Is it just me or does Soul Calibur honestly not grasp what people (or maybe just me personally) love about it's games?
It seems the game goes through a downgrade since Soul Calibur 2 which is when I started playing.

First off, weapon selection in SC4 is abysmal. Having to create a separate character model and give him a new weapon and for what? A plus 30 attack rating or some crap like that? I miss the days of Soulcalibur 2 when you'd have this nice little description and rendering of the weapon and what it did. Hell, I'd even settle for SC3's generic weapon effects as opposed to the description, but this is just pathetic. Different weapons was a lot of fun for me in SCII. Character design gets worse with each game. Siegfried now fights with a giant chandelier, wearing armour that tries to look bad ass but ultimately fails next to his old get up.

Also move set tweaks seem to get worse and worse. The fighting just seems to get less...fluid with each game. Xianghua is about half as good as she was in SC2 and I can't seem to find a way to combo. All the creativity from the previous games seems to have been replaced with hit hit hit...block block block....hit hit hit...block block block. Throws now do a ridiculous amount of damage. It just keeps getting worse and worse.
Finally, is it just me or is the voice-acting degenerating harshly too?
Maybe I just have memories of SCII from a younger and less cynical me...who knows.

One more thing. I started playing as link, but quickly mastered a handfull of characters including Nightmare SC2 but switched to Siegfired for 3 and 4, Ivy, Xianhua, Seong Mina, and dabbled in Rapheal and Sophitia but never could get the hang of them. I don't really know if I'm that good or not because I've never entered a competition before, but I don't lose.

Also, Hilde tips anyone? I can't figure her out.

I liked SC2 the best aswell, I didn't like three much, and four was okay. I hate how Yoshimistu's moves don't heal anymore, and how they increased how much damage he does to himself in a lot of the moves that he does, it makes him a lot harder to play. I did like how they made that one move where he makes the screen dark and he flashes by and cuts your easier(god know how many hours I spent trying to learn that in SC2), but they greatly weakened it to where it was worthless to me. Also, all of his combo moves are gone, which upset me aswell. I just wish for every Yoshimistu was put in they didn't change his moveset around so much.

God damn sequels. Developers need to realize that when people really like the originals, they should keep the changes they have made.

Yeah but then people would complain about it being the same game over and over. Face it, people are just hard to please, so games get screwd.

Ya,I like SC4 but mostly got it for my love of SC2 sure some people were naturally overpowered but when you play with friends you just glare/smack the person who plays with the accepted "do not use" characters. It also seemed the fights were more even overall.

In SC4 seems like it can be over super fast or just a string of super moves that you have no chance against maybe part of it is playing it online vs people who play it every day.

Soulcalibur is without a doubt getting worse. How so?

Ivy still appears to be constructed from watermelons.

Am I the only one who thinks the moves rosters are smaller and rely more on dodgy 8-way movement commands ? All characters seem to have lost their 4+ combo strings and I really felt like SC4 had only half of the moves and throws of SC2 (not mentioning the practice menus suck big time compared to SC2)...

I remember Talim using some rolling stunts and some branching in her combos, but now it boils down to the basic beginner moves with variant attacks thrown into a well, forcing us all to use the same moves in a retarded turn-based, PvP-forced play mode.
I really think they substracted moves in favor of those stupid skills that just ruin the gameplay to me... I didn't try playing on XBL (no intarwebs connection at home yet and no extra money to give to MS), but a friend played live on his PS3, and told me everyone was wearing heavy armors and using hyper skills (such as unblockable A, perfect guard A, no throws, no ring out), and it reminded him of some MMORPG PvP where everyone uses a godly character...

Cyclomega:
Am I the only one who thinks the moves roster are smaller and rely more on dodgy 8-way movement commands ? All characters seem to have lost their 4+ combo strings and I really felt like SC4 had only half of the moves and throws of SC2 (not mentioning the practice menus suck big time compared to SC2)...

No, I and the orignal poster both stated the lack of combos, though I did for Yoshi specifically.

Woops, my bad, I shouldn't browse forums while I work... :p

More specifically on the 8-way motions, it is me, or did you both get the same feeling ?

I got the feeling they realised they were on a cash cow and could pump anything out and it'd sell like hotcakes. I didn't feel the 8way motions because when I play a fighter I believe fighters should be 2D so I never side-step.

Different weapons was a lot of fun for me in SCII.

