Soul Calibur?

[Vyk]

Surprised I actually have to create this. Well. I got it on release. Go me.. I'm not completely convinced it was worth my 60 bucks. But then I only just played a few hours in arcade with my brother and his girl. I haven't tried out everything. I have mixed feelings on the new character creation but I guess its nice to be able to use the main characters as a base so you get different body types to start out with at any rate

I'm not gonna go into too much detail because quite frankly I don't know much myself. But I assume others have bought this game. There should be a mild discussion in it

[Roto13]

Me a month ago: Alright, I guess we can spend my birthday money on stuff, but you just make sure you have enough money to buy me Soul Calibur IV when it comes out.

Husband: Ok.

Me yesterday: Soul Calibur IV comes out tomorrow.

Husband: We don't have any money.

Me: *DIVORCE PAPERS*

[Magixion]

I picked it up today as well and am enjoying it a lot. The character creation is superb. Nothing like creating a character the way you want to and going and kicking ass with him/her. Regardless of only being able to choose from weapons that the main characters have, you can change up all the abilities and skills which helps a lot. I have lots of fun just making characters in the character creation and thinking up stories for their origins, but maybe that's just the roleplayer inside of me! I got it for the 360, so if anyone wants to hit up some Xbox Live with me, feel free to drop me a line.

[Dreddz]

Should be arriving in the post tomorrow. I don't have much else to say now. Hope it doesn't disappoint like Soul Calibur III did.

[JKTrix]

I just like the fighting. Don't really care about the rest of the stuff. Most of my time has been spent going through the 'story' mode (but skipping all the cutscenes except the end) with everyone, seeing what stuff there is to unlock. I think I have everyone now, with exception to the blank space next to Vader that everyone will have.

Dressing up characters in other characters' clothes is kinda funny though.

I quite like Hilde. Raphael has changed so much since SC2 that I can't use him now without having to try and re-learn his tricks. Setsuka has a couple of new moves that I love.

There are things I'd like to have in the game though:
A 'command training' like the Dead or Alive and Virtua Fighter games, where you can just go through the entire movelist automatically. Having to pause every 3 moves to check out the next move is a pain.
Also in training, it would be nice if they had something to show what buttons are pressed! I prefer VF's one where it shows the stick and the buttons during the demonstrations.

Less important, but games like MGS4 and Halo have spoiled me: Screenshots and saved replays. I know for sure you can't take screenshots, and I'm not sure if you can save replays or not. It would be nice to have those.

Generally though, the fighting itself is still pretty good. It's the extra stuff that could use work.

[Vyk]

Not at all impressed with first player modes... Story mode is more like "5 random challenges then an ending". And wtf is this tower crap. Oh its pretty much the same as story except you're fighting a buncha random creation characters. It took them how long to come up with this crap?

I'll give props to the Character Creation. But where the heck would you want to use them? All the modes are plain and boring :( I want a -real- story like SC3 had. Chronicles of the Sword was weird but I loved it. Gave you something to DO with characters. And a reason to create dozens of them

Heck the main story mode was better too. Had a good 11 battles to go through. And most of them had a point. Story mode in this game they might as well just make you fight the end guy. And as near as I can tell they don't even explain him. He's just "there" and for no discernable reason has both swords

I would hope there are more modes to unlock. But I highly doubt there is. So basically Namco spent ALL their time on graphics and movesets and whatnot. There's no meat :[ Its just another fighting game now. An awesome one. But definitely not a 60 dollar one

I shoulda waited. Now I wanna play Soul Calibur 3...

[Roto13]

So basically Namco spent ALL their time on graphics and movesets and whatnot.

Like they should. It's a fighting game. Gameplay is everything. There's no argument to be made that the story mode doesn't give you character development or whatever. That couldn't possibly be less important.

[Vyk]

If we're going to put it head to head against DoA and Virtua Fighter and stuff, yeah. Its pretty and refined

My problem is I've played every game since Soul Edge and even that game back on the Playstation had more to offer in story mode. And Soul Calibur 3 was freaking bursting at the seams with content

Just seems like too big a step backward. Fighting games get too boring to me after a while. All that stuff in SC3 kept me playing for months. I'll have done everything in this game in like... a week :/

[Roto13]

They put a bunch of random and boring modes in SC III at the expense of quality. The characters were terribly unbalanced to the point where Sophitia and Cassandra were the only two characters you could possibly need. Not to mention they completely left out Team Vs. (it was mentioned in the instruction booklet but wasn't actually in the game) and Chronicles of the Sword was so messed up you couldn't even save a different game on your memory card without corrupting the data.

[Vyk]

True.. But I mean its stuff they already had going. It wouldn't be too hard to tweak and/or fix the stuff as they move on. No need to completely get rid of it. Like all the bonus characters from SC1 were tweaked into being real characters in 2 instead of just clones of everyone else.

But I suppose building for new systems was probably quite a chore so they had to spend most of their time getting to know the system and building the core

Video reviews I've watched seem to frequently compare the transition to that of 2. Pacing was slowed and not much work was put into modes. Just core gameplay and bonus characters. So maybe I'll get what I want in the next game

I never ran into the Cassandra/Sophitia problem. Maybe I just never faced a talented player with them. I've always made it a habit of playing through Soul games until I can beat it on the hardest difficulty. Random friends don't stand well against that... Thankfully there's an online mode this time so there's at least SOME extra meat. And admittedly that probably took up a lot of budget and production time

My complaints are marginally insignificant though and not very "fighting game" oriented. I was just hoping for things that have no effect (and certainly don't diminish) the core gameplay

But looking back, SC2 was very bare bones. And completely broken. So yeah. Here's hoping that now that they have their next gen engine down, there'll be more to offer down the road..

Edit: How weird... There's an update on XBox Live for it already

[Roto13]

Soul Calibur II was far from broken. III was broken, not II.

[Roogle]

Husband: We don't have any money.

*divorce papers*


Soul Calibur II was far from broken. III was broken, not II.

I think that Soul Calibur II was more balanced than Soul Calibur III, too. I have not played Soul Calibur IV, yet, so I cannot say whether or not I feel that it is balanced, but I know that the fighting game community places a large emphasis on balance of characters.

[TyphoonThaReapa]

I've got it on PS3. I like it a lot. It's way better then Tekken 5:DR...:rolleyes2

[Ki Ki]

I love it! It's the only fighting game that I can completely wreck my bf in. :excited:
Plus Cassandra is hot.

[JKTrix]

That update was out before the game was officially released. I think it was late last week or something.

Namco has the ability to add content via DLC, and they most assuredly will. (Past experience shows that Namco is pretty liberal with its DLC on Xbox Live...) Perhaps they'll even add things more substantial, such as game modes like Team Vs. Sucks that they're pretty much guaranteed to have a price on them though, when they really should have put it in the game.

[Coma]

If we're going to put it head to head against DoA and Virtua Fighter and stuff, yeah. Its pretty and refined

My problem is I've played every game since Soul Edge and even that game back on the Playstation had more to offer in story mode. And Soul Calibur 3 was freaking bursting at the seams with content

Just seems like too big a step backward. Fighting games get too boring to me after a while. All that stuff in SC3 kept me playing for months. I'll have done everything in this game in like... a week :/

Soul Calibur 3 was an exercise in mediocrity. The mindset of "Quantity over Quality" was clearly present. It my have been "bursting at the seams with content", but thats irrevelant. Soul Calibur has been, and always will be a fighting series. Its not about storyline, this is a Final Fantasy board, I assume you all like Final Fantasy. If you want story go play Final Fantasy, if you play fighters for story, you're in it for the wrong reason. I personally play Soul Calibur for smooth, refined, edge of my seat fighting action. Soul Calibur 3 might have a story, and all that other stuff, but the root of the game, the very reason it even exists, the fighting, was poorly executed. Resulting in the most broken fighter since Tekken 5: Juggling Ressurection. I personally am glad SC4 cut back on all the crap. And that Namco chose to spend time on the fighting engine. And when you get down to it, thats what a fighter is. I bought it yesterday, when the game came out. I didn't put it down until I thought I was going to have a heart attack. The online is some of the most intense fighting I've ever done. You can complain about a lack of story all you want, but I'm just glad SC4 works. I think its the pinnacle of the series.

