is an

action-adventure game The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a story ...

for the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...

console. It is a

spin-off Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gov ...

Namco Bandai is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and ...

's successful ''Soulcalibur''

fighting game A fighting game, also known as a versus fighting game, is a genre of video game that involves combat between two or more players. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking, grappling, counter-attacking, and chaining atta ...

series and primarily features two of its most popular characters:

Ivy ''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and ...

and Siegfried.

Gameplay

The game features competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes in addition to the single player story mode.

Synopsis

Plot

The story of ''Soulcalibur Legends'' takes place between ''

Soul Edge is a fighting game developed by the Namco team Project Soul and published by Namco as the first installment in the ''Soulcalibur'' series of 3D fighting games. Originally released as an arcade game in December 1995, an upgraded and expanded versi ...

'' and ''

Soulcalibur is a weapon-based fighting video game franchise by Bandai Namco Entertainment. There are seven main installments of video games and various media spin-offs, including music albums and a series of manga books. The first game in the series, '' ...

'', and is based around Siegfried Schtauffen's transformation into Nightmare. The game begins as Siegfried finds Soul Edge on a ship. He battles Cervantes on the deck of the ship. Later, Siegfried is tasked by the Masked Emperor of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...

to find the remaining pieces of Soul Edge in order to use it to win the war against Barbaros of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

Characters

The game features seven playable characters: Siegfried, Ivy, Sophitia, Mitsurugi,

Astaroth Astaroth (also Ashtaroth, Astarot and Asteroth), in demonology, was known to be the Great Duke of Hell in the first hierarchy with Beelzebub and Lucifer; he was part of the evil trinity. He is known to be a male figure most likely named after ...

α (a prototype for the character in other games), Taki and

Lloyd Irving is an action role-playing game released for the Nintendo GameCube on August 29, 2003, in Japan. It was published by Namco and is the fifth core product of the ''Tales'' series. The game was localized and released in North America on July 13, ...

, who is a guest character from ''

Tales of Symphonia is an action role-playing game released for the Nintendo GameCube on August 29, 2003, in Japan. It was published by Namco and is the fifth core product of the ''Tales'' series. The game was localized and released in North America on July 13, ...

''.

Marketing and release

''Soulcalibur Legends'' was released on November 20, 2007 in North America, and was released in Japan on December 13, 2007. The game was eventually released in Europe, including the UK, on August 28, 2008. A

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

adaptation was published during the first year of the Japanese publication ''

Kerokero Ace was a Japanese shōnen manga magazine published in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten. It directly focused on the ''Sgt. Frog'' series and other works promoted by Bandai such as Gundam. The magazine contained manga comics, computer game reviews, merchandi ...

''. The adaptation featured Siegfried, Iska and Ivy joining together on the main quest of the game. The adaptation's style was mostly comedic, including frequent

4-koma , a comic strip format, generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom. They also sometimes run right-to-left horizontally or use a hybrid 2×2 style, depending on the layout requirements of ...

s with running gags (such as Siegfried's annoyance that Ivy towered over him).

Reception

Reviews for ''Soulcalibur Legends'' have been mixed.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

lists the aggregate score for ''Soulcalibur Legends'' at 52/100. It scored far lower than the main series games and is the lowest selling of the series.

References

External links

* {{Soul series 2007 video games 2008 video games Ubisoft games Action-adventure games Cooperative video games Bandai Namco games Hack and slash games Soulcalibur series games Wii-only games Video games developed in Japan Video games featuring female protagonists Video games scored by Masaharu Iwata Video game spin-offs Wii games