Soul Calibur III: Definitive Edition for PS2 [RELEASE v1.20 - February 2023]

TopazHacker

The Unknown Soul
WCMaxi from Namco said:
"Soul Calibur III: Arcade Edition is a re-tuned, re-vamped, and, most importantly, fixed version of Soul Calibur III. Naturally, all glitches found in the console version have been fixed. In addition to that we've re-tuned the overall balance of many moves and re-vamped Amy, Hwang and Li Long as official characters. All three have been revised into more unique move sets and help to expand the already expansive Soul Calibur III line-up."


INTRODUCTION:

This is a port of the beloved Arcade Edition, released on System 246, to the PlayStation 2 with some extra features peppered in. It tries to capture the gameplay feel of Arcade Edition whilst also packing in some additional changes.

Changes made to it include, but are not limited to:
  • Inclusion of AMY, LI-LONG and HWANG in the main cast as playable characters, with their own stories in Tales of Souls.
  • INFERNO as a boss to all Soul Calibur wielders.
  • Certain moveset bug fixed and balances from the Arcade Edition.
  • Changes to gameplay aimed to fix game-breaking issues occurring on PCSX2 whilst maintaining hardware compatibility.
  • Extra features such as NIGHT TERROR being playable.
  • ...much more, and more to come!
This was the work of a lot of people within many years, researching the game and trying to make this a reality. And after many years, it's here! Well, sort of. You see, there are some caveats I am still trying to fix myself. Such as:
  • Arcade Edition specific movesets breaking a lot of gameplay elements [Such as text, throws, NIGHT TERROR, INFERNO].
  • Arcade Edition costumes 3-6 breaking the game entirely.
  • AMY's file location colliding DIRECTLY with that of COLOSSUS.
  • OLCADAN not being able to utilize AMY, LI-LONG and HWANG.
  • WILL-O-THE-WISP breaking the game entirely.
These caveats were too great to ignore. And as such, Arcade Edition movesets and costumes are not currently included. However, a lot of progress have been made trying to fix these issues and soon, perhaps before we even know it, a version sporting both Arcade Edition costumes and movesets will be released.

PLANNED CHANGES:
  • Implementation of AMY, LI-LONG and HWANG version of "The Ancient" weapons.
  • Implementations to OLCADAN's AI, making him able to utilize new characters.
  • Fixing all of the remaining PCSX2 specific bugs.
  • A patchmaker and a patcher so I do not have to upload the ENTIRE GODDAMN ISO FILE.
KNOWN ISSUES:
  • AMY only has one costume.
  • Shady hitboxes on INFERNO cause him to take more damage than usual. This has been worked around unreliably.
  • INFERNO is perhaps a bit overpowered.
CHANGELOG:
  • RELEASE v0.50
    • Moved AMY, LI LONG, and HWANG to the main character selection list.
    • Moved ABYSS to the bonus character selection list.
    • Made some preparations for moveset ports.
    • Removed a variant of WILL-O-THE-WISP (It broke the game.)
  • RELEASE v0.75
    • Made INFERNO the end-story boss to all Soul Calibur wielders.
    • Added the OST "Hellfire" from Soul Calibur 2.
    • Fixed all of the mandatory battles in Tales of Souls being bugged on PCSX2.
    • Moved N. TERROR to the bonus character selection list, rendering him to be playable.
    • Renamed NIGHT TERROR to N. TERROR.
  • RELEASE v1.00
    • Great Wall can no longer be canceled. [XIANGHUA]
    • Slowed down the unblockable part of Silent Stream by 50%. [SOPHITIA]
    • Fixed a bug which caused a crash on N. TERROR vs N. TERROR.
    • Fixed a bug which caused N. TERROR's wings to go missing on Quick Play.
  • RELEASE v1.10
    • 1K base damage has been increased to 20. [REVENANT]
    • Great Wall base damage reduced to 41. [XIANGHUA]
    • Lodestar Strike base damage has been reduced to 28. [SOPHITIA]
    • El Fortune base damage has been reduced to 18. [SOPHITIA]
    • Fixed some minor bugs.
  • RELEASE v1.20
    • The OLK Structure has been changed to allow further modifications.
    • AMY has been given her own Tales of Souls story! HWANG and LI-LONG are next in line!
    • Cutscene timings have been altered. THE NARRATOR, ZASALAMEL, and ABYSS no longer get cut off in the middle of their sentences.
    • Fixed some issues regarding Bonus Characters.
    • The inputs for Montanta el Fin and Rising Viper have been swapped. [RAPHAEL]
SCREENSHOTS:
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WALL OF CREDITS:

Many people have contributed to this project over the years, and I want to thank all of them here in this post:
  • @Ooofmatic and @C.AntonioFalcon for jumpstarting this mod's development by exploring both Soul Calibur 3's PlayStation 2 and Arcade Editions.
  • @Byros for discovering the location of the elements missed by people over the years, such as the character selection icons.
  • @Ian and @Amysorel3 for discovering crucial information about Arcade Edition elements.
  • Ultralisk27 on YouTube for discovering the Bonus Selection Screen's location in Soulcalibur 3's RAM, which greatly accelerated the process of development.
  • YukiXXL on YouTube for fixing N. TERROR not being able to be selected on character selection.
  • The entirety of 8WAYRUN and Soulcalibur 3 Modding Community for their help and support over the years.
  • NoOneYet#7412 and Gazzza#2210 on Discord for their assistance with AMY's story writing and testing.
  • Televo#9400 for many of the custom assets that [are/will be] used.
CONCERNS WITH COPYRIGHT:

First off I want to point out this has been done before. ISOs have been shared on this website many times in it's past without any legal action to note. But in any case.

inhales

SOULCALIBUR, SOUL EDGE, PROJECT SOUL AND ALL RELATED TERMS AND MEDIA ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF BANDAI NAMCO LTD. AND HAVE ALL OF THEIR RIGHTS RESERVED TO THE AFOREMENTIONED COMPANY. THIS ISO9660 FILE HAS BEEN PREPARED AND SHARED UNDER FAIR USE FOR USE IN SCIENCE AND EDUCATION UNDER REVERSE ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING CATEGORIES AND ALSO FOR FUN, PERSONAL ONLY USE. THIS ISO9660 FILE WILL BE REMOVED ONCE A PATCHER PROGRAM FOR THE GAME IS MADE AND WILL BE REPLACED WITH A PATCH FILE REQUIRING THE GAME'S ISO9660 FILE TO USE.

THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THE TITLE SCREEN OF THE GAME IS MEANT TO BE A CREDIT NOTE TELLING PEOPLE WHO PLAY THE MODIFIED GAME THAT IT IS, INDEED, A MODIFIED COPY OF THE GAME MADE BY ME, TOPAZTK, AND NOT ME, TOPAZTK, TRYING TO CLAIM ANY COPYRIGHT OF THE AFOREMENTIONED GAME ITSELF. THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE IN THE GAME HAS BEEN UPDATED TO SAY "2020, BANDAI NAMCO LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED" TO COMPLY WITH THIS. "TOPAZTK" IN THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE IS NOT A PART OF THE "ALL RIGHTS RESERVED" STATEMENT AND SHOULD NOT BE SEEN AS COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT. THIS STATEMENT WILL BE CHANGED IF REQUESTED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDING COMPANY IN QUESTION, BANDAI NAMCO LTD.

BY DOWNLOADING THIS ISO9660 FILE YOU HEREBY AGREE THAT YOU LEGALLY OWN A TRUE, PHYSICAL OR DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME ACQUIRED BY LEGAL MEANS. I, WHO AM LEGALLY KNOWN AS "TOPAZ WHITELOCK" AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT AS THAT IS NOT MY INTENTION NOR MY PURPOSE TO DO SO.

Now that we got that out of the way...

DOWNLOAD:

RELEASE v0.50 does not require too many files to work, and hence can be found at: http://bit.ly/Arcade-V050 as files of the project.
RELEASE v0.75 can be downloaded from: http://bit.ly/Arcade-V075 as a 7z file containing an ISO file.
RELEASE v1.00 can be downloaded from: http://bit.ly/Arcade-V100 as a 7z file containing an ISO file.
RELEASE v1.10 can be downloaded from: http://bit.ly/Arcade-V110 as a 7z file containing an ISO file.

RELEASE v1.20 was renamed the "Definitive Edition" and can be downloaded from: https://bit.ly/Definitive-v120

Happy Modding, and thank you to all who made this possible!
~TopazTK
 
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Q:
Will AMY, LI-LONG, and HWANG have stories?
A: That is complicated to answer. It IS possible to alternate the files so they have stories. However, AMY is problematic as her position [Character ID = 0x30] collided with not one, not two but THREE characters. If I can solve AMY's problems, all three of the Arcade Edition Trio will have their own TALES OF SOULS stories.
Well, they now do! They are just placeholders for now (With the book portraits already being in place) but with time, proper stories will be written and implemented for them!