[Vyk]

Soul Calibur II was far from broken. III was broken, not II.

I know there were three or four characters in 2 that had unblockable unbreakable combos that would completely cripple the competition. Talim I'm positive of because I used it to piss people off to not extent. She'd jump and slam you into the ground bouncing you up and then do a bunch of summersaults in the air and juggle with you until you either hit a wall or ring out. Usually it was a ring out. There was no avoid that once it connected. All you had to do was keep hitting kick. That was broken. And it was taken out in three. As I'm sure the other characters' similar combos were. I had a magazine that listed them all but I didn't like Seigfried or Ivy and I can't remember who else had them so Talim's the only one I knew

[Slothy]

Crap this is out already? I kind of wish I hadn't found out since my PS3 is 500kms away and will remain that far away until the end of August. Oh well, once I get back I should have plenty of time to play it.

[Depression Moon]

Me a month ago: Alright, I guess we can spend my birthday money on stuff, but you just make sure you have enough money to buy me Soul Calibur IV when it comes out.

Husband: Ok.

Me yesterday: Soul Calibur IV comes out tomorrow.

Husband: We don't have any money.

Me: *DIVORCE PAPERS*

Oh I didn't know roto was a girl I thought it was a boy, by the sig avatars and the comments. A classmate of mine here in college got it yesterday too. he showed me while I was in his car on the way to Mickey D's. i heard there are some new features and a real online mode this time!

[Roto13]

I am a "boy" xP

[Namelessfengir]

if i had the systems i might get it. i played sc3 plenty so this couldn't be any worse

[Vyk]

... Not that my opinion is very professional, or even highly regarded at this point. But I'll say it anyway. Just finished another round. And Cassandra is still over powered and "all you need", as Roto put it :] Not that it'll matter. Everyone agrees that Yoda is completely broken anyway. As long as the rest are pretty well balanced (and so far they do seem to be) I doubt anyone will mind much. I think its kind of expected of her at this point

[Big D]

They put a bunch of random and boring modes in SC III at the expense of quality. The characters were terribly unbalanced to the point where Sophitia and Cassandra were the only two characters you could possibly need.:p People always says that SC3 was 'broken' because of the unbalanced characters, but there's little agreement over who's actually unfairly powerful. Many say Seigfried and Nightmare, but you claim it's the Alexandra sisters... for me, that suggests the 'imbalance' problem is in people's heads more than it's in the game.

Besides, who wants a fighting game where the characters are all identical except for the sequence of buttons you push in order to win? In real life, some fighters and some weapons just aren't as effective as others. It can take more strategy and more innovation to win, if you're at an inherent disadvantage. Having some variation in overall effectiveness just adds to the game, I think, rather than detracting from it.
Not to mention they completely left out Team Vs. (it was mentioned in the instruction booklet but wasn't actually in the game) and Chronicles of the Sword was so messed up you couldn't even save a different game on your memory card without corrupting the data.The lack of Team VS was a disappointment, but I never had any problems with CotS. I guess they must've fixed that for the game's Platinum release.

I've honestly never understood the gripes about SC3. I love that game to bits, far more than its predecessor - which I didn't play until long afterward.

[JKTrix]

When you break Lizardman's low armour, his tail comes off and wriggles around on the ground a bit. I lost a round because I was laughing.

Finally spent some decent time with the customization, and I gotta say I underestimated the appeal. It's pretty cool seeing your created character do stuff, but beyond that the 'style' you use gains levels which allows you to access more abilities. Equipping armour and stuff actually has an extra function besides just aesthetics now, which is nice. I still think I would be A-Ok without it, but seeing the effort that's been put into the character customization mode (and how it's utilized in the Tower of Souls) makes me value the game that much more.

[Madame Adequate]

So basically Namco spent ALL their time on graphics and movesets and whatnot.

Like they should. It's a fighting game. Gameplay is everything. There's no argument to be made that the story mode doesn't give you character development or whatever. That couldn't possibly be less important.

True in principle but a lot of the fun in Soul Edge, and SC I and II came in the super-spiffed up globetrotting adventure story modes.

[Coma]

I must say I love the character customization. I've made some cool dudes. I made a guy based off hilde, he has Venom Fang A and HP Drain A. I named him Varthlokkur, he looks pretty damn cool. I made another based of Talim who has Start Dash A, Appeal, Alignment, and that strength booster ability. So she's a total offensive fury in the first 30 seconds. Character customization is great. I've noticed, the pieces that carry the same buffs (+str -def) look good together. They put a load of thought into it.

[Roto13]

So basically Namco spent ALL their time on graphics and movesets and whatnot.

Like they should. It's a fighting game. Gameplay is everything. There's no argument to be made that the story mode doesn't give you character development or whatever. That couldn't possibly be less important.

True in principle but a lot of the fun in Soul Edge, and SC I and II came in the super-spiffed up globetrotting adventure story modes.

The actual stories in the adventures modes in SCI and II were just random excuses for you to be fighting whoever you're fighting. Those weren't particularly interesting. Even in SC III, they just reused the same stories for everyone. If you were going to fight Sophitia, it's because you heard about a temple that had something to do with Soul Edge/Calibur. If you were going to fight Cassandra, it's because you heard there was a clue in a mansion that was on fire when you got there, but Cassandra got confused and attacked you anyway. When you were inevitably going to fight Zasalamel, it was because he told you to come to the clock tower for information. "You are not worthy to find the sword! I shall kill you here and now!" *flings a giant cog at you* This was the result of them putting actual effort into the story. That's pretty sad.

The missions modes in SC I and II were great fun, but not because of the stories. It was because of the variety of the matches you had to fight, and the general feel that you were doing more than just fighting a string of enemies.


The lack of Team VS was a disappointment, but I never had any problems with CotS. I guess they must've fixed that for the game's Platinum release.

Early versions of the game had a terrible bug that would screw up your CotS file if you basically used your memory card for anything other than Soul Calibur. I can't play CotS mode any more because of it. Not that it was particularly fun.


In real life, some fighters and some weapons just aren't as effective as others. It can take more strategy and more innovation to win, if you're at an inherent disadvantage.

This isn't real life, it's a game. :P It'd be like if you played a game of chess where you can pick whether you want to use the standard pieces or replace all of yours with queens, except for the one king. It would get pretty dull.

If a change of strategy was all it took to even the playing field, it wouldn't be a balancing issue. (Like the n00bs who think Siegfried and Nightmare are cheaper than Sophitia and Cassandra could never come up with :P) The problem is that if two equally skilled players are preparing for a tournament, and one of them trains as Sophitia and the other as anyone who isn't an Alexandria, the Sophitia player is pretty much guaranteed to win.

[Dreddz]

My copy arrived this morning and I've been playing it all day. Not the big step Soul Calibur II was to I but still a great improvement over Soul Calibur III. They slightly slowed down the gameplay which I appreciate, now matches at least last over ten seconds.

I was against the idea of Star Wars characters being in the game but in all fairness I don't mind them so much. In fact Darth Vader is great fun to use and a very nice addition, I actually spent half the time in training practising with Vader. On the other hand the Apprentice is seriously unbalanced and way too overpowering. Hes fun to use but makes light work against any opponent. It would of been best to not include him at all because I'm sure in a few months everyone will be using him online. From what I hear Yoda is even worse than the Apprentice so I'm glad I was stuck with Vader. And Hilde is also pretty cool but I can tell from the few minutes I played with her that she's not my type of character to use.

