Aesthetics

AshnardZero

AshnardZero

[09] Warrior
First thread on a new forum? This is a first. Well, either way, I'm staying on topic. Anyone here believe that SC3 had the best Gallery mode, right behind SC1? I re-visited SC3 recently, and I just had to say wow when comparing the content to 2's and 4's gallery. Each character had three pages of art (final drawing and concept arts as well as 2p costumes), plus high rez and special art. Not to mention the awesome intro, something absent from 4. I know some people view 3 as the black sheep of Soul Calibur, but its presentation was amazing. Balance...is another story for another time.
 
I never played 3, but the intro of 2 really got me going. The SC IV intro is just lackluster. Like the soundtracks. The stages. And the bonus characters.
 
SC3 is actually my favorite. Yes, I know that I'm in the minority on that, but it's still true.

The opening movie was amazing, and the gallery was very nice.

The intro to SC2 is amazing as well; SC4 pales by comparison to both and was a little disappointing for me.
 
I'll agree with you Harle, 4's presentation is all around lackluster. It's a pretty game and it has online, as well as a much refined system from 3, but it's a bit much to sacrifice so many of the extras. The stages and music are what I truly lament. Each character in 3 had his or her own stage as well as theme music, and the levels were fantastic. SC4 took the lazy SC2 route, and just has a couple general stages, some not so bad, and a couple decent tracks. All in all, 3 trumped 4 in this aspect. My wish is for 3's presentation to be combined with 4's awesome gameplay and graphics (plus a couple minor story additions).
 
I personally miss some of finer things about Soul Blade.

The arranged sountrack and Kahn Supersession were amazing. I think the soundtrack in general has gone down considerably since then. I did like the soundtrack for SC through SC4, but they never got it as good as they did for Soul Blade.

I considered the soundtrack to be soo good that it was possibly the second best soundtrack on playstation just behind Castlavania Symphony of the Night.

SC4 seriously dropped the ball with story mode. SC3's wasn't that good either, but it was better. Once again I will go back to the good old days and praise the glories of Edge Master mode on Soul Blade. The gothic music and in depth backgrounds for the characters made the experience. There were more stages and getting weapons was actually part of the story mode.

I am a little heart broken at the lack of a good art gallery in this game. I was hoping for the seemingly endless pictures you got back when you played SC on Dreamcast. That was awesome.

I also kind of miss the song you got in Soul Blade. It was extremely cheesy, but still the best intro for any of the games.
 
Hahaha! Well put Rei! There will never be a replacement for "Edge of Soul" in my heart as well.

You're right, Soul Blades soundtrack was awesome. I mean, there was a completely different soundtrack for the entire game, just by switching an option. My vote still goes to 3, in total, but you are right about a decline in Music.

Also, the Edge Master mode was amazing as well, you really felt like you were playing the character. There were even stories behind the weapons you acquired, plus a special ending scene for each character you beat the mode with. A fine example, in my opinion. Bamco should do the same thing for the next game, yet replace text with in game cut scenes. It may sound like a bit much, but I'd be willing to wait to have a game with top notch production quality.
 
I love the Soul Blade intro song!
I also agree that IV has the weakest intro movie and stages/music of the series. It would also have been nice if more artwork was included in the gallery mode, especially since the character artwork is so good. I will say though I really like the character designs for IV, there all so over the top, but in a good way.
 
They could have done a lot more.
I personally wasn't a fan of SC3's story mode, but it was still way better than SC4's story mode.

I was kind of hoping for a massive art gallery and to have the gallery explain the story in SC3 more. I know you can get an idea of what happened in SC3 by looking at the character stories and see what happened to them most recently from SC3, but it is not the same thing.

It was great how SC told the story of Soul Edge through that one art gallery. That was truly epic.
 
I'll agree, SC3's story mode was a bit bland, as most was repeats of what other characters saw. Though some dialog was character specific, and there were destined battles as well as game-graphic endings, which is more than any Soulcalbibur before it offered.

I think the Soul Series needs the theatrics of Tekken 5, for example. Each character had a mid way battle against a foe of theirs with small scenes before and after the fight, a "Destined Battle" against their primary target or concern (cut scenes included), and of course a pretty FMV ending. It really brings out character depth, and we all know SC has a ton of personality, we just need to convince Bamco to actually spend time on the aesthetics of Soulcalibur. I think it would be awesome to have small cutscenes every couple fights in SC, as well as FMV (or interactive) endings.
 