SC2's weapons were unbalanced as hell. They utterly killed the game, because they made only two or three characters worthwhile (Mitsurugi and Raphael, mostly, especially Mitsurugi's Damascus Sword. 175% damage and it's unblockable, now that's balance folks!).

SC4's weapon selection is much better balanced, even if it's slightly less convenient.

GloatingSwine:

Different weapons was a lot of fun for me in SCII.

SC2's weapons were unbalanced as hell. They utterly killed the game, because they made only two or three characters worthwhile (Mitsurugi and Raphael, mostly, especially Mitsurugi's Damascus Sword. 175% damage and it's unblockable, now that's balance folks!).

SC4's weapon selection is much better balanced, even if it's slightly less convenient.

That's why you have everyone use the joke weapons. GALLEY OAR!

LivemeLifefree:
I got the feeling they realised they were on a cash cow and could pump anything out and it'd sell like hotcakes. I didn't feel the 8way motions because when I play a fighter I believe fighters should be 2D so I never side-step.

I feel the same way, yet I wanted to try the SC4 8way motions, and it makes for a slower gameplay than Tekken3, talk about steps backwards... Plus it's such a shoehorning maneuver to force players into using the gimmick of the game that some moves feel all the more underwhelming...

GloatingSwine:

Different weapons was a lot of fun for me in SCII.

SC2's weapons were unbalanced as hell. They utterly killed the game, because they made only two or three characters worthwhile (Mitsurugi and Raphael, mostly, especially Mitsurugi's Damascus Sword. 175% damage and it's unblockable, now that's balance folks!).

SC4's weapon selection is much better balanced, even if it's slightly less convenient.

I agree But at the same time as I only played that game with friends It was just accepted you never used Raphael and Misturugi or anyone else who was deemed way to cheap because of it. So it that viewpoint the balance was fine but I could see your point online and such with strangers.

I agree with most people in here! [b]SC2[/i] is the best one out of the other 3.
i think its because its simple yet satisfying!

LivemeLifefree:
Yeah but then people would complain about it being the same game over and over. Face it, people are just hard to please, so games get screwd.

Amazingly they don't if your a Nintendo fan, pretty much every Mario and Zelda game is the same as before just with updated graphics.

Although I was a fan of Sc 2 and i was sad when they took out Tales of Swords mode for Sc 3. Sc 4 is a step in the right direction but the 2nd game stands out as the best.

That's because us Nintendo fans are pleased.

LivemeLifefree:
That's because us Nintendo fans are pleased.

Too easily pleased at a lack of innovation for gaming software. I admired Nintendo for the Wii, an interesting console and a brilliant controller, but that doesn't make up enough for the fact they have done the same basic mario and Zelda game for bloody ages.

I wonder if there may be a second video game crash?

has it been getting worse? i thought SC 4 was ok

Alright I definately have been playing a lot of SC4 since I started this thread and came to an astounding revelation.

I was way the fuck to generous.

Without a doubt I'm going and re buying an SC3 or SC2 copy for their hands down superiority to this trash.
Critical Finish:
As far as I can tell there are about 5 cool critical finishes while the rest are pathetic. (Yun Sung and Cassandra I'm looking at you here.)
Every character has pretty much been downgraded except for Nightmare who now has all Siegfried's best moves and Yun Sung who now inexplicably kicks ass.

I'm basically only writing this for 2 reasons though, two posts that caught my eye that is.
In all the games I play MKDA - MKA and any other 3d fighters I never sidestep. Fighters are 2d that's just the way it is, fuck I've played Street Fighter II since before I could talk. I was stupidly trying to get good with Hilde again when my brother constantly raped me with Yun Seong who's triangle - triangle now consists of 2 full speed vertical sweeps, the second of which has blue lightning to further fuck you up. After getting frustrated I quickly realised I could beat it by sidestepping with Hilde because she has NO fucking counters, but couldn't bring myself to sidestep being raised on 2d fighters.

Secondly, god they fucked Talim up didn't they? She seemed like a top tier character before and now she's shit, absolute shit.

Thirdly? Honestly, is anyone here a Hilde player? She's bottom BOTTOM tier material if you ask me.

Soul calibur ultimately fails as a fighting game due to an abnormally high buttonmashitude. *The scientific term for how easily you can win a fighting game by randomly smacking buttons.* Of notable fighting games SC Has the highest buttonmashitude and street fighter has the lowest.

