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.

 

One thing is sure : we all love Soul Calibur and are waiting so much for the SC5 to come out, with the hope it will be the best SC ever.

The difference compared to other SC, is that now we have the possibility to communicate with the SC producer ! It's something we should be grateful and feel lucky, because at a moment the future of Soul Calibur wasn't sure at all...(we even had to do a petition !)
I said feedbacks are important for them. Feedbacks don't mean "demands" but your "thoughts". You shouldn't demand features to Daishi because it can be offensive. Like some people saying "Change that" "Come back to old version!" etc...
Instead, you should tell what you like, what you prefer, and WHY.
So if you don't like the GI system, please don't tell him to change it even if you personally want. It's rude, and he's not going to change because some people just ask ! But telling your thoughts, with arguments, is different, you can say "I prefered the old version of GI because..." like this it's OK.

It seems that the Project Soul is trying to make SC5 more accessible. More accessible doesn't mean easier for everything !
Soul Calibur always had easy moves to do, easy combos, not like Street Fighter where you need lot of training to perform some combos to make good damages. But, even if it's accessible it didn't make the game easy at all in a high level. The difficulties in SC are somewhere else. You know that already.
So don't be afraid they are making the game with a easier access.

With the new features, I'm sure that it will make the game even more complicated for the competitive players.

 

Ah, my worry with JG is that it will have the opposite effect of what is intended.

I remember being told in SF3, in order you compete, before you did a normal you had to tap forward then down or you were "doing it wrong".

I don't want that stuff to come into SC, a series I consider "mostly pure", as compared to say SF4 with it's option selecting and 1-frame links.

I think accessibility in fighters is quite important, there are plenty of super-hard fighters out there in terms of execution, there needs to be games that rely more on other part of the skillset- SC should be one of those games to me.

This is why I worry.

 

You shouldn't demand features to Daishi because it can be offensive. Like some people saying "Change that" "Come back to old version!" etc...
Instead, you should tell what you like, what you prefer, and WHY.
So if you don't like the GI system, please don't tell him to change it even if you personally want. It's rude, and he's not going to change because some people just ask ! But telling your thoughts, with arguments, is different, you can say "I prefered the old version of GI because..." like this it's OK.

The logic here is backwards. Daishi keeps asking us to explain why we want certain things to remain, as if there was a problem with it before.

Daishi: Hwang is gone. Why do you want him back?
Me: What? Because he’s awesome. I grew fond of the character.

Daishi: GI is changed now. Why do you want the old one back?
Me: Huh? What’s wrong with the existing GI?

Imagine if every time I take something away that you’re accustomed to and then ask, “What? What’s the problem? Tell me why you want it.” It’d be better if they made sudden changes without saying anything. But instead, they’re giving me the chance to argue back and then wonder why I’m upset.

 

Well it seems that are voices are heard, thats what i wanted, now i know they are listening, lets wait now and let them test the new system and the new mechanics, they still have a lot ways to go, so we dont know if they are going to change it to somenthing else, now im going to lay back and let them work, like i said before, it was no hating just wanted them to check that JG system well before they implemented on the game, as far as looks, music, stages, chars and graphics the game looks better than any soul calibur ive seen, so keep up the good work. Now time to lay back smoke a cigarrete and chill, peace out.

 

I don't have a twitter and don't really plan on getting one yet and would be happy if he can sift through peoples opinions (whether good or bad) here and take it in just as much as he does on his twitter account.

actually you can look at his tweets without having to have a twitter account.. here let me make things simpler for you...

you can CLICK HERE to view his twitter page, that is all of his tweets..

and you can CLICK HERE to view what people are saying to him..

 

Check out the official Namco Interview that I made with Tago-san.

The subjects are the gameplay of each new character, online mode, Namco's support.

http://kayane.fr/2011/09/02/my-interview-with-tago-san-at-gamescom-for-soul-calibur-v/

 

Daishi said 3 things of particualr note:

Just Guard :
When successful your guard stun time reduces to a set frame.
All attacks can be GI.
Mapping G to multiple buttons and using slide input won’t work. Pressing G rapidly won’t work either.

