New SOULCALIBUR Title at E3? *EDIT: Hah! Nope

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The rumor mills are spinning! With the Facebook Popularity Poll ending last week, people have been wondering if Namco was about to unveil a new SOULCALIBUR title this year at E3. After all, Lost Swords is over a year old now, and was single player only. A new mothership SOULCALIBUR title tends to come out every 3-4 years, so now would be the time to get this party started.

While E3 opens to the public on Tuesday, the event actually begins for the press on Sunday. With the Microsoft keynote airing on Monday morning, and Sony during the evening, we could know the details within the next few days. So be sure to stick to 8WAYRUN to hear the news; as we will try our best to keep you all updated with the relevant information.

In the meantime, lets talk. What do you want out of a new SOULCALIBUR game? What are your expectations? New characters? Guest Characters? A complete reboot to bring back the older characters?

Personally, with Talim winning the popularity poll; I expect her to be in the next title. Hell, the biggest reason I stopped playing SOULCALIBUR was because Talim wasn't in the recent game. Talim is the reason I play fighting games at all. muh talim @BrewtusBibulus and @NeoOutlaw used to come over to my place and play SOULCALIBUR on the Dreamcast; and I was just never into it. It wasn't until Talim in SOULCALIBUR II where I actually got into fighting games.
 
Jason Axelrod

Jason Axelrod

Owner and Operator of 8WAYRUN
f5.jpg
 
What I would like, in order of importance:

1. Full story,
2. NO. MIMICS. Or at least no more than one BUT with exclusive fighting style (aka "not a personified random button"),
3. Complete movesets,
4. Iconic characters (new ones ok, but not "successors" with a copy/paste movelist),
5. More CAS options (sliders, parts, P1/P2 costumes, voices, CAS-only styles... and not a FAILED malfested tone),
6. Less DLC (and NO disc-locked content),
7. ABSOLUTELY NO KITTENING BOOBIES-ECCHI FAN SERVICE!!!

Console gaming is getting more and more pathetic as years go by, so I fear we might get disappointed with our wish lists. Let's just hope the game will be complete (not only story-wise, but also QOL contents like choosing your weapon before a fight for example).

EDIT: Oh and also no "random facts to excuse the bad ideas"! No, Setsuka didn't 'by chance' teach her style to Pattycake. No, some people don't randomly age and others don't. No, Graf Dumas/Nightmare isn't randomly using Raphael's mesh and VA. We want ANSWERS: where is Amy? Is she Viola? And all these questions copied from the wiki:

  • Did Pyrrha actually kill Z.W.E.I. in Episode 18?
  • In Episode 12, Z.W.E.I. destroyed Patroklos' shield. If he were to come back in a possible new installment, would Patroklos be using a sword and shield or an iai sword?
  • How did Xiba become the new owner of the Kali-Yuga?
  • When she was supposed to have an important role in Story mode, why did Viola appear only three times?
  • Did Night-Terror manage to break free from Astral Chaos after Pyrrha opened several cracks in Episode 18?
  • How come Natsu begins to use Taki's Mekki-Maru in Episode 15?
  • Where are Taki and Amy?
  • How did Cassandra happen to be stuck in another dimension?
  • Will Pyrrha keep her malfested arm or will she get her normal arm back in a possible next game?
  • What happened to Soul Edge and Soul Calibur? Were they sealed, destroyed or did they become another Soul Embrace? Where are the swords, after Episode 20?
  • When Z.W.E.I. killed Graf Dumas, what happened to Nightmare's body? Will Inferno reclaim it in a possible new installment?
(Enven if some questions are stupid/useless/hopefully not happening like a SCVI following SCV, these are just examples of questioning that shouldn't happen during a game)
 
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As everyone are posting their wishlists here (just to be broken by reality), i'm gonna join the party with my "what is this thing you call budget?" list.
----------------------------------------------Battle System and such -----------------------------

I like how it is in SC5 – keep it (meter, Critical Edge, Brave Edge, combos), just return some of missing moves for characters that lost them.