What are you talking about? SC4 is giving the audience what they want, female characters with bigger boobs and much less on and pointlessly tied in "bonus" characters.

No serious, they've lost the plot.

Are you fucking with me? Tekken is ultimate butting mashing, and you can't fucking mash in new generation MK, it doesn't work. Take MKA for example, massing gets you the fuck no where.
In fact, fuck the fuck right out of this thread.

Actually it seems like all the girls have gone up a few cup sizes eh? Except Taki.

I experimented with SC 4's multiplayer aspect and my brain must have formed a few more tumors by the end of it. The amount of button bashers nearly reduced me to tears. The amount of people who picked Nightmare was also astonishing. Clearly they were so bad at the game they were resorting to the most powerful character they could find so they could win without trying. Which meant I had to pick Seigfreid to level the playing field. This is not a bullet to the face of Nightmare lowers because I know people who play as him and are bloody good at him. But the people who did pick it online resort to the same two attacks over and over again.

I stick by the fact it's a step back in the right direction for the franchise, but it still badly lacks the depth that SC 2 had. The Multiplayer needs a way to punish the button bashing but the character creation felt much better, The Tower of Souls is an addictive little addition and I rate it higher then SC 3 but not as high as Sc 2.

I miss the map-based story / campaign thing SC2 had, especially the Dungeons.

I miss Tale of Swords SC3 had.

What does SC4 have? Vader. Somehow, Vader doesn't make up for the fact we've lost two truly awesome gaming modes.

It was only a few weeks ago when I started getting into Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast again (until the Dreamcast conked out). I love that game. Not quiet as pick-up-and-play and refined as Dead or Alive 2, but easily the 2nd best fighter of all time.

Not long ago I got hold of Soul Calibur II and I just think it fell flat on its face. Not enough improvements on the fighting, not much difference between characters, most new characters weren't all that special, the music, although good, not as such, and fighting somehow less balanced.

I've skipped SC3 but was seriously thinking about getting SC4. Even had the money for a PS3. But when yahtzee and other reviewers mention that the characters are unbalanced, and we're still having gimmicky fighters, I completely switched off. A fighter where you can pretty much own any other character with just one, more powerful one, is a broken game in my POV.

Maybe I'll get it when it's nice in cheap years later, but I must say I'm very frustrated that developers, even ones like Namco, aren't thinking what logically makes games so great anymore.

Sorry for the rant guys. But really, this was the one game that would have made me enter the next gen of consoles (excluding Wii) and I've been completely let down.

Are you fucking with me? Tekken is ultimate butting mashing, and you can't fucking mash in new generation MK, it doesn't work. Take MKA for example, massing gets you the fuck no where.
In fact, fuck the fuck right out of this thread.

The wise one has spoken :D

MacBauer:
Are you fucking with me? Tekken is ultimate butting mashing, and you can't fucking mash in new generation MK, it doesn't work. Take MKA for example, massing gets you the fuck no where.

I'm not sure whether this is a joke or not.

I love SC4 but the biggest issue I have with the series is it's singleplayer is getting worse and worse. SC1 on the Dreamcast had the whole quest across the map, epic story mode, and then in 4 we get the Tower, which is mostly just a bunch of bullshit fights.

PxDn Ninja:
I love SC4 but the biggest issue I have with the series is it's singleplayer is getting worse and worse. SC1 on the Dreamcast had the whole quest across the map, epic story mode, and then in 4 we get the Tower, which is mostly just a bunch of bullshit fights.

The classic phrase beginning with "If it ain't broke...." Springs hastily to mind, sadly Namco seemed to have never encountered that.

I still find SC 4 fun because it's always good to pick up and play for ten minutes without fault.

soul Calibur 2 on the GC is the best. Link actually fits in with the SC style of combat where the 'special' characters on the other systems seem wedged.
i prefer SC3's adventure style mode. and i like the character creator, although to create a decent-looking character takes a lot of unlocking.

I haven't played this one yet...but it looks like they've hit Maxi with the nerfstick a few times...I mean i loved the fact that almost all of his moves chained...but it looks like you can't even get his momentum going in this one.

Say it ain't so!

LEAVE IVY ALOOOONE!!!

Seriously, I got 2 for Gamecube, and can kick anyone's ass with Ivy. Anyone who changes her so that I can no longer kick ass will RECEIVE AN ASS-KICKING.