Soul Calibur Series (1 Viewer)

[bryanthunder]

Yeah I understand how you guys feel, story mode was definitely cut down to nothing, I honestly think they left quite a few characters out to add them as DLC later on. For example Dampierre is on the disc , but u can only get him from Best Buy (in the US, differs from country to country on where u can get him) but rest assured he will probably be up for DLC to make people pay for a character that's already on the disc!. Today's video game publishers are so money hungry this has become common practice in almost every game it really sucks. So I really think later they will offer a lot if not at least a few of the missing characters as DLC, but as far as story wise I don't think they will ever explain what happened to a lot of the characters.

They have confirmed that Dampierre will be available as DLC later on.
People have also gone through some data on the disc and there is very little reason to believe they planned for more than one more character.
There's usually a list of playable characters in the data, and this time it doesn't look like there was any extra names on the list other than what's on the current roster.

I want to say, I don't actually mind on-disc DLC characters, to an extent. Sometimes there simply isn't enough time to finish balancing, or even creating a character/fighting style before release, so having the promise that "they'll be there" and the DLC is the finished work, that's fine by me. (provided they are priced reasonably.)
Pre-order bonus characters walk a thin line, but Dampierre is effectively a joke character added only as a parody to Ezio, so I don't mind him being on disc but as an extra. Now if they had made Yun-Seong a pre-order bonus that would have been on the wrong side of the line.

This isn't like Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3, where Jill is STILL a DLC character after re-release.

Sorry I should have specified, I'm trying to figure out how to unlock all the custom character clothes/armors. I already have all the characters, you can unlock all of them without playing a single Legendary battle (except I'm still somehow missing one guy to the right of the middle block).

There are several ways to unlock things, though the easiest way to unlock creation pieces is through increasing your player level.
Everything can be unlocked this way though you can unlock other things by doing different tasks.
Algol (who is to the right of Edge Master on the select screen.) can be unlocked either by beating Legendary Souls, or facing him in the "Ranking" Arcade Route.

An easy way to get through Legendary Souls mode: Choose Nightmare, press B+K to shift his stance, then press and hold A, over and over to keep returning to that stance. The CPU becomes defensive, occasinally getting nicked by the attack. This lets you get easy time-outs on them.

-Sophitia's vagina churned out two murderous hellions
-Kilik somehow became a master of everything and learned how to summon ghosts
-Soul Calibur is pretty much Soul Edge after all
-The entire offline experience is so shallow it might as well be called "you're playing this over online??" mode
-You can make tigers that shoot lasers... okay actually that's kinda fucking cool

Guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree? The Alexandras seem to take any reason to suddenly become evil and murder as many people as they can.
Yep, conveniently off screen of course.
This has was hinted at in SC4 with Seigfriend, Taki, and Cassandra's endings, so it's not completely out of nowhere.
And broken, don't forget that.
Yes. Easily the best part of the game.

 

[randomguy]

actually Cassandra is the only Alexandra to be completely good. The worst thing she did was steal a sword to fight evil. The son I have sympathy for and liked buy Sophitia and her daughter can both go fuck a duck...no ten ducks (if you get the reference you get a cookie)

funny note i did some research and according to bios Cassandra is still alive. Guess that is karma Sophitia nearly fucks up the world and later dies while Cass is still alive.

 

[Rakkar]

There are several ways to unlock things, though the easiest way to unlock creation pieces is through increasing your player level.
Everything can be unlocked this way though you can unlock other things by doing different tasks.
Algol (who is to the right of Edge Master on the select screen.) can be unlocked either by beating Legendary Souls, or facing him in the "Ranking" Arcade Route.

Actually I have that one, I meant the big square in the middle. (The slot right above Kilik is empty for me)

Thanks for the nightmare tip btw, but I tried it three times and never saw the cpu get defensive

EDIT: Apparently that spot is for Dampierre, a DLC or pre-order only character.

 

[Raden]

Also why isn't Talim in this game? Fucking blows.

How is Sophitia an evil bitch? I know she was supposed to have had a shard of Soul Edge in her, but this is the first I've heard about her being the way Pyrrha seems to be.

