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[Alucard]

After 5 years this game still shines and is a lot more fun than many of the games available on the market today. Each fight is a different experience, and each stage is absolutely gorgeous just to look at. The demonstration mode shows off the fluidity of the animation as well as the surrounding environments. I know those who have played the game already know these things but it's still nice to occassionally be reminded of just why Soul Calibur is one of the greatest fighting games, and one of the greatest games period, of all time.

It's all about Xianghua.

 

[Lyte Edge]

Soul Calibur is no longer impressive on a visual level, due to the likes of DOA3, VF4, and yes, Soul Calibur 2.

The game play still holds up, sure, but why not play SC2?

 

[Greekboy]

Is SC2 a worthy sequel? I noticed they are selling for $29.99 new here in Canada but I haven't even gotten around to renting it for any platform.

 

[Alucard]

No longer impressive on a visual level? Damn, you guys are hard to please. Haha. I've played SC2 and it's definitely a lot better looking and plays about the same as the first game. Still, SC1 is damn impressive.

 

[Lyte Edge]

Is SC2 a worthy sequel? I noticed they are selling for $29.99 new here in Canada but I haven't even gotten around to renting it for any platform.

Yes, definitely. It may feel like more of the same to some people (typical of a fighting game sequel), but you get new characters, moves, stages, modes, and more. The weapon master mode from Soul Edge PSX is back, too, so you can get different weapons for all the characters to use.

 

[Gattsu25]

Soul Calibur 2 is basically SC1 with much improved visuals and new characters :b



Soul Calibur 1 also, sadly, isn't that impressive anymore from a graphical standpoint but still gets more playtime than any other fighter I know

 

[Musashi Wins!]

I think SC1 still looks good, but I never play it anymore having SC2 which I think is wonderful.

 

[Lyte Edge]

No longer impressive on a visual level? Damn, you guys are hard to please. Haha. I've played SC2 and it's definitely a lot better looking and plays about the same as the first game. Still, SC1 is damn impressive.

With SC2, there's no point to playing SC any more.

Visuals are the least important thing about games to me, but yeah, SC isn't all that impressive any more. The backgrounds are flat, and the characters just don't seem as detailed compared to the more recent games. I'm not knocking it, mind you, it's just that its age is definitely showing, and you can say what you want to, but it was the game's visuals that put Soul Calibur high up on the map back in 1999.

 

[GigaDrive]

I agree. the 1999 Dreamcast remake of the already beautiful System 12 arcade Soul Calibur has yet to be surpassed in some areas by modern fighters. the only game that could rival the Dreamcast Soul Calibur at the time is the arcade Model 3 Virtua Fighter 3 of 1996. Too bad VF3 had to get downgraded on DC but I do understand why it did, there were several reasons for it. so, Soul Calibur truly surpassed DC VF3 visually in most respects. I perfer DC SC in many ways to SC2. the paray and counter system of SC is more complex than that of the newer SC2. I like the artwork and charactor of the fighters more than SC2 even though SC2 uses more polys and effects.

the only thing missing from SC and SC2 are the day/night changes from Soul Edge. that I truly miss.

 

[Defensor]

I think Tekken Tag Tournament was more impressive than Soul Calibur at the time. Launch title vs. Launch Title.

 

[TheDiave]

I think Tekken Tag Tournament was more impressive than Soul Calibur at the time. Launch title vs. Launch Title.

I concur. It blew my mind to see Jin looking like he should be in a CG cinema, quality-wise. People bag on the jaggies, sure, but I say you only notice them if a) you try and b) you have some super-duper mega-powered TV with an uber resolution. I don't see them on my TV, and even if I did, I wouldn't bitch about it.

 

[nitewulf]

i think the animation and those sparkly lighting effects still hold up, but the game isnt visually impressive anymore. low polygon counts, blurry floor textures, simple geometry are too obvious now.
actually all the new systems are so powerful and the games have such obvious overdone effects like bump mapping and fancy lighting that you cant help but notice the lack of them in older games. but boy was i completely blown away when i first popped it in my brand new dc all those years ago.

 

[belgurdo]

Soul Calibur II=Soul Calibur 1, but most of the clone characters have been amalgamated into single, "new" characters. Plus it has a crap wall system

 

[Defensor]

I concur. It blew my mind to see Jin looking like he should be in a CG cinema, quality-wise. People bag on the jaggies, sure, but I say you only notice them if a) you try and b) you have some super-duper mega-powered TV with an uber resolution. I don't see them on my TV, and even if I did, I wouldn't bitch about it.

Yup, and Namco even fixed the jaggie issue for the stateside release of Tekken Tag(shame they didn't fix it for RRV). Tekken Tag was the PS2's Soul Calibur.

 

[Greekboy]

I think Tekken Tag Tournament was more impressive than Soul Calibur at the time. Launch title vs. Launch Title.

You've got to be kidding me.

 

[The Interrobanger]

I think Tekken Tag Tournament was more impressive than Soul Calibur at the time. Launch title vs. Launch Title.

Are you serious?

 

[Defensor]

Am kidding? No. Am I serious? Yes. Although I'm speaking as a Tekken fan as oppose to a Soul

 

[Lyte Edge]

The thing about Tekken Tag is that while it looked better, it still animated like...well...TEKKEN. So TTT had a more impressive look, but SC animated better, and IMO TTT character models just looked ugly for the most part. I like the way Tekken 4 (and Tekken 5 from screens) looks a lot more.

