Soul Calibur (Series)

I couldn't help but notice there were some Soul fans on here so why not make a thread about the franchise as a whole?

I had the pleasure of being introduced to the series through the original Soul Blade which I played with my brother. I remember when the pirate was the main boss and turned into Ghost Rider! Okay, so he wasn't Ghost Rider but my child brain made the connection anyway. I loved playing that game and I vaguely remember another mode on it that was like a storybook kind of thing I watched my brother play that even had some different endings for some of the main characters.

I wouldn't come back to the series until Soul Calibur III for the PS2, and you already know my opinion of that. It's my personal favorite of the franchise. After that I played IV and honestly didn't care about it much. Never played I, II or V. I wouldn't mind owning each port of Soul Calibur II because I really do like how each console has its own exclusive character, that was something unique about the series and I thought II did it the best.

Discuss.

SC2 and 3 are great, SC4 is ok and SC5 is good, but i miss way too many characters/styles.

3 was utter perfection. The created characters weren't just clones of the main cast. There was still some symblance of a story to be had. And then there was Chronicles of the Sword. My favorite thing in a fighting game ever. I know most people hated it, but I always wanted an RPG where encounters played out like a fighting game. And aside from Legend of Legaia, this was as close as it was going to come. But I've been around since Soul Blade/Edge myself as well. But I've played and owned most of the games in the franchise. Played it in the arcade, enjoyed it on PSOne, and followed it into the Dreamcast, and kept up with it through the NGC/PS2/XBox, and now I hate what they've done with it. At least 5 isn't as garbage as 4 was. But I still hope they take their foot out of their mouth and make something decent again with the franchise

While 3's CAS characters were different from the main cast, many of their styles were poorly balanced,and the game had some annoying glitches and bugs, including a "wipe your entire save file" bug. I mostly used standard character styles for my CASes in SC3.

I love this series! My brother and I spent hundreds of hours having Hwang vs. Taki battles in Soul Blade, and Spuuky and I have a few of the more recent games. I forget which one we're up to though, maybe IV?

For me

Soul Blade: Awesome
Soul Calibur: Eh, alright, missing some of the single player magic of Soul Blade
Soul Calibur 2: Great line-up, I had it on the Gamecube, so LINK FTW! Also fantastic adventure mode
Soul Calibur 3: The pinnacle, very indepth character creation, fantastic single player challenges
Soul Calibur 4: Massive let down, just felt like an advertisement for Force Unleashed
Soul Calibur 5: Great online modes, but at the expense of pretty much everything else

If they continue this series I really hope they put as much effort into offline as they for their online offerings. The adventure modes in 2 and 3 were highlights of the franchise for me.

I really wish they would make a SC that takes the best from all the games, and also gives us all the fighting styles of the characters through the entire series.

I rock everybody's socks with Yoshimitsu :stare:

Great games, although the glory of Soul Blade/Soul Calibur 1's story mode has never been matched. That feeling of journeying the world has been lost for a while.

I LOVE this game! One of my favourite fighting games - such a diversity with the characters. I can own anyone with Seong Mi-na.


Omg we should totally do SC sets!

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Originally Posted by Vyk

I know most people hated it

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wat?

Alucard voice: I will never understand humans.

The people I've seen in the fighting game community (including a few members here, when the topic has came up) consider Chronicles of the Sword to have been a huge waste of time that could have been spent polishing the balance in all the fighting styles. All that apparently truly matters is how legitimate a competitive "tournament" style game it can be. Which I believe is all these people care about. One player modes be damned, we better be able to settle arguments with a brute force show of skill where nobody can complain that someone is OP because the developer spent all their time working on balance rather than gameplay o.O

I love fighting games. But I am not a hardcore fan. And I have no fighting game fan friends, nor do I ever feel the need to settle anything with a fighting game match. I like to play through what constitutes story in these games. Usually it's ridiculously lame. Chronicles of the Sword, and Mortal Kombat 9 are about the best examples of one player joy someone can get in a fighting game

Anyone who wants to play online, just add me in PSN.

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Originally Posted by Locky

Omg we should totally do SC sets!

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I would do this!

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Originally Posted by Vyk

The people I've seen in the fighting game community (including a few members here, when the topic has came up) consider Chronicles of the Sword to have been a huge waste of time that could have been spent polishing the balance in all the fighting styles. All that apparently truly matters is how legitimate a competitive "tournament" style game it can be. Which I believe is all these people care about. One player modes be damned, we better be able to settle arguments with a brute force show of skill where nobody can complain that someone is OP because the developer spent all their time working on balance rather than gameplay o.O

I love fighting games. But I am not a hardcore fan. And I have no fighting game fan friends, nor do I ever feel the need to settle anything with a fighting game match. I like to play through what constitutes story in these games. Usually it's ridiculously lame. Chronicles of the Sword, and Mortal Kombat 9 are about the best examples of one player joy someone can get in a fighting game

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I really dislike that group of players. It seems to me like they wouldn't be able to argue against a statement like "ideally, fighting games should be untextured monocolored rectangles that correspond perfectly with hit boxes with no music, just sound effects to let you know when a character attacks and defends". Now, I wonder why fighting games aren't like this, if competitive viability truly is, as they claim, the only thing that matters.

