Soul Edge is a 1995 3D Fighting Game developed by Namco for arcades. It was later ported to the PlayStation under the title Soul Blade. It is the first installment of the Soul Series.

The game follows a group of warriors of varying backgrounds and motivations, all of whom are determined to stop the dread pirate Cervantes and destroy his demonic sword, the accursed Soul Edge.

The game is focused on weapon-based combat, encouraging the use and management of "Critical Edge" combo strings, "Guard Impact" counterattacks, and the Weapon Gauge, which depletes every time a character blocks an attack. Additionally, a ring-out system allows for players to prematurely knock out their opponents by launching them out of the center of the stage. Overall, Soul Edge encourages offensive play and mastery over each character's weapon.

A sequel, Soulcalibur, was released in 1998.

This game provides examples of:

• All There in the Manual: Downplayed. Much of the characters' motivations and backstories can be gleaned from their win quotes and character endings, but the full scope of the story and Soul Edge's influence can only be understood by reading the manual.
• And the Adventure Continues:
  • Hwang's good ending has him departing to fight for his country.
  • Mitsurugi declares that his training as a samurai has only just begun.
  • Mina leaves home to have more adventures in her good ending.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: You can unlock a new costume for Siegfried and two for Sophitia.
• Apologetic Attacker: If you choose to have Sophitia do a Groin Attack, she will apologise.
• Armour Is Useless: This set a precedent for the series. Sophitia even gets two costumes with no armour. Siegfried is the one character who wears head-to-toe plate armour.
• The Artifact: Han Myong as a guest character is a remnant from when they planned to have several more who would only show up in Edge Master Mode.
• Artifact of Doom: The titular Soul Edge is a Living Weapon that corrupts the minds of those who wield it.
• Ax-Crazy: Cervantes is a sociopathic pirate with a penchant for mass murder, having already slaughtered his entire crew in order to claim Soul Edge for himself.
• Bare Hands Barely Hurt: Characters can have their weapons broken, which will force them to finish the match bare-handed and severely underpowered on their damage output.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Siegfried is obsessed with tracking down his father's killer and is convinced that Soul Edge will help him do so. In reality, Siegfried himself killed his father by accident and is in deep denial over that fact, and Soul Edge's influence ends up driving him into villainy.
• Big Bad: Cervantes de León, a power-hungry Spanish pirate that wields Soul Edge and seeks to harvest enough souls to achieve ultimate power.
• Bittersweet Ending: Some of the endings lead to this.
  • Siegfried refuses the Soul Edge and admits he killed his father, breaking down crying over it.
  • Rock realises his parents might still be alive, but chooses not to search for them in favor of being a surrogate father to Bangoo.
  • Taki in her less happy ending is still able to repair her blade and seal a demon as opposed to outright vanquishing it.
  • Cervantes breaks free from Soul Edge's influence and, devastated at the damage he's caused, decides to sacrifice his own life to destroy the swords.
• Blade Lock: Only appearing in this game, if two characters attack at the same time, they will initiate a "Weapon Lock", with both characters locking their weapons temporarily. To separate, both players initiate a brief rock-paper-scissors minigame, where one must Button Mash one of the three attack buttons to win. If players both press the horizontal attack or beat kick button, then both attacks are repelled, and if both attacks press the kick button, they both receive damage.
• Bonus Feature Failure: Your reward for beating Edge Master Mode (the game's Story Mode) with every character and getting all of their weapons is the bonus character, Sophitia!!, who is Sophitia without armor and her most basic weapon set. Players will have already unlocked Sophitia!, which is the same concept (a secret alternate version of Sophitia without her armor for Fanservice only obtained by collecting all of Sophitia's weapons) and basic weapons.
• Bookends: Both the opening FMV and Sophitia's ending have Hephaestus appearing before her.
• Bowdlerization:
  • Li Long's nunchaku are changed to a three-section staff in the PAL release.
  • In the Japanese version, Sophitia is fully nude in the opening FMV when Hephaestus appears before her. It gets changed to her wearing a bathing suit in other releases.
• Breakable Weapons: Fighters can destroy their opponent's weapon if they block too much damage, or if they use a certain special move too many times. Fighters stripped of their weapon will be unable to block and their fists will barely do any damage. This meter refills every round.
