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.

 

"Your messages to Daishi Odashima are not cheering, it's almost all about whining. When I said you could tweet him, I didn't expect that..." - Kayane


His twitter is all jacked up with complaints from people who haven't even played the game. Chill!

 

Deep down inside everybody is afraid of another broken, imbalanced game and a community life of 1 year or so.

People should still be polite, but don't stop voicing your concerns.

 

And I share everyone's fears. But it's no use for everyone to be geekin' out on frames when one person has played it for a small sampling of what's to come. There's gonna be playtesting, patches, and community feedback that will actually be heard and resolved. That's the major difference between this game and all the others, and in fact all other future games as well.

How else are they gonna make us fiend for DLC?

 

Yes please, be polite and don't talk with slang words, correct english is more appreciated and it's better for you to be understood.

And don't forget that even if you're not happy about something, there are right now other great things in the game, which is still a DEMO. So don't forget that please.

For example, they have included Hilde to show you they won't do the same mistakes as before and to prove they want a balanced game. They want to please the fans with cool stuff so they have added the musics selection to choose the musics we prefere in matches, etc etc.

OK maybe some of you think it's useless, but this is the kind of details to show they want the fans to be happy. They're doing their best, so never forget to thank them and tell what you like in SC5 too.
Right now you're going to make them feel like you already don't like SC5 at all, whereas the game is still in development.

Some characters are still not developped, and you are making them more focused on the GI/JG system whereas you still didn't test that.
They are still waiting suggestions for characters...

And when you have a request, please don't say things as if he HAS TO DO LIKE THAT. Don't say things like "Remove that", as if you were giving orders. Don't forget there is also the language gap, so he can take it rude...

It's better to say what are your thoughts, but don't give him orders. I think it's rude.
And if you don't like something, explain WHY and what you prefered instead of saying "I don't like that !!!"

Thank you.

 

Does he read our threads? It'd be awesome if he posted. Or have a 30 min to 1 hour QnA session with us.

I hope through all the dust we kicked up from all the fussing he still knows we have the games best interest at heart.

 

I'm alittle torn here. While i do encourage new and exciting gameplay aspects i just really love the tried and true basic system of SC. I'm willing to try it out with a positive attitude in hopes that Namco stands by their words and brings us the best SC experience to date.

Perhaps they could make the JI thing into an option and just have it like a "Special Vs" in Sc4? That way IF it isnt all its cracked up to be you could always play like the original.

 

Yes please, be polite and don't talk with slang words, correct english is more appreciated and it's better for you to be understood.

And don't forget that even if you're not happy about something, there are right now other great things in the game, which is still a DEMO. So don't forget that please.

For example, they have included Hilde to show you they won't do the same mistakes as before and to prove they want a balanced game. They want to please the fans with cool stuff so they have added the musics selection to choose the musics we prefere in matches, etc etc.

OK maybe some of you think it's useless, but this is the kind of details to show they want the fans to be happy. They're doing their best, so never forget to thank them and tell what you like in SC5 too.
Right now you're going to make them feel like you already don't like SC5 at all, whereas the game is still in development.

Some characters are still not developped, and you are making them more focused on the GI/JG system whereas you still didn't test that.
They are still waiting suggestions for characters...

And when you have a request, please don't say things as if he HAS TO DO LIKE THAT. Don't say things like "Remove that", as if you were giving orders. Don't forget there is also the language gap, so he can take it rude...

It's better to say what are your thoughts, but don't give him orders. I think it's rude.
And if you don't like something, explain WHY and what you prefered instead of saying "I don't like that !!!"

Thank you.

+1

 

Last time I read news about SC5 I got the impression that the game will be even more grab based than sc4. Now I feel even more that way with the JG system and not being able to GI unless you have a meter. Also, why in the hell are they removing Taki (my favorite character in sc2/sc3) and giving us some other chick with smaller tits? Same deal with the other sword and shield chick...
Also, they say the game isn't as fast because it'd be too big of a jump in speed from sc4 to sc5 because some people never played sc2? That doesn't make sense, cause sc3 was faster than sc2 in a bunch of ways, and sc4 was a huge slowdown, so they should have no problem bringing the speed back up.
I just hope Namco knows not to screw with a winning formula, I know you want to make the game feel new and fresh, but don't get too crazy.

Since Kayane said we should focus on asking the developers for character input, I'll just say this:
All 2K's and 2A's should crouch throws
Sophie's 44B and 66B, along with X's fc3B should crouch throws and highs the entire animation
There's a few more I'm not mentioning that sc4 screwed up that need to be righted.

 

From Daishi's twitter:
Tommorw I'll tweet new info and follow up the Kayane's report.
So Stop Complaining and wait for tomorrow... then we can start the discussion again. And all these opinions about the changes just tell me what kind of love every one have for this game, but please don't try to express your angry in a aggressive way. I said I'm sad and its for real... but it doesn't give me the rights to say whatever comes to my mind...

