Soul Calibur 4 Catch-All

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If your soul still burns, I can recommend a cream for that.

Don't forget to friend up GWJ Fight Club!

Does this actually matter?

I thought Soul Caliber was button mashing at it's best, so the above silliness won't affect that surely?

samfisher wrote:

Does this actually matter?

I thought Soul Caliber was button mashing at it's best, so the above silliness won't affect that surely?

No. None of it matters in the slightest. Still, something to talk about.

SC has always been my favorite fighting franchise so I'm really looking forward to this one. I don't play competitively so I don't really care if there is some button mashing freedom given to newbies. I just want it to look good and be fun and that is what I have alway gotten from it in the past.

I haven't been following this one. Does it have online over XBL, finally? If so, and enough goodjers are into it, I'll pick it up.

Morrolan wrote:

I haven't been following this one. Does it have online over XBL, finally? If so, and enough goodjers are into it, I'll pick it up.

You say "finally" like they've been neglecting it. SC3 was on PS2, remember.

But yes, last I heard it's in. You can use the default characters, your custom characters, or customized default characters (whatever the heck that means).

I can't wait for this one either. I can't count the number of hours the dreamcast and I and a house full of random people spent playing that one. SC for shots with 12 people was amazing. Part of the fun with the game for me was that whether playing it while mashing buttons or with lots of skill, it was always fun to watch.

I've tried to pop SC2 in to the 360.. and something about it just doesn't feel the same. I hope this one manages to keep the feel while still updating the graphics.

Any early hands-on impressions floating around?

b slippy wrote:

I can't wait for this one either. I can't count the number of hours the dreamcast and I and a house full of random people spent playing that one.

I used to play Soul Calibur with my linguistic philosophy professor in college. He's written a couple of books and apparently is kind of a big deal if you're interested in theory about paradoxes. :O

Used to play SC a lot at the arcade. Haven't played much since then. As long as online play works well, I'll be happy.

I know if I buy it, it will probably hold my interest for a week or two, and fighting as Yoda just leaves me bored. Think I may be settling for the XBLA Soul Calibur.

I'm more interested in the original SC being released on XBL. SC3 was such a mess and so not fun to play compared to every game that came before it. I really liked how SC2 tried to incorporate concepts from the original Soul Edge, but I still feel like they hit their stride perfectly with Soul Calibur and they've just tried desperately to improve on perfection since then.

I really think the exclusive character concept is dumb though. Is having exclusive characters really going to sell across platforms? I'm only going to buy one copy of the game regardless.

I desperately want a casual-friendly fighting game on the Xbox 360, and I was underwhelmed by DoA4, so I'm pretty much going to get this regardless of what they do. I had friends over last weekend and there was no virtual face kicking!

ChrisGwinn wrote:

I desperately want a casual-friendly fighting game on the Xbox 360, and I was underwhelmed by DoA4, so I'm pretty much going to get this regardless of what they do. I had friends over last weekend and there was no virtual face kicking!

There will be some competition. Street Fighter 4 is looking pretty good too.

Ooh! I completely forgot about SF4. Is there any word on when that's supposed to come out?

ChrisGwinn wrote:

Ooh! I completely forgot about SF4. Is there any word on when that's supposed to come out?

According to 1up 6/15/08.

I don't know, I sort of enjoyed the subdued more realistic feel of SC1 for the Dreamcast, it seems they've been getting more silly every since. Plus the gameplay has felt less fun but I'm not entirely sure I can nail it down, maybe it's the AI or something.

Also each SC sequel has given all the female characters bigger breasts, to the point of ridiculousness. Therefore following my "Video Gaming Law of Breasts" this game will suck.

PyromanFO wrote:

I don't know, I sort of enjoyed the subdued more realistic feel of SC1 for the Dreamcast, it seems they've been getting more silly every since. Plus the gameplay has felt less fun but I'm not entirely sure I can nail it down, maybe it's the AI or something.

There were some very serious AI issues with Soul Calibur 3. In the single player campaign mode there were some late-game opponents so difficult they could deflect every single attack you threw at them and exploit any opening you gave them. Then you'd have to beat 10 of them in a row without healing between matches. This was not the difficult version of the campaign; if you wanted to beat that part of the game (and unlock the stuff that comes with that) you HAD to beat those fights.

I ended up using one of those cheat devices to get infinite life and one-hit kills. And y'know what? They STILL beat me sometimes! They'd land the first hit and juggle me off the edge of the damn level, or kill me by some other special rule BS.

LobsterMobster wrote:
PyromanFO wrote:

I don't know, I sort of enjoyed the subdued more realistic feel of SC1 for the Dreamcast, it seems they've been getting more silly every since. Plus the gameplay has felt less fun but I'm not entirely sure I can nail it down, maybe it's the AI or something.

There were some very serious AI issues with Soul Calibur 3. In the single player campaign mode there were some late-game opponents so difficult they could deflect every single attack you threw at them and exploit any opening you gave them. Then you'd have to beat 10 of them in a row without healing between matches. This was not the difficult version of the campaign; if you wanted to beat that part of the game (and unlock the stuff that comes with that) you HAD to beat those fights.

I ended up using one of those cheat devices to get infinite life and one-hit kills. And y'know what? They STILL beat me sometimes! They'd land the first hit and juggle me off the edge of the damn level, or kill me by some other special rule BS.

I never could understand the changes to SCIII. I always thought the appeal of the game, aside from graphical splendor, was that it was easy to pick up but difficult to master. Anyone could play it and even get through the regular game, but playing against someone who knew what they were doing was nigh impossible.

