Soul Edge

Soul Edge is a 1995 fighting game developed and published by Namco for arcades. It is the first installment in the Soulcalibur series. Introduced at the JAMMA trade show in November 1995, the full arcade game was released on February 20, 1996 (Soul Edge) and May 16, 1996 (Soul Edge Ver. II) on System 11 hardware, the same board used by Tekken and Tekken 2. Later in December, an upgraded and expanded version of the game was ported to the PlayStation; this version was renamed Soul Blade outside Japan and released in 1997. Soul Edge is a 3D fighting game and was the second such game to be based on weapons, following Battle Arena Toshinden (itself preceded by the 2D Samurai Shodown series). The plot centers upon the eponymous sword, rumored to offer unlimited power to anyone who can find and wield it, leading to nine warriors attempting to pursue the tenth who is rumored to have the sword. The game was a commercial and critical success, with praise given to graphics, gameplay and characters. It was followed up with Soulcalibur in July 1998.