I kind of regret temporarily trading my 360 to my friend for his PS3 since it means unless I Gamefly SC4 and unlock everything twice I have to wait. I'm not good at waiting.
I.e. "Why should we care about quality and balance? Why should we care about substandard features? We're not ub3r pr0z, and only someone like that could ever care about those things."
Yeah, god forbid someone might actually like a game enough to want to get good at it. Or hope that a game designed to reward the player for their skill might actually reward the player for their skill.
Now you're not even arguing against an actual person. I like quality and balance, although I don't really think that perfect balance can be achieved unless the game in question only has a single character with a single move. I also enjoy improving at a game as I continue playing... I don't see your point.
Also, "substandard features"? As far as standard features, SC4 seems to have all of those. You said it yourself that lag was impossible to completely eliminate, so how does SC4 having latency problems like all the other fighters make its online offerings below par? Unless you're referring to the console online features vs. pc online features. Honestly, I don't really remember anything from my PC online gaming that's absent from SC4 that would make its online portion more enjoyable. Can you possibly give some examples?
Ahhh, two things that are kinda bleh about SC4's online (and I'm only going from reviews). It dumps you to the matchup screen when you finish a match, and is only 1 on 1. For all the complaints people have about DoA, how is it the online online fighter yet this generation to actually get the online setup damned near completely right?
That being said, I already have my 360 stick, and this shall be mine.
What's the difference between story mode and arcade mode?
Story mode:
Story mode has your character specifically fighting characters who might be considered relevant to your character's plot line.
It's also handled in an interesting way, wherein occasionally once you defeat your opponent another one will jump in and you'll have to fight him. None of that 'round one, FIGHT' 'round two, FIGHT!' stuff.
Arcade mode:
Didn't play this one yet, but the description on the menu screen was that you fight 8 (I think) opponents on your way to the top. I think this does have the 'round one, FIGHT' thing.
What I'm really interested in is what kind of gameplay there is for created characters. If you get a second and can shed some light on that it'd be greatly appreciated.
What's the difference between story mode and arcade mode?
Story mode:
Story mode has your character specifically fighting characters who might be considered relevant to your character's plot line.
It's also handled in an interesting way, wherein occasionally once you defeat your opponent another one will jump in and you'll have to fight him. None of that 'round one, FIGHT' 'round two, FIGHT!' stuff.
Arcade mode:
Didn't play this one yet, but the description on the menu screen was that you fight 8 (I think) opponents on your way to the top. I think this does have the 'round one, FIGHT' thing.
There's also a game mode called:
Tower of Lost Souls.
Can we get a description of that last game mode, please?
And as for the green bar/more detailed information debate. I really to think you're putting your opinions too highly in there, Page-. While it would be nice, yeah, the majority of gamers would want nothing to do with it, and in all liklihood, would end up completely confused by the numbers. Green = Good, Red = Bad is about the right speed for the general public. More is nice? Sure. But you're highly overestimating the general gaming public if you think they want more than what they're given as far as connection display is concerned.
I don't believe the names of the game modes are spoilers; I've seen them published about all over. I can see spoiling the description of the last one, though, maybe.
I watched a few gameplay vids last night, and while it looked great, I was left with this strange desire to go watch Star Trek 2: The Wraith of Kahn...
What I'm really interested in is what kind of gameplay there is for created characters. If you get a second and can shed some light on that it'd be greatly appreciated.
Sure. There's actually two modes, it's actually really quite deep and a lot more interesting than I thought it would be.
First is create a character from scratch: If you don't want to know about this, don't read the spoiler
From scratch you can choose your character's weapon style based on a few archetypes. Big axe, big sword, etc. (I didn't see lightsaber on there unfortunately). You can really customize your character through size, colour, armor type (From what I can tell, different armor types makes your movement and maybe your attacks slower but you take more or less damage depending on your armor weight). You can also choose alignment to be good or evil (Maybe neutral was in there too, I forget).
