Been playing Soul Calibur III for several weeks now trying to beat Chronicle 20 in the “Chronicles of the Sword” mode. The last guy is Strife, a level 50-something knight who kills you in about three hits.

I entered that stage as a level 45 character. By the time I beat Strife, I was a level 89. Stu and I had fought this guy so many times, we were calling 10 runs through the level “a unit,” and we had put in several “units.”

The ironic thing is that it wasn’t my level 89 character that beat Strife, but a level 40 character that I had just created. Here’s what you do:

Create either a Sword Master or a Sage character. Play enough battles to unlock the Soul Calibur weapon for the Chinese Blade discipline and equip your character with that. When you fight Strife, just mash on the A button (horizontal attack). Don’t hit anything else. If he gets a shot in, just stand up and keep mashing A. The trick is that the Chinese Blade Soul Calibur is fast enough to hit Strife and not let him get a strike in. Even if he blocks, eventually he’ll let down his guard and try to hit you, but you’ll be too busy smacking him with Soul Calibur.

It’s a sort of slow process since each strike only takes a little sliver of his health away, but that’s the way to go. (Interestingly enough, this strategy works against most of the AI characters. You can get a level 1 guy to beat a level 60 Astaroth just with this technique.)