Looking And Waiting For Something Special?

Update: Dec 25 - Patience finally pays off?

SC is back! Get ready, fans! http://twitpic.com/3j16ui

Well I'm sure most of you were worried, as all the surprises we've seen so far have been Tekken related! But you were promised something spectacular, and now you finally get what you've been waiting for... Daishi Odashima, Lead designer for the Soulcalibur series has just opened up his own twitter!

Odashima-san used to be a tournament player in Japan back in the Soulcalibur 1 days! Since he's the new director of all things Soulcalibur at Namco, and by his own admission, has the final say on his team; you should follow him on twitter. Merry Christmas everyone?

I say again!! The day has finally come when I can tell you all about it. Soul Calibur is BACK !!

Update: Dec 23 - Katsuhiro Harada recently unveiled a new trailer and character for Tekken Tag Tournament 2. He also promises that more surprises are on the way:

Thanks for tons of comment !! OK next !!
I have something new to tweet about tomorrow night. so get ready!
(Not a footage. But important)

Update: Dec 21 - from Katsuhiro Harada's twitter:

Sorry guys I'm so busy now.
However, I want to show you something within the course of a few days...

Original Post - Namco-Bandai's Katsuhiro Harada has been having a lot of fun with his twitter account lately; their community manager FilthieRich is no different:

Looking and waiting for something special?
Make sure to continue following and tell your friends to stay tuned ....

What could this cryptic message possibly mean? Well that I couldn't really tell you. All I can say is that Namco-Bandai is probably planning some big surprises for the holiday, and you should pay attention to the twitter feeds. Just look at that face... you know he's up to no good!

We'll do our best to keep you updated with any relevant information here on 8WayRun.

 

Using complex inputs as a means of balance is lazy design. Really, complex inputs should only be used when necessary (like to avoid move overlap) , which 99% of the time, they aren't. People like being able to use their movelists. This idea wouldn't help anything at competitive level, and casuals would be disappointed- so it's a bad idea.

I absolutly agree with this! And I never understood why some characters in SCIV must bet that JF heavy. I am one of those players who don´t like that at all and avoid characters like that normally.

 

Most characters aren't JF heavy. And that works out fine for people who don't like JFs. Unless you really have your mind set on a character that is.

 

Im aware mina has a great SG game and one could say that's her niche, but Voldo and Ivy can both do it near as well and offer a LOT more. They are also a lot more safe so they don't have to worry about punishing constantly healing the SG.

%99.754332 of her best tools for working the soul gauge are safe. I don't see where unsafety is an issue here. Voldo and Ivy definitely are better at it than she is, though.

On Topic

Now, who else here thinks SC5 should have the grab system like Tekken??!!??! ANYONE????!!!!!?

 

Now, who else here thinks SC5 should have the grab system like Tekken??!!??! ANYONE????!!!!!?

Certainly not me.

 

I don't see where unsafety is an issue here. Voldo and Ivy definitely are better at it than Mina is, though.

I agree with that, what about Amy?

 

I like the grabbing as is but the damage should be less as it was in BD. There's really no need for a grab to do too much damage. Ivy's command grab damage is fine because you can logically know which to break. Asta however gets a ton of damage and you cant really distinguish between grabs.

 

I really think no guest characters, bring back all original characters, use Broken Destiny's update and make Dampierre, maybe Kratos available for SCV. You can keep the low tiers and balance of the game, maybe just switch up the tier list a little. Make guardbreaks like SC2, different stage variations.. and not much else, I love how SCIV was made..

 

I think the starting point for SCV should be BD and not SCIV.
Does everybody think the same?
But because BD is programmed for the PSP would it better/easier to start out w/SCIV?

& does everybody think SCV will/should come out for the PS3 and 360?

 

I think the animations overall need to be improved. Especially some the victory poses, with all that exaggerated breathing and movements.

 

I enjoy how different the characters play (despite being much harder to balance) as opposed to having a balanced cast that play the same (all use variations of the same safe launcher and pokes). I believe that one of the FEW priorities over balance is to consider differences in playstyles. For example, I believe that the "clones" play noticeably different from each other (with obvious tier differences) but with minor changes to frames, damage and tracking I believe the tiers are easier to compress.

 

I agree with that, what about Amy?

What about her? Smack her in the face with a club.