I didn't play around too much with this mode because I wanted to start kicking ass with Vader right away, but the interesting thing about it is that your character had 3 basic 'stats:'
Attack, Defense, and HP.
Different gear gives you higher or lower stats in these three categories, but what really throws in a twist is that gear also comes with 5 sub-set 'skill slots' in things like 'power, boost, skill' and things like that. This sounds confusing, but at the end of character creation, you can choose secondary skills for your character. Things like 'life drain' or 'Ringout avoidance A, B or C).' Life drain is obvious, but things like ringout avoidance actually gives you a small chance to avoid being ringout'd automaticaly, and the higher the level of ringout avoidance, the higher that percentage is. There are other things like skills that give you a chance to make your next, high damage attack guard break, and things like life shave that do small bits of damage even through guard.
The trick here is that they take skill slots, so something like Life Shave A might take 100 power skill slots and 40 boost skill slots (just made those numbers up), the gear you equip will raise your max number of skill slots. So sure, helmet A might give you +15 hit points, but Helmet B gives you 50 skill points which you can use to get Life Steal.
The other way you can use create a character is to...
Edit current characters and make different copies of your characters. You get like 10 versions (will 8 minus the standard 1p character model and 2p character model) of each character which can be customized in different ways. I can't stress the awesomeness of this. There are game modes that allow you to pick a second character and you can fight like 'tag team style.' The trick is, you might not know what works against your enemy when you start the fight. So pick Darth Vader C who does a lot of damage, and has a good knockback, but maybe isn't anything special at guard breaks and tag him up with Darth Vader D (or Asteroth if you want), who might have no knockback, but a wicked guard break.
It's awesome for characters like asteroth who has some weapons with insane reach but lower damage, you don't have to reload his weapons if you don't like how it's working for you, just make another asteroth copy with a different weapon loadout and play with him, and if for some reason you want to switch back to the other one, you're free to do so at character selection. It also keeps the standard 1p and 2p costume/loadouts that the game comes standard with.
And to answer Aoi about that last game mode:
The Tower of Lost souls
is interesting. Basically there's a tower and you can choose to ascend or descend the tower. Each floor of the tower has different 'rules.' So ascending from floor 1 to floor 2 might allow you to take two characters with you, each one can only die once, I think you can tag team in your partner if you're running low (at least the enemy can, I haven't figure out how to do it myself, but I'll check out the manual when I get home). You're often up against 3 enemies or more, sometimes 5 or 6 enemies against your little two guys.
This is where having different character loadouts (that I mentioned above) is important, because it can allow you to bring along two different versions of the same character who might be better at different things, or if you choose, to bring along two completely different characters. Some levels allow you to bring 3 characters. Once one of your guys is defeated, he's gone, and your hp carry over from battle to battle.
There are also secret objectives per floor, and if you complete them you win an item. I think there are clues about these objectives (they're things like, throw an enemy, or ring out an enemy), but I haven't figured them out yet.
And Houn, you're probably right, the game modes might not be spoilers, but better safe than sorry I guess.
I haven't actually played a Soul Calibur since 2, and seeing the Create a Soul mode, and some of the actual game modes is making me rather excited. Can't wait to be getting this.
So far this game is just as accessible as the other Soul Calibur games. It was one of the things I really liked about the series. It had its fair share of hairpulling frustration, but I didn't feel like I had to study for weeks to be able to play the game, at least against the CPU. It was one of the things I didn't like about the latest virtua fighter games, they are too complicated by design, and if you don't take the time to learn the ins and outs of a character, you couldn't expect to do anything with him. But in SC, the game can be as simple or complicated as you want. You can button mash your way through the story mode on normal difficulty, or learn the ins and outs of a character and really become amazing at it, and kick some ass on hard.
I do have some bad news about Asteroth though (spoiler doesn't involve story elements, just a move change):
They took out 'The Rack' back-throw and replaced it with something pretty cool in its own right...but it's just not the same.
