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[Skilletor]

Must not be very many people in here that were actually GOOD at SoCal competitively.

Otherwise 4 wouldn't be hated because it had online and a more complex character moveset.

if you're good, you dont hate the SC that let you play other people around the world.

all of these complaints seem more so about single player casual stuff.

5 was completely dumbed down. That was a huge issue, alot of the competitive community hated it. Ivy played like she was for 5 yr olds on SoCal 5 along with many others. If you hadn't noticed this....you probably weren't that good lol jusss sayin'

That's why i didn't buy V and I was a pretty religious player competitively. Same with my friends who played competitively.

It was like melee to brawl. People that were good at melee hated brawl.

4 had some of the worst netplay in any fighter ever, though.

Ivy did get the shaft in SC5, I agree.

 

[Gh0stlyMostly]

4 had some of the worst netplay in any fighter ever, though.

Ivy did get the shaft in SC5, I agree.

Broke my heart bc im a IVY, taki, sigi player.

and the online wasn't that bad. Better than SSBB by far. Many of the fights were clear and skill could be demonstrated. Thats all that's important.

Besides wasn't it one of the FIRST fighters to be online last gen? Besides DoA?

 

[Skilletor]

Broke my heart bc im a IVY, taki, sigi player.

and the online wasn't that bad. Better than SSBB by far. Many of the fights were clear and skill could be demonstrated. Thats all that's important.

Besides wasn't it one of the FIRST fighters to be online last gen? Besides DoA?

I don't remember that far back, so probably, lol. Still, it was awful. Being better than something bad (at least, I assume SSBB is bad since you're comparing the two, never played it myself) doesn't make it good.

SC5 and TTT2 have great netcode. SC4 and T6 are barely playable, imo.

 

[klee123]

SC3.

Focused too much on SP stuff.

 

[Gh0stlyMostly]

I don't remember that far back, so probably, lol. Still, it was awful. Being better than something bad doesn't make it good.

SC5 and TTT2 have great netcode. SC4 and T6 are barely playable, imo.

I'll straight up take 4's complexity with a bad netcode over sc5 with a great netcode lol

Besides like i said, I had plentyyy of playable matches on there, but maybe i had a good connection. Community could be c*nty sometimes though lol

 

[NewGame]

Soul Calibur 2 was on every console and had a really good roster and was also executed with a sense of grace and accuracy with lots of nuanced movesets and approach options. Also it had a bangin' soundtrack and amusing voices.

SC5 has no parry option...?


How can we forget one of the best fighting game soundtracks

__--->>CONFRONTATION<<---__

 

[SomedayTheFire]

Soul Calibur 2 is probably my favourite fighting game ever. Wasted so many hours on that game.

 

[Gh0stlyMostly]

Soul Calibur 2 was on every console and had a really good roster and was also executed with a sense of grace and accuracy with lots of nuanced movesets and approach options. Also it had a bangin' soundtrack and amusing voices.

SC5 has no parry option...?


How can we forget one of the best fighting game soundtracks

__--->>CONFRONTATION<<---__

SC 2 had a great ad campaign with the unique characters per console.

also it came out after the original, which is one of the greatest games of all time ya know.

 

[ReaperXL7]

Ever since I played Soul Calibur on Dreamcast it's been my favorite fighting game series but it has had its ups and downs. I loved how they were experimenting with all kinds of different single player modes and types of content including a very interesting rpg style mode but Namco seemed to push hard to get rid of that and release more bare bones games in comparison. V is fantastic in regards to gameplay but they stripped out all of the extra stuff that always added a ton of value to SC in the past.

Sucks because I thought that character poll they did a while back ment we might see some news but we still haven't heard anything other then them killing the F2P PS3 thing

 

[Mael]

Loved Sould Edge/Blade, adored Soul Calibur and Soul Calibur II.
Soul III being on a console I didn't own plus Soul IV being subpar and whatever the hell they expected Wii owners to get pretty much killed the franchise for me.
They could release a new one and I wouldn't give a shit.
The fact that they couldn't stop pandering to DoA X's crowd with each iteration certainly made sure I didn't have any issues never looking back.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

Lack of the almighty Edge Master mode, too much flash and extra systems, Taki replaced with Natsu

 

[Mechanized]

The story modes for 4 and 5 were garbage. Plus they straight up removed fan favorite characters.

