In honor of Thanksgiving (real Thanksgiving, not the Canadian knockoff) it seems appropriate to indulge in a bit of gluttony. There’s no turkey on the menu, however; today I’ll be barbecuing a sacred cow in the course of making a larger point. Specifically, I’m going to tell you why, frankly, Soul Calibur 2 isn’t a very good game in some key respects while suggesting a few ways to analyze games and refine your strategies in the process.
Veterans, all I ask is that you keep an open mind. New people, let an old man rant a bit—there’s probably something useful in here for you too, so hang in there.
Our recent discussion of tiers sparked some interesting side discussion about why people select their main characters. Think back, for a moment to how you came to play your main character(s). What motivated your decision? Was it strategic, or did it just happen?
As with all new iterations of the game, SC5 will probably herald another large-scale shift in mains—I’ve mained a different character in every version of Calibur, myself—and we’ll also have an influx of players new to competitive Soul Calibur who are also looking for characters.
That being the case, I thought I’d devote this week to the ins and outs of character selection.
With all apologies to my erstwhile friend and fellow writer Hates, and you the readers, this piece was a little late for a couple of very important reasons; Skyrim, and of course, just plain writers block. Both of these things have been sorted now, so enjoy the article.
Before I go spouting off like I know things, a brief introduction. I've been participating in tournaments for fighting games since 1995. I've seen a ton of good tournaments and bad ones, and after 16 years of tournament experience, let me say this:
A Major Tournament is literally the most fun you can have with a fighting game, period.
Greetings, my minions... I mean, class! When last we met, we glossed the basic idea that characters can and should be evaluated on their own merits, divorced from such harder to quantify things as ease of use or player skill. Today we’ll be engaging with the mechanics of such evaluation.
This week’s glut of news—character reveals, hands-on impressions, and even a release date—left me, as many of you, impatient for more. There’s really no antidote for it; the more I find out about SC5, the more I find myself drifting off into happy fantasies of the horrible, borderline unjustifiable things I’ll be doing to you people once the game drops. It also got me thinking generally about the ways in which information of all sorts spreads throughout our community. Everything from juicy pre-release teases to advanced post-release tech comes to us through the same vectors: our fellow players.
First lets get some history out of the way... Growing up, I never really liked fighting games; I played them, but very rarely, and often with disapproval. Then Soulcalibur II came out, and all that changed. Suddenly the idea of a fighting game that didn't require physical dexterity to play was apparent. I could use mind games to win matches, instead of muscle memory.
To this day, Soulcalibur II is still one of my favorite games; even though going back to it is often hard because of the lack of "flashiness" we've grown accustom to in more recent games. However, when SC3 came out, I became soured on the series. I very publicly decried the game and hated it with every fiber of my being. Even SC4, which is arguably, an extremely good game, took a long time to grow on me in the aftermath of SC3.
