Soulcalibur keeps getting worse and worse. (Or Vice Versa)

[MacBauer]

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.

 

[LivemeLifefree]

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.

 

[Dommyboy]

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

 

[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.

 

[Chiasm]

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.

 

[Copter400]

Soulcalibur is without a doubt getting worse. How so?

Ivy still appears to be constructed from watermelons.

 

[Cyclomega]

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...

 

[LivemeLifefree]

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.

 

[Cyclomega]

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

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

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[Graustein]

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!

 

[Cyclomega]

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...

 

[Chiasm]

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.

 

[Murrah]

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

 

[LivemeLifefree]

That's because us Nintendo fans are pleased.

 

[HuntingWolf_01]

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

 

[MacBauer]

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.