One year in, how do you rank Soulcalibur VI relative to the rest of the series?

If pressed for a choice, where would you rank Soulcalibur VI as an entry in the franchise?

  • The best there has been

    Votes: 7 12.7%
  • Tied for first

    Votes: 12 21.8%
  • Second best

    Votes: 13 23.6%
  • Tied for second

    Votes: 3 5.5%
  • Third best

    Votes: 10 18.2%
  • Tied for third

    Votes: 5 9.1%
  • Fourth best

    Votes: 3 5.5%
  • Fifth best

    Votes: 2 3.6%
  • Sixth best

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Seventh best or below (yikes)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    55
I rank SCVI the second best, the overall gameplay, feel and CaS keeps me playing this game despite not being very good at it like I used to be back in the SCII days. I've been playing the Soul series since Soul Blade on the PS1 and the one I played the most and was at my best was SCII on the OG XBOX. I used to go to local tournaments and I was a Seong Mina main and Talim secondary. I did pretty good for being local tournaments in my area but nothing special compared to the pros. I'm more of a casual these days but I still enjoy the series, the lore and of course, the CaS mode. SCII will be the best for me mostly because it was an overall solid package and I have many fond memories playing with friends when we all gathered and had our own mini tournaments in our homes. Just like system linking 4 XBOX's to play Halo CE and their own TV's facing away from each other for gameplay reasons but when we gathered to play SCII, we put the TV's side by side so that everyone could watch the action unfold. As far as SCVI, I play with a few friends but not like before, many sadly have grown up and drifted away from video games period. I'll keep playing and supporting the devs with buying the DLC to keep the Soul Burning and hope for more SC games for years to come but don't expect me to hang with the pros, I'll try my best though, lol.
 
I've edited the title of the thread (originally "Six Months in...") because I'm curious if any opinions have changed significantly in the last three months, seeing as EVO has come and gone (as have several other of the most significant relevant esports events and industry shows of the year), the first season pass is here in its entirety now and capable of being assessed, and a second has been announced and partially revealed. I have to say that though I have occasionally been a strong critic of some of the design choices in this game, I've always felt that the game could be improved by considerable continuing support and thought there was real potential for this to happen in this case--given I believe Namco has just been looking for more opportunities to advance this distribution model. Thankfully, I think things are panning out in that manner, and both the general idea of an expansion of content and some of the specifics that have been released regarding season two, have improved my hopes that the game may be shored up in some of the areas where it is presently lacking.

Of course new characters are always great and we could be fairly certain that we would get these if there were further season passes--likewise for additional CaS. But the inclusion of a guest character, based on the game's design to date, suggests at least one new stage, and the devs seem to be committing at last to still more, if recent comments are to be taken at face value. That's going to be at least something to address what I think is this game's single biggest content deficiency issue. I'm also extremely heartened to hear the devs expressly address at last that the hardcore players have significant concerns about how RE really damages the traditional pacing of the game, especially online where the netcode and matchmaking are not up to the task of preventing abuse. I fully appreciate why they feel, as designers, that they cannot do a full retreat on this and remove it entirely from the game, when they integrated it as a part of game balance. The thing is, I thought the best we would get with regard to RE is that it would just be substantially nerfed from a few different angles (which, the devs do seem to be still toying with), but instead we've now seen that PS are considering adding new mechanics to allow players the opprtunity to avoid the showdown, or punish without the need to step, which can be complicated by the online reliability issues.

Add on top of all of this the fact that all characters are getting a couple of new moves (and thus, new combos and dynamics) and I think we get to expect a handful of freebie CaS items now and again, and I feel like Namco is (ever so slowly) building this game up to be a title truly worthy of series standards. Its good to know that, even though they may not be the most vocal, engaged team ever, the devs seem to at least have the more important part of the equation down: they have still been listening.
 
Still 4th best behind Soulcalibur I,II & III, it has better character graphics, bland and blurry stages with overdone depth of field effects.

Inferior gameplay with oversimplified control inputs, 1 button triggered fake super combos & constant cinematic interruptions due to RE & CE.

With the added content of Season Pass 1, it is a good & funny game with design flaws that prevent it from being a masterpiece.
 
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Still 4th best behind Soulcalibur I,II & III, it has better character graphics, bland and blurry stages with overdone depth of field effects.

Inferior gameplay with oversimplified control inputs, 1 button triggered super combos & constant cinematic interruptions due to RE & CE.

With the added content of Season Pass 1, it is a good & funny game with flaws that prevent it from being a masterpiece.

