Soul Calibur VI: General discussion

[Soul Knight]

eh, I've seen worse DLC practices from other games/companies.

the only thing here that could be questionable was making Tira a preorder bonus for the Season Pass when it seems her character data was already in the game.

the main issue I've had with the DLC has been with the communications/marketing aspect.

 

[Ave]

I literally will never read an essay dedicated to why I shouldn’t feel disappointed by what I believe to be anti-consumerist practices. Spare yourself the effort.

 

[Rusted Blade]

I literally will never read an essay dedicated to why I shouldn’t feel disappointed by what I believe to be anti-consumerist practices. Spare yourself the effort.

Well if you're only ever interested in hearing opinions that legitimize your existing opinions rather than considering countervailing perspectives, particularly where they infringe upon your readiness to feel outraged and/or victimized, then I will take you at your word that I am wasting my time. But I will point out to you that you chose to engage in the debate about that subject to begin with, and were the positions reversed, I'd want to at least know where the other person thought my reasoning was flawed, even if I ultimately decided no response was warranted. Not to make a bigger issue of this than the subject matter deserves, but I think it's a big issue in our collective culture today, the inability or refusal to defend a position that involves a charged claim.

But for the record, I'm not saying that Namco are angels or that their business practices are always 100% above-board, transparent or make for good relations with their consumers. I'm only saying you got exactly what you were advertised with regard to that specific DLC. And you said it yourself: you're an adult, and you made a choice, and insofar as Namco didn't misrepresent that content with an affirmative statement at any point, I think it's hyperbolic to claim we were manipulated just because we may be disappointed. But I guess we'll have to agree to disagree as to that point. In the final analysis we can certainly agree this far: this is a topic that only justifies so much debate, given the stakes.

 

[Ave]

Um no. This isn’t a debate thread, it’s a general discussion thread. I didn’t engage in any pre-existing debate. I stated my opinions about something I wanted to. I didn’t invite or encourage this sort of conversation, and I don’t have to form a complex analytical response to you if I don’t feel like it. I come on this thread to talk to people in a friendly way, not to write academic essays on whose opinions are valid.

Anyway. I recently bought For Honor and i didnt think it would be so similar to soulcalibur in terms of technicality and the importance of frame data etc? I’m blown away by its combat system and kind of wish Namco would do a spinoff Soulcalibur game in a similar style to this. It could be set around Schwartzwind and a warring faction (Dumas?) trying to get Soul Edge, and you can create your own soldier for either side and choose a fighting style of a character affiliated with them

Edit: They’re doing more feedback polls. Time to put them on blast for this stupid CAS pack

https://twitter.com/x/status/1130643832167514112

 

[Project Bokuho]

Um, I think the objective is to bring more stages in.

 

[sytus]

What I sent to that poll recently.

1. Revert back to the original RE aura, the new one is ugly it's abundant visual noise is distracting.
2. Astaroth's CE should be able to grab opponents in mid air.
3. Astaroth without a mouth mask option.
4. New stages.
5. If you're going to bring back past costumes from SC5 bring them all back.

 

[I_Love_Aogami]

Edit: They’re doing more feedback polls. Time to put them on blast for this stupid CAS pack

https://twitter.com/x/status/1130643832167514112

Um, I think the objective is to bring more stages in.

Why not both? With the addition of more modes. Seriously; while LoS provides a bit more insight on the characters it can get awfully boring. I want team battle and survival. This time I will send them multiple posts to be clear what I bloody want.

Not simply only me, but we should all be specific.

 

[Nyte]

Man, I really hope all these feedback surveys mean something.

 

[sytus]

The feedback does from my perspective. I specifically asked for successful guard impacts to not cost guard meter and Project Soul implemented it. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who asked for it but what I suggested most likely contributed to it.

 

[DanteSC3]

@Rusted Blade I think it’s possible, even probable, that you already know this, but the pretense that the customization DLC could be considered a ruse, a manipulation, or anything else negative, primarily stems from the idea that we had the reasonable expectation that we would retain most of what was in SoulCalibur V, and then receive more parts on top of that. You were here when the game launched, and one of the biggest disappointments at launch was the lack of unlockable customization parts. It was, and still is, an insult to the customization from the games that came before, and then to find out that the parts we paid for were primarily (at least 80%) the parts that were unlockable in the previous game, it comes across as a big slap in the face.

