Soul Calibur IV

[JCvgluvr]

On the sad note, I wish that you could have Vader and Yoda on one console.

It's called "Downloadable content." Give it time.

[RealFolkBlues]

Wow, I'm surprised there isn't more Star Wars inclusion hate. I've pretty much come to terms with it, though, as I realized that Mitsu blocking Vader is about as realistic as Talim blocking Astaroth. Also, Jedi are sweet.

As for the lots of similar characters, such is the cost of being a successful fighting game series. I mean, damn, Alpha 3? Great game, fully half the characters clones. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3? Ridiculous.

Overall, really damned excited. Getting my limited edition like a true fanboy first day next week.

My Mitsurugi is formidable, as is my Astaroth. You are all on in a major way come MAGFest 7.

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

Who cares about the Star Wars characters? They're cool throw-ins that are just there for the hell of being there, like Heihachi, Spawn, and Link. I had no idea video games had to make sense 100% of the time.

If you don't like 'em, you could always you know, not use 'em or not even buy the game.

[RealFolkBlues]

Didn't you hear? Soul Cal is serious business.

In other words, I'm a hardcore SC fanboy who's afraid of change.

[rem]

Someone should just post the character designs and we can debate what we don't like about them. Will that someone be you?

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

I'm likin' the character designs so far.

So what? I'm a guy. Deal with it.

[Ramaniscence]

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

There was a never a Soul Calibur with Cassandra and NOT Sophitia....in fact Sophitia has been in all over them.

Nightmare and Seigfriend have VERY different moves. They hardly have anything even SIMILIAR anymore....

Same goes for Cassy and Sophie.....

Same goes for Rock and Astaroth......

In fact, those 2 have never really been similiar.

Also: RealFolkBlues is going down at M7. I'm gonna be on my a-game FOR SHOW this time.

[Bleck]

lizardman is still da best

[DarkeSword]

Same goes for Cassy and Sophie.....

Yeah. As a Cassandra player, I can tell you that I'm absolutely helpless as Sophitia.

[Wacky]

My best characters in Soul Cal are Xianghua, Mitsurugi and Taki. There's pretty much no similarity in how they play. Except I get a lot more angry and shout incomprehensibly when I am playing as mitsurugi.

[I-n-j-i-n]

Strangely, I like Lizardman for his prominent (EXTREME SARCASM) role in Tower of Druaga. Oh, and the Red Crystal Rod and Blue Crystal Rod for Cassandra and Sophitia. That's pretty high level of nerd-dom involved to know the Druaga tie-in for Soul Calibur, but I like it. More Druaga please.

[Linkjing Donuts]

ahaha i'm drawn to seong-mina. people tell me kilik is better, and i used to be a kilik user, but i dunno

i think i like boobs

[Aninymouse]

Fuck yeah seong mi-na! Remember that weapon she had in the first game? The one that looked like a millstone with spikes coming out of it? Awwwwwww yeah. That one needs to come back, even if they just give it to Rock.

[The wingless]

So listen up you unlucky bitches. I've had SoulCal IV since Friday.

here's the basic rundown

-You'll need to virtually relearn everything you know about your original gameplay. As in all new SC's, the movelists range from mildly tweaked (Sigfried) to total reconstruction (Ivy). But more than that, it's the timing that will take the most getting used to. SC4 is dramatically slower, which ultimately is for the better. It removes the wait-and-spam sort of mentality from III and replaces it with a much more deliberate and cerebral affair.

-The Soul Crushes and critical finishers have a very minor role in gameplay. Soulcrushing happens with remarkable infrequency. I've pumped about 6 hours into the game, and maybe have Soul Crushed 4 or 5 times. It's probably an addition that makes more of an impact in human versus matches over long time.

-Armor destruction adds a bit more to the game, but mostly against human opponents. Armor is divided into high, mid, and low. By destroying armor in a specific area, you get a damage bonus. The interesting dynamic is if you have your low armor destroyed, odds are your opponent will focus much more heavily on low sweeps, making them predictable. Also, it looks sweet on female characters

-the Apprentice is the most powerful destructive force in the known galaxy. He's almost in the realm of SNK-boss material.

-Hilde is really interesting and beautiful to play as. Amy, aside from her lovely character design, is more or less a direct Raphael rip.

-Oh, and to repeat, I've been playing the game since Friday. I like to rub it in. You white folks gots it comin'

And now I'm off to spend some quantity time with Mazedude and Zyko!