Agreed as to the ranking: I still place this game fourth best of the seven mainline games (although my top three are SCII-SCIV). Still, if we see three season passes (which would, when combined, move this game from having one of the smaller rosters and CaS content loads, to being largest in those classes), the stage selection is substantially improved, and RE/CE get neutered/countered a bit to improve match pacing to be closer to the continuous rapid-decision exchange that the series is known for, I could -easily- see upgrading this game into the 1st class tier. But that would especially hinge on the improvements to stage selection and pacing via mechanics, personally.

There are also some smaller tweaks that I feel also add to some optimism: the expansion of GI mechanics, and the fact that you can perhaps now combo through soul charges? If nothing else, I'm generally liking the direction they are headed in. I believe they recognize at this point that the blue ocean sales phase is over and now it is about catering to the hardcore fans who are going to be most likely to continue to buy new content at this point.
 
Agreed as to the ranking: I still place this game fourth best of the seven mainline games (although my top three are SCII-SCIV). Still, if we see three season passes (which would, when combined, move this game from having one of the smaller rosters and CaS content loads, to being largest in those classes), the stage selection is substantially improved, and RE/CE get neutered/countered a bit to improve match pacing to be closer to the continuous rapid-decision exchange that the series is known for, I could -easily- see upgrading this game into the 1st class tier. But that would especially hinge on the improvements to stage selection and pacing via mechanics, personally.

There are also some smaller tweaks that I feel also add to some optimism: the expansion of GI mechanics, and the fact that you can perhaps now combo through soul charges? If nothing else, I'm generally liking the direction they are headed in. I believe they recognize at this point that the blue ocean sales phase is over and now it is about catering to the hardcore fans who are going to be most likely to continue to buy new content at this point.

Yes, the teaser trailer of Season 2 seems to suggest the dev team is willing to improve the core gameplay.

Add some quality of life options for CaS, GFX and it will surely be a better game that hopefully sells even more to secure future Soulcalibur content.
 
How do you feel about Meter and RE? I feel as though these games simply need "supers" in some form to appeal to casual audiences and streaming viewers.

Though I understand a lot of effort has gone into tweaking characters based on meter usage, soul charge exclusive moves and Reversal Edge options.

Then there's the gimmicks for each character. Which in a vacuum is really cool, but makes it kind of daunting for people to just pick up and play when there's so much going on under the surface. The game appears to be simple but theres a lot of complexities....

Should the series go back to the SC1/2/3 method of gameplay without flashy meter usage? Or should we try refining what 5 started and 6 continued?

I still view this game as 3rd best in the series until more content comes out and balance changes.
 
You can tell by my signature that i’m not a fan of RE and never Will be. My complaints about RE are so big i could probably write a book about it. CE could shorten down the animations. Otherwise i love the game and it almost has a shared number one spot with the third game. But still not quite
 
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blurry stages with overdone depth of field effects
This is still kinda dumb that it's a thing. It's not a thing on PC (or it was easily disabled? I forget exactly...), and the stages do look quite nice with the blur filter turned off, so there was work put into them, so it's just wasteful to hide them with the filter. They should remove this from consoles, too.

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Anyway, as for my own personal rating, the game has certainly improved, but if it's actually changed spots, I'm not entirely sure. My ranking before was:

1) I and II, tied
3) III
4) V
5) VI
6) IV

I think I may be able to change it to:

1) I and II, tied
3) III
4) V and VI, tied
6) IV

Which is, admittedly, not a really large change, but I acknowledge that VI has gotten better, and it has the potential to usurp V, but it hasn't yet. It still has some things holding it back, such as Reversal Edge, even with the nerfs, it's still just a literal showstopper, and I don't think I'll like that type of thing in the middle of a match, really ever. I look forward to the gameplay changes of season 2, which may alleviate this concern a bit. I still preferred the Critical Edge attacks from V overall, because they were quick and to the point, instead of also being a let's stop and watch for a bit moment. I also still miss Brave Edge, though it appears that season 2 may be bringing this back, if not something very similar, so that has me excited.

The addition of Amy and Cassandra to the mix has definitely been a good move, but both of these characters also exemplify, to me, everything wrong with the team's newfound (with this game) need to make almost every character magical or gimmicky special in one way or another. I don't really care for Amy's roses, and I'm not sure why they're necessary. Amy is/was already different enough than Raphael without them, and adding that extra level is more tedious than anything else, like Tira going for Gloomy Coda, you're not fully prepared for the fight from the start, you have to work for it... literally every match. Cassandra's isn't as pervasive, but I don't like the yellow lightning effect basically nullifying the weapon designs, forming a solid color sword/shield with a vague design. Sure, you can be on top of it, using the Divine Force abilities as soon as you have the ability to do so, but it's still just a bit of an eyesore overall, and I wish it was just the lightning, without the yellow aura.

