Darth Vader also on the X360 version!

[ZenfoldorVGI]

naznatips said:

GlingGling said:

I guess that's the difference. I always play with friends. I don't get the same enjoyment out of beating on random people. Also, I wouldn't put too much stock into online rankings (a bunch of people you don't know). Friends and tournements are where it matters most.

Fair enough.  I agree that playing with friends is best.  It still bothers me to see a fighter ignore balance for the sake of a side-character who never really belonged in the first place, but I probably was being a little too harsh on it.

 

I'll throw in my 2 cents here.

Online mode is only included in any fighting game to appease the casual-medium gamer. No online mode in any fighting game is, or ever will be truely competitive. Online inherantly introduces loss of frames, even if that loss is only 4 or 6ms, it is still frame loss and unpredictability, so there will always be a requisite amount of guess work involved. In reality, most of the time, people who don't have T1 lines are running between 30 and 100 ms latency.

However, gamers have this ideal that the "future is online" and a novel online mode can often increase scores and opinions of a game. It revolves around the "well at least we have the option" mindset.

True fighting games, however, are only ever really competitive local 1v1, with the same players in the same room, where it is completely valid to exclude gimmick characters, like Yoda, and Vadar.

Now, being a SC vet, let me speak for a moment on the balance of the game outside of Yoda. The game is more balanced now than ever before. The most interesting tweek comes from the lack of spammable moves from Kilik and a few more universally overpowered characters from previous installments. So, to be fair, outside of the "gimmick" characters, this game is the most balanced version of Soulcalibur ever, with a huge roster, and the best graphics.

Your assertion that actually adding Yoda to the game completely ruins it, while your valid opinion, is two things.

A. Off topic

B. A harsh generalization, imo

If you're judging this game based off past itterations, a few things poke out. First, no past itteration of the game has ever had online, so even a lacking imbalanced online mode is better than nothing. See Brawl, for instance. It at least serves the purpose of upholding the ideals of the modern hardly-core gamer, and quitens critics who claim the series has fallen behind the times because it doesnt' have a useless online mode like every other fighter.

So, the true meat of this game comes in the offline standard verses mode,( in which you can exclude characters, such as Yoda) the enhanced gameplay in that mode, and the create a character option. All of these things are excellently done. As I've said, the game has taken significant steps to balance itself around its core fighters, and it has achieved greater balance than ever before, imho, but we won't truely know this for another 6 months to a year.

 

Yoda and Vadar were marketing decisions. They help the game appeal to a wider audience, sell more copies, appeal to casual fighting game fans(which has always been the core market for the SC franchise anyway) and allow for a little humor and freshness to a franchise that got it so right the first time, its gameplay has been forced to give way to minor changes rather than major ones. Afterall, the more it sells, the larger chance we'll see more games from its developer, and better quality games(SCIV is a quality game in almost every respect, imo).

Frankly, and don't take this as combatative, I found your first post to be a little insulting, simply due to the fact that you implied that adding unnecessary but interesting augments to an item in order to appeal to a casual audience, ruined said item. One could, of course, draw parallels to the Wii.

 

I do think you were being harsh at first, and I'm glad you came out and said that. I've been enjoying the game for 2 days now and so far it is my favorite next gen fighter, besides Brawl. I've even enjoyed playing as Yoda a few times, and the Star Wars music was definitely welcome. If I let every small or irrelivant mistake a developer made(Yoda balance issue), make me generalize, marginalize, and outspokenly degrade a game, I wouldn't have many friends on this site, nor would I actually buy or enjoy many games.

In the past year I've bought about 40 games. To be honest, I'd say 90 percent of them were worse than Soulcalibur IV. The game is just fun.

 

Now, as for Brawl, the characters do have balance issues with their final smashes, and due to the fact that a lot of the frenzied action involves the environment, individual character smashes take a less important roll. So, playing without Final Smashes makes Brawl the most balanced fighting game ever created considering the size of the roster. Playing with them, it's about SCIV level balanced, assuming you and your friends make Yoda an illegal character. ;D

 

This is all just my opinion, remember that.