers. He’s a really funny character; even his battle moves are hilarious. He can sneeze on his opponents, smack his opponent repeatedly until he recoils because his arm’s starting to hurt, and – get this – one of his throws involves bending his opponent over and spanking his/her ass like a mother punishing a disobedient child. It’s fun playing as him (or against him) just to see the craziness he does.
Unfortunately, they aren’t included in this game. This game does include a guest character though: Kratos, the main character in the God of War series. His moves are pretty cool when you’re using him, but if you’re fighting against him, his chain blades – combined with him swinging around on them and flying around with his wings – can be really frustrating.
Here’s the intro for the first chapter of The Gauntlet:
We near the end of the 16th century, and the curtain has fallen over the battle for the two swords.
The final showdown between Siegfried and Nightmare atop the wicked city in Ostrheinsburg is over, but the ancient Hero King Algol has been secretly revived.
Yet somewhere, lost among history, a fresh wind blows. A lone warrior hones [his/her] skills in the mountains!
It is none other than you, for this is your tale.
WARNING: This story is based on obscure fables and does not accurately represent the Soulcalibur history!
In The Gauntlet, you’ll eventually end up traveling with Hilde and Cassandra through your journey as they travel the world to gather ingredients for a cure for Hilde’s father, who has apparently fallen ill because of Soul Edge. No serious dramu here though; the situations presented and the characters’ dialogue are quite light-hearted and comical, and are shown through funny manga-ish illustrations that will surely entertain you.
Opponents have some descriptions beneath their name during battle. These indicate what type of playing style they utilize. Here are a few examples that I’ve encountered so far and some tips on how to beat them:
- Guard-centric: Characters that focus on Guarding and not much else. They’re pretty easy to beat, but watch out for their Guaranteed Hits (hits that are normally blockable will become an unblockable Guaranteed Hit if delivered after a successful Guard) when they successfully block your attacks.
- Violence: Aggressive attackers that use a lot of skills that cause you to get stunned. Your best bet is to dodge these attacks and interrupt them, or recover from the stun by quickly pressing your directional buttons.
- Escape-centric: Focuses on escaping your attacks by moving aside or back, crouching, and so on. Just get in there and smack them good.
- Close Combat: Uses a lot of short range attacks and combos. Keep them at a distance and/or block and counterattack their moves.
- Legend: Applies only to regular Soulcalibur characters in Endless Trial mode, and to Algol in Trial of Defense mode. Can be hard to beat depending on your skills and playing style.
- Impact: Focuses on Guard Impacting your attacks, and counterattacking. I don’t have a lot of advice to offer against Impacters since I’m really weak against them, but I do manage to win when I notice openings in their defense (i.e. I attack low when I see them doing a Standing Guard, etcetera).
- Use Run: Uses 8-way Run a lot, but unlike the Escape-centrics, they do offense too. Horizontal attacks will help you here.
- Amateur: Pretty much waits around for you to attack, so…try not to be too hard on them. And don’t underestimate them too much either, they do try to stick in some combo chains from time to time.
- Trainee: Seem to be unfamiliar with combos (unlike the Amateur), as they use one-hit moves a lot. They tend to use the same move repeatedly too, and they Guard a lot.
- Rampage: Crazier than the Violence characters. They like to rush at you and use lots of high damage attacks that knock you down or stun you. Ukemi and Stun Recovery will help you here, but be careful when you Ukemi as the opponent might hit you with a Mid/Low attack just as you’re getting up. Rampage characters don’t Guard a lot, so you can beat them easily if you dodge/block and counter their attacks.
- Guard Break/Guard Break Only: Like to use Unblockable Attacks that break your Guard and put you at a Disadvantage. They often do this right after doing a blockable combo, so your best bet is to Interrupt them (block their attacks and watch for that split-second opening as they move into an Unblockable attack) as much as possible.
- Jokester: Only encountered this one once, so I’m not actually sure what a Jokester’s deal is. The Jokester I battled seemed to like Jumping a lot, and he Active Purged even though his Soul Gauge was still full.
Here’s a list of all those strange in-game terms and their basic definitions. I won’t go into full detail about them, as you can learn more about them by playing the Gauntlet mode of the game (it provides tutorials for just about every aspect of the game). Some things are just easier to understand if you get around to actually doing them!
- 8-Way Run: The Soul series of games has a feature called “8-Way Run”, which just means that your character is able to run in 8 different directions: the four basic directions (Up, Down, Left, Right) and four diagonal directions (Up-Right, Up-Left, Down-Right, Down-Left). You can perform these movements using your directional buttons or your analog stick.
- Guard: Pressing the Guard button (X) will allow you to block your opponent’s attacks.
