Turn Your Voice Into The New Game.

1: Amy was just plain nuts. Let's see some thorough testing so that sort of thing doesn't happen again.

2: Some of the characters look ridiculous, it's hard to take them seriously. Sophitia borders on the edge of believability, Ivy takes a flying leap off of it. I understand she's supposed to be buxom, but she just looks weird in human clothing. You'd think at some point she'd have to stop and rest carrying those things around. As for Taki, her boobs seem to be getting bigger every game. Stop that. Maybe scale them down a cup size while you're at it. I understand people like big boobs, but you know your girls would be sexier if they stayed within realistic (ie human) bodily proportions.

3. On the subject of testing, fix attacks randomly whiffing. On Taki for instance it was so much fun to try to halt a big slow deadly move in progress only to have my 6a somehow miss, passing through my opponent's armpit. Then I just got to stand there in the cool down animation for my attack, and watch as an axe the size of a man hit me square in the face. For counter attack. If my opponent is 2 feet in front of me and not dodging my attack shouldn't miss.

4. What was up with the stuns? Half of them were useless, they didn't give enough stun time to do anything with.

5. On the subject of balance try to even out the distribution of highs, mids and lows in character's arsenals. A character who's move list is chalk full of low/mid mix ups is just much better off than a character going low/high because ducking works on both.

6. Don't give characters useless/inferior moves. Nobody playing Taki for instance had any reason to use BB for anything. Ever. All it meant in reality was she had that much smaller a move list. If you find in your testing people are never doing a move, tune that move up or add some properties to make it competitive or useful.
 
General points:

I agree that pretty all competitive players would like balance, because this will increase the amount of viable characters and therefore increase the pool of potential matchups and improve the game's longevity and playability.

Judging by project soul's previous interviews that they emphasize "fun" first and foremost, balance should be a key second objective.

However, the lazy approach of balance by giving all characters the same key moves (ie. everyone gets a i16 safe launcher) should not be taken.

Soul calibur 4's approach (compared to SC2 and SC3) regarding different playstyles imo was done a lot better than previous versions. Having a couple of some jack-of-all trades characters, then some characters with the core of their damage coming from pokes, safety and punishing, baiting and whiff punishing, OTG pressure, tech trap damage, CH combos or fishing for large combos. Then there were also characters that had unseeable low-mixups, spacing and zoning, ring-out specialist, and those that went for the soul crush.

I understand that having more variables (due to character differences) will result in a game that is harder to initially balance, but that is why a combination of reasonable play testing and a few subsequent patches could achieve good results.

There is no real big concern if the special "bonus" and "guest" characters are worse than normal, and if the goal of project soul was to have a random/fun/goofy character, a non-recurring character would be the best choice of experimentation (ie. introduction of a force-meter). If you make them too strong (aside from ruining balance) you'll make them missed when they don't return for soul calibur 6 (don't look too far ahead!)

Viewership:

Watching other fighter games with long combos and even long attack strings on block may be very attractive to the non-FG gamer because it seems flashy, difficult and makes the non-FG player want to pick up a copy and practice that combo. I'd imagine that everytime they see a character simply jump, they'd expect a big combo where the screen turns multiple colours.

However, the soul series definitely seemed more like a cerebral "chess-like" game where even simple moves are carefully deliberated because opponent has so many movement and defensive options. The problem is that sometimes it ends up as a turtle-fest, because the incentive to take a risk is not sufficient and therefore makes the game unsightly and will make it hard to gather outside attention. If the turtling moves MUST be safe, then perhaps making them more punishable on whiff (by increasing the recovery animation and blockstun by the same number of frames) might give the players more incentive to take some risks.


There are a lot of points made by other posters regarding general nuances that look implementable that will also improve our game-playing experience.
 
I'm a very one-player oriented fan of the series; like several people here, one draw besides the obvious fighting game aspect is the story-driven element behind the Soul series, and each character's interaction with the main swords. This is the Soul Calibur I've known to love; each character is fighting to either obtain or destroy Soul Edge, even if it means having to sacrifice something. This is what made the games prior to IV so charming -- it wasn't afraid of its absurdity, but rather capitalized with with either full CG cutscene endings (with input endings in SB/III for extra flavor), or the lovely sepia-tone illustrations of the second game. The story mode itself could use a bit of upgrading itself; SCIV introduced an interesting development in the form of a "tag out" mechanic which added an all new element of strategy, and would be a welcome addition as a new game mode as well as an implement in the upcoming game's story mode.

In SCIII and IV, I felt the games were too emphatic on Zasalamel and Algol, respectively; in my opinion a game with as many interesting characters as Soul Calibur should not be too heavily focused on one character (although they make excellent mid-bosses), and return to the SCII method of a normally unplayable character being the game's end boss. Inferno is the embodiment of Soul Edge, the game's true antagonist, and I think it should stay that way for all characters (even if it creates some paradoxical scenarios like Nightmare, although in his case Inferno could be a separate part of Soul Edge mutating away from the actual sword, and Nightmare wants to absorb him to obtain full power and even bring down his reign as Night Terror once more).