Haven't had time to mess around with the customization, I've spent my time so far collecting all the characters, which takes only an hour tops so they may as well have just given them all to you from the start. When I was online I saw someone who had created Sephiroth and I was damn impressed with the result, definitely increased my interest in the customization which I normally wouldn't bother with as it generally sucks in fighting games.

I'm slowly making my way through the Tower of Lost Souls at the moment which is a stiff challenge compared to the rest of the game. Good practise though.

EDIT - Oh and they removed Survival mode which pisses me off, that was one of the quintessential game modes in fighting games and they just got rid of it. Shame on you Namco.

[Roto13]

Is there a character with a random moveset like Edge Master/Charade/Olcadan?

[Dreddz]

I don't think so actually. Algol seems to be the final boss in story and arcade and he has his own move set.

[Roto13]

That's kind of disappointing. :P But whatever.

I just got my hands on a copy. I'm installing it right now. (Optional installs are awesome.) The only opinion I can give so far is that I didn't think the opening cutscene was anything great. I really don't care about that, though. xP

EDIT: The install took forever, but it's optional and the load times are awesome so it's probably worth it. I've played through Story mode and Arcade mode as Mitsurugi. Story mode is pretty lacking in story, but I don't care about that either. xP Less work for me to do when I'm updating my Soul Calibur story guide later. :P Arcade mode doesn't appear to have an option to change the difficulty. That's kind of disappointing, since I didn't have much trouble with it. I haven't really done anything in character creation mode besides buy some new characters, but it looks interesting enough. I really liked character creation mode in Soul Calibur III, so I'm definitely going to give it a try in IV.

I don't have a lot to say about the gameplay yet, since I've only played as Mitsurugi so far. He seems to be pretty much the same as he was before.

[Mirage]

Kilik is a bit changed, but not terribly much. Talim seems to be worth using again, Seong Mi Na seems stronger than in 2 and 3.

I've only had a few hours to spare for playing today, but I'll probably spend all weekend on it.

[Zeldy]

My brother got it this morning and I've been on it a little bit. I'm not as critical as the rest of you xD the game's good, I managed to thrash my brother on it and it's his game!~

I like using Amy as we share names :jess: I like using all the girls, Talim, Seong Mina and the like, my brother's always the big scary slow ones so I have an upperhand with speed.

[JKTrix]

Tower of Souls is definitely where the challenge/battle variety lies in this game. As far as I've played, you can still just play them as normal, just going for the kill. But there are particular conditions in each floor that will net you bonus items if you fulfill them. Having battle conditions be an option rather than mandatory is great.

[Vyk]

Descending the Tower = Survival

[Dreddz]

I've spent most of my day playing the online and am impressed at how lag free it is, a lot better than Tekken 5's online. But playing other people is a reminder at how button mashy friendly this series is. People who mash at the buttons can go along way and really disheartens you when you practise with a character all day to then die online against someone who is smashing their head against the controller. And when there is lag you have to give in and button mash yourself or else you've got no hope winning otherwise.

Feature wise Soul Calibur IV is ahead of the competition but its gameplay is still leagues underneath Tekken or Virtua Fighter.

[Rase]

Just got word that a suite mate will have the game this fall, so I'm looking forward to that. Haven't played a Soul Caliber game since 2 about four years ago, so I'm looking forward to trying it again.

[Slothy]

But playing other people is a reminder at how button mashy friendly this series is. People who mash at the buttons can go along way and really disheartens you when you practise with a character all day to then die online against someone who is smashing their head against the controller.

This may be true, but like any well made fighting game, once you've mastered it button mashers are no trouble (at least going by my experience with the other games). That's what always set Soul Calibur apart for me; all the depth of a great fighting game without being so painfully inaccessible that you feel like you're brain damaged when you first pick it up. I definitely prefer it over other fighting games.

[Roto13]

But playing other people is a reminder at how button mashy friendly this series is. People who mash at the buttons can go along way and really disheartens you when you practise with a character all day to then die online against someone who is smashing their head against the controller.

This may be true, but like any well made fighting game, once you've mastered it button mashers are no trouble (at least going by my experience with the other games). That's what always set Soul Calibur apart for me; all the depth of a great fighting game without being so painfully inaccessible that you feel like you're brain damaged when you first pick it up. I definitely prefer it over other fighting games.

This. :P

[Vivisteiner]

Me a month ago: Alright, I guess we can spend my birthday money on stuff, but you just make sure you have enough money to buy me Soul Calibur IV when it comes out.

Husband: Ok.

Me yesterday: Soul Calibur IV comes out tomorrow.

Husband: We don't have any money.

Me: *DIVORCE PAPERS*

Oh I didn't know roto was a girl I thought it was a boy, by the sig avatars and the comments.
:p

Classic.

[Dreddz]

This may be true, but like any well made fighting game, once you've mastered it button mashers are no trouble (at least going by my experience with the other games). That's what always set Soul Calibur apart for me; all the depth of a great fighting game without being so painfully inaccessible that you feel like you're brain damaged when you first pick it up. I definitely prefer it over other fighting games.

I think your overexaggerating the depth that Soul Calibur has. Compared to other fighters its by far the easiest to win at by button mashing. Tekken has always been the most fair and balanced as it is still inviting to casual players but has a lot of depth so that people who practise always beat someone who is button mashing. Virtua Fighter is on the other end of Soul Calibur as button mashing gets you absolutely nowhere. I appreciate all three fighters for what they are but there's no questioning the fact that Soul Calibur is for beginners and it a little too forgiving to the casual.

[Madame Adequate]

Balls is it. I didn't play III enough and haven't touched IV yet, but I knew exactly one person who could even match me at Soul Caliber I or II. Button mashing was incredibly easy for me to deal with.

And yeah try button mashing with Voldo, then watch me use Voldo, and see which of the two gets smashed in by Astaroth and which gets a win.

Certainly VF is more complex than SC. And in some ways Tekken arguably is as well. But a well-played SC character will be infinitely superior to a button-mashing one.

Excluding Maxi, but even then, I don't think it really counts as button mashing seeing as a single button press tends to be a 13-hit combo. :p

[Vyk]

I agree with Vivi and MILF. Rookies love Maxi. But that just means you have to be more defensive. I've -never- had any trouble with button mashers. My friends and family love fighting games. But I always have to tone down my skill just to make matches fun. I don't want people getting pissed off that I'm unbeatable just because I learn to use the damn block button and know how to dodge and hit high and low when necissary

Button mashers I know are always on the offensive. Which means if your balance in you defense enough you're almost guaranteed to win

[Zeldy]

Okay so this game rocks. I've just been on it for 4 hours, and I absolutely kick butt as Talim! :jess:

I unlocked like 6 achievements, and I was like WHAT THE HELL DID I DO, but yay! I finally got round to making my own character, 'Zeldy'~ If anyone wants to play online on the 360, pm me first as it's my brother's, I'd like to kick some of yo butts.

[Roto13]

You know, I think Story mode has more Story in it than it lets on. For example, when playing as Sophitia, Taki says something along the lines of "I cannot ignore your evil deeds." Sophitia and Taki fought together to destroy Soul Edge way back in Soul Blade, so they have a pre-existing relationship. Not only that, Taki would think very highly of Sophitia for putting her life on the line, even getting seriously injured in he process. That one line can mean a whole lot if you know the history surrounding the characters.

I'm new to the whole online leaderboard thing. I'm number four hundred and eighty something in Arcade mode. I don't know if that's good or bad. xP

[JKTrix]

One of the characters I went through Story mode with confronted Sophitia and it looked like she was wielding the Soul Edge. If I remember correctly, she was on the same team as Tira and Nightmare, and she was dressed all in brown and her weapon was brown.