I haven't actually played a Soul Calibur since 2, and seeing the Create a Soul mode, and some of the actual game modes is making me rather excited. Can't wait to be getting this.
I feel the exact same way.
The biggest let down for me so far seems to be online. How damn hard would it be to make a lobby system like DOA? A couple of friends plan on getting this game and it would be nice if we could all play this together.
So how much actual clothing and equipment do you get in the create a fighter mode? Do you gain more from playing? Again, never played 3, so I'm very curious about the whole process.
So how much actual clothing and equipment do you get in the create a fighter mode? Do you gain more from playing? Again, never played 3, so I'm very curious about the whole process.
Well, there's like 15 different sections (arms, masks, helms, shoulders, boots, etc). Each one usually has 2-4 different selections to start with. Some you buy with SC money, which you get from playing the game. Create a fighter is where you go to spend SC money to unlock some characters too (this isn't a spoiler, when you go to character selection, it tells you 'go to create-a-soul to unlock this character'. Some you get awarded when you do certain things in different game modes. You can also customize the colours of each piece.
As for Darth Vader:
No Hello Kitty Vader for you, it seems his look can't be edited at all.
Basically, there seem to be a whole lot of options for customization. It's not as deep as like...wrestling game's create a wrestler. I don't think you can make Ronald McDonald swinging a giant axe (although maybe I'll try tonight), but you can make some pretty cool characters.
I'll also go on record as saying that that one anime character with the nipple spikes looks lame as hell.
In SC3, I unlocked most of it by playing through the Chronicles of the Sword mode (sort of a hybrid RTS/Fighter, was fun), and using the cash earned from that to buy parts from the shops. I don't think I unlocked EVERYTHING (I threw it in last night, and unlocked a few new parts, lol), but there was a very large assortment of pieces.
If you search around youtube, you can find lots of people showing off their characters. I'm fond of this one:
I haven't actually played a Soul Calibur since 2, and seeing the Create a Soul mode, and some of the actual game modes is making me rather excited. Can't wait to be getting this.
I feel the exact same way.
The biggest let down for me so far seems to be online. How damn hard would it be to make a lobby system like DOA? A couple of friends plan on getting this game and it would be nice if we could all play this together.
Maybe you guys think DOA got the lobby system right, but Virtua Fighter, Tekken, and Soul Calibur are infinitely more playable online.
Perhaps it's because there's no lobby sucking up all the resources and lagging the game like crazy.
Am I the only one that is not at all excited to play a fighting game online? In my little world I would rather play side by side with someone arcade style or by myself. I can't seem to muster any enthusiasm for playing with people somewhere else.
Am I the only one that is not at all excited to play a fighting game online? In my little world I would rather play side by side with someone arcade style or by myself. I can't seem to muster any enthusiasm for playing with people somewhere else.
I have no interest in it either. Just like I have no interest in playing an arcade game in an arcade against someone I don't know.
I haven't actually played a Soul Calibur since 2, and seeing the Create a Soul mode, and some of the actual game modes is making me rather excited. Can't wait to be getting this.
I feel the exact same way.
The biggest let down for me so far seems to be online. How damn hard would it be to make a lobby system like DOA? A couple of friends plan on getting this game and it would be nice if we could all play this together.
Maybe you guys think DOA got the lobby system right, but Virtua Fighter, Tekken, and Soul Calibur are infinitely more playable online.
Perhaps it's because there's no lobby sucking up all the resources and lagging the game like crazy.
SF2HDRemix pulls off the lobby system just fine, with terribly little noticeable lag.
Also, I'm with Page that fighting games need to be balanced. You know why people can still play Street Fighter 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves over ten years after release? Because the games are balanced, and matches can still play out in new and interesting ways. The reason no one plays, for example, Dead Or Alive 3 any more is because it wasn't balanced. Same for DOA4 and a whole lot of other fighting games. But it's the hardcore crowd, the one that appreciates game balance, that will keep buying titles long after release dates and keep hype going about them for no real cost to the developer or publisher.
