Game Music Showcase: Soul Calibur

Soul Calibur is one of Namco's two signature fighting game series, the other being Tekken. It is the second game in the Soul series, the first being Soul Edge in 1996. The game series then grew out of using different words after 'Soul', and simply went on to become its own line of games, with sequels tacking on a number after the title Soul Calibur. It was released in Japanese arcades in 1998, and then ported to Dreamcast in 1999, and instantly became a smash hit.

The Soul Calibur saga introduced several innovations 3D fighting game genre, in the same way Street Fighter II brought up 2D fighting. Its main success was not just the graphics, but the character movement. Unlike any other 3D fighting game before it, Soul Calibur introduced an Eight-Way Run system for the fighters to move along the third axis more freely, allowing the environment in the fighting arena to be viewed from all angles, and later features multiple environments for characters to bash their way in despite not having free roaming access to different parts of the stage whenever they want. It is also the fighting game series of focus when guest fighters are concerned; featuring characters from different universes altogether, and most of them very unexpected!

Soul Calibur songs have an epic feeling when played on Taiko, as the team chose carefully to pick out only the most powerful sounding themes from the SC games, and they remain some of the most satisfying songs to play in the Game Music genre.