Soul Calibur V

[Ekkebus]

Anyone who has followed us remotely closely as a company probably realizes what a landmark event it is for us when a new Soul Calibur game is released. Most of this stems out for the ridiculous amount of time we spent playing Soul Calibur II that has reached out into our movies, onto the podcast and into a huge made up movie series involving Yoshimitsu and Lizard Man on a road trip. Soul Calibur is special and ranked on a couple of our best of all time lists back on our last podcast before TripleRaidio. So yeah, Soul Calibur V? I'm all over it. I was super excited to read about how they were taking the series and finally moving the story forwards in a big way, with a big jump in the timeline and a slew of new characters. Also, they decided to go ahead with some new combat mechanics borrowed from their 2D fighting game cousins. And I hate to say it but I'm kind of disappointed with what I've played so far.

First off, I am not a fan of the meter. It basically just takes an awesome, unique fighting system and makes it, well, Street Fighter. Suddenly matches revolve more around building up your one big finishing move and trying to land it just like every Capcom fighting game. The mechanic itself isn't bad, obviously, it just feels unnecessary and takes away a lot of what made SC unique for me. The bigger issue is that executing a Guard Counter now requires half a meter to do. The Guard Counter is has basically been the cornerstone of the Soul Calibur franchise offering a straightforward easy-to-learn-but-tough-to-master defensive option that anyone can really take advantage of. Making it a less common ability isn't a terrible idea but making it an option at the expense of more powerful offensive maneuvers basically just means you'll never see it used. Its a massive change and I don't think it's necessarily a good one.

Then there's the story and the characters. I do like playing as the new characters. They shake things just enough while still being familiar to the characters we've known for years. My problem is basically...who the fuck are they? There's almost nothing in the way of background or explanation for anyone outside of Patrolkas and Pyrrha, and even they're story feels rushed. 'Oh you need to go search for these other two sacred weapons'. 'Oh, they just happen to be in the next town I go to'. I like the way the story mode presents itself but it's just too skimpy and too many characters see no screen time at all. With such a big jump in the chronology of the series, I was hoping for a lot more in terms of story but I guess I'm just guilty of expecting too much out of my fighting games.

This is somewhat minor but the selection of unlockable characters is pretty lame. The variations on Patrolkas and Pyrrha are fine. I was definitely pleased to see Edge Master again but then....TWO more all-weapon characters. I think its neat story-wise that Kilik has caught up to his master but Kilik has been one of my go-to characters for the past four games so when I found out he was just another Edge Master and not the Kilik of old I was pretty bummed.

Don't get me wrong, the game is still Soul Calibur so it's still pretty damn fun. I really like playing with all the new characters. Ezio is an awesome addition. The fact that it doesn't have Star Wars characters is a huge plus over SCIV. The netcode seems to be a lot more stable than IV and the matchmaking is pretty good as well. I haven't cracked into the create a character yet but from what I saw online you can definitely do some really awesome things and I'm looking forward to poking around in there. There's still quite a bit of content to explore and I'm sure I'll love playing it with people I know but my first night with the game definitely left me feeling a bit empty.

[Juese]

I have some similar complaints but I think to different degrees. Also, having a lot of people around to play helped the energy and enjoyment. I'm also happy I in a sense splurged on Dampierre, opting to go Best Buy exclusive instead of a gift card elsewhere. I'm sure he'll be DLC eventually but he feels like a big part of this game already.

The guard counters are my big miff as well. Part of my problem is, you lose that energy even if the counter doesn't connect. If it just drained it on a success, I'd use it a lot more. But why risk it?

I'm 50/50 on the supers. I wish it didn't feel so much like Capcom, but I was having fun with them. An option to play "classic" style without the supers/EXs and the old guard counters would've been really nice.

I actually liked the way the story mode went. Although I certainly wanted longer, I liked that it focused on one story. In fact I think it almost crammed in too many characters when it went to collect the pieces. Oh everyone's traveling together? Ideally I would've loved to have seen shit like, why were those people together and stories for everybody, but I didn't expect even the amount they gave. Expectations helped on that one.

Speaking of expectations, I've almost given up on hoping for a good unlockable characters system. Most people just seem to want everyone day one ala songs in a rhythm game.

The only thing I've been disappointed with so far is the create-a-character. Yes, it's a 3D fighter that hasn't had a precedent of good building. But I heard good word of mouth about it. The only things I could actually customize really are the 3 accessories that you can pile on, move and resize. That bit is great. But otherwise it was very limiting for me, just basic faces and hair and clothes that you could get in any game. I'll try again, but I'm not happy with my results so far.

[Juese]

Amend on the create-a-character a little. You just have to be clever with the 3 magic items and stickers.