Game balance in a game where people compete against each other is one of the most important things a game like that can have. No one cares if there's broken equipment or whatever in an RPG, because it's supposed to be like that, but if there's a dominant character in a fighting game then the devs have essentially ruined their own game.
So is whichever Star Wars character that's "exclusive" to a system actually unlockable in the other system, or is that just rampant wishful thinking?
Well, I haven't unlocked everything yet (not even close), but as far as I know, the ps3 version just has Vader, and I think his secret apprentice is unlockable too (don't have him yet). Don't think yoda's going to come, unless it's as a pay-for download some time in the future.
I will say this though, they did a wicked job with vader. He's probably overpowered, but he's really fun to play, and I hope that the guys who made SC4 take it into their heads to make an entire game with star wars characters.
I haven't actually played a Soul Calibur since 2, and seeing the Create a Soul mode, and some of the actual game modes is making me rather excited. Can't wait to be getting this.
I feel the exact same way.
The biggest let down for me so far seems to be online. How damn hard would it be to make a lobby system like DOA? A couple of friends plan on getting this game and it would be nice if we could all play this together.
Maybe you guys think DOA got the lobby system right, but Virtua Fighter, Tekken, and Soul Calibur are infinitely more playable online.
Perhaps it's because there's no lobby sucking up all the resources and lagging the game like crazy.
SF2HDRemix pulls off the lobby system just fine, with terribly little noticeable lag.
Also, I'm with Page that fighting games need to be balanced. You know why people can still play Street Fighter 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves over ten years after release? Because the games are balanced, and matches can still play out in new and interesting ways. The reason no one plays, for example, Dead Or Alive 3 any more is because it wasn't balanced. Same for DOA4 and a whole lot of other fighting games. But it's the hardcore crowd, the one that appreciates game balance, that will keep buying titles long after release dates and keep hype going about them for no real cost to the developer or publisher.
Game balance in a game where people compete against each other is one of the most important things a game like that can have. No one cares if there's broken equipment or whatever in an RPG, because it's supposed to be like that, but if there's a dominant character in a fighting game then the devs have essentially ruined their own game.
I don't think you understand that no one is arguing that balance is bad, that's not even directly what Page was arguing. We were arguing how having online play will affect balance. Did any other online fighter get balancing patches that adhered strictly to how the online portion played?
I haven't actually played a Soul Calibur since 2, and seeing the Create a Soul mode, and some of the actual game modes is making me rather excited. Can't wait to be getting this.
I feel the exact same way.
The biggest let down for me so far seems to be online. How damn hard would it be to make a lobby system like DOA? A couple of friends plan on getting this game and it would be nice if we could all play this together.
Maybe you guys think DOA got the lobby system right, but Virtua Fighter, Tekken, and Soul Calibur are infinitely more playable online.
Perhaps it's because there's no lobby sucking up all the resources and lagging the game like crazy.
SF2HDRemix pulls off the lobby system just fine, with terribly little noticeable lag.
Also, I'm with Page that fighting games need to be balanced. You know why people can still play Street Fighter 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves over ten years after release? Because the games are balanced, and matches can still play out in new and interesting ways. The reason no one plays, for example, Dead Or Alive 3 any more is because it wasn't balanced. Same for DOA4 and a whole lot of other fighting games. But it's the hardcore crowd, the one that appreciates game balance, that will keep buying titles long after release dates and keep hype going about them for no real cost to the developer or publisher.
Game balance in a game where people compete against each other is one of the most important things a game like that can have. No one cares if there's broken equipment or whatever in an RPG, because it's supposed to be like that, but if there's a dominant character in a fighting game then the devs have essentially ruined their own game.
I don't think you understand that no one is arguing that balance is bad, that's not even directly what Page was arguing. We were arguing how having online play will affect balance. Did any other online fighter get balancing patches that adhered strictly to how the online portion played?