Which is another big complaint of mine since the last time we talked about this, the visual effects being turned up to 13. I don't know why this is necessary, or even if what the expressed purpose seems to be (making it more exciting to watch?) is working. When I was watching EVO, I was not wowed by these effects, and if anything, they get in the way sometimes, if you're looking for something more technical, to see what's going on. I looked at some SoulCalibur II footage a few days ago, and yearn for those simpler times, without a fireworks display happening on my screen while I fight.

That being said, if they do improve on the gameplay, and the new moves added to each character are useful/substantial, the next batch of characters is maybe a bit less gimmicky, standing on their own merits, the new stage (not Haohmaru's, which may be nice in its own right) bringing something interesting to the table to set it apart from the other stages, and just in general, continued support of the game, it may be able to actually rise up in rank. For now, though, it's just gotten closer to an overall match for V, all things considered. VI has more things I like, but V was more fun to play.
 
I'm going to say third best for now. I love SC6 to death, but for me SC2 and especially SC3 were completely untouchable.

SC3 was the absolute Zenith in terms of content, and also had the best execution in terms of overall storytelling.

Tales of Souls combined enough text to get you interested without overwhelming, cinematics were implemented before or after pre-destined battles and endings, different outcomes were possible depending on route choices, and real rewards for making a lossless run all through the very end to match against Will' O The Wisp (Inferno), Olcadan and Night-Terror as hidden bosses.

That thrill of not having to lose a single battle and the sense of accomplishment is absent from Soul Chronicle & the current Arcade mode.
 
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This is still kinda dumb that it's a thing. It's not a thing on PC (or it was easily disabled? I forget exactly...), and the stages do look quite nice with the blur filter turned off, so there was work put into them, so it's just wasteful to hide them with the filter. They should remove this from consoles, too.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, as for my own personal rating, the game has certainly improved, but if it's actually changed spots, I'm not entirely sure. My ranking before was:

1) I and II, tied
3) III
4) V
5) VI
6) IV

I think I may be able to change it to:

1) I and II, tied
3) III
4) V and VI, tied
6) IV

Which is, admittedly, not a really large change, but I acknowledge that VI has gotten better, and it has the potential to usurp V, but it hasn't yet. It still has some things holding it back, such as Reversal Edge, even with the nerfs, it's still just a literal showstopper, and I don't think I'll like that type of thing in the middle of a match, really ever. I look forward to the gameplay changes of season 2, which may alleviate this concern a bit. I still preferred the Critical Edge attacks from V overall, because they were quick and to the point, instead of also being a let's stop and watch for a bit moment. I also still miss Brave Edge, though it appears that season 2 may be bringing this back, if not something very similar, so that has me excited.

The addition of Amy and Cassandra to the mix has definitely been a good move, but both of these characters also exemplify, to me, everything wrong with the team's newfound (with this game) need to make almost every character magical or gimmicky special in one way or another. I don't really care for Amy's roses, and I'm not sure why they're necessary. Amy is/was already different enough than Raphael without them, and adding that extra level is more tedious than anything else, like Tira going for Gloomy Coda, you're not fully prepared for the fight from the start, you have to work for it... literally every match. Cassandra's isn't as pervasive, but I don't like the yellow lightning effect basically nullifying the weapon designs, forming a solid color sword/shield with a vague design. Sure, you can be on top of it, using the Divine Force abilities as soon as you have the ability to do so, but it's still just a bit of an eyesore overall, and I wish it was just the lightning, without the yellow aura.

Which is another big complaint of mine since the last time we talked about this, the visual effects being turned up to 13. I don't know why this is necessary, or even if what the expressed purpose seems to be (making it more exciting to watch?) is working. When I was watching EVO, I was not wowed by these effects, and if anything, they get in the way sometimes, if you're looking for something more technical, to see what's going on. I looked at some SoulCalibur II footage a few days ago, and yearn for those simpler times, without a fireworks display happening on my screen while I fight.

That being said, if they do improve on the gameplay, and the new moves added to each character are useful/substantial, the next batch of characters is maybe a bit less gimmicky, standing on their own merits, the new stage (not Haohmaru's, which may be nice in its own right) bringing something interesting to the table to set it apart from the other stages, and just in general, continued support of the game, it may be able to actually rise up in rank. For now, though, it's just gotten closer to an overall match for V, all things considered. VI has more things I like, but V was more fun to play.