Boy. Hephaestus would NOT be proud... lol.

 

[bryanthunder]

Also why isn't Talim in this game? Fucking blows.

How is Sophitia an evil bitch? I know she was supposed to have had a shard of Soul Edge in her, but this is the first I've heard about her being the way Pyrrha seems to be.

Boy. Hephaestus would NOT be proud... lol.

Talim's not in because the time skip was apparently designed to get rid of as many female veterans as possible. (Seriously, look at the roster, despite the time skip most of the one's missing are the female characters.)
Alternative reason? Because there's no logical reason she'd still be pedo-bait anymore.

As for Sophitia. She started off a good character, with good intentions each time most often her reason being to protect her family. A concept I actually liked as it set her apart from the cast of orphans and celebrate heroes.
She suddenly turned "evil" in Soulcalibur 4. Back story says her kids were fighting over a shard of Soul Edge, and that Pyrrha had been infected by it, so she set's out to cure Pyrrha's infection only for Tira to say "If you destroy Soul Edge Pyrrha will die." Sophitia, in a Crowing Moment of Stupid, takes her word for it and starts killing anyone seeking to destroy Soul Edge.
So she turns "reluctantly evil" without any help from Soul Edge itself, no shard inside her, not even minor possession. Just taking an untrustworthy, bi-polar, murderer at her word.
I guess the writers forgot that she could, you know, speak to the gods; possibly ask for guidance in an alternative way to treat her daughter, or you know, seek out the alchemist whom managed to become immortal, because it's not like Ivy was exactly hard to find, or keeping her status as an alchemist low-profile. Or you know, seek out the ninja who saved her from similar wounds years before hand... or hell even CASSANDRA holds the power to purify evil.
Just saying there was no logical reason she turned "evil" other than the designers wanted to make her some sort of tragic figure, to give her a "Pyrrhic Victory" in that no matter how she succeeds, she loses. (Destroy Soul Edge - Pyrrha dies. Save Soul Edge - destroy the world.)

 

[Raden]

Aw man, Talim would be a hell of a lot more likeable to me at age 33 than 16... fuck sakes. That's seriously the reason? Man, fuck that... gee, conveniently Ivy hasn't aged one bit... Odd how that works! The dominatrix chick with huge boobs everyone loves for obvious reasons isn't cut... *epic facepalm*

So what happened to Cassandra then?

Man... Taki, Cassandra, Seong Mina... even Talim now that she'd actually be older. WTF Namco, seriously. God.

 

[anotherguttersnipe]

As for Sophitia. She started off a good character, with good intentions each time most often her reason being to protect her family. A concept I actually liked as it set her apart from the cast of orphans and celebrate heroes.
She suddenly turned "evil" in Soulcalibur 4. Back story says her kids were fighting over a shard of Soul Edge, and that Pyrrha had been infected by it, so she set's out to cure Pyrrha's infection only for Tira to say "If you destroy Soul Edge Pyrrha will die." Sophitia, in a Crowing Moment of Stupid, takes her word for it and starts killing anyone seeking to destroy Soul Edge.
So she turns "reluctantly evil" without any help from Soul Edge itself, no shard inside her, not even minor possession. Just taking an untrustworthy, bi-polar, murderer at her word.
I guess the writers forgot that she could, you know, speak to the gods; possibly ask for guidance in an alternative way to treat her daughter, or you know, seek out the alchemist whom managed to become immortal, because it's not like Ivy was exactly hard to find, or keeping her status as an alchemist low-profile. Or you know, seek out the ninja who saved her from similar wounds years before hand... or hell even CASSANDRA holds the power to purify evil.
Just saying there was no logical reason she turned "evil" other than the designers wanted to make her some sort of tragic figure, to give her a "Pyrrhic Victory" in that no matter how she succeeds, she loses. (Destroy Soul Edge - Pyrrha dies. Save Soul Edge - destroy the world.)

