Soul Calibur Series (1 Viewer)

[bryanthunder]

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.

My major problems lie in the new elements, and the changes to the existing ones.
Yeah, my biggest issue is with the meters, the critical and brave edge are all unnecessary additions because they've been done in other games. I don't feel Soulcalibur needed to play copycat to 2D games which are fundamentally different.
The move lists have been dumbed down quite a bit, to the point that there are very few characters with A+K moves. This is bound to affect all forms of play, making characters play almost the same from person to person. Not helped by the fact that combos in this game are longer than they've ever been, and it's harder than ever to get out of them. I just can't help but feel wrong when the battle message pops in saying "17 Hits" it's surreal.
The changes to the Guard Impact is especially grating; there are moves in this game I know full well I could have GI'd, but because both the command has changed, and it requires meter I either can't, or don't manage to do so. So GI's are more-or-less discouraged. Their replacement mechanic the Just Guard is intended for high-level play and is worthless to low-level players like myself. Makes maters worse because defensive play is discouraged, if not out-right punished.

I get that SC5 wants to show the big boys that it can be competitively viable, and don't mind that. But it feels more like a Street Fighter game in Soulcalibur drag, which I can't stand.
I know I've been harsh on the game, but not simply for the sake of being harsh. See, I like Soulcalibur but I don't like the changes they made to it. Maybe if they had taken a game to ease the changes in more gradually then maybe, but there's such a thing as changing too much at once.
If people want to buy it, I say go for it; fund the next installment or expansion. But just know you aren't getting a genuine Soulcalibur experience this time around.

 

[anotherguttersnipe]

...and they plan on releasing a more aesthetically fleshed out version later.

Unless you have a source to confirm this, an expansion ain't happening.

Anyways, I'm partially convinced that SCV is an experiment for tekken x street fighter. Things like EX moves, double qcf supers, etc are the sort of stuff you'll see in that game. Problem is that they don't wanna fuck up the implementation for their big crossover game. So corporate has it tested on a less critical title-just to see how it works.

I know this is gonna sound like heresy, but I'm actually enjoying the newer system. I'd definately take this game's critical edges over the last one. OK, so parries cost meter now. This doesn't bother me because A: I never used them to begin with and B: The few times I tried to use them in IV, the horribad connections that game had made them useless anyways.

 

[randomguy]

hey i like the newer system too. :P Honestly I am liking this game, 3 and 2 are still my top two but this one is pretty good. 4 is probably one of the weaker titles. Soul Blade at least has it's age as an excuse

 

[Raden]

Unless you have a source to confirm this, an expansion ain't happening.

Anyways, I'm partially convinced that SCV is an experiment for tekken x street fighter. Things like EX moves, double qcf supers, etc are the sort of stuff you'll see in that game. Problem is that they don't wanna fuck up the implementation for their big crossover game. So corporate has it tested on a less critical title-just to see how it works.

I know this is gonna sound like heresy, but I'm actually enjoying the newer system. I'd definately take this game's critical edges over the last one. OK, so parries cost meter now. This doesn't bother me because A: I never used them to begin with and B: The few times I tried to use them in IV, the horribad connections that game had made them useless anyways.

SFxTK should play like a SF game. TKxSF should play like a Tekken game. If TKxSF is anything like SCV, I might as well forget about it already. I already feel like the dumb gem system you can't disable ruined SFxTK. If this one sucks too, the entire crossover's potential is just gone, just like that.

 

[randomguy]

judging a game before you play it is obviously logical :/

 

[anotherguttersnipe]

judging a game before you play it is obviously logical :/

Well, you can't blame a guy for not wishing to shell out his sixty bucks on something he doesn't feel he'll enjoy.

 

[Black Lion]

My major problems lie in the new elements, and the changes to the existing ones.
Yeah, my biggest issue is with the meters, the critical and brave edge are all unnecessary additions because they've been done in other games. I don't feel Soulcalibur needed to play copycat to 2D games which are fundamentally different.
The move lists have been dumbed down quite a bit, to the point that there are very few characters with A+K moves. This is bound to affect all forms of play, making characters play almost the same from person to person. Not helped by the fact that combos in this game are longer than they've ever been, and it's harder than ever to get out of them. I just can't help but feel wrong when the battle message pops in saying "17 Hits" it's surreal.
The changes to the Guard Impact is especially grating; there are moves in this game I know full well I could have GI'd, but because both the command has changed, and it requires meter I either can't, or don't manage to do so. So GI's are more-or-less discouraged. Their replacement mechanic the Just Guard is intended for high-level play and is worthless to low-level players like myself. Makes maters worse because defensive play is discouraged, if not out-right punished.

