Soul Calibur is the complete package! This game embodies everything that makes the fighting genre great, well designed characters, beautiful graphics, a deep fighting system, and incredible replay value. There are VERY FEW games in the fighting genre that best soul calibur.
It's bad enough that this game has drop dead gorgeous graphics, but the realistic sounds of steel against steel set to the well composed, moving music just sets an incredible atmosphere for a game that blurs the boundry between art and videogames. Combine this with a deep mission mode, and tons of extras, and you've got a game that needs to be owned by everyone.
Simply put, go buy the game if you don't own it already. The sequel comes out this year, but there's really no point in waiting. This game is worthy of just about any price you have to pay. But you can get it for less than 20 bucks most everywhere. Buy it.