I'm obviously not deeply in-tuned with the game's inner workings and mechanics; I'm more interested in the aesthetic and storytelling purposes of the games, the distinct cast of characters and intentions which makes Soul Calibur stand out in a world where fighting games are filled with clones and clichés about some supreme tournament everyone's drawn to (sorry, Tekken). I kinda want that element back in the game, in which the final boss is some form of Soul Edge (Inferno comes to mind, give or take as you will), with vague character-centric endings based on what you choose for his/her path upon defeating this boss and dealing with Soul Edge/Calibur.

Characters! I'm not picky about such, though I've grown fond about the mainstay cast; certainly Amy, Hilde and Dampierre fit somewhere in there. Though I haven't played much of IV, from what I understand they could use some retooling to turn them down some and make them fit in easier with the other characters, but Amy, Algol, and Hilde add their own special allure to the franchise and Dampierre seems absolutely hilarious and entertaining; not quite a joke character, but a tricky and unpredictable one who gives off the illusion of a joke but can actually be quite dangerous.

Returning/new character suggestions are pretty similar to everyone else's. Hwang, Li Long, at least one of the ditto fighters (or even introducing a new one altogether, but I feel as though Edge Master/Olcadan have been left out, and the fact that people legitimately enjoy the challenge of Mokujin-esque fighters as their main character), maybe Arthur, maybe Bangoo, since seven years have passed story-wise since Soul Blade and he looked 8-10 way back when, perhaps he's ready to return from his quest for manhood/coming of age and try his hand at finding Soul Edge to please his father. I don't want to appear more pretentious than I already have by suggesting too many brand new weapon styles, but I'm certainly not adverse to the concept of new characters, either.

Guest characters, I also have no originality for. It was kinda nice not having to bother with such in III, but then again they're also a major money draw in spite of the fact that I would rather have more emphasis on the mainstay, canonical cast. in the end it's not really my decision, though story-wise the central characters are where much of the canon should reside. In SCII, the guest characters and Necrid each returned to the place they had come from or sealed themselves away, and this pattern should remain as opposed to the "I'M HERE, NOW LOOK AT ME" draw to Vader/Yoda in IV. Console exclusive guest characters are somewhat iffy, but bringing back some old faces could be possible.

I understand the Wii isn't as powerful as the 360 or PS3, but at the same time the GC version of Soul Calibur II did exceptionally well thanks to Link, turning new heads to the series and, for the time, was rather beautiful graphically. Maybe I'm just biased, but a more bare-bones release for PS2 and/or Wii with Classic and GameCube controller compatability (with all of the characters, game modes, stories, etc., but without certain features like creation and customization or without as much emphasis on the high-definition graphical capabilities) would appeal to a broader audience and bring some higher sales from those SCII fans who have been left in the dust since the last console generation phased out or have yet to pick up on the high definition trend. Alternatively, to bring closure as to how he ended up in the SC universe in Legends (unless he was just fanservice), reintroducing Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia would also be acceptable representation hailing from another Namco series.

All characters having their trademark stage which you could view the information for via character profiles were also a nice touch, as were the voice reels/quotes, event viewer, etc. Just make the game as pleasant as a one-player experience as it is two-player, with plenty of moveset and gameplay exploration, inputs, etc., that appeal to both casual and competitive players, and I'll be set gameplay-wise.
 
Me and a real bitch (Dani_Hungerford) where talking and we feel that the faces in the Character Creation are dumb. It would be really cool if we could have the abilty to make the face on the character's ourselves.

Also, I feel that if they want to do the whole armor breaking and stuff, that they should be cut as well. For example, Talim and X. Everytime me and Inksplatter play. Talim and X end up nearly armorless and it just looks awkward that they dont have a scar. Yes the character's (except Algol and Rock) are pretty, but still, add a scar or a cut or something to show that they are getting hit by weapons.

I liked in SCII when the stage's could hurt you in fun way's like the Ice and the Fire Stage. They should try this again! :D

Also me and Dani have agreed that Ivy is probably the Soul CAl series' most popular character. Not by how many people use her, but that everyone has heard of her. IT's not like that with Tekken or street fighter. If someone walked up to me and was like: "When I play street fighter I use the big leg chick!" and then i'm like. "Chun-li..." another example: "When I play street fighter, I use the cheap bitch that everyone uses." and then i'm like... "Li-li! ME and my friends and my mom and DAni use her too!" Like I feel the soul cal character's need more chances to shine. Like poor Mina. Her and Talik adn Rock are barely even thought of anymore. Now I may be just speaking nonsence but who knows. Maybe on the covor of SCV, instead of Ivy and Siggy and X on the cover they should put Mina or Rock or Cassy or even Talim!

And Last but not least. I LOVED the tutorial in SCIII. It's what helped me be the Amzing, Not ot mention beautiful Talim that I am today! :D

So I little Recap:

1. Facial Construction.
2. Damage to skin
3. Unique stages
4. Characters
5. Tutorial
6. Luff_The_Talim2 is beautiful. :D
 
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