While she could have done all those things, it's entirely possible that Tira held a pychological grip over Sophitia A.K.A: You call the cops, and the kid gets it. And ever since SC3, the greek gods collectively stopped giving a fuck about Sophitia for some reason. Also, I don't think Sophitia's aware of Cassandra's power.

actually Cassandra is the only Alexandra to be completely good. The worst thing she did was steal a sword to fight evil. The son I have sympathy for and liked buy Sophitia and her daughter can both go fuck a duck...no ten ducks (if you get the reference you get a cookie)

funny note i did some research and according to bios Cassandra is still alive. Guess that is karma Sophitia nearly fucks up the world and later dies while Cass is still alive.

Love to know where you found this out. Coz on the official Wiki, Cassandra seemingly stops existing after broken destiny. And I'm beginning to see some fucked up reverse psychology being hurled at us from Namco. Due to the lack of story they've provided in the game, fans will now scour the internet for any and every piece of backstory they can find.

 

[NNin]

It hurt me more after knowing the story and Casandra isn't around to stop those two. And I don't own the console so I will never have a chance to bash that crazy Phyrra with her own aunt....

Maybe I should use XNAlara to do that.

 

[bryanthunder]

Aw man, Talim would be a hell of a lot more likeable to me at age 33 than 16... fuck sakes. That's seriously the reason? Man, fuck that... gee, conveniently Ivy hasn't aged one bit... Odd how that works! The dominatrix chick with huge boobs everyone loves for obvious reasons isn't cut... *epic facepalm*

So what happened to Cassandra then?

Man... Taki, Cassandra, Seong Mina... even Talim now that she'd actually be older. WTF Namco, seriously. God.

Woah, I didn't expect such a heated reaction, my apologies. I don't know the actual reason why Talim was cut, but it certainly feels like the time-skip only axed older female characters.
Fans often bring up the "Namco Rule" which is supposedly a mandate that no female characters over the age of 30 can appear in any game from the company, whether it's true or not is up for debate. (Tekken character's Nina, and Anna Williams are chronologically over 40, but are still physically in their early 20's due to being frozen.)
As for Talim herself? Story-wise the characters she was closely associated with were axed, so she lost her major reason for reappearing. It could also be an focus on tournament play, as from what I understand she was low-tier according to tournament players, so her fighting style would have to be re-designed from the ground up so if they were gonna do that why not just start completely fresh.

While she could have done all those things, it's entirely possible that Tira held a pychological grip over Sophitia A.K.A: You call the cops, and the kid gets it. And ever since SC3, the greek gods collectively stopped giving a fuck about Sophitia for some reason. Also, I don't think Sophitia's aware of Cassandra's power.

Ah right, they did collectively stop giving a fuck in SC3 didn't they? I forgot about that.
Even if she isn't aware of Cassandra's power she knows from experience that there are ways to purify Soul Edge's evil.
And as far as I understood she left her children under the care of her husband Rothion, while she went out to hunt/defend Soul Edge, meaning that they were under some sort of protection so the "we have your child" excuse doesn't quite work. I'm not saying it's impossible that Tira manipulated her, just that it's very a flimsy reason when all the facts are in place.
Plus, I doubt really doubt Tira's ability to plan ahead or maintain a psychological grip on others when she can barely hold her own mind together.

Love to know where you found this out. Coz on the official Wiki, Cassandra seemingly stops existing after broken destiny. And I'm beginning to see some fucked up reverse psychology being hurled at us from Namco. Due to the lack of story they've provided in the game, fans will now scour the internet for any and every piece of backstory they can find.

I think he's drawing from the fact that the murder-twins list their father as deceased, and Sophita as "killed by a malfested" but no note on Cassandra's status meaning she's likely alive or missing. Frankly the fact that's she's never referenced in-game or in their official bio's irritates me. I assume the implication is that she was killed as well which is COMPLETE BULLSHIT if you ask me - as they heavily imply Tira killed Sophitia (which is already bull-shit) but that would imply that Tira killed Cassandra as well. Now I don't buy that for a second.

 

[Black Lion]

I'm thinking the reason there isn't much single player gameplay is because NB is looking to make a update to this game with much more in terms of story and some kind of patch to the fighting system. I don't think I'd mind that much.

