Since this Let's Mulligan is more for practice (I'll report how I did on Saturday) and unlocking purposes, I made sure that Arcade mode was set to one fight wins on easy. It was rather embarassing that I almost died as my main (Cassandra). Okay, it was completely embarassing. I place the blame on forgetting how to fight.

Even though I clocked many, many hours into this game, it's been a long time since I've played it. I've also played the other games of the series since then, where some moves and timing is a little different. Currently, I'm mainly playing as Moe Blob Pyrrha in Soulcalibur 5. She does not play like Cassandra. So, I have to relearn what I unlearned for the other games. Awesome. It's... back there somewhere, but at least this way I have new ways to look at a match.

Anyway, Arcade mode won't help me unlock a lot of the things, so it was time to head to the mission mode.

Mission mode in Soul Caibur II is called Weapon Master, and wraps a little story around your character wandering around looking for clues and generally trying to be the best, like no one ever was. As you battle, you gain experience points and money. The money is the important bit here, since you use it to buy weapons, artwork, movies, and costumes. The weapons have different benefits (longer reach, more prone to break guard, stronger attack, stronger defence, healing) which makes these misson battles easier. They can even be equipped for arcade and versus modes, with their benefits turned on or off.

The story is divided into chapters, with various missions within each chapter. The further you progress, the harder things get, of course.

I'll be (mostly) playing as Cassandra, with Raphael coming out for a few fights.

Chapter One: Regulus Proving Grounds

Stage 1: Proving Grounds

This is the "how do I play Soul Series" stage. You learn how to do the basic manuvers here.

Yawn and sigh, I unlock Extra Practice Mode. (Practice Mode with the funky new weapons I'll pick up in Weapon Master)


Stage 2: Bulwark Ruins

Fuck yeah, I'm fighting Team Saiyuki 1.0 (Kilik, Maxi, and Xianghua). 66B! 236B! 22AA! Repeat until they're dead! Experience and Gold get!


Stage 3: Warrior's Trial

And now, my rival appears.

Fuck me, it's Seung Mina.

A little back story: senkami is a Seung Mina fanboy. A big one. Whenever we used to play Soul Calibur 2 he would use her to fish and fish and fish and oh, wait here's a 2K to screw you up and then you fish again.

Luckily, AI!Mina does not play like senkami!Mina. That still doesn't mean that the caution totally went away (EXACTLY AS PLANNED), and I had to fight her twice. Boo hiss.

Still, I got my Experience and Gold (You also get consolation amount of either or both, depending on the match you lose.) and I unlocked a shiny new area to play with.

Chapter Two: The Journey Begins

Stage 1: Thuban Ferry

This is the stage where things start to get interesting. For this mission, you have to land 20 hits on your opponent and suvive the match. I got to about 15 when I just pulled out 236B and got a Ring Out. And that counts as a win. Experience and Gold get, hooray for me.


Stage 2: Village of Arche

In this stage, you and your opponent are pushed down the arena due to strong winds. This was a job for 44B. Hello, ring out, and hello, Experience and Gold.


Stage 3: Minkar Mine

Another thing I forgot about in this mode: the dungeons. Every stage, there's a dungeon that involves you moving around from square to square on a screen. Each square represents a fight you must win in order to advance to the next square, until you find and defeat the boss of the dungeon. These fights also tend to have different gimmicks going for them.

Minkar Mine, being the first of the dungeons, is really easy and really short. I pretty much did 66B and 22A for the whole time.

Hooray, I unlocked Yoshimitsu.

Part Two: Weapon Master Mode Chapters 3 and 4, coming soon.