is a 2002 fighting game developed by Project Soul and published by Namco and the third installment in the Soulcalibur series of weapon-based fighting games. It is the sequel to Soulcalibur, which was released in July 1998. Originally intended to be released on Sega's NAOMI board, the game was released on the Namco System 246 arcade board before being ported to the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox in 2003. The game's plot revolves around the legendary weapon Soul Edge having been shattered into pieces, with different characters seeking to collect all the pieces to gain possession of the complete weapon or to destroy it once and for all. Compared to Soulcalibur, Soulcalibur II had improvements in graphics and the game system and introduced several new and guest characters. This is the first Soul game depicting the 1590 A.D. trilogy, which ends in Soulcalibur IV. The game was a critical and commercial success, with the introduction of guest characters to the series, particularly Link on the GameCube version, being acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. A high-definition port, titled SoulCalibur II HD Online, was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2013. Gameplay Key game system improvements include an easier "step" and "avoid" systems, arena walls (rather than ring out ability on all sides) and wall-specific moves, a three-step Soul Charge system, a clash system that is used when two attacks hit each other simultaneously resulting in a white flash, Guard Break attacks which put a blocking player into a post guard-impact state, just frame moves awarding additional hits to players who can time their command inputs well and a revised Guard Impact system that removes height-based Impact moves and instead uses a more unified system (high and mid attacks are countered using Repels, mid and low attacks are countered using Parries). Soulcalibur II includes the same modes of play as most fighting games: Arcade, Versus Battle, Team Battle (similar to Arcade, but with teams of up to 3 characters and without cutscenes or endings), Versus Team Battle (with teams of up to 8 characters), Time Attack (where the player has to race against the clock to set records), Survival and Practice. There are also "Extra" versions of these modes, intended to allow the use of Extra Weapons and unlockable stages. A point worth mentioning is that the 7th battle in Arcade Mode is called a "Destined Battle", which