Please everyone re view the videos from EVO so you can watch the new mechanics in action and get some peace of mind. Remember stop whining and wait for tomorrow.

 

The problem is why you think something is wrong or problematic is hard to explain in 140 characters.

As for the "whining", the best way for the developers to get the information that the natives are worried/restless is by being loud. You don't have to be rude though.

I tried to word what I said strongly, explain why, without being rude. The problem is it takes a bunch of words, and sometimes you have to balance out tone with not spamming.

The definite don'ts:

- Don't say you won't buy the game: if you're not a customer, why should Daishi care about your opinion?

- Don't be rude/personal: That's just common courtesy.

- Don't be negative without offering another idea, or at least explaining why you think it's bad: How is Daishi supposed to know what to look for in his mechanics if we don't tell him how we think they will break the game?

- Don't dismiss the complaints of others as whining: you don't know what it's like to be in their shoes.

- Accept that your ideas may be rejected. I've read Brad Wardell's panel on failed games. You try to include everything , you end up with nothing.

Personally, I think it's great that Daishi's sweating a little bit- it's much better if he works this problem out now with the game 20% developed, then if he does at 80%. It will be less development work and easier to fix. Look at all the troubles Mortal Kombat had because they didn't fix stuff before release.

 

Tomorrow I will follow up the Kayane's report, and then set up us the bomb.

 

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.

exactly this!

 

I have a question for you Kayane, did you notice if the auto-gi moves also took meter to use? If not, that would encourage using those more.

 

I didn't get to read through the whole thread; but I see a lot of whining. I'd rather PLAY this game, or at least, get more information regarding these changes before raising Twiiter pitchforks.

GI costing meter sounds silly, superficially, but the more I think about it, the more interesting it sounds - i.e. if my opponent's character/general gameplay is dependent on CE or has no meter for a counter GI, GI = free damage. Matches will have a distinctive and dynamic flow - first player to raise enough bar for GI has the potential to land their biggest damage BnB for free.

Because GI utilizes a shared meter, you can't judge the mechanic in a vacuum, because its benefits and costs as a mechanic have to be effectively weighed against the benefits and costs of all other mechanics tied to the meter. That's interesting - and we don't know all the variables yet.

My only real disappointment so far is that the game won't be as fast as SC2. Marvel 3 is plenty casual friendly and is one of the fastest fighting games ever made, so if they're holding the speed back on account of newer players, they should reconsider.

-SynikaL

 

+1

you left off some zeros after that 1 sir.

Thanks Kayane. I hope you'll help field a lot of curiosity on the game as the open details have lead to a lot of people shouting about things we barely understand such as GJ, but I can understand not wanting to discuss unfinished mechanics. I feel the one thing that may help save them is either to give more detail when revealing something or announcing it with a "still be worked on, details soon" so that people can not be frightened if something they don't like is present in an early reveal.

I think Namco is doing great with SC5 and have shown a vast improvement in community relations and I hope they aren't deterred by resident pessimists.

 

I think here is something interesting if someone can translate exactly what it's saying :

From Daishi Odashima : 条件は厳しいけどガー不は出来る。コンボは出来ない。 RT @oosaka_twt: あのレポを読んで「ツヴァイの見えない小足がヒットしたところからアインのコンボ始動技が繋がったりしてやばいことにならないか」と不安に思ってる人も少なくないようです。完成形はどうなりそうですか？

From Google, we can translate like :

Severe condition but can not guard. Can not combo. RT @ oosaka_twt: Read the report that "whether or not it leads to a dangerous combo start skill Ein feet from where a small hit invisible Zwei" I think people seem to be few and anxiety. What is the likely final form do?

Please, can someone translate it exactly ? The player surely talks about what I said for the Zwei's low and EIN's mid.
If so, then Daishi Odashima is replying that we can't combo but we can't guard the low either, but it's hard to do, right ?

 

I have a question for you Kayane, did you notice if the auto-gi moves also took meter to use? If not, that would encourage using those more.

It doesn't use meter to do Auto-GI.

 

Japanese is very hard to translate. Since it kind of translates in reverse using google.

We'll have to wait until tomorrow for new tweets.

 

GI can't stay the same as it was if there introducing new defensive mechanics like JD and super step. Look at Garou's system of JD where it was invented and it's very good but how that translates to this game I don't know. Punishing certain NC's with JD however is different from Garou and more like SF3's red parry. I'm glad to see an attempt at innovation though I don't want just the same old thing. Hope they get it right in the end but this is just a preliminary demo.

Dissapointed that the speed won't at least match SC2. Funny thing is that SC2 feels quite slow after playing SC1.

 

Ok i had my reply directly by Oosaka :

"I asked him if ZWEI can make his 2K as a combo starter with EIN's following attacks. he answered NO.
Daishi also said that it's very difficult for ZWEI to make a UB mix-up with EIN, but he can do it. I dont have any info of SCV because I havent played I think he said Zwei's low - Ein's mid in the same time are unblockable"