I think many people buy fighting games for the wrong reasons. I'm not telling you why to buy games or anything, but when you buy a fighting game, the main point is to compete against others. You get the most out of the games that way. I'd understand complaints over losing the only character you ever competed with in Soul Calibur, but I can't justify complaints about single player aspects especially when they mainly boil down to fighting against the patterns of the COM engine repeatedly. There's just so much more in the game for you if you try it more competitively.

That being said, I can't tell you to buy the game. I'm just telling you guys what you're potentially missing by ignoring that aspect of a fighting game.

 

[anotherguttersnipe]

Hilde technically breaks the Namco rule here, as she's stated to be 35, and has no plot devices to stop her from aging.

I think he's drawing from the fact that the murder-twins list their father as deceased, and Sophita as "killed by a malfested" but no note on Cassandra's status meaning she's likely alive or missing. Frankly the fact that's she's never referenced in-game or in their official bio's irritates me. I assume the implication is that she was killed as well which is COMPLETE BULLSHIT if you ask me - as they heavily imply Tira killed Sophitia (which is already bull-shit) but that would imply that Tira killed Cassandra as well. Now I don't buy that for a second.

I'm honestly leaning towards Sophitia and Cassandra being KIA. I mean, it is possible that Graf Dumas/Nightmare was lying about Sophitia being killed by a malfested, but its highly unlikely. If Cassandra were still alive, she would've been the one looking after Patroklos after Rothion died, in which case, there'd be no way he'd end up fighting for Dumas-Cass wouldn't have it.

So I'm very much inclined to that Tira killed them both in SCIV.

I'm thinking the reason there isn't much single player gameplay is because NB is looking to make a update to this game with much more in terms of story and some kind of patch to the fighting system. I don't think I'd mind that much.

I think many people buy fighting games for the wrong reasons. I'm not telling you why to buy games or anything, but when you buy a fighting game, the main point is to compete against others. You get the most out of the games that way. I'd understand complaints over losing the only character you ever competed with in Soul Calibur, but I can't justify complaints about single player aspects especially when they mainly boil down to fighting against the patterns of the COM engine repeatedly. There's just so much more in the game for you if you try it more competitively.

That being said, I can't tell you to buy the game. I'm just telling you guys what you're potentially missing by ignoring that aspect of a fighting game.

Well, this is true. Admittedly, there is only so much you can gain from fighting CPU patterns. And it's alot more fun fighting a human opponent(the ones that don't ragequit/scream butthurt into their mic). Having said that, I think that backstories are important in helping players relate more to their characters of choice.

 

[bryanthunder]

I'm thinking the reason there isn't much single player gameplay is because NB is looking to make a update to this game with much more in terms of story and some kind of patch to the fighting system. I don't think I'd mind that much.

I think many people buy fighting games for the wrong reasons. I'm not telling you why to buy games or anything, but when you buy a fighting game, the main point is to compete against others. You get the most out of the games that way. I'd understand complaints over losing the only character you ever competed with in Soul Calibur, but I can't justify complaints about single player aspects especially when they mainly boil down to fighting against the patterns of the COM engine repeatedly. There's just so much more in the game for you if you try it more competitively.

That being said, I can't tell you to buy the game. I'm just telling you guys what you're potentially missing by ignoring that aspect of a fighting game.

I agree to an extent. Fighting games are about competing with living people, and that's naturally in the game. The VS mode is there, the online is there. (And for SC5 the online is pretty good.) So it's fulfilled that criteria; but it's missing so much more to draw in more people to participate in that.

Like it or not, there are those of us who care about story, about characters, and about variety in games. You gotta give people like us reasons to keep coming back and playing, and lemme tell ya; the single-player content in this game, doesn't cut it.
If you want to draw people in to get them into the competitive scene, you gotta get them interested in the game as a whole, to do that you have to offer more than a weak story-mode with wooden dialogue where only 5% of the characters on the roster matter.
Take SC3 for example: Casual fans loved SC3 because it was bursting with content: CAC for the first-time, the best in the entire series mind you, with dozens of unique styles for your own character. A mode centered all around the character you create. Story-mode held unique challenges such as the colossus match that kept the game fresh.
Or even SC2 with it's Weapon Master Mode which drew people in with the very unique matches it offered.

