Soulcalibur IV First Look

Namco showed off a teaser trailer for Soulcalibur IV, the latest entry in its long-running weapon-based fighting series. The gameplay-light trailer featured a smattering of provocative text to tease the game's story, which appears to involve both the Soul Edge (seen in the original arcade game and its PlayStation conversion) and the Soul Calibur, the other powerful sword that's appeared in the series. The highlight of the short trailer was what appeared to be a trio of in-game character models for returning characters Ivy, Mitsurugi, and Nightmare. The text in the trailer hinted at an epic conflict that will find the fighters from the series facing off against evil, pugilistic forces. Beyond that, the only big news from the trailer is the game's 2008 release on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Because the trailer was short, our brief glimpse at the character models didn't offer much that hinted at gameplay, but we can say the characters looked shiny and quite upgraded from the PlayStation 2 game. Mitsurugi was sporting his familiar uniform and hairstyle, although they were much more detailed. Though Mitsurugi looked good, Ivy was the standout with her considerable assets being on ample display from various angles. For those concerned that the white-haired fighter was looking a little mannish in the recent entries of the series, she appears to be all femme and curvy, thanks to the detail provided by the new generation of consoles. One of the notable touches to the models was the level of detail on the clothing and accessories on the fighters. Ivy, in particular, was rocking some detailed stockings and accessories. Nightmare wasn't quite as provocative, but he looked like quite the bad a** with his buff and demonic elements given a high level of detail.

The trailer didn't give us much to go by, but a release from Namco Bandai promised we can expect both returning and new characters, as well as a battle system with which they will fight it out. The release also offered the existence of interactive arenas and new gameplay modes in the new game, but it did not elaborate on those features. Outside of these details, there's not much to say about Soulcalibur IV until Namco Bandai releases more information in the coming months.