Alright. I'm going to go ahead and put in my two cents on this. I'm a big an of the franchise, and have been since SCII. I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition months ago in anticipation. In that edition, it has a "Making Of" Blu-ray (which is poorly housed in the book-shaped case, BTW. A foam disc holds it in? Really?) is included. I'm curious if it includes a segment where it shows the team deciding something like this halfway through development: "Okay, we need to get this out to market ASAP. Outsource the Story Mode, I don't care how it turns out. As for the rest of single player.....screw it. Fighters are about multiplayer primarily. Just half-ass it. Oh, and fill out the roster with some oldies, but copy movesets for them. We won't have time to make unique ones. Oh, and make Algol a hybrid rip-off of Urien and Gill from Street Fighter III: Third Strike, appearance-wise." In other words, they definitely rushed this one, guys.
Now, I will say the Story Mode wasn't as bad as people made it out to be. There was a decent amount of cutscenes on top of the sketch art with voicework over it all, and they were well done. The plot wasn't the greatest, but serviceable. It IS a fighting game, after all. I just wish they would've learned from Mortal Kombat 9 last year and made a truly fleshed out Story Mode. It also peeved me that most of the new characters get the short end of the stick in it. You get to play as three of them, but that's it. Mitsurugi, Aeon, Hilde, Cervantes, and more don't even get so much as a mention. It's mind-boggling. Add to the fact that Arcade Mode has no endings, and those characters feel even more pointless. Ezio Auditore, who is an awesome guest character, BTW, as I highly enjoy the Assassin's Creed franchise, is in here, but there's no explanation as to why, which makes him feel out-of-place. Now, don't get me wrong. His moveset and appearance helps him blend in well, but without any explanation as to his presence in the SC universe, it just feels like he was pasted in.
I don't even want to get started with Legendary Souls mode, but I will just for the hell of it. Ugh, what a terrible, terrible mode. Whoever conceived this mode is a complete and total idiot. It basically consists of seven broken-as-all-hell fights. The A.I. is somehow psychic and, when they're on the brink of losing, they go into this rage and unleash this completely obnoxious combo that basically consists of beating you while you're down on the floor to the point that you can't possibly get up. Seriously, it was impossible to even stand the goddamn character up most of the time. You know how I beat it? Well, it took me an hour and 21 minutes, but I spammed like hell. I selected Ezio, and spammed his B,B combo over and over and over. This didn't work for every character, but it worked for most. I even got perfect victories with this strategy. I'm not kidding. Against Edgemaster, I spammed Forward,Forward+B,B, stepped back, then did it again just as he got up. It worked. Against Elysium? After 22 grueling minutes, I finally got my spamming of Ezio's unblockable bullet firing attack to work right, which required me to stand far away from her. This also worked against Algol. See, I shouldn't have to do shit like this to win. I tried to honestly fight, but doing that led to a block or Guard Impact, followed by an ass pounding until I was dead or nearly there. Not fun. At all. And gaming is all about fun, isn't it? Well, the makers of this mode missed that point entirely. Thankfully, I got the only Trophy for this mode, so I'll never have to touch it again. And I never will.
I haven't delved into Quick Battle Mode, but it sounds like the battle mode from Tekken 6 where you just fight random ranked characters with made-up usernames with each opponent getting progressively harder as you go. I think I'll enjoy it, so long as the A.I. isn't merciless like in Legendary Souls mode.
Now, what DID I like? Well, the gameplay is as great as ever. Being a person who prefers 2D fighters over 3D ones, I like the Brave Edges and Critical Edges. It's satisfying when you land them, and some are pretty flashy and awesome, to boot. The creation mode is quite impressive, and I plan on probably getting the Platinum Trophy for this game, which requires me to reach my maximum level, so that way I'll unlock every part as I go and get the most out of it. For the most part, a lot of the stuff is recycled from SCIV, but as I unlock more and more, I'm finding newer stuff unlocking. Also, as everyone knows by now. Elysium has Sophitia's body, and I know people don't like the mask she's wearing. The mask is breakable during battle, but I'm even happier to say that she can be edited entirely, so you can clothe her in whatever create parts there are that are available to you. This doesn't make up for her half-assed moveset (and her cheap ass Critical Edge that can hit you from anywhere, even while lying on the ground), but at least you can still ryona her in this, which is a plus in that department.
Speaking of ryona, I haven't messed with Training Mode yet, but if you plan on making a female character and want her very busty, opt for the "larger" body type. It's supposed to be a fat body style, I guess, but all I notice is it just makes her chest a little larger and her thighs a bit thicker. That's it. The added chest size makes tits even larger once you adjust them to the max, which it a plus if you're into big boobs (like me). They're not over-the-top huge, mind you, but pleasantly large at the maximum setting lol.
All in all, I can say I'm disappointed in Namco-Bandai for rushing this one out. I should've known that when hearing the January 31st release date a while back that it was to good to be true. This should've been a July/August release. If they had poured more time into individualizing movesets, fleshing out Story Mode, and adding endings to Arcade, this would've been a masterful entry. As it stands, it may end up being my favorite mechanic-wise, but content wise, it's probably the worst in the series.