These 3 points ease a lot of our concerns about the JG issue.

 

Well, i thing a 4A+B+K for M, L attacks and 6A+B+K for H,M attacks in the GI system will be welcome.
Why? well, like this you have the new system mixed with the old.

An arcade release will be most welcome, and if they (namco) are developing their own Netcode, for online let's hope for the best.

 

@Omega,

TTT2 is nearing completion and SC5 isn't even half way done. THAT is why people all over the place are getting to sample TTT2 and not SC5.

From what Kayane has said, it sounds like they might not even be set on the full cast of characters yet.

@Everyone

I think the fact that they're responding directly AT ALL to us, even if it's only once a month, is ridiculously awesome and very rare for any game really.

I do worry about some of the new systems in the game and I support expressing concern for these systems, but a lot of people are really acting like asses up in here. If Daishi reads a post saying that JG is "retarded," I wouldn't blame him for simply moving on to the next post, but if he gets one saying that we're worried that JG could turn the game into a poke-fest, THAT gives him something to actually THINK about while development continues.

When Tekken 6 was in development, A LOT of people though rage was pretty stupid, but it was kept the way they had it until they released the first demo. After the response from the demo, they cut the percentage needed to activate rage IN HALF and lowered overall damage.

What I'm saying is, everything we're bitching and moaning about is just speculation, and we should infuse our responses with a little bit of respect for the fact that we don't really know shit yet.

There WILL be a bunch of playable builds in the future, and likely a public demo, and at each of these stages there will be chances for legitimate discussion about the new additions.

I can all but guarantee that all of these new features are here to stay in some form or another, though, so all of you people who are treating some of this stuff like it's the end of SC as we know it had better hunker down, because you might be in for a bumpy ride.

 

From what Kayane has said, it sounds like they might not even be set on the full cast of characters yet.

About 4 months ago they said they almost had the entire cast decided. It has to be set by now.

 

So if the opponent JGs your attack, and tries to use an attack that would normally be a punish, you can GI? Sounds interesting.

 

For people complaining about characters who didn't change, improve much...don't forget it's still a DEMO VERSION.

It's possible they still didn't finish the system of JG and Guard Impact.

And since there are several ways to charge the meters, it's not that long to be able to GI, it doesn't use a lot of the meter. I'm not sure exactly, but I think if you have "1" in the Soul Gauge, then you are able to use 4 GI in total. I think it will prevent people to GI too much. But the best is to GI someone who doesn't have meter enough to counter GI, so that's free.

I think they really worked more on Hilde, Pyrrha, Patroklos, ZWEI, and Ivy but didn't have time to develop other characters as much.

As for Tira for example, they can't say anything about the gameplay she'll follow, it's still in a state of development. So don't worry if she's still the same in SC5, it's because they just have included her in the game from SC4.
Same for Maxi etc...

Also, I couldn't change my configuration for the fightstick in the demo. The original config is that :

A, B (top buttons)
G, K, RT (bottom buttons)

 

So if the opponent JGs your attack, and tries to use an attack that would normally be a punish, you can GI? Sounds interesting.

what? im not sure what to think of this

 

So if the opponent JGs your attack, and tries to use an attack that would normally be a punish, you can GI? Sounds interesting.

No.

That's most likely a mistranslation. If your move gets JG, it isn't like a GI where you're put in a parried state. Your move continues into recovery giving the opponent room to punish you...you can't do anything to canceled or speed up the recovery of your move. In that window you're vulnerable to attacks.

That's why people said JG was similar to a Focus Attack. Because the attacker is stuck in recovery while JG absorbs the attack.

You can GI out of a parried state. I don't know how that works to be honest...maybe GIs cancel the parried state. Because you're in at least -20 recovery.

 

.....Wow...Y'all are fuckin' hilarious!