You are technically correct that we got exactly what we paid for, what was written on the tin, and indeed, even more than was originally promised, but I don’t think there’s a single person here who, pre-launch, read the “100+ customization parts” part of the season pass as buying stuff from the previous games that were unlockable. The implication was that they would be new parts and/or parts from the DLC characters, since we knew Tira’s parts came with her. Call it whatever you want, but I really don’t think “entitled” fits this specific case. They did us wrong, and broke a barrier of trust that they had before, that creation mode would always be stellar and evolving. It definitely walked back a fair amount for this game, and I, and I’m sure others, have far less hope for SoulCalibur VII going forward, since they burned us with SoulCalibur VI. The next move is theirs, to earn the trust back.

 

[Crash X]

eh, I've seen worse DLC practices from other games/companies.

I’ll honestly take whatever Namco is doing with their DLC/business practices over that of NRS or EA with their games. That’s just me though,

 

[Spartan_363]

One thing to note on the CaS issues could be the higher ups telling Project Soul what to do and release on their terms. That's one thing I hate about modern games is that they only care about the bottom line for the shareholders and it's rare to find a studio like the creators of the Witcher/Cyberpunk 2077 that truly care about the public. It could the the shareholders telling Project Soul to release bit by bit to maximize their profits. At least SoulCalibur hasn't devolved into the bullshit antics of what has happened to the Dead or Alive franchise costing well over a grand to get all of their DLC for their previous game and it's looking to be the same or worse for DoA6.....

With FluffyQuack's help, I was able to find older tools for extracting the 360 version of SCIV and V models and textures. With that in mind, I'm currently playing around with porting CaS parts from both SCIV and V and the overall process is a bit time consuming. So I can understand that a reletively small team is working on official SCVI content/updates since the game had a small budget since the beginning. So I'm more patient and sympatheic towards the developers being on tight corporate schedules to meet the needs of their shareholders first instead of the community that keeps them going and they don't have much sway in the grand scheme of things. So I agree with those that say those with "outrage" need to hold their horses and consider themselves lucky that we are getting any content updates at all and that the base game has sold well meaning there should be a larger budget for SCVII.

 

[Rusted Blade]

I didn’t invite or encourage this sort of conversation, and I don’t have to form a complex analytical response to you if I don’t feel like it.

Whatever the context it arises in, I feel that if you accuse anyone (even a faceless game company) of dishonesty and malfeasance, you ought to have a concrete argument to back it up, not just vague feelings. But at this point, I can only respect your decision that you don't wish to discuss it further and that we will not have a meeting of the minds on this. For the record, I hope anything I said will not be taken as needlessly personal--I just have a different take on what constitutes fairplay here. On a side note, thanks for bringing the new Namco outreach to our attention. Now to arrange an organized assault on that process to make them aware of how much we have noticed the dismal state of the stage selection.

Spoiler: Response to Dante on the value of the DLC content.

I think it’s possible, even probable, that you already know this, but the pretense that the customization DLC could be considered a ruse, a manipulation, or anything else negative, primarily stems from the idea that we had the reasonable expectation that we would retain most of what was in SoulCalibur V, and then receive more parts on top of that. You were here when the game launched, and one of the biggest disappointments at launch was the lack of unlockable customization parts. It was, and still is, an insult to the customization from the games that came before, and then to find out that the parts we paid for were primarily (at least 80%) the parts that were unlockable in the previous game, it comes across as a big slap in the face.

I agree to some extent that the initial offerings were underwhelming. But this game was made on a budget, and we can't have everything. Personally, I think the community backed them into a corner with the feedback on SCIV and SCV, by getting so huffy about the absence of extensive single player content, even though those games actually had more single player content than all of the previous games in the series; only SCIII had more single player content, and it actually suffered for trying to accomplish too much, resulting in a glitchy, unpolished mess. But most fans don't have nuanced memories for such things, so when SCIV came around all that their brains recognized was "Hey, there's way less single player content here than there was in SCIII. There's way more than SE, SCI, and SCII, but less than SCIII. Let's bitch about it without considering the context for why that might be so." And likewise with SCV: "They still haven't given us as much single player content as in SCIII. Let's make a fuss about it, even though there are many, much more reasonable things to complain about with regard to this game."