 

[Tsukumo]

They reached absolute perfection with SC2 and with the need to reshuffle game design for each new iteration they had to abandon what was successful and tight.
The only thing they could have done was to leave the game be and add cosmetic, customization and balancing features like what happened with Counterstrike or Team Fortress 2.
Even now that the arcade business is less and less popular they thought to re-establish the franchise was Lost Swords, which didn't exactly worked out for the best.
The only option they have left in my opinion is to push the brand towards adventure design (like Onimusha or Ni-Oh) or full blown From Software action-rpg single player experiences.

 

[eyeball_kid]

Must not be very many people in here that were actually GOOD at SoCal competitively.

Otherwise 4 wouldn't be hated because it had online and a more complex character moveset.

I didn't hate SC4; I remember really enjoying Ivy's moveset in 4. But the game itself also felt a bit stale, and I didn't connect with some of the characters. I appreciate that Tekken generally keeps characters around; I have a fondness for characters I've been playing or playing against for 20 years. The SC team too often replaced characters with different-and-often-younger-but-mostly-identical characters, for reasons.

More generally, I think it's strange that SC is about the only modern fighting game that focuses on weapon combat (though I still hope for a Bushido Blade reboot). I'd love to see a weapons-based fighting game in the Ninja Gaiden universe (for instance). But I'd like to also see Namco modernize SC – keep the visceral satisfying quality of SC's combat, but make it more fluid. I want to feel like I'm playing a Hong Hong film.

 

[V_Arnold]

Basically, SCV was to SC what was SFIII To SF.

SCV is a top-notch game, excellent mechanics, good resource management, a somewhat bold approach to the roster as well.

Unfortunately, people do not want huge roster refresh in SC, they just wanted their favorites. I had no idea why Namco did not have a plan ready to make all originals as DLC's.

After that, Namco I think realized that they do not need to have two competing fighting games, and moved towards the almost-nudity+F2P single player game. Which is truly a shame to someone like me who basically grew up on the original on Dreamcast.

 

[Espada]

Basically, SCV was to SC what was SFIII To SF.

SCV is a top-notch game, excellent mechanics, good resource management, a somewhat bold approach to the roster as well.

Unfortunately, people do not want huge roster refresh in SC, they just wanted their favorites. I had no idea why Namco did not have a plan ready to make all originals as DLC's.

After that, Namco I think realized that they do not need to have two competing fighting games, and moved towards the almost-nudity+F2P single player game. Which is truly a shame to someone like me who basically grew up on the original on Dreamcast.

This is almost certainly what happened. I remember reading that SCV was made on a shoestring budget, with much of the non-gameplay aspects being outsourced. It makes sense since, as you said, Bamco has decided Tekken will get all of its resources and SC should rot. This is despite the series easily selling a few million units per entry.

 

[SephLuis]

I'll straight up take 4's complexity with a bad netcode over sc5 with a great netcode lol

Besides like i said, I had plentyyy of playable matches on there, but maybe i had a good connection. Community could be c*nty sometimes though lol

I played A LOT of SC4, but the code was really bad. You had to have opponents nearby or you wouldn't get a good match.

In my situation, the SoCal community doesn't exist or is extremely niche. So SC4 online was dead to me.

I would love SC4 complexity with SC5 netcode.

 

[Piers]

Most people's 'first kiss' from Soul Calibur was because of Link or Heihachi. After that it quickly dissolved into Tekken with weapons for most.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

Didn't Soul Calibur IV bring back the series or was it just short-term gain cuz of Star Wars?

 

[Vice]

Not balanced enough for the hardcore. Not enough to do with characters you like for the more casual.

