Soul Blade is a 3D arcade fighting game and the first installment in the Soul series. The game has twelve colorful fighters, each with various weapons and styles. The first ten can be used in all the combat modes, while the hidden two can only be used in versus and arcade mode. The story mode goes into greater detail about each character, and is presented in an ancient book format. It also allows you to unlock more of each characters' extra weapons. These weapons, which vary in lengths, stats, and durability, add to the options available to players in the versus mode. Soul Blade was a commercial and critical success and was followed by several sequels, beginning with Soulcalibur in 1998.