• Catch of the Doomsday: SoulEdge's Arcade Mode ending takes place in the modern day, where the titular Evil Weapon is at the bottom of the sea. A scuba diver finds it, with the implication that they will become its next wielder.
• Decapitation Presentation: Occurs in Siegfried Schtauffen's backstory. Siegfried holds up the severed head of a knight he just ambushed, showing it off to his fellow mercenaries, only to realize it was his beloved father's head. He ends up blocking the memories of the traumatic incident in order to convince himself he didn't do it, but his dwindling sanity leads him to getting possessed by Soul Edge at the end of his quest.
• Decoy Protagonist: The box art and advertising depict Mitsurugi as the game's protagonist, yet Siegfried gets the most Character Development of anyone on the roster and is the lynchpin for the rest of the series' events.
• Demonic Possession: Soul Edge possesses and warps the minds of those who wield it, as Siegfried unfortunately finds out at the end of his quest. In the PlayStation port, Hwang's non-canonical bad ending has him be possessed by Soul Edge too.
• Downer Ending: One of the characters' endings is usually sadder than the others. Some notable examples:
  • Hwang gets possessed by the Soul Edge and murders a young boy at Han Myong's training school.
  • Siegfried becomes Nightmare against his will and is terrorising a village. This would become canon as of the next game.
  • Mina has learned nothing from her journey, and Han Myong forces her to go through Training from Hell.
  • Li Long succumbs to his wounds, and his supposed dead lover Chie is revealed to be alive and carrying his baby.
  • Rock chooses to search for his parents, knowing it would leave Bangoo alone.
  • Mitsurugi fails to beat Tanegashima and with the Soul Edge destroyed, he embarks on another hopeless quest to find a more powerful weapon.
  • For Voldo, the Soul Edge pretends to be his master's ghost and tricks him into serving him forever.
  • Cervantes opts to use the Soul Edge to terrorise the seven seas.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • This game lacks the eight-directional movement that would go on to define the rest of the series, although it does feature sidestepping and side throws which were technologically impressive at the time. As a result it takes place on a proper 3D field, which would not be seen in its competitor Tekken for a couple of years. It also lacks other staple mechanics such as the Ukemi.
  • Soul Edge features a weapon durability mechanic via the Weapon Gauge, where the fighters are forced to do battle with their bare hands if the gauge is depleted. This concept is completely absent from every other Soul game, primarily because all characters have the same moves on doing it.
  • Soul Edge has a Weapon Lock mechanic that triggers upon two characters attacking each other at the same time, victory being decided by players engaging in a brief rock-paper-scissors Button Mashing minigame. This feature never returned in future Soul entries.
  • The Final Boss form is simply called "Soul Edge", whereas the following games would clarify its true name as "Inferno", the spirit that lives within Soul Edge itself.
  • Nightmare is simply called "Siegfried!" in this game and sounds identical to the normal Siegfried, in stark contrast to his deep, distorted voice in all subsequent games.
  • The Critical Edges are long strings of combos that require extra button combinations to reach their full potential, and can be used at any time since they drain the Weapon Gauge. They would end up being dropped from the series for a long while, until V brought them back as a proper Limit Break.
  • Soul Calibur doesn't exist yet, and Soul Edge is the only powerful sword known to mankind.
  • Sophitia's sister is named 'Kathandra' in Edge Master Mode instead of Cassandra.
  • Taki uses only one kodachi in this game. In every subsequent game she uses two. Mekkimaru was just another weapon with no story significance here, before becoming her second blade.
  • Some character names are spelt differently. Hwang was 'Sung-Kyung' instead of the 'Seong-Gyeong' he became later. Mina was 'Seung Mina' instead of 'Seong'.
  • Taki and Sophitia appear to be rivals, as in the latter's Edge Master Mode, Taki sneaks up and poisons her as payback for her previous defeat. Soul Calibur has Taki saving Sophitia in her battle with Cervantes, nursing her wounds and bringing her back to Greece.
  • Siegfried sports short hair for this game only (except for a different costume in III).
  • Rock's full name is said to be Nathaniel William Adams and Rock is just a nickname. This was a Dub Name Change on the translator's part, and all subsequent games have Rock as his given name.
