I don’t think I’ve ever been so compelled to say something after so little time with a game. Moreover, it’s not even pure dislike or pure adoration, just… something else.
I loved the early Soul Calibur games, especially the second entry. Hell, I spent ages on Soul Calibur 2, mastering the many characters (to varying degrees), gathering wealth to buy the numerous weapons and enjoying the robust mission mode which offered hours upon hours of activity and skill building.
The crux of my love with the Soul series though is Ivy. I took a strange interest in the character in the first game, never completely got her down and resolved to get her right in the sequel. With the exception of a couple of very complex throws, I became a force to be reckoned with, at one point even besting my opponents while one of my hands was partly out of commission due to an injury.
I feel that after Soul Calibur 2, the series lost its way.
The main reason for this is the greater wealth of content. Soul Calibur 3 was actually quite ambitious, adding a character creation system as well as replacing the old mission mode with a strategy game utilizing said feature.
However, because of this, fewer truly new characters were added (additional fighting styles in create-a-character notwithstanding) and many existing characters were needlessly tweaked, in some cases subtly altering their movesets, while in others drastically altering them to the point that they were virtually unusable… the biggest victim in this being Ivy, whose moves were so drastically rearranged that I had to struggle to make her do anything useful.
Beyond this though, the game felt thought out, but not quite polished- there was an attempt to tell a greater story in the arcade mode, but the scenarios were short and text heavy. The AI was inexplicably cheap with its defense, yet relied on a few patterns so religiously that they could be exploited with the right equipment, losing the sense of play balance that made the previous entries so ripe.
Then came Soul Calibur IV, featuring Star Wars guest characters, a tweaked character creation system (now missing the custom fighting styles of the previous game!) and… little else. Character move sets were further tweaked (adding in further unnecessary stances), while the branching mission modes and enjoyable strategy game of the previous entries was forsaken for a simple list of challenges.
It was disheartening to the point that I swore of the series until they would at least fix Ivy- i.e., making her playable again.
My interest in Soul Calibur V was almost non-existent until I read an article confirming exactly what I was hoping for. Ivy, though operating once again on a tweaked move-set, handles more in tune with how she used to play, with the various stances the games had come to rely upon to shove new moves into existing characters being largely omitted.
Happy day, right?
Soul Calibur V does take many things in the right direction. It jumps nearly two decades into the future, forcing many of the classic characters to retire and forcing the designers to design a number of new characters instead of recycling the old ones again and again. The general flow game trends towards the earlier entries, and the create-a-character feels more robust and fluid than it did in the previous entries, making it quick and fun to use.
From a structural standpoint, Soul Calibur V looks to be a really good fighting game. I’ve still got to spend more time with it, but it introduces new characters and new combat styles, injecting some much needed fresh blood into the experience.
So why do I feel so blasé about it?
The game offers little- very, very little- to the single player environment.
The experience is promising on the outset, seriously promising. The story mode seeks to tell a linear tale, starting out with the son and daughter of the previous entries’ Sophitia, painting them as the main characters. There’s numerous CG sequences and a wealth of well-performed voice acting to flesh the tale out.
The first problem? It’s about Sophitia’s kids… and virtually no one else. Many characters in the roster aren’t even graced with a cameo, while the other newbies are relegated to passing roles at best. The Soul series has been touted in part for a greater focus on characterization, that one feels outright robbed to see so many of the characters shafted.
And if that weren’t enough, I was able to beat the twenty chapter campaign within the night.
Okay, okay. We’ll go to arcade mode and see the individual character stories ther- wait, never mind. There are no character endings. Beating arcade mode tells you that you’ve beaten arcade mode.
What else is missing? There are no character profiles, art galleries. There’s no currency to buy new stuff (it has to be unlocked, but the parameters are suddenly unclear). Hell, there’s no options to adjust match settings, such as the number of rounds in each bout.
The effort placed in the new story mode is laudable, but quickly collapses when one asked how much effort was placed here that could’ve been put into a more long-lasting mission campaign. Not only that, but by focusing the experience solely on a handful of the game’s fleshed out roster, the player is utterly discouraged from learning other characters or getting reacquainted with an old favorite.
Clearing the story mode unlocked a harder side mode that seems to be like arcade, but I entered it so unprepared (since, again, the game took no time to ease me through a tutorial) that I struggled to win a single fight in a three round match. I don’t know what secrets await on the other side, but the wall blocking my way is currently so massive I may never see it.
Soul Calibur V has almost nothing to offer except for good, solid fighting gameplay (and admittedly, I might need to play it a while more to fully get a feel on that). I feel like large chunks of the single player game is missing and wouldn’t recommend it unless one has a few fighting enthusiast friends to distract from what you’ll be missing on your own.
I’m happy to see an update with a game I’m actually fairly interested in.
Talking about a fighting game can be a bit weird, as though you have to talk about it as a videogame, then as a fighting game (as though they’re separate). Some fighting game aficionados only care about the fighting mechanics and good netcode (see also the feature-light MVC3 series) versus a game with a breadth of modes, stages and bonus content (MK9, SCIV).
Fighting games for me fall into two categories: games that I play with my brother for dozens of hours (exclusively MVC3 at this point), and games I play by myself briefly as I do a perfunctory exploration of features before shelving it for when the mood strikes.
SCIV did compell me to at least unlock all of the characters, most of the weapons and most of the character creator stuff (and bonus art and all that). As far as plot and characterization, I’d found the series to have reached a ludicrous point (emphasized by their relationship map), complex to the point of impenetrability.
In that sense I became more interested in SCV for two reasons. One is that I seemed to have gotten the impression that they made it into more of a fighting game than previous iterations, with “super” moves and whatnot. With this I’ll ask you for some more detail on the fighting system as it compares to IV.
