Yes, yes.
Mo's right when he says many characters have been nerfed. I personally don't think Kilik has been nerfed that badly, but that may be because I was never a hardcore Kilik player. I was, however, a hardcore Talim player in SCII, and I can definitely say that she's been nerfed all to hell. I have never seen a character change so drastically between two games... she lost almost everything that made her playworthy, and gained pretty much nothing in exchange. Now she has a lot of Air Leap and Gale options, which is alright, but they hardly even make up for all her lost back-turn and Wind Charmer techniques. She plays much less dodgy than she used to, which is what made her so awesome in SCII. Her speed has been greatly reduced as well, which is a total bummer. However, after a while of getting used to this new Talim, I'm starting to pick her up slowly. She'll never be as good as SCII Talim, but she's still playable in a competitive sense.
I've been to one tournament so far, and I didn't do TOO badly, considering the likes of Aris, B:L, and TieTYT were there (some of the best SC players of the west coast)... but then again, I didn't even get to play them... heehee. At least I didn't get last place, right?
From what I've heard Sophitia and Cassandra lead the pack when it comes to the top tier characters - with Cassandra just edging out Sophie. I haven't gotten the chance to play either character in the hands of a real player yet, so I can't say what that's like. But Cassie was already pretty damn good in SCII.
My overall impression is that once you get passed all the radical changes that were made to the characters, the game starts to shine a bit more. The underlying engine is still good, and I kinda like the new Tales of Souls mode (though getting to Night Terror is a pain in the ass! I don't think I'll be able to 100% this game because that includes getting to Night Terror with every character!). Chronicles of the Sword is alright... though the load times are incredibly annoying. Create-a-Fighter is fun to mess around with, but is kinda limited... they should have implemented sliders like The Sims 2 instead of snap-ons. But as it is, you can make some fun characters to mess around with. Why you can't import your characters to and from Chronicles of the Sword is beyond me... Lack of progressive scan is also baffling considering SCII supported it. It's a lot more fun in single player than any other fighting game, which is great... but let's face it... fighting games are made to be played with other people. And that's why it's confusing why this game will never make it to the arcade. I probably spent hundreds of dollars in quarters on SCII in the arcades. Also, arcade releases are a great way to test out the game and fine tune it before console release. I believe SCII went through 3 or 4 revisions in the arcades before hitting home (with even more changes).
Mo: Have you been to www.soulcalibur.com? They have a forum where you can talk with people in your area to set up meetings to play. They also have tournament announcements and the like. You should go there and see if there are any other players in your area that you can meet up with. And don't worry... Cassie's 236B is still there. You'll have to check on the properites yourself since I never really played with Cassie... but from what have played, the move is there and it's still good. Haven't checked if you can Soul Charge 236B into another 236B, but I think you can... :) Be happy! Cassie is top tier! At least you weren't a Talim player... :(
