Did anyone really believe when they disbanded Project Souls after Soul Calibur IV and said that there would be no more Soul Calibur games? Neither did we and now they have put the old team together again to carry on the series' legacy of fast, visually astounding and impressive technical fighting gameplay.

The return of the Soul Calibur series owes as much to the power of the fans as it does to the power of the games themselves. Namco took the decision to reform Project Souls and continue the series in response to a petition from the Soul Calibur community.

The guys at Project Souls haven't totally decided to go back to the old Soul Calibur we know and love though. They have moved the story on some 17 years from the last installment aging those characters that have returned and taking the opportunity to add in some new fighters as well to spice things up a bit.

Soul Calibur IV had departed from the formula a bit, concentrating a bit more on the fighting with very little story to speak of. Of course the story has always been a bit tenuous and utterly ridiculous but it always provided a nice counterpoint to the balanced, technical and well-paced fighting that has been the series trademark. In Soul Calibur V there is more emphasis on the storyline adding a bit more depth to the game again and pushing the eternal saga of the cursed blades forward.

The best way to think of Soul Calibur V is as a refinement. Many fans had problems with the balancing of Soul Calibur IV, especially when Yoda was concerned and the newly reformed Project Souls team is working hard to ensure that the balancing in Soul Calibur V is pitch perfect.

There's no hands-on time with Soul Calibur V at this stage but Namco has managed to show off comprehensively the way the game performs with some battles showing off some of the game's spectacular arenas and the odd new character.

Soul Calibur V's new arenas are spectacular. We got to have a look at four of the new backdrops, Conquerors Coliseum, Tranquil Wasteland, Sinking Merchant Ship and Torture Chamber. Each one is meticulously detailed and nicely dynamic. They are also amazingly colourful despite the game's dark themes, a feat that the series always manages without creating an uncomfortable dissonance.

The character models are equally impressive. Old hands in the series, Mitsurugi, Ivy, Siegfried, Pyrra and ZWEI have all aged appropriately and their animations are the most fluid they have ever been even in this early build of the game. The new characters, Pyrra and Patroklus are every bit as immaculately conceived as the game's original characters, looking and feeling at home on the game's roster.

Nobody picks up a copy of a Soul Calibur game to look at it though. The battles that we saw had a nice flow to them and demonstrated just how far the series has come. Project Souls are hoping to make the fights in Soul Calibur V the most dynamic and nerve-wracking yet. This is an admirable goal and it might just be something they can achieve.

Each individual battle we witnessed had a great flow to it. Timing, as usual, is everything. Fights can swing wildly with some carefully timed moves with each character having their own strengths and weaknesses alongside a selection of unique weapons. The special moves are truly spectacular, erupting in all-encompassing pyrotechnics and dealing some serious damage to boot.

In changing shooting for a more tense and dynamic flow to the game Project Souls has taken some of the pace out of the fights. This is definitely a good thing as it means that it is more difficult to run away with a fight especially in multiplayer mode. The pace has been replaced by the potential for winning a fight that you are clearly losing. This will make for some very interesting games both locally and and should be successful in creating the tension that Project Souls are striving for.

Soul Calibur has always been one of the very best fighting games around. The skills required to master the series' many different weapon fighting styles has set Soul Calibur apart from the competition, especially when the doesn't use weapons.

The return of Soul Calibur V is not a surprise and it probably won't push the boundaries of the fighting genre. What it will do, from what we've seen so far is refine the formula that they have been working on since the series arrived with Soul Blade since it arrived in 1996. New characters, battle arenas and a rebalanced combat system can contribute towards Soul Calibur V being the best in the series.

Soul Calibur V is due some time in 2012 on and PS3.

By Ewan Aiton