I haven't gone through her story mode yet, but I do want to see what her final decision is. (Her mission from a God is to destroy the Soul Edge, but if she does it one of her children will die due to other forces)

[Slothy]

Balls is it. I didn't play III enough and haven't touched IV yet, but I knew exactly one person who could even match me at Soul Caliber I or II. Button mashing was incredibly easy for me to deal with.

And yeah try button mashing with Voldo, then watch me use Voldo, and see which of the two gets smashed in by Astaroth and which gets a win.

Certainly VF is more complex than SC. And in some ways Tekken arguably is as well. But a well-played SC character will be infinitely superior to a button-mashing one.

Precisely. By the time I finished weapon master mode in II I had practically mastered Mitsurugi, and to a lesser extent, Raphael, and I never played against anyone in my prime who could beat me as either. Button mashing is extremely easy to deal with when you master the game, especially if you get to the point where you can read your opponents moves with any consistency. I agree that it's new player friendly, but I don't think button mashers are half as hard to deal with for a skilled player as you think Dreddz.

[JKTrix]

Dreddz was saying the Button Mashers *online* are harder to deal with. Defensive options like Guard Impact and Auto GI moves and even *blocking itself* are rendered nearly useless when lag is happening.

It's a totally different story if you're sitting in the same room with someone sharing the same screen.

[Roto13]

Unless that button masher is playing as Necrid. xP Thank got he's gone.

[Cookie]

Way to think the people are real, guys.

Anyway yeah, fucking epic game.

[Caraliz]

I want to play this.

[Vyk]

You know, I think Story mode has more Story in it than it lets on. For example, when playing as Sophitia, Taki says something along the lines of "I cannot ignore your evil deeds." Sophitia and Taki fought together to destroy Soul Edge way back in Soul Blade, so they have a pre-existing relationship. Not only that, Taki would think very highly of Sophitia for putting her life on the line, even getting seriously injured in he process. That one line can mean a whole lot if you know the history surrounding the characters.

I'm new to the whole online leaderboard thing. I'm number four hundred and eighty something in Arcade mode. I don't know if that's good or bad. xP

Go through Story mode as Cassandra. It gets fleshed out more than that. So I think you're right. Though that just irritates me more lol that all they do is just deal with situations instead of trying to explain wtf happened..

[JKTrix]

Cassandra's ending is the one that was making me go 'WTF'.

Soulcalibur starts *talking to her* (though it may have been Sophitia's voice...but still, it's coming from the bloody sword). Then she stabs the SoulEdge with it. Then she grabs Soulcalibur again and either takes it out of SoulEdge, or just straight up breaks the sword.

I'll admit to not exactly paying close attention to the story (I skip the introductory scroll...it's the same thing they say in their profiles in Chain of Souls anyway). It still seems a lot of the endings are kind of out-there.

[Roto13]

Yes, I just played through as Cassandra so I saw that ending.

I had already read that you learn in this game that Soul Calibur is evil, too. I guess this is evidence of that. :P Maybe there's more information about it in Siegfried's story. I haven't played as him yet. That's really crazy, when you think about it. I'm pretty sure she destroyed it after using it to destroy Soul Edge, though.

Do you think you could do me a favour and tell me what the white text says at the end of her ending? :P I can't make it out. I need it for my story guide.

I've played through Story and Arcade modes as eight different characters now (Vader, Apprentice, Lizardman, Sophitia, Amy, Setsuka, Mitsurugi, and Cassandra, I'm going through it from top left to right xP) and I think I'm ready to give some impressions.

So far I think there's one broken character, based on who I've played as and who I've played against. That would be The Apprentice. He's a pain in the ass whenever I fight him and the game was extra easy when playing as him. I've heard some people complain about Mitsurugi, too. I'm not sure about that. People use him a lot online, apparently, but that could very well be because he's just a popular character. People like their samurai. :P Anyway, even if he is broken, I've been playing as Mitsurugi for like ten years and I'm not going to stop now. :P

I had a few online matches with Mirage earlier. The lag was pretty bad, but the lag is bad in every online game I play so it's probably just that.

I'm definitely enjoying this game more than I enjoyed III. Story mode is much better than Tales of Souls and pretty much everything is better than Chronicles of the Sword. xP

I still haven't made any custom characters. I think I'll throw one together shortly.

EDIT: Alright, so I just threw a custom character together for the hell of it. I told it to make me an evil character with heavy equipment who focuses entirely on attack. It gave me this (http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/rotothirteen/100_1861_resize.jpg). Uh, alright? A bit homoerotic, but ok. I didn't want to do too much with him so I just stuck some clothes on him and made him blue. :P What do call an evil blue character? Why, Blue Devil (http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/rotothirteen/100_1863_resize.jpg), of course.

Apparently I didn't have enough skill points or whatever to use all of the skills I had set to him so I just took them all off and saved him. I took him through story mode. Apparently created characters do have stories, and even endings. That's a nice touch.

[Mirage]

hey, everyone post their PSN/XBL user names here, so i can own you all.

my PSN: mirage-ness

[Dreddz]

PSN- archaic88

I won't play you unless you at least have a 4-bar connection. I tried playing roto13 but the lag prohibited me from doing anything. Simple attacks are the only thing that seems effective. When the response time is so slow it makes it impossible to duck throws and such which sucks, especially when you see them coming.

[Roto13]

We both ducked and avoided attacks several times. xP But it does definitely require some serious ESP xD

[Dreddz]

Next time I play you I'm picking Maxi and button mashing to no end, maybe then will I have a chance of winning :p

[Zeldy]

I totally saw someone who had customized Tira into a male character and totally made it look like hard gay, I'm not even joking. It wasn't called Hard guy, but it was totally uncanny!

Does anyone have this on the 360? ;_;

[Vyk]

I do. I'm Vykrom on there. As I am pretty much everywhere on the internet. And I've tried a few matches. I don't know what my connection was, but the guy I was playing kept fluctuating between 3 and 4 bars and the lag was pretty bad... I don't like playing via ESP as Roto calls it. I'm not the best fighter but I'm not a button masher really. I see things coming, and I can do something about it, I'd sure as heck like to be ABLE to -_-

But I don't mind giving it a shot regardless. As long as we can all agree the lag is a huge disadvantage, or advantage, if your psychic abilities are continuously giving you luck of the draw as it did when I fought my friend online

Edit: I'll go back and watch Cass's ending here in a sec and see if I can read what's said at the end. I have a little trouble reading the text, too, sometimes. My TV's not perfect. But I blame the font they used to. A lot of the letters seem to run together horribly

[Laddy]

The game is good, but a bit dry on extra content. I like to make characters based on my own. O, and I've got a Drow who moves like Yun-Seong, at least I don't get that painfully annoying bastard anymore when I want to play him. XDDD

[Roto13]

Man, I just had the best created character moment ever.

I was playing a VS match against a randomly generated created character. It was this black dude with Yoshimitsu's moves, jesterish pants, a really colourful shirt, and a tiny little had. We both won a round each, and we were on the last round, when I broke his had. It exploded off his head and this giant white afro popped out! XD!!!! I lost the match because I was in tears. That was so awesome. I have to design my own created character like that.


Edit: I'll go back and watch Cass's ending here in a sec and see if I can read what's said at the end. I have a little trouble reading the text, too, sometimes. My TV's not perfect. But I blame the font they used to. A lot of the letters seem to run together horribly

Thanks a lot, but Trix already did it for me. :thumb:

[Vyk]

Good 'cause I totally failed... The fonts too unreadable and it doesn't stay up long enough to squint out what it says... I think I've given up on reading that ending text for people if its longer than a sentence

[JKTrix]

It didn't even stay up long enough for me to type it out to Roto on MSN :P I was about to finish typing the first sentence of the ending when the text started to fade away. I managed to memorize the rest of it and finish it, but I watched it again to make sure I got it all.

