Soul Calibur?

[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.

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.