Kayane's Hands-on Impressions of SC5

Namco graciously invited Kayane to come to GamesCom to try out the build of Soul Calibur 5 that they brought with them, but was unable to share her impressions of the game until August 30th because of a media embargo that was in place. Now that the embargo is over, Kayane stayed up until 6AM her local time in France just to share with the community her impressions of the game.

Check Kayane's blog for the full details, and leave a comment with any questions that you may have for her.

 

I never said "Things look good so far." anywhere in that post, but ok then. I'm not going to argue with you. I made a point and that's all I care about really. Whether anyone listens/cares is secondary.

Edit: Geez, I type slow XD

 

As for top tier characters, when Soul Calibur 1 was released, Kilik was not considered one until someone won a tournament with him. Why? Maybe because they knew how to use his GI attacks.

On the flip side, consider SC4 Raphael's 4A+B and 8A+B aGI (one virtually useless and one difficult to implement), SC3-SC4 Siegfried's SBH aGI (extremely situational and has extremely sketchy frames), and Zasalamel (has no aGI to speak of). I think you missed something important that Blackstar said:

GI and sidestep where in SC4, but it didn't stop AA/BB spam. You couldn't GI the second hit after upon block. Even if you get a GI, often times the reward wasn't that big (unless it was, like u said, Auto GI, but then that makes spam risk character specific, thus not good for balance)

 

my point is that arguing amunst each other is going to get nothing done. everything anyone says is pure speculation. from "they said they will patch the game alot if needed." to "JG is going to promote turtling even more". People like Omega, myself and others that are just too reserved to speak up need to hear everything from the developers. They have given us barely any information on the new features, and have been very distant lately in terms of communication. We're basically going to be surprised by the way it looks, and that tends to make some people kind of nervous.

All we have to go on are the few videos and what one person that played 10 games walked away with to base our opinions on. Why isn't Project Soul communicating with us? Did they stop listening? Odashima seems to be the only person we're able to talk to about Calibur and his last tweet was on the 28th and in Japanese. We've already seen the new stuff, now we need them to tell us everything they can about it. Why is everything being so "hush hush"?

 

In terms of the speed, I can understand them not wanting to make it too fast. There's the reason that people coming from SC4 to SCV would have to get used to it, but I think another reason on top of that is taking into consideration online play. While I'm loving the faster pace, at the same time I hope that the netcode will be able to keep up with it as well. Needless to say online play needs to be done well in every game that comes out these days.

 

my point is that arguing amunst each other is going to get nothing done. everything anyone says is pure speculation. from "they said they will patch the game alot if needed." to "JG is going to promote turtling even more". People like Omega, myself and others that are just too reserved to speak up need to hear everything from the developers.

Talk about a total change in tone.

You were just earlier so insistent in that another poster was trolling and now you're following that up with being diplomatic.

 

I decided to ignore it and go on with the point I was trying to make in the first place.

 

so SC5 is faster paced but BB is unsafe? seems like a contradiction
how is it faster paced if my most basic option is unsafe...
I'd be scared to attack....

 

learn not to spam the same damn mindless safe string

 

I said this in the JG discussion thread. Taki has one of the fastest AA's in the game, so for Natsu to be able to punish a BB after JG'ing the 2nd one shouldn't be that much of a surprise. I would hope this is only limited to people with an -10 AA. (i'm assuming Natsu's AA is going to be i10). So I'm guessing that JG will only shave off 3 to 5 frames of blockstun allowing you to punish 3 to 5 frames faster. The frames on block for the twins' BB could range from -5 to -8. I'm hoping the window is that tight, but we won't know anything until we get Project Soul to give us some answers ;/

 

Wow a string of 2 hits unsafe, this is going to be a super interactive game, with a lot of mind games, i hope this soul calibur is super great like super street fighter AE, i smell another failure of SOUL CALIBUR, and no Omega is not pesimistic im just in reality now, is history boys, good luck with the game, lets wait to see if they add AN xfactor like marvel and fatalitys like MK.

 

so? maybe if you could extrapolate you all could see this is a bad thing....
I'm sorry you are incredibly tunnel visioned and short sighted wuht (that or to busy trolling) to see that

this isn't just about BB....this is about all non jailing string moves in general...
voldo 3BB,raph 22AA or 44AB, setsu FC 3B:B, ect
Yeah I needed more reasons to just poke in soul calibur....
this change won't make it tekken like at all /sarcasm
the options are already limited in SC4 this isn't going to help without massive engine changes

also for those wait and see people... Now that project soul pays attention to us, Its clearly not the time to wait and see

 

The problem is that they are working 12-14 hour days to rush this game out by next year and they don't have time to respond to us.

Nevertheless, I strongly urge EVERYONE here to post on Odashima's Twitter about this new JG system and how it basically has no risk and will lead to single pokes once people learn to time JG while reacting to cancelled strings (option select).

I don't like what I'm seeing. It seems instead of refining what made Soul Calibur great back in the day, they are adding a mix of random unnecessary things (JG) and changing core systems with no apparent reason (GI).

 

They haven't been paying attention to us. They've been paying attention to the noobs. They are catering SC5 to them it seems. Odashima is giving desktop wallpapers instead of information about the system. He's ignoring all questions in regards to said changes. It's terrible. It's like they are telling us to wait and see. When Odashima checks his twitter, he should see nothing but people demanding some detailed information and or their sincere displeasure of the changes. That's really the only way I can see anything coming of this. I'd even go so far as adding @Harada_Tekken to those tweets too since he is Odashima's boss, and he actually answers his twitter regularly.