----------------------------------------------CHARACTERS---------------------------------------

Keep all chars from SCV and add:

1(a must): Zasalamel, Talim, Yun-Seong/Hwang

2(preferred ones): Shura(with unique moveset using two nodachi), Charade (with mix of wave-sword and leg-swords moveset)

3(just a good addition): Taki (with LostSwords moveset adapted for decent game), Setsuka, Sophitia, Cassandra(with one sword, without shield), Kilik(with actual moveset), Seong-Mina, Rock etc

If you need explanation for their existing on character select screen, then just add flashback moments in story or make them some sort of “bonus” for leveling or whatever.

New characters: some Kusarigama(http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121226081734/ninjagaiden/images/6/64/KGNG3.png), Double-sword(examples:http://www.freewebs.com/norstar1/XL1352.jpg and http://previewcf.turbosquid.com/Pre...3200a25-2904-4388-b8d7-8cf1d480d82aLarger.jpg), some non weird claw-user and non-orthodoxal weapons users are appreciated.

----------------------------------------------COSTUMES -----------------------------------------

All chars should have third (and even four) costume (actually usable, unlike SC5 Night, Sieg and Cerv). For SC2-4 chars it could be their old P1 and/or P2 from previous games, for SC5 newcomers it could be their unused concept arts.

Also some characters could have alternate variations (different appearance and/or personality but same moveset, of course placed in same slot, could be selected like costume but by pressing up/down(when character is already selected) and left/right for costumes as it always was) eg: EdgeMaster-Olcadan, Elisyum-Sophitia(both not mimic, using LostSwords moveset adapted for a decent game), Alpha Patroklos-Setsuka, Cervantes-Inferno (it is already in the SC5, but unusable), Astaroth-Rock, Yun Seong-Hwang, Zasalamel-Abyss, Kilik-Seong Mina(using Kilik+SeongMina unique moveset, not Xiba’s monkeyish one), Raphael-Amy, OmegaPyrrha-Pyrrha(Omega's moveset, because there will be Sophitia and she has NormalPyrrha’ish moveset), Siegfrid-Siegfrid!(who rememer SoulEdge?).

There should be difference between CE visual effect (CE itself should have same startup, animation and damage, just little visual difference) for Omega-NormalPyrrha, Siegfrid-Siegfrid! and aPat-Setsuka: Omega have red final blow and Pyrrha white-blue, aPat have white-blue glowing animation on startup and ice bayonets in after-strike and Setsuka have animation of her CriticalFinish from SC4 but with three after-strikes (just slashes, without magic things), Siegfrid have his CE from SCV and Siegfrid! has the same but with flame-pillars.

----------------------------------------------Offline modes ---------------------------------------

1(a must): Tutorial mode – should explain basic mechanics, designations and terminology of the game (maybe even some little combo trial(1-3 simple combos) as one of final lessons for combo-orientated characters); add in Training mode ability to just select one move from movelist for opponent to continuously perform, also for move demonstration add input displaying for understanding of timing(especially for justframes); Arcade mode with Destined Battle, Boss Battle, Secret Boss and Endings for each character (maybe even input and no-input versions for each ending).

2(good addition): Tales of Souls mode with/instead of story mode, Tower mode from SC4, Soul Arena mode alike SC3.

----------------------------------------------Online modes ---------------------------------------

Better Netcode, all rooms available in player match should be showed at-once, in colosseum mode connection with player should be displayed before we challenge him/her.

Also for player match add option to completely off creations, and opposite to make creations-only rooms, ability to add rule 3/5 wins pass, to make someone else in the room the host and spectator mode for host (online-tournament purposes). Also for room searching add option: show both mics and no-mics rooms.

----------------------------------------Versus (both online and offline) --------------------------

Add a team battle mode (like in SC2) with two variants: one player uses multiple characters and opponent as well and Team of players VS Team of players.

----------------------------------------------Character Creation----------------------------------


A) Customisation/creation must not affect character stats and gameplay.

B) All items from SC3, 4, 5, BrokenDestiny and LostSwords and all normal characters' items+ something new.(of course at least 1/3 or even 1/2 of this will be DLC, i have no illusions about this)

C) There should be only two sizes available: recommended and mimic size. (balance purposes)

D) Take all the faces from SC3-5 and divide them on parts giving us the opportunity to choose the eyes, nose, cheekbones and lips separately

E) Facial hair as a separate option (moustache and beard are selected separately)

F) Ability to select mood on our character’s face

G) More voices moods, but their lines should be selected apart of their temper (more lines also). Also some silent option and some nonhuman incomprehensible noises (eg: inferno).