So when it came time to reboot the series after the financial flop of SCV, Project Soul (quite reasonably in their view, I'm sure) decided they needed to address these complaints. The result was far too much emphasis put on not one, but two expansive single player campaigns which, despite their size, were still incredibly tedious and underwhelming--largely because Soulcalibur wasn't designed to be taken seriously or to have a tight narrative and Project Soul has no staff particularly well-skilled in storytelling. It is certainly as a direct consequence of that fixation that the initial roster, stage selection, and CaS offerings were underwhelming.

For those who have vociferously defended their decision to focus their energies in that area, I think there is an obligation, if one wishes to be rational, to acknowledge that you can't have your cake and eat it too; the base-game CaS would almost certainly have been in line, in terms of numbers of items, with what we got in the previous two games, had there not been a perceived need to include Libra in addition to Chronicles. People are expecting far too much here of a game that 1) almost didn't get made, it has such a small profile at Namco today, 2) once it was greenlit, was on a tight budget from the start, 3) was apparently developed on a relatively quick timetable, 4) was partly outsourced to external studious, and 5) is just one of Namco's many fighters in a genre for which it is increasingly difficult to turn a profit.

You just can't have everything. There are trade-offs that come with the basic financial realities here. Personally, I think they made all the wrong decisions as to how to balance the amounts of different kinds of content: I would have rather they focused on roster, stages, and CaS to the virtual exclusion of extended single player modes. So when I see people who actually wanted them to focus on single player complaining about the the lack of content in other areas, I wish I could dump a bucket of ice-water over their heads, just so I could be sure I have their full attention when I look them dead in the eyes and say: "Are you f---ing kidding me right now with this!? Your single player fixated faction of the fanbase are the reason for this situation!!"

You are technically correct that we got exactly what we paid for, what was written on the tin, and indeed, even more than was originally promised, but I don’t think there’s a single person here who, pre-launch, read the “100+ customization parts” part of the season pass as buying stuff from the previous games that were unlockable. The implication was that they would be new parts and/or parts from the DLC characters, since we knew Tira’s parts came with her. Call it whatever you want, but I really don’t think “entitled” fits this specific case. They did us wrong, and broke a barrier of trust that they had before, that creation mode would always be stellar and evolving. It definitely walked back a fair amount for this game, and I, and I’m sure others, have far less hope for SoulCalibur VII going forward, since they burned us with SoulCalibur VI. The next move is theirs, to earn the trust back.

I can only speak for myself, but I personally never had any expectation that the DLC customization packs would be mostly new content. I had no expectation either way, but I think if someone had put the question to me, I would have expected much of it would be returning content. There were four previous CaS games in the series, and each one shared a substantial amount of returning items. Not 80%, certainly--and I trust your guesstimate on that figure, as you are the closest thing we have to a CaS archivist--but with a library that size, I think it's to be expected that each additional game will increasingly return to that well to resurrect that content, some of which will be missed. Also, not for nothing, but I still don't see why legacy CaS items instead of new ones are somehow inferior, let alone offensive--nobody has yet explained this in a way that makes any kind of logical sense to me.

I just don't see how they broke trust, slapped anyone in the face, burned us, or did us wrong. The CaS editor has increased functionality this go-around, and so has evolved in that sense, and the amount of CaS items (while not where I would have hoped it would be, pre-launch) is admirable enough considering that PS clearly felt they had no choice but to deliver big time in another content area, despite the tight budget and relatively short development time. They delivered a significantly larger amount of content than they promised when asking people to take a leap of faith on the season pass, and yet somehow (but unfortunately, rather predictably) people are still whinging about being short-changed by the packs. If I were a PS advocate within Namco, I would be so disheartened by this kind of behaviour. I'd feel like there was just no way I could win with us, the supposedly devoted fans of the series. I'd feel like PS focused the base game where fans were demanding and then over-delivered on their DLC promises and still people are complaining with the value they got out of either of those products. And I'd probably never go to bat to push for SCVII when the time comes. Thank goodness most of those individuals do not speak English well enough to know just how aggressively bitchy the western fanbase is being.