[Wood]

I recently got this game in this week, and got to play a bit of it last night. Right now I'm in a position where I have no idea what I'm doing in the game just yet. I'm really surprised how after I've gotten decent at 2D fighters, I get a 3D fighter in and lose my mind. I don't have much of an idea what I'm doing. I know I picked up Soul Calibur II, III and IV, but I'm really wanting to get competitive at this game. As far as I know, I'm pretty much the only person who may play this game. I'll bust it out for the Saturday night game night, but I don't know what sort of reception I'll get from it. There's good news as Ralphael is back in the game, though he plays very much like he did in III and IV, and there's a few returning characters. I'm a little upset that Dampierre was a pre-order only character, as he does look pretty damn crazy. Also looking in the 8-Way Run forums, there's a Devil Jin style in game, which looks damn interesting. Also, Aeon is actually the Lizardman version of Kratos from the PSP Soul Calibur. Also, he looks pretty fun. Algol is an unlockable character, which is something I do not like, unless he's been toned down from his boss status in IV.

But I'm hoping to get some multiplayer games in pretty soon, as the single player modes are really scarce. There's arcade mode, more difficult arcade mode, that single player match (which isn't bad), story mode, and a practice mode. I still haven't found which character I want to use right now, as they did a great job of making every character feel different from each other.

[Ekkebus]

Wow, Aeon is the Kratos moveset. That makes so much sense now.

So anyway, after last Tuesday I popped in the game a couple more times, played a bit more online and some of the offline Quick Play mode. Ultimately I decided to cut my losses and I've sent the game packing away through Goozex to get the Early Access bonus. The fact is the changes to the basic systems pretty much ruin the game for me. I still think it'll be fun to play with other people but overall I think this is probably the worst installment in the series.

[shadowdancer21b]

I liked create a character in SC III personally. Also, have they answered my wishes and brought back Necrid, or at least a Necrid-alike?

[Wood]

I liked create a character in SC III personally. Also, have they answered my wishes and brought back Necrid, or at least a Necrid-alike?

Necrid? Really? I always thought he was a terrible character, and started the wheels in my head about how Todd McFarlane may not be the great designer I thought he was. However, that's just my opinion, so take it for what it is.

I'm going to stick with the game right now, and I'm excited to see how high level play looks like when it hits EVO this year. The new mechanics isn't a deal breaker for me just yet. The fact that they tied the parry system to the bar is frustrating as the original system really made the gap between good players and casual players that much much greater, much like the parry system in 3rd Strike. When I see it tied to a super meter, it's really saying "We want terrible players to feel good at this game." It worked for Street Fighter IV, right?

One thing I'm digging is the fact that they took a chance and replaced half the cast with a younger generation of fighters. What this allows for is greater tweaks in a fighting style without going against character. Take King of Fighters for example. There was a game where they gutted a lot of the character's move sets to balance the game. From a game design standpoint, that made sense. However, every player who grew up learning a character's moveset had to completely relearn that character. This forced designers to find a way to put those original moves back in. Here, we have characters who have similar styles, but they can be changed enough.

It's a damn shame you already traded this game in, Tim. I was hoping to challenge you at "this" stage of history, when I visit after my deployment.

[shadowdancer21b]

I liked Necrid's fighting style, not so much his appearance, which I found generic. He had a lot of different character's moves without being an Edgemaster clone. I would love to see that style again.

[Wood]

Yeah, edgemaster is in this game, and so is Kilik...as another edgemaster. That part is stupid. Bit, there's actually things I like about this game. They actually made Ivy easier to use, Hilde is no longer broken, and HOLY SHIT Maxi hits like a Mac truck now. This is easily the best version of Maxi ever made. I'm staring to think he's going to be a tournament staple for sometime, until they patch his damage, then back to bottom tier.

I'm really excited to see how this game gets played at the tournament level.

[Midnightlight]

Man, everyone's so excited for this, but I'm just bummed out over it.

And Seong Mi-na is gone. My heart is broken.

[Wood]

Who was honestly excited about this. I picked this game up thinking I would dissapointed. I do actually like the game, brave edges are definitely interesting, though right now Nightmare is really good. It's already got patched this week to fix some issues. Namely fuzzy guarding, and balance changing the characters.

[Ekkebus]

I was honestly excited for it and look where that got me.

[MrCerebellum]

I enjoy this SC way more than I did SCIV. To me, the match ending "fatalities" in SCIV never felt right. They needed some sort of new gameplay mechanic and went with their first idea. In SCV, meter building really adds to potential combos and mix-ups. and I'm glad everyone's CE isn't just a super weapon attack. Some are throws and some are only activated as Guard Impacts. Although Guard Impacting does cost meter, it really forces you to be smart about it. Just Guarding is extremely difficult to pull off 100% but the reward vs risk is balanced.

The online is PHENOMENALLY better than SCIV. Even with low bar connections, fighting is still smooth. I was surprised at how well I connected in a San Diego vs. Buffalo match multiple times.

Everyone's move list seems to have gotten dwarfed quite severely. It seems Project Soul has taken each fighter's essential bread and butter, added a new more moves here or there and tweaked a couple hit properties. To me, each fighter has a much more equal opportunity to defend and attack (unlike broken ass Hilde from SCIV)

Create a character only seems to get better and better. I can make penises and balls with ease and style.

All in all, probably the best soul calibur so far (after SCII of course)