Yeah, I think that's worth noting: neither Amy nor Cassie came out quite as I would have hoped, and do, as you say, exemplify the "let's change everything at least a little! (...Or a lot!)" attitude they have towards design in this game. With Amy in particular, the degree to which she came out gimicky, needlessly convoluted to play and just far too altered from her classic gameplay, was the big disappointment of the year for me. She'd been my main for SCIII:AE and SCIV and I wouldn't have thought there'd be any doubt that I'd be maining her again whens he returned, but now (on the rare occasion I do get into a serious session, I've been looking back towards Taki, Talim, and 2B to get my rushdown vibes.

I also agree that the special effects are getting a little out of control. Some of them are welcome for broadcasting status conditions when you play against someone, but even those could stand to be toned down a little. Other effects are just borderline superfluous and certainly overdone. It's a peculiar choice, when the game's performance is not 100% to begin with, and the backgrounds you reference are left blurry for presumably exactly that reason.
 
How do you feel about Meter and RE? I feel as though these games simply need "supers" in some form to appeal to casual audiences and streaming viewers.

Though I understand a lot of effort has gone into tweaking characters based on meter usage, soul charge exclusive moves and Reversal Edge options.


Should the series go back to the SC1/2/3 method of gameplay without flashy meter usage? Or should we try refining what 5 started and 6 continued?

I still view this game as 3rd best in the series until more content comes out and balance changes.

Yes, the series should restore the true gameplay essence that made Soulcalibur unique & stellar, a delicate balance between vertical attack, horizontal attack & 8way-run.

A purity of essence mode would be a welcomed addition in SP2.

The latest gameplay modifications with one button triggered super combo cinematics, multi-hit fake combos, one button triggered holds & grabs, guard breaks, have brought a copycat Capcomized style that imho dilutes the uniqueness of the franchise.

Sometimes less is way more...
 
My biggest pet peeve with this game is how random it feels. Many moves are safe or barely punishable, tracking verticals, RE, one button suppers - it all adds up to the feel that there isn't much control in this game and makes it feel quite spammy. It's difficult for me to wrap this up coherently but I feel like some things are just wrong or perhaps simply different.
Not to mention those overwhelming effects...
Tried to get back into the game thanks to Cassandra but it still feels so strange and oftentimes - frustrating to play
Also thought about damage being a bit too high overall. I think that making health 150% would make it feel better but on that I'm aint sure
 
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This is still kinda dumb that it's a thing. It's not a thing on PC (or it was easily disabled? I forget exactly...), and the stages do look quite nice with the blur filter turned off, so there was work put into them, so it's just wasteful to hide them with the filter. They should remove this from consoles,
_---------------------


Which is another big complaint of mine since the last time we talked about this, the visual effects being turned up to 13. I don't know why this is necessary, or even if what the expressed purpose seems to be (making it more exciting to watch?) is working. When I was watching EVO, I was not wowed by these effects, and if anything, they get in the way sometimes, if you're looking for something more technical, to see what's going on. I looked at some SoulCalibur II footage a few days ago, and yearn for those simpler times, without a fireworks display happening on my screen while I fight.

Not the best design choice for sure, saturating the screen with constant over the top lightning & explosions gets tiresome and ends up making them ordinary since they are always there.

It is the equivalent of setting bass & treble to max settings on your audio receiver when listening to music, dynamic range and sutble details are ruined with uncontrolled bass & strident highs, after a few minutes it can become quite tiresome.

Once again, less is more, special GFX effects should be used to enhance not to saturate.
 
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Inferior gameplay with oversimplified control inputs

I find this quite baffling when the only thing that I would say comes close to oversimplified is that there has been a unification of command inputs across all characters. 3B is a launcher, A+B is break attack, B+K is special moves such stances and a rejigging of moves so say 1B is universally a low vertical. The philosophy of the mechanics is IMO the best in the series as it has a logic behind it plus characters like Ivy no longer have a bloated moveset, her whip moves are no longer behind a stance but are activated by holding the attack buttons making it much like the core mechanics of having logic behind it. If you're saying that past games like SC2 are superior with it's control inputs then I say are you out of your mind. I've been studying pretty much all the characters moves across all games and I can say the commands for the inputs look like they've been cobbled together. Not only that but a lot of characters have more moves that are unique to them than ever before. Stuff that I think need adding is advance guard and more wakeup attack options but overall for most characters they're feature rich.