  • Sophitia's Player 2 costume has brown hair for the only time in the series. This is because the design was originally for a guest character called Azola that was dropped. VI eventually referenced the scrapped design with a black-haired alternative costume for Sophitia.
  • The health gauges lack the "falling chunks" visual effect that happens whenever damage is taken, a feature that has become a staple ever since its introduction in the sequel.
  • Characters can perform a ground pounce move to hit a downed opponent, an attack shared by none of the other installments.
• Earn Your Happy Ending:
  • Sophitia completes her quest to destroy the sword, is thanked by the Gods and told that everyone has been released from Soul Edge's influence. She returns home to her family.
  • Mina in her happy ending makes her father proud of her without even realising it and leaves to go on adventures of her own.
  • Taki uses Soul Edge's power to repair Rekkimaru, and defeats a demon without being corrupted by the sword's power.
• Eldritch Location: Valencia Port - Chaos is a heavily distorted and hellish version of Cervantes' stage, caused by Soul Edge warping the environment around it.
• Fanservice: In Sophitia's alternate arcade ending, players are treated to a fanservice-y scene where she takes a bath in a lake. The scene is mostly covered by mist from the lake, and when Sophitia hears someone get closer while she's bathing, she splashes them with water. She also has two character slots, Sophitia! and Sophitia!!, dedicated to fanservice. The former strips her down to a white minidress, while the latter has her battle in her swimwear from the alternate arcade ending.
• Fan Disservice: Voldo's costume is skimpy enough to show off his body but it's far too freaky to be attractive.
• Fanservice Pack: Sophitia gets two secret costumes - one without armour and one where she's in a one-piece swimsuit.
• Final Boss: The spirit within Soul Edge breaks free from the sword after Cervantes' defeat in order to give the player one last battle.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • In Edge Master Mode, some fights will come with in-story handicaps. For example, the character gets poisoned and their health bar slowly decreases. Sophitia has one where Taki ambushes her while exhausted, and she only has one tiny fraction of health left.
  • The weapons will sometimes have side effects based on how they would be in real life. Taki's Iron Fan is understandably weaker than her daggers. Sophitia's Fire Blade weakens her because of heat from the blade.
• Handicap Mission: Edge Master features various missions that impose a handicap on the player, such as the player being poisoned, taking Damage Over Time, or having the player start with less health than their opponent.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Siegfried's desire to defeat Cervantes and avenge his father leads to him becoming Soul Edge's next wielder.
• Multiple Endings: The PlayStation port features alternative endings in its arcade mode by inputting specific buttons. They range from happy (Siegfried managing to destroy Soul Edge before it can corrupt him) to creepy (Hwang being possessed by Soul Edge), to humorous (Voldo destroying Soul Edge by rubbing his head against it too hard).
  • Mitsurugi's ending takes the form of a bonus first-person fight against a soldier wielding a Tanegashima rifle. He will either take a bullet and decide to find a weapon that can overcome the Tanegashima, or evade the bullet, strike down the rifleman, and decide to start training again.
  • Hwang will either forego taking Soul Edge and embark on a journey across the world, or take Soul Edge back to his hometown and go on a killing spree under the cursed sword's influence.
  • Siegfried will either destroy Soul Edge and grieve over his father's death, or take it and become Nightmare.
  • Taki's Rekkimaru dagger shatters. Afterwards, she'll either reforge it, or purify Soul Edge and turn it into a new demon-slaying weapon.
  • Sophitia purges Soul Edge from the world and frees the world from its influence. The player is then treated to either seeing Sophitia commune with birds like a Disney princess, or taking a bath in a lake.
  • Rock will either take Soul Edge in the hopes of finding his parents, abandoning Bangoo in the process; or toss Soul Edge away and stick with Bangoo.
  • Voldo returns Soul Edge to his master's vault. He will either lay the blade at his master's throne and sit upon the throne as its protector, or have the sword break in his hands, driving him mad.
  • Seung Mina returns home to her father, who tests her reflexes with a surprise attack. She will either shirk from the attack, prompting her father to redouble her training; or she will evade it, finally being recognized as an adult and proceeding with her betrothal to Hwang (at least until she runs away from home).
  • Li Long either dies, or lives long enough to be lured by Soul Edge with a vision of his lover Chie to take up the sword.