- Advantage/Disadvantage: When you block attacks from opponents, it will either put you at an Advantage or Disadvantage. When you’re in the Advantage, you will be able to execute Guaranteed Hits using Quick Attacks, which are able of interrupting your opponent’s next move. You can gain an Advantage by successfully executing certain attacks against your opponent, executing attacks that make your opponent stagger while he/she guarding, or by successfully blocking your opponent’s attack/s. If you are at a Disadvantage, however, you will be prone to your opponent’s Guaranteed Hits/Quick Attacks. You will be put at a Disadvantage if your opponent lands certain attacks on you, if your opponent makes you stagger while you’re guarding, or if your opponent successfully blocks your attack/s.
- Quick Attack: Swift, low-impact attacks/attack combos, like A + A and B + B or K. These are great for interrupting opponents’ attacks.
- Interrupt: You can “interrupt” your opponents’ attacks by hitting them while they’re in the middle of a combo or about to strike with an Unblockable Attack. Interrupting requires careful timing (you have to wait for a delay in your opponent’s strikes before you butt in) and can be done using Guard Impact or Quick Attacks.
- Guard Impact: Guard Impacts basically “repel” an enemy’s attacks. To do a Guard Impact, watch your opponent’s movement and press Guard (X) + a directional button (Left or Right if Impacting a Low/High attack, Diagonal Left or Diagonal Right for Low attacks). Depending on which directional button/s you press, you will either force the opponent backward in the direction of your impact (opposite of the direction he/she strikes), or cause them to stumble forward in the direction of their attacks. This will give you an opening to do a counter attack.
- Guaranteed Hit: If you manage to strike back at an opponent right after Guarding their attacks, your hit will be an unblockable Guaranteed Hit.
- Insert: Inserts are a subtype of Guaranteed Hit, and can be performed right after an opponent’s attack misses you completely. You can use the 8-Way Run, Crouching Guard, and so on to avoid your opponent’s attacks and do an Insert.
- Unblockable Attack: A powerful attack that will break your Guard and stun you. These take a while to “charge” (you will notice some energy/electrical effects around your opponent when he/she is about to do an Unblockable Attack), so dodge it or interrupt the attack as swiftly as possible.
- Recoverable Stun/Stun Recovery: Recoverable Stun refers to stunned states that you can recover from by rapidly pressing any directional button (doing this is referred to as Stun Recovery).
- Ukemi: When your opponent manages to knock you down, you can get up swiftly by pressing Guard (X) and a directional button simultaneously. This is what’s referred to as “Ukemi”.
- Soul Gauge: The Soul Gauge is that orb you see beside your and your opponent’s life bars. The Soul Gauge slowly “breaks” every time you or your opponent blocks an attack. It starts out colored blue, then it turns green, and then red as it gets closer to breaking. If your Soul Gauge is broken, your armor will break (for example, if you were blocking mostly mid attacks, the armor around your torso will break) you will be in a Soul Crush state.
- Soul Crush: When the Soul Gauge is broken, the character will be in a Soul Crush state, meaning that they will take more damage from attacks and will be susceptible to a Critical Finish.
- Critical Finish: Remember the “Fatality” moves in Mortal Kombat? Critical Finish is something like that; a devastating special move used to knock your opponent out in one blow. This is done using by pressing A + B + K when any one of the following conditions is met: 1) Your opponent’s Soul Gauge is flashing red 2) Your opponent is in a Soul Crush state or 3) You get your opponent into a Soul Crush state when the first strike of your Critical Finish hits.
- Active Purge: Pressing Down Down Down A+B+K will remove your armor all at once. It restores your Soul Gauge (thereby reducing the risk of being hit with a Critical Finish), but lowering your defense significantly.
Um…no, not really. I only use Seong Mi-na, Cassandra, and Siegfried, so I’m not much of an expert with regard to other characters’ moves, combos, and strategies. You can take a look over at the Soulcalibur IV (PS3) section section of GameFAQs to see if they have any walkthroughs for the character you’re looking for.
And for those looking for walkthroughs for Siegfried (he doesn’t have any in GameFAQs’ Soulcalibur IV section), you can take a look at the Siegfried walkthroughs in the Soulcalibur III section because his moveset in III is pretty much the same as his moveset in IV. Seong Mi-na’s moveset in III is pretty much the same as in IV too, but some of her moves’ names changed in IV. I’m not sure if the other characters’ movesets changed or not, since Mi-na and Siegfried were the only characters I seriously used in III.
You can also save yourself all the trouble from searching for these things online by making use of the game’s Training mode, since you can view all the characters’ move lists there.
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That’s it for this FAQ for now!
No matter how much I love Bandai-Namco and their Soul series of games, seeing Talim fight always makes me feel really disappointed in them. Now, I don’t know how well-researched the other Soulcalibur characters are, or if their fighting styles are really styles rooted in the cultures of the countries they’re from. But Talim’s just…wow.
