I’m no big fan of the Soul Calibur series, but my roommate is so I’m somewhat familiar with the games. Despite not caring much for the series, I’m bothered by something I’ve noticed after seeing what the latest entry, Soul Calibur IV, has to offer. I’m also bothered by how the major video game reviewers made no mention of this issue which I would think many people would be upset about.
The character creator of Soul Calibur III was pretty cool. I can recall making a kick-based fighter since I personally know (or knew) Taekwondo. There were other styles of fighting that didn’t pertain to the standard characters, pre-designd for the game. There was also a campaign mode where you would send out your custom characters to accomplish objectives across a map. It wasn’t all that deep, but it wasn’t anywhere as shallow and soulless as what Soul Calibur IV offers.
Basically, SC4 does away with the extra fighting styles and campaign mode to “make room” for finishing moves and a tower where you complete battle after battle. The finishing moves require several conditions to be met before they can be executed, and rightfully so, but they’re so rare that there’s no real point to them, especially when you consider how much was taken out from the last game. As for the tower, there’s just nothing tying it all together. It’s just battle after battle. For a game called Soul Calibur, it’s a pretty soulless presentation.
Apparently in place of the missing fighting styles (like the kick-based greave user), you can now customize the pre-designed characters. The equipment does go beyond just appearance by offering actual stat changes, but this absense of fighting styles and more in-depth modes just makes no sense to me. How is it that Namco Bandai got away with releasing a sequel that is lacking so much in content compared to the game before it? I know why.
Game reviewers made no mention of this lack of content.
Go check out IGN, Gamespot, 1Up, GameTrailers, other various websites with “Game” in the title I’m sure. It’s almost as if the people who reviewed SC4 didn’t play SC3, which isn’t true with at least one of the sites mentioned above. I really just don’t understand how anyone who gets paid to write about video games can overlook this issue as something that wouldn’t concern players as being fundamentally wrong.
It just makes no sense. :S
[side note: Why isn't Jedi a custom character class!?]