Though I will still put my random button mashing skills up against any SC master.

To me, all fighting games are better as a MP affair. I play through SP to unlock stuff but I get all the excitement out of those mano-a-mano fights with someone you can smack talk on the couch next to you.

EvilDead wrote:
ChrisGwinn wrote:

Ooh! I completely forgot about SF4. Is there any word on when that's supposed to come out?

According to 1up 6/15/08.

Seems unlikely, since Gamestop and Amazon aren't taking pre-orders yet, and most other places just say TBA. Sigh.

samfisher wrote:

I thought Soul Caliber was button mashing at it's best, so the above silliness won't affect that surely?

Them's fightin' words. It's only a button masher to the untrained eye.

Curiously, almost everyone I know that plans to pick it up and has a choice between platforms is siding with the PS3.

Kurrelgyre wrote:
samfisher wrote:

I thought Soul Caliber was button mashing at it's best, so the above silliness won't affect that surely?

Them's fightin' words. It's only a button masher to the untrained eye.

Curiously, almost everyone I know that plans to pick it up and has a choice between platforms is siding with the PS3.

Its gotta be Vader.

Kurrelgyre wrote:

Curiously, almost everyone I know that plans to pick it up and has a choice between platforms is siding with the PS3.

I'd wager that's a controller thing. The 360 pad destroys the PS3 one for shooters, but not so much for fighting games.

I'm getting it for the 360. Word has it the new single player mode is brutal, so I'm sure I'll be posting about how much I hate it as I cry tears of rage into my coffee.

I've already admitted I suck at fighting games but I keep buying them! What more do you WANT from me, NAMCO!

LobsterMobster wrote:

I'm getting it for the 360. Word has it the new single player mode is brutal, so I'm sure I'll be posting about how much I hate it as I cry tears of rage into my coffee.

I've already admitted I suck at fighting games but I keep buying them! What more do you WANT from me, NAMCO!

Why are they making it harder? This was my biggest complaint about SC3. I'm not that great at fighting games but at least Soul Calibur was accessible to everyone.

I won't pick it up if they only care about the hardcore gamers. I don't play games to be punished because I won't dedicate my life to it.

Yeah, Bots, my biggest problem with SC3 was the difficulty late in Chronicles of the Sword but people are saying those fights are easy compared to the upper levels in Tower of Lost Souls. On the plus side, the gameplay is a little slower so it seems to reward practice more and reflexes less, and it's apparently possible to tailor custom characters to meet specific challenges. Like if a tower level has enemies that do 200% damage you can make a character with 200% defense. My idea is to pick a fighting style that's easy to evade with (like Taki's) and then stack up the "venom" effect, which causes continuous damage to the enemy's life. If it works, you'll be able to win through pure defense. That's the theory, any way...

The only problem I see with pure defense is that new instant fatality feature that penalizes you for not attacking.

I never had a problem with SC3's difficulty-- except for fighting Setsuka (grr!). I thought Mitsurugi was king of cheap, until I played the queen of it.

Then again, I trained for two years in a Soul Calibur "dojo" while I was in college. The student union had an arcade which had Soul Calibur, and I was one among dozens lying my quarter on the screen to reserve my turn between classes.

You want to talk brutal? We had a guy who beat the game in single player mode without touching the joystick once, and another guy who could do Ivy's ~100% grapple move with such ease we quit playing him until he agreed not to deploy it against real people.

In short, we had no lives. But we could do things on those machines that I've never seen anyone else do so casually. One on one matches were epic in those days. I rarely won against those folks, but the lessons learned there burned into my brain and I was able to use them against the computer with great success.

Consequent of all these supercharged players, the AI on that machine was really tough, but heading out into the real world I remember beating the single player mode in another arcade without much difficulty.

Good times. Good times.

What was my point? Oh, right. SC3's difficulty. I agree that SC3 went cheap when compared with SC and SC2, even if I didn't have much trouble with it. I probably won't be getting SC4. I've kind of outgrown fighting games. I don't have anyone to play with (I don't even have a second controller for my PS3), and playing the computer tends to be a frustrating experience either because it's too easy or too cheap.

As for sucking at a genre yet being compelled to buy the games, I grok ya Lobster. I have never been any good at driving games (other than Burnout-- which is a driving game for people who hate driving games), but I keep forgetting I hate them and getting intensely frustrated because I suck at them and don't have the time nor the patience to practice like I did back in my college days.

Perhaps one day I'll learn to remember my own limitations and stop coveting the latest NFS, Wipeout or GT game. My current budget is helping me on that front-- when you have to scrape together $60 for a game, it's harder to just buy a racing game because of the shiny cars.

Who the hell wants to fight with Yoda when they could have Darth Vader =/

Yoda sucks.

Thin_J wrote:

The only problem I see with pure defense is that new instant fatality feature that penalizes you for not attacking.

It doesn't penalize you for not attacking, it penalizes you for blocking. That's why I'd pick Taki, since her defensive style is based on dodges.

And doubtingthomas, you may have been in a dojo, but in college I played Soul Calibur with a famous linguistic theorist! No, not Noam Chomsky... he was more of a Tekken guy.

So is the online component of Sc4 Still in the game? I've not heard heads nor tails of it in preview or review or anything I cannot wait to pit my skills against those of my fellow gwjers here. Anybody hear anything about it?

Also, I dont understand why they gave all the girls super boobs of doom and then left their butts flatter than a pancake in kansas.

Lastly, where is my ankle blade-wielding Capoeira Master? Seriously.

Benticore
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