As for me which is the best in the series I can easily say it's SC6 but only it's gameplay. It's flawed with RE but all the new stuff has been fantasitc even if in so areas there's been a few misfires. Past games have done a better job with single player content but SC6 isn't the worst in the series, I would say it's third as the character arcs are well executed with how budgeted they are but in terms of stages SC6 is bottom tier with only four stages being memorable.
 
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I find this quite baffling when the only thing that I would say comes close to oversimplified is that there has been a unification of command inputs across all characters. 3B is a launcher, A+B is break attack, B+K is special moves such stances and a rejigging of moves so say 1B is universally a low vertical. The philosophy of the mechanics is IMO the best in the series as it has a logic behind it plus characters like Ivy no longer have a bloated moveset, her whip moves are no longer behind a stance but are activated by holding the attack buttons making it much like the core mechanics of having logic behind it. If you're saying that past games like SC2 are superior with it's control inputs then I say are you out of your mind. I've been studying pretty much all the characters moves across all games and I can say the commands for the inputs look like they've been cobbled together. Not only that but a lot of characters have more moves that are unique to them than ever before. Stuff that I think need adding is advance guard and more wakeup attack options but overall for most characters they're feature rich.

As for me which is the best in the series I can easily say it's SC6 but only it's gameplay. It's flawed with RE but all the new stuff has been fantasitc even if in so areas there's been a few misfires. Past games have done a better job with single player content but SC6 isn't the worst in the series, I would say it's third as the character arcs are well executed with how budgeted they are but in terms of stages SC6 is bottom tier with only four stages being memorable.

Previous installments of Soulcalibur were tested & refined at the arcades, command inputs had careful consideration to balance the potential damage, risk & effort associated with any given move.

To attempt any grab two buttons had to be pressed simultaneously, a subtle difference that made players actually commit 2 fingers.

The current design philosophy favors minimal effort & low risk one-button triggered uber moves.

Command inputs have been oversimplified in a bad way like this:

RE - Pull a single trigger + cinematic
CE - Pull a single trigger + cinematic
Grabs & holds - Pull a single trigger all day long.

Pick Nightmare, charge up, press A+B twice, now drop the controller, grab a beer and watch as the automation takes control & delivers a fake multi-hit combo that can take half the life bar of your opponent with a good chance of forcing a ring out.

There is absolutely no reward in performing the aforementioned fake combo and winning a match.
 
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Previous installments of Soulcalibur were tested & refined at the arcades, command inputs had careful consideration to balance the potential damage, risk & effort associated with any given move.

To attempt any grab two buttons had to be pressed simultaneously, a subtle difference that made players actually commit 2 fingers.

The current design philosophy favors minimal effort & low risk one-button triggered uber moves.

Command inputs have been oversimplified in a bad way like this:

RE - Pull a single trigger + cinematic
CE - Pull a single trigger + cinematic
Grabs & holds - Pull a single trigger all day long.

Pick Nightmare, charge up, press A+B twice, now drop the controller, grab a beer and watch as the automation takes control & delivers a fake multi-hit combo that can take half the life bar of your opponent, with a good chance of forcing a ring out.

There is absolutely no reward in performing the aforementioned fake combo and winning a match.
That still applies to most of the series. I can’t say anything for Soul Blade (never played it), but every console edition game I’ve played has allowed for button mapping.

Aside from that, if you want the inputs to be more complex, remove their mapping.
CE = A+B+K
RE = B+G
Throw = A+G
Etc.
 
Previous installments of Soulcalibur were tested & refined at the arcades, command inputs had careful consideration to balance the potential damage & risk associated with any given move.

SC3 was the last arcade Soul Calibur game.

To attempt any grab two buttons had to be pressed simultaneously, a subtle difference that made players actually commit 2 fingers.

The mixup still exists, your argument is one of preference rather than simplification. In the feedback you should ask for the option to have the original throw break command.

Command inputs have been oversimplified in a bad way like this:

RE - Pull a single trigger + cinematic
CE - Pull a single trigger + cinematic
Grabs & holds - Pull a single trigger all day long.

Then don't use the shoulder buttons if it bothers you that much. Apart from the throw break you can execute these commands with just four buttons.

Pick Nightmare, charge up, press A+B twice, now drop the controller, grab a beer and watch as the automation takes control & delivers a fake multi-hit combo that can take half the life bar of your opponent, and has a good chance of forcing a ring out.

There is absolutely no reward in performing the aforementioned fake combo and winning a match.

I get it you get no satisfaction from playing characters with little to no execution. All I can say is pick characters that do require a level of execution. Even though Nightmare has a satisfying just frame :bA: from :3::(B):, Gules Obliteration ruins the character for you.
 
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