So maybe playing in Japanese isn't a good option for people on SDTVs who want to understand what's going on if you can't read the subtitles.

[Zeldy]

I do. I'm Vykrom on there. As I am pretty much everywhere on the internet.

We have to play! <3

I kick butt on online ranked matches, 8 consecutive wins is my best so far, and I got level 21 yesterday. I switch between my Talim based customized character and a customized Tira. I've got way over 30 achievements on it now.

[Vyk]

Is there a way to find out what your own connection strength is, on it?

[Coma]

I use COD4 for that. It shows your connection strength next to your score.

[Vyk]

I just went into the network settings and looked at my connection. It had 3 bars. I pointed the antenna in each direction and got 2 bars and 1 bar. Apparently 3's the best I can get. Which was never a problem on any other game. But when I played my friend last night it was pretty horrible. I dont know if it goes both ways so it might have been caused by him. But regardless, there's not much excuse for it. Games like COD4 and Halo and Gears have twice as many people running with a lot more varried connections and never nearly this bad

[JKTrix]

Lag is a little more critical in a fighting game than in FPSes. Japan is also a little behind the curve when it comes to that sort of international network optimization. I'm sure it all runs perfectly in Japan, but Japan is considerably smaller than the US and Europe.
Growing pains.

[Roto13]

My Arcade rank was 480-something and now it's like 1631. xD Wow, what a drop. People got better at the game and I didn't.

[Dreddz]

Ranked matches aren't fun because you can't invite anyone and you can only play once and that's it. I prefer playing player matches so my rank must be very very low. Still, people who care about their rank are just trying to boast. I really don't care about that type of stuff.

[Roto13]

I'm talking about Arcade mode, which automatically records your best score and submits it to the ranking board. I haven't played a single match with anyone I don't know yet. And I may never, if there's voice chat/no way to turn it off. (Is there? :P)

[Coma]

Voice chat is only between matches, not during.

[Roto13]

But is it mandatory?

[Zeldy]

On the 360 you can mute a user, but when you're in the middle of a match there's no time to view their profile and select "mute".

I love online ranked matches, I'm upto level 23 now~ Player matches are fun, but I hate all the waiting around, but I was just in a player match and I got 10 consecutive wins so I didn't have much waiting around that time xD

Some kid I was against was all "woaahhh! CAN ANYONE BEAT YOU. OH MY GOD. HOW DID YOU DO THAT. OH WOW'. I just loled. The kid added me as his mate will "have a heartache when he sees and will beat me" or something. ahaha :p

[Coma]

Yeah, you can.

[Roto13]

Well I may try it as long as I don't have to communicate with any of the morons out there. xP

[Croyles]

I just bought it today to try out a different fighting game than tekken, which I also havnt played in ages.
Its my first Soul Calibur game and so far its pretty fun but I still havnt been able to grasp the fighting mechanics, im too used to tekken.
Dreddz punished me real bad today lol.

So can you play tag team offline? i.e. 4 player.

[Coma]

I'd check, but I lent a friend my copy in an attempt to convince him to buy it. I want to wail on him online so badly.

[Madame Adequate]

Well I may try it as long as I don't have to communicate with any of the morons out there. xP

In a good 30-ish online matches I've not heart 10 words spoken in total.

[Roto13]

That's ten words too many!

This game is a lot more polished than SC III but there are still a few small very small details that could use some more work. Like sometimes some characters will finish their end battle quotes and their mouths will hang open. :P It's very funny to see Setsuka look like some dirty mouth-breather.

[Vyk]

That's ten words too many!

This game is a lot more polished than SC III but there are still a few small very small details that could use some more work. Like sometimes some characters will finish their end battle quotes and their mouths will hang open. :P It's very funny to see Setsuka look like some dirty mouth-breather.

I... have not experienced that, but its funny as hell the way you said it haha...

And no, tag team matches are only available in the tower and story mode. For now anyway. Bet they added as a downloadable extra later

[Roto13]

This (http://kotaku.com/photogallery/scivcreator/1003053680?viewSize=thumb1280x1280) is now the greatest created character I've seen, followed by these. (http://kotaku.com/photogallery/scivcreator/1003053779?viewSize=thumb800x800)

More here. (http://kotaku.com/photogallery/scivcreator/)

[JKTrix]

Miku or Donald? :P Those Dragonball ones you showed me were amazing.

Been a couple of days since I've played this with any degree of sincerity (been feverishly playing and re-playing one DS game I got around the same time), but I think I'll get into the Tower a bit more tonight and maybe try an online match.

[demondude]

Roto your story guide is really good, I just read it on gamefaqs. : - )

[JKTrix]

It's award-winning.

[Roto13]

Hey, I'm glad you like it. The reason I haven't finished Arcade and Story mode with everyone yet is that I've been writing up everyone's profiles and endings for that thing as I go. xP

[DK]

Man I thought Siegfrieds voice sounded familiar (playing with the Jap voices on because Yoda aside the terrible English voice acting annoyed me), just found out it is Viral from Tengen Toppa <3333

Not likely to make me play Siegfried anymore but still.

I saw a pretty hilarious Phoenix Wright CaS a while ago, that was genius.

[demondude]

Is Yoda as broken as everyone is saying?

[Roto13]

Man I thought Siegfrieds voice sounded familiar (playing with the Jap voices on because Yoda aside the terrible English voice acting annoyed me), just found out it is Viral from Tengen Toppa <3333

He's also the same guy who played Link in Ocarina of Time. :P

[Zeldy]

Is Yoda as broken as everyone is saying?

You can't throw him but he can throw you (which drives me mad), and alot of upper attacks miss him. So yeah, he is broke and extremely annoying to go against.

[JKTrix]

Man I thought Siegfrieds voice sounded familiar (playing with the Jap voices on because Yoda aside the terrible English voice acting annoyed me), just found out it is Viral from Tengen Toppa <3333

He's also the same guy who played Link in Ocarina of Time. :P

And Soulcalibur 2 :P
He's one reason I was super eager to switch to Japanese as soon as possible. Another one was Algol's Jouji/George Nakata, probably most popular for his role as Alucard in Hellsing but I know him from many, many other shows.

I hear Yoda is much easier to Soul Crush/Critical finish, but yeah the inability to throw him I can see being kind of annoying.

[Zeldy]

I hear Yoda is much easier to Soul Crush/Critical finish, but yeah the inability to throw him I can see being kind of annoying.
It's just that he can do all those moves on you and you're left with low kicks, that's it, I only ever use throws once or twice.

[DK]

Yoda is a bitch in front of Lizardman's hax ground attack. Lizardman is easily the most annoying character to fight in this game.

[Madame Adequate]

I have very little trouble against Yoda. The little bastard takes so long to attack you that your vertical attacks crush his weird green skull.

Yeah now that I've got back into it I am kicking bums with my custom character. She uses Mitsurugi's style.

And yeah that Ronald McDonald one is the best thing ever.

[Roto13]

I fought against a friend just now who had a custom character that was a big fuzzy purple cat.

I didn't even know that was an option. I need to make more female characters. :P

[DK]

I made my first foray into online today, got my ass handed to me horribly when I went on first trying to use Mitsurugi who I suck with but I like him anyway. After that I went and started training with Amy 'cause I liked what I played of her and got to a decent level, went back on and actually did pretty well. Won more than I lost at least. Also came across the best hax tactic ever because I hadn't bothered to change her equipment so all she had on was the basic outfit, and I was in a fight with some guy using Maxi and it had gotten down to the final round and he was in the lead but halfway through he shattered Amy's dress revealing her wonderfully rendered by the crazy Japs loli underwear to the world. All I heard was the dude laughing hysterically and Maxi not moving so I made full use of the loli-hax tactic and wasted him. It was glorious.

[Vivisteiner]

^I want piccies! :p

[Coma]

Go into character creation and remove all of the gear if your so desperate to rub one off to Amy.