But the worst part of this overwhelming, almost willfully dedicated, negativity is that it operates as a cooler on the solution to the perceived problem: the more people create/spread an impression of poor value in the current DLC, the poorer it performs and, bit by bit, the lower the prospects become for future releases that would augment the roster, stages, and CaS content. Namco is going out on a limb to explore a new model that theoretically could give us some of the most expansive games their fighter franchises have ever known, but if what we are seeing here is indicative of the general response, they could be forgiven for deciding its not worth the effort. Personally, I don't think "entitled" even begins to describe the response of the hardcore fanbase here--the expectations of what we will get for our money are way out of touch with reality at this point.

 

[Rusted Blade]

So forgive the double post here people, but I wanted to create a clean break from the most recent topic in order to focus on something more worthwhile and constructive: now that Ave has brought the newest round of Namco's feedback outreach to our attention, I'd like to suggest that everyone prominently mention the need for more stages. Liberal use of the phrases "pathetic", "insufficient", and "mediocre" to describe the current selection are encouraged. ;) Actually, in all seriousness, a more positive spin will probably be more effective, especially given this feedback goes through a translation process, but I really do hope most everyone will consider putting a high degree of emphasis on the need for more stages, ideally more dynamic ones. And list your favourite legacy stages--you never know!

 

[DanteSC3]

Also, not for nothing, but I still don't see why legacy CaS items instead of new ones are somehow inferior, let alone offensive--nobody has yet explained this in a way that makes any kind of logical sense to me.

Because the idea is that those things should have been in the game to begin with, not sold back to us later. To expand this thought, let's go with an ideal scenario that we get a season two, that season two also includes all the customization items from IV and V, or at least 80%, as is the usual, and by the end of SoulCalibur VI's life cycle, it's "as it would have been from the start with a proper budget, fully complete". Or, for the sake of argument, delivered us the final product, to the loyal fans who stuck with it through hard times and lasted through the season passes and have the final build of the game. However you want to phrase it, we get to that endgame, and here we are....

I just don't see how they broke trust, slapped anyone in the face, burned us, or did us wrong.

Now, let's take that reality, if it happens, and go forward to SoulCalibur VII. If they cut us again, and make us buy the same stuff... again... wouldn't that strike you as foul? Wouldn't that make you feel slighted, as a dedicated fan? I'm not saying we're not jumping the gun with being defensive about our beloved franchise. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just thinking cautiously about our future if we "endorse" this behavior right now. What if it becomes normal? Would you be okay with that? I certainly wouldn't. We proved ourselves loyal by buying in to a less than ideal situation, we entrusted them with our goodwill, that we would eventually get what we wanted. And then they'd just take it away once again, because they knew they could get away with it, because they'd already done so before.

 

[Starringrole]

So forgive the double post here people, but I wanted to create a clean break from the most recent topic in order to focus on something more worthwhile and constructive: now that Ave has brought the newest round of Namco's feedback outreach to our attention, I'd like to suggest that everyone prominently mention the need for more stages. Liberal use of the phrases "pathetic", "insufficient", and "mediocre" to describe the current selection are encouraged. ;) Actually, in all seriousness, a more positive spin will probably be more effective, especially given this feedback goes through a translation process, but I really do hope most everyone will consider putting a high degree of emphasis on the need for more stages, ideally more dynamic ones. And list your favourite legacy stages--you never know!

+This everyone, if we get other modes back and still have the tragically small amount of maps everything on this game will get stale eventually. I'm on board with crying out for maps, its definitely something this game needs, probably most importantly of all other than characters (which we are likely getting).
Thanks for the reminder asking for stages, I'm definitely going with it. I'm hoping other people would be on board with this.
I really do hope SCVI can be crammed with content.