H) We should be able to select separately front hair(can be divided into left/right), back hair and whiskers(can be divided into left/right)

I) Hairstyles should be adjustable: hair length(greatly for most of the hairstyles, slightly for some of them, and very few could not have adjustment for lenght) and for some of them position (eg: ponytail into sidetail or lowtail or anything else, same for twintails, braid, etc) ie flip them as you want

J) Also ability to use two hairstyles at same time eg: bobcut+ponytail, longhair+twintails, twinbuns+frenchbraid etc. Of course you still can use anything on its own.

K) Length of back hairstyles(1 and 2), front hair and whiskers are adjusted separately

L) Solve clipping problem

M)Fix the floaty issues and compatibility problems (there should be a little % of incompatible things)

N) armor customisation consists of: head, ears, hair accessories, additional hair accessories (for tails, braids and such), mask(upper), mask(lower), mask(full), underwear(up), underwear(down), underwear(full)(including body hair, full scarred body etc), mid torso, upper torso, arm, shoulder, neckwear, waist, lower leg, upper leg, shin, socks, foot, special equipment(slot 1, 2, 3).

O) Ability to “unpair”: use different arm equipment for left and right arm (or pair something that is supposed to be on one arm(eg: gladiator’s manic)), same for shoulders and some special equipment. Also for paired special equipment make actual horizontal slider and separation slider.

P) Give us ability to make one arm and/or leg mechanical(like Yoshi’s right arm in creation mode) or demonically deformed (like Nightmare’s arm)

Q) Also add some belts to special equipment category.

R) Give to us ability to see our character in after-armor-break state

S) Give to us ability to select 3 (in addition to unbreakable-by-default) things unbreakable (cannot be special equipment) or make everything breakable (except underwear and socks that are unbreakable by default)

T) Weapon customization: take all the weapons from each game (including ones from SC3 that were for created/special characters only) and divide on parts to select each part separately for us to create our own weapon(for SC3 special weapons Barbarian’s (claymore discipline) weapons parts usable for both Siegfried and Nightmare, Kamikirimusi's weapons for Nightmare, Knight’s lances for Hilde, etc). Example of creation on sword users (Sieg,Night,Mitsu,Pat,etc): head, the hilt, Garda, blade, tip, special equipment (unadjustable, just a charm, pendant and such), ornament (two slots). Also pair weapons should be customized separately (eg: Serv’s swords, Aeon’s axes, sword and shield of Pyrrha, Pat, Sophitia), shield( if represented style have one) also should customizable as much as swords. Z.W.E.I.’s sword also should be customizable and E.I.N. too (just give some equipment to select for this spirit-wolf). And also add some sort of aura option for weapons (not necessary).

U) Also only Soulcalibur and Souledge must be selectable only as full weapons (but still there can be added aura to them) and can’t be recolored (but you still can change weapon’s trial).

V) More weapon trials like smoke, ice, coins, leafs, rainbow, electricity, darkness, light, neon, Double-Trial (Yin-Yang) etc

W)Also why weapon trial can’t be colored black or grey?

X) Pallets for hair

Y) Heterochromia option for eyes

Z) Glowing eyes option (also ability to make only one eye glow)

AA) 8 slots for stickers in total (without any separation on “big ones” and “normal”)

BB) Also adjustment meters should have number values for stickers. And we should be able to correct sticker’s length and width instead of just “size”. Also we should be able to use them on legs, full head (for bald and mummy characters) and on lower parts of clothes.

CC) Separate category – damage. Also 8 slots. It is consists of body-scars and clothing damage. (same rules of plasing as stickers)

DD) 25 symbols for character’s name

EE) Snapshot: Foreground and background should be adjustable. Frame as a separate category from foreground and background. We should be able to select different stage for snapshot. Lighting also should be a separate category. And wind option: select how strong it is and were relatively to the character it blows.

