TaurusofTudor
[09] Warrior
Now, before you say anything, let's just get this out of the way.
I have a huge SCIII bias. It's my favorite game in the series so far, and I really want to get it for DLC. Now that that's out of the way...
SCIV's opening was boring. Flat. Out. Boring. Sure, they showed a few fights, but it was nothing compared to how the other games were started. They showed pretty much every character fighting at least one other character. The music used for these cinematics was exciting and got you in the mood for fighting. SCIV's opening music was good, but it didn't get you in the mood for fighting. It was sort of the music made for the rising action of a movie. It didn't belong opening(what we thought at the time) what was going to be the last game in a series; didn't give off the feeling that the openings that the rest of the games in the series had, which had almost entire plots.
Now, again, I mention how each character's story was put into play in the openings. In SCIII, each character's story, or at least part of it, was put into the opening. They were all previews that added to the exciting premise of the fighting we were about to witness. SCIV, on the other hand, just showed Ivy and Hilde circling one another and ending with a pretty boring stalemate; Astaroth attempting to terrorize Yoda set to music from Star Wars/Darth Vader fighting Mitsurugi with something that should have easily sliced his blade in two; Siegfried and Nightmare in their now elemental feud; and quite possibly the most tedious part of the cinematic, Algol's flashback. This part was almost infuriating at how much it wanted to make Algol look brooding and victimized by Soul Edge. It just made me think the character was obsessed with power.
Bringing back the topic of music, SCIII's music set the stage for each character's story. Siegfried's calling to Soul Edge, the single-handed slaughter of an army by Nightmare, witnessed by Zasalamel, Kilik and Xiaghua's reaction to his crystal(name escapes me, sorry), Tira sending in her watcher flock to steal a fragment from Raphael, Setsuka's search for revenge against Mitsurugi, Sophitia and Cassandra's alliance against the terror of Astaroth; Ivy's struggle with her undead father who persists in trying to kill her, even insignificant events like Taki fighting Voldo was set to an up-tempo, powerful musical score. In SCIV, the music was very slow and hardly fitting for the(at the time) end-all game in a very influential series.
And one more thing: SCIV used the actualgraphics engine, instead of the shinier animations used in previous installments. This definitely added to the experience in the older games. Again, I bring up SCIII, but also II. They had possibly the prettiest openings because of how it was portrayed. The animations did things the in-game models could not, or rather, did not. I really feel a lot less effort was put into the opening of SCIV.
There's my ramblings for now. Please, take the time to vote which installment's opening was your favorite, tell me in a post which one it was, and why! I really want to hear other people's opinions.
All that said, I hope the opening styles from the older games returns in SCV. It would definitely make me a lot more excited for the game, that's for sure.
I have a huge SCIII bias. It's my favorite game in the series so far, and I really want to get it for DLC. Now that that's out of the way...
SCIV's opening was boring. Flat. Out. Boring. Sure, they showed a few fights, but it was nothing compared to how the other games were started. They showed pretty much every character fighting at least one other character. The music used for these cinematics was exciting and got you in the mood for fighting. SCIV's opening music was good, but it didn't get you in the mood for fighting. It was sort of the music made for the rising action of a movie. It didn't belong opening(what we thought at the time) what was going to be the last game in a series; didn't give off the feeling that the openings that the rest of the games in the series had, which had almost entire plots.
Now, again, I mention how each character's story was put into play in the openings. In SCIII, each character's story, or at least part of it, was put into the opening. They were all previews that added to the exciting premise of the fighting we were about to witness. SCIV, on the other hand, just showed Ivy and Hilde circling one another and ending with a pretty boring stalemate; Astaroth attempting to terrorize Yoda set to music from Star Wars/Darth Vader fighting Mitsurugi with something that should have easily sliced his blade in two; Siegfried and Nightmare in their now elemental feud; and quite possibly the most tedious part of the cinematic, Algol's flashback. This part was almost infuriating at how much it wanted to make Algol look brooding and victimized by Soul Edge. It just made me think the character was obsessed with power.
Bringing back the topic of music, SCIII's music set the stage for each character's story. Siegfried's calling to Soul Edge, the single-handed slaughter of an army by Nightmare, witnessed by Zasalamel, Kilik and Xiaghua's reaction to his crystal(name escapes me, sorry), Tira sending in her watcher flock to steal a fragment from Raphael, Setsuka's search for revenge against Mitsurugi, Sophitia and Cassandra's alliance against the terror of Astaroth; Ivy's struggle with her undead father who persists in trying to kill her, even insignificant events like Taki fighting Voldo was set to an up-tempo, powerful musical score. In SCIV, the music was very slow and hardly fitting for the(at the time) end-all game in a very influential series.
And one more thing: SCIV used the actualgraphics engine, instead of the shinier animations used in previous installments. This definitely added to the experience in the older games. Again, I bring up SCIII, but also II. They had possibly the prettiest openings because of how it was portrayed. The animations did things the in-game models could not, or rather, did not. I really feel a lot less effort was put into the opening of SCIV.
There's my ramblings for now. Please, take the time to vote which installment's opening was your favorite, tell me in a post which one it was, and why! I really want to hear other people's opinions.
All that said, I hope the opening styles from the older games returns in SCV. It would definitely make me a lot more excited for the game, that's for sure.