The other is the jump ahead and ditching of a good amount of the roster, something fighting games have never done due to the nature of the beast, as it were.
It’s weird that they excised so much of the content in SCIV though.
Truth be told, I’m not really pleased with the addition of super moves. Part of my philosophy is that, well, the game didn’t really need them. More than that though, they distract from the flow of a round. Triggering the move pauses the action to close in on the performing character, and some of them cannot really be blocked or avoided. I had a number of rounds where I was prevailing against the computer, only to be placed in an unavoidable situation and have the tables turned without the capacity to defend myself. I compare this to, say, the super moves in Capcom’s fighters, which add a bit of flavor (and absurdity!) to the rounds, but are quite often far from a “win” button, since a bit of timing is all you need to soak up most of the damage.
The gameplay, as a whole, does feel much smoother, more in vein of the earlier entries, and I do like that. In fact, I was actually VERY happy with the game when I started playing it- okay, so Ivy’s moves were something of a hodge podge of recent and old (which has been something of the razor’s edge for me in this game) but I felt using her again was something I could grasp. I did play a bit against my roommate and we did have a pretty good time doing so- you might get more out of the game playing with your brother, at least if the two of you are prone to sinking a lot of times into fighting games in that regard. They’ve tended to be more of an on again, off again thing in my case- the better the single player is, the more I’m playing in general, which means if someone is available to play with me anyways… let’s just say, I’m pining for MvC3′s individual character endings at this point. Something as minute as THAT would have kept me playing much, much longer.
Regarding the cast, I do agree there is some admiration owed to the sort of reshuffling SCV presents, since it’s just not normally done. One of my major axes to grind with the past games was the increasing lack of new characters (only 3 in SC3, just 1 in SCIV not counting the guest characters), so I was glad to see the developers put some effort into it.
The results are… again… mixed. Standbys like Kilik, Taki and Xianghua feel like they’ve been replaced by kid versions of themselves. Soul Calibur Kids? Soul Calibur: The Next Generation? Their movesets seem pretty damn similar and this viewpoint isn’t helped by the fact that the story gives them nothing more than cameos. They just come off as immature clones.
Next, we have the standbys that do remain: Ivy, Cervantes, Voldo, Maxi, ect. The game makes no effort to explain why they’re here, they just feel like they’re characters in a fighting game. Some of them should really be visibly older (especially Maxi, Siegfried) while some probably shouldn’t be able to fight (Voldo was fifty in SCII, and this is over twenty years later). Ivy is handwaved by the developers due to her exposure to the iconic evil sword which has kept her from aging, but this doesn’t really make sense for everyone per se (maybe Siegfried)- the story doesn’t address this at all, however. As for handling, well, they’re generally familiar (like I said, Ivy’s still a bit off, but at least closer to form)- you might have to relearn a few things, but many of the characters, new and old, generally leave you knowing what to expect.
After this, we have the true newbies. Z.W.E.I. (why is his name an acronym?), Viola… are actually pretty much it. Z.W.E.I. fights with a one handed broad sword and is a… werewolf for some reason…? Which means he can summon this werewolf ally in special attacks (’cause that’s apparently how werewolves work now). He’s one of the only characters to really get featured aside from the main two (whom I’ll discuss below). Viola was somewhat interesting, using a clawed hand and a floaty orb of death to attack. Both characters, admittedly, feel a bit contrived in this regard- rather than relying purely on a signature weapon, they’re bringing some odd magic into the game, as if they’ve run out of ideas.
This leaves us with Patroklos and Pyrrha, the son and daughter of Sophitia. Aside from being the focus of story mode (and this being the only ones with real plot relevance), they make an odd mix. Pyrrha handles very much like her mother, and after a plot change, her new character (which is treated as separate from her normal one) handles even more like her mother. Patroklos, meanwhile, while using the same sword and shield combo, actually has a new and different fighting style, and seemed to be one of the cases where the developers sought to be more creative, though like his sister, he goes through a style change later into the plot where he fights like… Setsuka?
After this, we have to look at what’s missing, which is to say a bit. In an attempt to start clean, SCV ditches a number of fighting styles that defined previous entries- the spun-off styles of Cassandra, Yunsung and the like are gone, as are those such as the scythe-wielding Zasalamel. Create-a-character would have been perfect to tuck away these old forms (and provide a set of creation exclusives, much like Soul Calibur III did) but instead all we get is… Devil Jin from Tekken?
Aside from that, I’ve unlocked three characters who fall into the Edge Master “random weapons” category… including Edge Master himself. Why the developers thought I needed more of these kinds of characters is beyond my reckoning.
Also, there’s Ezio from Assassin’s Creed, which is cool I suppose but does nothing for me since I’ve never played his games. And single player still sucks. Do with that what you will.
Soul Calibur has always been seen as babbys first fighter for a number of reasons and from your write-up, it seems they’re stepping away from that (though how far depends upon meatier mechanics and whatnot). Still, I like the idea of the super moves, even if they’re on the overpowered side, as critical finishes were all but impossible in SCIV.
Some things I’ve read and watched, particularly Videogamers.com extended play, basically point out what you did: that most of the “new” cast is actually an old fighter within a new character (right down to the Soul Cal Kids joke). That bothers me and it doesn’t, since obviously many of these fighting styles have been in each game and to lose them entirely would be as weird as it is hard to apparently magic up new fighting styles, but I think we can all agree they are definitely not new characters by any means.
And oh man am I sad to hear that some of SCIVs styles aren’t at least in CAS mode. Setsuka was probably one of my favorite fighting game characters ever and, well… why just excise stuff like that?
I’m starting to feel that SCIV has a breadth to its roster that SCV does not. Between the greater variety of weapon styles (correct me if I’m wrong on that) and the number of bonus characters, does SCV even compare on that level?