Soul Calibur 6 Discussion

[CFW]

(maybe by Hoshino himself because of his strong relationship with fans on social networks)

I laughed.

 

[Nyte]

(maybe by Hoshino himself because of his strong relationship with fans on social networks)

If he had a strong relationship with fans, he wouldn't keep feeding us bullshit while continuing to taint Soulcalibur's once respectable name.

 

[Jeromeice]

When I say "strong relationship", it means that he reads the comments.
On this case, Hoshino leaved a comment and I responded some minutes later.
It's not easy to keep sane the link with "fans" or customers when 98% of them says"brillant stuff" like "fuck you Namco, you bitch" ect ... go to see their Facebook page ..that's really disappointing and childish .

 

[Jeromeice]

Maybe Project Soul was about to crash after SCV ..and it's a complicated situation from a "business" point of view , though I don't really like to talk business that much..

 

[Nyte]

When I say "strong relationship", it means that he reads the comments.
On this case, Hoshino leaved a comment and I responded some minutes later.
It's not easy to keep sane the link with "fans" or customers when 98% of them says"brillant stuff" like "fuck you Namco, you bitch" ect ... go to see their Facebook page ..that's really disappointing and childish .

Well if they didn't keep pushing out crap like HD Online, Lost Swords, and Unbreakable Soul rather than what fans actually want (SCVI), people wouldn't be mad at them. The only positive thing about those games is that they're cheap, take very little effort to make, and they (hopefully) are funding SCVI's development.

 

[Jeromeice]

I really want to know why Project Soul has been disbanded after SC 4 ? But after some research, I didn't find any response .

 

[Nyte]

I really want to know why Project Soul have been disbanded after SC 4 ?

What?

 

[Jeromeice]

I corrected =p my english isn't perfect

 

[Nyte]

I really want to know why Project Soul has been disbanded after SC 4 ? But after some research, I didn't find any response .

I remember hearing that SCIV was supposed to be the series finale. After that game, director Katsutoshi Sasaki left Project Soul, while producer Hiroaki Yotoriyama stepped down from his role and became the Intellectual Property Manager. After the high demand, they reorganized the team with Daishi Odashima taking over as director, and Hisaharu Tago becoming the new producer. They set their sights on taking the series into a new (awful) direction and they said there would be a Soulcalibur VI, VII, VIII, and IX.

Get this, Daishi originally wanted SCV to be called "Soul Edge II" but Namco vetoed it. Namco in an admittingly dick move, cut their funding and forced them to develop SCV in less than year, which probably tells me they didn't have a whole lot of faith in the project. Then they abruptly pulled the plug on all DLC, leading to numbered packs not getting sequels. Sometime afterward, Daishi Odashima and Hisaharu Tago both left the team, with Masaki Hoshino (the former programming director) filling in both positions. We'll see what his vision for the series is when a true sequel is finally announced, but the roster of LS gives me a pretty good idea which is why I still have faith in him after three shitty spin-offs.

 

[Jeromeice]

Thank you for the answer and all this precisions ! Mmm .. I can see things much clearer now .

So there are some big outstanding issues :


1 - Have Project Soul been "dismissed" since SC IV because of the departure of his main director and some other important crew members ?? It involves :

a) Is there really a big financial problem for the development of the next episodes ? (damn, this is strange from Namco, the SC have been very successful so far ..at least up to SC IV )

b) Is there any time restrictions ?

2 -Is the story still canon ?? (Fuck, that was awkward from Daishi, a 17 years drop was so risky ..)

a) What will happen to Patroklos and Pyrrah ? ( damn, only 2 years apart with Cassandra because she isn't supposed to age anymore in Astral Chaos ..what a mess)

b) When will Sc6 take take place ?


Maybe they take their time to turn the corner and think about all these kind of questions ..

 

[Nyte]

Thank you for the answer and all this precisions ! Mmm .. I can see things much clearer now .

So there are some big outstanding issues :


1 - Have Project Soul been "dismissed" since SC IV because of the departure of his main director and some other important crew members ?? It involves :

a) Is there really a big financial problem for the development of the next episodes ? (damn, this is strange from Namco, the SC have been very successful so far ..at least up to SC IV )

b) Is there any time restrictions ?

