
Naturally, the solution each time is a sword-swinging contest, but the game does a valiant job of world building along the way to give texture to its fantasy universe. Although you're ushered between main quest missions, various side-quests pop up around you, with NPCs asking for a hand solving their problems. The story's conceit for making you travel around the world is that you're "malfested" with an evil energy and must absorb Astral Fissures to stay alive. Libra of Souls tells its story primarily through text, but it's all surprisingly engaging, with dialogue and descriptions setting the stage for the inevitable fight and giving even its throwaway opponents a bit of flavour. From there you embark on a journey that will take you across the world, and along the way you'll cross paths-and swords-with both named characters and generically named bit-parters. It's part fighting game, part role-playing game, part Dungeons & Dragons campaign you create and customize your own unique fighter using options that, while serviceable, aren't nearly as robust as the ones in Bandai Namco's other fighter, Tekken 7. Libra of Souls is the meatier of the two and takes inspiration from SoulCalibur II's beloved Weapon Master Mode. That spirit of adventure is most evident in SoulCalibur VI's two story modes. Sure, deep and rewarding mechanics are at the heart of every good fighting game-and SoulCalibur VI certainly has that-but for this series, adventure has always been the soul.

It accents this with a rousing orchestral score and grandiose narrations about entwined destinies and inescapable fates. It tells a grand tale of knights and ninjas, axe-wielding goliaths and pirate warriors, all struggling over mythical weapons of good and evil.

What truly distinguishes SoulCalibur from its genre contemporaries is a pervading sense of adventure.