 

I used to be for Tekken style but after a long debate leave it. I might agree high yield command grabs need their own like iCS/SS but leave the normals.

 

%99.754332 of her best tools for working the soul gauge are safe. I don't see where unsafety is an issue here. Voldo and Ivy definitely are better at it than she is, though.

On Topic

Now, who else here thinks SC5 should have the grab system like Tekken??!!??! ANYONE????!!!!!?

Tekken grab system is broken- really quick players can break grabs from reaction. SC has the best break system of any 3D fighter, though VF5FS's sounds nice. One change I would make, a few chars like Rock would gain G+K grabs with a K break to make it harder to break their grabs.

BTW I don't think Kratos will be a guest character period, as that's already been done in MK9. My suggestion has been to do guest costumes instead of guest characters, unless you're going to do what SamSho did and have a manga creator create a canon character (the Rurouni Kenshin guy designed Yoshitora in SamSho)

 

Most characters aren't JF heavy. And that works out fine for people who don't like JFs. Unless you really have your mind set on a character that is.

But like i said, there are some. Especially Setsuka, Yoshi and Cervantes. Damn, i really wanted to play Cervy but i don´t like all that JF inputs...

 

VF5 FS's throw break system is essentially the SC throw break system adapted to VF. Lol.

 

You won't see Rock and Mina win a major tournament, no matter how dedicated the player.

That's bullsh*t. If there is a highly skilled player that is dedicated enough and has enough of experience with the game, then it is possible. Kura getting second at Nats with Talim, and Omega getting top 8 at Evo with Zas already proved this.

And so, it is unfair for someone to have to think 10 steps ahead just to match a better character.

Just like how there are people who like to minimize how much they have to think by using Amy or Hilde, there are also some people who actually prefer to be forced to think 10 steps ahead of their opponent by using a low tier character. It gives a greater sense of satisfaction from winning, and provides more room for self improvement.

 

The lower tier characters could use some buffs for sure. But most of them are pretty competitive if you put the work in. The only characters I feel are really unlikely to win tournaments are Mina and Rock.

 

That's bullsh*t. If there is a highly skilled player that is dedicated enough and has enough of experience with the game, then it is possible. Kura getting second at Nats with Talim, and Omega getting top 8 at Evo with Zas already proved this.


Just like how there are people who like to minimize how much they have to think by using Amy or Hilde, there are also some people who actually prefer to be forced to think 10 steps ahead of their opponent by using a low tier character. It gives a greater sense of satisfaction from winning, and provides more room for self improvement.

You can design characters that require a lot of thinking, without making them competitively weak.


I'd also argue that any net positive satisfaction from tourney playing from winning with a low tier character is more then negated by people who can't compete with said character.

OOF, you can make the argument that SC4 was more balanced then people thought (I'd buy that argument), but not the argument that it's better that some characters are not good. In a balanced fighter, you'd probably find more room for self-improvement then in an imbalanced fighter.

 

You can design characters that require a lot of thinking, without making them competitively weak.

This is true... look at Ivy in SC2. On the books, she is the best character in the game. She has a way to literally deal with every move in the game. But in order to use her as so, you needed to be pretty godlike. I think I've heard people say the same thing about Sakura in MvC2 (or was it Third Strike, I have no idea); but they say that on the books, she is the best character in the game.

 

there are also some people who actually prefer to be forced to think 10 steps ahead of their opponent by using a low tier character. It gives a greater sense of satisfaction from winning, and provides more room for self improvement.

Indeed it does. However, the people who want to go that route are probably not the majority. And Namco (if they want to get into the resurrection of the fighting scene thing and make the game tournament worthy to enjoy the success other games have) is probably more interested in providing a more accessible game than providing some very low tier characters for which you have to work unjustifiably harder just so that people can feel realized.

The lower tier characters could use some buffs for sure. But most of them are pretty competitive if you put the work in. The only characters I feel are really unlikely to win tournaments are Mina and Rock.

But if you go against someone who put the work in a top tier character you would still be at a disadvantage.

You can design characters that require a lot of thinking, without making them competitively weak.

I'd also argue that any net positive satisfaction from tourney playing from winning with a low tier character is more then negated by people who can't compete with said character.

I fully agree with this.

Exactly. There will be a few who will do exceptionally with low tier characters, but we all can't be like those individuals. That's why it would be ideal for some characters to be in some acceptable level.