If you're expecting to lure new blood into fighting games you have to give them an inciting single-player experience before expecting them to dive into the meta-game for the multiplayer experience. You need great gameplay mixed with lot's of extra things to do. And frankly, Soulcalibur 5 fails on both aspects.

 

[anotherguttersnipe]

Aaanyways, if any of you have got SCV, and a 360, add me (Wesker of MI) if you're looking for a match. I'm half-decent with Siegfried, Leixia, and Ezio. Suck with everyone else.

But I'll slaughter you with Pyrrha Omega! :P

 

[randomguy]

I think Cassandra is alive since well she is not listed as dead. I think they just didn't put her in the game same as they did with Talim

 

[Unrelated]

That being said, I can't tell you to buy the game. I'm just telling you guys what you're potentially missing by ignoring that aspect of a fighting game.

Difficulty: It doesn't stack up to other games in that field. It was the variety of modes that had me interested in the first place, even from Soul Edge.

 

[ryona111]

From a ryona standpoint how does this game stack up?

 

[ssdanku]

because a lot of the females are gone and the game play is a tad faster , it really seems to have reduced the ryona value of the game for me , I have pretty much just been doing arcade and quick battles to level up as fast as i can to unlock a bunch of CAS parts to make a character i would like. I dunno what it is, but because its faster its like you cant really enjoy the ryona parts when there are some , also they took away my favorite move! or at least I haven't been able to find it yet, the one where Ivy stomps down and if the opponent is down she digs her heel into them, LOVE that move in the SC series , really disappointed its not in this version of the game.

 

[bryanthunder]

Yeah, anytime the speed of a game is increased the quality of the ryona goes down, this is no exception.
However, on the bright side for PS3 users, you can record your on-line matches then save and export them straight to your PS3 hard drive. They're low-quality but it's better than nothing right? So you can get a video, drop it on a external device and take it to your computer for editing, all very simple.
Plus you can adjust the out-put to remove the health-bars so it's just the character's going at it. (Well, there's copyright info at the bottom naturally but otherwise it's a clean video.)

 

[Black Lion]

I agree to an extent. Fighting games are about competing with living people, and that's naturally in the game. The VS mode is there, the online is there. (And for SC5 the online is pretty good.) So it's fulfilled that criteria; but it's missing so much more to draw in more people to participate in that.

Like it or not, there are those of us who care about story, about characters, and about variety in games. You gotta give people like us reasons to keep coming back and playing, and lemme tell ya; the single-player content in this game, doesn't cut it.
If you want to draw people in to get them into the competitive scene, you gotta get them interested in the game as a whole, to do that you have to offer more than a weak story-mode with wooden dialogue where only 5% of the characters on the roster matter.
Take SC3 for example: Casual fans loved SC3 because it was bursting with content: CAC for the first-time, the best in the entire series mind you, with dozens of unique styles for your own character. A mode centered all around the character you create. Story-mode held unique challenges such as the colossus match that kept the game fresh.
Or even SC2 with it's Weapon Master Mode which drew people in with the very unique matches it offered.

If you're expecting to lure new blood into fighting games you have to give them an inciting single-player experience before expecting them to dive into the meta-game for the multiplayer experience. You need great gameplay mixed with lot's of extra things to do. And frankly, Soulcalibur 5 fails on both aspects.

I can agree with the purpose of all of the single player aspects, but they still aren't the main point of the game. Like I said before, I think this game was meant to entice the fighting game crowd rather than the more casual gamers and they plan on releasing a more aesthetically fleshed out version later.

I'm not really sure what your problem with the gameplay itself is other than the Critical Edges and the Brave Edges. I find that the system as a whole is more improved and more visually appealing than it had been in IV.

 

[DeNice]

also they took away my favorite move! or at least I haven't been able to find it yet, the one where Ivy stomps down and if the opponent is down she digs her heel into them, LOVE that move in the SC series , really disappointed its not in this version of the game.

Actually it's still in the game, just with a different command (slide input B,K [Y,B on 260, Triangle, Circle on PS3]) Still works the same as it ever did too.