The Tales of Souls mode is presented as a book, narrating the selected character's story in detail during various chapters.

The player can input button combos when an icon appears in the top right-hand corner during cut scene movies.

Although the Mortal Kombat, Dead or Alive, and Street Fighter series all supported online play, Soulcalibur III does not.

"[2] Chronicles of the Sword is a single player mode gametype that combines Real Time Strategy (RTS) gameplay with the standard Soul Calibur fights.

The player may allow his troops/commander to fight on the RTS board, or choose to do a traditional Soul Calibur battle with various characters for each side.

Disciplines, costumes/armor, weapons, characters, and various aesthetics and skills carry over from one mode to another, and each rely on the other to unlock items.

The main three new warriors in the game are Zasalamel, Tira and Setsuka, all with totally different fighting styles than other series fighters.

Nearly all of the warriors previously featured in Soul series titles return, with the exception of Inferno, Necrid, Seong Han-myeong, Edge Master and the console-exclusive Soulcalibur II special guests (Heihachi, Link, and Spawn).

Unlockable characters include personnel in the Chronicles of the Sword, opponents from the Tales of Souls mode, and the weapon, armor, and item shop owners.

The wicked Soul Edge survived its fated encounter with the wielder of Soulcalibur, Xianghua, and restored its control over the body of Siegfried Schtauffen, turning him back into the Azure Knight Nightmare.

Siegfried took both weapons and started a quest to find a definitive way of sealing Soul Edge, but memories of his slaughters, plus the attacks of those resentful of the Azure Knight, drove his mind towards insanity.

From the 17 bonus characters only three made it into the arcade: Hwang Seong-gyeong, Li Long and Amy Sorel, who have been reworked and expanded into more deep playing styles.

[6] IGN lauded it for its "stunning environment" and "charming characters" but thought that the game could use more diverse sound effects.