I can understand not liking the meters (I had a bit of a problem adjusting to them originally as well). While the movesets have shrunken a bit (not by much, as all they did was take out most of the characters A+K's and there weren't that many to begin with), they characters definitely have not become the same kind of character. Pyrrha is the punishing character her mother was, Leixia is just like Xianghua in her mixups, Viola's style has never even been seen in a 3D fighter, etc. I haven't seen many excessive combos unless you're talking about someone like Viola or Natsu (or the Tekken style they slipped in there). I miss the GI's some, but it's a different game so I have to learn to adjust. The game is moving to a more offensive fighter, but there are certain characters that can be defensive still.

Unless you have a source to confirm this, an expansion ain't happening.

I don't know for a fact. It's just a theory.

 

[bryanthunder]

I know this is gonna sound like heresy, but I'm actually enjoying the newer system.

hey i like the newer system too.

Crazy, you both are crazy![/sarcasm]
It's fine if you like it, but it doesn't feel right to me. I'll keep playing it though, not like I can get my money back now anyway.

Well, you can't blame a guy for not wishing to shell out his sixty bucks on something he doesn't feel he'll enjoy.

I'll vouch for that.
Nevertheless, both Street Fighter X Tekken, and Tekken X Street Fighter discussion should likely go in their own thread.
Although...

Anyways, I'm partially convinced that SCV is an experiment for tekken x street fighter. Things like EX moves, double qcf supers, etc are the sort of stuff you'll see in that game. Problem is that they don't wanna fuck up the implementation for their big crossover game. So corporate has it tested on a less critical title-just to see how it works.

I can see where you're coming from, but I don't think Tekken Xross was a concern when making SCV. Daishi the director for SCV is ad admitted fan of Street Fighter 3rd Strike, which contained/added most of the elements that are now in SCV. Somehow I think the changes were his idea and that corporate likely rolled with his little tribute because; hey, it's working well for Street Fighter 4... why not ride on Capcom's coattails?

they characters definitely have not become the same kind of character. Pyrrha is the punishing character her mother was, Leixia is just like Xianghua in her mixups, Viola's style has never even been seen in a 3D fighter, etc. I haven't seen many excessive combos unless you're talking about someone like Viola or Natsu (or the Tekken style they slipped in there).

I didn't mean all the characters play the same as each-other, I meant we'll be seeing characters played the same way across different people, button mashers aside. Example: Alpha Patsuka. Pretty much any time you see a stun, pop-up, or his A+G throw they're going to be followed up with 1A+B,B 214~3aB. Every. Time.
As for the long combos. While some characters have pulled out 17 Hit combos on me (looking at you Yoshimitsu) sometimes that's also me adding up the multiple inescapable combos repeated one after another. So it's more: "7 Hits" + "4 Hits" + "4 Hits" = "I'm trying to guard!" and "Why won't you roll out of the way of that obvious attack!?"

[rant]
Viola's style (and Z.W.E.I.'s for that matter) have no place in Soulcalibur. I realize I'm talking about a game with living swords when I say this but: Soulcalibur has been more grounded in (relatively) realistic weapon-based combat than any other series. (save Bushido Blade) Magic, summoning, they aren't real they don't belong. Cervantes was already pushing it with his teleport/floating crap.
Seigfried may have used a blade as wide as he is, but he at least swung it like it had some actually weight behind it (until SCV of course when he can be used as a rush-down character with speed that would make Taki jealous.)
Plus, I have undying hate for that personalityless void of a "character" that is Amy/Viola. At least Amy used a weapon, now there's nothing redeeming about her, or her fighting style, in this game. I hope Aeon eats her alive and screaming, and not in the good way.
[/rant]

I'll admit. I complain a lot but it's because I'm a fan and I don't like what they've done with the series. I'm not saying "I'm right, you're wrong" just stating my point of view.

