Soul Gauge & Critical Finish
Soulcalibur IV will feature an all-new Critical Finish system. Next to players' Health Meters is a colored gem that represents the "Soul Gauge." Starting green, the meter will change to blue when attacking and change to red when guarding. When the gem is pure red, an opponent can do a strike that breaks off a part from the character's armor, altering their appearance and making him or her weaker for the remainder of the match. More damage is inflicted on the area of armor that was destroyed. There are also three green boxes below the gauges, reflecting the state of the characters' armor: high, mid, and low.
If the character manages to empty out the opponent's Soul Gauge again, he or she will get a short chance to perform a powerful Critical Finish move, which will defeat the opponent instantly, by pressing all four face buttons at the same time. Each character has his own personal Critical Finish move. Namco says that it developed the Soul Gauge to decrease the benefits from constant guarding, thus giving the game a faster tempo and making the matches more offensive