What the "hardcore" fighting game players seem to often forget is that it usually is not commercially viable to make a game that caters only to highly competitive people, because there simply isn't enough of them. They need to make game modes that utilizes the assets made for competitive play, and also that utilizes the game's balance, that also caters to a lot of other players. I would not have bought TTT2 if it was versus mode only. I would not have bought most of the SC games if they didn't have the cool extra modes that they had. Weapon master, Chronicles of the sword, team battles (i miss you :(), character creation, character galleries and weapon exhibitions are all things that made me feel like the game was worth my money. I loved being able to play around with weapons that had varying properties in weapon master. However, I also love being able to just smack down my friends in standard versus mode.

Soul Calibur 2 is 3D fighting game perfection. Everything before it was merely building up to its mastery of the genre, and everything after it was trying to steadily destroy its legacy. (Okay, so I made that last part up. SC3 was okay, and I haven't played any past that).

SC3 is actually great. The game looks fantastic and plays really well. It also has a very respectable character lineup, and lots of extra challenges. A part of me really wishes that it was SC3 they made into HD and put up on PSN/XBL.

Could not stand the art style in SC3. Things got a lot more cluttered and visually confusing than previous games. And although I didn't spend nearly enough time playing SC3 seriously compared to what I played of SC or SC2, it had some weird bugs that screwed game balance up in some really screwed up ways apparently. As in being able to cancel move recovery into other moves. Which has to be the biggest wtf glitch I've heard of in a fighting game.

And actually, if I'm being totally honest, I think Soul Calibur is probably the best game of all of them because ring outs became much too difficult in pretty much every game after it, but the fact that weapon master mode is literally the most effective fighting game tutorial I've ever seen puts SC2 ahead of it for me. It was much easier to get into, learn, and master than any other fighting game I've seen.

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Originally Posted by Vyk

The people I've seen in the fighting game community (including a few members here, when the topic has came up) consider Chronicles of the Sword to have been a huge waste of time that could have been spent polishing the balance in all the fighting styles. All that apparently truly matters is how legitimate a competitive "tournament" style game it can be. Which I believe is all these people care about. One player modes be damned, we better be able to settle arguments with a brute force show of skill where nobody can complain that someone is OP because the developer spent all their time working on balance rather than gameplay o.O

I love fighting games. But I am not a hardcore fan. And I have no fighting game fan friends, nor do I ever feel the need to settle anything with a fighting game match. I like to play through what constitutes story in these games. Usually it's ridiculously lame. Chronicles of the Sword, and Mortal Kombat 9 are about the best examples of one player joy someone can get in a fighting game

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I don't communicate with many hardcore fighting fans so... Yeah. Sounds like I'm not missing much there.

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Originally Posted by Vivi22

Soul Calibur 2 is 3D fighting game perfection. Everything before it was merely building up to its mastery of the genre, and everything after it was trying to steadily destroy its legacy. (Okay, so I made that last part up. SC3 was okay, and I haven't played any past that).

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Considering how underwhelming IV felt and what I hear about V removing characters that people liked you may not be too off the mark there, honestly.

I don't really get the "visually cluttered" thing you're talking about!

>>> SC3 was the best, the only problem I had with it was the corrupted saved data.
SC4 was a major step back and SC5 ended killing the franchise..:luca:

Thinking about some of my favourite characters and SC5:

Cassandra, gone. Replaced with Pyrrha, just not the same.

Xianghua, gone. Replaced with Leixia, just not the same.

The only saving grace with SC5 was how fun Viola was to play, shame the rest of the roster was so small. :(

I don't remember having any of the bug problems with SCIII that you guys keep discussing o.o

Fighting games have never actually been better than Soul Calibur I and II. I'd be surprised if they ever are.

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

I don't remember having any of the bug problems with SCIII that you guys keep discussing o.o

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There's 2 or 3 ways to trigger it if I remember correctly. I also remember it being fairly simple to avoid once you become aware of it. I believe it is also fairly easy to avoid accidentally as you have. I don't remember any specifics, but I think it was mostly related to Chronicles of the Sword. If you didn't play much of that you might have been safe. But again; it's been so long I don't honestly really remember anymore

Soul Calibur 3 Wallsplat Glitch - YouTube
Disregard the poorly selected music

Soul Calibur 3 Mirror Throw Glitch - YouTube
Soul Calibur 3 Glitcharama - YouTube

In addition to that, there's the glitch that makes you lose all your saved data.

Also, PCSX2 emulates it pretty well now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hn6wV_ZnJ0

The sound goes wrong sometimes in SC3 as well; Characters, and (I think) the narrator often went from word too fast (like the recording had jumped) sometimes lines weren't finished before the scene went into the battle, or victory or continue screens, and if you lose the "Destined Battle" to Raphael as either Siegfried or Nightmare he would not speak, but the subtitles would clearly give him lines.

