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.

 

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:

What about you? Are you speaking for yourself when you make those silly angry ass twits at Daishi. Calling the mechanics gimmicks and bad mouthing other fans. You make us look bad.

 

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

This is what I've been saying. I for one want all the information they can give us on their plans on the new system. Gaming magizines are publishing the wrong information (Game Informer this month said that Guard Impacting was being simplified to a G input only). They've already shown us the pretty pictures, now they need to explain it to us.

What about you? Are you speaking for yourself when you make those silly angry ass twits at Daishi. Calling the mechanics gimmicks and bad mouthing other fans. You make us look bad.

I am not speaking for anyone in my tweets but myself.

 

Enk why do you post on Daishi's twitter in that sarcastic, angry tone? That's not gonna get us anywhere. I want Daishi to think that we are calm, rational, and open minded people so that he will listen to us.

 

You would think he would post actual concerns and objectively explained why he doesn't want the mechanics in the game. But instead he calls them gimmicks, and says that Namco is trying to ruin the game. What exactly does this accomplish?

 

Im not against the JG sistem, but from what ive seen and heard, it would be more appropiate to put JG using the meter and leave the GI as it was, cause GI has risk and a 50 50 oportunity for both players after you do it.

 

OK, I wasn't sure about many things about this SC5, I was like, "oh, it looks very similar to SC4 in terms of graphics... ", "oh, the new chars are gonna be clones of the old ones...", "oh, they are taking away away my critical finish, and instead I'm getting supers like in SF".
But I was trying to convince myself that these changes might attract more players and in the end it doesn't matter as long as the game is balanced and fun to play, but this changes (JG and new GI) sucks, I can see a lot of balancing problems as some chars would be able take more advantage than others, some chars might get criticals edges as punish for example and other don't for instance.

It's very risky to do a move like this, they might be trying to get some new players, but in the process they might lose a lots of loyal players.
\

 

I can reword it. I am in a sour mood right now. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

What I can see happening with this system is people only using the same 4 characters that are IMBA because of these new features. It'll be just like the 2d genre from where they took these ideas from.​

 

Character with the best single pokes wins!

Hope you are all ready to welcome Ivy and Kilik right back to the top of the tier list :\

 

What else is new, eh? Even those characters that can cancel their poke into a BE sounds like they will be really strong. kayane didn't even mess with BE's in her time with the game.

Of course they can patch and patch and patch forcing us to relearn our characters over and over again until they either get it right or give up like they are doing with SSF4, but at least our patches will be free ( i think)

 

Of course you're all assuming the frames are the same as SC4's. I am hoping since I know the guys at Namco have functioning brains that...

In SCv they're less negative frames on block, especially for pokes. This is one of the changes that makes the game flow faster. If this is the case then, it nerfs blocking punishment, and encourages very aggressive play styles.

So if they're less negative frames on block, this makes block punishment a lot weaker.

And this is how JG comes into the picture. JG is SCv's block punishment. But with stricter timing and more reaction based. That is my speculation on this.

Either way, I have played low tier characters in all my SC life. Doing unsafe shit that gets me punished I am used to. Now everybody has to deal with this fear. But at least it isn't free damage from a simple guard but a Just guard.

 

KingAce, I am wondering if you read Kayanes blog. She herself said JGing is pretty easy. She was able to JG the 2nd B of a BB and punish with Natsu's AA. She only got to play a total of 10 games and was able to do this.

And please get off the tier whoring stuff ok? I've used Voldo exclusively since SC2. He was the first character I picked and I stuck with him ever since. He was mid-tier in SC2, and I'd say still mid-tier in SC3, and just by pure random luck was top tier in SC4. And I'm going to use him in SC5 exclusively as well regardless of his tier placing.

 

Im not against the JG sistem, but from what ive seen and heard, it would be more appropiate to put JG using the meter and leave the GI as it was, cause GI has risk and a 50 50 oportunity for both players after you do it.

My thoughts exactly. I would add.. as long as they change the new GI input to the current method, I'd have absolutely no problems with JG, nor GI.

 

Of course that situation is easy. Strings have a tell. This is something we speculated way before Kayane's blog because it was obvious. However, to just guard singular moves and capitalize on random JGs will be a different story.