The other problem with patching to balance a fighting game is that what is considered imbalanced changes rapidly for weeks, if not months, after a game's release. At least for the competetive crowd.
For the other 90% of the people who play the game, every character I use and every move I employ is hideously broken and should be banned.
I haven't actually played a Soul Calibur since 2, and seeing the Create a Soul mode, and some of the actual game modes is making me rather excited. Can't wait to be getting this.
I feel the exact same way.
The biggest let down for me so far seems to be online. How damn hard would it be to make a lobby system like DOA? A couple of friends plan on getting this game and it would be nice if we could all play this together.
Maybe you guys think DOA got the lobby system right, but Virtua Fighter, Tekken, and Soul Calibur are infinitely more playable online.
Perhaps it's because there's no lobby sucking up all the resources and lagging the game like crazy.
SF2HDRemix pulls off the lobby system just fine, with terribly little noticeable lag.
Also, I'm with Page that fighting games need to be balanced. You know why people can still play Street Fighter 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves over ten years after release? Because the games are balanced, and matches can still play out in new and interesting ways. The reason no one plays, for example, Dead Or Alive 3 any more is because it wasn't balanced. Same for DOA4 and a whole lot of other fighting games. But it's the hardcore crowd, the one that appreciates game balance, that will keep buying titles long after release dates and keep hype going about them for no real cost to the developer or publisher.
Game balance in a game where people compete against each other is one of the most important things a game like that can have. No one cares if there's broken equipment or whatever in an RPG, because it's supposed to be like that, but if there's a dominant character in a fighting game then the devs have essentially ruined their own game.
I don't think you understand that no one is arguing that balance is bad, that's not even directly what Page was arguing. We were arguing how having online play will affect balance. Did any other online fighter get balancing patches that adhered strictly to how the online portion played?
The other problem with patching to balance a fighting game is that what is considered imbalanced changes rapidly for weeks, if not months, after a game's release. At least for the competetive crowd.
For the other 90% of the people who play the game, every character I use and every move I employ is hideously broken and should be banned.
I haven't actually played a Soul Calibur since 2, and seeing the Create a Soul mode, and some of the actual game modes is making me rather excited. Can't wait to be getting this.
I feel the exact same way.
The biggest let down for me so far seems to be online. How damn hard would it be to make a lobby system like DOA? A couple of friends plan on getting this game and it would be nice if we could all play this together.
Maybe you guys think DOA got the lobby system right, but Virtua Fighter, Tekken, and Soul Calibur are infinitely more playable online.
Perhaps it's because there's no lobby sucking up all the resources and lagging the game like crazy.
SF2HDRemix pulls off the lobby system just fine, with terribly little noticeable lag.
Also, I'm with Page that fighting games need to be balanced. You know why people can still play Street Fighter 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves over ten years after release? Because the games are balanced, and matches can still play out in new and interesting ways. The reason no one plays, for example, Dead Or Alive 3 any more is because it wasn't balanced. Same for DOA4 and a whole lot of other fighting games. But it's the hardcore crowd, the one that appreciates game balance, that will keep buying titles long after release dates and keep hype going about them for no real cost to the developer or publisher.
Game balance in a game where people compete against each other is one of the most important things a game like that can have. No one cares if there's broken equipment or whatever in an RPG, because it's supposed to be like that, but if there's a dominant character in a fighting game then the devs have essentially ruined their own game.
I don't think you understand that no one is arguing that balance is bad, that's not even directly what Page was arguing. We were arguing how having online play will affect balance. Did any other online fighter get balancing patches that adhered strictly to how the online portion played?
The other problem with patching to balance a fighting game is that what is considered imbalanced changes rapidly for weeks, if not months, after a game's release. At least for the competetive crowd.
For the other 90% of the people who play the game, every character I use and every move I employ is hideously broken and should be banned.
Especially Voldo.
And Ivy.
And Astaroth.
And in which new-fangled way do you think people will communicate their complaints to Namco?