 

[deleted]

I'm not really deep into fighting game systems, but I enjoy playing them - sometimes a lot.
With SCIV onward I had the problem, that they overdesinged the characters. Siegfried and the Swords looked pretty bad, all things considered and almost not recongnizable from their original Art anymore.

Maybe there are some parallels here to 90s Comic book iterations.

Had not desire to play SC anymore. SC1 and 2 were fantastic though. I enjoyed VS and playing the story mode was really cool too.

 

[Alx]

I wonder if the main issue of the popularity of SC is that many people play it for the solo mode. I don't really understand all the praise SC2 gets, and all the hate for SC5.
I think SC1 and SC5 are the highlights of the IP, with each its own style. SC2 and SC4 are just the original recipe, but more sluggish, with bad guest characters and worse visual design. I skipped SC3 because the demo felt like "more of the same" and the game had major bugs on PS2 (never knew if those were solved, I guess not since there was no patching possibility at the time)

 

[Persona7]

I need to go back and play SCV. I liked it but didn't really play it much.

 

[Espada]

I need to go back and play SCV. I liked it but didn't really play it much.

Great gameplay, but like Vice said a few posts above, there wasn't enough single player content to run my favorites through. That was one of the best thing about the older games, you could do a bunch of goofy stuff with your favorite character on TOP of great gameplay.

I still toss in SCV because it feels so damn good to play.

 

[TropicalFish]

3 was my first SC game and I absolutely loved it, being the casual fighting game fan I am.

Loved the structure of Story Mode, and absolutely adored Chronicles of the Sword until my save file for that mode glitched and made me start over. <.<

Also the myriad of bonus characters (loved playing as the three shopkeepers and various characters from COTS), and unique weapons for the character creation were awesome.

I was so disappointed with IV and V.

 

[Cyber Caesar]

A fighting franchise only has a half life of two sequels at most before the novelty of gameplay systems become stale. Fighting games have to find new ways to introduce novelty into the base product to sell well very late into a franchise.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

It's weird for me, I only ever loved the first entry, Soul Blade/Edge.

I didn't like how they changed the way the game controls in Soulcalibur, and could never get into these games...

 

[TheSpoiler]

A fighting franchise only has a half life of two sequels at most before the novelty of gameplay systems become stale. Fighting games have to find new ways to introduce novelty into the base product to sell well very late into a franchise.

I wouldn't say novelty, but it did need new blood to get it interested and noticed by casual gamers. This is more for titles who aren't SF, MKX, or Tekken. New blood that sticks around is how fighting games survive.

 

[cwistofu]

SC5 did everything right given the insane constraints the team was given.

Cut characters and story mode were a damn shame, but the team really made an effort where it counts with the gameplay mechanics. The changes to the GI system were desperately needed, and the inclusion of meter really helped the meta game evolve past rock-paper-scissors and hardcore frame counting for punishes.

The fact that they managed to get the silky smooth matchmaking code done too is a miracle.

It's just too bad their decision to timeskip bit them in the ass overall because the kids mostly played like their old counterparts and there wasn't enough story to justify the seemingly random change.

SC5 was an awkward entry as a result, alienating hardcore fans by inexplicably cutting characters entirely (Talim, Zas, the Koreans) and not doing enough with the singleplayer to draw in new fans.

Objectively, though, it's probably the best game in the franchise so far. (Or it would be if Seong Mi-Na hadn't been cut.)

SC6 is bound to happen and I have faith in the team to do right, but I really wish Namco would give them more than 8 months to a year to make these games.

EDIT: OH YEAH AND WHAT THE FUCK AT CHARGING ME FOR DLC COSTUME PARTS THAT WERE FREE IN SC4?

 

[MightyHedgehog]

I cannot offer specifics, but the series never felt like it made any essential gameplay improvements over 2. Just poor management over the series' lifetime seems to be the most obvious thing to blame.

 

[lazyguy]

I think 5 still is the best gameplay-wise. If only they improved the character roster and sush we'd be good. Aside from that I think most people remember Soul Calibur 2 fondly only because of Link. I still think Ezio was the best guest character overall.

