The rest of the single-player modes are decent enough. "Tales of Souls" comprises the game's story mode. Each character's story unfolds via moderate amounts of text and some recycled cutscenes, but like it or not, you'll have to play it to unlock the main cast of characters that aren't available from the get-go. It bears mention that the enemy A.I. in Soul Calibur III can get pretty brutal, so prepare yourself for some frustration (not to mention possible peripheral damage) when you're trying to go beat Tales with a character you're not familiar with.

The "Soul Arena" mode, meanwhile, offers more quick-and-dirty matches, most of which are fun, and all of which are gimmicky as heck, alluding to some of the zanier missions in past SC games. Finally, there's "World Championship" mode, which aims to re-create, in your own home, a sanctioned Soul Calibur tourney. If you make your way through the brackets and win the trophy, you can earn yourself a small fortune in in-game gold, with which to buy whatever unlockables your heart desires. But be sure to use a character you're familiar with -- you can't change it once the tourney starts, and the enemy A.I. gets pretty brutal in the later brackets.

Not that it'll necessarily be easy to choose, given how insane the character count is in Soul Calibur III. In total, there are more than 40 character hidden in there, though to be fair, a whole bunch of those are pretty throwaway (they're either B-grade palette-and-moveset swaps of "real" characters, or else some designer's create-a-character experiment that made it into the final game). There are three new "real" characters in the game, though, and for the most part, they seem to be pretty much on-par with the established cast.

Zasalamel seems to be one of the best characters in the game. He's a large-sized character who wields a bulky weapon -- a wicket scythe -- but he's devastatingly mobile despite, and armed with some brutal juggles and air-attack throws. Fans of Mitsurugi, who craved a bit more mobility with his reserved style, will definitely take a liking to Setsuka. Armed with blade hidden in a parasol, and decked out like she'd belong at an Edo-era tea house, Setsuka is very good at closing distance with lightning-fast quickness. Finally, there's Tira, the one you're probably most familiar with if you've been following SCIII throughout it's development. Personally, I can't get a handle on her. She's the one with the crazed countenance, the outfit that's tattered in all the right places, and jagged hula-hoop weapon. She seems to be good on ringing opponents out, but other than that, the jury's still out … as far as I'm concerned.