 

[DanteSC3]

This was my feedback:

The return of almost all of the music from the games is great, but it emphasizes one of the game's greatest weaknesses, that it lacks enough stages to properly use them! This game needs more stages for more variety of fights, The stages are also static, I miss the more dynamic stages of SoulCalibur IV and SoulCalibur V. Phantom Pavillion, Utopia of the Blessed, Ostrheinsburg Castle Throne Room, Penitentiary of Destiny, and Mt. Fuji the Holy: Hidden Dragon are great examples of stages that would be inspired. Seeing the return of the Secret Money Pit, Valentine Manor, and Seong Dojang would also be exciting.

 

[Rusted Blade]

Spoiler: Response to Dante, whose soul burns for both story and creation. Spoiler-boxed so as not to distract from shifting discussion to the feedback topics.

...wouldn't that strike you as foul? Wouldn't that make you feel slighted, as a dedicated fan? I'm not saying we're not jumping the gun with being defensive about our beloved franchise. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just thinking cautiously about our future if we "endorse" this behavior right now. What if it becomes normal? Would you be okay with that? I certainly wouldn't.

I have absolutely no problem with that, per the reasons expressed in my previous post. Ideally I'd like more CaS from the get-go, of course. But PS were virtually bullied by excessive fan demands into putting their eggs in other, less worthwhile baskets (the single player modes) to the detriment of other areas of content which are more valuable to Soulcalibur as a competitive fighter (roster size, stage selection) and as the specific fighter with a unique feature (CaS content). Considering the position they were put in by the combination of a limited budget and silly fan demands for those ridiculous single-player modes, I'm inclined to give PS a pass on the lackluster content selections in terms of roster, stages, and CaS content. I wish they had made the opposite determination on where to focus their resources, but having witnessed the frivolous, ill-considered whining about single player content during the SCIV and SCV years, I understand why they went in the direction they did. It hurt the game immeasurably in my opinion, but I appreciate why they felt they had to do what they did.

And I still don't think your explanation for why legacy content is undesirable or an insult holds any water: adding those items into the game still takes man hours, but if a larger selection of items is a priority for you as a consumer, you should be encouraging them to repeat items from previous games, since doing so is at least a little more efficient than creating new ones and therefore you are more likely to see an increased number of items over-all. And I still have not seen any compelling argument for why new items are better in general than returning ones. Indeed, insofar as I can tell, if one has an advantage over the other, it's the legacy items, since they allow long-time fans to return to the well to recreate old favourite creations. Of course in an ideal world every game would include every item that came before and then even more new ones. But in the real world, that's just not a reasonable expectation. It wouldn't be realistic even for a game that wasn't made on a budget and which wasn't forced, by fan responses to the last two games, to over-fixate on another area of content.

And Dante, I hope this won't be taken as too direct a criticism, because you really are one of my favourite people in this community, but you very consistently dodge confronting the realities of your positions in this area: you are one of the most ardent supporters for heavy emphasis on single player content and a defender of SCVI's story modes in particular, but you never want to acknowledge the heavy toll such modes take on the rest of the content in the game. You can't have your cake and eat it too, especially with a game that needed heavy effort and advocacy at Namco just to be made. I think it's more than a bit hypocritical to argue so forcefully for the value of these drawn-out and over-wrought story modes and then cry foul (literally) when the CaS is lacking, and PS have to fall back on legacy content to increase the overall number of items. Okubo's team only had so much money and man hours to throw at this game and I'm not sure what more could have been expected of them, working with the resources they had and the constraints of fan expectation.

And this is a very peculiar position for me to be in, defending this game when it is far from my favourite in this series, but there you have it: I think the fanbase is somehow simultaneously too forgiving of SCVI's design faults and yet also too critical of the amount of overall game they got for their money. I really pray that the next Soulcalibur game is more of an arena/tag battle type of entry that eschews single player content for a focus on competitive multiplayer and the deepest selection of characters, stages, and CaS content possible. But I somehow doubt that is what will happen.

This was my feedback:

The return of almost all of the music from the games is great, but it emphasizes one of the game's greatest weaknesses, that it lacks enough stages to properly use them! This game needs more stages for more variety of fights, The stages are also static, I miss the more dynamic stages of SoulCalibur IV and SoulCalibur V. Phantom Pavillion, Utopia of the Blessed, Ostrheinsburg Castle Throne Room, Penitentiary of Destiny, and Mt. Fuji the Holy: Hidden Dragon are great examples of stages that would be inspired. Seeing the return of the Secret Money Pit, Valentine Manor, and Seong Dojang would also be exciting.