 

[LCGeek]

The game went downhill on 2 as it split the competitive community, I was there and knew various champions european or american. The later series easily drove out what SP interest anyone had as it really lost a step to what series has established with SC.

SC2 had plenty of glitches the most notable 2g. Not only did the bug let you wipe out the impact of GI it allowed you to make moves totally whiff through you as well. 2 was such a step back compared to the first and it's not opinion it's actual mechanics that got reduced or made easy, reduced commands across the boards for most characters, throws were made more easy to break and so on.

Lazy guy the PS2 version sold the best so that doesn't really apply.

 

[Ogodei]

The purists who care about gameplay mechanics (which isn't to say the mechanics don't matter, but changes matter less for long-running franchises in terms of sales potential) are a small group compared to those who are just mad about the gutted roster.

Soul Calibur IV felt really compelling when it came out, there was a strong response from the fandom. Soul Calibur V felt a lot like Gears of War Judgment or New Super Mario 2 (or Resident Evil 6). The response seemed to be a collective "why bother?"

 

[Skilletor]

It seems like people think that SC5 performed a lot worse than it did in reality.

It wasn't that far off from SC4 which had fucking Darth Vader and Yoda in it as guest characters.

SoulCalibur is hella popular...it just needs Namco to give a fuck about the series, and I'm not sure they do anymore.

 

[Meccanical]

The greatest failure of SCV was despite the cast being a "new generation" of fighters, Bangoon wasn't playable.

WHY WAS BANGOO NOT PLAYABLE

 

[DR2K]

They gutted the whole roster, some of the most popular characters were either gone or replaced with inferior versions.

The game was rushed and sacrificed for SFXT. Like UMVC3 was. Keep in mind SCV was a success and had outsold both SFXT and TTT2.

I imagine they are making a SCVI, but project soul has been spread thin making Smash, Pokken, working on Tekken 7 and the like.

 

[Skilletor]

The greatest failure of SCV was despite the cast being a "new generation" of fighters, Bangoon wasn't playable.

WHY WAS BANGOO NOT PLAYABLE

No lies detected.

 

[Terareflection]

I would say that SC3 changed too much. Movelists were all changed, and it was PS2 exclusive.

4 and 5 didn't have the interesting single player content to keep people playing. It's needs a real story mode AND a tutorial.

 

[Fraeon]

They gutted the whole roster, some of the most popular characters were either gone or replaced with inferior versions.

The game was rushed and sacrificed for SFXT. Like UMVC3 was. Keep in mind SCV was a success and had outsold both SFXT and TTT2.

I imagine they are making a SCVI, but project soul has been spread thin making Smash, Pokken, working on Tekken 7 and the like.

They essentially did what worked with Tekken 3. It was a gamble, sure, but SC5 is a very interesting game and mechanically really is the best since the first one.

And I have no idea what the SFxT shit is about. That's all Capcom. Namco is a different company.

 

[Skilletor]

They essentially did what worked with Tekken 3. It was a gamble, sure, but SC5 is a very interesting game and mechanically really is the best since the first one.

And I have no idea what the SFxT shit is about. That's all Capcom. Namco is a different company.

I've seen SFxT blamed for the death of three games in the past week. Super cray.

 

[Krackatoa]

SCV was made in a year. I'm not sure how many of you remember the producer's twitter blowup.

 

[Son Of D]

SC3 being exclusive to PS2 hurt the scene a lot. Plus the poor balance and glitches in 3 didn't make it too exciting.

Then when SC4 came along you had Hilde just being stupid OP with that death combo. And for casual fans the only single player content was the dull Tower mode.

SC5, whilst having the best gameplay in the series so far, really messed up the whole timeskip aspect by bringing some characters back barely having aged (Ivy and Maxi come to mind) plus you can tell how rushed the game was with the final characters (Elysium and Kilik being gender specific mimics) as well as the story mode. Not to mention Talim, Zasalamel and Yun-Seong, three characters who make sense to bring back after the timeskip as well as whose movesets weren't replaced, being cut hurt.