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

Wingless hate forthcoming from the non-white!

[Bleck]

I love the wingless

I wish the wingless could be my ringtone

[Tables]

Seeing one of the gameplay videos, I remembered one key consistent thing about Darth Vader: He looks and sounds awesome, but his fighting "style" is lame and basic. That makes me feel better, anyway, about having a 360.

[Aninymouse]

So... wingless. Who do you like to play as right now? I've always been a Yoshimitsu kinda guy, myself.

Oddly enough, I hate Tekken games despite Yoshimitsu. He's usually a better character in the Soul games anyway.

[The Pezman]

This is why Guilty Gear kicks ass.

No characters could possibly be mistaken for one another, in terms of either apperance or fighting style.

The problem with it is most likely the opposite: that they don't change enough.

[I-n-j-i-n]

This is why Guilty Gear kicks ass.

No characters could possibly be mistaken for one another, in terms of either apperance or fighting style.

The problem with it is most likely the opposite: that they don't change enough.

I don't think people can complain when we're still seeing a near 40 character roster for the game. And the way you can customize all the characters' wardrobes and the deal with the create a soul feature.

That said, I do think it's a bit of a waste that they didn't add a whole lot of new fighting styles. They basically added two or three. They could have covered all the conventional weaponry if they truly wanted to, and the create-a-soul characters can only use other characters' movesets which is a bit of a waste. I hear that's why a lot of gamers are saying the create a character feature in the recent Mortal Kombat is better. Because you can also change the movesets.

[The wingless]

So... wingless. Who do you like to play as right now? I've always been a Yoshimitsu kinda guy, myself.

Oddly enough, I hate Tekken games despite Yoshimitsu. He's usually a better character in the Soul games anyway.

Cassandra was always my A character, and she still is in 4. Sophitia used to be my solid B, but not so much anymore.

I play alot of Amy, simply because I love her character design, and Hilde because of her character design and her tactical novelty (good at long range, good at short range, not particularly great at either). Side note: in fighting games, I typically pick the character I'm most attracted to. That's why you'll rarely find me playing as a dood.

Also the Create-a-Fighter feature is paradoxically robust and limited. It's robust in the sense that you get a wide variety of gear to put on them and the models are all superbly rendered. If you have a good eye, you can make some truly stunning creations. You can also tweak their stats to a degree almost unheard of outside of most American RPGs.

That said, create-a-fighter is limited because you basically create clones of existing characters. Gone are the wonky Swordsman, Dancer, etc, fighting styles from SC3. Now you make a character based off an existing fighting style. So my character can be as crazy looking as I want, but it WILL be a Astaroth clone, a Ivy clone, a Cassandra clone, etc.

Also, the stats and perks system integrated into the game is poorly executed. Each character comes with a multitude of stats, probably 7 in all. Each piece of armor you add changes any number of these stats. Whatever weapon you have equipped will change your stats. You can then place perks on your character if they have enough points in that specific stat. So for example, if I have high enough Gauge, I can equip a perk that will make me heal every time I hit a player.

The problem with this system is that, to truly maximize a character, you HAVE to deck them out with every conceivable piece of armor you can find. So if you want to create a character that's aesthetically minimal, they will be comparatively inferior to a character that's bundled up for winter in Maine. also the perks are thrown at you right from the beginning with any real fanfare or explanation. It's alot to take in, and much of it doesn't quite register with you as you're getting your face pounded in by The Apprentice.

[The Joker]

About the only thing I've heard that makes me kinda nervous about buying this game, is that I'm gonna have to relearn Ivy, if wingless is to be believed. Which sucks, because I used to rule with her. I'ma get it regardless!

[Bleck]

The problem with this system is that, to truly maximize a character, you HAVE to deck them out with every conceivable piece of armor you can find. So if you want to create a character that's aesthetically minimal, they will be comparatively inferior to a character that's bundled up for winter in Maine. also the perks are thrown at you right from the beginning with any real fanfare or explanation. It's alot to take in, and much of it doesn't quite register with you as you're getting your face pounded in by The Apprentice.

Fuck, I was afraid of this.

[anosou]

Fuck, I was afraid of this.

They should add a VS. mode without perks like Special VS. that doesn't add Weapon Bonuses (and in this case, not stats) so you can play your Creates like there's no tomorrow!

[Arek the Absolute]

so basically like sc2 where you could use the weapon effects or not

agreed....