I wrote a short paragraph myself that focused solely on stages, and noted the following as indications of classic themes/archetypes that I'd like to see return: a raft stage (Ostrheinsburg Castle - Battlement/Twilight, the various Mt. Fuji stages, Li Long's Soul Edge stage), a ship stage (Pirate Raid, Sailor's Rest, The Adrian), a feudal Japan stage (Jyurakudai Palace, Kaminoi Palace), a Mansion stage (Valentine manor, South France Mansion--Library, Toldero--Burning gallery), a Grand Labyrinth stage, a mechanical platform stage (The Money Pit, Clock Tower, Wolkfrone Monument) a coliseum stage (Lakeside Coliseum, Phantom Pavillion, Torture Chamber) a cathedral stage (Ostrheinsburg Chapel, Lost Cathedral, Tower of remembrance--Spiral of Time), a garden stage (Lotus Garden, Emperor Shenzong's Gardens, Thesmophoros' Imperial Garden), a battlefield stage (Setouchi--Battle in the Straight, Ancient Citadel: Under Siege, Romanian Valley--Castle Siege), and an Egyptian temple stage.

I also mentioned that more activity in the background and the atmosphere of the stage and/or elements interactive with the gameplay would be useful for breathing more life and style into the stages. Fingers crossed we here are not the only ones focusing on this deficiency now and that PS will perceive a need to act on this most serious of shortcomings for this game.

 

[DanteSC3]

Spoiler: Rusted Blade / DLC Value / Worth / Balance / etc.

I'm not really trying to come across to be at odds with what you're saying, because like with some other things, I do feel like we mostly align with how we feel about this, but I guess I just want a little more across the board, to get us back to where we ought to be, back to the golden age of SoulCalibur II. I understand that SoulCalibur VI had a limited time and budget. I understand that they put a lot of time and effort into the two story modes. I understand that there's only a certain amount of money and hours put into the development of the game. I understand that sacrifices had to be made. I understand all of these things, and yet I still feel like we got shorted. I don't think it's one or the other.

We got some things that I would say are quite unnecessary, like Inferno being a non-mimic offline-only overpowered Nightmare clone with Night Terror-isms, especially with the nerfs in the latest patch, when Edge Master would have been a lot simpler and made a lot more sense, just a mimic, with no frills (except Kilik's one extra move, as he always has). I appreciate that we are getting more and more things post-launch, even the freebie extras such as 3p/4p costumes, very nice, and yet I still have criticisms for those things, like why these 3p/4p costumes aren't able to be selected as templates in customization. It's just like... I don't get the restriction. I don't want to come across as ungrateful, but that doesn't mean I can't also be disappointed. By the time we're through with the second season pass, should that happen, I have a maybe faith belief that we might possibly be in a position where complaints are minimum, but I'm only speaking of how things are at the present moment.

Between legacy content and new content, for customization, you're not wrong that legacy content is better, for the reasons you mentioned, as well as forming the baseline before getting new parts. But what I said before and I'll restate now, it's that we don't want/need to have just the same stuff every game, either, so some newness is expected and appreciated, to keep things fresh. There should be a balance. But even the legacy content we are getting, as has been pointed out in this thread, are the wackiest, limited use items, as opposed to core items that have multiple varied uses, like, I don't know... A LEATHER BELT. After almost all of the first season pass, we still don't have a standard leather belt. That is baffling on so many levels. So many other things, like varied full armor sets, footwear, skirts that don't clip through everything, the list goes on and on, things we still don't have, that we did have in both SoulCalibur IV and SoulCalibur V, but no, oh no, we needed the wonders that are the Shoulder Kitty and Komusou...

