Soul Calibur 4

[Do You Like Erotic?]

It's fun and can actually alter gameplay. That's bad?

You mean alterations like making weapons that do 50% damage in one hit? Or like making your character ring-out proof while your opponent isn't?

Things things are arbitrary and useless, and yes, just plain bad IMO. Would have preferred a game that felt like a step forward for the series in terms of the core gameplay element. It's not a bad game by any means, but it never rises above mediocre for me.

[Aurora]

Shit like this (or similar) has been in the series since Soul Blade. It's nothing new to the series. Maybe you guys need to complain about a different game.

And you have the option to play without this shit.

[YellerDog]

Where was it in Soul Calibur 1/2? Giving the character a differently-textured stick to swing?

[Aurora]

Where was it in Soul Calibur 1/2? Giving the character a differently-textured stick to swing?

You're obviously playing diff games. Weapons changes stat in Blade, 2, 3, and now 4. I think SC1 was the only one where it didn't.

[YellerDog]

Well, if that's the cherry on your banana split, don't let me stop ya. Rock on, rock proud.

[Do You Like Erotic?]

SC1 and 2 did have weapons with different properties, yes. But there wasn't more focus on these things than advancing the series. The problem that I have here is that the core element really doesn't feel like a step forward at all. It's just Gimmick game 4. It has about every gimmick in the book, but on the whole, the game doesn't feel like it was worth money (I got it on PS2 trade-ins and still feel bored with it and have no desire to play it). I was a big fan of SC2 and I was a tourney player as well, so I know the game and I expected a lot from it (even though I never played 3 because I heard it was trash by a lot of people). I simply feel like, I already played this game on Dreamcast back when it was awesome.

On the whole, the game itself feels sluggish in every way. The moves come out slow, the walk speed is sluggish, and the game speed on the whole feels a bit slowed down. It's as if one has too much time to think (unless you play online). The characters generally feel pretty much homogenized and most of their move lists have been dumbed down. It seems like even though there are definitely new attacks, nothing feels new, a few characters have tons of great moves like teleports and air combos and juggles, etc. while most of the cast just doesn't have anything interesting at all. There are a lot of characters who are either dupes of other characters (not the bonus characters) or just feel like half of one character and half of another. Such as Amy who is a waste of space and just a weak Raphael, or Seung Mina who is still just half Kilik and half SE Seung Mina.

In most fighting games, you feel a sense of thrill and suspense, but I generally just feel bored during fights. Every time that I turn the game on, I think that I'm gonna go online and "beat noobs" or whatever, but I just end up going into character creation, looking at Ivy's under-cleavage, saying "this is stupid" and turning the game off now. It's only been a week.

[Thief Silver]

Oh and let's not forget the weapon stats don't mean anything in Versus.

[RedCoKid]

On the whole, the game itself feels sluggish in every way. The moves come out slow, the walk speed is sluggish, and the game speed on the whole feels a bit slowed down. It's as if one has too much time to think (unless you play online).

This is true, even online sometimes. Tied 2-2 in a final match last night, I had a stare-down between a Kilik and my Siegfried-type. We stood on opposite ends of the battlefield for a good 5+ seconds, waiting for the other to run in.

[Aurora]

Eh - being that Blade is still my fav in the series, it doesn't feel sluggish to me. I'm quite happy with how it plays, but I just wish it had more to do.

[Tain]

The characters generally feel pretty much homogenized

That's the feeling I couldn't put my finger on. Definitely.

There's absolutely a feeling that the focus was on the frills more than the game. I initially saw the new mechanics and thought that it might wind up feeling like a pretty different experience, but red GIs and armor breaking just aren't enough. I like the game well enough; okay Soul Calibur is still better than GW2 or whatever, but it's not as good of a sequel as SC2 was. And SC2 didn't strike me as a fantastic sequel.