Though, I must say, playing through story mode equipment-less, is worth it to see gorgeous high def Setsuka.

[JKTrix]

Setsuka fan in the house! So far I've spent the most time playing as her. I think her style level is 8 right now.

[Cookie]

The only problem I have is blocking. I keep pressing back to block, like in Street Fighter games. Also, blocking online can be completely useless with the lag.

Also button mashers and move repeaters need to fuck off and die.

[DK]

Can't stand Setsuka, looks like a cheap dutch hooker tbh. Xianghua is much better :heart:

Mitsurugi is my maxed out fighter that I got for the achievement, also got Yun-Seong up to a 6 so I could make him a guard breaking soul crushing rapist to get the items from the Tower with. Will probably be maxing out Amy though with the amount I intend to use her from now on.

[Zeldy]

I've never had much problem with lag. I was told to host sessions instead of just entering one, that way it doesn't matter what their internet is like as it goes off yours, if that makes sense.

I like Tira, she's so cute and has some sick moves. I have Talim leveled up to like level 9 though. Amy's pretty good, as is Taki and Xianguhauaassd whatever her name is. I basically play as the girls ^.^

Kilik should go and die, he IS SO ANNOYING. Voldo scares the crap out of me.

[Coma]

My best fighter has to be Hilde. I love the control over all ranges she has. Plus some sweet moves to boot. Nightmare is a close second though. Nightmare with Unblockable Attack A (soul edge complete), Auto Counter A, and Skill Ability Up crushes anything in its path.

[DK]

I love Voldo against the computer because I spam throws like a mothersmurfer and he always has his back turned to you so it rapes him. Hilde is pretty cool as well but sometimes I rock with her and then other times I just fail miserably and can't get any of her moves to work.

And Kilik isn't that bad I've found. Most of the people who use him online just spam the same predictable crap over and over again so it's easy to rape them, and the one guy I fought who just played with him normally was probably the most fun fight I had online so yeah.

[Roto13]

I've been playing as Mitsurugi since Soul Calibur 1 (And Soul Blade, for that matter) so I'm not about to switch my main to anyone else, but when I play against people I usually just set it to random. :P I like playing as everyone. Except maybe Rock. It's kind of a shame. Rock was great in Soul Calibur I and then he disappeared for SC II and when he came back in III he was completely blah.

I played as Talim for the first time today. She's been denerfed, it seems. She's as fun as she was in SC II. :P And she's not going bald any more.

[Coma]

I don't think shes been denerfed, the nerf has just been toned down. She's nowhere near as powerful as she was in two. She has just the right amount of speed now to make her balanced.

[Vyk]

Taki seems to be back to her old self too. I quit playing her for a while in 2 or 3 'cause they toned her down. She was awesome in SC1. I felt bad leaving her behind. Or maybe I was just too love struck with the awesome quickness that Talim posessed at the time. But then like you said she got her skills raped down in 3. Now everyone's pretty awesome again. I haven't used Seung Mina much since SC1 too. Though I trained people how to obliterate with her in 2... Her and Taki just didn't feel right. Now I enjoy using both of them again

Even Tira, who I hated in the last game...

Can't get Hilde to do crap yet. Haven't found a groove with her. Guess she doesn't fit my play style

[Zeldy]

what the hell does denerfed mean :(

I main as Talim, my most used customized character is based on Talim, I kick butt as Talim. Her moves arent powerful, but she's fast and speedy, and can get alot of hits in without getting many herself. Some of her moves are really sweet, there's this one move which I'm not sure how I do sometimes, but it's let me get so many ring outs and the person I'm playing with going 'woah what was THAT'.

I have no idea how I do this move, but it's sweeet when she uses it. I can't really explain it.

edit; Vyk, I'll add you the next time I'm on~

[XxSephirothxX]

nerfed = made http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifty, denerfed = made less http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifty

[Roto13]

Tira is amazingly better in this game. She's completely different. And her moods actually matter now.

[Coma]

Yeah, a custom Tira geared toward attack can rip you to shreds pretty quickly.

[Vyk]

And her moods actually matter now.

Not sure what you mean here

[Roto13]

You haven't noticed? If she takes enough damage she goes from happy to angry (she can also switch back and forth between the two manually with her A+K, but it damages her a little). When she's angry, she sounds different, a lot of her attacks change and she's a lot faster, but every attack does a tiny bit of damage to herself. Once she does enough damage, she switches back to happy Tira. It's a great addition to her character and it makes her a lot more fun to play as.

[Cookie]

Online is very infuriating. I've just lost after having been up by two rounds, after a Nightmare user just started doing that spinning overhead smash thing. Seriously, what a huge joke.

[Vyk]

Online is very infuriating. I've just lost after having been up by two rounds, after a Nightmare user just started doing that spinning overhead smash thing. Seriously, what a huge joke.

Stay on the ground for a second. Roll away. Its a vertical attack. It'll be aimed at a specific spot. Your hope would be to roll out of that spot asap...

I honestly don't have a problem with people button mashing or spamming. If I lose because I couldn't figure out how to get around a move before my life bar depleted, that'd be my fault

[JKTrix]

But again, the lag negates that kind of defensive thinking if it's bad enough.

I couldn't even get online on the PS3 yesterday. I'll see if I can try it on my 360 version tonight. JKTrix gamertag.

[Dreddz]

You bought both versions? That's hardcore.

[Big D]

Is Yoda as broken as everyone is saying?

You can't throw him but he can throw you (which drives me mad), and alot of upper attacks miss him. So yeah, he is broke and extremely annoying to go against.It's not "broken" if you can't hit a short character using high attacks, nor is it "broken" if a full-grown person can't wrestle a tiny green midget using grapples that are meant to work on someone of comparable build. "Broken" would suggest a design flaw, something that the developers goofed up on... and making Yoda's collision detection realistic isn't a goof; it's just a quirk that means you've got to fight differently against him.

That's like saying Gran Turismo's broken because the TVR Speed 12 goes faster than the Mini and handles better :p

[Coma]

But again, the lag negates that kind of defensive thinking if it's bad enough.

I couldn't even get online on the PS3 yesterday. I'll see if I can try it on my 360 version tonight. JKTrix gamertag.

That sucks, I've only had the tiniest bit of lag. It was against an opponent who was using a lag switch, since it only lagged up as he swung, then immediately delagged. After the match, he said he was using one. I was beyond angry.

[Magixion]

Anyone feel like compiling a list of gamertags so we can get some matches going at all? I would love to join up and beat up on others that have the 360 version!

[Roto13]

Well, there's a list of gamer tags stickied in this forum. :P You can just add everyone who has posted in this thread.

Also, a lot of people put them in their profiles.

[Magixion]

Roto, every post I make you make me feel like an ass! :D haha.

Sounds good though, I will be sure to add some people when I get home!

[Roto13]

Sorry, I'm really not trying to make you feel like an ass. xD It's just that I've played online with several people from this site and it was because I added them before the game was even released. xP

[JKTrix]

Game's sold 2 million copies around the world (http://release.nikkei.co.jp/detail.cfm?relID=196328&lindID=1) since it came out last week. (English (http://kotaku.com/5033608/soulcalibur-iv-over-2-million-copies-sold-worldwide))
You bought both versions? That's hardcore.

There's a longish story behind this particular case, but it's not the first time I've bought multiple copies of the same game--intentional or otherwise. I guess I contributed to the 2 million :P

[Vyk]

That sucks, I've only had the tiniest bit of lag. It was against an opponent who was using a lag switch, since it only lagged up as he swung, then immediately delagged. After the match, he said he was using one. I was beyond angry.

I'm assuming this lag switch thing causes lag during his attacks so its harder for you to dodge?? Thats interestingly evil. And like... completely pathetic


Roto, every post I make you make me feel like an ass! :D haha.