If a SC6 were to happen it needs to be another reboot. Or at least Namco could give it a proper time and budget so they can make the game they want.

 

[TreIII]

The greatest failure of SCV was despite the cast being a "new generation" of fighters, Bangoon wasn't playable.

WHY WAS BANGOO NOT PLAYABLE

No Bangoo, no Talim (even though a time skip would have only put her at early 30s), no Zasalmel (who of all people should've been granted a pass because of being practically immortal) and not a single Korean. Really makes you wonder.

That said, I'm still betting that Project Soul will hopefully come back to this series, someday. What does Bamco have to lose by having a reliable, console-focused fighting game franchise that's ripe for marketing tie-ins, while Tekken largely remains the "Arcade darling"?

 

[DR2K]

They essentially did what worked with Tekken 3. It was a gamble, sure, but SC5 is a very interesting game and mechanically really is the best since the first one.

And I have no idea what the SFxT shit is about. That's all Capcom. Namco is a different company.

They came out within 2 months of each other. You don't think Namco has any interest in the success of their top brand?

Please note I'm not blaming SFxT, TTT2 was also released in the same year. So they didn't have many options for the release date.

 

[Freshmaker]

SC 5 : well viola, patroklos and phyrra ... this game has balance issues.

What? SCV's pretty well balanced. Only Dampiere, Zwei, and Raphael have a definite uphill battle against the other characters.

The feinting is gone,

You can still attack cancel... If that's what you mean. If you mena GI's, randomly spamming GI's was NEVER a good idea (left you at disadvantage) unless you were in a 3 bar connection in SCIV.

there is less mindgames and it's more about knowing which moves beats which moves (which it's always the case in fighting games). But here, the game turns into a mashfest with cheap characters and using the same moves over and over again.

Less mindgames in what way? Also mashfest? No.

In comparison SC2 for example offered movement that was so safe that each character really boiled down to about 3 moves. GI's were glitched so that you'd end up at negative frames for successfully landing one, and that game's somehow held up as the gold standard for depth and scrubby GI battle porn.

Share your insights GAF, preferably from a gameplay standpoint.

That would be a refreshing discussion.

 

[~Devil Trigger~]

They replaced Setsuka with some bullshit lookin dude,and made Ivy boring... i hoped the fuck off

 

[GamerSoul]

I got into the series because of Link, but stayed for the characters and story. I became so engrossed with the story to the point where I knew the back story of every character and how they related to the main plot.


II was simply amazing. I put so many hours into this game and essentially tried learning every character. The controls, even on the Cube, were tight and responsive, the visuals were superb, and there was so much to do. Cassandra became my main.

III was good, something about just seem a little off to me and after playing SC on the Cube for so long.The visuals and overall audio were not as crisp but it was a fun game with lots to do. I still played a great deal of it when I could. I also liked the added complexity to some of the characters. Cassandra remained my main. (I never had a PS2)

IV was superb, I LOVED this game and I probably played it more than II. It brought back, a lot single player content, the crisp visuals, and great SFXs that I felt was lacking in III. AND it had an amazing Character Create mode which was a definite step up from III. The Star Wars guest characters were also a nice addition. I was never a fan of the whole Soul gauge thing. I could probably count on one finger how times I pulled off a critical finish in an actual match again a player. More Importantly, Cassandra remained awesome and you better believe she had an Captain America outfit ready.

V, they took out Cassandra...and Taki.., two of my mains, and overall I felt the gameplay remained solid but I guess, as other have expressed, their was not much to do. It felt somewhat hollow. I'll probably give it another shot one of these days..

 

[Jawmuncher]

It was obvious that SC5 was rushed. I'm surprised it came out better than it did. Hopefully SC6 is a return to form.

 

[Nemesis121]

Soul Calibur on DC is awesome, everything after that never lived up to the original..

 

[BasilZero]

I think it all started with Soul Calibur III - that memory card issue where it deletes your save data was something that stopped people from buying at least from what I heard.

After that - everything else was rush and not as polished....