Overall, SoulCalibur VI is definitely a step in the right direction, for sure, and I hope you don't take my criticisms as evidence that I don't believe that. It's lacking in stages, customization equipment, and modes. I would put the priority list in that order. Given my way, I would keep everything as it is going in to SoulCalibur VII, and then picking up the slack to create a fully-loaded experience. I don't find it unreasonable or impossible for such a thing to come to pass, I really don't. Sales of SoulCalibur VI were good, it hopefully showed that we still have interest and will give them our money as long as they deliver us a quality product. I've said it before, and I haven't changed my mind, that I will absolutely pick up Season Pass 2, and continue to support the game. I just hope that our efforts show in the next game, because if SoulCalibur VII is just an equal offering as SoulCalibur VI, without picking up slack, or with picking up slack but then slacking on other areas, then no, I won't be pleased. Will I still buy SoulCalibur VII? Absolutely. But with my purchase comes the right to speak my mind, and I feel like, for the most part at least, I am fair.

 

[Rusted Blade]

Spoiler: Rusted Blade / DLC Value / Worth / Balance / etc.

I'm not really trying to come across to be at odds with what you're saying, because like with some other things, I do feel like we mostly align with how we feel about this, but I guess I just want a little more across the board, to get us back to where we ought to be, back to the golden age of SoulCalibur II. I understand that SoulCalibur VI had a limited time and budget. I understand that they put a lot of time and effort into the two story modes. I understand that there's only a certain amount of money and hours put into the development of the game. I understand that sacrifices had to be made. I understand all of these things, and yet I still feel like we got shorted. I don't think it's one or the other.

We got some things that I would say are quite unnecessary, like Inferno being a non-mimic offline-only overpowered Nightmare clone with Night Terror-isms, especially with the nerfs in the latest patch, when Edge Master would have been a lot simpler and made a lot more sense, just a mimic, with no frills (except Kilik's one extra move, as he always has). I appreciate that we are getting more and more things post-launch, even the freebie extras such as 3p/4p costumes, very nice, and yet I still have criticisms for those things, like why these 3p/4p costumes aren't able to be selected as templates in customization. It's just like... I don't get the restriction. I don't want to come across as ungrateful, but that doesn't mean I can't also be disappointed. By the time we're through with the second season pass, should that happen, I have a maybe faith belief that we might possibly be in a position where complaints are minimum, but I'm only speaking of how things are at the present moment.

Between legacy content and new content, for customization, you're not wrong that legacy content is better, for the reasons you mentioned, as well as forming the baseline before getting new parts. But what I said before and I'll restate now, it's that we don't want/need to have just the same stuff every game, either, so some newness is expected and appreciated, to keep things fresh. There should be a balance. But even the legacy content we are getting, as has been pointed out in this thread, are the wackiest, limited use items, as opposed to core items that have multiple varied uses, like, I don't know... A LEATHER BELT. After almost all of the first season pass, we still don't have a standard leather belt. That is baffling on so many levels. So many other things, like varied full armor sets, footwear, skirts that don't clip through everything, the list goes on and on, things we still don't have, that we did have in both SoulCalibur IV and SoulCalibur V, but no, oh no, we needed the wonders that are the Shoulder Kitty and Komusou...

Overall, SoulCalibur VI is definitely a step in the right direction, for sure, and I hope you don't take my criticisms as evidence that I don't believe that. It's lacking in stages, customization equipment, and modes. I would put the priority list in that order. Given my way, I would keep everything as it is going in to SoulCalibur VII, and then picking up the slack to create a fully-loaded experience. I don't find it unreasonable or impossible for such a thing to come to pass, I really don't. Sales of SoulCalibur VI were good, it hopefully showed that we still have interest and will give them our money as long as they deliver us a quality product. I've said it before, and I haven't changed my mind, that I will absolutely pick up Season Pass 2, and continue to support the game. I just hope that our efforts show in the next game, because if SoulCalibur VII is just an equal offering as SoulCalibur VI, without picking up slack, or with picking up slack but then slacking on other areas, then no, I won't be pleased. Will I still buy SoulCalibur VII? Absolutely. But with my purchase comes the right to speak my mind, and I feel like, for the most part at least, I am fair.

Not to sidestep all of your more relevant points there, but I rather like Shoulder Kitty. I'm not sure how she got in there before Shoulder Parrot, but I think she's as good an addition to CaS as anything. :D