2 -Is the story still canon ?? (Fuck, that was awkward from Daishi, a 17 years drop was so risky ..)

a) What will happen to Patroklos and Pyrrah ? ( damn, only 2 years apart with Cassandra because she isn't supposed to age anymore in Astral Chaos ..what a mess)

b) When will Sc6 take take place ?


Maybe they take their time to turn the corner and think about all these kind of questions ..

1 - Have Project Soul been "dismissed" since SC IV because of the departure of his main director and some other important crew members ??
I believe most of the core members involved with the SC series since the early days are still around. Masaki Hashino (Director/Producer), Katsuhiro Harada (Producer), Hiroaki Yatoriyama (Intellectual Property Manager, former Producer and Creator of SC), Takuji Kawano (Design Artist), and Junichi Nakatsuru (Composer) are still part of the team to the best of my knowledge. The only important people out of the picture I believe are the numerous directors of SC games I-IV, and of course Daishi and Tago. Project Soul is still largely the same despite multiple changes in management.

a) Is there really a big financial problem for the development of the next episodes ? (damn, this is strange from Namco, the SC have been very successful so far ..at least up to SC IV )
Apparently there is, because Namco for some reason has been treating SC poorly the last several years. They cut both the staff and funding during the development for SCV for who knows what reason. SCV would have been a flop if it weren't made on such a low budget. I'm betting since HD Online, Lost Swords, and Unbreakable Soul are incredibly cheap and easy to make, they are using those games to add to the funding of SCVI. It just seems obvious when you think about it.

b) Is there any time restrictions ?
For SCV there was. The story was going to be four times as long as what we got, and it (presumably) would have been made entirely in cutscene. Not that it would have been good necessarily, if the quarter we did get is any indication, but it would have actually explained things. They actually had all the voice work done for the other 3/4ths of the game, but they didn't have the time to put it all in.

2 -Is the story still canon ?? (Fuck, that was awkward from Daishi, a 17 years drop was so risky ..)
That's actually really hard to say. If you go the character page on the SCV website (http://www.soulcalibur.com/en_US.html#/characters/soulcalibur5/all) you'll notice that the profiles have been modified. Most of the returning characters (including legacy characters Nightmare, Astaroth, and Yoshimitsu) have been reverted back to their SCIV profiles. The only exception to this is Raphael, who's backstory has been rewritten. Viola and Natsu backstories were removed entirely, while the others have been edited. Patroklos backstory basically says he's an asshole like we all know him to be, while going out of it's way to tell you how awesome Sophitia is (which fits in line with her apparently being Hoshino's favorite character). Pyrrha's backstory now states that Sophitia is "missing" rather than deceased. Also E.I.N. has been renamed Minion. Seriously check it out.

Still it's hard to be certain if this is actually foreshadowing some massive retcon. We'll just have to wait and see.

a) What will happen to Patroklos and Pyrrah ? ( damn, only 2 years apart with Cassandra because she isn't supposed to age anymore in Astral Chaos ..what a mess)
I'm not sure. Since they were the only characters introduced in SCV that return in Lost Swords, I have a feeling they'll stick around sadly even if we get all the old characters back.

b) When will Sc6 take take place ?
I can't say. We'll have to wait and find out. Hoshino seems to prefer the old characters, yet Lost Swords is based on SCV which is kind of confusing.

 

[Jeromeice]

Damn, that is an answer !

And yeah, I agree with most of things you said .

I wonder if there was any sort of agreement between Project Soul and Namco, like : "Okay, we will give you more time and we will support the next SC if PS can grab enough money to make the project relevant enough" ..

or something like : "we haven't full confidence with the serie because of SCV's fail, but we will give you 50% of the funds , and you have to find the other half by yourselves" .

 

[HydroJames]

What do you think is wrong with SCV? The competitive players seem to favour the the game-play mechanics in that game.

 

[Jeromeice]

I have always been interested in the SC universe and its creativity more than the mechanic itself .