Wish they showcase more thumbnails and concepts. Only the exclusive artbook had it this time, Mostly Kawano and another artist(forgot name).
 
Discoprophet said:
I love the Soul Blade intro song!
I also agree that IV has the weakest intro movie and stages/music of the series. It would also have been nice if more artwork was included in the gallery mode, especially since the character artwork is so good. I will say though I really like the character designs for IV, there all so over the top, but in a good way.
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Yes, Soul blade is the best ST i ever heard
 
AshnardZero said:
I'll agree, SC3's story mode was a bit bland, as most was repeats of what other characters saw. Though some dialog was character specific, and there were destined battles as well as game-graphic endings, which is more than any Soulcalbibur before it offered.

I think the Soul Series needs the theatrics of Tekken 5, for example. Each character had a mid way battle against a foe of theirs with small scenes before and after the fight, a "Destined Battle" against their primary target or concern (cut scenes included), and of course a pretty FMV ending. It really brings out character depth, and we all know SC has a ton of personality, we just need to convince Bamco to actually spend time on the aesthetics of Soulcalibur. I think it would be awesome to have small cutscenes every couple fights in SC, as well as FMV (or interactive) endings.
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Bland? O_o I'd have to say the story mode in SC3 was better than the story mode in pretty much any other fighting game I'VE ever played, what with the branching paths, interactive cutscenes, etc.

And SC3 DOES have some of the "theatrics" you mentioned. Every character has a "destined battle" against Zasalamel, and they end up usually fighting Nightmare or Siegfried near the end depending on who you pick. The endings are awesome too. I'm playing thru the Weapon Master mode in SC2 right now and, good as it is, it's making me wish for more of the polish SC3's Tales Of Souls has.
 
Yes, good doctor, it's a bit bland. It was too much copy and past. The text explanations were nice, but every interactive cutscene was the exact same thing that every other character had. There was never any difference, except with the first Zasalamel fight, in which your character would utter one unique line. To me, it's not up to par with what they did with Tekken. Branching story paths are nice, and all, but when it's all the same, the story loses luster. Same with the end fights against Zasa, Sigfried or Nightmare. The same thing was said each time to every character.

Now, there are unique destined battles near the end, in which your character fights another as an adversary, with a neat little cutscene (Sieg vs. Raphael, Rock vs. Astaroth, etc.), and that's what I want more of, as I mentioned with Tekken 5.

The endings, for the most part, are good. I also like the interactive options, like they did with Soul Blade. That's why I say, take the best of both worlds, and make the Soul Series the the aesthetic masterpieces they should be.
 
I'm just looking through the SC3 art now and some of it is priceless...some I really wish they did as costumes; it's clear they wanted the whole gloomy/jolly thing with Tira judging from her two outfits...

One of Voldo's where he has a bird beak - LOL, and the codpiece underneath..

Cassandra's statue of liberty hairband is random as hell too.

The game kinda has more of a 'fantasy' and grandiose feel to it than 2 or 4

oh, LOL@the fat, bulbous nosed Olcadan design.

4 seemed to have lacked in so many areas, and while alot of SC3's story was kinda cut and paste it was still really cool being given choices and pathways.
 
DoctaMario said:
Bland? O_o I'd have to say the story mode in SC3 was better than the story mode in pretty much any other fighting game I'VE ever played, what with the branching paths, interactive cutscenes, etc.
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Yeah, but everyone had to dodge that damn clock gear, fight Zas etc. None of the scenes were skippable on top of that. Nice the first few times, but it got tedious.
 
Very true. SC3's story mode was far from golden, but it was still far better than SCIV's story mode though. They definitely put more effort into the single player modes in SC3, but I still didn't think they used it right.

All SC1 needed was like 300 pictures and I loved it. I still kind of envy the days of Edge Master Mode, but I would be happy if it turned to how SC1 did it.
 
Also, to comment on the whole Tira thing, there should be a video floating around that has a Tira vs. Taki match. The interesting thing in this beta vid is right next to Tira's name. It says "moody" in parentheses, which leads me to think they originally planned to have her as she is in SC4.

Also, for those who haven't seen it, check out the poor left out character...His name was Edgardo. Too bad they even ditched him in SC4 as well. That means 3 would have had 4 brand new series characters, rather than 4's 2-3 (technically 1, as I'm sure Algol won't be back). I do count Amy as a new character, since we only had Rapier style in 3, which is NOTHING like Amy in 4.
 

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