I played it all night at a friend's house. Haven't purchased yet.
It seems Mission Mode is getting worse and worse. What started as a full-fledged adventure on the original Soul Blade, complete with fleshed-out text story, now exists only as a mere shell of itself. Just floors in an implied tower with little to guide you but a menu. And you walk down the tower and it's just survival mode .... D:
The 5-round story mode doesn't impress either; especially when it's a ride in the park on the "normal" setting. Algol is perhaps the biggest pussy of the lot when it comes to SC villans; I earned perfect rounds on him 8 times outta 10. I guess you get what you earn though, because the endings are also some of the worst I've seen, despite that they look good. They build up your hopes with a setup and then -- BAM! -- nothing but a fucking retarded black screen with a pathetic resolution in text. Considering that you only have to beat this mode once to unlock about half the characters... it seems like Namco was aiming to make this one easier.
True HARD mode and the later floors of Tower of Souls can literally kick your ass, but with the tower, that's cuz the odds are against you: pitting you with one other fighter against like 7 or more. Arcade take a lot more patience too.
I also don't like how stripped down the illustration section is now.
Where it shines is it's other presentation aspects. This is by far the most gorgeous fighter in existence. The way the engine renders the hair is especially impressive. But add to that the specular reflections on every metallic object and the true-to-life animation of cloth and the impressive facial details... what a visual treat. The score is solid SC stuff too, but I haven't heard anything particularly catchy yet.
The character creation is that much better than last time. I didn't have enough unlocked to really go wild with it, but I did manage to create Evil Ken, Joker's girl from Batman TAS and my very own, Princess Autumn. I also striiped Seung Mina of all her clothes and gave her something more dark in design. And unlike MK Armageddon on XBOX, Namco doesn't seem to limit the drive's capabilities here, and you can make as many characters as your HD can hold. The fact that you can now fully edit existing characters is just the icing on the cake. You'll never be bored with character outfits... that's for DAMN sure.
I didn't get to try the online.
From what I've played the game deserves the high "B" it's mostly received. The Star Wars additions actually fit better than I thought they would and Yoda in particular looks amazing. Ppl say he's broke but I haven't noticed it that way (maybe I just need to play him more or play against him more in general). But too much has been stripped or dumb down since last time. The character creator is where it's at and at least it has an integral part with the rest of the modes now. I still wish you could completely overhaul the skillsets though.