I prefer to watch all the characters, their costume, their attacks, the story and relationship between them .
I'm a big fan of SC ost (as a musician and music freak), and Junichi Nakatsuru is a musical influence for me .
And also, the visual design of the game is brilliant : colors, ideas, stages ect ..

SCV lacks a bit of everything (appart for character design, which is one of the best of the entire saga, in my opinion ..) , plus the fact that the story has been cut down up to 75% .. And these mimics character makes me totally mad, shit that was a bad joke from them ..

 

[HydroJames]

I have always been interested in the SC universe and its creativity more than the mechanic itself .

I prefer to watch all the characters, their costume, their attacks, the story and relationship between them .
I'm a big fan of SC ost (as a musician and music freak), and Junichi Nakatsuru is a musical influence for me .
And also, the visual design of the game is brilliant : colors, ideas, stages ect ..

SCV lacks a bit of everything (appart for character design, which is one of the best of the entire saga, in my opinion ..) , plus the fact that the story has been cut down up to 75% .. And these mimics character makes me totally mad, shit that was a bad joke from them ..

I agree with you and whole mimic character thing, but I think SCV had a good story, but it wasn't presented well due to rushed development...

...and what do you mean by everything?

 

[Nyte]

What do you think is wrong with SCV? The competitive players seem to favour the the game-play mechanics in that game.

It would actually be quicker to list the things that are right with the game. Here they are:

-Improved, addictive character customization. This is the diamond hidden in the pile of garbage. I actually bought the game again (at a bargain price of course) just so I could participate in the CAS board.

-Sidestepping. It was sorely missing from SCIV.

That's about it. Now, lets list what's wrong with the game:

-A story that makes me mad just thinking about it. It is so poorly written, contrived, and pack with ass pulls and incest. Now before anyone says "story doesn't matter in a fighting game!" No. Story does matter when you attempt to tell one, which SCV did. The "story" is the reason why we had to lose our longtime fan-favorite characters (more on that in a second) and this is just s slap to the face to all of Soulcalibur's lore. Lore that was WASTED. The series has so much, and it was wasted telling a wannabe shonen anime story. The older games had a historic fantasy setting, with some anime influence. SCV goes completely generic as fuck by changing it to a boring anime setting.

-The stalwart fan-favorite characters were gone, and in their place were some of the worst characters ever. Out of all the new characters Patroklos is the worst. Seriously, he's the worst "hero" in the history of fiction. They try to tell you he's a "knight of justice" and blah blah blah and that we should accept him as the new hero of the series. He's a self-absorbed, cocky, naive, ungrateful, revenge-seeking, racist asshole. In fact, his sister Pyrrha who one the main antagonists of the game doing Tira's bidding, is actually BRAVER and MORE HEROIC than him. How's is that even possible. As for the rest, they're just generic anime rip-offs just like the game turned the setting into. A complete slap in the face to the originals, but I don't think anymore needs to be said about that. Z.W.E.I. is the only new character I like, and even then I hate his design.

-No content. The game is an absolute bare-bones experience, even the improve CAS features mostly recycled content outside of DLC. No museum, nothing to do outside of basic fights, nothing.

-The gameplay is derivative and unbalanced. Daishi's idea of "innovation" was to just rip-off Street Fighter and tack it onto Soulcalibur. These mechanics make the game feel less unique, it doesn't have that SC feel like the other games do. Oh and Natsu anyone? The characters were completely unbalanced with characters like Natsu being overpowered and characters like Z.W.E.I. being underpowered.

Also, I would like to add that those "competitive players" they were trying to appeal to dropped the game after a year. Who gives games staying power? 99% of the people who buy the games, that's who. They shouldn't be treated like they're the only ones who matter.

 

[Jeromeice]

MMmm yeah I agree with the "competitive player" thing, I don't think that SC should focus on core-player more than casuals who wants to have good time and watch a beautiful game with plenty of contents without thinking about winning and winning etc .. that's a balance . Though I respect competition and all the gameplay stuffs, content has always been very important to me .

Also, I found disappointing to make the story based on 2 news characters never introduced before, there is a clear lack of mark in the story for everyone who played the entire saga : okay, this is cool to switch the main plot to another character (SC2 ,SC3 and SC4 were focused mainly on Siegfried and Nightmare) , but in SCV we have 2 unknown characters and a very specific synopsis which is not really connected with all the roster. That was a bit awkward (like my english but never-mind =p).