 

[Schmev]

I still remember getting the import version of Soul Calibur and just remarking that I did not deserve something so good, so beautiful at home. An incredible game. I wish SC2 had the raft through the caves stage.

 

[cvxfreak]

I never had the privelige of playing SC1, but SC2 was totally awesome; an AAA game.

 

[Deg]

SC1 was amazing. When i played it i brought a DC because of it. The gameplay and everything was a big step forward. It blew away any other fighter.

TTT wasnt bad but it was a 32 bit game with a lick of paint. It felt pretty awful for its time however and i think it damaged the franchise. Had nice grpahics but same old 2d backdrops. Tekken 4 is still better than TTT. Just shows you how SC set the bar.

 

[SKluck]

Only real reason to get SC2 is if you are too lazy to hook up your dreamcast.

 

[HAOHMARU]

Soul Calibur remains one of my favorite all-time fighters. If you haven't played the original arcade version then I don't think you can truely appreciate the DC game. Its like night and day...Namco did an awesome job upgrading the visuals. Its probably one of the best looking DC games to date...and it was one of the first launched.

SC2 while impressive, didn't blow me away as much as SC did. Its still an awesome game though...on my top 10 3D fighters of all-time also.

 

[Lazy8s]

The Soul Calibur conversion to DC was hurried in under a year, and it shows in the disparity of upgrading to some levels compared to others. The game looks a lot different, for example, when playing with two of the better modeled characters (such as Lizardman and Voldo) in a stage like Venice than what's yeilded by some other combinations.

After seeing how Soul Calibur II turned out in its original incarnation on System 246/PS2, consideration for how a DC sequel would've compared - one that wasn't limited by being a convert of different and weaker hardware, by a compressed development cycle, and by releasing at such an early generation in DC software - becomes intriguing. There could actually be improvement in some areas just by reusing the animation system from DC Soul Calibur I, which is smoother, and by implementing a volume modifier algorithm in use by other DC games for self-shadowing that doesn't look as awkward as the mess SCII ended up with. Also, the polygon counts which were low in DC Soul Calibur 1 were low by the system's own standards, too.

 

[Kudie]

SCII is a great game. However, my problem with a weapons based fighters is that they can often lend to long range battles in which a good Ivy, Nightmare, Kilik, etc. can theoretically keep the opponent at bay and never let the opponent get even near them to get a hit in.

 

[Greekboy]

The Soul Calibur conversion to DC was hurried in under a year, and it shows in the disparity of upgrading to some levels compared to others. The game looks a lot different, for example, when playing with two of the better modeled characters (such as Lizardman and Voldo) in a stage like Venice than what's yeilded by some other combinations.

How long exactly do you need for an arcade translation? 2-3 years? I thought SC on DC blew away the arcade version in every way possible.

 

[Lazy8s]

More than the nine months it had, apparently, to bring every stage up to the level of the good ones. They were all improved; some just not so much.

 

[btrboyev]

you gotta take into account that SC1 on DC is still limited by the fact its just a port of a game on a less powerful system. The upgrade was huge, but stuff like the rings and backgrounds weren't changed too much from the arcade game, which hinders it by todays standard.

 

[Mengy]

This weekend I was at a 4th of July party. After the family had left and it was just a bunch of guys and some beers hanging around late at night, someone turned on an Xbox and we started playing SC2. After about an hour someone broke out a second TV, a DC and loaded up SC1 to play while others waited on the Xbox. By the end of the night, we had turned off the Xbox and were only playing SC1 on the DC.

Sure we were all drunk, but SC1 just seems to be more FUN than SC2. The sequel looks better and has more in every way, yet it just doesn't capture the FEEL of SC1. My wife and I also play SC1 more than SC2.

Something didn't make it into the sequel...

 

[Kiriku]

This weekend I was at a 4th of July party. After the family had left and it was just a bunch of guys and some beers hanging around late at night, someone turned on an Xbox and we started playing SC2. After about an hour someone broke out a second TV, a DC and loaded up SC1 to play while others waited on the Xbox. By the end of the night, we had turned off the Xbox and were only playing SC1 on the DC.

Sure we were all drunk, but SC1 just seems to be more FUN than SC2. The sequel looks better and has more in every way, yet it just doesn't capture the FEEL of SC1. My wife and I also play SC1 more than SC2.

Something didn't make it into the sequel...

Nostalgia.

 

[Gattsu25]

Nostalgia.

_

 

[SolidSnakex]

SC1 was amazing. When i played it i brought a DC because of it. The gameplay and everything was a big step forward. It blew away any other fighter.

TTT wasnt bad but it was a 32 bit game with a lick of paint. It felt pretty awful for its time however and i think it damaged the franchise. Had nice grpahics but same old 2d backdrops. Tekken 4 is still better than TTT. Just shows you how SC set the bar.

TTT's backgrounds were 3D, you just fought on a 2D plane. TTT basically owned SC in every graphic category except animation (the art is debateable). Better models, backgrounds, lighting ect. Also about the gameplay you mentioned, both could qualify as 32bit considering they were both originally built on a board NAMCO used to run PSone arcade games, they were just upgraded graphically for next gen systems.

 

[Guzim]

I still think MGS2 has the best graphics.