  • Cervantes either sets out on a voyage of terror across the seas, or has a My God, What Have I Done? moment and makes amends by banishing Soul Edge from the world, sacrificing himself in doing so.
• Multi-Slot Character:
  • Siegfried gets two slots in the Soul Blade re-release, one as his normal form, and the other as the Secret Character "Siegfried!" This character is obtained after getting all of Siegfried's weapons in Edge Master and is selectable by going off of the default character select screen. This version of Siegfried is him using the power of Soul Edge in the arcade bad ending (the canonical one), which later games would dub "Nightmare".
  • Sophitia Alexandra gets not one, but three slots for herself as Sophitia, Sophitia!, and Sophitia!! in the Soul Blade re-release. There are no moveset changes for these versions of Sophitia, and the two extra slots use her normal sword and shield weapons. The only thing that's changed is that Sophitia is wearing a fanservicey costume; Sophitia! removes her armor and wears a simple white dress, while Sophitia!! leaves her in her swimwear from her arcade ending. Sophitia! is unlocked after obtaining all of Sophitia's weapons in Edge Master while Sophitia!! is unlocked after getting all of the weapons from everyone's Edge Master mode.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Zig-zagged. In Mitsurugi's arcade ending, he challenges the soldier wielding the Tanegashima to shoot him, believing himself to be invincible, even to bullets. It's played straight in the bad ending, where Mitsurugi loses to the soldier. In his good ending, it's subverted, where Mitsurugi evades the bullet and strikes down the rifleman with his katana.
• Never My Fault: A tragic example with Siegfried. Siegfried killed his father by accident, mistaking him for a bandit. His remorse over this action causes him to retreat into deep denial and become convinced that someone else is responsible.
• No Ending: Clearing the arcade mode with Sophitia!, Sophitia!!, Siegfried!, or Seong Han-Myeong doesn't trigger an ending scene and just cuts to credits.
• No Man Should Have This Power: In Hwang's Arcade ending in the PlayStation version, he feels the evil spirits within Soul Edge. He notes that, while its power could be used to help him, its power has already caused enough trouble and cannot be used to save his country. In response, he hurls Soul Edge into the horizon.
• Out of Sight, Out of Mind: In Rock and Hwang's Soul Blade arcade endings, should they choose to reject Soul Edge, they will get rid of it by hurling the sword into the horizon, in contrast to characters like Mitsurugi or Siegfried, who destroy the blade outright.
• Reforged Blade: In Taki's endings, her Rekkimaru weapon gets destroyed after fighting SoulEdge. In the original arcade and Edge Master endings, she will reforge Rekkimaru by herself. In the PS1 version's arcade ending, if she dodges the Soul Edge attacking her, she'll reforge Rekkimaru like in the original. If the player presses a button and catches Soul Edge, she'll reforge Soul Edge itself into a blade for her to use.
• Scenery Porn: A number of stages are built to show off the power of the Namco System 11 and PS1, particularly Eurydice Shrine and Valencia Port.
• Secret Character: Five in Soul Blade on the PS1: SoulEdge, two alternate versions of Sophitia, an alternate version of Siegfried based on the form he assumes in his bad arcade ending, and Seong Han-Myeong (spelled Han Myong in this game). They are unlocked by getting all of the weapons for a character in Edge Master or clearing the arcade mode.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: In Mitsurugi's ending, he becomes so convinced of his skills as a warrior that he challenges a soldier to shoot him with his Tanegashima rifle, believing that not even a bullets can stop him. It goes about as well as one would expect if the player doesn't beat Tanegashima (and is Mitsurugi's canon ending).
• The Three Faces of Eve: Seung Mina is the headstrong and innocent child, Taki is the mature and responsible wife, Sophitia the Ms. Fanservice is the seductress.
• Tragic Hero: Siegfried's obsessive desire to avenge his father and refusal to accept his own responsibility result in him becoming the new avatar for Soul Edge's will.
• Updated Re-release: Soul Blade is a port for the PS1 that adds additional game modes and characters.
• World Tour: The Edge Master mode sees the character that they picked going around various countries to fight an opponent relevant to their single-player story, travelling between Europe, Asia, and North America. Their journey will always end up in Spain to fight Cervantes.

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