 

I wonder how many people actually care enough about competitive balance to even tweet Daishi about this...

I'm not gonna get my hopes up.

 

The problem is that they are working 12-14 hour days to rush this game out by next year and they don't have time to respond to us.

Nevertheless, I strongly urge EVERYONE here to post on Odashima's Twitter about this new JG system and how it basically has no risk and will lead to single pokes once people learn to time JG while reacting to cancelled strings (option select).

I don't like what I'm seeing. It seems instead of refining what made Soul Calibur great back in the day, they are adding a mix of random unnecessary things (JG) and changing core systems with no apparent reason (GI).

Fuck yea, nice post.

 

You can see what people are saying with this. http://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/@daishi_calibur
seems like KingAce has done us the pleasure of speaking for the majority already:

ColdKingace Abraham

@Daishi_CALIBUR Don't worry about the negative feedback about JG most of us want to play the game before we judge...I think it's good.

 

I for one have some concerns, but I am mostly optimistic. Why? Read on.

GI Taking Meter: This means that meter management becomes an essential skill for defense, meaning you want to leave something in the tank. Intelligent meter management is a hallmark of many good fighting games; so look at it like SC is just joining the club. This seems to imply more need to GI; which in turn implies better frames and stronger options overall.

JG: This one can go either way. The natural inclination for a good player is to be as safe as possible; in a minimalistic fashion. One of the flaws in SC4 was players could do predictable things, like excessive safe BB pokes just as one example, and even if you KNEW it was coming, there was little you could do about it because GI was too risky still. So on that front, this mechanic actually helps.

On the other hand, characters with slower strings or slower multi-hit moves like Sig and Maxi could easily be taken to the cleaners with this mechanic. This would have the opposite effect on them, encouraging their game-play minimalism in a negative fashion to avoid JG.

I would suggest to the development team that they make some attacks immune to being JG'd, such as Guard Break attacks.

"Soul Crush": This one is like a guard bar from the Street Fighter Alpha series. Great anti-turtle mechanic in concept; but the flashing really isn't doing us any favors. I wish this was a meter for more accurate measurement.

I combine this with other things I have seen, such as Guard Break BE attacks which give frames on block; as well as late-break throws still dealing a little bit of damage... and this game is extremely turtle un-friendly. The question becomes to me this: Will it be anti-minimalist gameplay? That I think is a bigger and more important issue.

All this being said, it is important to note that it's certainly likely the build Kayane played was out of date even when she played it. It's almost certainly altered from then.

-Idle

 

Assuming that every move or string is JG punishable.

So in Soul Calibur V everything you do is going to be unsafe.
Which is going to lead to people just sitting back turtling and poking each other to death because they're too scared to do anything without getting punished.

HAHAHAAAHAAA. That's funny.

So what about Maxi, Talim, Raph, Mina, Zas players etc in SC4. You don't even need to strict your guard timing to punish half of the shit they do. Are these characters unfucking playable? Do the players that use these characters only turtle?

Get the fuck out here with your one dimensional views.

Yes block punishment is getting a boost. But that boost takes same freaking timing and skill to properly utilize. While people play retarded characters like voldo that are straight up safe in everything they do on block. JG evens the playing field.

I welcome it. QQ more plz

 

I for one have some concerns, but I am mostly optimistic. Why? Read on.

GI Taking Meter: This means that meter management becomes an essential skill for defense, meaning you want to leave something in the tank. Intelligent meter management is a hallmark of many good fighting games; so look at it like SC is just joining the club. This seems to imply more need to GI; which in turn implies better frames and stronger options overall.

JG: This one can go either way. The natural inclination for a good player is to be as safe as possible; in a minimalistic fashion. One of the flaws in SC4 was players could do predictable things, like excessive safe BB pokes just as one example, and even if you KNEW it was coming, there was little you could do about it because GI was too risky still. So on that front, this mechanic actually helps.

On the other hand, characters with slower strings or slower multi-hit moves like Sig and Maxi could easily be taken to the cleaners with this mechanic. This would have the opposite effect on them, encouraging their game-play minimalism in a negative fashion to avoid JG.

I would suggest to the development team that they make some attacks immune to being JG'd, such as Guard Break attacks.

"Soul Crush": This one is like a guard bar from the Street Fighter Alpha series. Great anti-turtle mechanic in concept; but the flashing really isn't doing us any favors. I wish this was a meter for more accurate measurement.

I combine this with other things I have seen, such as Guard Break BE attacks which give frames on block; as well as late-break throws still dealing a little bit of damage... and this game is extremely turtle un-friendly. The question becomes to me this: Will it be anti-minimalist gameplay. That I think is a bigger and more important

All this being said, it is important to note that it's certainly likely the build Kayane played was out of date even when she played it. It's almost certainly altered from then.

-Idle

*brick shit*

WHO THE HELL IS TYPING FOR IDLE?!?

 

However, I still STRONGLY suggest all of you who don't like what you see about JG and GI spam the living hell out of Daishi's twitter- not because it will change anything, but it will show them the gravity of giving us half-finished information and how that will cause unrest.

Maybe we should be petitioning for less half-assed system speculations from limited playtime, and requesting a more complete understanding; and we wouldn't be making alarmist arguments.

tl;dr: Namco PR department needs to level up their game, for real.

-Idle