I'm wonderin' if we'll be able to have reJG battles like the reGI battles of the past iterations. I think that would be kinda interestin', and most likely a lot harder to do. I'm also wonderin' if there will be moves besides CEs that we won't be able to JG like GB moves. Also, it would be interestin' to see how all these mechanics work together like, will GIs still damage a Soul Gauge, will Soul Crushes continually happen until you try and refill your SG, and/or will JGing help refill a Soul Gauge?

All in all, very interestin' stuff and I can't wait to see more. [thankfully, I won't have to wait long]

Oh and on a side note, I agree wholeheartedly with UnseenWombat about Tira's ChiChis. I mean, she's had a rack ever since SCIII; even her SCV concept art has a rack. Why does her in-game model got her lookin' like she could be an emo Talim!? It's kinda weird, just sayin.....

 

Hello everybody, i think the subject it's worthy of talking about it, i mean the JG and the GI, humbly i think the GI system shouldn't be so drastically changed so it'd be nice if they leave it alone by that i mean

1. No meter to use it (actually there should be meter reward for doing it whether it is normal or just frame).
2. Keep both version of the GI 6G and 3G ( and with the 4G and 1G they might keep it the same or add the new whatever 4,1 a+b+k commands with the so far Broken JG)
3. If you can stop any string in the game with the JG such as BB, wow for free, that must be either the most hilarious crap or the dumbest thing ever.

In the long journey of reading most of this thread i read complains about the Soul Gauge that charges while attacking even if you don’t touch your enemy,............ Well i agree with that in about 70% , in any fighting game whiffing an attack is quite risky so for long recovery attacks i see it just fine and for fast recovery attacks the meter gain should be less or none.
And any move which only gets away from the opponent shouldn't get meter either for instance mmmm Yun's 4B+K well i think is like that.

Beside from what i read about GI and JG THE GAME IS LOOKING GREAT (ups and of course let's just sent half of the roster to their house... WTF.
i expect some Kali Yuga and Wind priestess in the game for God sake)

 

Kayane, in your blog, you said "I’ve not found the way to get her to whip stance".. I've been wondering if there is no set whip stance and the only way to access her whip moves is by holding the input, making all moves instantly available without having to juggle stances..
Since you've played the demo, what is your personal view on how her whip might be handled?

 

The moves that made her in whip stance, automatically returned to sword. And I didn't find a move that could change stance directly from sword to whip. But Ivy's command list changed too, so It may be just because I didn't have time to find those moves. Or that they didn't include the whip stance moves yet, since it's still a demo and that they had to change Ivy a lot (deleting stances..).

I think Ivy will still be a good character at different ranges.

 

Kayane what changes would you like to see with Leixia? And should or should she not have a love interest?

Thanks Kayster

 

I havent seen one Top Player complaining about this new game system, only some people who try to teach Soul Calibur to Saitoh. Furthermore 90% of this thread is false information. People think they can spam lows, people think this will lead to turtling etc...i call bullshit on all of that. Not one single dick has played this yet, still a bunch of people already know the impact on high level games. Really interesting.

If anybody in here is able to tell me why exactly this is bad instead of just whining "mimimimimimi i want Guard impact back, mimiimi it was always like that" than maybe i could take you guys serious. Right now its whining with ZERO backup, nothing else. So again why does this encourage turtling again?

People are spamming daishis twitter with bullshit, what a shame.

If anybody in here is able to tell me why exactly this is bad instead of just whining "mimimimimimi i want Guard impact back, mimiimi it was always like that" than maybe i could take you guys serious. Right now its whining with ZERO backup, nothing else. So again why does this encourage turtling again?

People are spamming daishis twitter with bullshit, what a shame.[/quote]
Well, it's too bad that you didn't have the time to read all the posts in here. But i was one such person who explained why. one of many! And to ask why the new system may be problematic, and then to ask why it would lead to turtling, are two different questions. I don't believe it will lead to turtling.

And did you need to say "dick"? Why's it gotta be like that?