He does the same to me xD Though I really appreciate it myself. No fun looking like an idiot half the time, but flaws in my logic definitely need pointed out sometimes. Roto has no qualms against slapping someone in the face with common sense :D (And again, I say, this is a good thing haha)

Also I'm thinking there's more PS3 SC players here than 360. Not that that has any relivance but its interesting to point out

[Croyles]

Im starting to like Cervantes! I finally beat Dreddz with a Cervantes style custom character :D

[Roto13]

Any PS3 players want to share their DLC with me? :P

[Coma]

Oh god, I hate Cervantes. Every Cervantes player I've seen on line spams his teleport moves. God. It's easy to counter but irritating.

Also, firefox doesn't recognize teleport as a word.

[Zeldy]

I used to hate Cervantes, but now I've played against so many online that I know his moves perfectly, his teleport move I can dodge with ease, as I can most of them.

I still don't like him though. I did my first Critical Finish today! Some guy on Live was talking me through it xD

[Roto13]

You can do the critical finishes in Training mode if you just want to see them. :P Have the computer block and just smash their equipment and press whatever button you have it assigned to. (Or mash the face buttons. xP)

[Zeldy]

You can do the critical finishes in Training mode if you just want to see them. :P Have the computer block and just smash their equipment and press whatever button you have it assigned to. (Or mash the face buttons. xP)

I just never thought to xD and it's nice being talked through it anyway, as he gave me tips.

[Croyles]

Can people stop with this goddamn "oh I hate people who use this and that character". Some people need to use easier characters because they are beginners, like me.
If that means that you wont be able to kick our asses 100% every time boohoo, lol.
Yeah I kinda used teleport a lot with him but actually Dreddz mostly blocked those.

[Coma]

I didn't say I hated people who use him. I just hate the character. He has moves that aggravate me. Same with Xianghau. Theres nothing really devastating about those characters, just a personal block.

[JKTrix]

In training you can actually set the Soul Gauges so that yours is 'full' and the opponent's is 'empty', so you don't have to spend a lot of time wailing on a blocking dummy to trigger the Critical Finish.

SC4's training mode is quite good, it has a couple of things I really really like about it. But the lack of 'command training' kind of irks me.

[Roto13]

I wonder if training mode counts towards the "100 Critical Finishes" honour. :P

[Vyk]

I just maimed arcade with a custom Tira character. Roto was right. She's been totally revamped. I'm falling in love with her. Especially her kick moves. The computer hates it. The last few guys were trying to ring me out like crazy, it was about all they could do to win. I was laughing my ass off...

There needs to be better ways to take pics off of TVs... :[

[Roto13]

TV capture card thingy. :P (Alright, so it's not exactly practical if you don't already have one....)

Speaking of Tira custom characters, I just made one of my own. A moogle. :P Well, I'm calling it a moogle. It's pretty much just a cat suit with purple wings and dance attacks, but I'm impressed with myself anyway. xP

[Zeldy]

Can people stop with this goddamn "oh I hate people who use this and that character". Some people need to use easier characters because they are beginners, like me.
If that means that you wont be able to kick our asses 100% every time boohoo, lol.
Yeah I kinda used teleport a lot with him but actually Dreddz mostly blocked those.
We're just voicing our opinions on the character and their moves, not so much the person playing it. and yes, if you can't kick their ass then it is a boohoo as that is the point of the game.

[Coma]

I wonder if training mode counts towards the "100 Critical Finishes" honour. :P

I don't think so. I'd find out, but I don't have my copy. Go into the honors, check your crit finish number. Go do a few in training, then go check again. I'd be curious to know myself.

[demondude]

Just a couple more days 'till I can play this game. : )

[DK]

Critical finishes only count in Story, Arcade and Online. I am pretty sure that is all anyway.

[Roto13]

I didn't even know you could check the number you've already done. :P

[Dreddz]

Still haven't performed one critical finisher since I bought the game. Haven't seen one of them yet either, might just watch them online.

Where's everyone on the Tower of Souls? I hadn't been playing much of it since I was getting thrashed everytime until I found out that you can customize your character which made it a lot easier. I'm currently on floor 35-ish and am generally breezing through it now. I imagine its going to get a lot harder soon though.

[Roto13]

I just did my first in-battle critical finish ever. :P I was playing through Arcade mode as Angol Fear and I broke off a piece of Yun-Seong's equipment and quickly hit L2. Whoo, Critical Finish honour unlocked. Now only 99 more to go until I get that other honour. xP

[Coma]

I'm on like floor 17ish. I suck against intelligent AI. Mostly because I can't fool them like I can a human opponent.

[sir helix]

as long as seigfrieds in it its good.

[Zeldy]

I'm upto to floor 21. I sorta cheated, well I didn't - but floor 18-20 was driving me insane (I'd get up to the last challenger on floor 20 and die, it was so infuriating) so what I did was copied my best customized character three times and just used her as my three characters. It worked and I did it~

Critical finishes are my new favourites. I did them on some of the annoying characters on the Tower, it's a good way of killing them quickly maintaining your health.

I'm now attempting going down the tower~

[Vyk]

On my brother's game I got him up to around floor 35 too. On mine I just finished 20. Probably the worst fight I've faced. So I'll probably be up to the 30s on my own game here soon. I remember breezing him up into the 30s. I think 20's the hardest for a while

[Roto13]

I got my 30th honour just now. That means I've unlocked all of the equipment. :P Hurray!

[ultimated]

I dont think Soul Calibur 3 was that much of a dissapointment

[Vyk]

I dont think Soul Calibur 3 was that much of a dissapointment

I enjoyed it too. But then I never went head to head with too many people. I joined in two tournament nights. And could not be beaten. But that doesn't surprise me, so it doesn't tell me how broken the game might have been. Or lack there of

I just liked that it had stuff to do for us lonely 1 player fighting game people... :(

But I'm starting to really appreciate four, despite the severe lack of 1P options

And I just downloaded some customaization package from Live o_O; Didn't think DLC would be available so soon

[JKTrix]

Namco is probably the most eager for your extra money through DLC.

[Dreddz]

Wasn't there DLC up right when the game launched? Namco really are idiots. And if it turns out true that both Vader and Yoda are actually on both discs but just need unlocking through DLC Ill be so pissed. I really hate what developers do to suck money from us this gen. Makes me miss the old days.

[Roto13]

Apparently the Xbox 360 version has a different ending for the Apprentice. Well, actually, it's basically the same except it ends after he beats Algol. Could someone maybe tell me what the text says after that? I can't read it on YouTube. :P

EDIT: Yay, high quality! The text is exactly the same, though. xP

[Vyk]

I wonder why the endings would differ..

[Dreddz]

If its to do with the Apprentice it probably relates to both Yoda and Vader so that would be my guess why the endings differ.

[KentaRawr!]

The PS3 Version has an extended ending for the Apprentice. The 360 Version is kinda like, "I win! Credits Roll."

[DK]

Yeah his ending sucks for us. Amy's is my favourite so far.

[Saber]

Does anyone remember soul edge? It was pretty much the whole start of soul calibur. Even in tekken 3 for the ps1 you can fight in a parking lot and see soul edge written on the wall. I was excited to even see soul calibur 1 cause I liked tekken and soul edge so much and I was a fan. although playing with the ultimate weapons in soul edge did kind of make it a little too easy.

[Roto13]

I always thought Soul Edge was too awkward. xP

[TyphoonThaReapa]

Who's your best character people? So far, I'm pretty badass with Raphael. My online record for Special Versus Ranked Match on PS3 is 145-23. Winning Percentage of 86.30%...XD

[Madame Adequate]

Does anyone remember soul edge? It was pretty much the whole start of soul calibur. Even in tekken 3 for the ps1 you can fight in a parking lot and see soul edge written on the wall. I was excited to even see soul calibur 1 cause I liked tekken and soul edge so much and I was a fan. although playing with the ultimate weapons in soul edge did kind of make it a little too easy.