And don't read to much into my voldo comment, it's a general comparison between absurdly safe characters and unsafe ones. Like I said if universally all characters are relatively safe in SCv because of better frames...then JG is going to be everyone's block punishment.

It's going to even the playing field. But this is still speculation on my part...still I don't believe the guys at Namco just added it in with out this kind of thinking.

 

JG frames may be changed by final release. If anything, I would expect them to make JG easier to do in the early stages so it is easier to test. By final release, they make tone down a lot of the stronger system tools.

 

So far I'm happy about everything I've read! I love the changes. I want SC5 to be different and fresh. And I trust that the developers will be able to fine tune the game to make all these new mechanics work well together. I am most definitely excited to learn ZWEI. Now all I want is Dampierre with his randomness and I'll be set!

 

When I asked at EVO about the mechanics I really had to be stubborn and try to get my question answered the way I wanted and it seemed as though they were afraid to say anything while they were still tweeking it. They don't want to be held accountable for saying it's one thing and then suddenly change it and get backlash for the change or people raging about something that's not certain. They told me JG was still being altered and they hadn't decided on anything...so that's why they don't give away all the details right away.

 

you think maxi is awful now? wait till they implement JG

then a character who relies on multihit strings( 3B RO A 4B LO B and FC 3AAA RO A) will be even worse when he has no realistic way to start an offense

 

Im not against the JG sistem, but from what ive seen and heard, it would be more appropiate to put JG using the meter and leave the GI as it was, cause GI has risk and a 50 50 oportunity for both players after you do it.

I've agreed with your posts up until now JG system needs to be dropped completely it does not fit in a 3d fighter at all. In 4 a JI starts at the 3rd or 4th frame something like that. You also need to stop blocking to throw out a GI too. With that being said there is not a single BB you can stop with a GI in 4.

But now with JG you can just throw that shit out there which tells me the start up is gonna be something like i1-3. Now everyone is gonna be afraid to do a BB and many other things because of JG. Since JG exists they now need to introduce true block strings and I don't want that happening but its the only way I see it working.

Now with the whole thing about JG taking meter instead of GI'ing. I also see that failing. Ever since you been able to JI grabs I see that happening a lot. So that tells me there is gonna be a lot of accidental JG's and so your gonna be losing meter off of accidental shit. Also step G that too I can see that causing a lot of accidental JG and yet again another possible way for you to lose meter off of stupid shit. You attempt to play smart and get punished for it hell no.

 

3d fighters are about frame knowledge at their fundamental level. JG throws that out the window and adds a huge layer of randomness.

It will also destroy online play entirely, and that needs to be a consideration also. If lag messes up your JG's, and you're competitive, would you even bother with online?

Also, I don't see a clear thing this mechanic adds to the game strategically, I can make cases for the other mechanics

The "new" GI- could serve a role as an all-purpose, meter-consuming block to get out of bad mixups.

Quick Step- it's defensive move. Will make BB spam riskier. (another reason why we don't need JG, AA can be ducked, BB can be Quick-stepped for whiff punish)

Critical Brave Edges- meter mangement. I'm ok with that.

Buffed throws- a good thing.

JG's- Um, maybe preventting spammable strings? You don't need JG for that- you just don't design overpowered string moves to begin with? I just don't see a reason to include this in the game, outside of adding an execution barrier/ option select technique/ random luck factor.

Will JG be beatable? I think it might. However, if it's easily beatable- then it just becomes a luck move. If it's not, it's going to limit options. Neither of those benefit the game at all.

 

you think maxi is awful now? wait till they implement JG

then a character who relies on multihit strings( 3B RO A 4B LO B and FC 3AAA RO A) will be even worse when he has no realistic way to start an offense

Depends on his frames buddy.

And I don't think FC3AAA can be interrupted with just guard...I believe some strings are too fast for you to tap block release and block the next move in time.

I actually think Maxi will benefit a lot from this. Since Soul Gauge is in the game, and his strings can be mixed up aswell as delayed and canceled. Seriously who seats back and defends everything maxi does? In most cases Maxi gets interrupted out of his strings.

You're assuming that timing JG will be very easy. Comparing Maxi's loops to a simple BB.... worlds apart.