Topic: Soul Calibur IV

[Rodriguezjr]

Well, it's out. After a few days with the PS3 version, I'm liking it better than III. I also like Vader and The Apprentice in this game, they both are good characters. I'm also enjoying the Character Creation, so far I made Aang from the Avatar, Ike from Fire Emblem, Lui Kang from Mortal Kombat, and Ganondorf. Anyone here has this game as well?

[impulse]

In Reply To #1


Yup, bought it on a whim (never played sc before). So far I'm having a blast with the online play, and yeah the character creation is awsome.

[Oralox]

In Reply To #1

The best Cas I made from that game was Gwonam from the faces of evil.

[A n t r a x x]

I played it all night at a friend's house. Haven't purchased yet.

It seems Mission Mode is getting worse and worse. What started as a full-fledged adventure on the original Soul Blade, complete with fleshed-out text story, now exists only as a mere shell of itself. Just floors in an implied tower with little to guide you but a menu. And you walk down the tower and it's just survival mode .... D:

The 5-round story mode doesn't impress either; especially when it's a ride in the park on the "normal" setting. Algol is perhaps the biggest pussy of the lot when it comes to SC villans; I earned perfect rounds on him 8 times outta 10. I guess you get what you earn though, because the endings are also some of the worst I've seen, despite that they look good. They build up your hopes with a setup and then -- BAM! -- nothing but a fucking retarded black screen with a pathetic resolution in text. Considering that you only have to beat this mode once to unlock about half the characters... it seems like Namco was aiming to make this one easier.

True HARD mode and the later floors of Tower of Souls can literally kick your ass, but with the tower, that's cuz the odds are against you: pitting you with one other fighter against like 7 or more. Arcade take a lot more patience too.

I also don't like how stripped down the illustration section is now.

Where it shines is it's other presentation aspects. This is by far the most gorgeous fighter in existence. The way the engine renders the hair is especially impressive. But add to that the specular reflections on every metallic object and the true-to-life animation of cloth and the impressive facial details... what a visual treat. The score is solid SC stuff too, but I haven't heard anything particularly catchy yet.

The character creation is that much better than last time. I didn't have enough unlocked to really go wild with it, but I did manage to create Evil Ken, Joker's girl from Batman TAS and my very own, Princess Autumn. I also striiped Seung Mina of all her clothes and gave her something more dark in design. And unlike MK Armageddon on XBOX, Namco doesn't seem to limit the drive's capabilities here, and you can make as many characters as your HD can hold. The fact that you can now fully edit existing characters is just the icing on the cake. You'll never be bored with character outfits... that's for DAMN sure.

I didn't get to try the online.

From what I've played the game deserves the high "B" it's mostly received. The Star Wars additions actually fit better than I thought they would and Yoda in particular looks amazing. Ppl say he's broke but I haven't noticed it that way (maybe I just need to play him more or play against him more in general). But too much has been stripped or dumb down since last time. The character creator is where it's at and at least it has an integral part with the rest of the modes now. I still wish you could completely overhaul the skillsets though.

[Clara E. Leet]

I think the character creation and visuals are the highlights of the game. Otherwise, the introduction of online play kinda knocked the single player options down a few notches.

Anyone else having problems with online lag with SC4??

[le052383]

my brother and I createda  pimp character and used that one handed slap staff as his weapon; that staff is begging to be equipped by a pimp

[A n t r a x x]

Stabbing them gets you more.

[Xain]

The one thing i don't like about the Character Creator mode is the lack of a tutorial. You get all these stats and stuff flung at you not knowing what they are and what they do. Then after its all said in done you get scolded for making an awesome looking character that's to strong to get out the door. Sheesh...there should have been a help menu or something.

I think its a shame that the story and mission modes are so lack luster. SCII had a great mission mode on par with that of the first. Also they had a missed opportunity with their new story mode. It should have been longer...reasons for the character being in a certain place should have been explained via story...Character recruitment should be voluntary and have the ability to alter your story path. (Raphael's story have me the idea for this.) That would have been perfect and worth while...but no...we get butt endings that make Raphael look like a fucking idiot instead of SC's new big bad guy (which he should be) and clone characters who's great character designs are now waisted. (it would have been awesome if Shura fought like Lloyd for Tales of Symphonia....and then make the character parts for Lloyd available in character customization.)

Lastly, since they already broke the tech bearer with the SW characters they should have when for broke and made KOS-MOS a new character with a fighting style similar to Necrids. (i.e. multiple weapons...you can say angol does that but he makes inferno weep so no mention for him)

Oh wait...did i mention i like this game.

I hate to add on more but i have to get this off my chest: they once again fucked with Raphael. They took away some of the awesome air juggles i did with him. At least they gave him some other moves that i can work with. I also have to learn Ivy all over again but that's a good thing. the fact that she can switch her mode nearly mid combo is fucking awesome. that opens many possibilities..she also has a great new rising launcher in sword/hybrid mode and her sword mode is now more appealing to me.

[Alexc2808]

Is there character balance fixed from Sc3?  That is my main concern.

[Oralox]

In Reply To #9

They got rid of the extra CaS classes and just left you with the original character classes. So now my Gwonam can only use Kilik's style only.

[Alexc2808]

In Reply To #10
No no, i mean the character balance.  In sc3 it was all over the place.  Is this fixed?  It really made me hate Sc3, while SB,SC, and SC2 are some of my favorite games.

[A n t r a x x]

In Reply To #10
No no, i mean the character balance.

[Alexc2808]

In Reply To #12
Tira, Setsuka, and Talim were the worst.  the game makers even ackowledged how bad it was.  That's why when they made the arcade version they did a complete overhaul on the character balance.  Virtually staring over from scratch. 

[A n t r a x x]

Hmmm... well I never noticed problems with them.

Setsuka is hard to use, and Tira didn't seem any more cheap than, say, Maxi.

And I like Talim :3 she's one of my faves now.

[A n t r a x x]

...so far I made Aang from the Avatar, ...

How did you do the arrow on his head? Or what did you do to fake it?