SC3 has the best contents (and they developed it in less than 2 years), plenty of stuff everywhere, that was really magic and I could spent hours on trying to get everything unlocked, buying stuff in the shop, discover all the new attacks and moves -> look at that : interactive cutscenes for every characters, chronicle of the Swords mode, different special battle mode, challenges (colossus ect ..), lively arenas, impressive roster (a bit too much IMO but wow !), beautiful musics, intro cinematic , CAS etc ... etc ...
-> when you compare that to SCV, there are clear differences .. I really miss SC2, SC3 (a bit SC4) times ..

I wonder why character doesn't have more attacks between each episodes ?? I know that it is a complex process , with all the programming, motion capture, balance etc.. but I've always found exciting to discover again all the characters you love and change your fighting strategies after that .

 

[Nyte]

Yeah, they got a long way to go to fix the series reputation. I think SC has an even worse reputation than DOA at this point.

 

[Project Bokuho]

I remember hearing that SCIV was supposed to be the series finale. After that game, director Katsutoshi Sasaki left Project Soul, while producer Hiroaki Yotoriyama stepped down from his role and became the Intellectual Property Manager. After the high demand, they reorganized the team with Daishi Odashima taking over as director, and Hisaharu Tago becoming the new producer. They set their sights on taking the series into a new (awful) direction and they said there would be a Soulcalibur VI, VII, VIII, and IX.

Get this, Daishi originally wanted SCV to be called "Soul Edge II" but Namco vetoed it. Namco in an admittingly dick move, cut their funding and forced them to develop SCV in less than year, which probably tells me they didn't have a whole lot of faith in the project. Then they abruptly pulled the plug on all DLC, leading to numbered packs not getting sequels. Sometime afterward, Daishi Odashima and Hisaharu Tago both left the team, with Masaki Hoshino (the former programming director) filling in both positions. We'll see what his vision for the series is when a true sequel is finally announced, but the roster of LS gives me a pretty good idea which is why I still have faith in him after three shitty spin-offs.

So that explains why Project Soul was disbanded back then. Interesting.

2 -Is the story still canon ?? (Fuck, that was awkward from Daishi, a 17 years drop was so risky ..)
That's actually really hard to say. If you go the character page on the SCV website (http://www.soulcalibur.com/en_US.html#/characters/soulcalibur5/all) you'll notice that the profiles have been modified. Most of the returning characters (including legacy characters Nightmare, Astaroth, and Yoshimitsu) have been reverted back to their SCIV profiles. The only exception to this is Raphael, who's backstory has been rewritten. Viola and Natsu backstories were removed entirely, while the others have been edited. Patroklos backstory basically says he's an asshole like we all know him to be, while going out of it's way to tell you how awesome Sophitia is (which fits in line with her apparently being Hoshino's favorite character). Pyrrha's backstory now states that Sophitia is "missing" rather than deceased. Also E.I.N. has been renamed Minion. Seriously check it out.

Still it's hard to be certain if this is actually foreshadowing some massive retcon. We'll just have to wait and see.

When I noticed that the profiles were gone I thought I was just seeing things at first (lol). Now I'm even more curious as to what they'll do with SCV, connoned-wise.

 

[darkwings13]

For the most part, SCV's story has been 99.9999% unpopular, which is probably why the character's profiles got changed on SC's website. They're most likely going to use that 'Astral Chaos= Powers to change the past/future" move to push the story back into a direction they think will be more favorable with the crowd. Such as bringing Sophi back to life???? bringing back Amy (she just seems to be pretty ill from Raph's new bio), etc.
Ppl are obviously missing their fav character's that were cut COUGH-TAKI/ZAS/TALIM/ETC-COUGH so it's a smart move to make to try and bring them back.

But for now, nothing much can be said. Tekken has to be worked on and SC:Lost Bullshizz still needs to milk more money from ppl. We're all gonna have to keep waiting. (>P_P) good thing Dragon Age Inqusition that's coming out and my chem hw will keep me busy in the meantime.