Q: Will you release the tools used to make this port?
A: I used to use the ALPHA versions of the tools from my own ProjectSoul Modding project. However, as they caused issues, I decided to do everything by hand. Regardless, when they are ready and stable and... actually work, I will release all the tools necessary to make a mod similar to this one.

Q: Will certain moveset bug fixed from the AE be implemented on this port?
A: The entire movesets will be if possible. But for now, just the input frame data on critical movesets.

Q: Legends Mode, Arcade Mode, and Competition Mode.
A: No. I will not limit this game to three modes just to retain the Arcade Edition prestige. This port is a combination of the best from PlayStation 2 and Arcade Editions. PlayStation 2's modes are LEGENDARY compared to the Arcade Edition ones.

Q: Will AMY, LI-LONG, and HWANG be encounterable in Chronicles of the Sword?
A: Yes.

Q: Are you worried about Namco taking this port down?
A: Currently, I am legally weak against this. They have every right to take this port down. However, once a patch system is made for the game, they will not have any legal reason to take this port down.
Through the DMCA act, this mod is now 100% copyrighted to me. Unless I claim I made Soulcalibur III as a whole (Which I am not) and can split the mod from the game at any time per NAMCO's request (Which I can), nothing is gonna happen.

Q: Will INFERNO be playable?
A: I cannot express how buggy making INFERNO playable will be. So currently, no such thing is planned.

Q: Can the problem with Arcade Edition movesets be fixed?
A: Things are not looking up. It would seem that Arcade Edition movesets use System 246 specific functions found only in the Arcade Edition BIOS. Some more experimentation is underway, but I cannot promise anything.

Q: Is there anything I can do to help? Perhaps support you on Patreon?
A: There did not used to be but, life is harsh. And as such, you can support me on Patreon if you so desire: https://www.patreon.com/topaztk

Q: Will this FAQ be updated?
A: You bet!
 
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Implementation of Arcade Edition movesets and costumes.

I take it you mean the new moves for all the characters outside of Li Long, Hwang and Amy, right? I only ask because I've seen some mods on Youtube showing Li Long and Hwang with their Arcade Edition movesets.
 
I take it you mean the new moves for all the characters outside of Li Long, Hwang and Amy, right? I only ask because I've seen some mods on Youtube showing Li Long and Hwang with their Arcade Edition movesets.

I mean all of them, including the Arcade Edition Trio. It is not possible to implement them singularly since they require the core Arcade Edition files, and those files break regular movesets and other core elements of the game as mentioned before.
 
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I really like this modded version of Soul Calibur 3! I'm impressed! I really can't wait for more content! I have a few questions, will you add in more unusable characters as bonus characters (Colossus, Charade, etc?) Also, are the balance issues for characters and bugs fixed in this version of the game like the arcade version?
 
I really like this modded version of Soul Calibur 3! I'm impressed! I really can't wait for more content! I have a few questions, will you add in more unusable characters as bonus characters (Colossus, Charade, etc?) Also, are the balance issues for characters and bugs fixed in this version of the game like the arcade version?
Well, the first question is a yes... sort of. Support for Night Terror is already in and support for Charade is planned. However, no support for Colossus is planned yet.
As for the second one, not yet because too many things broke in exchange for those fixes. I am trying to make a stable port, not a one-mode game with no proper text.
 
I take it that it doesn't support cheats with PCSX2, meaning I need to unlock everything all over again. (Edit: nevermind I'm an idiot and I just needed to refresh the iso. I'm definitely looking forward to messing around with this one, I can't wait to see how this improves.)
 
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Hello! I have a bug to report, when hovering over Night Terror with Costume 2, the game will automatically soft lock. I think this is why you can't play as Night Terror with another Night Terror. Maybe this can be solved by copying Night Terror's look for his second Costume (or maybe giving it a purple look which I think would look cool.) Either way, I wish you well!
 
Hello! I have a bug to report, when hovering over Night Terror with Costume 2, the game will automatically soft lock. I think this is why you can't play as Night Terror with another Night Terror. Maybe this can be solved by copying Night Terror's look for his second Costume (or maybe giving it a purple look which I think would look cool.) Either way, I wish you well!
This is known and was fixed in the upcoming v1!
 
i'm excited for amy, lilong and hwang's tales of souls mode.


also, can you do something for fix the soul calibur 3 slow motion to ps3 when he is converted? :'c
 
Hello, I'm so glad that this mod isn't abandoned. I'm glad to see you making more changes to this amazing game! Keep up the great work!
 
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