Top Players Show Us How It’s Done in the Soul Calibur 5 Demo

Watching two master players fight it out in a fighting game they know and love is like watching some kind of choreographed boxing match with fancy moves and ridiculous characters. Wait, that’s wrestling, so never mind that thought.

The recorded stream matches show incredible skill and quite a few character matchups, including returning characters like Ivy, Maxi and Mitsurugi, as well as new characters, like Leixia, a fifteen year old girl wielding a Chinese sword and Patroklos Alexandra, a guy who uses a short sword and a shield.

One feature I’ve noticed while watching the matches is that characters seem to lose some of their attire as they lose matches. That seems to be purely cosmetic, and no other signs of damage appear. Also, the graphics have gotten a nice upgrade from the last installment, and face animations are much more expressive.

Maxi VS Siegfried

Astaroth VS Ivy

Soul Calibur 5 is slated for release in the first quarter of 2012.