Also, while I like how they gave the characters lines while fighting in these games (as opposed to just kias) some of the in battle lines were kind of silly - especially the created characters - one voice/discipline had the line "It's over!" during one attack, and the line "There!" during a potential follow-up attack (so he basically ended up saying "It's over there." for no reason) I never got why Raphael kept asking where everyone was going either...

I have played SB to SCIV, except SC. I have loved them all - I do them separately later after thinking it.

I started off playing SC2. I misunderstood the whole platform-specific character thing and was really disappointed not to be able to play as Link or Spawn simply because I didn't own those consoles. Heihachi was fine. It was interesting to note that he was a second Tekken character in SC, Yoshimitsu being the first. I also liked Necrid and wished he had been a recurring character. SC3s CAS system was a so-so. I've always wanted a game wherein I could fully customize not only the character's look but their fighting style. Yet, I'm not a programmer, so I still need something dumbed down to my level. I played 4 on my cousin's console. I despise the armor-destruction. It plays too much like the character's are wearing glass. I prefer MK's system in which the character's gradually showed signs of damage to both their flesh and their clothing. The inclusion of Darth Vader and Yoda were also so-so. I still want a fighting game devoted to Star Wars (aside from Teras Kasi... a sequel would be nice) but I don't care to have them in a game outside of their own story.

SC2 was the best in my books. It came right at the end of the arcade era in my area. I found it to be, by far, the easiest one to come to grips with as well. Ivy, for example, is an absolute cinch to learn to use in SC2 but has gotten progressively harder as the series has gone on, imo.
SC3 and 4 were good. The customisation options were fun, but they were console only. The whole reason I even had SC2 on PS2 was to practice for the arcades. I still bombed out of the little tournies that the local arcades set up - my guard impacting has always been far too reactionary (i.e. GI-ing on misguided instinct forgetting that opponents will often mix-up or use holding variations of certain moves to throw the timing), but it was fun.
As for SC5 - I perservered with Pyrrha and Patroklos for a while, and I felt proficient enough with them, but they weren't Cassandra. :(

I remember when I first got into the game - I went with Nightmare (which played more like Siegfreid in SC2 days), moved onto Kilik before finding a permanent main in Cassandra. All three characters were great for ring-outs which was my favourite way to win. As I got better, I found out that Talim played in an annoying poking, grab-happy style could beat most people in my area and that successfully pulling off Ivy's Summon Suffering was the equivalent of the FPS teabag in a fighting game.

Yes, lots of fun indeed.

Oh, well, as for characters, I do well with Raphael (beat the crap out of some brainless dweeb calling him gay), Voldo, Mitsurugi, Kilik, Seong Mi-na (I find similar to Kilik), Taki, Talim, Tira, Xianghua, and Yoshimitsu (because his moves are similar to those he has in Tekken). Favorite characters all around Raphael, Taki (dat bust), and Tira (dat a).

Soul Calibur 2 blew my mind. I had it for the Gamecube. I loved that I could play as Link as use things like Biggoron's Sword, the Megaton Hammer, and Great Fairy's Sword as weapons, and each would have a different effect/feel. The Great Fairy Sword was OP as smurf and it was awesome.

I mostly played as Raphael, Link, and Maxi. I've played a few Soul Calibur games since then but nothing could compare to 2.

I only own Soul Blade, it's a fantastic game and I really should get back into the series. Based on posts so far opinion seems quite divided on which is better out of 2 or 3, but either way I think I'll invest in one (or maybe both) of those down the line.

I wish I still had Soul Blade. No idea what my brother did with it, it's either buried in his stuff somewhere or he sold it to somebody.

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Originally Posted by AssassinDX

I only own Soul Blade, it's a fantastic game and I really should get back into the series. Based on posts so far opinion seems quite divided on which is better out of 2 or 3, but either way I think I'll invest in one (or maybe both) of those down the line.

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2 has better balanced mechanics, and pretty well refines what the series started out being. Also better as a novelty considering the better exclusives. But as far as that goes, I think most people prefer the GameCube version, due to Link. Where as 3 has a loads more content, including a couple well crafted one-player modes, and quite an extensive character creation with lots of easter eggs and stuff. So it depends on if you want your mechanics to be rock solid, or you want loads of content. Now if only they mixed the two..

If only... :(

I adore the Soul Calibur games, and I do wish they'd release some sort of 'fixed' version of III. It really did have the best single player content out of all of them, I think. And interestingly, on the official website even bonus characters like Amy, Arthur and Li Long had stories written out for them that would've made sense in SC3's context. I think when it was about to come out I wrote a huge thread on EoFF, actually, going over the content of the game that I knew about. I was so excited!

Didn't they re-release Soul Calibur II recently? Maybe if it does well enough they'll do the same with III. Fingers crossed!

Yes, on PSN and XBL. No japanese voices, though.

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Originally Posted by Mirage

Yes, on PSN and XBL. No japanese voices, though.

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Is it bad that the lack of JP voices is a total deal breaker for me? Because I seriously can't imagine playing Soul Calibur with the English voices.