Am I the only one that is not at all excited to play a fighting game online? In my little world I would rather play side by side with someone arcade style or by myself. I can't seem to muster any enthusiasm for playing with people somewhere else.
Unfortunately, those of us who don't have that luxury are looking forward to playing with others in the main way we can. I mean it's not like they're not offering the same side by side mode as well, but those of us with friends who just don't care also have the ability to jump online and play with forum "friends", too.
Oh god Ivy. Hated Ivy because of her damn near never-ending "I-hit-you-while-down-so-you-don't-get-up" combos.
I miss Mitsurugi's rising strikes from SC2. SO damn useful for plain ruining shit like that.
Vader can FORCE pick you up from the ground, toss you in the air, and blast you doing about 1/3 of your life bar when you're on the ground. Oh yeah, and since you end up back on the ground in that case anyways, he can do it to you again!
Oh god Ivy. Hated Ivy because of her damn near never-ending "I-hit-you-while-down-so-you-don't-get-up" combos.
I miss Mitsurugi's rising strikes from SC2. SO damn useful for plain ruining shit like that.
Vader can FORCE pick you up from the ground, toss you in the air, and blast you doing about 1/3 of your life bar when you're on the ground. Oh yeah, and since you end up back on the ground in that case anyways, he can do it to you again!
Vader isn't that good thus far.
Seems cheap and powerful at first glance, but his slow speed kills him in the end.
So par for the course for their weird guest characters, eh? It's odd, but with 2, Spawn was actually the least broken character, wasn't he? And even he was a bit silly in how broken he was in comparison to base characters.
So par for the course for their weird guest characters, eh? It's odd, but with 2, Spawn was actually the least broken character, wasn't he? And even he was a bit silly in how broken he was in comparison to base characters.
Link was hilarious. But a good Talim or Sophitia would wreck his shit every time.
I'm no expert player, and I'll likely never play really competitively online, or even against many friends, so I can't really judge how powerful Vader is overall. But to me, he seems pretty damn strong, he juggles you alot and can pick you up from the ground (even if you're rolling it seems) which throw transitions directly into another juggle. So yeah, basically his moves are generally pretty cheap, and do a lot of damage. But his range is limited, and don't seem to have very high priority.
So par for the course for their weird guest characters, eh? It's odd, but with 2, Spawn was actually the least broken character, wasn't he? And even he was a bit silly in how broken he was in comparison to base characters.
Link was hilarious. But a good Talim or Sophitia would wreck his shit every time.
So par for the course for their weird guest characters, eh? It's odd, but with 2, Spawn was actually the least broken character, wasn't he? And even he was a bit silly in how broken he was in comparison to base characters.
Link was hilarious. But a good Talim or Sophitia would wreck his shit every time.
He had just retardedly broken throws, didn't he?
No. The throws were just icing on the bomb/bow cake.
EDIT: I would have said the bomb/bow/boomerang trifecta, but the boomerang is USELESS.
So par for the course for their weird guest characters, eh? It's odd, but with 2, Spawn was actually the least broken character, wasn't he? And even he was a bit silly in how broken he was in comparison to base characters.
Link was hilarious. But a good Talim or Sophitia would wreck his shit every time.
He had just retardedly broken throws, didn't he?
No. The throws were just icing on the bomb/bow cake.
Link was absolutely the weakest character in Soul Calibur II.
His items were just gimmicks which were easily blocked/avoided. The only good move in his arsenal was his A throw, and any non-retard would just break any Link throw with A.
I rather liked Heihachi and Necird in SC2, both were good fun. At this point, I'm looking forward to the Star Wars characters for the novelty alone; if it's good for a chuckle, I'm all for it.
I enjoyed Necrid. I remember getting pretty good with him. Didn't like Heihachi though. I'm sure he was good, but I would rather have had a guest character with weapons in my weapon fighting game.
