First off, this is one of the funniest fucking games I've ever played. Beating someone within a pixel of death then taking one wrong step and getting blasted out of the ring for it? Getting launched 20 feet into the sky by Taki? Voldo, in general? All comic gold.

As a kid I ate up the Weapon Master mode, which is the best single player campaign I've ever seen in a fighting game to this day. Recently we started running this at my fighting game locals, and it's got as much depth as the best games in the genre. So excited to keep digging into this game and to plumb the depths of its easy-to-learn-lifetime-to-master mechanics.

It's a shame that all the following SC games added universal mechanics that essentially invalidated the unique character traits and turned this into one big RPS. SoulCalibur II stands as the most pure, probably the most well-balanced, definitely the most fun in the whole series.

TLDR: An easy frontrunner for best 3D fighting game ever made.

Not entirely sure why the home versions of this game are treated as completely different entries here. Maybe it's because of the guest characters.

Anyway this is one of the best fighting games ever made and quite possibly in contention for the best video game sequel ever.

Smooth responsive combat, excellent sound design, great sense of movement, easy to pick up and play, some what challenging to get good at, pretty good balance, the best stages in the series come from this game, the best soundtrack in the series comes from this game as well. The Xbox version(the version I grew up on for the most part) is graphically stunning.

This is a perfect game

A big shame the main legacy that one of the best fighters ever and its franchise left off were the focus on weird guest characters.
No other 3D fighting game series has come close to having so much depth while also being this easy to get into. the movement is extremely fast and fluid thanks to be able to run and move in all 8 directions by holding a direction compared to tekken which requires KBD to be able to move around fast. the execution for a lot of combos is also very simple. No meter to take care of either. What's there are Characters that can be played whoever the player wishes due to how versatile each moveset is and focus on mind games positioning.
With the main producer gone it's unlikely to ever see another game in this series. Kinda sad to see the only 3D fighter that I liked die away.

I had played some fighting games in random arcades, Smash 64 and Soul Edge on my friend's Dreamcast before this. When Soul Calibur 2 released though, it hit differently than all of those. This was the first fighting game my friends and I truly grinded to get good, to the point where now decades later I'm still able to pick up this game and keep pace with players who competed in tournaments for it once upon a time. This game was the start of my competitive fighting game drive.

Personal backstory aside, let me start by saying this game was a masterpiece and beloved for a reason. Not only did this game have strong core system mechanics and cool characters, including some crazy guest characters, this was one of the most accessible fighting games of that whole era. It did all of the things most fighting games do with versus, practice, arcade, etc. The mode that really made the game for me though and helped my friends and I transition from casual to competitive was the weapon master mode.

Weapon Master Mode is a RPG style mode where you take your character through these dungeons fighting battles with special modifications to gain exp and unlock new weapons. The battles get increasingly harder and help reinforce basic game mechanics and strategies, slowly forcing you to learn to play the game. This mode also unlocked weapons we could use in a special kind of versus match too, which made us want to progress farther to unlock more weapons to play with, which in turn meant we had to get better as players to progress in the weapon master mode. This mode did such a good job of subtly reinforcing the fighting game gameplay loop and making us want to improve. In a lot of ways, this was the precursor to SF6's World Tour mode. This was genius and helped turn my friends and I from button mashers to competitive players who then turned to each other to try out our new skills.

Of course this led us to want to become better to beat each other's growing skills, which led us to labbing more optimal combos, and pretty soon we were really good at this game. It's a shame we never knew about tournaments but honestly we got so much enjoyment out of this game's basic gameplay loop that I have no regrets. Pretty soon we were having incredibly intense battles on varied stages with a pretty decently balanced cast. We also had all 3 consoles in our friend group, so we got to use all of the guest characters as well who were all a blast.

Honestly the only downside I can give this game is that since guest characters were console exclusive, I never got to test my Link against my friends' Spawn or Heihachi. Otherwise 10/10 game. It's crazy that Soul Calibur never reached this height again.

Transcending history and the world, a tale of souls and swords eternally retold. I don't think there is a fighting game out there with more emotional and personal significance than SoulCalibur 2. I can name every character, hum every tune, and warp back to a simpler time, before the struggles of adulthood every time I hear this game boot up. Even the intro alone is enough to get emotions going. SoulCalibur was always a benchmark for gaming visuals and overall great design, and 2 is no letdown. It expands upon the first game in just about every way, while keeping it faithful to why the original was one of the most important games of its time. Guest characters and multiple weapons spice up the gameplay here, as well as a full dungeon crawler mode to add variety to regular arcade ladders. I have no real complaints here, it's just a god damn solid fighting game that means a lot to me personally, and will always be attracting crowds until the end of time.