----------------------------------------------Buffs ‘n’ nerfs----------------------------------------

Overall great buff for Z.W.E.I

Buff Raphael and Hilde

Nerf Viola

Nerf Pyrrha’s 236B

And regular rebalance every game has


----------------------------------------------Something else---------------------------------------

Music from the previous games (DLC) at start. Maybe some great arenas from previous games as well. +"X" amount of slots for creation as DLC for those who want this. Give to us option to completely off analog sticks.
As for story, let's make SCV cannon, but it is all were just a hallucination of malfested Sophitia ( because in SCIV she was helping Soul Edge in order to save Phyrra, let's make her new host for Nightmare for twist and diversity sake). Aaand lets make Seig batshit crazy, but "monotone and calm in creepy way" crazy, as SoulCalibur decided to take it all (cleaning of the world) in its own hands.
 
I have to disagree on that one, if you compare the graphics SCV's are superior compared to SCIV's! Don't get me wrong, SCIV's graphics are gorgeous! However SCV's are much better.
The only major improvement i see is the hair animations.
Both are indeed great,but i think SCIV is slightly better overall.Or maybe 'cause i'm still mesmerized by Ivy's SCIV P1 outfit....
 
Wishlists are about as cool as fan fictions.
If you are talking about me: actually I love older games, so I'm wishing the new SC were older... Get it? xD
I mean, we had all these things before, why not again?

Also, to answer
As much as I would love less DLC and just to have more content in the game, it's the year 2015 and video game developers are all about making DLC for more money. We don't get anything in games anymore, sadly.

I would be more prone to pay for DLC if it were enhancement of the game. Disc-locked content and content that should be included are not worth paying for: if it's on the disc, I already own it, and if you ask me to pay to have access to 50% of the chars in a race game, you're just a scam.

I know it's how it works these days, that's why the only DLC I ever bought were for SCV. If a game is released compelte and got DLC as fan service (NOT as a need as it is now), I'd buy some.

For example, I'm playing GW2 atm: no subscription fee, nothing behind a paywall. I could grind in-game money to get what's in the cash shop, BUT as I have access to free updates every other week, I don't mind buying a DLC (fan service, not a need) with real money.

I know, it's an endless debate and I'm slightly getting off-topic, so:

I know my wishlist is stupid, but as long as there's hope...
 
What I like about Team Soul Calibur is that they travel to get their game tested by professional French players and American players, I could be missing a few. But I wish they do that with all the characters instead of the early few.

However, wouldn't it be better if they release a beta/demo online for players to play test? PS4 has a share button to stream I'm not sure about the Xbox One. Players can spend so many hours trying to break the game as best as they could and report to Namco.
 
1) a better tutorial mode that teaches you the mechanics of the game, and the advanced gameplay
2) a clear story mode that links all (or most) characters together. All the characters have to be introduced with their background, motives etc with cut-scenes and all. One of SC's strongest point is the characters, so they should focus on that.
3) faster gameplay
4) return of all the classic characters (even Hwang, Long, etc)
5) a mode like CotS and generally more modes that deals with characters in different view.
6) crafting your own sword & fighting style

That's all I can think of right now.
 
I'd like to see:
- A return to no meter, no supers.
- No just guards. In fact, let's cut back on all the SF3 mechanics Soulcalibur seems to have adopted in the last game.
- Viola, ZWEI, or other new characters with a similar ability to attack while doing other actions.
- CaS. SCVs was beyond satisfactory and I couldn't ask for more, beyond opening up some things that were previously locked behind hex editing, such as custom equipment breakage.
- Delays, cancels and lots of alternate ways to end strings. Some characters could do about 8 different attacks from basic a A or B in SCII, and I'd love to see that return.
- No BS execution based character, less randomly difficult to execute attacks overall.
- Give Raphael his personality back.
- Stances, stances and more stances.
- Oh, and something I'd wish for any fighting game, a good tutorial that teaches new players about the game, not combos.

I do wonder what we'll actually see, but my expectations are quite low to be honest. If we see anything at all at E3, I'll be surprised to be honest.

Wow, its pretty much the exact list as I have, thumbs up.
 
Honestly I don't care about story as much as I used to. Fighting games should center around combat and I hope that's their focus. All that other CaS and Arcade mode are fun and all but they are auxiliary, in my opinion. I know that Arcade mode is essentially a staple or in every fighting game, but then why have a story mode too? If thy have time for it I mean by all means make a story mode and explain wtf is going on but please make combat the number 1 concern.
 