Posts
Ahhh, two things that are kinda bleh about SC4's online (and I'm only going from reviews). It dumps you to the matchup screen when you finish a match, and is only 1 on 1. For all the complaints people have about DoA, how is it the online online fighter yet this generation to actually get the online setup damned near completely right?
That being said, I already have my 360 stick, and this shall be mine.
Story mode:
It's also handled in an interesting way, wherein occasionally once you defeat your opponent another one will jump in and you'll have to fight him. None of that 'round one, FIGHT' 'round two, FIGHT!' stuff.
Arcade mode:
There's also a game mode called:
Can we get a description of that last game mode, please?
And as for the green bar/more detailed information debate. I really to think you're putting your opinions too highly in there, Page-. While it would be nice, yeah, the majority of gamers would want nothing to do with it, and in all liklihood, would end up completely confused by the numbers. Green = Good, Red = Bad is about the right speed for the general public. More is nice? Sure. But you're highly overestimating the general gaming public if you think they want more than what they're given as far as connection display is concerned.
I watched a few gameplay vids last night, and while it looked great, I was left with this strange desire to go watch Star Trek 2: The Wraith of Kahn...
Sure. There's actually two modes, it's actually really quite deep and a lot more interesting than I thought it would be.
First is create a character from scratch: If you don't want to know about this, don't read the spoiler
I didn't play around too much with this mode because I wanted to start kicking ass with Vader right away, but the interesting thing about it is that your character had 3 basic 'stats:'
Attack, Defense, and HP.
Different gear gives you higher or lower stats in these three categories, but what really throws in a twist is that gear also comes with 5 sub-set 'skill slots' in things like 'power, boost, skill' and things like that. This sounds confusing, but at the end of character creation, you can choose secondary skills for your character. Things like 'life drain' or 'Ringout avoidance A, B or C).' Life drain is obvious, but things like ringout avoidance actually gives you a small chance to avoid being ringout'd automaticaly, and the higher the level of ringout avoidance, the higher that percentage is. There are other things like skills that give you a chance to make your next, high damage attack guard break, and things like life shave that do small bits of damage even through guard.
The trick here is that they take skill slots, so something like Life Shave A might take 100 power skill slots and 40 boost skill slots (just made those numbers up), the gear you equip will raise your max number of skill slots. So sure, helmet A might give you +15 hit points, but Helmet B gives you 50 skill points which you can use to get Life Steal.
The other way you can use create a character is to...
It's awesome for characters like asteroth who has some weapons with insane reach but lower damage, you don't have to reload his weapons if you don't like how it's working for you, just make another asteroth copy with a different weapon loadout and play with him, and if for some reason you want to switch back to the other one, you're free to do so at character selection. It also keeps the standard 1p and 2p costume/loadouts that the game comes standard with.
And to answer Aoi about that last game mode:
This is where having different character loadouts (that I mentioned above) is important, because it can allow you to bring along two different versions of the same character who might be better at different things, or if you choose, to bring along two completely different characters. Some levels allow you to bring 3 characters. Once one of your guys is defeated, he's gone, and your hp carry over from battle to battle.
There are also secret objectives per floor, and if you complete them you win an item. I think there are clues about these objectives (they're things like, throw an enemy, or ring out an enemy), but I haven't figured them out yet.
And Houn, you're probably right, the game modes might not be spoilers, but better safe than sorry I guess.
http://i36.tinypic.com/2uhp8hv.jpg
*edit*
LOL. That's awesome.
So far this game is just as accessible as the other Soul Calibur games. It was one of the things I really liked about the series. It had its fair share of hairpulling frustration, but I didn't feel like I had to study for weeks to be able to play the game, at least against the CPU. It was one of the things I didn't like about the latest virtua fighter games, they are too complicated by design, and if you don't take the time to learn the ins and outs of a character, you couldn't expect to do anything with him. But in SC, the game can be as simple or complicated as you want. You can button mash your way through the story mode on normal difficulty, or learn the ins and outs of a character and really become amazing at it, and kick some ass on hard.
