This point has not exactly been made yet.
SC as most fighting games these days serves 3 classes of players.
1) Single Player
2) Vs Players
3) Online Players
I know it seems like the Vs players are the same as the Online players, but its not always the case. There are many players that gather together at some location and only chose to play friends, relatives, mates live and who do not like or go online at all to play.
There are players who like single player and enjoy fighting the AI and simply are not interested in Vs or online play.
There are some players that could care less about story mode, character profiles, they just want to get online and just play, they don't have enough or know enough people to play offline Vs. So online is the only valid mode for those players.
This game has to be evaulated from all three perspectives, because all three are a valid market. Namco could lose sales if it ignores anyone of these areas too much.
From a single player perspective, SC5 succeeds in some areas and fails in others. If you're a Zalsameel, Talim player, or if you really relied on Mitsurugi's Relic stance, your bumbed out, and pissed off. If you enjoyed the endings and a simple story mode for each character , Namco left you hanging. On the other hand, there is a lot more replay value in single player because, the routes in arcade mode, are a improvement or SCIV's arcade, the single battle, is an improvement over the towers mode, and the new hard arcade mode will challenge even the best players. Also Namco gave you the ability to watch CPU-vs-CPU with is kind-a like the old battle theatre mode . This was missing in SCIV. And the customization, the tattooes, the ability to customize the special effects for each weapon, the patterns that they've added for every item, the body types, the voices, the malfested effects, those are all significant improvements over SCIV. So while single player took a big hit on some things, overall single player is a massive improvement over SCIV interms of replay value, customization, and modes. The new title feature alone can keep you going in single player. All of the nice statistics that SC5 keeps for you e.g how many wins and losses you have are a big advantage over what SCIV gives you.
From a Vs player perspective Namco dropped the ball on allowing you to set controller options everywhere you need to. They dropped the ball by not having replays in Vs mode. Its still not practical for a friend to bring a profile or his/her own customizations over and play the game in Vs mode with 2 separate active profiles. Also the statistics don't track for VS mode like they do for online and single player. So if you have a local tourney where everyone is actually in the same room, you have a crude online counter for wins and losses, but no permanent profile for VS play. The obvious missing team mode in VS. play and all of the other bungles in VS play makes it clear that Namco is favoring "The Online Social Experience" over the " In Person Social Experience". Namco could have easily added a Tournament mode for VS. play, the UFC games show how easy this is to do for Vs, or for singplayer for that matter. No portable profiles, or replays, inconvienient button setting locations, lack of screen names for Player 2,
IMHO demonstrates a lack of committment to the Vs player offline mode. For those players who primary reason to play SC is the Versus mode, these players were given a stripped down game with just the barest of bones.
From a Online player perspective SC5 wins in every category, The addition of replays, the new statistics that are kept, the ability to track rivals, the soul link, the new collesium (LOL) mode, the improved net code, the new photographs that can be made in creation mode to introduce your character, the crazy customizations that wil added to the (you're never go to know what to expect next) in character-look, the adding of chat rooms to online, six people in a room, the ability to customize the rank match searches right down to what side of the screen you prefer, the ability to upload your replays, make them movies, or download replays of a rival, the new titles that can be won and displayed all make SC5 online offering superior to SCIV online. So without a question if you're primary focus is online play then Namco has definitely made a major improvement in SC.
Keeping the three types of players in mind, Namco dropped the ball on the main Intro to the game, even SCIV introduced multiple characters in the Intro, and the best intros in the series had showcased even more characters that SCIV. SC5 has the worst main intro that I can remember in the SC series. Also the lack of a Gallery mode, where you could really take time appreciate the artwork in the game and the pre-artwork for the game is an omission for SC brand.
Of course Namco had only so much time, but why take out what works! The breath taking Intros and the endings are part of the signature of the series. The gallerys also just added value. Why drop characters whose styles are not redundant in any way? Perhaps there is an issue on the Xbox, don't know I'm a PS3 user. But I do know there is plenty of room on the Blu-ray disks, and our hardrives have plenty of room for whatever Namco wanted to deliver with SC5. And if they couldn't fit it on the disk then there is always DLC.
The Brave Edge and Critical Edge moves are a blessing and a curse AFAIC. On the one hand they require new strategies to be added to game play, which keeps things from getting dull, on the other hand, they add too much of a StreetFighter, or Mortal Kombat feel to SC. Some of us our turned on to SC specifically because its not Street Fighter, and its not Mortal Kombat! So were not particularlly thrilled when SF and MK look and feel are grafted into SC.
So if we had to be fair about the rat ings of SC5 we should divide it into more realistic catagories
Singple Player Exererience 7 out 10
Vs. Player Experience 3 out 10
Online Player Experience 9 out 10
Loyalty to SC Brand 6 out 10
Strategy Guide 10 out 10
Roster 5 out 10
Stages 9 out 10
MoveList Changes 6 out 10
Graphics 10 out 10
Voice 9 out 10
Sound Effects 10 out 10
Music 9 out 10
Customization 10 out 10
Weapons 6 out 10
Replay value 8 out 10 ( hurt by poor Vs. mode features)
Fun Factor 8 out 10
Maybe the game wasn't rushed, maybe its just new people, with different philosophies and different sense of focus and priortiy working on the game. I just wish Namco would treat all three types of players equally in adding features to the game. The team of Project Soul should remember where it comes from. Soul Calibur was a hit when there was no Online! Online is a big deal for a large segment of the market, but Single Player mode and Vs. mode is what made Soul Calibur what it is. And a large segment of the market is still Single Player and Vs. mode and will never switch to Online play. Namco should realize that.
