The re-tuned and bug-fixed version of Soulcalibur III known as the Arcade Edition was initially introduced into arcades on April 3, 2006, and was given the name Soulcalibur III: Arcade Edition. The majority of the cast from the home version makes their return as playable characters, with the exception of Abyss, who has been converted into a boss that players cannot control along with Night Terror. Only three of the 17 bonus characters made it into the arcade version: Hwang Seong-gyeong, Li Long, and Amy Sorel. These characters’ playing styles have been reworked and expanded to provide a deeper level of gameplay.
There are now a total of 27 playable characters available across the board in the arcade. Standard Mode is a traditional arcade mode with nine battles in a row, without any cut scenes or endings. Legends Mode is a complex eight-round mode based upon the creation of and competition between customized characters with accumulated skills taken from the home version’s Chronicles of the Sword mode, such as increased stamina or the ability to automatically block. The game has three different modes: Training Mode, where one can try the characters’ moves for a set time; Standard Mode, which is a traditional arcade mode
Inferno makes a comeback in the game as a subboss in the Standard difficulty mode (Stage 8). The only notable change is that from this point forward, Inferno will only use a move set that is analogous to Cervantes, rather than randomly doing the moves of any character. You can face Night Terror as the final boss of Standard Mode if you get through all eight stages quickly, Abyss as the final boss of Standard Mode if you get through pretty quickly, or the highest ranked Legends mode character if you end up getting through Standard Mode rather slowly (taking 8 minutes or more). There does not appear to be a correlation between the number of times you continue and the boss that you face; however, there is a correlation between the amount of aggression you show toward your opponents and the boss that you face.
C.AntonioFalcon of the 8wayrun forums was the one who brought some of the features from the arcade edition into the regular version of SoulCalibur III for the PlayStation 2.