I do have some bad news about Asteroth though (spoiler doesn't involve story elements, just a move change):
That's still around, and it's insane. Last night it made this all pink dude with the weirdest facial expression.
I feel the exact same way.
The biggest let down for me so far seems to be online. How damn hard would it be to make a lobby system like DOA? A couple of friends plan on getting this game and it would be nice if we could all play this together.
As for Darth Vader:
Basically, there seem to be a whole lot of options for customization. It's not as deep as like...wrestling game's create a wrestler. I don't think you can make Ronald McDonald swinging a giant axe (although maybe I'll try tonight), but you can make some pretty cool characters.
I'll also go on record as saying that that one anime character with the nipple spikes looks lame as hell.
If you search around youtube, you can find lots of people showing off their characters. I'm fond of this one:
Maybe you guys think DOA got the lobby system right, but Virtua Fighter, Tekken, and Soul Calibur are infinitely more playable online.
Perhaps it's because there's no lobby sucking up all the resources and lagging the game like crazy.
I have no interest in it either. Just like I have no interest in playing an arcade game in an arcade against someone I don't know.
SF2HDRemix pulls off the lobby system just fine, with terribly little noticeable lag.
Also, I'm with Page that fighting games need to be balanced. You know why people can still play Street Fighter 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves over ten years after release? Because the games are balanced, and matches can still play out in new and interesting ways. The reason no one plays, for example, Dead Or Alive 3 any more is because it wasn't balanced. Same for DOA4 and a whole lot of other fighting games. But it's the hardcore crowd, the one that appreciates game balance, that will keep buying titles long after release dates and keep hype going about them for no real cost to the developer or publisher.
Game balance in a game where people compete against each other is one of the most important things a game like that can have. No one cares if there's broken equipment or whatever in an RPG, because it's supposed to be like that, but if there's a dominant character in a fighting game then the devs have essentially ruined their own game.
I will say this though, they did a wicked job with vader. He's probably overpowered, but he's really fun to play, and I hope that the guys who made SC4 take it into their heads to make an entire game with star wars characters.
I don't think you understand that no one is arguing that balance is bad, that's not even directly what Page was arguing. We were arguing how having online play will affect balance. Did any other online fighter get balancing patches that adhered strictly to how the online portion played?
The other problem with patching to balance a fighting game is that what is considered imbalanced changes rapidly for weeks, if not months, after a game's release. At least for the competetive crowd.
For the other 90% of the people who play the game, every character I use and every move I employ is hideously broken and should be banned.
Especially Voldo.
And Ivy.
And Astaroth.
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You won't like vader...
And in which new-fangled way do you think people will communicate their complaints to Namco?
Unfortunately, those of us who don't have that luxury are looking forward to playing with others in the main way we can. I mean it's not like they're not offering the same side by side mode as well, but those of us with friends who just don't care also have the ability to jump online and play with forum "friends", too.
Oh god Ivy. Hated Ivy because of her damn near never-ending "I-hit-you-while-down-so-you-don't-get-up" combos.
I miss Mitsurugi's rising strikes from SC2. SO damn useful for plain ruining shit like that.
Vader can FORCE pick you up from the ground, toss you in the air, and blast you doing about 1/3 of your life bar when you're on the ground. Oh yeah, and since you end up back on the ground in that case anyways, he can do it to you again!
Vader isn't that good thus far.
Seems cheap and powerful at first glance, but his slow speed kills him in the end.
Link was hilarious. But a good Talim or Sophitia would wreck his shit every time.
He had just retardedly broken throws, didn't he?
No. The throws were just icing on the bomb/bow cake.
EDIT: I would have said the bomb/bow/boomerang trifecta, but the boomerang is USELESS.
Link was absolutely the weakest character in Soul Calibur II.
His items were just gimmicks which were easily blocked/avoided. The only good move in his arsenal was his A throw, and any non-retard would just break any Link throw with A.
And then once he got you off balance, a well placed throw would put you on the ground for optimum bombing.