Dark Souls 3

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I wasn't going to make a wishlist, but at this point I feel like there needs to be something to offset the current trend of awful opinions here.

Things that are of most importance to the quality of the game:

DO keep the game fast. Don't regress to SC4 speeds. This primarily means two things:
  • Keep defense active (movement/JG/GI/counterattacking rather than statue blocking)
  • Prefer to keep moves on the safe side (viz., don't make pokes stab-punishable like in SC4).

DO keep movement both rewarding and risky. That means high evasion with no step-guard.

DO keep the categorical differences between moves and, relative to SCV, accentuate them further. This means three things, mainly:
  • 8WayRun attacks should be better from 8WayRun than from neutral (in SCV, a 10-frame penalty on 8WR moves done from neutral accomplishes this; while this implementation works, I'm more concerned with the principle.).
  • Horizontals should be weaker than verticals but catch step.
  • Verticals should be stronger than horizontals but not catch step.
Additionally, rethink the role of body (K) attacks. Currently, they're a dumping ground for moves that are almost entirely mechanically unrelated.

DO keep JG. The mechanic has absolutely proven itself to be a valuable addition.

DO keep meter and guard bursts. These mechanics add considerations to the game that lie between short-term tactical decisions (predicting the opponent's immediate action) and long-term strategical decisions (exploiting the opponent's general tendencies), a domain that was previously occupied solely by stage positioning.

DO NOT repeat the mistake of designing characters that function drastically "outside the box". For justification, one needn't look further than any of the following characters:
  • SC4 Hilde (charge mechanic)
  • SC4 Algol (projectile mechanic)
  • SCV Viola (projectile/"two-fighter" mechanic)
  • SCV ZWEI ("two-fighter" mechanic).
All of whom were disastrously imbalanced in their first iterations. Novelty and variety are both commendable goals, but balance has a significantly greater impact on the game's longevity.

DO rework the clash and trade mechanics. This is a rough edge in SCV that ought to be smoothed out with simple, consistent rules.

DO aim for good stage variety. Infinite stages and stage transitions were a nice step forward.


Minor things that should be improved or fixed:

DO NOT forget to add button select to the character select menu this time.

DO make armor-break optional or possibly remove the system. As it is, it does nothing for either the competitive or the casual demographics, and all of the good characters (Aeon) are practically naked already.

DO NOT add CaS-only styles like Devil Jin, because they just end up going to waste. As a full-fledged character, it would have been useable in both CaS and competitive play.


Things that I personally want, but which needn't be priorities:

Release a PC version. I positively loathe the notion of having to buy a PS4 or Xbone just to play one game that refuses to be released on a sensible platform.



As always, I might think of more things later to add.
 
The biggest issue of SC5 was the fact it was rushed. That was an obvious mistake most of us noticed and don't need a repeat of.
The mechanics are tight in SC5 and I'd like to see Project Soul keep it that way in SC6 with some minor changes and balancing. Meter was a great idea and they should keep it. Better than having that broken Critical Finish BS.
Online game play definitely needs to be top notch. Any game is more enjoyable when lag is not involved. Please no shared servers BS.
I think we all would like to see a lot of the old characters return but keeping a series fresh is important and sometimes cuts are necessary. Just don't get crazy with it in SC6. Project soul got a bit of backlash for SC5s roster. Easy fix for dropping a character, keep the fighting style and give it a new face. They've done it already several times. They just need to do it the right way.

Ultimately, I would like SC6 to pretty much be a finished SC5. I couldn't ask for more than that.

Oh and one more thing. Let's be at least a little realistic with weapon sizes and proportions. I love Siegfried and Nightmare but their swords should be slimmed down a bit. Nobody is swinging a 200 lb sword regardless of having a monster claw arm. At least Astoroth has an excuse, He's got the size to match his weapon.
 

This week's events

SoulCalibur VI EVO Japan side event
Ariake GYM-EX, Tokyo (Tokyo Big Site)
3-chōme-11-1 Ariake, Koto City, Tokyo 135-0063, Japan

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