 

[Raden]

If games were $39.99 instead of $59.99 I might buy a few more of them. As it is, $60 before tax is just too much to plop down on something I won't like.

 

[HyperZealot]

I have over 70 victories in Quick Battle thus far (I would have more, but FFXIII-2 has consumed a lot of my time), and I'm finding that mode a fun way to just jump in a fight while also leveling up at a decent rate so I can unlock create parts. The online is also quite good, and the creation mode is slowly opening itself up as I unlock new parts (and I mean totally new parts, not ones from SCIV), so this entry is starting to look better as I play more. I still wish that at least Arcade Mode had endings, but I'm still having fun with it. That's really what counts, right?

 

[Raden]

So Viola is Amy? Any explanation for the new name/character or no? Also has she magically not aged somehow like most of the other characters they handwaved because they wanted them to stay in the game (knowing people loved Ivy etc.?)

 

[anotherguttersnipe]

So Viola is Amy? Any explanation for the new name/character or no? Also has she magically not aged somehow like most of the other characters they handwaved because they wanted them to stay in the game (knowing people loved Ivy etc.?)

No. Viola is not Amy. If she were, there would be special pre-fight dialogue between Raphael and Viola-of which there is none.

 

[Raden]

So she's just gone for no reason too? man. You know, some kind of story would have helped sell this a lot better to me...

 

[bryanthunder]

No. Viola is not Amy. If she were, there would be special pre-fight dialogue between Raphael and Viola-of which there is none.

If you really believe Viola isn't Amy you are truly mad.
She has the same face, same voice, same "personality" same thematic appearance.
Plus there is special dialog between them, it just makes no sense:

Viola: "In the moon I see everything."
Raphael: "You vex me, who are you woman?"

Raphael win: "Stop looking into my soul damn you!"
Viola win: "The moon will swallow the sun, and it will never rise again."

These lines ALWAYS play when these two fight.

I don't know why anyone would care, it's not like Amy had any personality to begin with.

 

[randomguy]

IDK Taki had the same level of personality and she was beloved same with Resident Evil's Jill :3

 

[anotherguttersnipe]

If you really believe Viola isn't Amy you are truly mad.
She has the same face, same voice, same "personality" same thematic appearance.
Plus there is special dialog between them, it just makes no sense:

These lines ALWAYS play when these two fight.

I don't know why anyone would care, it's not like Amy had any personality to begin with.

Lol. Guess I hadn't encountered it yet. My bad. :P

 

[Raden]

If you really believe Viola isn't Amy you are truly mad.
She has the same face, same voice, same "personality" same thematic appearance.
Plus there is special dialog between them, it just makes no sense:

These lines ALWAYS play when these two fight.

I don't know why anyone would care, it's not like Amy had any personality to begin with.

Well when she was a human pokemon and could only say her name, yeah, but it seems like that whole thing's just been dropped, now she has grey hair and uses claws... all with again, no explanation...

A guy's interested in why things like this happen, you know, Namco?

 

[bryanthunder]

IDK Taki had the same level of personality and she was beloved same with Resident Evil's Jill :3

You can't compare Amy to any other character in Soulcalibur.
IN SC3, her "first" appearance (Technically she first appeared in SC2's opening.) she was little more than a bonus character giving a face to the rapier CAC fighting style with only one unique line of dialogue, her name.
In SC4 she did not have a unique P2 outfit, and her P1 outfit was fully available in CAC, hell you could remake Amy right down to her VOICE in CAC in SC4. That's right, you could exchange her personality if you wanted it was so thin.

Taki's beloved because of her design and no nonsense attitude as a Demon Hunter, in combination with some pretty cool moves. Plus there's the fact she'd been in every game since Soul Blade (until SCV came around.)
And Jill? Well I'm sure we all just love seeing Jill getting nomed on.

 

[daenius]

Man all this Taki makes me really miss Taki...... Natsu just isn't the same T____T

And Seung Mina too =(

 

[Raden]

Honestly the best part about SC5 is going to be the XNALara models people pull. Other than that, it's just not for me. Not at $60. Like I said, if games were $40, I'd buy a hell of a lot more.