Yeah, Soul Edge was one of the best PS1 fighters, it was awesome. But nothing compared to the majesty that would be Soul Calibur.

[Hambone]

Who's your best character people? So far, I'm pretty badass with Raphael. My online record for Special Versus Ranked Match on PS3 is 145-23. Winning Percentage of 86.30%...XD

Cassandra, through and through.

[Roto13]

I changed the voices to Japanese just for a change of pace. Vader sounds so lame in Japanese. :P

[Vyk]

Does anyone remember soul edge? It was pretty much the whole start of soul calibur. Even in tekken 3 for the ps1 you can fight in a parking lot and see soul edge written on the wall. I was excited to even see soul calibur 1 cause I liked tekken and soul edge so much and I was a fan. although playing with the ultimate weapons in soul edge did kind of make it a little too easy.

Yeah, Soul Edge was one of the best PS1 fighters, it was awesome. But nothing compared to the majesty that would be Soul Calibur.

My one friend that I usually fight online, I keep telling him it always reminds me of Soul Edge, because of the lag, even when the animation isn't choppy, there's almost always a split second delay between the button press and the action on screen. Which was something my brother and I had to tackle to master Soul Edge

Psychic fighting sucks lol..

But it was still probably my favorite PS1 fighter. I never got into Tekken and always preferred Virtua Fighter, which of course was always on a Sega system. Outside of that I liked Street Fighter which was better suited to a Sega 6-button configuration

But it was nice to have weapons brought into the mix :]

And how far have they come...

[JKTrix]

So, Soulcalibur 4 is up to 'version 1.02' in updates already on the PS3. So far the only thing that's confirmed to be changed is that you can now use voice chat in battle (which you could do on the 360 all along, probably why 360 doesn't have this update). There's a theory that these 16 MB updates contain the data for future DLC releases (that you'll have to pay for to use, but you need the data to see people online who might be using them).

Someone commented that the Premium DLC that they downloaded using the PSN ID of someone else was locked after the 1.02 update.

PSN lets me download stuff like updates and junk, but Soulcalibur doesn't let me connect to other people. Tried with Roto, Dreddz and Typhoon, among some other folks I know and I either can't connect at all or get disconnected when we get to the Character Selection screen. I do want to try on the 360, but something else always comes up :P I'll definitely find the motivation once I get my new stick (http://www.hori.jp/products/xbox360/controller/realarc_pro_ex/) for the 360.

As for mains... I've been spending the most time with Setsuka (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2DIDzpNYsrY&fmt=18). I've started to get re-acquainted with Raphael though, he's *really* good. Other people I'm fairly capable with are Kilik and Mitsurugi.

[Hambone]

Can someone please explain the Soul Gauge/Soul Crush/Critical Finish to me? I don't really understand any of it. :|

[Vyk]

You have to break a peice of their equipment before you even start worrying about it. Then you have to go on a severe offensive, hopefully they block a ton. That drains their soul gauge, the sphere next to their life bar. You want it red. You want it blinking red. You want yours blue. You want it blinking blue/white :]

After both of you are blinking and their armor is broke. You have to hit them with a power attack that breaks their block (soul crush). THEN as SOON as you break their block you hit LB or L2 (or all four face buttons). If you've done it right the critical finish cut scene happens

[Hambone]

Ahh thanks. :)

[Coma]

Just got my copy back today. Holy hell. Floor 20 of the tower is hell. I just barely won by critical finishing Taki. Its pretty easy now. How high have all of you guys gotten? Also, how many honors do you have? I have like 26.

[Nifleheim7]

When i get back from my (long) vacation it will be the first game that i'm gonna buy!:greenie:

[Mirage]

I got stuck at floor 20 too, i haven't tried too hard to get past it yet.

[ValkyrieWing]

God i want to play...

Is Seong Mi-Na wirth playing in this version? I was best with her back in the SC3 days.

[Mirage]

I'd say she's decent to play as. Shes hot, that's for sure.

[TyphoonThaReapa]

@JKTrix: Setsuka huh? She's really difficult to play with due to her having a lot of just frame attacks. But If you got em perfected, that's someone to really watch out for.

On the other hand I can't think of one person who doesn't know how to play with either Kilik or Mitsurugi. To me, their the cheapest two character's in the game. I remember one day when I played online rank battle with random people and I fought 7 different Kiliks in a row. Although I won most of the matches, it was VERY annoying. Kilik is like the Eddy Gordo of Soul Calibur. That's just my opinion...XD...As for Mitsurugi, square square, triangle triangle, down plus triangle, forward forward triangle triangle, ring out. That's basic what most Mitsurugi players does. That's very annoying as well. I've yet to see a Mitsurugi player who plays better than the CPU.


@ValkyrieWing: Seong Mi-Na's pretty cool in this game. has a few guard break attacks that are very quickly done and her attacks are pretty safe. I'd pick her over kilik any day.:rolleyes2

[Sarc the Swordsman]

I got Soul Calibur 4 the day it came out, I was pretty hyped up over it but...

It just wasn't as good as I expected. Sure, it looks great; and the gameplay is decent...but The Apprentice is just way too cheap, and ruins the experience. At least in my opinion.

Love Ivy and Setsuka though!

[Hambone]

Ivy is unbelievably hard to use imo.

[Sarc the Swordsman]

That's why I prefer using her. She's difficult to master, but I love the combination of short, long and mid range attacks.

My friends hate playing against me though, because I can pull off all her lethal and unpredictable attacks.

[Hambone]

I can do those throws that she does where you input like 6 directions and A + K and A + B

[Vyk]

My nephew was just using Yoda online on my account.. I couldn't hear what the dude was saying, but I bet I got a negative player review because of it

And VW Seong Mi-Na is almost back to her original glory :<3:

[Roto13]

Yahtzee reviewed SCIV today. I'm not linking to it because there's a picture of fake bewbz in it, and the staff here is pretty hardcore about that. :P

He basically hates it because he spams throws and doesn't play with other people. That would be annoying if I didn't know he reviews games just so he can tear them apart.

[Yamaneko]

Anyone on the PS3 want to hit up 'NadeKommando'. I'm always down for a match.

[Markus. D]

I got it today :D

dewd it's pretty.

But UGH Ivy's designers have gone farfarfar again :[

[Roto13]

You can give her a new costume if you want. :P I'm in the process of leveling up everyone's styles, and as I do, I'm giving them new costumes. I turned Lizardman pink and dressed him in what looks like black leather. And I'm totally putting Ivy in a burka when the time comes.

[Psychotic]

I just got it yesterday. So...uh...who should I main? I've never played a SC game before but I was big on Hwoarang and Steve in Tekken. Basically I want someone who is balanced when it comes to speed and strength and can spew out a variety of 3, 4 and 5 hit combos, preferably with lows mixed in. So any suggestions would be welcome! Currently I am considering Maxi.

I expect nobody will help me but that's okay, I tried.

[Roto13]

Hwoarang is actually probably Yun-Seong's descendant. :P He has a nice balance of strength and speed and he has a few kicks that make for nice combos. He's the only character with any real focus on kicks, actually. Give him a try.

You should really mess around with everyone, though, just to get a feel for them, then pick someone you like. Soul Calibur plays pretty differently from games like Tekken. It's not so much about combos as it is about mind games. :P

[Pete for President]

I would recommend Raphael, although he has more speed than strength. I always feel like playing as Maxi is too button-mashing-ish to actually know what you're doing.

[Markus. D]

gotten online today ^^

It's fun.

Wonder Woman dominated my Ass.

[Coma]

So yeah, I'm stuck on floor 57-9 of the tower. Its infuriating to know I'm a foot from completion. Any advice? Also, I've taken to maining a brutal ring-outer Nightmare.